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Published: March 23rd 2009
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Crossing the border into Queensland, first stop was Surfer's Paradise- a party town / resort which isn't actually all that great for surfing in comparison to nearby east coast areas. I won't dignify Surfer's with a very big paragraph, as the place reminded me of Benidorm or some similar European 18-30s resort where Brits go to get drunk at night and turn pink on the beach during the day. Now I enjoy a good piss-up as much as the next man, but Surfer's just didn't have the kind of vibe that I had in mind when I decided to go travelling, so I got the obligatory 'Surfer's club crawl' done before having a day in nearby Coolangatta- a much more chilled out town on the Gold Coast with better surf and nicer beaches.
Brisbane was to be my next stop, despite hearing other travellers constantly slate the place, claiming there's nothing to do and deeming Queensland's capital city unworthy of even a short visit. Arriving at my hostel in Fortitude Valley- the inner city / live music / Chinatown kind of area- and having a walk around town, I instantly found Brisbane to be a cool city and a Manchester
of sorts compared with Sydney's London. My first night in town was a random one spent collecting golf balls on a nearby course for two hours with a couple of other guys from the hostel. We got back late and it was surprisingly strenuous work but I figured that earning a quick $30 AUD was a better idea than pissing away a heap of money in the Birdee (the hostel bar) with a few people I'd just met who were keen to get on the booze.
My second and final day in Brissie was spent meeting up with fellow BUNAC member Ruth and a few of her mates for a lazy afternoon beer, before starting a walk around the city at Brisbane's City Hall and following it over the river to the arty / cultural Southbank area (complete with London Eye rip-off!), before checking out Streets Beach- Brisbane's only beach, which is more of a scenic man-made swimming lagoon with city views. I then jumped on the Jet Cat ferry for more views of the city from the Brisbane River. The sun set as I waited for the ferry back so the return journey provided close-up views of the
city's skyscrapers lit up in the darkness of the evening and I decided Brisbane is a more than liveable city.
The next stop north was the Sunshine Coast and, as my grandad had been keen for me to go and visit some of his relatives while I'm out here, I met his cousin John at the bus station in Caloundra and went to stay with him for a couple of nights. It turns out John is an absolute legend, who gave me tours of the Sunshine Coast, which can best be described as a modern, developing holiday / retirment resort with long, quiet beaches and a subtropical climate with perfect weather pretty much all year round. Spending an afternoon chillaxing with a seven mile beach all to myself was great, and it was nice to take a break from the backpacker scene for a while and sleep in a room that I didn't have to share with 5 - 7 other sweaty, snoring foreigners.
Moving up to Noosa next, still in the Sunshine Coast, I was stuck there for 5 days due to the devastating Cyclone Hamish and the subsequent evacuation of the whole of Fraser Island meaning
I couldn't travel further north as soon as I'd planned. But with Noosa being a beach paradise renowned for its great surf, I could think of worse places to be stuck, although paradise is less fun when a cyclone up north made the weather rainy and windy where I was. Noosa's highlights included constantly meeting great people who wanted to party. Getting completely trolleyed the first night, then playing drinking games with shitloads of goon the next 3 nights in a row was a benefit of staying at the Koala Beach hostel, with the main drawback being that the place was an absolute shit hole, but many good times were had! A sober highlight of my stay was going bodyboarding with Rachel and the Canadian girls in the enormous waves we had courtesy of Cyclone Hamish. It was way to rough for a novice like me to attempt to surf in, and a got absolutely smashed on the body board by one wave, which completely whipped my board shorts down! Trying desperately to pull them up without everyone on the beach seeing my meat and two veg, whilst being battered by more waves and swept out to sea was hilarious,
Bokarina Beach
A 7 mile beach all to myself, 10 minutes walk from John's place although I doubt I'd have seen the funny side if my boardies had got lost in the Pacific and I'd had to run back to the hostel naked and cupping my gonads!
It was also whilst in Noosa that I got offered a job I'd applied for, at the Ayers Rock resort smack bang in the middle of Australia's red desert centre. With the start date being 24th March, that left me 12 days to finish my east coast trip before flying out there, meaning the next 12 days were going to be ridiculously busy with me being determined to visit Fraser Island, sail around the Whitsunday Islands and become a certified diver out on the Great Barrier Reef. The only trouble would be whether I could fit all these amazing things in!
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