Adventures of the East Coast of Australia

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Well my trip started off with a little glitch... I was supposed to be at Andrew's house two hours ago and I was still in bed! Thanks to having my last day of work the night before, then dinner and drinks with work friends after, and then packing at night I seemingly overslept my alarm!

Well it worked out as the Brett's were running behind as well. A few hours later Andrew, his parents, and I were all packed IN to their SUV. And I mean packed in. But 7.5 hours of driving later (well mostly sleeping for me!) we arrived in Tathra, lower east coast of NSW. We were spending the next 6 days here, along with his 3 sisters who came up the next day.

The week was full of wlks on the beach, swimming, board games, and movies. Quite a nice relaxing week, and a nice change from work everyday at Servier. The weather was a little chilly, but on Christmas it was perfect. Probably high 80's and sunny we went for a few swims, opened presents, and ate a traditional Christmas lunch. But by the afternoon, it was hard for me to remember that it was Christmas, as it was so warm. A very different experience.

Then it was off to Canberra. Andrew and I spent two nights in the YHA Hostel in Canberra city centre. Most people were making fun of us for going to Canberra to start, but I wanted to see the government buildings and actually had a really good time despite people teasing me. The hostel had a tiny pool as well, so it was nice for the hot weather. Surprisingly didnt meet many people, we were staying in a 10 person room, and noone seemed to be that social... odd!

After Canberra, it was off to Sydney! I was so excited to finally see Sydney. After a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived and were soon looking for our friend, Tom's, house where we were goign to stay. It turns out it takes about an hour to get into the city centre from his house. If you are familiar with Sydney he lives a bit south of Bondi Beach, a little north of Coogee. So beautiful area, right on the point of the beach. Another one of our friends were staying there as well.

Sydney we saw all the sights, caught up with freinds, and attended a music festival on the 1st which was sooo much fun. New years eve was quiet. Andrew and I stayed in as all of our friends were going to a $70 ticketed event, and as we had trip in front of us decided to stay in. We could see fireworks on the beach, and it was nice to get some sleep as we had a big day at the festival the next day.

6 days later we picked up our van, which we had for the remainder of our trip. We drove up the old pacific highway (if you have a map) along the coast proper (Not the new N1 Pacific Highway). Two days in our van broke down, and we got to spend 5 hours on the side of the road. After calling AAA, and talking to the company, we ended up getting a new van as something major was wrong with the first one. The new one was much nicer so we were happy, and he gave us the day free!

We drove all the way up to Noosa, stopping all the way along. We went to two theme parks on the Gold Coast, Movie World, and Wet and Wild Water Park which was a lot of fun. Then my favorite stop was the Australia Zoo, one hour north of Brisbane, like half way to Noosa.

And lets not forget all of the "Big" Things. Such as the Big banana, big prawn, big lawn mower, big shell, big pineapple, etc. Apparently Australian tourists love cheesy tourist attractions... at least they are free. That is the nice thing I found about Australia most things, even museums are free, unlike Europe where everything is like 12 Euro.

After Noosa we drove back down to Brisbane where we had to return the van. Brisbane is a cute city, much smaller than Sydney and Melbourne, but very well laid out and clean. There wasnt a heap to see there, but it was still nice. Probably the best thing is they have a man made beach in the centre of the city its like a big oddly shaped pool with sand. Very cool.

Then it was time to come home sadly.... The trip was so much fun though and I am glad I got to see a lot more of Australia.

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