Melbourne to Byron Bay

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I arrived in Brisbane in my standard Asian outfit of shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. I realized pretty quickly that I looked out of place as it was pretty cold and most people were in suits heading to work. I headed to my friend John's flat who has been living in the city for the past few months coaching rugby at a local school. I spent 6 days in Brisbane and achieved very little other than buying a stack of warmer clothes to replace my unsuitable bag of thin t-shirts and boardies. Although I did not do much in my six days it was nice to stay in a pretty nice flat, hang out with a good friend and recharge myself for the rest of my Australia trip which I knew would not be so easy going!

I discovered that a friend of mine from school, Caz, was also going to be in Australia at the same time so we decided to meet in Melbourne and travel the east coast together. On arriving in Melbourne I felt my Australian adventure had properly started as I was now in dorm accommodation and surrounded by like minded travellers. Caz and I both agreed that despite the cold weather we both really liked Melbourne as it had a relaxed atmosphere which can be missing from big cities and the hostel we were staying in was fantastic with great facilities and really friendly people who made everyone feel welcome. Whilst in Melbourne I went to see the Rod Laver Arena, The Melbourne Cricket Ground where I saw my first game of Aussie Rules which I still don’t entirely understand - think I will stick to rugby!

From Melbourne we took a night bus to Sydney unfortunately this involved us having to wait 2 hours in Canberra at 4am to change buses the only place open was McDonalds and that was not a fun place to be at 4-6am on a Saturday night. We had three days in Sydney and so after settling into our hostel, stocking up on food (yes I have to cook now big change from Asia!) and getting a good night sleep we set to the sight seeing. On the first day we went to the most obvious tourist sight the Opera House and the bridge. It was a miserable day very overcast and we both agreed that it made Sydney look drab with much of the sites and photos lacking something. We returned to the hostel feeling a bit disheartened by a cold and tiring day. We decided to head out for a night out to raise our spirits and after meeting up with a couple of guys from our hostel headed to Scubar for their cheap drinks/food and 'world famous crab racing.' The crab racing was hilarious with 25 crabs on auction where you could pay one dollar to buy a crab, name it and then once they were released hope yours would make it to the edge of the arena. It was a funny sight and ended up being a great night.
The next day we woke up to sunshine and renewed vigour so we headed down to Darling harbour to catch a ferry round to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House again but from the sea. The difference some sun makes is amazing as we were in much better spirits and both sites looked so much better. In the afternoon we headed to Manly beach where we enjoyed a really nice lunch by the sea. Manly seemed like a very up market place to live with a young and well off feel to the place it reminded me of Wimbledon Village but with a beach.
On our final day we headed to the Sydney fish market in the morning but ended up getting horribly lost so by the time we arrived we had little interest in any fish but after sitting for ten minutes and having a cup of tea we realised it was a pretty vibrant place with a huge variety of sea life on offer. One funny part we noticed was this board which showed the founding members of the fish market - they were all Italian and the board could not have looked more like a mafia hierarchy if it tried! We visited Bondi beach in the afternoon which unlike Manly had more of a tourist feel to the place where you could imagine all the locals/tourists rocking down in their camper vans in the summer to surf.

That evening we got another night bus heading to Spot X surf camp. Yet again we had a freezing 6am arrival where we were picked up by someone from the camp. After getting some breakfast and settling into our room we headed for our surf lesson. Our coach Matt was your typical surfer dude long hair, very laid back and extremely cool. We headed down to the beach with our wetsuits and boards where we were taught the basics of surfing and more importantly how to look and act like a surfer who as Matt told us are the coolest people on the planet! We headed out to the water - I instally realised it was not as easy as Matt had made out well at least I thought so until I saw Caz fly past me on the board towards the beach. After an hour I had almost stood up but my complete lack of ability when it came to water sports shone through again - fortunately Caz was on hand to show me how it was done who was by far the best in our group. That evening we hung out by a big fire with some Irish folks we had met - the fire was a must as it was another freezing night further making a mockery of the tag 'gold coast'!

The next day we got a bus up to Byron Bay arriving in the early evening after getting our room sorted we headed to the hostel bar and I entered to a shriek from my friend Tink from Antigua who was in there. After a big hug and a few looks of disbelief that two people who know each other from a tiny island in the Caribbean would randomly meet 11,000 miles away we exchanged stories of why we were there. It turns out she had been living there for a few weeks and was looking for work and planning to stay until Christmas. It was a wonderful surprise and a great start in what would turn out to be 3 great days in Byron.
The next day Caz and I set out to do a walk to the Byron Bay Lighthouse. The walk was really good with fantastic views of the bay and the surrounding area. We were also able to see a school of dolphin and a Whale in the far distance. We reached the lighthouse after a nice hour walk - it is also the most eastern point in Australia so was pretty handy for the old tourist photo as well! On our way back along the beach we bumped into two guys, Paddy and Shane, who we had met on our bus up to Byron. We ended up hanging out all afternoon which turned out to be a great idea as they are awesome guys and we would end up travelling together all the way up to Cairns. Beyond the excellent nights out in Byron at the standard backpackers club Cheeky Monkeys we also did a day trip on what is called a Nimbin Tour. This involved us driving on a bus full of travellers firstly in the morning to natural park where we had a nice BBQ, visiting a small and freezing waterfall and bottom pool. In the afternoon we ended to a hippy market which sold all kinds of weird and wonderful things and had a big group of hippies sitting under a tent smoking weed. Our final stop was to the town of Nimbin - the town is famous for its hippy population which began in 1973 after the Aquarius Festival when hundreds of hippies decided to set up a community there. Since then the area has drawn artist, musicians, actors and writers intrigued by a town which has the feel of Amsterdam within a mountainous community. It is a strange place with ageing, spaced out hippies wondering the street and where every other person appears to be willing to sell you drugs. There is a museum which seems to sum up the place with a battered and crazily designed VW van, strange art and anti-government propoganda adorning the walls. That night I headed out for my last night in Byron it was a great night of banter and stupid dancing with my two new Irish friends which summed up 3 fantastic days in Byron. So I said goodbye to Tink and Byron and headed north to Brisbane.

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Photos

Photo 8
Darling Harbour

Photo 13
Manly beach

Photo 14
The Mafia

Photo 20
Me and Tink