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Published: August 8th 2007
The day after my last blog we finally managed to get the motivation to hit the road once again. For a couple of weeks it seemed like such a mission after everything in New Zealand worked out so effortless. But, after popping to the Peter Pan travel desk we found out that things can be just as simple here, if not easier, as all we are doing is heading north along the coast. And so our first mission after leaving Sydney took us 7 hours away to the small coastal town of Port Macquarie. There wasn't much to see and do at Port other than sun it up on the beach (i am beginning to notice a constant theme in Oz...) and check out the local wildlife. We stayed at a really quiet campsite right on the beach that had a full-size pool for afternoon exercise. We even got our own room for dorm room prices which was handy when our bank account keeps saying NO. On our first day there we took the nice coastal stroll to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital to have a closer look at the nation's favourite bears. On the way there we passed through a
More kangaroos
When kangaroos aren't boxing people and you have an offering they can be really friendly.I'm not sure what my expression is all about... answers on a postcard please.nature reserve and saw our first wild koala, sleeping about 30ft up a tree, and shortly after a screaming kookaburra sitting on a fence. There are also loads of parrots, parakeets and massive cockatoos of various bright colours everywhere... a wee bit nicer to look at than the pigeons and seagulls back home, don't you agree? In Port there is also a wildlife sanctuary which is advertised as 10km out of town. Being very poor and in need of exercise we decided to borrow some bikes from the campsite we were staying at and figured we could get there in about half an hour, tops. If that was a 10km cycle then Stevie Wonder is a driving instructor. When we finally got there (after an hour of hill cycling) we just about caught the end of a koala patting session and got to stroke some of them which was cool. We also got to feed some spider monkeys apple peel, although we weren't allowed. They were reaching out to us and we simply couldn't resist. The best part of the day was getting to hand feed the kangaroos and wallabies. They quite literally hop over to you, grab your hand
Sunset
The sunset in Surfers Paradise. and hold it there until they have had a good feed. I want one...
From Port we took a short (3 hours) drive to Coffs Harbour. We stayed a bit out of the way from the town centre which made a nice change. Once again there were loads of parrots, parakeets and giant cockatoos who make the most nasty sound when calling each other. It basically sounds like someone is being strangled to death! We decided to give the surfing a rest for a few days and went bodyboarding for a day as our hostel offered free rentals. It made a good and fun change though, and the waves were far bigger than i would surf so i got myself out of that one nicely without looking like a chickens***. The main (probably only) attraction in Coffs is the Big Banana plantation and its restaurant. They serve everything banana you could possibly hope for (maybe not you Mr Couch) including banana burgers and our favourite - frozen chocolate-coated bananas. They are the bestest of the restest. The shop there had enough banana merchandise and odd bits and pieces to kit out a whole house and the biggest toy monkey
Room with a view
The valley view from inside our little tent in the Nimbin countryside. Not bad at all! collection on the planet (Coats, you would have loved it). I didn't realise until Cheryl pointed it out to me, but, i was wearing my monkey t-shirt and so i spent our time there feeling like a right ol' banana geek.
After a few days staying at Coffs we hit the road once again for the short drive up to Byron Bay. Anyone who has ever been to Oz or knows the smallest thing about it will know that Byron is the place to be, as far as life by the beach goes. It is quite a big place but still has a really chilled-out, small town kind of vibe. Our first night we decided to go grab a Domino's pizza (yes, i now eat pizza... and tuna, and pasta... buts that a different story all together) and bumped into a Swiss friend we travelled with for a bit in New Zealand. Crazzzzzzzy. From Byron we took the Grasshopper bus (which our Swiss friend randomly got on too - now i think she is following us) to the hippy time warp an hour away that is a town called Nimbin. To cut a long story short, Nimbin is pretty
Nimbin Museum
What a waste of a Splitty! The admission sign said '$2 if you've got it, if not then just come in'... so we did. much a street of about 30 festival-stand-stylee shops, cafes and alcohol-free 'bars' with a police station at the far end. Decades ago there was a huge hard drug problem in the town and the police couldn't get on top of it. Some hippies got together and made an offer to the local police... 'if we can get the hard drugs off the streets and away from the kids, will you leave us be and let us live a proper hippy way of life?'... the police agreed and the hippies, somehow, managed to clean Nimbin up completely. 30-odd years later and the streets are still clean and violence free and so the police let the hippies carry on as they have been all this time. We spent a night staying at the YHA hostel and it was the best we have seen in Oz so far. We stayed in a double canvas tent overlooking an endless valley, surrounded by banana trees and hammocks. Everyone there was friendly (hippies) and being creative painting and making beads (and other hippy stuff) to sell at the Nimbin Mardis Grass that was a few weekends away.
As Nimbin is basically just one street, as
the nasty side of nature
Australian spiders are evil. Nothing more, nothing less. nice as it was, we headed back to Byron the following day to stay at a nice little spot called the Arts Factory. It is basically a crusty's and backpacker's resort built on reclaimed swampland where you can stay in normal dorms, wagon trailers, on a bus or in huge tipis. We went for the tipi option and the big cockroaches and spiders we saw soon made me wonder why i didn't figure out beforehand that these things don't have doors. Ah well... after the first night i realised it was the temperature i should worry about more than the bugs as it got really REALLY cold at night. Some friends we met in Coffs Harbour were staying at the same place so it was good to drink some more goon with them in the evenings. The beach in Byron was lovely and the sand is literally golden. We spent a few days on the beach just to see if the sand or tides were any different from all the other beaches we have spent time on recently. Not really, as if i need an excuse - we are on holiday! We bumped into some other jugglers on the beach
Byron Bay
Another day, another perfect beach. one day and i learnt some new tricks which is always a good thing. It turned out that they had bumped into the same juggle-master as we had in Sydney and he taught them most of their tricks. Can things get any more stranger? Ich don't think so. We managed to track down a Breakbeat night on our last night in Byron and got to poi and diablo in front of a bit of a crowd and got loads of applause which made me feel chuffed and well 'ard. Sweet as.
From Byron we passed from New South Wales into Queensland to the glitzy lights of Surfers Paradise. Yes, the city really is called Surfers Paradise. Those convicts are crazy when it comes to naming places i tell thee. The nearest mountain to Surfers Paradise is called Mount Tambourine, which is not too far from Lake Disappointment. Like i said, loco. Surfers is a purpose-built tourism haven it seems. It has the most amazingly postcard-perfect beach i have seen and stretches in each direction for as far as the eye can see. It is lined by apartment block after McDonalds after KFC after apartment block. It looks across between
Albino kangaroo
Just about the most wierd-looking creature i have ever seen. Mother nature has a strange sense of humour. Miami and Benidorm and is apparently the Ozzie's favourite holiday destination without leaving the country. The city is completely spotless and looks like the pavements were only laid yesterday, and even on the main strip amongst all the neon glow there didn't seem to be any pointless yobbish shenanigans. Maybe all the British tourists went out the previous night, who knows? Being in a city called Surfers Paradise we obviously had to hire out a couple of surfboards. We let the name fool us as on this particular day we were not feeling the magic of paradise. The waves were really messy and the rips were sketchy as hell, but, we did surf in Surfers Paradise... i think that means we rock or something.
We thought we would treat ourselves to a day away from the beach and took the short bus ride to Whitewater World, Australia's newest water park, to see what they were doing to help their country in it's seventh year of water shortage. They claim to filter and use the same water again and again. As we had completed our research we thought we may as well stay there for the day and go on
Whitewater World
The future of waterslides has arrived. some rides (mental note - don't drink any of the water). It claims to be the most technologically advance water park in the world and i couldn't argue with that. You go down all the slides on inflatables that are covered in magnets so you are propelled up steep sections as fast as you come down the other side, virtually like a water roller coaster. As it is low season here the park was near empty and we managed to go on everything at least five times. Too much fun. On our last night we went to the supermarket and who did we bump into? Our Swiss friend again (okay, she is definitely following us). A little later that evening we were cooking the food we brought in the supermarket and someone walked into our shared kitchen... it was our friends from Coffs Harbour... this kind of thing happens constantly and so, now, it doesn't seem like such a shock. But it is always good to see familiar faces and even better to go four ways on a load of booze.
From Brisbane we took another short bus journey to the second major city on the east coast -
The Gold Coast
42km of the white stuff. Not the most difficult beach to find your own spot. Brisbane. Our main reason for coming to Brisbane was to find some work before we had to settle for busking, although people along the way keep telling us to. Brisbane is a really nice city, quite small and not too busy, other than around midday when ever workplace seems to go for their lunch. I have never seen so many McDonalds, they are on every single block without fail and i am not exaggerating! Our first full day in the city we popped into the job club and came out ten minutes later well and truly employed! Now the worrying can finally stop, we can buy whole pints and we can buy a chocolate bar each rather than sharing. The catch was that we had to be at our workplace, a fruit farm 6 hours by train from Brisbane, tomorrow. And so the madness began as we hunted for some cheap shoes, a sun hat and total sun block cream, a bank account, a tax reference number and two train tickets. Luckily it all worked out easy enough and by the afternoon we had a few hours free to go for a didgeridoo lesson from an aborigine guy whose name meant 'water of life', but i can't for my life remember what it was exactly. Oh, i forgot to mention that we had to go into an aboriginal artifacts shop beforehand and some clumsy idiot (that's me) managed to walk into and knock over a 6ft high glass display of the most expensive ornaments the shop owed (hence them being locked away). With superman stealth reactions i managed to catch the display but unfortunately couldn't reach through the glass in time to save all of the contents from falling off their stands and then from shelf to shelf. SHITZE... the shop keeper obviously screamed in terror but by some epic act of God (praise be to Allah) not a single item was damaged. The few minutes she checked everything and put it all back in its correct place seemed like a whole school day. Not fun. That was all soon forgot about as soon as we began our didge lessons and i now have a better understanding of how they make all those funny noises. Just got to try to remember the techniques until i get back to my didge back home!
So off we head tomorrow to the middle of nowhere to work 8 hour days in 30+. If i melt to nothing i would like to donate my pogo-stilts to Charlie Fotze as i know he really liked them, and my turntables to Couch so he can continue to upset people with offensive music like i have done over the past few years. There probably wont be a blog for a while as work is not a very interesting thing to update you on. I hear you see some evil snakes and spiders out there and have to somehow get them off the lovely fruit so maybe i will just start a new nature web page to keep me going. I will still check my emails when i can so please send me messages of support to help me through the harsh weeks of labour. Thank you please and keep in touch...
Adam x
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Cuz Cha
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Sounds like your still having an amazing time! I know you wont be on the move for a wee bit yet what with working but as i read about Byron it reminded me of something that i feel i should share with you!! Make sure you go to a little place on your way up (think its in between Bundy and Airlie...) called 1770, beautiful place with an up and coming Byron feel to it!! Def a must! Have fun with your fruit picking, i got mangos and baby plants! Hard work, good cash!! xx