East Coastarama

Ok so it's been a while and we've travelled a fair bit, Kerrie has warned me not to miss anything out as apparently I usually condense my blogs into a quick paragraph so I'm going to give it a proper go!!

We left stunning Tasmania behind and boarded the ferry expecting a nice peaceful journey back to the mainland, however the 3 metre swells made for an interesting journey. Kerrie went rather green along with most of the other passengers! But it was great to walk like a drunk whilst being completley sober! Very funny....

After arriving back in Melbourne we drove as far as Albury/Wodonga on the Victoria/NSW border on our way to Canberra. This was a pretty uneventful stay but the town itself was quite nice. Next, the capital city (Not that you'd know it) I swear if you asked three Aussies off the street which city the capital was they'd all say something different. Canberra though, was really nice, a purpose built city with approximately 300 thousand people. Being purpose built it has been laid out in large symetrical circles. After driving around it for a while you step out of the car and nearly fall over (Imagine being spun around a few hundred times) Anyway we saw a few of the sights, Art gallery, Government house etc. which was all free and relatively amusing. The next day we had planned to spend in the blue mountains but after seeing non stop mountain ranges and trekking through gorges etc in Tassie we decided to give it a miss and carry on to Newcastle up the coast. (We had already seen Sydney 4 months previously)

So Newcastle, it's a nice enough city with ok beaches but the thing about Newcastle, as a resident told us in a bogan accent "No one parties like they do in Newwie" So we went out on a hostel led dinner, drinks and quiz night. Anyway the guy who told us about the partying got smashed and made a tit of himself but we had a pretty good night!

From Newwie we went to Coffs harbour, sea side tack town really but again lovely beaches and sharks spotted just 50 metres off shore. We also stayed in what Kerrie described as a walk in Loo room, it did smell a bit...... Byron was next on our list and we expected a lot. It didn't disappoint, Byron was great and we had a tent pitch virtually on the fabulous beach. Byron is supposed to be this laid back non commercialised place, for example there's no McDonalds as they aren't allowed to operate here. In truth its not really the case, for example we ate in one of the Subways in our first hour there. It is however a very cool and diverse place that I would definitely visit again.

From Byron we day tripped to a very small town called Nimbin. Nimbin was occupied during the 70's by a group of university students running an experiment on real living or some crap, basically they just got stoned everyday and never managed to leave. It's the wackiest place I've ever seen and within being there for 5 minutes we were offered Wacky Backy about 3 times. They also sell hash brownies in the coffee shops, very surreal!!

Up the coast futher and we stayed in Coolangatta and the start of the gold coast, amazing beaches!!! More tacky seaside shops. Then onto Surfers paradise which we had visited 4 months previously with Wayne and Ruth. The main event of Surfers was locking our keys in the boot of the car and after having half the camp site try and break into our car (Aussies like a challange) we had to call a locksmith to get us in. Surfers to Brisbane Part II and a stop off in comfort at Waynes place again. Unfortunately Ruth was away on Business but Wayne treated us to another good break, thanks again mate!!! We did have one scare whist in Brisbane where we heard a grinding noise whilst driving and then something metal fall off the car, all very worrying. We all got out of the car and I managed to locate the object by picking up a piece of metal and stating "This must be it, its hot" but luckily it was just the air conditioning thingy (I'm not very technical) and would cost 200 bucks to fix but wasn't nessesary. Its always reassuring to know something can fall off your car and its not really needed.......

So Brisbane to "Australia Zoo!, its here for you" yes this is the late great Steve Irwins Zoo and although the $50 each price tag nearly scared us off we had to pay it a visit. Its simply fantastic and you get to hand feed Kangaroos, touch Pythons (Steve Loydall I know you'd have enjoyed that one!!), stroke Koalas and see Crocodiles being fed. See attached photos, Kerrie wanted to stay there permanently. Next stop Caloundra, then the start of the rain at Mooloolaba, torrential, 3 inches in one night!! Yes we were camping and yes it even rains in Oz, what's that about? Then stops at the lovely Noosa, Tin Can Bay, No dolphins spotted :-( and rainbow beach.

We have now arrived at Hervey bay and tomorrow we go on a tour of Fraser island.

I'm sure we'll have an update for you soon!

A big hello to all.

Matt + (Kerrie) xxx

---

---