Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne & beyond!

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After Brisbane it was time to head on down the Gold Coast.
Our first stop was at Surfers Paradise. The place was absolutely full of Schoolies!! 16-18 year olds just on summer holidays....it's a huge thing over here. We definitely felt old there! We had a really nice campsite on the beachfront a few minutes outside Surfers Paradise. I have to say the town itself is a bit tacky with high rised flats right up to the beach, 6 'Irish' bars within 50metres of eachother and loads of other tacky stuff! Aside form that, the beach is lovely and the waves were so much fun. We were having great fun in the waves until I heard Colette screaming and running up to the Lifeguard! A blue bottle jellyfish had decided to cling itself to her hand and let's just say I had to be Dr. Peter for the rest of the day! Very painful but luckily she made a full recovery by the next day. We just walked aorund the town the next morning and enjoyed a Hard Rock Cafe lunch!

After Surfers, we drove on south to Byron Bay. Again, this town was full of schoolies but we made the most of it anyway. The beach was really nice again and there were some good bars in the town as well. I decided to do a 14,000ft skydive over Byron Bay while we were there. It was absolutely amazing...such a thrill! I found it easier to enjoy the skydive than the bungy. The views on the way down are spectacular. We took a trip out to the most easterly point of Australia at Cape Byron and apart from that we just chilled out in Byron for a couple more days before starting the long drive down to Sydney.

There's not a whole lot to see on the way from Byron to Sydney and especially not when its pouring rain. We got at least 36hours of constant rain so our trip to the cinema was the only eventful part of that journey!

When we arrived into Sydney we drove across the Harbour Bridge which really is impressive. We made our way out to Coogee then where we stayed with friends of Sean...thanks lads! This was our first time to not be in a hostel or a van in the last 6 months so it was a huge novelty to see a couch and TV and we definitely made the most of it! Coogee is a really nice area with a cool beach which we relaxed on for a few days. We just did one full day in the city centre and it was really enjoyable. The Opera House and Harbour bridge are 2 of the best city sights I have ever seen. Fabulous city for walking around!

After our few days in Sydney, we flew down to Melbourne where we eventually met Sean! Susan very kindly put us up in her house for 2 weeks which was a real treat. The weather was very mixed in Melbourne but we got a few lovely days for driving along the Great Ocean Road. This trip definitely had the best scenery we have seen so far in Australia. We stayed in Lorne on the first night and Apollo Bay the second night. Both of them are really nice beach towns. The coastal drive between Lorne and Apollo Bay is awesome! Our last stop was at the Twelve Apostles which are cool to see and then we drove back the highway to Melbourne.

We didn't do too much in Melbourne except relax and enjoy a few nights out. It's a nice city and seems much more relaxed than Sydney.

Then the time came to go our separate ways!!! Colette flew home for Christmas and left me stranded! I went to Sydney for a hectic 2 weeks around Christmas. The highlight had to be the fireworks over the Harbour Bridge on New Years Eve. Absolutely spectacular!

So we're taking a bit of a break from our travels now as we both look to do some work but hopefully we'll be back on the road soon enough.

Bye for now...Happy New Year everyone and Best wishes for 2011!!

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