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Published: October 26th 2007
Fi by the lake
Noosa North Shore ResortFirstly, sorry it's been so long! We've been real busy and when we have found our way onto a computer there has been no USB so we couldn't put our photos up. As you can see there are over 50 photos! Sorry about that!
Anyway, back to Noosa...panic over..Jon found his towels, the cleaners for some reason had taken them incase they belonged to someone. Silly logic, leaving them where the owner left them seems to make more sense! Our final night in Noosa proved to be the best. We sat watching TV with our house mates when it started to rain...then suddenly (dramatic music)...there were huge flashes of light and bangs...but fear not, it was only a storm! But an awesome one at that! We stood outside watching it for at least an hour (in the middle of trees - stupid) and having taken about 50 photos managed to get three good ones! We even got it on video camera but it's a bit like watching an off tv...black.
Anyway, the next day we went back to Brisbne. Although we had been dying to get out of the city last time we were really looking forward to getting
Jon by the lake
Noosa North Shore Resort back after seeing so many beaches and small towns! Back to civilisation! We didn't do a lot that was amazing, went to the cinema and out for dinner (wagamama again!). But we dressed up nice for this and made a proper night of it, as we have been wearing flip flops for ever and fancied making the effort! Great night. It was also in Brisbane that we decided to do a weight/fat count test again. We had done it the last time we were here and wanted to see what the difference was in 3 weeks! Jon managed to put on 0.1kg but his fat count went up from 11.2% to 15.9% Oh dear. Just incase you are thinking he has turned into a blob (abs to flabs!), he hasn't, he looks the same really, better! Fi on the other hand (ha ha) had lost about 3-4kg and gone from 24.7% to 21% fat!! Jon says it's all in the boobs, but these have not actually changed! Fi thinks it's the beer..which she does not drink, but Jon does!!
After Brisbane we were headed for Southport. The main reason for going here was that we wanted to go to
Wet n Wild (water park) that was nearby. Southport itself was another fairly small town next to Surfers Paradise, which is where they hold the Indy 500 (Formula 1 type thing), and it is a bit like Blackpool but on a lovely beach and with sun! The hostel (Trekkers) was next to the main street and set in an old Queenslander, but run by a British couple. There was free breakfast but we never saw it, even though we were up at half 7 one day! It was all gone!
Wet n Wild was about an hour away on the local bus, and even though we went on a school day there were hundreds of kids! Hmm. But we got there early which meant that there were very small queues at this point..excellent! One thing that was good was that most of the rides were two person ones, in dingy type things! The first two we went on were Terror Canyon I/II and they involved sitting together on a tube going down covered slides, which meant you couldn't see the bends coming up, these were fab and a good start to the day and getting wet (great in the
heat!!). Our favourite rides were The Tornado and The Black Hole (see pics). The Tornado looks like a big funnel but you start by going down a vertical slide into it...this is ok if you are facing forward, and the most scary thing ever if you are backwards as you can't see where you are going! After the vertical drop you slide up and down the walls of the funnel! Brill! The Black Hole was a slide in the dark, which Jon thought was amusing to make us go up the walls even more..naughty. The only one we hated all day was this narrow slide (Mach 5) that you went down on your back, hands behind your head, ankles crossed. Unfortunately they don't seem to have sanded down all the joins so it felt as if your back was being ripped off, not good for two people who have moles on their back! Plus you seem to take off in mid air and you have your doubt whether you will land back into the very narrow slide...horrible, never again. We managed to spend the best part of the day here and had a great day!
The next day we
were off to Byron Bay. This is a small hippy town just on the North coast of New South Wales. It's got great laid back, surfy, hippy vibes and lots of little independent stores (they won't allow chains as they want to support locals). We stayed in the Cape Byron YHA which was a great hostel, nice pool, TV room, and the kitchen and bathrooms were clean! Jon's favourite room was the TV room as they had big leather sofas and more importantly a framed signed Liverpool shirt (which he resisted stealing). Our first night we decided to go out as we got a free drink and admission into a club called Cocomangas. The drink was called a jam jar and fairly sickly but hey, it was free! We went to a few other pubs and ended up in another club called Cheeky Monkeys. This was Coyote Ugly night which basically meant lots of dancing on the tables! Fi felt a little old in there (by about 8 years!), Jon did not care as by this point he was wrecked!! Anyway, we headed home.
Next day we walked up to the lighthouse...this took forever or maybe it seemed to
with a hangover. You could potentially see whales from up there but there were none around! 😞 The views from the top were great, you could see for miles! But as it was midday by now we started the climb down, as it was getting boiling. Jon decided to counter this by paddling in the sea up to his thighs...he wasn't wearing swim shorts, he was wearing jeans...silly boy!! Fi went up to her knees..in board shorts!
It was also in Byron that we had the best fish n chips ever recommended by Fi's cousin Beki (at a place called Fish Heads, right on the beach). Unfortunately our lunch was interrupted by a tramp begging money..he proceeded to ask us about 7 times during our three days here, asking us if we had money for food (we were going to say ''yes thanks'').
Our next place was Coffs Harbour. This was several more hours down the coast, and the further south we were going, the cooler the weather was getting. But we were quite lucky and every day was sunny and hot here. Coffs is the home of the Big Banana (monkey was happy - see pic) as
it grows thousands here, you can do a tour of the banana plantation, but Fi was content with just getting a frozen chocolate covered banana!! The beach here is very quiet but beautiful. We walked the length of it including wading through the estuary in our clothes (luckily it didn't come up too much higher than our knees!). After this we went to the 'Pet Porpoise Pool' which is a place where you can see dolphins, seals etc and touch them, a very mini Seaworld. Unfortunately it was a Sunday so it was full of kids all screaming and shouting! Arghh! But the animals were great, you could have your picture taken with most of them, and feed and touch them. The show started with the sealion and seals, entertaining the crowd and burping, sorry 'speaking' down the microphones. Nice. Then it was the dolpins turn as they performed trick after trick, jumping through hoops and playing rugby. They were great, in a really trained fake way! After this Fi fed the little penguins, and we got a kiss from one of the seals (see pics!). Very scratchy, like Jon when he's not had a shave!!
Aside from this
we did a lot of walking. Coffs is really spread out and we didn't try the public transport. Jon walked half of it without shoes on as his flips flops were hurting! Although it was about 5 miles so it was fair enough! The hostel we stayed at Barracuda Backpackers was out of the centre but really great. It was really friendly, and had great communal areas like the pool and back garden equipped with fire pit - you wouldn't think you needed it in the heat but the nights got chillier, and it was lovely. We met some nice people here, one in particular who was very...strange. We'll call him potato. Potato was a nice, chatty guy who was permanently sat on the sofa....however, he had a lot of stories. He is the aboriginal man in Crocodile Dundee's adoptive son; he said his cousin plays for Australia - Jon asked for what club he played for..this turned out to be Byron Bay who aren't even professional; his other cousin (female) arranges Premier League fixtures and decides who gets to play who; and finally while he was in juvinile detention and being transported on a plane from Cairns to Sydney,
he found out that Olivia Newton John and John Travolta were on the plane (in economy class!!??) so he asked his guard if he could go get an autograph...while still in handcuffs, he went up to them to ask, apparently Olivia said no problem sweetie, John told him to piss off!! Well what do you think? We suspect he is not completely sane or truthfull! Jon's other mate there was the dog Ralph - an American Staff who was gorgeous (see pics).
Finally, we went to Newcastle, 6 hours away. We had read this was supposed to be a fantastic little place, so were looking forward to it. We don't know who writes these things but they must wear rose tinted specs! It was a nice little town, the beach was nice but the place was swarming with flies. It was gross, at any one time you'd have about 10 on your back. So you spent your time swatting them away, this got boring quickly. At the hostel others were agreeing with how bad it was, and were staying indoors. The hostel itself, Newcastle Beach YHA, was brilliant. Set in a huge house that used to be a gentlemen's
Fi looking serious
Trying out the B&W shots! club (not strip joint, the posh sort!), it was quit plush looking. It was also the best for activities including free meals at the local Irish pub, and $6 all you can eat pizza. Great! Having spoken to a couple who said they were going on a wine tour of the Hunter Valley the next day, we decided to do the same, just to get away from the flies. Plus it was only $45 (about 22 quid) and you're supposed to get about 2.5 bottles of wine throughout the day! This is probably the best thing we've done in Oz, we had a great day!! We went to 6 wineries, each time trying between 4 and 12 wines. At first you think they are being stingy with their tasting amounts but after the seventh or so, you see why! The guy in the second was trying to win over Fi, so he kept giving her bigger amounts! Jon thought it was unfair..but funny! He soon made up for it later on. We must have tried about 50 different wines during the day, and a few spirits too. In one place Fi was bullied (poor Fi who actually volunteered!) into downing
a shot..yum. We all had to down a shot of chilli schnapps, it was lush! The only famous winery we went to was Lindemans (you may recognise this from supermarkets in the UK), where the barman turned out to be married to Gwilym's (who used to own Farmers, now owns Scholars) boyfriend's cousin (or niece?!), and had recently been on holiday to Aber! Small world. Luckily that night was pizza night so it soaked up some of the alcohol!! Although we had bought some schnapps so this possibly kept our levels up!
The next day we left for Sydney, which is where we are now! This is our last stop before we go to New Zealand a week today. You may be happy to hear however that it is absolutely tipping down with rain, and we had to dig to the bottom of our backpacks to get our jeans and kag in a bags out!! But we will tell you more about Sydney in our next blog next week!
Hope you enjoy this very long one (sorry!),
Leave us a comment!
Lots of Love,
Fi & Jonny
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Gemma
non-member comment
Hey Guys! Thanks for your Blog! The photos are great wine tasting looks amazing- something for my 'to do' list! Wet and Wild sounds like great fun! Everythings good here, Jon off playing poker tonight (to win!!) pay for my xmas present he he. Turfs on top mate! Looking forward to hearing all about sydney! Keep having fun!! lots of love Gems and Jon xxxx mwah x