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Published: October 5th 2006
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12 Apostles (again) at sunset
It really was this colour, no Photoshopping honest I'd had enough of freezing cold New Zealand, although it was awesome and I was sad to leave so I'm back in Australia now. I arrived back a couple of weeks ago and as usual ended up back at my brothers flat in Cronulla south of Sydney were the sun was beginning to shine again (well it did for a couple of days anyway). Straight off the plane at 7.30am, Ed, Helen (Ed's girlfriend) and Helen's friend Emily and I went straight down to Bondi for an awesome breakfast overlooking the beach. After eating we went down to the sand and straight into the sea, which although the sun was shining wasn't quite warm enough, alhtough probably still hotter than a midsummer's day in England. So, needless to say, we didn't last long and spent the rest of the days in the markets before heading back to the flat to throw a few shrimps on the barby and open a few tinnies, good reintroduction to Ozzie culthure all round.
Since then Sophie, my ex, has arrived and we headed up the east coast via all my favourite places. So far we've been to Port Stephens where we went whale watching,
Australia
Enough said! or perhaps that should be empty sea watching cos no whales turned up. Still it was nice to float around in the sea for a few hours and we did see dolphins and a penguin, although Sophie insisted it was a duck. From there we headed up to Coffs Harbour for the night for a bit of sunbathing and the famous Big Banana. Then on to Byron Bay for more sunbathing and drinking. Emily (from Port Douglas and Queenstown) happened to be there at the same time so we met up for a few drinks (think she was just glad to have a distraction from the scottish 'comedian' who seemed pretty keen). From Byron we spent the night in Brisbane where I bumped into Craig (Stanthorpe, fruit picking) randomly in the street, who was with his sister for a few weeks, so we spent the night drinking and laughing. I'd laughed so much by the end of the night my whole body ached, well funny evening. Then onto Noosa for my 25th birthday which is one of my favourite places on the east coast. The weather was beautiful and I had a few days spare while Sophie did Fraser Island.
So I moved hostels to one with more interesting people and spent the first night there going out with everyone to a bar then onto Noosa's only nightclub.
The next day I got up and went for a walk through the national park which is really nice, although it was well hot. It takes you through bushland along the coastal track but at one point (even though I'd been warned) it was still a suprise (honest) to stumble onto Noosa's nudist beach. So from then on it was eyes forward to avoid having to look at ugly naked old people. From Noosa I travelled back to Brisbane and straight over to North Stradbroke Island (or Straddie to the lazy tongued Aussies). Straddie, as I'd been told is really nice, beautiful beaches and bushland with not a lot of people living there. You can snorkel and dive there too. Unfortunately the week I arrived it turned out to be something resembling Schoolies (an annual tradition whereby all the school leavers congregate and spend the whole time drinking and partying). The island was literally awash with teenage kids keeping the local police busy. Apart from them the hostel was pretty quiet
Baroka Lookout, Grampians
This view was slightly better than last time where the cloud was hovering about ten feet below us so it was a fairly soilitary couple of days, but a nice place to spend it all the same. When Sophie and I met back up in Brisbane we literally talked each others heads off as neither of us had had many people to talk too for the previous few days (she having one of those nightmare Fraser Island experiences with rubbish company).
From Brisy we got a plane down to Adelaide where we were to meet the second of Sophie's relatives, her cousin, his wife and their two young children. The last of our day there we hired a car and went to the Barossa Valley where we visited about six wineries and sampled (Sophie rather more than me, I was driving!) lots and lots of different wines. Suprisingly we didn't pass a single police car the whole time we were there. We left Adelaide the next day, heading towards the Grampians, a mountain range about five hours drive from Adelaide and ultimately on to the Great Ocean Road. The Grampians were stunning, better than when I last visited as this time the sun was shining and no fog was in site. We did a short walk up
Me and Sophie
Think you can guess who's who Mount William where the views are amaizing (despite the huge ugly radio transmitter on top). From there we headed down south to the GOR, passing whales along the coast as we headed towards the 12 Apostles and other related rocks sticking out of the sea. Again we saw loads of wildlife from (brown) snakes (think it was actually the less dangerous tiger snake but like to think we had a close encounter anyway), koalas with joeys, wallabies, penguins, tigers, elephants (might have made a few up there). We arrived in Melbourne exhausted but it was a good few days. We spent a couple of days in Melbourne, mostly catching up with friends of mine before getting a night bus back here to Sydney.
Next it's the bit I've been waiting for, South East Asia!
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