Oustraylya! - NSW: Sydney, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise,

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G'day Mate

Time is moving fast and were in Oustraylya already! Unfortunately we'll have to say goodbye to an overly detailed report of our every movements for a more brief overview!. The price of the "blardy" internet is a bit more over here!

We've had "heaps" of rain but still managed to enjoy our time here so far. Sydney was pretty nice and we managed to share a hostel room with our friends who we travelled with for a month in SE Asia. We had 3 days there in which the first was spent walking around the centre and visiting a museum of Contempory art that displayed very wacky images and thought provoking rooms filled with mirrors and spotted cushions?! This only worsened our zombie like state already caused by the lack of sleep from our flight. In the evening we were greeted into Australia with fireworks! The display was actually for the 21st anniversary of the Darling Harbour, the highlight was four jet skiers zooming around and spraying their colourful sparks into the sky. The second day we took a walk around the beautiful landscaped Botanical gardens where I was attacked by some hungry white Cockatoo's* as 2 jumped on my back to pinch my jam sandwich. Strueth! Nik stood there laughing and taking pictures!. We had a spot of lunch with a hazy view over at the the world famous Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, before taking a closer look. We checked out a strange artist display of "light art" in the Opera house itself and then took a walk over the bridge for the brilliant views back across the harbour and to the high rise buildings in Sydney's CBD. On the way back to our hostel, Nik enjoyed the end of a very nice weekend market selling lots of girly style gifts. On our final day of Sydney we took a ferry out of the main harbour to get to Manly beach, yet again the views of the Opera house were sublime and we got a chance to see the surrounding areas of Sydney. Manly was nice, a quaint little city get away for an opportunity of some good surf. Unfortunately the weather didn't promote a relaxing beach experience but we did enjoy watching the surfers twist their boards in the rainy waves. We stayed at the modern Base Backpackers Hostel in Sydney which was a very good standard and an added bonus that we shared a 10 bed room with friends. It was also nice to cook something for a change so I could get back to Ben portions! Surprisingly we bought our food from "Woolworths"! In all honestly Sydney was nice, but we had been spoilt by the grand designs of KL and Singapore in recent weeks...

Following on from Sydney, we took an overnight "Greyhound" bus North for 2 days in Byron Bay. The journey was very good because we had a few seats to our selves and the service was also impressive. Far better than the National Express from MK to Leeds! Contrary to meteorological reports we were surprised to discover that the weather in Byron was actually good! This was a stark contrast to the cyclone they had hit the coast a week prior! After setting up camp in Cape Byron YHA we headed straight to the beach! A beautiful sweeping coastline with a nice, clean and wide, sandy beach and waves littered with surfers! We had time to sun ourselves before soon enough a shower passed over and we headed for cover into the friendly hippy surfers town. The rain had subsided after lunch and we walked along the coastal pathway to the lighthouse! The views were stunning, we saw pods of dolphins swimming near the coastline and Gannet's nose diving into the sea. At the top you almost had 270 degree view of the Tasman Sea right to the horizon. We even managed to time it for a nice sunset! Later that night we tried out an Aussie style pub with good draught beer and some live music. We spent the second day in Byron exploring the town and relaxing on the beach. Byron has some nice shops, in some the whiff of hippie incense was a little overpowering, but it reminded us of SE Asia. I managed a spot of body boarding on some bubbling surf when we hit the beach and then we watched some more live music with a very Aussie sound. One guy was playing the guitar, harmonica and a couple of foot beats at the same time!.

Onto "Surfers Paradise" a city with a party atmosphere amongst high rise coastal hotels that shadows the beach during the afternoon! Stupid "Blardy" Aussies!. We only stayed here for one day but managed to get a good flavour of the place. It's namesake suggested it was a prime location to try out a bit of surfing, so I hit the waters... Hard!.. The waves were far to strong for me and Nik enjoyed watching me get wiped out for about 2 hours! Still I persevered and finally managed to stand up and ride the waves! Our hostel was more like a hotel! After the surf, I made use of the Sauna and Nik and I also had a room to ourselves! Later in the evening we took a wander around the bright lights of the city with what seemed a busy nightlife.



Onto Queensland and the states capital, Brisbane.

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