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Published: November 19th 2006
July 8 - 10, 2006
Sydney is a very big city of four million people. It features all of the traffic and dense urban culture of London or New York while also sprawling out along the serpentine harbor. Leaving Sydney and moving on to the north was an education in just how far the arms of this goliath reach and the traffic was particularly frustrating as our late start meant the sun was setting.
We slept in Newcastle before starting what can only be described as our ultimate Aussie Pie Day. For some reason the landscape between Newcastle and Coff’s Harbor is congested with (at least) three different restaurants advertising that they serve up the best savory pastry on the continent. We visited and sampled the wares from each of the three today, starting with Red Ned’s Pies in Nelson Bay, next stopping at The Pie Man in Tea Gardens, and concluding at Fredo’s Famous Pies in Frederickton. Red Ned’s offered perhaps the best selection of pies in his small carry out and Fredo’s the most kitschy décor (and a Slush Puppy machine). The Pie Man’s sign exclaiming “I Only Have Pies For You” provides a sweet pie-making sincerity
that we really enjoyed.
Between Nelson Bay and Tea Gardens we stopped in the town of Hawk’s Nest. While most of our drive would hug to coast and feature numerous attractive beach towns Hawk’s Nest particularly stood out for its postcard beauty. The miles long crescent of perfect sand and gentle waves was very arresting. While we are sure that Hawk’s Nest is overrun with visitors during peak seasons we found it virtually empty and almost sublimely peaceful.
That night, stuffed and a little wobbly we made it to Coff’s Harbor where we stayed at the Toreador Motel (we recommend it highly - www.toreadormotel.com). Squeezed in to a neon strip of motels along the roadside the Toreador offered wi-fi and a very comfortable place to contemplate our dietary ways long enough to refresh, have some KFC for dinner, and set off for the most prominent local attraction the next morning.
At the northern edge of Coff’s Harbor is situated The Big Banana. Don’t let the name, the scenic tram, the banana plantation, ice cream parlor or gift shop fool you, this roadside attraction is all about a big banana. The Big Banana. It is strange to write
this after having explored the ancient vastness of Kakadu, walked around the monolith of Uluru, and driven the spectacular Great Ocean Road, but The Big Banana is one of the most memorable stops we would make in Australia. Its glory is in its simplicity and the vast, fun-loving, Big Banana themed gift shop and snack bar. We picked up more than a handful of Big Banana souvenirs and some frozen chocolate bananas and loitered as long as can possibly be expected to around a giant fruit before again heading north.
Before slipping away in to the sandy day-dream that is Byron Bay we visited one more roadside giant, The Big Prawn in Ballina. Unlike The Big Banana, The Big Prawn lacks the charming gift shop, has no rides, and seems rather awkwardly perched atop a small shopping center. Surreal but not stunning this “big” attraction proved that making something ridiculously large, while a great idea, does demand a little attention be paid to the setting. It also proves what most people intuitively know, bananas are much cooler than shellfish.
July 10 - 13, 2006
We intended to stay in Byron Bay for 1 night but stayed for
3. We loved our hotel, Byron Bayside (www.byronbaysidemotel.com.au) where we had laundry in the apartment, a kitchen, a balcony, and a sofa. The combination of a little road weariness, the charms of Byron Bay and Cape Byron, and the ability to prepare our own meals and dine in lulled us in to a pleasant holiday. We had breakfast on the patio every morning and made our dinner each night, supplementing the meals with touches of take-away food.
Byron Bay has just about everything you need for a perfect small town beach vacation. The beach is beautiful and the trees are stocked with noisy parrots, there are two Mexican restaurants (the carry-out featured decadent combinations of chili, sour cream, and cheese that demanded we eat there twice), a movie theater, a wide variety of bars, and spas featuring healers and alternative medicinal treatments (for $115 AUD one place would pour oil on your head - the price drops to $90 if you save the oil for your next visit). We have heard that it is probably a little too much to take when it is crowded but during the slow season we found it very relaxing and comfortable.
We
balked at taking a popular backpacker day trip to the nearby hippie commune of Nimbin (we found Byron Bay contained enough hippie, real or for marketing purposes, for us) instead spending our time wading on the shore or lying in the grass overlooking the surf. We did make a short trip inland to the town of Bangalow, another homey sliver of a community that may be better enjoyed for those with bigger budgets.
At the beach each day a “sandologist” would craft and then light a large sand castle making his living from the generosity of those snapping photos of his artwork. Our single aggressive excursion was the hike up and around the cliffs at the south side of the beach. The trail took us from Byron up to the continent’s eastern most point and past a lighthouse perched high above the sea where we were able to watch whales breaching in the distance. One sign near the lighthouse claimed this to be one of the few places on earth where one could stand on the shore with rain forest behind you and listening to the songs of whales passing in front of you.
Before leaving Byron Bay
Roger had to check out what may have simply been an urban legend relating to one of Midnight Oil’s members, bass player Peter Gifford (Gifford joined the band on their third album and supplied rhythm for four of the band’s records, including Diesel and Dust). Gifford had allegedly tired of the demands of being in the band and “retired” to open a bikini shop in Byron Bay. Roger asked the hotel desk clerk if he knew what that shop might be, drawing a blank until mentioning the shop would have opened around 1985. The only bikini shop around that long, he said, was Wicked Weasel. Armed with the name of the shop and an internet café we were able to confirm that this was the place and we stopped by to peek in the window discovering that “bikini” can be a generous way to describe some things women wear on the beach (floss and fish netting would cover more - gee, why did Gifford leave the band?).
Gold Coast (July 13-14, 2006)
North of Byron Bay we left New South Wales and entered Queensland. The beautiful coast south of Brisbane is called The Gold Coast, a stretch renowned
for its escapist amusement parks, beaches, clubs, bars, junk food, and casinos. It’s kind of like heaven with a sunburn. While we were eager to get to Brisbane where we planned to connect with some women we met in Vietnam and to visit Steve Irwin’s Zoo, the chance to explore what we had heard of as “Australia’s Las Vegas” was just too much.
We stayed in Surfer’s Paradise. There’s a lot more development in this area and it really looks like a plush vacation playland. Highrise hotels and apartments line the beach and the main drag has novelty gift shops, casinos, bars, mini golf and junk food filling in the gaps. The area looks and feels different from the rest of Australia (despite being packed to the brim with vacationing Aussies) because of the massive development.
We stayed in a cheap place near the center of the action called Surfers City Motel. If we leaned out our window we could see the ocean and we enjoyed the randomly decorated 70’s style interior decoration complete with orange and red carpet.
The numerous amusement parks in the area were tempting until we found out they would cost $60 per
person (we would hear later that Sea World was not as good as the one in Florida - take that Shamu). As we are fun-loving individuals, however, we headed towards the largest of the area’s casinos, Conrad Jupiter’s. With dreams of cheap blackjack and free drinks in our heads we strolled into the massive lobby of the only place we have seen outside of Las Vegas that rivals one of the Strip’s big properties. Jupiter’s lacks a real theme like Mandalay Bay or Excalibur, and despite a large amount of gaming space, it also lacks video poker and low stakes blackjack (the lowest minimum was at a few tables with $10 minimums). We felt dirty leaving without putting a dollar in play.
Sadly, the highlight of our visit to the Gold Coast was our dinner at Sushi Train just down the highway from Jupiter’s. The sushi go-round was supplemented by a variety of tasty dishes including octopus balls and fried chicken. Some of the “fusion” dishes are somehow even less healthy with an Aussie touch than those we have tried elsewhere, thanks in large part to copious amounts of mayonnaise and mayonnaise-based sauces. In addition to the conveyor belt
staff brought around fresh dishes of eel that we enjoyed.
So much of Australia is perfect for leisure time, particularly the variety of outdoor activities made possible by diverse landscape. If this stretch of coast is their playground it certainly fits the bill. The comparison to Las Vegas is really misleading (of course, we can’t recall just where we heard that…) and those who have spent time in San Diego or parts of Florida may not find it all that unique.
Brisbane (July 14 - 16, 2006)
Brisbane continues to be Australia’s fastest growing city and it certainly reflects it. There is a lot of new development and construction around town and it feels very vibrant. Like Melbourne and Sydney, Brisbane also sprawls out in every possible direction. Our first stop as we entered the metro area was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The wildlife park features most or all of the popular native fauna but here the dingoes, crocs, fruit bats, lorakeets, kookaburras, and kangaroos take a backseat to the koalas. Lone Pine is home to more than 130 koalas on display in a variety of settings (young males, mothers with newborns, cigar smokers, etc., all
grouped in various enclosures). All of the animals at the sanctuary are on display in very viewer friendly habitats and we had a field day snapping photos and videos of the koalas as they hopped, climbed and ate. We even splurged on the opportunity to hold one of the critters who, despite their popularity, remain interested only in eucalyptus leaves.
The park’s other highlight is the large kangaroo enclosure where visitors are able to feed the kangaroos and wallabies by hand. This does not impress the locals who find kangaroos about as exotic and perhaps more annoying than Americans find mule deer. As we arrived some time after lunch the kangaroos were stuffed from their morning handouts but we managed a pleasant up-close experience all the same. Unfortunately when an opportunity was provided for some tourists to show their ugly side they did, trampling in to the clearly marked “kangaroos only” rest area to pester the beasts. While we do not like the idea of anyone suffering we were eager to see one of the bigger kangaroos punt one of the shutterbugs out of the park but it never happened.
Before meeting up with our friends we stopped
and picked up some running shoes. As our day of pie eating topped by KFC would fairly indicate we were rapidly gaining back the weight we lost sweating across Vietnam. Shoes in hand we started planning our morning jogs as we headed to meet our friends and spent the rest of the night chatting over some of the wine we picked up in the Yarra Valley. We tried drinking it through the Tim Tam cookies as the wino had suggested but the experience seemed to diminish both wine and cookie.
One of our friends took us on a driving tour of Brisbane the next day, the highlight being the river front area downtown that features a massive mad-made beach nestled in a park along the river. The beach, complete with sand and lifeguards, is free and open to the public. We were pleased to be staying somewhere other than in a hotel and relaxed that night with take-out Thai food, reading magazines, chatting, and watching “footy” on TV.
Our time in Brisbane was short but pleasant but we had to move on to see Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo just 45 minutes north and so began the next stage
in our journey north. To read about our day at the Australia Zoo which we posted on September 5, please click
here.
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Penry
non-member comment
Under-belly
Roger, Your chin looks strikingly like a kangaroos under belly. Congratulations on that. Hope you two are having fun! Ahoy-me-hardy!