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Published: September 1st 2008
I finished my last blog entry in Port Macquarie, where we spent 2 great nights couchsurfing with a lovely guy who had a spa pool on his roof which was well used! His apartment overlooked the beach and we spent the full day we were there exploring the town and beach and looking for hidden beaches that can be found by wandering down a path along the side of a cliff. Port Macquarie is a pretty little place but naturally on the day we left it rained so much that we resembled drowned rats by the time we had got to the bus stop! We spent the journey to Coffs Harbour steaming up the windows of the Greyhound as we dried off and the sun appeared again when we got there - and stayed with us for a very long time! We couchsurfed again in Coffs Harbour and spent more time at the beach attempting to get tans - mission accomplished. On my arms. Nowhere else! We also saw a sunrise at Coffs Harbour which was very pretty but anyone who knows me at all will know that a 6.20am wake up call is not high up on my list of favourite things to experience! During those few days we went to Nambucca Heads to do some wwoofing for a couple of days which was an interesting experience and I think I should just leave it at that! We have discovered that the east coast of New South Wales is a great place to chill on the beach with chocolate, strawberries and wine in a paper bag - not in the style of a tramp!
We left Coffs Harbour excited about going on the Byron Bay, although nobody had told us that Splendour in the Grass, a very big music festival, was happening at the same time until the bus driver mentioned that due to this we'd never get a bed in Byron, with a smile on his face! Well, he was wrong, we did get a bed in Byron, just one that we had a to share after pouncing on the guy from the hostel at the bus stop who was shouting that he had one spare bed! We did get a free drink out of it, and at the bar a hair stylist styled (a term I use loosely!) our hair so that we looked like extras from Grease! Byron Bay is a really cool little town with just about everything that you would need including an awesome market. On our first day we walked to the most easterly point of Australia out near Cape Byron lighthouse and as we looked out to sea we saw some whales swimming past! The next day we went to do some wwoofing out near Mullumbimby, a small town not too far from Byron and after a bit of drama we ended up staying with Sheri and her family who we loved so much we ended up staying there for 3 and a half weeks. Their house is awesome and we spent lots of time painting and making friends with spiders which was a lot of fun. We were able to go into Byron a lot and fully explore the town and also the surrounding area and some of the quieter beaches. On one trip into town we booked a very exciting package for the rest of the east coast (details in the next blog when I've actually done some of it!) and through this we were given a free zorb. Zorbing involves being harnessed into a big inflatable ball and then rolled down a hill (and in this case it also involved being chased by a dog whilst in the ball and avoiding horse poo walking back up the hill!). It was so much fun and I did some very entertaining screaming - I have a video which will one day be made public to those with facebook!
For Ellie's birthday we took three days out of our time in Byron and went to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast which is quite a fun but tacky tourist place but also home to some theme parks which is of course where we ended up! We went to Dreamworld and White Water World over 2 days where we went on all the rides, saw lots of native Ozzy animals including some large crocodiles, stroked a tiger cub and I came very close to throwing up after going on two spin-you-around rides in rapid succession (lovely image I know!). White Water World was awesome and we had lots of fun racing each other down the rides and trying to beat the waves in the wave machine! Even though we were in a water park I think I actually got wetter the day before when we went on the log flume and I got completely drenched and Ellie stayed bone dry. How is that fair?! To complete Ellie's birthday we went out for steaks and then saw a film at the cinema that had me hiding behind my own legs!
We finished our time in Byron spending more time with the family, discovering the wonders of wii sports and painting walls, doors, ourselves and our clothes! We had a great time there and for people who arent officially wwoofing hosts, the family are amazing at it!
We are now coming to the end of three nights in Brisbane, which is a cool city with a river running down the middle and therefore lots of bridges! We have been to the museum, and enjoyed the perks of freebies at the river festival, have shopped a bit too much and have been to the top of Mount Coot-tha at night to see the city lights. All this has been enjoyed in the company of two couchsurfers, Alana and Jeff who are lovely. We leave tomorrow for Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island and are very excited!
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Paul
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Sounds like you're having a ball Cat. That zorbing sounds great. I'm going to have to give it a go one day. The north east coast is magnificent because the weather and water continues to get warmer, the beaches wider and longer and the people sparser. Enjoy.