Byron Bay and Northstradbroke Island

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Since my last entry my daily life in Brisbane hasn't changed much. Besides working (an interesting but tedious work on hazard identification with FMEA and HAZOP on upstream oil processes) I joined the UQ beach volleyball club where all kinds of students gather to join for social matches - great fun! The last two weeks I have been taking the three year old child of my landlord-family to kindergarten ... after two or three times going with a pram I decided to tune up my bike with a rack and a seat - the kid loves it.

Also big news is a friend and fellow class mate of mine from Munich has arrived in Brisbane has started working in the chemical engineering department as well. We've done some weekend trips together and visited Byron Bay in New South Wales as well as Northstradbroke Island (aka 'Straddie') in Moreton Bay just outside Brisbane.

Byron Bay is a quite touristy but yet lean-back town with some hippie-flair to it. Its a great place to learn surfing which we can confirm after making some real progress on our surfing skills. We took a course to pick up the basics and managed to take some nice long white waves and even some green waves (white = broken waves, green = about to break). They took pictures during the course but asked for too much money too buy these from them. The famous lighthouse marking the furthest easterly point of the Australian mainland we left out intentionally because of the hazy weather - maybe I have the chance to get back 😊

North Stradbroke Island is a natural beauty, especially its north-eastern tip called Point Lookout. After landing at Dunwich Ferry Terminal on the western side we crossed the island by bus (crazy maniac-like driving by the aussie driver). The four of us, two Germans and two Chinese colleagues, checked in at cylinder beach camping.
We discovered the amenities of the islands being a great ice cream parlor with italian ice cream and even acai cups (a dish made of the famously nutritious Amazone berry) and a good fish'n'chips shop behind Point Lookout's only grocery store. The major site is the north-gorge-walk around the cliff tip of the island. Very nice view and the possibility to see some wildlife (we saw sea turtles and our first kangaroo).

I've attached some pictures to give you some impressions.

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Photos

Mainbeach Point Lookout
Picture taken from the cliffs at the north-gorge-walk facing south

Kangaroo scratching its rear
Strange to walk along the cliffs and find a kangaroo grazing next to the path in the grass.

Discovering the cliffs
If high waves reach the bottom of the cliffs they may slosh up high into the air

Surfing
feeble attempt to take that wave - surfing wasn't easy on cylinder beach that day

Coming home from uni
Fully packed with kid in the back (reaching for the mail)