Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 4462

Who said surfing was easy?? Trust me it's not! I took a 4-hour surfing lesson and wow, I think i never swallowed so much salt water in my entire life! I was first picked up around 1pm by the two instructors with their mini bus and all the surf boards. The intructors were two sexy Australians dudes...the lesson was going to be interesting ;) They drove us south of Byron Bay, around 25 minutes south to Flat ROck beach, where there was no one to disturb us. The rips and currents are pretty strong in Australia so we had a 15 min. talk on security and where not to go. Then, a good 20 min, explaning to us how to stand up on our board. Seems pretty easy to do, especially if you're on the beach. ... read more

Here we are in Oz, having survived the overnight flight. We got picked up and taken to Calypso hostel, which was quite a cool place with a pool and a good all you can eat buffet for 8 dollars every evening..themed ofcourse! We briefly contained our tiredness in the swimming pool until si crashed out about midday.. he would not get up for another 28 hours! crazy! will and i survived until 5pm with a trip into cairns centre where i admired a fetching baby-blue billabong beanie...in will's words "very gangsta"! We too then crashed and awoke 22 hours later, with new roommates! 2 guys from switzerland and one from litchenstein..really nice guys, had just learnt englidh in sydney for a few months.. the next evening we went out with them and explored cairns' coyote night ... read more

Nou, laten we maar gelijk met de deur in huis vallen: na tientallen, zo niet honderden verkeersborden te hebben gezien met: “Pas op, koala’s de volgende 10 kilometer”/ “Pas op, kangoeroe’s de volgende 2 kilometer”/ “Pas op....” hadden wij die beestjes nog steeds neit in het wild gezien. We gingen echt bijna geloven dat die beesten alleen maar in de dierentuinen en sanctuaries bestonden... Maar sinds ons bezoek aan Brisbane National Park weten we het zeker: ook in het wild bestaan ze echt!!!!!!! We hebben dus geluk gehad, en wij vinden het heel bijzonder dat we dit hebben mogen zien zo vlan na Balou’s overlijden, het zal er wel niets mee te maken hebben, maar toch moesten we gelijk aan hem denken na onze perfecte dag... details volgen wat verderop. Maar goed, we waren dus gebleven ... read more

After reaching Manly via the very scenic route of Sydney Harbour I felt a bit more at home being on the water for a start was good and I stepped off the ferry and instantly felt a cool calm feel to Manly and the entire goings on there. Walking in the direction that I knew the beach was in I clapped eyes on why so many people out here surf the waves were constant and looked from my very limited knowledge of surfing fairly big and challenging for some others were easily taking them in there stride. I decided to come here to find work and see what the Diving scene would be like in Sydney and the surrounding areas. I walked back up the Corso as it is called and found the Board Riders and ... read more

After an awesome 6 weeks, we've finally left Asia and are now in Oz. After more overnight travelling, we arrived in Cairns at something like 6 in the morning, I don't really remember, and headed off to immigration. Let the good first impressions of Australia start! Somehow, at two possible places to get stopped, we mananged to get stopped 3 times, and the final and in my opinion funnest time was the last, when they searched literally everything in all 3 of our bags....good times! After that we headed off to the Calypso Hostel, where after trying to briefly battle the tiredness in the pool for a bit, we all gave up and went to bed, Si managing a hugely respectable 28 hours (more of a small coma than a sleep) and me and Bish only ... read more