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Published: August 5th 2007
So, we finally moved on from Sydney, travelling up the east coast of New South Wales, first port of call, Port Macquarie. Felt great to be on the move again, discovering a brand new place. I had heard stories from other travellers that there is a lot on nothingness going from place to place in Oz. That was true, although instead of the desert land that I was expecting, it was quite green, with allot of bush. I'll just have to wait for the desert. A few hours up the coast made a noticeable difference to the temperature, equalling a few degrees more hotter. We stayed in a dorm room at a campsite, a dorm with two beds, so we had our own private room for real cheap, which also happened to be right next to the beach. It is a smallish town, but there is a lot of white, sandy beach.
We have managed to see much of the native animals since being here, with the first being a visit to the Koala Hospital, where all the local sick and injured koalas are taken to recuperate. Most of them had been involved in car accidents (picture the koala bear
What a Bunch of Bananas
Bananas at the start of growth.driving recklessly down the road), animal attacks or have chlamydia. We obviously couldn't get too close, but we watched them getting fed, whilst avoiding the red backed web spinning spiders (or something like that) chillin' in their homes on the surrounding fences. We got much closer at the Billabong Nature Reserve, which involved the hardest 11km cycle I have ever done, continually fluctuating between up and down hill. Red faced, and after the poor koala had been prodded and poked by many children, I got to feel how soft the fur was on his back. So cute. Also at the reserve, I chatted to many of the local parrots, who wanted to say hello to me whenever I walked away. Bought some food from the on site shop to feed the kangaroos and wallabies. They were eating from the palm of my hands, one even grabbed hold of my hand and pulled it closer to him when I tried to move away, and continued to hold it until all the food had been eaten. It was really amazing. I was also quite surprised at how soft the fur on their backs were, too. At one point I had two wallabies
eating out of the same hand. We watched the spider monkeys being fed too, one of them stole the park attendant's walkie talkie and wouldn't give it back, ha ha!!
The next stop was Coffs Harbour, a further few hours up the coast. And yes, more stunning beaches. We have made the effort to visit every beach along the way, don't worry! The most local beach, Park, is really long, really white, and didn't seem to be patrolled by lifeguards, which striked me as allot different to the other previous beaches we have visited. Also, there were very few people on the beach, and even less in the water. After a short walk around the coast, I then discovered that the next beach, Diggers, is where all the surfers hang out, the waves were so huge! We went back the next day with the free body boards form the hostel, as the free surf boards looked too dodgy to take, and had a play in the great ocean. The other main attraction in Coffs is the Big Banana, the local banana plantation. We ate a chocolate covered frozen banana in the attached cafe, sooo good, mmmm, and went on
Waves at Diggers
A few of the waves that the surfers love in Coffs. the toboggan run that ran around the plantation. It was raining on and off, so they kept closing the run to dry the track. We managed to get on just as it started raining again, so with the track slightly wet, I skidded down it even faster, wicked fun. I forgot to break at the end too, well, accidentally accelerated instead, oopps!
The next stop on route was Byron Bay. I instantly fell in love with this place, the atmosphere was electric. We arrived at about 8pm, it was dark, loud music was booming from the bars along the main road, street performers were doing their thing, and everyone around seemed cheery. Just from looking through the shop windows, I could tell that this was a place for me. Shortly after we checked into our hostel for the night, a freebie from our tour operator, which happened to be accommodation above a diving center, pretty cool, we headed out to get pizza. We sat at the edge of the beach, and just our luck, it started to rain, lightly, so we sat on a rock underneath a tree.
Without having explored Byron, we took a trip out to
Nimbin Museum
A little piece of paradise. Nimbin for a day and a night. Nimbin was incredible, a cross between Amsterdam and a festival, covering the area of about 15 shops on each side of the road. It is hippy heaven. As the story goes, Nimbin is the result of an old agreement between the police and the hippies of the area, where if the hippies diminished the hard drug use and dealers in the area, the police would turn a blind eye to the lesser evils of the hippy lifestyle. The hippies were successful in their misson, and today we have Nimbin. The road is full of festival style shops, anti-booze bars, cafes and a museum. It was really overwhelming and crazy, can't quite believe that there is somewhere like it. We stayed in a wicked hostel too, in the valley at the base of Mt. Warning, and overlooking the Nimbin Rocks. We stayed in a permanent tent with an amazing view of the surroundings, where I could wake up to the most amazing sounds of several varieties of bird, calling and singing, and hear the frogs croak to a harmonious tune. Wicked. At one point in the early morning it rained heavily, creating the most
Byron Bay
Strolling seagulls by the shallow water. relaxing sounds to drift back off to sleep by.
Back in Byron, and staying in the Arts Factory, in a tipee, with six other people, one known cockroach and at least one spider, that might have eaten the cockroach. Novel though. The hostel had everything, a swimming pool, bar, cinema, beach volleyball (sandpit), and even a swamp. Although it was incredibly hot during the day, the temperature plummeted at night, I had to wear layers to bed, which didn't quite seem right. Spent quite a lot of time at the beach, since it is free. Wanted to surf, but the waves appeared far too flat to do so, it wasn't until the last day there that we discovered the surfers go to the next beach, but it would have been too far for us to get to anyway. The beach was stunning though, unless white sand and crystal clear waters, and we managed to attract some Austrian jugglers whilst playing there, creating a mini circus session.
After a few days of chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' and coolin', we headed to Surfers Paradise, our first destination in Queensland. When I'd heard of this place before, I just assumed that
Whitewater World
Some of the waterpark. this was a nickname for it, but no, this is what the place is actually called. It's a cross between Mediterranean Spain, and America, particularly Miami. It has all the skyscrapers, strip of pubs and nightclubs, giving the air of a city, but primarily, the skyscrapers are mostly hotels and holiday apartments, and the clean, friendly and not so busy aspect of the place shows it more as the town, or holiday resort that it is. Many travellers have said that they didn't like it, because of the holiday resort feeling, but that is one of the reasons that I really liked it. This is the most holidayed spot in Australia, by the Ozzys, and is completely different to all the previous places that we have visited. The beach was stunning, part of the Gold coast, which is 42km of pure beach, and considering the name of the place, we had to go for a surf. Unfortunately, the current was really strong, so we didn't have too much success, but at least we can say that we surfed at Surfers Paradise. I wondered whether it has always been called that, or what the town was like before all the commercialism, but I think it has always been like this, since the beach became the number one holiday thing to do, just minus all the major buildings. Simulating the American theme, there were 4 water/theme parks, all in a strip down the highway, one after the other. We went to Dreamworld's Whitewater World, water park, which is right next to where the Oz Big Brother house is. It opened recently, so there were only a few water slides/rides, but what was there was amazing. I think we went on everything 5 or 6 times each. It wasn't very busy either, so we rarely had to que for more that 2 minutes. Felt like being a kid again, taking turns to go on the rides backwards, as they were mainly 2 person + rides, in inflatables. Had loads of fun, it was about time we did something exciting again, and seemed like an appropriate place.
Next we arrived in Brisbane, the river city, not by the sea (shock, horror!). It is much like any other city, tall buildings, loads of shops, loads of bars and clubs, we spent a lot of time walking around, seeing this, waiting for painfully long times at the traffic lights, waiting for them to change. The main difference though, is that the main roads run parallel with the river, rather than going through the city, and are on several layers, making it look a bit futuristic from the onset. We visited the Queensland Museum, learning a lot of information about the local wildlife and environment, which was really interesting. We have also just had a didgeridoo lesson, at the Aboriginal Workshop. For someone that cannot blow raspberries, I did manage to get a sound out of it, eventually, which I am quite ecstatic about. I will be practicing that though. We haven't really seen much of Brisbane yet, though, as we managed to land ourselves jobs this morning,at a fruit picking farm in Bundaberg. So we have been rushing around, sorting things out, opening a bank account, getting the tax file number, a hat and some cheap work shoes. The train is booked, so we are leaving in the morning, with the intention to return back to Brisbane after we have some money saved. It's quite exciting, in a way, going to learn something new about life in Oz, and looking forward to the personal challenge, as it can be hard work, depending on what we will be picking. But just the thought of going back to work, after all this time having fun, is the hard bit, going to be early mornings! Oh well, bring it on, I'm not afraid of a little hard work! Wish me luck everyone!
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vicky
non-member comment
good luck!
good luck with the job chezz! what are the wages like? watch out for all the little nasties xx