(15 May) We took a 3,5 hours flight from Christchurch to Sydney and headed straight to Nina's (a friend and former colleague of mine) who has now settled into Sydney life. What a great location - smack bang in the middle in a gorgeous flat in Darling Harbour. We had a lovely dinner in China Town and a drink at the harbour.
(16 May) We spent most of the day researching car rental for our East Coast trip. It is not cheap and feels very expensive when you have just paid under ten pounds a day for a car in NZ.
Well, let's see what we will end up with.
Cooked Filipino dinner at Nina's.
(17 May) After Amit's physio appointment in the Olympic Village, we visited Heidi, Keith and Meg (my friends from my Peru trip in 2003) and finally met Heidi and Keith's gorgeous kids Annika and Mitchell. Five years since we last met. We had a huge, yummy roast lunch while catching up. Was really lovely seeing my Australian friends again.
We had arranged to go on an evening ferry cruise with Nina but the weather was not the best, so we decided to go for a Thai meal instead in Kings Cross and went on to Springfields (a new bar) and then to Slip Bar - the bar where the crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his wife Mary met at the Olympics. It has a Danish flag right outside it. Funny. Of course I had to take a photo of the bar (which by the way, is just a normal looking bar, nothing special).
Rolled in at 2am.
(18 May 08) Met up with Karan (my cousin) and his wife Komal (they just got married in January) at Circle Quay. We took the ferry to Taronga Zoo and saw the Koala, kangaroos, wallaby, wombats etc. but no platypus. Where were they? A zoo that faces the sea and the city of Sydney with the Opera House and Harbour bridge in the background. We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so went to Star City. It has a casino, a theatre, bars and restaurants. Had dinner at Maya restaurant in Surrey Hills. Good fun today.
Tomorrow, we start our 14-19 days road trip up the East Coast.
Sydney to Myall Lakes
(19 May 08, Surfers Paradise) Yeah, you see there is this website called http://www.standbycars.com/ where you can suppossedly pick up a very cheap cars in Australia. We saw quotes of $1 a day plus a relocation fee. Basically, it is car hire companies who want their cars driven to a particular location. We needed one that could take us from Sydney to Cairns. On the site, it said that 6 cars were available. We waited for them to call us for 3 days after we showed an interest. Today, was our deadline and since they did not get back to us, we had to hire a standard rate car. The cheapest we could find was $30 per day. What other choices did we have? We could take the Greyhound or Oz experience bus which meant less flexibility and more time consuming. We took the car. (And guess what 2 days later we receive a call from Standby that they have a car available from Sydney to Cairns - a bit too late!)
It took us an hour just to get the paper work sorted and in the meantime cars were being returned and all three of them had been in an accident. Ok, a bit worrying. So we took out the extra insurance. Apparently, running into a kangaroo is quite "normal" and after dark you are not insured. So if you drive after 6pm and you are in an accident, well your insurance does not cover you. So, we had to look out for kangaroos and avoid driving after 6pm.
With the good intention of leaving early, we still only reached Myall National Park at dark. We drove through the park for ages and we could still not find the Myall Shores Ecopoint Resort. We could to a blind end and a lake and it said "closed after 6PM". Our accomodation was just across the lake. We called them up and were told we had to go all around the park through a different village and it would take us 1 hour and 15 min. It was late so we opted to stay in the nearby village called Tea Gardens just next to Myall River.
Coffs Harbour
(20 May) Early departure and drove straight to Coffs Harbour. Our plan of going straight to Byron bay were a bit unrealistic. It was off-peak season yet we had difficulty in finding accomodation. Ended up at the cheapest option at Hotel Formule F - cheaper than the backpacker hostels and they allowed us to use their kitchen so we could cook our own dinner.
Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise
(21 May) Drove to Byron Bay. A pretty beach town with long long stretches of beaches on different ends of the town. Went to the light house at Cape Byron with stunning views of the stretches of white sand beaches, rocks and bird life. Had burning sun and blue sky above us. Really liked it here.
Then headed to Surfers Paradise passed Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach.
Surfers Paradise - reminds me a bit of Miami just much cleaner. Yes, it is a party place - and there were lots of young people (18+) and a lot of them from the UK - so it felt a bit like being back in England. But the weather at night, cool but pleasant. Again long stretch a soft white sand. Must be really nice when it is hot enough to go into the water. That is why we are heading to Cairns as quick as we can, so we can get into the water.
Had dinner at the recommended Tandoori Palace (they serve Kangaroo curries here) and it was so tasty. (We did not try the Kangaroo.) Went to a couple of bars.
Surfers Paradise to Brisbane
(22 May) Took us about 1 hour to get to Brisbane. Checked into the popular Bunk Hostel. Great facilities. Has laundry, kitchen, spa pool, swimming pool, bar, night club, internet, tourist info. Very convenient (and you also pay for it! - not a cheap hostel). Went to Brisbane city centre, shopping and cooked our dinner at the hostel. Went dancing till 2am.
Brisbane - Koala Sanctuary - Hervey Bay
(23 May) The Chinese visa section - say no more. Lets get it in Katmandu.
After our city walk, we stopped at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary before driving to Hervey Bay. This Sanctuary is the first and largest in Australia and 130 koalas. They are so cute and cuddly and extremely lazy. They sleep between 16-20 hours a day! I held one and just wanted to hold on to it. So cuddly! Then we visited the kangaroos jumping around on the grass. One came straight at us and put his mouth to smell Amit's legs and hands, I think it was hoping we were bringing food. Unfortunately, we disappointed him and he jumped off. Amazing to see about 25 kangaroos jumping together. Also saw the wallaby, the fresh water crocodiles, the taipan snakes (the deadliest), emus, dingos and a bird eating a mouse. Yucky di yuck.
Had a long drive to Hervey Bay and got there by dark (we just don't seem to be able to make it in day time).
Fraser Island
(24 May - 26 May)
Definitely my favourite trip in Australia so far. We spent 3 days on Fraser Island (which has 100 fresh water lakes) with a small group. We went on 4Wheel drives on the seventy-five mile beach, which is also a highway, where we saw a sea snake and a dingo, swam in Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, where we attempted sand boarding and saw cat-fish, walked in desert-looking sand dunes, saw a carpet python digesting its food, walked in the tropical forest, where I had the pleasure of having a leech suck on my foot! Yuck! Trekked to the Indian head, went to the Champagne rock pools and saw sunrises over the island. Lovely!
(27 May) Drove from Hervey Bay to Mackay and Proserpine and had no luck with accomodation. Everything was fully booked and it was getting late and dark. We drove and drove and experienced a jumping kangaroo right in front of the car, Amit who was driving, shouted, "kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo". We managed to pass it when we thought it was jumping right at us. We ended up getting to Airlie Beach earlier than planned as there were no hostels on the way. Stayed in the Magnum hostel and just chilled by the Airlie Beach lagoon the next day.
Airlie Beach - Magnetic Island
(29 May)
Due to time constraints we decided against doing the Whitsunday sailing and drove to Townsville where we caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. Stayed in Bungalow Bay (4 minutes to Horseshoe Bay beach) - A-framed huts in the middle of jungle. Was great at night seeing possums trying to find food and hearing various screaming animals. The next morning was lovely and peaceful with the singing birds. Went on a trek to Radical Bay. A beautiful beach here. We were told that there might be stingers (jelly fish) but may be ok closer to the beach. We went for a swim before catching the ferry back to Townsville and for our 5 hours drive to Cairns.
Cairns
(31 May) Returned car and walked back to our hostel via the Esplanade. Lovely beach path with palm trees, BBQ areas and playgrounds along the very low water level. Just relaxed and hung out in Cairns city. Nice to have one of these days without any plans.
Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef
(1 June) 7.30am start to the Green Island, just 45 minutes on the boat from Cairns.
Passed Fitzroy Island (leased and being developed by Japanese companies with malls and hotels) and Yarrabah (owned and inhabited by the Aboriginals) .
Snorkelled at Pinnacle Reef. Saw giant clams (amazing!), huge sea cucumbers (feels weird to touch - their mouth and bottom is the same!), black-tipped shark, schools of massive rainbow-coloured fish, red bass, camouflage fish and multi-coloured live corals and reefs. Did a round-trip of the Green Island and spotting reefs at knee-length water.
Great day for snorkelling.
Skydiving in Cairns
(2 June) The day of overcoming my fear! I wanted to do it for years and this was my chance.
The skydive was AMAZING. I screamed all the way until the parachute opened. It felt like I was falling forever. What a strange feeling. Well, when I got up in the plane my instructor said "you know you booked a 9000 feet jump with a 30 seconds freefall, well now you are jumping from 11000 feet - as we need time for the bus to get to the landing point". I was like "oh no". Anyway, I was the first one to jump and when the plane door opened, I looked out at the clouds, looked down over Cairns and felt all the wind blowing my hair all over the place, and I said to myself "oh shit, I am scared, oh noopoo". I was so nervous! The instructor told me to stick my legs out of the plane, I did not feel ready, but before I knew it my legs were dangling out of the flight door and I heard the instructor shout "put the goggles on". Suddenly, we were jumping out of the plane. I screamed "ohhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh" and it felt like I was just falling and falling. Then I shot up in the air a few metres when the parachute opened. My ears were hurting from the wind. Suddenly, we were flying peacefully over Cairns city and surrounding sugar cane fields. The instructor made a few turns in the air. The view was amazing. I loved it! Soon we were landing on the ground and I could see the bus driving towards us and Amit was there - he saw me in the sky. I had such fun and it is by far the scariest thing I have ever done. Now I think I should not have been that nervous. I really liked it. When we landed I was told that we actually jumped from 12000 feet with a 50 seconds freefall. Cool!
A great way to say goodbye to Cairns! Darwin - here we come.
6 June '08, Darwin
Darwin and Kakadu National Park
(2-5 June)
What an experience! It helped that we had a crazy guide, completely nuts who was knowledgable and adventurous. 3 days camping in Kakadu National park with camp fire food and sleeping under the stars. We walked a lot (day and night), drove a lot, swam in lakes and rock pools, saw a lot, made our own spheres, tried to catch prawns in the dark, saw Aboriginal rock art, went on a jumping crocodile cruise on Adelaide river, slept very little and had a fantastic time. Very eventful 3 days. To give you some idea of our guide, well, he was telling us a dream time story around the camp-fire, and half-way through he passed out and snored till the next morning (a bit too much to drink maybe). (See my photos on FaceBook.)
(5 June) Got to Darwin before sunset and went for dinner at the night markets on Mindil beach, before clubbing with the bush camp group at the Wisdom and VIP (or something like that) till 3am.
(6 June) Chill-out day
7 June 08, Sydney
Had a not so fun journey from Darwin to Sydney. Delays due to fog. We left Darwin city at midnight and arrived in Sydney at 9.30am!
Spent our last day with Nina before heading to Singapore tomorrow.
Our journey in Australia has been fantastic! Favourite experiences: Kakadu Bush camp, Skydiving and Fraser Island.
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