Day 18 - Not quite so Rainbow Beach!

There’s nothing to do in Rainbow Beach but at least it wasn’t raining so we set off to the beach after another cheapo lunch. We couldn’t quite suss out why this beach should be called Rainbow Beach as it looks just like all the other beaches we’ve been to… Unless we went to completely the wrong place but we don’t see how that’s possible in this tiny town (600 locals.) We had a nice time on the beach; relaxing, reading, tanning and watching crabs go about their funny little lives.

After a while on the beach we decided to go on a walk! Corrie took us through a jungle-like route and after a good kilometre or 2 we hit a dead end. The trip was not meant to take us to a dead end so we doubled back, completely puzzled by this drawback. After spotting some nice wildlife etc on the way back we came to a cross roads where Corrie exclaimed “Ohhhh” enlightened by something… This something turned out to be the right way and so we set about going a totally different path! After walking up a steep road (parallel to the dirt track we’d just been stuck on) we reached a car park and the start of a 1.2km walk to our destination. The end of this walk brought us out at the Carlo Sand Blow; quite an impressive view and basically a huge drift of sand gradually working its way inland, engulfing everything as it goes. You’d think there was a clue in the name but neither of us was prepared for the literal sand blasting we got whilst taking in this view. Corrie’s hatred of sand was only further enflamed by this as it went everywhere and was very painful on bare skin. We witnessed a couple, who’d ventured out onto this sand to get some more views, come back to the opening looking a little worse for wares and not best pleased… the fools! We moved on from here then decided to head back for tea.

As we said, there’s nothing much to do here so we had ourselves a quiet night in playing cards.

Day 17 - Off to Rainbow Beach

Not a very productive day today. We got up early-ish as we had to check out but we were allowed use of the apartment facilities until we were due to leave.

We dumped our luggage and headed up the road for breakfast. At a small café/ mini-market we got croissants and butter (with jam for Danny.) These were really nice and as we left, Danny tried to be helpful by taking the plates, knives and jam and butter dishes back to the bar. He actually made things worse for the staff as he dropped the jam and butter dish which smashed everywhere… he made his apologies and we made a quick exit down to the beach.

We decided to set up on a sand dune but were soon caught in the, seemingly ever lurking, rain. We’d taken a brolly so we fended it off for a while but after about 20 mins accepted defeat!

Back at the apartment we had a couple of hours to kill so we watched TV and played cards.

At 14:30 one of the twins who own the apartments, Peter, dropped us off in town where we stocked up on supplies for a cheap tea: this time allowing our budget to stretch for mayo (a much missed component of previous sangas!)

On the way to Rainbow Beach (so called due to it’s multi-coloured beach – 84 shades of brown) our driver stopped to let us take a pic of a huge pelican statue thing (one of many ‘big things’ dotted up the east coast of Oz; but the first we’ve actually gotten to see.) These large things are a bit naff really but it’s something to tick off the list of things to do in Oz!

We made it to Rainbow where we were greeted by our old friend the rain. Not such a big issue that night though as we were just checking in then off to our room for tea (a couple of baguettes we made… oh, and melon also.)

Just played cards some more and chatted before bed; where we could dream of sunshine and clear skies!

Day 16 - More walking in Noosa (26/01/12)

Happy Australia Day! (26/01/12)

We gave ourselves a lie in today and made ourselves a couple of baguettes for lunch (these weren’t as nice as they should’ve been due to our penny pinching not letting us get mayo!)

After lunch we set off on what was meant to be a 2 hour walk along the coast (according to Bruce – man with no concept of distance/ time. Remember him?)… 3 hours and immense amounts of sweat later we arrived at Noosa’s main beach! The walk offered some good views and great exercise but the humidity made the whole thing seem so much tougher. Oh, nearly forgot that part of our walk took us along a nudist beach… though it just could’ve been that the 8 people were just partying their way for Aussie Day 2012! The best sight was yet to come (yes, even after the nudist beach) as, after the 7 ½ km, we arrived at… the pub! That 1^st, crisp and fresh, ice cold pint of beer hit the spot, mmmmmm! After a couple of these we had our tea; lamb burgers and these also went down a treat. We stayed at the pub a while to use the free wi-fi and watch some of the Aussie Open tennis before walking back that 2.5km to our beds!

Started at beyond the bottom of the map, then did all the blue coastal walk and carried on to Noosa Heads!

Day 15 - Off to Noosa

We got up, packed, checked out then went to catch our Oz Ex bus to Noosa. This 4 ½ hour trip was reduced to 2 due to the flooding and bad weather. Normally Oz Ex would take us up into the Glass House Mountains for a bit of sightseeing and picture taking etc. Our driver also told us that the weather may well affect more of our journeys up the coast but they’re hoping the rain’s going to ease off a bit within a few days… Unfortunately for us, the North parts of the East coast are in the wet season anyway!

We had our cheapskates’ lunch (yet again – very nice) when we arrived in Noosa then decided it would be a good idea to walk the 2.5km to our accommodation… only knowing the general direction in which we should go! After a few phone calls with the apartment owner Bruce (first Aussie we’ve met called Bruce – who happens to have no concept of distance whatsoever) we managed to get to the place. It’s very humid here (apparently it gets more humid the further North you go up the East coast) so needless to say we were both drenched in sweat so a shower was 1^st on our to-do-list!

Next, we thought we’d walk the 2.5km back to town and see what was what. This is where we found a restaurant/ bar and got a well-deserved meal and pint of Tooheys each. We picked up some supplies for a cheap lunch tomorrow and then trotted off on the 2.5km back to Melaluka Apartments… Yes, our socks did smell!

Day 14 - Bear Hugging!

We kick started the day with a trip to Woolworths to sort ourselves out with a budget breakfast/ lunch for later. This shopping trip went well although, due to the seemingly never ending rain, we decided to purchase a $10 umbrella each :(

Next, we found and got on the bus that would take us the 12km, which Corrie originally wanted to walk, to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (the world’s 1^st and largest koala sanctuary.) Before we went in we decided to have our brunch which was top notch, and surprisingly filling for the $5 it cost us for: half a melon each and a tuna roll each. Danny was content as he got to use the Leatherman (multi-tool thing) Corrie had got him for Christmas to carve up the Melon!

The koala place was great too as well as being fairly quiet due to all the rain. This allowed us both to easily have our pictures taken holding a koala (Tinkerbell!)

We also bought lunch for the kangaroos and went off into their huge enclosure to feed them, whilst getting some good close-up shots of them and the wallabies. There was a lot to see here such as: 100’s of koalas, lots of grey roos, wallabies, dingoes, wombats, Tasmanian devils, kookaburras, a golden possum, an inland taipan (world’s most venomous land snake), a brown snake (2^nd most venomous land snake), and various lizards and birds etc etc!

We decided that, as we’d spent so much on the koalas today we’d best have a budget tea also. This time it was chicken, ham, salad and crisp sandwiches instead of the tuna! We also have enough leftovers for brunch tomorrow which we’ll be enjoying on/ after the bus trip. Danny hopes this means we can eat out tomorrow night!

This turned out to be a really good day, despite the weather which looks set to continue, so we’re looking forward to moving up the coast to Noosa in the morning.

Day 13 - Arriving in Brisbane

After going to bed early last night with the other people in our room not there, we woke up this morning to find them in the bunks above us. They were two girls from Melbourne, coming up to Surfers Paradise for a week’s holiday to go to the theme parks. We didn’t talk to them very much as we were all wanting to use the bathroom!! And when it came round to being our turns, they left.

After we checked out of the hostel, we used the internet for about an hour or so in the internet café downstairs, and then went to find somewhere to have an early lunch. We ended up going to a place just next to the hostel called “Vegas in Paradise”.  Despite what it was called and the tacky appearance we were well fed. Danny was raving about his rump steak for the rest of the day. It was a bargain at $9.95.

We nipped round to the Irish pub we went to yesterday for a quick drink before getting out Greyhound bus up to Brisbane at 13:10.

Once we arrived in Brisbane (in the rain) we went to find our hostel. We checked in then went for a wander, resulting in us finding the river and botanical gardens which was nice. On the way back to the hostel we decided we’d best try and keep within our daily budget (for once!) To achieve this we went to Woolworths (supermarket) where we bought a pot noodle type thing each for $1.79 per pot. We also got half a sweet melon for $1.49. The melon served as our starter for the evening meal, which was yummy, and the main courses were the rather pathetic noodles (these had nothing on Noodle Box from the other night!)

After tea we just lounged around; uploading photos, trying to find some surfing pics from a website, facebooking etc before bed.

Day 12 - Surfers Paradise

Another early morning as our bus left from town at 08:30 (this time we got an Oz Ex bus as no cock-ups had been made by them!) En-route we stopped at the Danger Point; a place where New South Wales meets Queensland. There must be a lot of confusion on New Year's Eve as one side of the street (NSW) has summer time so is 1 hour ahead, and the other side (QLD) hasn't. You could probably celebrate midnight at one side of the road, then celebrate it again an hour later on the other side! We took a few snaps then carried on to our stop.

So remember we're now 10 hours ahead of GMT, not 11.

Surfers Paradise is very nice but Danny was expecting a quiet little beach town, not the Miami-ish high-rise busy place that it is. The majority of the skyscrapers are not business offices here, but are accommodation and the place is famous for; obviously surfing, theme parks, and it's night life. So what did we do first? Once we'd had lunch we went and watched some Volleyball! It was the men's and women's semi finals of the National Beach Volleyball Series. A good call on both our parts... though Danny seemed to here a lot more camera clicks from Corrie during the men's sets and had to be prompted to take shots during the women's!

We then checked into our first shared room of the trip; the other couple weren't in though so we got changed and ventured out again. This time we wandered around the shops and discovered that this place really does only offer surfing, theme parks and night life.

After a few beers at random bars we decided to get some fish n chips and they were gooood (so they should be as we're by the sea!) We had our first proper pint of the trip today too at an Irish pub before we decided to head back.

Day 11 - Lazing in the Bay

We started the day by checking out of our tent room and dumping our bags in the sauna until our new room would be ready. We set off to the beach and had a little potter around a few shops, struggling not to buy anything we didn't actually need. Corrie bought a beach towel, which Danny didn't approve of as he thought this would be "unnecessary weight to carry"... He later withdrew this comment and made plans to buy his own beach towel (after spending a good half an hour trying to get sand unstuck from him.)

We spent a good few hours at the very nice beach working on our tans before heading back down to a cafe we'd been to yesterday. This is where we got a gigantic drink each; Danny got a fruity thing and Corrie got one of the world's best thick chocolate milkshakes.

We then went back to the hostel to check in again - This time into a larger private room with a fridge and a fan (these should be standard items in every hostel room in Oz!)

We both showered and got ready to go to a bar called Cheeky Monkeys to see what all the fuss was about... We still have no idea!!! It'[s a bit of a dive but at least we both got fed and watered fairly cheaply.

We set off back to get an early night after our very chilled and lazy day.

Day 10 - A day in Byron Bay

Last night’s stay in Byron Bay was, most certainly, not worth the discounted price of $100 for our private room and accommodation would’ve been nicer if we’d camped out. We were in a shared facilities cabin thing and our room literally had; a bed, small desk with drawers, and a fan... Oh yeah, with the bonus prize of 2 cockroaches! Corrie was unimpressed to say the least and the jury’s still out as to whether or not she got any sleep.

We started the day (or maybe continued in Corrie’s case) by checking out of the dive and wandering up the road to find the shuttle bus to our accommodation for the next 2 nights (The Arts Factory.) This place seemed much better already as we were given free internet for an hour and decided to get some breakfast. The food seems good here and, as we were eating our food, we noticed the lizards (Eastern Water Dragons) roaming around the place… Needless to say Corrie was straight in her bag for the camera!

We were very tempted to make our own didgeridoos as they’ll show you how to do it here, but we’re not yet sure what we’d do with them after… probably would have to post them home.

We then checked in to our private tent room! This seems quite nice, well luxury compared to the previous hostel room! We didn’t hang around long as we wanted to venture out.

We decided to walk to the lighthouse which was a, supposedly, 2 hour walk to get there and back again. We got some supplies and headed out… 4kms later we reached the lighthouse: This was after a nice walk along the beach, followed by a not-so-nice walk up many steps! The views were worth it though and we’ve now been to the most easterly point of Australia. We couldn’t spot any dolphins or whales though, just more lizards.

We finished the day by going to a small café for a while to abuse the free internet, and then went across the road to get a box of noodles each – this was a good decision as the noodles were gorgeous! We then went back to our tent for the night!

Day 9 - Spot X Surf Camp

We were woken up by a strange lady knocking loudly on our cabin, then poking her head through the door and telling us to get up!

Once up, we went from some food before checking out and dumping our bags in storage. We could then go for our surfing lesson!

Surfing started with a half hour prep session about waves and safety etc before we got to grab our boards. Our first thoughts of the boards: “These bad boys are heavy.” When we got to the beach we had a practice session teaching us how to lay on the boards, then stand and crouch etc. When we got to the water’s edge we did the standard, tentative walk into the sea… the sea was having none of it and sent a barrage of large waves to put an end to our tippy-toeing! Surfing is definitely harder than it looks; it’s quite tricky to keep the board level when you’re lying flat on it. Once you’ve mastered that though you can paddle hard until a wave takes you, then comes the standing up! Danny successfully managed to stand and stay in the classic surfer stance twice. Corrie, on the other hand, seemed to have this sport sussed and was surfing like a dudess!

They certainly feed you well at Spot X and after lunch we, yet again, had to miss the Oz Ex bus due to shoddy management. We’re now waiting for a Greyhound bus to take us to our next stop (Byron Bay) where we’ll probably get some food, showered then sleep!

Day 8 - Coffs to Spot X

Got up fairly early so we could go and check out, then we had about 5 hours to waste until we’d be picked up from the bus station… So we set off to McDonalds to abuse the free wifi! After about 2 hours of this we decided to walk to the bus station which turned out to be about 2.5km away (we’d already walked about 1km to Manky Ds.) This is not such a good idea if you’re carrying a large backpack and a day pack also (Corrie’s combined rucksack weight being 21kgs and Danny’s a mere 17kgs.) Needless to say we were very relieved when we reached the bus station and could finally sit down and relax for the whole 2 hours before the bus was due. We decided this would be a much better option than lugging our bags around the shops of Coffs Harbour!

When the bus arrived, an hour late and we’d put our bags in the trailer, we got on to find only one free seat!!! The upshot of the palaver that followed was that the minibus had been overbooked (Can hold 21 people… INCLUDING the driver!) and we, luckily, ended up getting on the next Greyhound bus that was heading towards Brisbane.

We were dropped off at Spot X surf camp in Arrawarra (which Oz Ex claims to be a top secret surfing location) and it was rammed! We received a guided tour of the facilities before hopping on the bottle shop shuttle to grab a few cheeky beverages. Then we had a good feed included in our package (Corrie took full advantage of this, arriving 10 mins after Danny was done with a stack of food resembling the leaning tower of pisa!)

After tea we took a few beers and went for a stroll along the beach as the sun set… How romantic!

Day 7 - In Coffs

Today we had a nice long lie in as it was a very very wet day (now we see why it’s the worst Aussie summer in 60 years!) We then decided to go for a walk to Muttonbird Island, in the rain, about a 40 minute walk away. There were some nice views of Coffs from this island and Corrie was, once again, in her element!

Because of the bad weather we only stayed out for a couple of hours before going back to the hostel. Here we put our names down for the evening meal which was meant to be a bbq but this was rained off and replaced with steak or calamari, with a pint of beer for $5… a bargain! We got chatting to quite a few people and were advised on things to do in Fiji by a nice Dutch girl.

Day 6 - Off to Coffs

Yet another early start as we were picked up at 06:15 by the 20 seater Oz Experience mini bus that would take us on the 9 hour journey to Coffs Harbour (home of the Hollywood angry man, Russell Crowe). Weirdly it wasn’t as painful as it sounds as the trip was broken up with stops: a breakfast stop, a very brief and spontaneous outing, and a lunch stop.

We received our Oz Ex wristbands and were informed of some of the discounts etc these entitle us to (including Danny’s favourite - 10% off Subway sandwiches!)

The spontaneous outing was a stop off at a koala hospital (like us you’ll probably picture lots of koalas in beds, with drips and casts on their little furry legs and arms… or maybe not!!) It was lots of open air enclosures with trees and the koalas had their own sections. They all had problems (injuries, diseases and infections etc) and were all asleep when we got there. It was a nice stop though and now we’ve seen kangaroos, cockatoos and koalas.

The evening was spent having a stroll down the beach followed by a nice meal at a bowling club where we became temporary members!

Day 5 - Blue Mountains

An early start to the day as we were picked up at 07:20 for our trip out to the Blue Mountains. Before the main walks of the day our guide drove us to a national park in the hope of spotting a pack of kangaroos… and we did! There were five of them and we were lucky enough to see them lounging around in an open space, getting about 15m from them before taking some snaps.

After this brief stop we continued to our fist walk of the day: Wentworth Falls. This was a 2 hour walk, which didn’t sound appealing as it was bouncing it down and very cloudy. Unbelievably, the clouds cleared at all the right moments, allowing us to see the great views of the mountains, including Mount Solitude (or something!) We also got very close to the falls which was well worth the trek (involving some of the steepest steps we’ve ever seen). We were both thankful that we’d packed our waterproofs as these really took a drenching… we felt a little sorry for those in their best trainers, t-shirts and shorts (a little but not much!)

After lunch we were taken to Katoomba, followed by a trip to scenic world (Sounds like a theme park but really is not!). We walked the Furber Stairs (all 860 of them) before seeing another impressive waterfall (Katoomba Falls.) The sky, yet again, cleared long enough for us to have a great view of The Three Sisters (rock formation.) Next we had a look at the old coal mining area, before taking a train back to the top and missing out on all those steps again! This train, however is the world’s steepest gradient cabled train (or something!) and travelling up the 52 degree slope facing back down into the valley is not for the faint hearted.

All in all a good day even with the ridiculously wet weather.

Day 4 - Lazy Day

Note to others: Kings Cross is not a nice part of town (probably is for some though!) It is full of dodgy characters, prostitutes, drunks, strip clubs etc… Last night we didn't eat there but found a nice pizza place on the outskirts of it which was delish!

Today we didn’t really do much, we really just wanted to give our feet a rest and relax. We did have a walk through Chinatown to Darling Harbour to have a look around there. Nothing much else though!

Day 3 - Friday 13th =S

We let ourselves have a small lie in this morning which Danny decided to extend with the door locked whilst Corrie went for her shower. On her return, with her arms full of washed clothes, she knocked on the door to be let in, but nothing happened. Another knock.....and another for the next ten minutes..... nothing. She thought Danny might have gone to the toilet or for some breakfast so she set off round the hostel looking for him. Nothing. Back at the door she decided to knock louder. Still nothing. It was only then when she knocked even louder when Danny decided to let her in, seemingly unaware that anything was wrong. He simply said "you took your time, I was just about to doze off." Corrie was not impressed.

The rest of the day has gone very well compared to the morning. We went to the botanical gardens and sunbathed for the first time =) From there we went to the Opera House and Danny got his camera out for the first time.

For lunch we decided to try a pie from "Pie Face" which appears to be the Greggs of Sydney, but even nicer. From there we trotted over to the bridge again, but this time to claim our free visit up the Pylon Lookout.We were allowed to take cameras up here, so Corrie took full advantage!

We then went for our daily schooner before coming down to Chinatown for the internet! (The hostel's is still bust.) Tonight we will venture up to Kings Cross for our tea, as it is nearer to the hostel we are in tonight. Tomorrow we are checking out of "Woodduck" and going to "Wake Up!" Hopefully there will be internet there!

Day 2

We woke early and decided to give the free breakfast a try... we won't be doing that again! We then had a few bits to sort out in the Chinatown area so we set about doing all that stuff first. Next we set off for the Harbour Bridge to ask about a bridge climb we'd heard great things about. We booked a climb for 16:45 (on this day as the bridge is closed over the weekend.) This is when Corrie was told the climb would take 3 and 1/2 hours! We set off back to the hostel to get changed, then we had to, pretty much, go straight back to the bridge!!!

We spent a good half hour getting kitted out and prepped for the climb... All items (e.g. Sunglasses, hats, gloves etc) had to be clipped to the sexy onesies (Corrie's prefers the one she got for Christmas!) The climb itself was amazing, it was very high and quite windy (or blowing a gale as Corrie seems to think, even using the gloves at one point!) The views were more than worth it though and you could see from Bondi Beach to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately we don't have any photos as cameras were not allowed! We got to spend quite a long time at the top of the bridge before the part Corrie had being dreading finally arrived... the descent! This involved going down some very steep ladders that ran inbetween some train tracks, and we were all lucky enough to avoid having a train pass whilst halfway down!

As this finished at about 20:00 we decided to hunt for food, stopping off at The Fortune of War (Sydney's oldest pub) for a quick schooner of Tooheys each. The hunt for food didn't go well as we ended up next door to our hostel before we found somewhere cheap enough!!! "Best Thai" turned out to be extremely nice despite our first impressions of the look of the place, we'll probably be going there again. The portions were massive but this was no issue for us as we hadn't eaten since midday and we'd walked our way around most of the city.

Finally, we were glad the thai place was this close to the hostel as we were knackered! There was one final hurdle for us to overcome though as we found the hostel doors were locked! We tried our key in the front door, then went round the back and tried the back ones too. After much cursing we made a note of the phone number and Danny was setting off the call this in a rage when Corrie found another door... right next to the main entrance, and at last we could go to bed!

Day 1 - So it begins...

Well we are in Sydney after a very very long flight! We touched down at about 07:40 yesterday morning (Local time obviously!) Bizzarely our little chinese shuttle bus driver dropped us off about 300m up the road from our hostel. When we arrived there he was stood in the queue waiting for payment from our hostel for taking us there!!

After we checked in we had a potter around Sydney, which turned into quite a lengthy walk (or so it seemed after travelling such a long way with little sleep!) to Mrs Macquaries Chair, through the Royal Botanical Gardens, then down to Hyde Park before stopping off for a well deserved beer nearby.

At about 16:00 we got back to the hostel and decided to have a nap before tea. This didn't work so well for Danny, who then proceeded to carry on sleeping whilst Corrie got ready for tea... Corrie was left hungry as Danny carried on sleeping through till about 06:00 this morning!!

All in all we had a great first day, with a moment of romance where Danny fed a strawberry to Corrie in the park. So far so good.

Today we're planning on going to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and other touristy stuff. Danny's also going to treat Corrie to a slap up meal tonight by way of apology!