Australia

(Quick note - ill add photos later!)

We are staying at an Irish pub called Pint on the Punt where we have got 7 nights. The place has a friendly atmosphere despite being a bit tatty. Our room mates are nice enough, Gerty is pleasant but does like to remind you that breakfast will end in ten mins whilst youre lying in bed with a hangover wishing the world would end...slighty mumsy annoying! And kevin, well he's a funny irish guy who is from Cork therefore we have a very hard job understanding one another, I have to ask him to repeat himself at least 4 times before understanding clicks in...then of course I have a fit of giggles at the silly situation. I think he thinks I'm a bit mad?! The funniest moment tho (and u had to be here so sorry for this) is when he came home slightly drunk n couldnt find his toothbrush, so went downstairs to buy one (from where ive no idea- does an irish bar stock toothbruhes?! Dad, hope youre impressed with oz/irish dentalcare?!), came back n asked to use my toothpaste (obviously none of that for sale). Anyway I stupidly gave him the tube rather than dishing it out and lo and behold the enevitable happened- he squeezed the tube and the biggest blob popped out not only on his toothbrush. He handed me back the tube with splodges of paste all over it, giggling. Sigh...each time I brush my teeth I think of kevins big blob of paste! All good fun tho.
Now I had been told I'd love st kilda cos it's got a street of cake shops on it, and so in my head, I took it literally to mean there was a whole road with each shop being a cake shop. How my heart coped with the dissappointment I'll never know- there were only about 5 cake shops all sellig the same cakes n buns and when I had one it cost $6!!! so not worth it... my cakes are better!

Hel had read about a place called 'Lentil as anything' which relied on customers paying whatever they thought the meal was worth or colud afford - very new age and the food was om! We checked out the Sunday Market (street with stalls on all of which a traveller wouldnt buy anything from, bit dissappointed with it) then headed to the beach past Luna park (extortionate rather outdated theme park). We walked along St Kilda pier onto watch the Penguins come home at sunset after a hard das hunting and eating. Luckily we had brought some wine with us for the occassion :-)

We spent Australia Day (26th Jan) in the city- kings domain section of the park where there were food stalls, a parade of allsorts of ethnic grps, a car show, pack dog racing. The Red Arrow equivalents flew over Government House as we ate our kebab sar ie outside, having just been on the tourist trail I side the house and having seen a magic show, where I got to hold the bunny at the end - yey! Mainly because I squeeled like a kid when I saw him bring it out of a side door on a trolly table for his act. Young at heart eh

City explorations so far have been fun - we me up with Lisa our roomie from Bondi and had lunch down this cool lane of eateries, then visited a museum (we are cultured ladies, honest!) then sunbathed on the grass for a bit n had wine down by the Yarra River side (extortionately priced wine) which was rather lovely. My fave bit of exploring Melbourne so far is that I found a $3 wine bar - yummy wine too - which I realise makes me sound like an alcoholic, and despite this implication, I visit it each time I go to the city! Although I am sure Melbourne has more to offer than cheap wine. I just haven't discovered it yet! Certainly not icecream! Hel and I spent a good 2 hrs on her birthday trapsing round the city in search of a nice icecream parlour, but joyless we headed onto our evenin celebrations of wine, Mexican and more wine! We met up with Guy and Emily (who we had met in Newcastle on our Hunter Valley wine tour) and as it was Emilys birthday the following day, we all celebrated together. After the Mexican we happened across the Ice Lounge, yep. You guessed it. A 'freeze your ass of for fun' bar! We either had shorts or skirts on so were definatley gonna freeze... :s but the shot and cocktail helped warm us up along with the warm gear they made us wear, plus the dancing as fast as we could to keep our circulation going- seriously we were in there for an hr and are now on their wall of fame! Check us out! Cool dudes ...

We had to end St Kilda on a high so booked into the Neighhours Trivia night - where we met Karl Kenney! Wahoo! I regressed to a teenager and basically cuddled him for as long as I could (didn't wanna let go) before asking for his autograph (luckily for me I think he found me endearing rather than obsessive)... So now I can say I have hugged the doctor!

And after that there is nothing else I can write that surpasses a Karl Kennedy hug.. Oh wait. I guess there's the Great Ocean Road...

Sunday - we got a taxi into town to our next hostel (Wake up!) to save us from the effort of dragging all our stuff across the city (I know, I know, that’s what backpacking is about...but I’ve done it for 10 months now and am an old lady so sometimes I need a helping hand!!). We checked into Wakeup!, or rather dumped our bags in an incredibly messy room (looks like its a party room) then went to wait til we could check in at 12. Once we'd checked in we walked to the botanic gardens to the Museum of NSW to be cultural and view art for afternoon. Hel went to see the Terracotta warrior exhibition (I had seen this in China so didn't bother) so I headed back to the hostel exploring a different route back. By evening though I was restless and I needed to be out of the hostel so I dragged hel to a pub for a glass of wine in the eve to people watch and write our diaries!

The hostel we are staying in has 7 floors, 2 lifts and no stairs. We live on the second floor which has ten rooms each with 10 ppl capacity. It is a massive hostel in the city. It has it's own bar and cafe, Internet lounge and kitchen area which you'd think would be heaving all the time but I guess people must eat out cos the kitchen is never too busy. Our room is large and has three ceiling to waist height windows. There's nothing more really I can say but that it'd be a nice room to chill out in if two of the occupants (Dutch boys) didn't treat it like their bedrooms n have empty water bottles and crap spreading out like a disease from under their beds...agh!

Mon - the hostel provided a free walking tour of the city which took about 3 hrs until we got to the Sydney Opera house, where we split off to meet Lisa (Bondi) and her friend Emma. We went to see the Anne Leibovitz exhibition then walked back to hostel for dinner and drinks, which turned into a night out trying to avoid Gregory, a Canadian stalker :s Basically he edged his way onto our table and listen to our conversation until I introduced myself (out of politeness rather than wanting to). Little did I realise what a terrible mistake I'd just made. He then spent the rest of the night staring inappropriately at us and telling us we were beautiful (cringe). We ended up changing bars to get away from him only to return later (hoping he'd left) to find him on the dance floor (internally crying inside at the memory)... Agh!

Tue - hungover (had to be to cope with Gregory) but still managed an afternoon in the maritime museum, where they showed Finding Nemo for free, the highlight of my day and the museum was good too. Lots of info on child immigration from UK to oz due to over population...and we did the pub quiz in the eve...

Wed - we visited Circular Quays to explore the Rocks area, went into an art gallery- the artist is usually commissioned to do a piece for the sailing regatta so lots of boat paintings. Over the road was the Rocks Museum, which was really well done. Then which we ate lunch and headed to the Sydney harbor bridge south pylon to climb it for beautiful views of a panoramic Sydney. We walked to the observatory and had a look inside (lots of telescopic stuff) before heading home via the Queen Victoria building (shopping centre). Phew! Cuppa tea back at the hostel and an Internet admin eve...

Thurs - it was a sunny day so we went to Manly beach, caught the ferry over there n saw beautiful views of the bridge and opera house, sunbathed and ate ice cream - double choc chip and white choc chip n caramel. Yummy. Then ferry back (same views but different light) to the city. We tried to go up the Sydney Tower for a drink at the bar but there is a dress code (no shorts or people who look like backpackers who have spent the day getting Sand everywhere!) so we went back to the hostel to get ready to go out...we met Emma in Kings Cross and went to a few local bars whilst trying to meet up with my mate Neil (I'd met him in Kuala Lumpor) but annoyingly I diet get I to the bar he was in cos I had flipflops on (this is Australia, since when were flipflops NOT allowed? That's like saying you can't have rain in England!)... Anyway. We found a late night bar n ended up getting in after 5?!

Fri - hangover day. Or really more like catch up on sleep day! We headed out to the Botanic gardens cos it was sunny n we had a picnic on the grass near the lake overlooking the harbor water. Neil made it down in the afternoon so got to catch up properly then we headed home via the cinema, where we watched Black Swan with Natalie Portman in - amazing, an emotional roller coaster that was gripping. A good finish to the day.

Sat - Steve and Sharni picked us up at 12 and took us for a drive around Sydney’s coastline. They took us to a tiny cove with a small beach that had grass all the way up the bank. We sat under a tree and ate our picnic accompanied with wine. Then a sea icecream boat sailed past, Steven whistled and it turned round n came back for us! We ran down to the waters edge n bought a magnum equivalent. Yum! It was very novel, a memory I’ll hold dear as I do love icecream (had u noticed?) n it's not everyday you can order it from a boat!! Afterwards there was a bit more driving which ended back at the hostel. We said our farewells (til next time!) then Solent the day on a 'go slow'.
Sun-our departure day to Melbourne. We have a nightbus journey, our last trip ever on the greyhound! It's served us well. So as it was a beautiful sunny day we spent it in the park opposite the hostel and finished off our picnic items from the other day. I think I read a good quarter of my book in that time before we had to get the coach. Onward to Melbourne!

Bondi beach, Sydney - Hel and I arrived off the greyhound and as we were going over the harbour bridge we became incredibly excited to finally be here, Sydney! Our first big city in Oz, my first big city since Jakarta (which i hated) and before that, Kuala Lumpur which is such a long time ago now. We got off at the central bus station and could immediatley feel the city vibe, people walking fast down the street to their destinations, the hubbub of a citys traffic, coffe mugs clinking and chatter. I didn't think I'd be so excited to be in a big city again...but I have a good feeling about Sydney. But, first things first, how to get to Bondi since this is to the north east of the city and about half an hour away from the centre. We got a train (that went underground for most of the way) to Bondi Junction the got a bus to Bondi beach where we walked up the hill to our YHA.
After a bit of a crap check in (don't think much to staff here) we met our room mate Lisa, sweedish, 26. We instantly got on and chatted away (you know what I'm like). Anyway we had arranged to meet up with Steven, one half of the couple we met at on the Fraser Island tour...and he drove us round Bondi in his VW Country Buggy (limited edition) which you could fold the windscreen down on it! I sat in the front and waved my arms in the air as we zoomed downhill. It was such a cool experience and many a spectater gave us a second glance, wave or smile as we zipped past

The following day (Thursday) was the blue mountains trip. I am glad I went but I definatley got to see why the mountains are blue, although I think it's from fog not eucalyptus. They should be called the misty mountains, although that sounds American. And from a geographic perspective they look more like canyons not mountains. We walked down to the top of the oldest sister, and walked across a scary bridge to stand on her head (Im not keen on bridges over deep nothingness) which I did...and saw more fog! Back up the steps and Into the car to new location to see the sisters n valleys from new perspective. Still foggy! Anyway we ended up doing a walk to a waterfall (massive waterfall drop) which took us along a ridge in the rock with no railing n forest and drop to our right with moss above and to the left of us and mud on the floor so it was very slippy. Water was dripping off the moss overhead onto us as we walked along but it was a cool path and I really enjoyed that part of the walk. Then we walked down to the waterfall where there was a bridge running across it (with a railing thank god!) so we took some photos n hel had a paddle (i just couldnt be bothered to take my walking boots off). Then we headed back home to Bondi!
But not before Steven showed us a few city sights as we drove through. He drove us to the botanic gardens telling us to focus on a massive crane on the right hand side so me n hel are looking through the trees going 'which one?', 'what?', 'where?' and then bang! He says turn left n we see the harbour bridge n Sydney opera house, ha ha! It was pretty cool view. We drove through kings cross which doesn't look so bad in the day, not sure about the night...then onto Bondi.

We keep getting told to eat and drink at 'clubs' in oz cos they're full of locals and do cheaper food n drink, or more probably that the food is worth the money cos it wasn't so cheap there... Anyway hel n I went to the RSL club to the north of the harbour for dinner n drinks. We sat outside n watched the Bondi lights whist eating dinner. I had chili calamari with salad n chips - yum! Best squid I've had yet! So soft n yummy. Om! So I'll def be eating in one of those again, the servings were huge. And it was $15...and for desert (once we'd taken advantage of the free mcdonalds wifi) I got an icecream - Ferero Roche flavour- yummy! Then back to the hostel for sleep...

The following day we sunbathed on the roof terrace of our hostel, overlooking the sea I has an ice cream craving in the afternoon so Lisa n I took a walk into Bondi to get one, mint choc chip n hazlenut - yum! Sat by the beach trying to spot hunky lifeguards but they were too far away- note to self, take monocular next time Then we went to a cafe for a fruit juice (balancing out the icecream see?) then explored the backstreet of Bondi with Hel for a bit. BBQ dinner that eve at the hostel and onto the film festival by the beach (open air) to see a range of films made by internaional film makers. All very good, and an enjoyable night. The following day was similar, sunbathed on the terrace, then shower n headed into Sydney central to the Botanic Gardens for a free music festival and picnic it was great fun, we met two of lisas friends and went for a drink after with them.

Then Sunday came all too soon, we checked out and go a taxi to our next hostel in the city, Wake up! (name of hostel, not me telling you to wake up- this is an interesting blog... Right?!).

Lennox Head, 20 mins bus ride from Byron Bay - we venture far! A nice place to visit for a few days but Hel n I only stayed a night at the YHA which had a relaxed atmosphere and was set up for socialising. We walked along the main road which hosts the main shops and restaurants and then into the beach (7 mile beach) all the way to the headland to watch the surfers do their thing with the waves. I enjoyed watching them fight out the right to a wave, often with one having to quickly dive off the wave before the other surfs over them! Once up on the headland we felt the wind blow in our hair and cool is down from the climb up. From the top we could see two more headlands of the coast further south. We lay on the grass at the top n read for a bit before returning to Lennox to grab some dinner back at the hostel and play scrabble - I think I'm improving but we still manage to block ourselves into the middle.

After Lennox we headed down to Coffs Harbour. So far our adventure seems to have so far consisted of walking to headlands and lighthouses! Which have been good but slightly repetitive. Coffs harbor held more appeal and the walk to the headland was really pretty- the sun was out hence my sunburn text. Nice marina too and of course there's the banana...

Port Macquarie was good despite the rain. A nature trail turned into a naturalist hideout as hel and I realised after walking onto a nudist beach! Saw a couple of old guys having a chat naked n a few other nude blokes hiding along the beach edge, probably trying to blend in as hel n I walked past...! Nothing mentioned THAT on the map! After that we went to the koala hospital, nothing remotely exciting Happened there, then back to the hostel. The following day we walked round the town, tried to see the maritime museum but the man in charge (Peter) decided to give us a Q&A session to catch up on English culture... He was a cute 83 yr old from Croyden who had moved to oz 20 yrs ago. He likes ballroom dancing n didn't quite grasp the concept that the uk had calvary dinners ... as well as strictly come dancing! Oh well. He recommended a good fish n chip shop so I am happily topped up on that for a bit all very random!

Headed down to Newcastle for wine tasting in the Hunter Valley - a highlight of Oz since I'd been looking forward to it since Borneo where it was first recommended to me! And it didn't disappoint. White dry to sweet to red dry to sweet to port! Yum! We visited 5 wineries during the course of the day and luckily (for my party) I snacked between eat tasting so I wouldn't become drunk, hope you're proud mum! I really liked the experience n I know a bit more about wines than I once did. We explored Newcastle on foot, the first place down the coast with architecture and buildings over one story. We climbed up the 180 steps to a lookout to view the international port harbor (big ships come n go).

After that it was onto Sydney...

We got the greyhound to surfers paradise and spent all of ten minutes there. Marty and family came to pick us up in their people carrier (good job cos we'd got our rucksacks etc) and took us back to their house in the hills (near Mt Tangerine, ha ha) where we met the residents: Angus the dog (after Aberdeen Angus steak), kevin the pig (think Kevin Bacon) and a variety of hens (12 in total) as well as a visiting snake who sat in a tree for the duration of our stay :s Marty is the brother of Janine, who I met in Hong Kong. He is very funny and his family very accommodating. They took us to see the view of Surfers Paradise from Mt Tangerine but due to the weather all we could see was grey clouds n the occasional glimpse of a skyscraper that night we went to a Thai restaurant and had a really nice time chatting away and watchin the twins, 10 yrs old mess around. The next morning we had fresh boiled eggs n soldiers (fresh bread) yum! With a cuppa tea of course then played with Angus. Hel went to say hi to Kevin and ended up getting 'tusked' in the bottom! There was blood and all im going to say about our relationship after me tending the wounds, is that its moved to whole new levels...! Once all the excitement had passed we took a walk in the afternoon to explore the local neighbourhood. That evenin Hel and I played UNO with the girls, Sai and Tia whilst Cheryl did a mega BBQ. A few glasses of wine later (one of whih accidentally got split over the Cards- agh, sorry hel!) and we were watching a movie on the homescreen tv :-)
Since our next stop was Byron Bay, Marty and co decided to spend the day there so we all went in the perople carrier to BBay, Hel and I checked into the YHA then we all regrouped for lunch. We went down to the beach then said our goodbyes and thankyous! We had had a few lovely days away from the norm of backpacking and it was a welcome change

On the way into Byron we ended up queuing in traffic for an hr or more cos everyone wants to be in Byron for new yr, so to pass time we played eye spy (FYI this wasn't for the kids benefit). Watching everyone walking to and from campsites with surfboards or crates of beer (or both!) felt like we were on our way to a music festival, which made me have a good feelin about Byron before exploring. After Marty and family left us at the beach we decided to take a look around and whilst doin so bumped into the 3 Welsh lads we'd shared a dorm with in Hervey Bay. We arranged to go for drinks later that eve then went shopping!

The next morning we went bakini shopping for Hel and then headed to the beach for some sun (finally some sun!)... This was NYE so we also went to the licquor store (that sounds so American!) I mean bottleo, to ge our supplied n headed back to the hostel to get ready. We'd met two English girls in our room so had a bit of dinner then joined them for drinks on the balcony, and of course drinking games. Which don't work that well with wine :s anyway, we seemed to bypass midnight on our walk, which turned into a run, to the beach where upon I jumped on Whiteley so we spent 'new year' rolling around in the sand like kids! Ha ha

The next day it was raining (typical, have you read about the rain here?) so we had a lay in (nothing to do with hangovers) and then I walked through the rainforest to the lighthouse on a broadwalk, and back to the bay along the beach. It was really grey n miserable but, I did enjoy the walk.

Which I repeated the next day with Hel in the sunshine this time with much better views.

And that meant I could have an icecream at the lighhouse...yumThere was a Sunday Market that hel n I popped along too which was nice, hippie and the sun was out which made the day even better. We even tried to arrange hang gliding at Byron but the weather wasn't suitable...too windy or not enough wind, and we couldn't hang around for the weather so headed onto our next destination, by local bus, Lennox Head.