We booked onto the hop on hop off ‘Oz experience’ bus which turned out to be an “authentic” Aussie experience!! The drivers were your stereotypical Aussie Crocodile Dundee types!! They fired out every corny Aussie phrase in the book and were just way too much but they got us to our destinations and they did provide us with some very 'useful' facts along the way - like Koala’s look all cute and cuddly but don’t get too close as they are your friendly carriers of Chlamydia!!
Our first stop was Newcastle where we stayed with Denise & Mark. Everybody was asking why we were stopping in Newcastle, they seem to give it a real bad review but I am happy to say we really enjoyed it. It had some beautiful surfing beaches, organic cafes and open air restaurants along the main street. Nothing seem rushed, a breath of fresh air after Sydney. We had a fab picnic in a beautiful small park in the middle of a housing estate, only a local would find it!!! It had a beautiful bandstand and some class jazz musicians playing a charity gig. Thanks a mill Denise & Mark for showing us a good time, sharing all your stories of weddings and vow renewals, an amazing experience (here’s hoping you are accepted into the Guinness Book of records!!!) and we will definitely produce a dream chart when we get home!!!!!
Back on the bus again we headed for Byron Bay on the gold coast, Hippyville would be a better description, people walking around barefoot without a care in the world. It was packed with surfers trying to catch a good wave and Hippies trying to catch a good vibe!! To be honest we felt a bit old here…its full of 18/19yr old backpackers who looked at us like we might be on a bucket list trip before we kick the can!! And this didn’t get any better until we were further up towards Airlie Beach!! Before we set off on this RTW trip Michaela said the one thing she wanted to come back with was a Didgeridoo (or a Didge as it is known in Oz) so we started the search in Sydney and saw some nice ones but weren’t convinced so the search continued in Byron Bay and we found a beautiful crafted one which she could a even get a note out of!!!! We met the guy who made it and had a beer with him and the shop owner in a local bar where there happened to be an amazing didge and blues guy playing, Tristan O’Meara - a good Irish surname ;o) Some similarities to Xavier Rudd (watch this space!!!). It was a great finish to our time in Byron Bay.
The guy in the shop playing my new Didge proving it can make noise!! Hopefully this is what I will sound like in a few years time!! (Hope the video works!!)
Next stop was Brisbane (via Surfers Paradise which wasn’t that exciting!!) to catch up with Toms friend Kate and her partner Patrick (now husband, got married in Ireland on Easter Saturday!!!). They gave us a great tour of the city and took us for some lovely food and let us stay in their house for the weekend while they went south to Byron Bay where we had just come from!! It was quite warm while we were there so we cooled off in their local outdoor swimming pool come park - it was a really nice place to chill out for the day and had 3 pools, a café, music, some grassy area for picnicking and sun bathing!! Great quality of life here for kids and families. We also visited a local brewery, XXXX. Nice place for lunch but we didn’t get to do the tour as it was ridiculously busy!! The city was nice as well just to stroll around - plenty of people watching and loads of street performers. Kate & Patrick, looking forward to seeing the photos of the big event, thanks again.As we kept heading north on the bus we stopped briefly in some spots along the Sunshine Coast - Noosa and Rainbow Beach but there’s not a lot to say only that we didn’t understand why Queensland was called the sunshine state (even put it on their car registrations!!!) and it had been constantly raining on us :o(
Next port of call was Airlie Beach and we were praying for a change in weather as we were heading out on an 80ft yacht (Matador) to the WhitSunday Islands. And thanks be to God (as my Nanny would say!!) the clouds started to part and the sun was beginning to shine (left pic just before we went out on the boat). We got to see the famous Whitehaven beach which was spectacular, the sand was so soft, perfect grains of pure white sand. We also did some diving and snorkelling on the different reefs and Michaela did her first dive!! Diving was only alright as visibility was not great but snorkelling was good. We saw some reef sharks and lots of colourful fish but the coral was quite damaged from the all the bad weather and storms they have been having. The food was top class, they even managed to cook up a Sunday roast on the 2nd night in such a small galley!! Overall it had been the highlight of the east coast. When we got back on the mainland we met up with friends of Michaela’s Steve, Kathy and their kids and they treated us to a lovely meal in Hog Breaths Café - what a great steak!!!! It was great to catch up and a good nights craic was had over steak and a few beers!!
The next morning we headed for Magnetic Island which was a short ferry ride from Townsville. We were staying in a hostel which led right on to the beach so we just headed for the pool and watched the world go by for the afternoon. The next day we hired a ‘rental’ car, more like a toy car with pink hub caps, pink!!!! It got us around the island which was beautiful, deserted beaches, snorkelling on the reef and treks up to an old World War II fort where you could apparently see Koala’s in the wild. Sure enough after an hour of having our necks creaked up in the sky there he was just waking up after 20 hours of sleeping and ready to feed on some eucalyptus leaves for a few hours and then back to sleep, what a life!! Then we headed back to the hostel for some Bingo, Michaela’s gran would be proud. She got the first full house of the night and won a jug of beer and then went on to win the third full house of the night which was an upgrade from dorms to a log cabin overlooking the sea!!! A good nights work it has to be said.
After a serious amount of km’s over the last 3 weeks we arrived in Cairns. Here we headed out on a boat to dive the Great Barrier Reef. The fish and coral we saw were much better than the Whit Sundays, both the diving and the snorkelling were fantastic. We saw a HUGE clam lying open on the sea bed…it looked really velvety and purple and snapped shut when you waved your hand just above it!! And the biggest fish we saw was a HUGE Maori Wrasse, it’s the biggest reef fish in the world and the unusual thing about them is that the adult females can change sex!!
We met a group of Dutchies on the boat and headed out with them for some dinner and drinks after the boat trip. We partied in the Woolshed, a local backpacker pub and met a few other Irish lads who were good craic!! A great night was had dancing on the tables and being served free champagne all night for the ladies from a good looking, semi naked, Aussie hunk!!!! The boys just had to put up with the expensive beer from the very ordinary bar staff!!!
So that was the end of our adventures on the east coast and now it was time to fly to Melbourne to catch up with Liz, Jon and Seppy wohoooooo!!!
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