Day 15 - Arrival at Reedy Creek

We met up with Jackie today (she used to be head of our agency when we were at school) as she has kindly offered for us to stay with her for a few days. She's going to show us some lovely places to go while we're here. She has a beautiful house! I'll post some pictures tomorrow!

Today we walked through the mountains that were filled with bush, definitely the least maintained place we've walked through so far.

 

There were even fallen trees blocking our way which we had to traverse over, I'd hate to think what knocked them over as it wasn't that windy!

There was a lovely view of even more bush from the top as well. Reminds me of 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' (Which isn't actually filmed that far away from our current location!)

On our way back down we saw a lovely little 'natural fountain' that seemed to be sourcing from a stream somewhere higher up in the mountains.

 

All in all a great day! We're headed to Point Danger tomorrow. Don't be intimidated by the name!

Day 14 - Surfer's Paradise

Today was a pretty chilled day. We walked around Surfer's Paradise, which reminds me a little bit of Dubai because of the really high buildings and the architecture.
There are loads of shops in town and nightlife everywhere - to be honest, Surfer's Paradise is a bit too commercial for us. There's not really much to do that doesn't involve spending a lot of money unecessarily (the other places we've been to have all had parks and various natural places we can visit).

This place looks beautiful at night though! They have a ferris wheel structure in the centre of town which lights up at night, and it reflects nicely off of the glass skyscrapers next to it.

It's alright though, we're moving on tomorrow and we're going to be visiting some beautiful places in the mountains over the next week! Really excited for that, it's all going pretty quickly though! Can't believe we're nearly halfway up the coast already!

Day 13 - Arrival at Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast

Lucky we left today! It rained ALL day in Byron Bay, a bit of a shame but it was to be expected.

Now we've arrived in Queensland so there should be a lot less rain and a lot more sun!
We're staying at a hostel called 'Sleeping Inn', they seem really good so far and they upgraded us to a double room for tonight!

Gold Coast is a massive place so we're feeling a bit daunted at the moment, not really sure where to go first!
There are plenty of theme parks, including a Warner Brothers theme park! But I don't think we'll have enough money for that if we're honest.

Pictures will happen tomorrow, I'm sure!

Day 12 - The Lighthouse at Byron Bay

It rained again this morning, but luckily when it rains in Australia, it lasts about 15 minutes and then stops, so we didn't waste our day.

After breakfast, we walked along the beautiful beaches with clean white sand until we reached the trail to the lighthouse. The trail was about 2km's, one way, and was quite steep.

 

It only took us about an hour,  and on our way we reached the most easterly point of the Australian mainland!

 

It was insanely windy of course, but it was so worth it. The views were beautiful and the only thing in front of you was the sea and the lighthouse.

Tomorrow we're moving on to Surfer's Paradise, another beach town and (as the name suggests) the best place for surfing, so we may try a bit of that! Watch this space!

Day 11 - Arrival at Byron Bay

It rained again this morning... Sadtimes!
But it wasn't too bad because we were moving on to Byron Bay anyway.

The bus arrived on time and we got on.
4 hours 30 minutes... Wouldn't have been too bad but unfortunately there was a little shit of a child sitting a few seats back, who not only screamed for a lot of the journey but just topped it all off by shitting herself, so the driver had to stop so that they could change her nappy... on the road...
That delayed us by about 40 minutes and so we had to walk to the hostel when we got here.
It looks really nice though! More of a resort than a hostel.

Byron Bay is supposed to be dodgy for weather because apparently there is no O-Zone layer directly above us, making it either hotter or more rainy.

Off to sleep for us now, the Byron Bay fun begins tomorrow!

Day 10 - Jetty Beach

Today was a really jam-packed day! The sun came out again and the beautiful hot air was restored. No more rain!
After breakfast we put on some insect repellant and made our way to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Coffs Harbour. They were a lot bigger than the ones in Sydney and they had a beautiful Mangrove Boardwalk.

We started heading back to the hostel at half past 1, because the hostel had arranged a volley ball game at the beach! I was really looking forward to that because I really fancied a game of volleyball, but they ended up cancelling it and arranging body boarding instead!
Body boarding was INSAAAAANE and I have a few videos that I'll upload later. Some of the waves were MASSIVE and I rode them from really far out all the way back to the shore at high speeds!

Dinner was awesome tonight, I cooked sausages and fried some onions while Joe sorted out the mash potato and gravy. It was a really filling meal and it was nommmmmyyyy! (All cooked from scratch of course, no microwave meals or pre-cooked stuff!)
We're moving on to Byron Bay tomorrow, which is apparently stuck in the 60's! It's supposed to be Australia's East Coast Hippie Land. In any case, I'm sure it'll be fun; we're only staying for 2 nights though.
Tomorrow, while we're waiting for the afternoon bus I think we'll go back to Jetty Beach and do some Jetty Jumping. Jetty Jumping is simply jumping off of the pier on Jetty Beach, which is abotu 5 meters high! Really can't wait for that one.
Let's do this!

Day 9 - Coffs Harbour

Before today's blog post, here are the pictures and videos from Port Macquarie:

The Kooloonbung Creek:

The Koala Hospital:

We got our first bit of bad weather today, only in the morning though.

It rained until midday, so we got something to eat and chilled at the hostel for a little bit.

Then, as we didn't want to waste the day, we decided to go canoeing, as the hostel provides them for free.

After carrying this canoe across a 4 lane road, we got to the dock and got into the canoe.

It was a really peaceful row, there were birds all over the place and we rowed through the Royal Botanic gardens.

Unfortunately, it started to rain a little bit. While it was only a tiny bit, we thought we'd still go back just in case it got worse.

And that's exactly what happened. It got worse.

It rained and rained and rained and rained.

And we rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed.

We made it safely back, of course, but we were absolutely drenched and on top of that we had to carry the canoe back to the hostel as well.

Definitely something I don't think I'll be forgetting for a while.



Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow, and we'll use the free body boards and hit up the beach!

Day 8 - Arrival at Coffs Harbour

We've arrived at Coff's Harbour and it seems to have a really good vibe.
The bus journey wasn't the best. Starting in Sydney and terminating in Brisbane, I felt sorry for anyone on that bus longer than the 3 hours we were on there for.

Someone took an insane shit in the bus toilet, which stunk out the whole bus for the entire journey. Lovely.
As I sat in my seat while the air conditioning circulated the chocolatey surprise around the rest of the bus, I wondered how Coffs Harbour would compare to Port Macquarie. We didn't drive through the town center but we went to somewhere called 'The Lookout' which has some amazing views and I'll definitely be taking some pictures of that tomorrow!
Another smallish town, this hostel provides free body boards and more excitingly, free canoes!
There might be showers tomorrow, hopefully they'll only last a bit in the morning, because then we'll go canoeing down Coff's Creek!

The pictures will be uploaded tomorrow, the hostel allows photo/video uploads but the wire is in my room and quite frankly, I cannot be bothered to go and get it (as I hasten to remind you all that I've just sat on a bus for 3 hours covered in someone elses shit).

Until tomorrow, toodles!

Day 7 - Flynns Beach

Today was another lovely day. We seem to be nicely balancing the days between sightseeing & long walks, and chilled days at various beaches. We went to Flynns Beach for the day and I'm starting to get a tan, woop! Mum will be happy because last week she told me my skin hasn't seen the sun for months, and that I look yellow. Thanks Mummy!

For a lot of the day I continued reading 'Battle Royale'. I'm near the end now, only about 16 students left alive (if you've read it, you'll understand).
Then we went into the sea. As we're not in Queensland (which is north from our current location) the sea is still quite cold, so it took some getting used to, but it was beautifully clear and refreshing. Didn't sting your eyes like the sea in England/Spain!
I also managed to test out how waterproof my waterproof camera really was! It did well and seemed to survive the sea, so I'll be using it a lot more.

We're leaving Port Macquarie tomorrow during the day to head to our next stopover at Coffs Harbour. It will be a shame to leave because it's so lovely here, especially the hostel! At least I'll be able to upload all the pictures and videos I've taken so far though.


Bring on Coffs Harbour!


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Day 6 - Port Macquarie Koala Hospital

Today was a lovely day.
We started the day by taking a 3 kilometre walk through the 'Kooloonbung Creek Nature Park'. It was beautiful, there were loads of fruit bats in the trees and the air was refreshing. Afterwards, we walked along the coast of Port Macquarie, which is beach after beach after beach. It was a really nice walk and we got some really lovely pictures. Unfortunately, I can't upload pictures for the next few days because the hostel I'm staying at doesn't allow picture uploads from cameras/phones. But as soon as I move on to our next stop (Coffs Harbour) I'm sure I'll be able to upload them!

Afterwards we went to the Koala Hospital. They were sooooo CUUUUUUUUUUTE. I got pictures and videos. Many of them had been treated for various things, including burns (from bush fires), eye infections and even Chlamydia, which affects Koalas too! I can't wait to upload the pictures!

The people at the hospital do such an amazing job and release them back into the wild once they have recovered (unless releasing them would be dangerous due to blindness, etc, in which case they live the rest of their lives in the Koala hospital), they're not funded by any council or government at all which is quite sad.

Tomorrow we're going to have a chilled day by the pool or on the beach. We might stay an extra night because this hostel is brilliant!
I challenged Joe to a game of chess tonight. I won. It was ace.

Same time tomorrow yeah?

Day 5 - Arrival at Port Macquarie

Today we woke up at 6am to catch our Greyhound transfer from Sydney Central station.
It really was a shame to leave Sydney, I really liked it and think I'll be returning in the future.

The bus departed at 7am and arrived at our next stop, Port Macquarie at 2:20pm.
Quite a long journey, but I got talking to a local called Monty who gave us some advice on where to go and what to do. Then we played Scrabble and I won. It was ace.

When we arrived, to our surprise, a shuttle bus was waiting to take us to our hostel, something we didn't know they offered.
The hostel really is lovely and we think we'll definitely be staying here for a few more days than expected. $26 per night, and they offer so much for free!
Free internet, games room, swimming pool, the lot! This hostel has a really lovely vibe.
They've got a beautiful garden area with plenty of birds.
They made a bit of an error with our booking so upgraded us to our own private room instead of a dorm at no extra cost, goodtimes!

Tomorrow we're going to go to a Koala hospital to feed the Koala bears, and then we might check out the beach.

Until then! :D

Day 4 - Bondi Beach

Today we had a chilled day on Bondi Beach.
The beach is beautiful. Lovely waves for surfing but I think we're going to do some surfing when we get further up the coast.

On our way back the Bondi Bus dropped us at the Harbour, by which point we weren't really feeling up for walking, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to see what Sydney's train system is like.
Exactly like London Underground, but better! Services have always been on time without exception, the trains are DOUBLE DECKER, and the fares are extremely reasonable as well.
They offer a discount for students meaning a single from the Harbour to the City Centre (where we are currently staying) costs only $1.60, which is about 90p.

Sydney really has been lovely so it saddens me a little bit that we're moving on tomorrow! Next stop is Port Macquarie, 4 and a half hours up the coast.




See you at Port Macquarie!

Days 2 & 3 - Sydney

It's been a really long (but lovely) 2 days!

Was supposed to attach the plane in blog post 1 but had no access to a PC:

Our first night staying at a hostel was... interesting to say the least.

We stayed in a dormitory with 8 other people. I had trouble sleeping that night.

It might have been because I didn't sleep properly on the plane but it might have also been because there were two couples who decided to have sex in an 8 bed dormitory. That was fun.

When they were done and I finally got to sleep, it was alright. The bed was pretty comfortable.

The next morning we got a feel for Sydney. It's a beautiful town, just like London but REALLY laid back. We studied the map for a bit and then walked to Sydney's shopping district. They have a Westfield! It really puts the London Westfield to shame.

It was about that time we really crashed. The jetlag kicked in and we were both really tired, but we didn't want to go to sleep because sleeping at lunchtime would likely completely destroy your sleeping pattern, so we stayed awake and walked around some more.

Then, I saw a Wagamama and, given that I was already really tired, I couldn't resist. It's even more expensive over here! $20 AUD for a Chicken Katsu Curry, that's like 5 quid more than England! Oh well, it was good.

All of the shopfittings were really beautiful, full of modern designs.

This brought us round to the evening, and on our way back to the hostel we walked through a national park, where we saw these really cute animals! They're really tame too, they weren't at all scared of us.

Today was a much more productive day because our sleeping pattern had returned to normality. We walked around the rest of Sydney. You can get buses and trams but the weather is 23 degrees celcius, lovely weather for a walk. We went to Darling Harbour where we sat and relaxed for a while in the breeze. They have numerous beautiful fountains and there were children playing all over the place. Sydney has a really relaxed, chilled out vibe.

After reading a bit of my book (Battle Royale) in the breezy docks, we continued walking towards the Bridge and the Opera House. The bridge truly is absolutely massive, it's spectacular!

And at the Opera House Joe got my favourite picture of me so far:

I'm really enjoying my time so far and it's only been 2 days!

To save money we've been buying our own food to cook, and we ate Kangaroo sausages today! Quite nice actually, a bit tougher than most other meats, quite strong and there was a hint of salami/pepperoni in there.

I'm having problems getting Free WiFi, the only places that offer it really are McDonalds (which, conveniently, Sydney has PLENTY of!) but once I've got my WiFi SD Card sorted all the pictures will be uploaded within a few hours of taking them, which will be super awesome.

I can't believe how much I love it out here and it's only been a few days, really can't wait for the rest of it! Beach tomorrow I think!

Until next time, Sayonara!

Day 1 - The Flight

After what feels like an eternity, we've finally arrived at our accommodation for the next few days in Sydney.
The first flight to Singapore was 13 hours which wasn't really too bad, there were plenty of movies and I got a few hours of sleep.
Singapore airport is still under development, but they offer airport-wide wifi and they have super snazzy carpeting.

The next flight lasted 8 hours, which really didn't seem like that long because I slept through most of it. After clearing customs, we got onto the shuttle bus which stopped at numerous hostels. 
We're staying in a 10 bed dorm for the next few days.

Having trouble getting free wifi at the moment but I'll get it sorted over the next few days, so pictures will follow!

Anyway, the proper sightseeing will begin tomorrow! 

Revised Itinerary

Following the ongoing situation at the Nuclear Facility in Fukushima, the travel dates have been revised:
(Unfortunately Jetstar still refused to issue refunds! Bastards!)

15th April - ARRIVE Sydney, Australia
24th May - DEPART Cairns, Australia
25th May - ARRIVE Tokyo Narita, Japan
30th May - DEPART Tokyo Narita, Japan
31st May - ARRIVE Dubai, UAE
15th June - DEPART Dubai, UAE
16th June - ARRIVE London Heathrow, UK


We're staying an extra week and a bit in Australia and only 5 days in Tokyo instead of the original 2 weeks.
So I'll be away in about 12 hours. I should probably start packing, then...

Introduction

Hello friends & family!
Welcome to my travelling blog.
I'll be documenting the next 3 months of my life as I travel around the world through text, pictures and videos!

My itinerary is currently as follows:
15th April - ARRIVE Sydney, Australia
15th May - DEPART Cairns, Australia
16th May - ARRIVE Tokyo Narita, Japan
29th May - DEPART Tokyo Narita, Japan
30th May - ARRIVE Dubai, UAE
15th June - DEPART Dubai, UAE
16th June - ARRIVE London Heathrow, UK

Unfortunately this is subject to change given the current situation in Japan and Fukushima.

Only 3 days to go!