Byron Bay

Byron Bay is hippy central, so naturally I loved it. I used to think I would love to be a hippy but I realised last year that it wasn't the thing for me as I couldn't face the uncleanliness but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy then. Byron Bay is where they flock, they are just so interesting to watch. Always carrying a guitar, wearing baggy cotton trousers, dirty bare feet, more often than not dreadlocks, singing and always happy to be your friend. What is not to like? 

Anyway, people we met along the way have raved about Byron Bay, the beaches and the laid back culture and I have to admit it didn't disappoint. We were lucky to have fantastic weather, sunshine everyday and able to get the swim gear out. 

We met up with a guy we had shared a hostel room with in Rainbow Beach, Bob. A lone traveller with similar interests to ourselves. He had arrived a day before us, so showed us around and took us to The Pass. The Pass is a half hour walk along the right hand side of the main beach and there is a wind-shielded cove with excellent waves to swim in, along with a random rock which there are stairs to get to the top where you can look out over the beach and finally it is a great spot for beginner surfers. 

We spent our first day swimming here and whale and dolphin spotting and we even saw a couple a flying fish, well we think that's what they were.

Mid afternoon we realised we hadn't had lunch so we headed back to the town where Bob informed us of how cheap Dominos were. It was $7.95 for a medium pizza and a drink. We couldn't say no. So we grabbed our pizzas and sat on the hill overlooking the beach. 

Bob had to leave soon after this to catch his bus to Sydney. We had a short browse of the town, but it's no fun when you can't afford anything and then went to the beach to watch the sunset. 

Sunset is a great, hippy-like atmosphere in Byron Bay, with a group playing drums, everyone either surrounding them or facing sunset, camera poised and there are people dancing, making Jewellary and all sorts of other things. 

The following day we hired a surfboard for $20 for the whole day after a long morning walk along the beach, where I found my dream house. It was a bit colder because of the wind but Nathan wanted to give it a go. He spent a good 2 hours in the sea and he loved it. I decided not to swim as it was a bit nippy by this point.

We spent the majority of the day at the beach before heading to the famous Byron Bay lighthouse. The view from the top was awesome, just endless ocean and we spotted quite a few whales. We also walked to the most Easterly Point of mainland Australia. 

We decided to get onto our next destination that night.

Xoxo

Sydney

We drove through the Anzac Bridge to arrive in Sydney and managed to catch a glimpse of Harbour Bridge. Again the weather was perfect with the sun shining.

It was a Saturday so we visited the vintage and food markets in Balmain, where I picked up some very cheap diaries for old school blog writing in Costa Rica. We then treated ourselves to a cheap Dominos pizza, $5 between us before heading to the world famous Bondi Beach. 

We had a short stroll by the beach, before heading to the Bondi Beach gift shop to pick up some gifts for people at home. 

 

Our first night in Sydney we stayed in a campsite just north of the City, I reckon it maybe the only one. We parked up and had a night of washing, pasta, goon and cards. 

We woke up early to clean out the camper and shower before heading to Phoebe's. Phoebe is a friend of ours who we met through my friend Melissa from uni and who also came travelling last year and she is currently living in Waterloo, just outside of the centre of Sydney. She's just moved into her new apartment so it was very kind of her to let us stay. 

Once we had dropped our stuff off we drove our camper for the last time to the rental place to drop her off. It was an emotional goodbye. We then go the bus to circular quay where we got our first glimpse of the Opera House.

Here we met up with Phoebe's friends. From here we got on a boat to the otherside of the harbour, not sure the location and did a lovely very long walk around the harbour. Unfortunately my phone died so I have no photos. We got back to Phoebe's quite late and made burgers for dinner. 

The next day Phoebe had to work as it was Monday, so Nath and I started the day with a gym session as the complex's gym and I ran 5km so was very pleased with myself. After showered we got the bus to Coogee. We did an awesome 5km coastal walk from there to Bondi Beach which so many people had recommended to us. The weather was perfect. Here are some pictures from along the way.

Just as we arrived in Bondi we managed to see the famous Bondi Icebergs. We also saw this incredible specimen of a male, who had the most defined body, please note Nathan spotted him first. Anyway it appeared that he was having a photoshoot but we couldn't quite work about what he was trying to advertise. It was either boxers or sunglasses, either way he was impressive. 

We also bought ice cream at Messina Gelataria which was recommended to us by several people. Nathan had a peanut butter, chocolatey one and I was going to have a banana and toffee which was amazing as I tasted it but thought it would be too much so had cookies and cream. 

By this point it was nearing 5pm (sunset time) so we headed back into the city to Circular Quay for some pictures with the Opera House. 

The pictures weren't amazing as the sun was setting and it was hard for our faces to be clear so we planned to visit again te following day. We walked around the Harbour towards the Opera House for a look and also a better view of the Harbour Bridge. I originally thought it would be good to see an opera but after going in and checking prices we discovered it was out of our price range. This is a better photo and we managed to get in both sights. 

As it got to 5pm we made our way to the Shangri-La Hotel, as Phoebe had recommended we visit the Blu bar on the 36 floor for a drink and an amazing view of the city. It was beautiful but not cheap. I had a glass of pink champagne (cheaper than a cocktail but more exciting than wine) and Nath had a local brewed cider.

After our drinks we headed back to Phoebe's. The following day we spent exploring the city and we learnt a few facts. So Sydney Opera house  was made primarily by an architecture, but he fell ill whilst in the middle of building, so his son, also an architecture finished the job. Also Circular Quay is the second busiest port in the world after Hong Kong.

And our final bit of information we learnt is that the pent house hotel room in the Hyatt is $15,000 but not to worry it does include a butler. 

The next day we headed back to the city and got some pictures in the day by Circular Quay.

We ended up spending a lot of time here, just people watching and taking silly photos and because it was such nice weather we ate our lunch here. 

We then headed to the Modern Contemporary Art museum which had an exhibition on and here are some of the pictures I took.

From here we walked through The Rocks, which is the oldest part of the city before heading to the shopping areas and visiting shops we couldn't buy from. We did this for what seemed like forever, poor Nathan, before realising we were getting much too cold. We went to a cheapish coffee shop and Nath had a Caramel latte and me a Vanilla latte (I've found love for flavoured coffee) and we shared a chocolate muffin (obviously my choice). 

We stayed here for a while before we went to Darling Harbour to meet Phoebe for a drink before dinner. Darling Harbour is full of restaurants and bars and because they are now in winter there is a ice rink and snow shows and even an iceberg in the middle of the harbour. It's all rather mad really. It also works out really well for us cheapo travellers as it's happy hour during the week from 5pm-7pm so I managed to get a glass of wine for $5, winning! 

Later we met Phoebe's housemates and went for dinner close by at Cargo's, which has a $10 rump steak meal deal on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It was brilliant and we got more than expected. 

Our final day in Sydney, we met up with Amy and Naomi who we met a few weeks ago on Fraser Island. They had driven up the East Coast in the opposite direction to us and had flown from Cairns to Sydney the night previous. They met us at Phoebe's and then we headed into the city. We were too busy chatting we actually missed the stop and ended up going over Harbour Bridge, it didn't matter too much as Nath and I wanted to walk over it anyway. So we walked over it and back towards the city and these were our views.

When we finally got back to Circular Quay it was lunch time, we had bought with us a picnic lunch and we sat on the grass close to the water. After this we did a bit of shop browsing before getting on a boat to Manly. 

The boat ride have us great views of the harbour, which again I don't have any pictures of on my phone unfortunately. We headed to the main beach for a walk along the front.

Afterwards we walked into the town for some last minute souvineers before heading back to the city. The sun went down as we arrived in Darling Harbour and the city just looked beautiful. We had a drink at Blackbird and luckily we made it in time for happy hour so I got a gin and tonic for $5 before heading back to Cargo's for cheap steak, again it didn't disappoint and the girls enjoyed. 

On arriving back at Phoebe's, we gathered our things and said our goodbyes before heading in a taxi to the airport.

Xoxo

Surfer's Paradise

After Brisbane we headed straight to Surfers Paradise and to be honest I wasn't expecting much after being told on the West Coast it was very commercial and being liken by some to Blackpool, I was therefore expecting Magaluf. We were both pleasantly surprised. The beach was surrounded by high rise buildings and the shops were very Newquay-esque, but it was sunny and when you are travelling that makes the difference. 

We only stayed one night here as there were no close free rest stops and the campsite was pretty expensive. But we had a great time, we drove and explored the area which was full of water, rivers, lakes and obviously the sea, there were also some amazing properties right on the water which must have cost a bomb.

 

Our full day was spent on the main beach at Surfers Paradise and we had incredible weather. So we spent all the time in the sea, which was beautifully clear. 

All in all, great holiday spot.

Xoxo

Noosa Heads & Mooloolaba

We had a short stopover in Noosa Heads. Now this had to be done because my Auntie Alison travelled the East Coast in 1995 and she liked Noosa so much she named one of her late dogs after it. We were also lucky with perfect weather so we just lay on this beach and read. 

Unfortunately near by there weren't any free stops, so not been ones to pay for accommodation we drove on around lunchtime to Mooloolaba. I'm not sure this is a normal east coast stopping point, but we wanted to stop here because we liked the name and we saw the Mooloolaba surf lifesaving team at the Aussies. We took a couple of selfies and then headed on towards a free rest stop. Short but sweet. 

Xoxo

Australia Zoo & Steve Irwin Highway

So ironically we found a rest stop on the Steve Irwin Highway, close to Australia Zoo, I'm going to assume it was named after him. We stayed there for a night before and a night after visiting the Zoo.

Now originally we wanted to choose between Singapore Zoo and Australia Zoo, but on visiting Singapore everyone said that Singapore is rated the best in the world so it was a done deal really. And to be quite honest it was amazing which I've talked about in a previous post so I won't go on. But then since arriving in Australia, especially since being on the East Coast, we kind of thought you can't go to Australia without going to the home of the crocodile hunter himself. 

It was good but I'm going to put it out there and say Singapore Zoo was a zillion times better. However I do love how much the Australia Zoo gift shop dedicates their space to Bindi Irwin, Steve's soon to be 16 year old daughter (I know this because I now follow her on instagram). There is Bindi dolls, Bindi workout videos, Bindi Adventure DVDs and so much more. It's Bindi mad. 

Nath's highlight was the Kangaroo enclosure, where you got to feed them, stroke them and obviously take selfies with them.

I'm not too fond of animals myself, particularly not the licking part, so I avoided the feeding malark and settled for just one stroke.

There was also a fantastic Crocodile and bird show which we both enjoyed and we were also luckily to catch the Otter feeding session. So we did have a good day but for $57 I personally wouldn't recommend it, especially if you've already been to Singapore, as nothing will compare. 

Xoxo