AUSTRALIA

Melbourne


Due to the cyclone hitting Cairns we changed our flight so that we flew into Melbourne instead, which probably in the end worked out better for us. Baz said that we could stay at his place in the city which was very kind of him. When we arrived in Melbourne we took the skybus to the centre then met Baz at the Imperial pub near his place. We dropped our bags of at Baz's apartment then went for a walk around Melbourne city. It was still Chinese New Year so the street's around Chinatown were packed full of people. In the evening we went to the park near the grand prix track pit lane and had a walk around while Baz was at footy. When we got back Aya made us some dinner which was very nice!


The next day Baz took us around Melbourne. We got on the free tram and stopped off at the waterfront and then walked along the river. We had a drink at this bar that was in the middle of the river which was cool and took advantage of the beautiful weather. When we got back to the flat we played tennis with Aya while baz cooked up a BBQ, which was our first BBQ in Oz and it was very good! After dinner we booked the Great Ocean Road trip for the following day.
The following day we went around the city again to see a few things we hadn't got round to seeing the day before. We went down a street that is full to the brim with graffiti which was cool and apparently Banksy had graffiti-ed there. In the evening Baz and Aya cooked us another lovely meal and then they took us to a few roof top bars which were really cool and the views were amazing from the top of them.

Melbourne

Great Ocean Road


After an early get up we were on our way out of Melbourne. We stopped off at various points of interest along the Great Ocean Road throughout the day taking in the sights it had to offer. We stopped at Bells Beach for our first stop where we had some tea, coffee and biscuits whilst taking in the view.  In between this and the next stop we visited the Great Ocean Road sign and also passed the lighthouse they used to film Round The Twist at. All the way down the road the guide was giving us a commentary of the places we were visiting and was full of useful snippets of information like this. For our 2nd stop we got out at Kennett River where we got the chance to spot koalas in the wild. There were also some colourful birds around an about which seemed to love the Chinese tourists. After stopping for a huge lunch in Appollo Bay we were back on our way and heading towards one of the main highlights of the GOR, The Twelve Apostles. The place was absolutely heaving with Chinese tourists taking up all the  best viewpoints and getting the most ridiculous photos in the world. We eventually managed to get some good shots and were soon our way to Loch Ard Gorge our next port of call. Here was the highlight of the day when some guy went for a walk to the edge of the beach,underestimated how far the wash would come on to the beach and got completely soaked. Even funnier was how he repeatedly tried to jump to avoid the wave thinking he might be able to somehow hover above it. No chance. Next was our last stop for the day, London Bridge. Original name. After a brief visit here it was time to head back to Melbourne. It had been a long day and we were absolutely shattered and we had to be up early for our flight to Sydney the next morning. All-in-all it was a good day and well worth seeing.

Great Ocean Road

Sydney


We stayed at "Base backpackers" which was in the centre of Sydney. It wasn't the best hostel we have stayed in but the location was good. We had to wait till 2pm to check in so we waited around then went to Woolworth's supermarket. We didn't really do that much the first day, just took a wonder around the city.


The following day we went to Coogee beach for free drinks and a BBQ that was organised by the hostel. A party bus which looked like a school bus pulled up outside the hostel and it was a fight to get on because there was so many people and not enough seats but everyone got on in the end but I'm sure it wasn't legal because there was so many people on the bus. When we got to Coogee beach we had a few glasses of goon then went into the sea. The water was so cold at first and the waves and the current were really strong so we just stayed nearer the shore. The people who worked for the hostel cooked up the BBQ which was nice. The bus picked us back up at 4pm, we had a really nice day that didn't cost us anything!


The next day we went to Peterpans and booked our Fraser Island and Whitsundays trip with them. We also booked the Oz Experience bus from Sydney to Cairns which is very  similar to the Greyhound bus but you get a tour guide and a more personal experience. We spent most of the afternoon in there because they arranged everything for us for the next 3 weeks. In the evening we walked down to the harbour and took some night photographs of the bridge and the opera house. The harbour is very pretty and has some lovely bars and restaurants, but we couldn't afford to go in them!


On our last day we met up with Eve who I met in America. It was nice to see her after 3 years and have a catch up. She took us to Bondi and we went for a drink at Bondi Juntion. After that we went back to our hostel and went for a few drinks to the Scary Canary bar which was next to our hostel.

Sydney Harbour

Byron Bay


After a 12 hour bus journey we arrived in Byron Bay. We stayed at "Nomads" which was a really nice hostel right near the beach. We didn't really do that much on the first day because we didn't get there till about 6pm and we were tired from the journey. The next day we got up and went to the beach, we weren't there that long then it started raining so we went back to the hostel. When it had stopped Morgan went back to the beach for a swim and I had a nap. In the evening we went to a backpackers bar called "Cheeky Monkeys" we got a huge meal and a glass of wine for $5 which is very cheap for here! We got fish and chips and it was delicious, not a scratch of English fish and chips though! We sat on the Oz experience table and got lots of free jugs of beer and wine. They had different games on where you could win prizes and for the first game
I was chosen by the man to participate. All I had to do was to spin the wheel which had numerous prizes on it. I wanted the cash prize but ended up winning a t-shirt, pillow case and towel which was pretty random! One girl won a trip to the Whitsundays but basically took her clothes off for it!

Byron Bay

Brisbane


The next day we set off from Byron Bay to Brisbane. The journey didn't take too long and we were in Brisbane by lunch time. We stayed in a place called "Bunk" which was near Chinatown. There was two funny lads from Yorkshire who later told us how they smashed a window at there last hostel to get there beer from the fridge and are currently waiting to go to court because of it. In the evening we went to the bar in the hostel for our dinner and some drinks. It was open mic night and there was a few dodgy singers who got up
and thought they could sing but they couldn't!


The following day we went and had a look around the city. It is a very quiet city and is mainly full of business people and is less of a touristy place. It was a nice place to visit but there is not much to do if you plan to stay for more then a couple of days. We saw some signs of what level the floods got to in the previous years. We didn't really see much damage from the floods but we heard that a lot of the shops on the other side of the river were still closed because of the recent flooding.

Brisbane

Noosa


We took the bus up to Noosa which is a little beach town and one of the main gateways to Australia Zoo. We stayed at "Nomads" but it wasn't as nice as the one in Byron Bay. We took a walk to the beach and spent a couple of hours there.The next day we had to be up early as we were going to Australia Zoo which is run by Steve Irwin's family. The zoo was really good and allowed you to be hands-on with a lot of the animals. I wasn't feeling the llama petting though. There was so much to see including Steve's first croc which he caught at the age of 9. Personal highlights included the Koalas, the Kangaroo enclosure where Morgs got a nip from a hungry Roo which looked as if it was blind, the Tiger Temple and the show in the Crocoseum. The Giant Tortoises were pretty interesting as well.  It was a bit disturbing how much Bindi-Sue stuff there was though. We were there for the whole day which was a bit of an effort as it was about 35 degrees so we were pretty much done in by early afternoon but it was still a good day although we didn't get to get a picture holding a koala as we couldn't find the photo spot, we did get to stroke one though!

Australia Zoo

Rainbow Beach


After about 3 hours on the bus we arrived in Rainbow beach. We stayed at "Dingo's" hostel where we were doing our Fraser Island trip from. The next day we had to attend a briefing about the trip because we were hiring out 4x4's and we were going to an island that was just made up of sand! We were put in our groups for the trip, our group consisted of an annoying German girl called Anna, a dutch guy called Diamond, a Swiss guy called Pascal and 3 girls from England, Jess, Steph and Zara. The tour guide showed us a funny health and safety video which showed you what to do if you came in contact with a Dingo.


Fraser Island


The next day we had to be up and ready for 7am, the hostel put on free pancakes for breakfast which was a nice change from toast! After we checked out we were given another briefing about the 4x4s we were going to drive, basically showing us how to drive in 4 wheel drive. After that we had to pack our cars and check that we had everything on the list including tents, cooking equipment, food etc. After all that we left the hostel about 9.30am. Morgan was the first one to drive because nobody else wanted to. The weather wasn't the best and when we got to the barge to get across to Fraser Island it was going everywhere because the sea was very choppy! I was scared about driving the jeep onto it but Morgan managed to do it well. When we got to Fraser Island we drove for about an hour to our camp. When we got there we had to set up our tents, which was pretty straight forward. We then made some lunch then headed to Lake Wabby. The lake was really nice, the fish kept sucking on peoples feet for the dead skin which I didn't mind but some people were scared of the fish! After that we headed back to the camp and got on the goon pretty much straight away. We cooked steaks for tea then kept drinking. I can't remember much after we had our dinner and was in bed by 9pm because I was very drunk. We ended up sleeping in the jeep because it was so uncomfortable in the tents.


The next day, feeling slightly fragile we went to Eli Creek which is a fresh water creek right next to the sea. We took the opportunity to have a quick wash as there are no showers on our camp. After that we drove to the next lake which was the most scariest car ride I have ever been on. Diamond was driving and nearly crashed into a tree! I felt really anxious when I got out of the car! We arrived at Lake Allom which is black as a result of the tannin from the trees. It has natural oils in it so it moisturises your skin. There are also turtles in the lake which come up to the surface when you put your hand in the water. After that we headed back to the camp and cooked a chicken stir fry and ate lots of fruit cake!


On our last day we went to the Maheno shipwreck and took some pictures then we went to Lake Mckenzie, which looked like a beach but the lake was made of fresh water. It started to rain not long after we got there so we made some lunch in the car from the scraps we had left. After lunch we headed to Indian head which is basically a big cliff you climb up to get a nice view of the beach. The winds were so strong when we got up there I thought I was going to blow off, so we only spent about 5 minutes up there then made our way down followed by me slipping over! After that it was time to go back to Rainbow Beach, it took about an hours ride to get to the ferry crossing. When we got off the ferry all the 4x4's stopped because dolphins were swimming up to the shore, it was amazing so close you could touch them! That was a brilliant end to the trip!!

Fraser Island

1770, Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays


We had a brief stop over in 1770 for one night at "Southern Cross" hostel then headed to Airlie Beach early in the next day. We arrived in Airlie Beach about 5.30pm and checked into "Nomads" hostel which was nice. The following day we were due to board our racing yacht at 2pm. The yacht was called "Boomerang" and apparently won some of the racing competition in the late 80's which was pretty cool. That afternoon we sailed to the Hamen Islands and did some snorkeling there. We had to wear stinger suits because there is lots of deadly jelly fish in the water. The part where we snorkeled was the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef so we saw lots a nice coral and loads of tropical fish. One of the crew members threw bread by where we were snorkeling and loads of bat fish came to the surface, you could tell Morgan was scared so I took a video of him!


When we finished snorkeling we got back on the yacht and the crew had mad up some nachos which were amazing. In the evening we had a BBQ on top of the deck and then we had a few glasses of goon.


The next day we sailed to Whitehaven beach which is apparently the 4th best beach in the world. The sand is made from 98% pure silica so it is like flour and it never gets hot from the sun. The beach is amazing. We did a jungle walk up to the view point which was good but saw far many too many spiders for my liking! We also went for a swim in the sea and saw a massive sting ray which was good, we couldn't believe how big it was! We spent most of the day there then we headed back to the yacht in the evening. The next morning we were able to do some snorkeling before we headed back to the main land.

The Whitsundays

Whiteheaven Beach

The Racing Yacht

Cairns


The evening before we were due to get the bus up to Cairns there was flooding again and some of the buses had been cancelled that day because the roads were shut. So we were a little bit worried our bus wasn't going to leave in the morning. Luckily the roads cleared so the bus left the next morning. On the journey up to Cairns we saw the damage the cyclone had caused to some of the small towns, forests had been completely ruined and lots of houses had no roofs. When we finally got up to Cairns we checked into "Gilligan's Hostel". We went out for our dinner to "The Woolshed" because the meals only $6.50, we got burritos, i couldn't finish it because there was so much on the plate!


The next day we had to catch a flight to Brisbane because we were flying to Fiji from there. When we arrived at Brisbane Airport Mark Ronson walked passed us with his posse so we followed him for a bit because I wanted to get a photo but I felt stupid asking him for a photo so I just left it!


Next stop Fiji!!!