The truth about the East Coast – part 1

The East Coast of Australia is the main tourist destination in Australia.  Think long beaches with white sand, plenty of tropical fish, and of course, the crocs and creepy crawlies.  The main route starts in Sydney and ends in Cairns.  Of course, the direction you go in completely depends on the weather and the time of year, but I always liked the idea of going up the coast.  So far I’ve made it pretty much half way, and am currently writing this sat on the coach from Noosa.

I’ve already talked about Sydney so I’ll miss that part out, but I just wanted to add one thing… you save so much money to go travelling, and normally do lots of planning before you arrive (not in my case though – oops!) but all in all I’m rather annoyed that I spent circa $2500 on a week in Sydney and a week in Brisbane.  I’m not a city girl at all, so this really bugged me, especially as this was roughly the cost of my vouchers to tour the whole East Coast.  However, since talking to people once I’ve left those places, it turns out there was a lot more to do than I realised, having known that I probably wouldn’t be so bitter about it…  Research more next time Bessie!!

I went from Sydney on a 14 hour coach journey to Byron Bay, which reminded me a lot of Perranporth so I felt totally at home.  The only differences were obviously, the heat, and the sheer mass of hippies that seem to congregate there.  We were going to stay at Arts Factory – for anyone who has seen The Inbetweeners movie, this is where it was filmed!  The hostel was pretty cool but rather on the strange side.  It was obvious as soon as we got there that we didn’t fit in or belong there, but it’s all about the experience I suppose.  Dreadlocks, hula hoops, people meditating by the lakes and digeridoo making classes were one thing, but our “dorm” was on a completely different level!  We were staying in a wagon in the jungle which was fine, and to tell the truth I was really looking forward to staying there… until one of my friends saw a Huntsman spider, and despite them being known as harmless “pest control” here, her sister freaked…. Sooooo we packed our bags and had to walk 15 minutes in to town to find somewhere else to stay.  Although I was looking forward to staying there, it was a bit of a shock coming from Sydney and I really didn’t want to stay on my own… Maybe I’ll stay there with my friend when he comes to visit later in the year 🙂

All in all, Byron was great.  We actually had a chance to chill out and sunbathe after the madness of Sydney, and even took the monster walk in 40 degree heat to the postcard lighthouse to watch the sunset.  Unfortunately, there was no sunset, but the picnic dinner and wine at the top made it all worth it!

From there we went to Surfers Paradise a.k.a Miami.  It was good to see and experience, as it was so strange being on the beach playing volleyball, swimming and sunbathing with huge skyscrapers right behind you.  The next stop was Brisbane, which to be honest I’m not going to write about as I personally didn’t enjoy it, next was far more exciting… two hours on to Noosa!

Noosa is a pretty small place so we were only advised to stay for a couple of days, but the reason we were there was to go kayaking in the Everglades.  This was just incredible, and totally exceeded my expectations, I would definitely recommend it!  We went with a company called Kanu Kapers who hire you the equipment, show you how to use it, provide you with an esky of food and a map, and send you on your way.  The first section through open water was tough but hilarious, we were all soaked within 10 minutes!  Once you were past the rough water you went through a mass of lily pads and wildlife… Pelicans, fish jumping out of the water, I even saw a kingfisher for the first time ever! It was simply stunning.  There was a spot to eat your lunch, then through to the River of Mirrors… the name isn’t even exaggerated! The only down side is that after 6 hours of kayaking the rough water makes it a rough trip back, but we made it with no casualties, and no one falling in!  Result!

Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that you could kayak the whole route, camp for one or two nights, then kayak back… maybe this is another thing I could add to the list when I travel back down the coast with my friend later on in the year!  The list seems to be building…!

In summary of the first half of the East Coast, my favourite two days have been when we visited the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney, and kayaking in the everglades.  I’m now an hour away from Rainbow Beach, the base just off Fraser Island.  This is where the adventure really starts.

How I survived my first week in Sydney

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today, it’s already tomorrow in Australia – Charles M Schulz

I had an amazing few days in Manly with Sarah and Joe, celebrating both New Years Eve and Sarah’s birthday, but I wasn’t too sure what to expect when I left them to join my OzIntro group in Sydney.  It’s pretty daunting when you rock up to a hostel not knowing anyone, with not even wifi for comfort.  We were staying at Base in Kent Street (everyone I know who has travelled Sydney has stayed here!) which has the added bonus of Scary Canary’s next door. The group arrived from the airport (a few of us just decided to meet at the hostel) and we went straight down to the harbour to go jet boating… this is so so different to just going on a speedboat, by the time we got off the boat we all looked as though we had been dunked in the sea!  Safe to say that this is a pretty good way of breaking the ice…

I decided to have a week long OzIntro tour for a few of the obvious reasons… I was going to a country where I didn’t know anyone else who was travelling, so obviously meeting people and making friends (cringe!) were a massive factor, plus they would know the best places to go for a standard Sydney bar crawl.  We did so much in one week including stroking a koala and a kangaroo, ate crocodile, went surfing, visited the Blue Mountains (the size of Switzerland, so big that it holds 7 national parks inside it!), walked from Bondi to a smaller beach for a BBQ where we played volleyball, had a bar crawl where we probably ruined a few of the greatest songs of all time in a karaoke bar… and there’s no way I would have known about all of these amazing places without having to do hoursssss of research.

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All of the fun stuff aside, pretty much everyone who knows me knows how much of a failure I am at normal human being activities… our lovely OzIntro leader Becca sorted us out with everything we needed…

• Medicare – you think you don’t need it, but with one person swelling their ankle to the size of their face and another one with a suspected chest infection in one week it’s pretty obvious you need it, especially as it’s circa $100 for a few days worth of antibiotics, and $70 to even speak to a doctor!
• Tax number so we don’t have to pay 50% tax
• Help finding a job – it’s amazing how many people struggle to get a job out here despite there being loads around.  Not only do they sit there and help with your cv, but they offer support the whole time you’re in Aus… they don’t just bin you when your week is over!
• Help setting up our Aussie bank accounts so that we can get paid when we eventually get a job!
• Claiming back our tax from our work in the UK – an extra few dingo dollars to spend on your travels
• Help setting up our Australian pension funds – this is basically free money from your employers, as they contribute in to it and you can claim it all when you leave the country.  Just make sure you do it with someone like the Commonwealth bank so all of your pensions are in one place 🙂

To top it all off Becca did a huge presentation showing us our options for touring the east coast, and then spent hours with us individually and in groups helping us piece together our plan, meaning that I am now set to leave on Friday to head up the east coast with a couple of lovely girls I met this week… BIG UP THE BECCA!

This has been such an incredible experience that I’m going to book on to BaliIntro and ThaiIntro… it really helps to set you up and meet new people when you get to a new country, anyone who is thinking about travelling (especially if you’re going solo or are a complete country bumpkin like me who has no idea about what actually happens in the world) should look them up!

OzIntro.com

I cannot actually put in to words how excited I am for the next few months… even a week in I keep having these moments when I realise I am half way across the world!  I don’t have a clue what day it is here, or what time in the day it is back home, and even though I have a rough plan I still don’t know if I’m going to stick to it… I guess that’s part of the fun 🙂