Burnt koalas and bruised penguins
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
13
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Port Macquarie / Byron Bay / Nimbin / Surfers Paradise,
Australia
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Mick & Nodlaig took us out for a great meal on our last night at a little piazza type place full of Italian restaurants which had a real mediterranean feel to it and made me think I might go and live in France for a bit.
We'd decided against buying a car to travel up the coast as they're a lot pricier than in NZ and it might've been a hassle to try and sell it at the end. So we bought hop-on hop-off tickets for the Greyhound bus which is pretty frequent, relatively comfortable and reminds me of travelling in Asia.
G&P in Brissy
First stop was Port Macquarie, which Sarah had told me was really nice, but our bus driver said it was a hole and people went there to die. Like Australia's Florida or Devon then. But we were only there a few hours cos I wanted to go to the koala hospital. We got there just in time for feeding so it was great to see the nocturnal furry bundles lazily scratching away whilst they waited for dinner. Several of them had been rescued from bush fires so they were quite badly burnt, or they'd been run over by cars or attached by dogs.
Next up was Byron Bay which I was really looking forward to as I'd heard such good reviews from everyone and it was great, but it rained almost non-stop from when we arrived to when we left. And not just drizzle, I'm talking torrential rain and thunderstorms, which when you're camping, isn't ideal. Oh and our tent broke when we were putting it up too.
We did manage to get half a day in at the beach though, which had some of the best surf I've seen. Shame I can't surf.
We also did a day trip to Nimbin - the hippy capital of Oz - a really small town west of Byron upon which busloads of tourists descend every day to sample the culinary delights of cookies and cake with a magic ingredient. We were thoroughly warned before we left the bus not to overindulge on the cookies as they were quite potent so i found it pretty funny when a group of 4 teenage girls came back on to the bus very happy and were then really sick later.
The tour went via an American Ethno-botanist's farm on the way home. He owns something like 42 acres of land and has planted nearly every plant known to man there
in case you wondered where they were hiding
. It's like a mini jungle and has been declared a wildlife refuge. It was amazing. I want to live there.Next was the hole that is the Gold Coast which was an overdeveloped nightmare for me. We stopped in Surfers Paradise for a couple of nights so we could go to one of the many overpriced theme parks. Its like a mini Miami so it doesn't hold much charm, but at least the weather was improving.
Wet'n'Wild was the themepark of choice, although I was outraged at having to pay $7 for a locker when we'd already forked out $38 to get in.
I managed to injure myself on the first ride - Aquaracer - as you had to go headfirst down this slide and I smacked myself in the nose at the end. Simon tells me I came first though.
And so now we're in Brisbane staying in a hostel which is dirt cheap cos our room is above the nightclub. But if you drink enough you don't even notice the noise.
