Final Thoughts!

The final whistle has gone, the fat lady has sung, its all over. What an amazing 6 months we've had.

Everyday has been fantastic but the best parts were Broome sunset, camping in Kakadu, Ayers Rock sunset, the whales at Kaikoura, landing at the top of Fox glacier, Great Barrier reef, sailing around the Whitsundays and finally the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb.

We want to say a few thank you's. Thanks to Bloo and Milky for answering our endless questions before we left home. Thanks to Eric & Michelle, Milky's Mum and Vincent for their great hospitality, even though we'd never met any of them before! Last but not least thanks to both our parents for their financial support, we would have been home along time ago if you hadn't have helped.

Have we caught the travelling bug? I think so! We have already got some ideas for a couple of trips closer to home.

So this is it last post, we fly this afternoon and arrive home early hours of Friday morning.

It has been a trip of a lifetime.

Sydney

Vincent kindly dropped us back to Newcastle station were we got our last Greyhound down to Sydney. On the way into the central city we past over the Harbour Bridge with the famous view of the Opera House. It was really strange seeing these two icons in real life. We got to the hostel, checked in, then booked to do the Bridge Climb on Tuesday and a day trip to the Blue Mountains on Sunday. We then headed down to Darling Harbour where we went to see Sharks 3D at the IMax cinema. The IMax here is nowhere near as good as the IMax at Waterloo and the film wasn't as good as previous ones we've seen. It was still good though!

Saturday didn't get off to the best of starts as when we went to have breakfast we discovered that someone had stolen our milk, yoghurt and fruit from the fridge! This is the second time this has happened, the other being in Darwin. I guess its not that bad going considering anyone can come in and take anything from the kitchens, twice is still two more times then it should happen though. The guy on reception kindly went to the shop next door and brought us some milk from his own pocket. Breakfast over we headed up to Circular Quay to catch the ferry over to Manly.

Famous views from Circular Quay:



Manly is the beach getaway for Sydney residents. On the way over on the ferry we couldn't believe the amount of sailing boats out on Sydney Harbour.



Once we got to Manly we were a little disappointed. The beach rates very low on the list of all the beaches we have visited and there wasn't much else on offer apart from the aquarium, which we have seen too many of! We guess its nice to come over from the city to get away from the hustle and bustle. On the way back I managed to get some nice shots of the Bridge and Opera House as the sun was starting to set.



Our trip up to the Blue Mountains was a total washout, it was such a disaster! The rain didn't stop all day which meant the cloud was low and therefore we got to see nothing and get absolutely soaked at the same time, not bad for $75 each!



We walked down to the first of the 'Three Sisters' rock formations but it looked as if we were floating on clouds when we got to the bottom. The 'Giant Staircase' continued down to the valley below but we didn't feel up to the 975 steps!



We went on the worlds steepest railway but the trip back up in the cable car was through rain clouds!




We stopped at Leura to visit the famous sweet shop which had every sweet you could imagine, all in jars stacked high!



Once back down near the city the rain vanished and we cruised back along the Parramatta River, under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House before docking at Circular Quay. We both thought it was the worst trip that we have done but I guess it could have been one of the best if mother nature had been kind.

Monday morning was grey skies and drizzle, not the weather for cricket! We had got tickets to go see day 4 of the test match between Australia and the World XI. By the time we got to the Sydney Cricket Ground the rain had nearly stopped and there was patches of blue sky.



Play started 30 mins late with World XI needing 330 to win with 8 wickets left.



Runs slowly came but sadly so did the wickets, and it turned in to a big collapse. Stuart MacGill got Vittori out so Steve Harmison walked out to the middle, soon he was walking back, after only one ball in fact!




That left Muralidaran the last batsman, MacGill was on a hatrick, he bowled and Muralidaran played and missed. However the next ball he tried to hit out of the ground and made a total mess of it. 2.20pm and it was all over. It was an entertaining morning but disappointing it ended so early. Char wasn't that impressed but she didn't complain and did try to understand what was going on. After a BBQ at the hostel in the evening we walked down through China Town and around Darling Harbour to see what the restaurants were like for our last dinner on Wednesday night. The restaurants looked nice but we'll probably eat somewhere around Circular Quay as we want a view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Tuesday, Bridge Climb day! We headed up to Circular Quay late morning and walked down through the Botanical Gardens to the Opera House. We looked round and took lots of pictures before heading back round the quay towards the Bridge.




We got some lunch in a little French bakery then sat at the quay side admiring the view across to the Opera House. Time ticked on so we headed up to the bridge to check-in for the climb. To say that we were both nervous would be an understatement, we were wondering what we had let ourselves in for. We checked-in then went through for a breath test for alcohol, t en we went through and got kited up with climb suit, harness, radio, a pack containing a fleece and another containing a rain jacket, and even a strap to hold your glasses round your head. Everything has to be attached to your climb suit so that it can't be dropped off the bridge. Practice climb over we were on our way. We walked out along the catwalk under the road to the South Pylon, these catwalks were narrow and were grating, so you could see the big drop below! When we got out to the Pylon we climbed 4 big ladders to get on to the start of the Eastern arch, from here we walked up to the top of the bridge stopping at points to admire the views. We weren't allowed to take our own cameras so no pictures but we did buy some pictures that Pete our climb leader took of us. Once at the top we crossed over the middle to the Western arch and then climbed back down to the Pylon we climbed up. Back down some more ladders and more catwalks and we were back to our starting point. The three and a half hours was over in a flash but what an amazing experience it was, the adrenaline rush was fantastic. We had climbed nearly 1500 steps on route to the top which is 134m (440ft) above the water in the harbour below, it is the longest single span bridge in the world at 503m (1650ft) and the 52,800 tonnes of steel (which the majority of was shipped over from England) is held together by 6 million rivets. Researchers believe there are 10,000 rivets on the bed of the harbour that were dropped during construction! In the evening we went out for dinner at a really good steakhouse in Darling Harbour. Then we went to see Haunted Castle 3D at the IMax.

Looking like idiots wearing the 3D glasses:


Got back to the hostel at 11.30pm and both collapsed in to bed as it had been a very long but memorable day.

Wednesday, our last day in Australia, we got up late and looked around the shops and we closed our Australian bank account. We went to the Chinese gardens in Darling Harbour, it was really nice and tranquil compared to the city only a stones throw away.



We also got our underwater pictures developed from when we went snorkelling out in the Whitsundays. The pictures are really good, much better then the ones we took up on the Great Barrier Reef. We originally planned to go out to Bondi beach today but the weather hasn't been great and to be honest we've had enough of beaches! For our last night Char treated me to a fantastic dinner in a posh restaurant overlooking the Opera House.




It was a great way to end our trip.

Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Newcastle

This post is all 3 of the above towns, we did it this way as the past 4/5 days have seemed to all roll in to one!

Monday we got the bus from Byron Bay down to Coffs Harbour, stopping at Ballina for some lunch. Ballina is famous for its giant prawn, Char had a dozen big fresh prawns for lunch.



The journey took slightly longer then planned and we arrived in Coffs late afternoon. The YHA moved in to a purpose built brand new hostel earlier this year and it is by far the cleanest one yet and comes a very close second to Melbourne overall. We went to the shops to get some pasta for dinner then caught up with blog and email before walking down to the beach before it got dark.



Somehow Char managed to flush her key card for the room down the toilet, it caused much hilarity in reception. The most noticeable change is the temperature, it is a lot cooler down here, still about 25degrees though so a lot warmer then back at home. It just feels cool for us because we have been used to the mid 30's! Only stopping the one night here in Coffs. Heading down to Port Macquarie tomorrow and then Newcastle the following day.

We spent Tuesday morning lazing around the hostel at Coffs. Our bus left at 2.30pm and we arrived in Port Maquarie at 5.30pm. The YHA here has recently expanded in to a 4 bedroom house across the street. We were the only ones in the house, it was great! We went to the the shops and got some dinner before watching "Super Size Me" on DVD. It is a documentry about a man who ate McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a whole month. The effects it had on his were stagering, his liver ended up in a similar condition to an alcoholic's liver!

The bus down to Newcastle didn't leave till 5pm so we went for a walk along the beach and played cards most of the afternoon on Wednesday.



We arrived down in Newcastle at 9pm and Vincent came and picked us up from the bus station. Vincent is a friend of Bloo's (Stuart) who he met on his travels in Hawaii.

On Thursday Vincent took us on a tour of Newcastle which has as Industrial reputation but there are some great beaches and parks within the town.




We counted 15 huge cargo ships stationary out at sea waiting to come in to Newcastle dock to be loaded with coal, the amount of money that must be wasted on them just sitting waiting must be ridiculous.



In the afternoon we went to pick up Vincent's nephew, Joshua, from school taking a detour to look a Lake Macquarie, which is a huge salt water lake here in Newcastle. When we got back to the house Joshua kindly volunteered to take us for a walk up through the bush to a lookout over a lagoon.



The weather was really warm so after the walk, when we got back to the house, it was great to have a swimming pool to be able to cool off in. It was a bit too cold still though so I didn't stay in for long.



We had our third roast dinner since coming away on Thursday night expertly cooked by Vincent's mum and it was fantastic. Jacinda, Vincent's sister, came over with the three boys and we chatted about our travels. Thanks very much to Vincent for kindly offering to let us stay, sadly our stay was so short.

Byron Bay

Saturday morning we got a lift from the hostel to the bus station in this!



Our stay in Surfers had been really good after the bad start. The bus ride down to Byron Bay took just over two hours and we dumped our stuff at the hostel before heading out to have a look round. We both really like Byron as it has a very relax feeling and is very compact, just want is required after the hustle and bustle of Surfers. Byron is known for its large hippy community and we thought we might not like it because of this but it is not that prominent. After booking a hostel down in Sydney (booked in advance as its very busy) we headed out to the Cheeky Monkey bar that is known for its cheap backpacker meals. We were going to go for the chicken korma at $2 (80p) each but we ended up going for the lasangne at $6 (£2.40). Surprisingly it was very edible so we are going to go back tomorrow to try the $2 option!

After ignoring the alarm for an hour and a half on Sunday morning we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed at about 11am. We decided we'd make the effort and walk up to Cape Byron and the lighthouse. We walked out of town along the edge of the beach then cut up over the headland through some proper Australian bush! It was an extremely steep climb and took us some time to get up to the lighthouse. On the way we saw a couple of huge monitor lizards about 1.5m long, numerous bush turkeys and plenty of snake tracks but no actual snakes. We were glad to finally see the lighthouse and by the time we reached the summit we were exhausted.

We were so glad at this point!!!!


The view once we got to the top:


The views along the coast were stunning and it is Cape Byron that is the most Eastern point of main land Australia.



South:


North:


After standing at the cliff edge watching the humpback whales on their Southerly migration we decided to head back down along the road instead of tackling the rough terrain back through the bush. The walk back was far easier. We collapsed in the afternoon and chatted about all the things that we had done whilst we'd been away. The evening rolled in and we walked down to Cheeky Monkeys to have our $2 dinner. Disaster, Cheeky Monkeys doesn't open on a Sunday. Instead we had to go to a steak house for dinner, shame!

Surfers Paradise

It was really strange stopping in Brisbane again when we had to change buses to carry on down to Surfers Paradise. When we arrived in Surfers I had a suspicion the hostel wasn't going to be great as the girl who picked us up from the bus station was a backpacker herself and didn't even ask how we were, let alone engage in any conversation. My suspicions were correct, the hostel was awful. The people in 'reception' were so unhelpful, when we eventually found our room we were disgusted. The floor hadn't been hovered in years! Char found a hover further along the corridor so she set to and hovered, then we looked at the pathetic excuse of a bed and there were dead insects and other people’s hairs in it. At this point we looked at each other and knew we were going to leave straight away. We went down and asked for our money back and the guy from West Ham phoned the manager, he said we could have 2 night’s money back but not the money for that night. We really wanted to get out so ended up losing the one nights money. We found a taxi and went to another hostel which is one of the nicest ones we've stayed in. That hostel is a disgrace to the YHA and should definitely be shut down. So our stay in Surfers didn't get off to the best of starts, but once we got sorted and went for a walk round we were quite happy.

Thursday we went to the Holiday Inn to see if Char's Mums glasses were there as she was sure she left them there when they stayed for a night on their trip South. Unbelievably they were there! We then had a walk along the beach and then looked around the shops. After dinner we decided to go for a walk round town to see what the night life was like. We ended up going in the Ripley Museum. Ripley was a man who in the 1930's spent his time traveling the globe in search for the strange but true! These include the tallest man ever who was nearly 9ft tall, but he only lived till he was 22. Also there s a display of the smallest things in the world like the Lords Prayer written on a single grain of rice! It kept us amused for a couple of hours and was very entertaining. Unfortunately we didn't take t e camera out with us but here is a picture of Char next to the tallest man in the world, taken on my phone.



Friday we did washing again, and then we changed our flight home. We have had to move it forward to 20th October, so we arrive back on 21st. That’s 2 weeks early which we both think isn't bad out of 6 months. We then hit the beach. We borrowed a boogie board from the hostel and both had a go on the huge waves here in Surfers. The waves were so strong and by far the biggest I have ever encountered. I ventured a little further out a couple of times to try and catch the big waves just as they were breaking but I just kept getting dragged under, you can see why there are so many lifeguards on the beaches over here.

Famous gateway to the brach at Surfers:


Skyscrapers line the beach:


Stereotypical lifeguard:


After an exhausting day on the beach in 30 degree heat we collapsed in front on the TV in the evening and watched "Back to the Future".

Noosa

After only a few hours sleep on the bus we were keen to have a couple of hours kip when we got to the hostel. We weren't allowed to check in till 12.30pm so we dumped our bags and went for a short stroll along Noosa's main street. When we did check in we realised we didn't have any clean clothes, so we had to do some washing, it was the last thing we wanted to do! Washing done and after a couple of hours sleep we went out and got a take-away for dinner as we didn't fancy the long walk up the hill to the main supermarket.

Noosa is very posh and is popular for weekend getaways. We didn't realise but it was bank holiday weekend so Noosa was extra busy and the hostel was fully booked, mostly with families. This meant that on Sunday morning there were kids running up and down the wooden floor hallways much to our delight! We decided we'd have to get some food at some point so we walked to the supermarket. I thought I knew the way but after 20 minutes and no sign of the supermarket I decided I'd check the map. We had been walking in the totally wrong direction! We walked back to the hostel and it was so hot so we jumped on a bus up over the hill to the shops, we walked back and our shopping trip had taken nearly 2 hours! We spent the afternoon not doing much at the hostel and the evening was spent chatting to a guy originally from Somerset but now lives near Sydney, a Japanese guy who is studying English over here in Brisbane and a guy from Belgium. It was a multi cultural evening!

Monday we walked round to the Noosa National Park and then did the coastal walk, it was a really good walk but setting off at midday was a mistake as it was soon 33 degrees C. We saw some whales out on the horizon which was good to see.





Tuesday I borrowed a boogie board from the hostel and we hit the beach. A boogie board is similar to a surf board but much smaller, so u lay on it rather then standing on it. It was great fun catching the waves and come racing in towards the beach.




Noosa is very popular with surfers and is a great beach. We both think that everywhere we stop along the coast is going to be beach/surf towns which are nice but it gets very repetitive. Its also very commercialised on this coast and we both enjoyed our time over on the West coast more then over here on the East. We have come to the conclusion that we will be coming home slightly earlier then first planned. We have almost run out of money and we are both a bit fed up with the daily routine of the hostels etc. This isn't to say that we haven't enjoyed ourselves lately.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Mum,
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!!

Rockhampton

The following day we were on the move again, down to Rockhampton. We got chatting to a couple from Ireland and when we had a really good evening sharing stories of our travels. We stayed in a cabin that was originally built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, it housed either Athletes or Media people.




The greyhounds are now starting to run at really awkward times now we are so far from Cairns. Lisa and Mark decided to get the 5.15am bus the next morning down to Bundaberg, but we could face another bus quite yet so we decided we'd get the 12.55am bus on Friday morning down to Noosa. The bus journey was just over nine hours and wasn't pleasant. We could have stopped at Bundaberg but the only think to do there is the tour of the rum distillery and we could have stopped at Hervey Bay but we didn't want to go over to Fraser Island so there wasn't much point. Bit of a short and not very exciting post but to be honest that sums up Rockhampton pretty well!!!!!

Mackay

Tuesday we travelled down to Mackay, the sugar cane capital of Australia. Since Cairns the sugar cane fields have been endless. The hostel at Mackay was just like someones house with and extra couple of rooms built in the garden, definitely one of the worse ones we've stayed in.

We booked a rainforest and platypus tour for Wednesday. We drove inland from Mackay up to Eungella National Park where we walked up through the rainforest to Arunella falls. Some of the group went for a swim to cool of but some of us only dipped our feet in as it was freezing!



Lace Monitor (huge lizard about 1m long)


After walking back down to the bus we carried on further inland up to the top of the Eungella range, which is a part of the Great Dividing Range, the mountain range which stretches almost the entire length of the East coast. We stopped at the Sky Window, where we walked up to the lookout for a spectacular view back across towards Mackay and the coast.



On the way up to the lookout we disturbed a snake, it was a 'Brown', the fourth most dangerous snake in the world, it was more scared of us though and made a very quick exit. Next we continued on to Broken River to spot the elusive Platypus. Within minutes of arriving we were scrabling through bushes to get to the edge of the river bank. It wasn't long before one made an appearance, coming to the surface to breathe before diving back under the water to feed.

It is a Platypus honest!


At one point it got really close to where we were and it was then that we realised that they are not as big as we had both thought, they only grow up to about 30cm (12in) long. It was a really good day out.

Airlie Beach & Whitsunday's

Saturday we got the Greyhound down to Airlie Beach. This one didn't breakdown!!! We booked a day trip out to the Whitsunday Islands for Monday. Saturday was also the AFL (Aussie Rules Football) Grand Final, Between Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles. It was held at the MCG in Melbourne where we watched Richmond defeat the Swans back in July. The crowd attendance was 91,800! The Swan's were victorious after a very close last quarter it was their first premiership title in 72 years.

Sunday we were woken by banging on the door, the company that we had booked to go out to the Whitsunday's with on Monday had come to pick us up today! We didn't do much else on Sunday, apart from laze around. We then found out that the boat we were going on had broken down and would not be going out on Monday. Panic stations, we needed to book another trip for the following day as we had booked the Greyhound for Tuesday! We decided we'd like to go out on a sailing boat rather then a motor boat and managed to get booked on Maxi Ragamuffin, an 80ft racing yacht which in its prime in the mid 80's won many races. Unfortunately this meant we'd miss out on going to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island (meant to be the most beautiful beach in Australia).

We were up early (6.45am!) on Monday to get ready to go sailing. We were both really looking forward to it as it would be our first time out on a yacht. We were not let down, the yacht and sailing were fantastic, and the snorkelling we did at Blue Pearl Bay was even better. It took us two hours to sail out to Hayman Island and Blue Pearl Bay, but it was much more enjoyable on a yacht rather then on a motor boat.



Blue Pearl Bay


From the beach at Blue Pearl Bay


Ragamuffin anchored off Blue Pearl Bay


Whilst snorkelling we saw loads of different tropical fish once again. There was definitely more fish there then at any other place we've been. We saw a Giant Maori Wrasse, a Giant Clam (it was huge, about 2ft across) and the amazingly coloured Parrot Fish.



After lunch on board we sailed back to Airlie Beach through the Islands, the wind picked up and at one point the yacht was leaning over so far you could dangle your feet in the water!



We did come across some rain on the way back but we managed to sail away and miss the worst of it.

Typical beach out in the Whitsunday's


It was an absolutely fantastic day and one of the best things we've done, life is so difficult at the moment!!!!!!!.