Coffs Harbour
After we left Port Macquarie on the 23rd, we pulled into a little town called Coffs Harbour which was only notable for two things. Firstly, it is home to the Big Banana, one of Australia's many 'big things', and secondly, our campsite not only contained a miniature Dutch village, but also a fully operative clog makers workshop. I tried to find out exactly why this little corner of the Netherlands was here, but nobody that worked at the caravan park seemed to know why.
Two days later we ended up in Byron Bay, which essentially looks like every other coastal town in New South Wales but it is a mecca for the 'alternative' traveller. Hippies on every bench and VW campers round every corner, it has a fabulous laid-back feel with everything you need. We liked it so much we were actually there for eight days. We stayed at a backpackers lodge called the Arts Factory, and pitched our tents in their jungle hideaway. It was a bit like being at a festival with the tents crammed together, and just incase we'd forgotton what a festival was really like it poured with rain for the first half of our stay. So Byron Bay was where Jen celebrated her 22nd birthday and where we took to the skies and spent a day hang-gliding. It was a fantastic week and there's plenty more stories to share, but they can wait for another day.
We rolled out of Byron and ended up across the border in Queensland - Australia only has six states so crossing into a new one is quite an event - and headed for Brisbane. None of us had anything we wanted to do in Brisbane so we headed for North Stradbroke Island, the Island my friend Cat Emberton lived on during her first stint out here. We only stayed one night, it was quite pricy to take the car across on the ferry, and besides we had three days of Gold Coast theme parks to look forward to. I was however quite surprised when I tried to find the cafe Cat worked at, I asked a girl in a backpackers where it was.
"Why, do you know someone there?" She asked.
"My friend used to work there, I just wanted to have a look" I replied.
"Was she Scottish?"
"Yeah..."
"Cat?" Small island, I thought.
The first theme park we went to was 'White Water World' and although it was small, the rides were excellent. Its parent park, Dreamworld was our next stop and was slightly disappointing, but by the time we made it to Warner Bros. Movie World, we'd all but forgotton Dreamworld and it's rather unimaginatively named rides. ("The Big Drop", "The Log Ride", "The Rapids" etc.) Movie World was fantastic. It's got one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on (Superman Escape) and had very convincing actors walking around dressed as all my favourite superheroes. It was a great day out and fun pretending I was twelve years old again.
The next day we drove a bit further north and visited Australia Zoo, famous for being the one owned and operated by the late, great Crocodile Hunter himself, Steve Irwin. We were slightly underwhelmed by it, we'd probably hyped it up too much in our heads but having said that it's still the best zoo I've ever been to, you can practically feel Stevo's presence everywhere you go.
Tired and hungry, we pulled into a truck stop and snuck into the truckie's showers - after four nights of sleeping by the roadside we were starting to smell a bit - and then rolled into Rainbow Beach, a small and rather unimpressive if friendly community, and it is here that I'm writing all this. We are only here because tomorrow we're going on a tour of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. It's about 123 kilometers long, or about 75 miles, which is quite hard to imagine. I only hope the weather clears up, we've been here for two days and seen nothing but torrential rain.
Two days later we ended up in Byron Bay, which essentially looks like every other coastal town in New South Wales but it is a mecca for the 'alternative' traveller. Hippies on every bench and VW campers round every corner, it has a fabulous laid-back feel with everything you need. We liked it so much we were actually there for eight days. We stayed at a backpackers lodge called the Arts Factory, and pitched our tents in their jungle hideaway. It was a bit like being at a festival with the tents crammed together, and just incase we'd forgotton what a festival was really like it poured with rain for the first half of our stay. So Byron Bay was where Jen celebrated her 22nd birthday and where we took to the skies and spent a day hang-gliding. It was a fantastic week and there's plenty more stories to share, but they can wait for another day.
We rolled out of Byron and ended up across the border in Queensland - Australia only has six states so crossing into a new one is quite an event - and headed for Brisbane. None of us had anything we wanted to do in Brisbane so we headed for North Stradbroke Island, the Island my friend Cat Emberton lived on during her first stint out here. We only stayed one night, it was quite pricy to take the car across on the ferry, and besides we had three days of Gold Coast theme parks to look forward to. I was however quite surprised when I tried to find the cafe Cat worked at, I asked a girl in a backpackers where it was.
"Why, do you know someone there?" She asked.
"My friend used to work there, I just wanted to have a look" I replied.
"Was she Scottish?"
"Yeah..."
"Cat?" Small island, I thought.
The first theme park we went to was 'White Water World' and although it was small, the rides were excellent. Its parent park, Dreamworld was our next stop and was slightly disappointing, but by the time we made it to Warner Bros. Movie World, we'd all but forgotton Dreamworld and it's rather unimaginatively named rides. ("The Big Drop", "The Log Ride", "The Rapids" etc.) Movie World was fantastic. It's got one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on (Superman Escape) and had very convincing actors walking around dressed as all my favourite superheroes. It was a great day out and fun pretending I was twelve years old again.
The next day we drove a bit further north and visited Australia Zoo, famous for being the one owned and operated by the late, great Crocodile Hunter himself, Steve Irwin. We were slightly underwhelmed by it, we'd probably hyped it up too much in our heads but having said that it's still the best zoo I've ever been to, you can practically feel Stevo's presence everywhere you go.
Tired and hungry, we pulled into a truck stop and snuck into the truckie's showers - after four nights of sleeping by the roadside we were starting to smell a bit - and then rolled into Rainbow Beach, a small and rather unimpressive if friendly community, and it is here that I'm writing all this. We are only here because tomorrow we're going on a tour of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. It's about 123 kilometers long, or about 75 miles, which is quite hard to imagine. I only hope the weather clears up, we've been here for two days and seen nothing but torrential rain.
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