AUSTRALIA - East Coast

SYDNEY

Very happy to be on the train again and it was probably just as nice as The Ghan. There were a few stops along the way including Broken Hill where we could actually get off and wander around the town. It was another warm one so we just had a short browse. In our opinion there wasn’t much to see anyway. It’s just an isolated mining town in the outback on the state New South Wales. The next afternoon we had finally arrived in Sydney!

The Indian Pacific, connecting the West to the East Coast

Examples of the street names in Broken Hill

We spent the first couple of days doing all the touristy things like checking out the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour. One afternoon we caught a ferry to Manly and on the way got to see the harbour and many of the islands in it. We didn’t go to the beach as it wasn’t very nice weather but instead did a bit of the scenic coastal walk starting from Manly Wharf. We did another suggested coastal walk from Coogee to the famous Bondi Beach which was gorgeous but busy as it was a Saturday. 

An overcast day at Darling Harbour

Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance

A shot of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour from Pylon Lookout (a tower on the Harbour Bridge)

Our first ocean pool encounter along our walk from Manly

Made it to Bondi!

That evening Adrian caught a train to Melbourne so he could go check out the Formula 1. He linked up with a couple from Tasmania which took him around the venue which involved a two hour walk around the track. He was amazed at how fast the cars go and was happy he remembered to bring earplugs! Megan was nice enough to give him a place to crash for the night before he was back on a train to Sydney the next morning. I didn’t get up to much other than planning our next leg of travel and hanging out with some of the girls I was sharing a room with. Sydney worked out to be much cheaper than we had budgeted as our hostel was awesome at providing free meals and drinks or discounted meals and drinks at partner bars close by.

Adrian with an old school F1 car

On the track after the championship

BYRON BAY

After six nights in Sydney, we caught a train to Casino then transferred to a coach to take us to Byron Bay. Byron Bay is known for being a good spot to learn to surf and a chilled out atmosphere. I think a big part of this is because so many modern day hippies live there. We loved it and ended up staying a week. Not sure where the week went though. We did a lot of lazing around and beach bumming with our hostel about 50m from the beach. Never did any surfing although we did go boogie boarding a few times using the hostel’s free boards. 

One of the mornings we woke up early to catch the sunrise over the “most easterly point of Australia” which actually wasn’t really worth waking up for. So we went back to sleep and woke up later to start our walk to this point – Cape Byron. Taking our time I think we did the walk in about 3 hours walking through a mix of beaches and forest area. On our last day we tried out the quickly developing water sport of stand up paddle boarding. We had a private afternoon with our instructor on nearby waterways and got to see a bunch of wildlife including sting rays! Awesome way to spend our last afternoon in Byron. 

A shot of Byron Bay from Captain Cook's Lookout during our Cape Byron walk

Stand Up Paddle Boarding with some sting rays

SURFERS PARADISE

From Byron it was a short coach ride to the popular Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise. Once again we didn’t do any surfing although we did have good intentions the last day we were there but it rained the majority of the day. We actually didn’t do anything beach-y while we were there! 

The first full day we were there we decided to go up to the Q1 Observation Deck to get a good view of the city and learn a little bit about the area. The second day we booked a pub crawl for that night as we heard/read Surfers Paradise is supposedly THE place for backpackers to party. It was nice to meet new people and get to know the city a bit better but the night was lame. I think it was partly due to the fact Easter was coming up but most places were pretty quiet except for the people on the pub crawl. 

A view from the Q1

A couple days after the pub crawl we went to a waterpark called “Wet n Wild” which helped us get over the disappointment of that night. Sylvan Lake has nothing on this place! I think there were about 12 slides, a mix of body and tubes to go down in, and it took us all day to do all of them and only a couple twice. Soo much fun! 

At the "Tornado", one of our favourite slides

Our second last day in Surfers we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where I could be a tourist and cuddle a koala. But the place offered so much more than that. While it’s always better to see animals in the wild, we were excited to hand feed kangaroos, see wombats, Tasmanian devils, lizards, frogs, snakes and Adrian did a zipline/ropes course in the park. While we could have made our stay in Byron Bay a bit shorter, we felt like we could have spent a couple more days in Surfers.

Hanging out with Mama Roo and her joey

Adrian on the ropes course

BRISBANE

From Surfers we took another short coach ride to Brisbane. Our original plan was to stay in Brisbane for a day or two in order to go to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. But after looking into the costs of admission ($59) and transportation out there ($40-50), plus my photo with a koala ($40), we decided to opt out. Instead we spent one night and one day in Brisbane before the long haul up to Cairns. Brisbane was a nice enough city but we were happy with our decision to only have a day to explore. We wandered around the main shopping street in the CBD, took a free ferry service along the river, hopped off at the Parklands to check out the lagoon and walked back to the hostel just in time to gather our packs and head to the train station.

Story Bridge

Brisbane's lagoon

CAIRNS

After our last >24 hour train ride in Oz, we finally made it to Cairns! Cairns was at the top of our list for places we were looking forward to so we were pretty excited to be there. We booked a week but ended up staying 9 nights total. This was probably the best hostel we stayed at during our time in Oz. Clean, cheap, great staff and other travellers, and free or cheap upgraded meals every night. 

The first activity we did was the snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. The sun was out but the water was choppy. Quite a few people ended up getting sick on the way out, unfortunately including Adrian, but once we got to our first location he was fine. Our first stop was Michaelma’s Cay and the better of the two. Although the Cay can see up to 70,000 birds a day and it was definitely loaded that day, the water was clear and calm and the snorkeling was great! We were able to see some really colourful fish and coral, giant clams and a stingray. After a couple hours there, we boarded again, had some lunch and jumped off at the second location. 

Ready for some snorkeling at Michaelma's Cay

Giant clam

Adrian

Sting ray

The second place was on the Outer Barrier Reef and we were back to waves. It was pretty challenging to swim out to the Reef and stay in some good spots without getting pushed around by the waves and getting your snorkel full of water. Despite this, we still saw quite a few jellyfish (thankfully we hired stinger suits), more coral and no Nemo but Gill, a moorish idol. We would have liked to do more snorkeling but I guess ~3 hours is all we were going to get. The ride back was much more pleasant as we opted to sit in the front of the boat and the waves didn’t seem as bad.

Ahh jellies!

Gill from Finding Nemo

On the way back to Cairns

The next activity we were scheduled in for was skydiving over the Great Barrier Reef at 14,000ft. We woke up to rain in the morning so initially it didn’t seem promising. The dive kept getting put on hold and was eventually canceled for the day. As this happened I was getting more and more nervous and ended up psyching myself out. So Adrian rebooked for the Monday and I canceled. When Adrian did get to go on the Monday he said it was such an unreal experience. And comparing bungee jumping to skydiving, we said he preferred skydiving. He said I would like it but I didn’t think I would be ready for it. Maybe if we didn’t have to wait the first day with less time to think about it. The view wasn’t that great for Adrian as it was pretty cloudy but he still had an amazing time freefalling for 60 seconds and parachuting the last 4-5,000ft to land in a cleared sugar cane field where I met him. He got the photos and DVD package so you can see the photos below but you will have to see the DVD later. Absolutely hilarious the contorted ways his face gets pushed in to.

Freefall

Parachuting down

Landing

Our last activity around Cairns was heading North to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation (where the rainforest meets the Reef). We did this on a tour and our first stop was the Daintree River Cruise where we would hopefully spot some crocodiles! But by the time we set out on the boat, the rain was coming down pretty strong and all the crocs were hiding deep underwater. Still pretty thrilling to know you are cruising around in croc-infested water! We did end up seeing the tail of one (~3m long in total) when crossing the Daintree River via the vehicle ferry. We were also hoping to see a cassowary but that one never happened. Our second stop was a rainforest boardwalk where our guide showed us iconic trees, etc. of the area but it was pouring and hard to hear him so those 20 minutes weren’t too enjoyable. 

Starting out our search for some crocs

How bad it was coming down at the end of the cruise

Old and new trees near the boardwalk

We had our lunch in Cape Tribulation and had a chance to head down to the beach but it was still raining. It was actually raining so hard that when we left to start heading back, we had to wait for low tide so the water flowing over parts of the highway were passable. On the way back we made stops for ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, Mossman Gorge for some aboriginal education of the area, a scenic drive through Port Douglas then back into Cairns. A fun and somewhat adventurous day but it would have been more enjoyable with better weather. 

How high the water was over the road

We thought we would let someone else try it before we did

Our ice cream on the go

Our last day in Cairns was spent getting ready for our flight to Singapore to start our SE Asia adventures. Australia was amazing and we really enjoyed our time working and traveling there but it was also easy and safe with the Canadian culture and lifestyle being so similar. We are now looking forward to experiencing completely different cultures and ways of life. We expect there to be some major challenges along the way but we are almost looking forward to those, being pushed out of our comfort zones and learning a lot. About ourselves, each other, what we can tolerate, what we can bring into our lives…SE Asia here we come! 

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