Noosa, East Coast Oz.

We were looking forward to heading to Noosa as so many people we met had told us how epic it was. I personally liked the name so that was enough to sell it to me. Noosa's not too different to Byron or Yamba, I think it's a little bit bigger but it's spirit is the same; chilled out and beach orientated. We lucked out again with a super nice hostel so settled in on our first night and looked forward to not having to move our heavy bags for the next five nights.

In Noosa you're spoiled for choice with beaches and surf spots. We accidentally timed our stay during the surfing festival too so the water was full of longboarders waiting to fight over the scraps of sets coming in. We seem to be cursed when it comes to good conditions and arrived in Noosa for their worst week (according to the local surf shop man) all summer. The waves were ok for longboarders but not so fun with our shortboards, we were pretty much two of a handful of people not on fishes or longboards. Sunshine beach would have been a bit more promising had the winds not turned it in to a hectic mushy mess. So the first couple of days were spent chilling at our rad hostel and just cruising about town. The weather was nice and everybody in Noosa is super friendly so we coped fairly well despite the lack of the surf.

When we finally got in the water, it wasn't the best but it was good to get a paddle in the super warm water and ride some of the local waves. The beach and surf comp had been evacuated out the water the day after our arrival due to two great whites but thankfully we never came across them during our time in the water. I bet they're gutted about that one, we would have made two tasty snacks after munching on fish and chips.

One of our highlights of our time in Noosa had to be Australia Zoo. It was simply epic. It's more like a safari park than a zoo as all the animals are pretty much left to roam around in massive enclosures that are acres large (the zoo is over 72 acres in total and still expanding as they create a massive Africa land). Some animals aren't even enclosed and are left to freely roam around the park interacting with other animals and all the tourists. The fact that loads of the animals could easily escape but choose not to said a lot about the place. Highlights of the zoo had to be holding a baby Tasmanian devil, being able to walk around and feed kangaroos in their fields and getting to feed the giraffes. We weren't allowed too close to the giraffes as they are easily scared, skittish and can kick or lash out easily but it was still an awesome experience. It's probably the first zoo we've ever been to where we haven't felt sorry for the animals or felt that they are hard done by. On the contrary many were rescued animals or severely endangered species that were the result of a breeding programme.

We were a bit gutted that Steve Irwin wasn't there but he still has a massive beyond the grave presence, appearing on every animal information plaque, on all information leaflets and even plastered on the side of the bus you take the zoo. You even watch Stevo films on the one hour journey to and from the zoo. It's Stevo overload but I think he's a legend so it kept me amused throughout.

Noosa seemed to attract a lot of mellow people so we had good times just hanging around the hostel in between visits to the beach and food shop. There was also a sun melted ping pong table that we utilised during our ciders, just a shame there was no champagne on offer to indulge in cham-pong. When it came to our last night we begrudgingly packed up our bags, which by the way seem to be no lighter despite sending home about 20kg of clothes each. We woke up early and pulled our heavy shells on to our backs and trudged to the bus where we met our first arse of a greyhound driver and headed back down the coast to Maroochydore. Again I liked the name of this place so I had a good feeling some good times would be had. The theory had worked out so far.

Surfers Paradise, East Coast Oz.

Yeah, it's a dump.

Byron Bay, East Coast Oz.

Byron Bay. Where reprobates from around the world flock to smoke as many spliffs, munch as many mushrooms and live the lives of people way before their time. It's hard not to like Byron Bay. As soon as you arrive you feel at home except your home doesn't have quite as much tie dye or smell of inscent sticks 24/7.

We were staying at the Arts Factory which is pretty infamous in Byron for it's relaxed attitude and fondness for parties. The Factory was a hippy commune in the 70s which later became a music venue in the 80s and 90s before settling in as a hostel. It sits a bit out of town in a swamp land/forest and it's easy to imagine all those hippies many years ago living a pretty happy existence there. The main part of the hostel is open plan with no doors or partitions blocking your way to the outside. In the courtyard you have many chill out areas, hammocks and pathways leading around and between the swamp lake and forest campground. Water Dragons are everywhere basking in the sun and weird giant turkey like birds run around continually foraging for food. When you're sitting swinging in a hammock taking in your surroundings you feel completely content and can quite understand how so many people get sucked in to never leaving this place. Then you hear one of the many annoying American or British people that seem to congregate there like an Ibiza club 18-30 posse and you quickly feel like escaping to the pub.

But yeah Arts Factory aside Byron is a pretty nice place to spend some time. You have the main beach pretty much right in the centre of town and point breaks along the coast as well as more spots in nearby towns/places. The town itself is pretty mellow and you can walk or skate around just taking your surroundings in without feeling swamped by people or tourists. It's only really when the Greyhound bus appears and offloads all the backpackers or when everybody heads in to the crappy nightclubs do you feel the massive presence of tourism. We were tourists ourselves of course but a lot of the tourists who came to Byron had a different agenda to us.

On one day we knew the surf would be pomp in Byron so we missioned it through to Coolangatta to watch the Quiky Pro Finals which was just epic. To see the world's top surfers shred at Snapper Rock was just surreal and the blazing weather only made it all the much better. Coola's only an hour or so away from Byron but it was amazing to see how much better the surf was there, we were pretty gutted we didn't take our boards and left swearing to return one day.

Like many places in the world we've visited, we were sad to leave Byron. If it had mountains near by I would move there in an instance but I'm not sure if the constant stream of (mainly British) tourists would become annoying after a while. Either way we'll be gutted if we never go back so it's been added to our quickly growing list of places to return to in the future. Next was Surfers Paradise which we'd heard was a total dump but we decided we might as well see it while it was so close.

Yamba, East Coast Oz.

We only stayed 3 nights in Yamba and didn't really get up to much in this wee coastal town as the surf was pretty rubbish whilst we were there. Yamba is an awesome wee place though. Everybody there seems to have the same agenda and chilled out doesn't even begin to sum up the atmosphere.

We were also stoked with the hostel we stayed in there. The only one in town we didn't have much choice but we couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. It was a YHA which we usually steer clear of as they tend to be pretty clinical and over priced but the staff at the Yamba place couldn't have been nicer. They upgraded us to a private room at no extra cost and sold $2.50 beers to all residents so we were pretty happy with all that!

We were pretty sad to leave as we met some really cool people there, the town was awesome and the surf points looked to have real potential but the forecast for the following week was pretty poor so we decided to scoot up to Byron pronto after seeing their forecast was looking a little more promising.

What bridge? Sydney, Australia.

In typical fashion we'd booked a hostel right splat bang in the middle of Kings Cross, the red light district of the City. So our first glimpse of Sydney was it's seedy underbelly of alcoholics, strip joints and drug addicts which we had strangely missed the sight of in New Zealand. Our first night was spent wandering around Kings Cross and it's neighbouring areas trying to find our bearings and soak in a little bit of the city.

What we're quickly learning is that if you've seen one city, you've seen them all. Yeah one might be bigger, one might have a taller and more extravagant “sky tower” and one might have more money than the next, but really they're all the same format; rich shops in one area, arts quarter in another, harbour with fish market and a tourist viewing spot usually at a square or “plaza” of some sort. Throw in a couple of museums and subways (the takeaways) and there you have it, another city.

Sydney of course however has it's world famous and iconic bridge, so famous indeed that I never really knew it existed until I was standing looking at it. I know I'm such a philistine. No, bridges don't do it for me. They serve a purpose that I can appreciate but as far as demanding some sort of aesthetic praise they need to be a little more visually innovative than just your average bridge design. Sydney Opera House however is slightly more interesting. As you walk around it you can appreciate the time and effort that went in to creating this symbol of Sydney. I still don't think it would stand a chance in a fight with perhaps say Sagrada Familia but it's impressive to see none the less. We viewed it both during the day and night and would definitely recommend the night as a better time to soak it in all lit up with the dark oily water surrounding it. At night time you also have an amazing view of the city all lit up reflecting on the waves below, oh and of course the bridge has some lights on it too.

In an attempt to save money we decided to walk everywhere during our stay in Sydney. This is a great way to see the city but be prepared from some long stages between different locations. After our first day of walking back and forth we literally felt like our legs had bags of sands on the bottom and the final steps towards the hostel felt as if we were trying to reach Mount Everest base camp. It helped keep us semi fit though so we can't complain too much. For those who told us Sydney was expensive we would like to boast how we survived on a $20 daily budget between us. Now we're not saying this was pleasant but it's doable and wasn't too much of a struggle. We found a pretty cheap, nice supermarket that had fresh and reasonably priced food to cook with and if you fancy takeaway we found an awesome Mexican which did deals on tacos and burritos. There was also Pie Face where you could get a pie with mash and gravy for around $5! Yeah you kind of have to throw your healthy diet out the window to embrace the $20 a day budget but beggars can not be choosers.

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in our hostel is how much heavier your average traveller is on this side of the world. Perhaps this is Sydney specific but we reckon it's a prime example of cheap eating and heavy drinking resulting in putting on those extra pounds (in some cases more severely than others). We witnessed a few people having piles of toast for breakfast, pasta for lunch AND dinner and we all know that's a disaster waiting to happen when you throw in a goon bag a night on top of that carby diet! We do our best to eat as healthy as possible but over here it is actually way more expensive to eat healthy, so if we look like that bird that turned in to a blueberry in Charlie and the chocolate factory by the end of Oz, don't be too surprised.

Ok to save me making this in to a large ranting blog that most of you have already stopped reading I am going to squish most information in to my favourite style of writing – A LIST! So below you will find what we found to be the best things to do and see in Sydney;




- Sydney Aquarium. Now we're not the biggest fans of animal captivity but they have a banging shark conservation area where you can see sharks moving in their eggs, baby sharks and also walk through a shark tunnel for a close encounter of experience. EPIC! Oh they have seahorses too.

- Sydney Maritime Museum. Yeah another shark exhibition but it was EPIC!

- White Rabbit Gallery. This is probably the best gallery I've ever been in. The staff are super friendly and the collection really interesting and more importantly fun. That word rarely gets used in relation to exhibitions or art for that matter.

- Sydney Fish Market. Fresh fish cooked for you on the spot and bring your own booze, do I really need to say any more?

- Sydney Opera House. Yeah you might as well ey?

- Giant Bats. Yes, giant bats. Walk through the city at dusk and you might be lucky enough to see the swarms of these beasts fly right above your head. Don't go in to the parks though, I'm sure we heard them kill and eat a baby.

- Chinatown. Just the same as all other Chinatown's really but you can score some cheapish food if your budgets higher than ours.

- Paddy's Market. The biggest collection of cheap shite you will ever see.

- Guzman y Gomez. The best cheap Mexican food you will eat in your life. And they speak to you in Spanish so you can feel like a total Tursista answering back in the ill learned Spanish you picked up in South America. Winner!

- Drink a Goon bag. Basically cheap nasty wine which apparently has no title (pinot etc.). It comes by the box, costs around ten bucks and is filtered through fish guts. A classic Aussie drink which tastes a bit like a glass of watery butter.

- Walk everywhere. It might seem a long way. It is. But it saves you a tonne and you see a lot more of the place.

- Stay in a hostel and feel thin even if you're not. Because nobody else is.

- Get a Greyhound bus pass. This doesn't strictly apply to just Sydney but it seems like the best way to travel around to us. You get bundle passes where you can travel up the entire east coast and hop and off as much as you want for 90 days, our pass cost $180. The buses are standard and the drivers have banter so it's a win, win situation really unless you're super unlucky or super picky.

So that's about it I think. Sydney in a nutshell. I'm sure there is much more things to see and do, Bondi for example. But we found 3 days enough for us to spend in a city and were pretty stoked to get on the over night bus and head up north to the coast away from all the hustle and bustle. Next on our list is Yamba, so mysterious it would seem that not even Sydney locals had heard of it. Don't they have maps in Sydney?