Leaving Surfers Paradise

I will shortly fly out from the Gold Coast to Sydney and enter the final stage of my journey. I will stay in Sydney for 5 nights, then fly to Melbourne for 4 nights then I will go on a safari up to Alice Springs. This goes via The Great Ocean Road to Adelaide, through Flinders Ranges then will do a tour around Alice Springs checking out all the sights including Olgas, Uluru and Kings Canyon.

I will then fly to Perth for 5 nights before heading home via Hong Kong. I have had a great time here at Surfers Paradise but also looking forward to heading into the outback and hopefully seeing a few kangeroos in the process. May even eat a witchetty grub!!! Or maybe not!!

I have had a great few final days here as went gamefishing with Alex and his friend on Saturday after a night out in Brisbane on Friday. This wasn't good as we had to be up by 5am to drive up to the Sunshine Coast!! But it was a great day and Alex's friend's Dad skippered the boat leaving us to fish, fish and fish!! We each caught a mac tuna which weighed nearly 2kg and put up a bit of a fight!! My biggest fish yet.



On Sunday played golf at one of the best courses in Australia; Hope Island with uncle Colin and my cousins Alex and Lizzie. All my practice in the garden kind of paid off as I did improve, but only marginally!!!



It was a really nice day as we drove buggies around (always wanted to do that!) and it was all in aid of charity. This meant that a few famous people were there such as Pat Rafter, the Aussie tennis player, as well as other past sportmen including old Australian rugby and cricket captains.



Will keep in touch over the next few weeks, will be back home in four weeks time!!! Speak soon.

Surfing (non) USA

Indy Fever at the Gold Coast

Since Thursday evening it has been simply epic!!! I have had hardly any sleep but because it was Indy fever, it was all worth it.

The Indy here at the Gold Coast is Australia's answer to San Marino as the track is on the roads of Surfers Paradise right next to the beach. It is one of the busiest weekends of the year and so the perfect time to be here.

We spent the majority of the time at Indy having a few Aussie beers whilst taking in the sights; powerful cars and beautiful women, simply epic!!

With typical young zest we did surfing inbetween (brilliant waves!), had a barbie, went out on the boat, had sushi and went out clubbing 3 nights in a row.

We also scored some seats at Indy, no mean feat since the seats are worth almost 200 pounds but a friend of Alex's had two available as his sister and friend went off for a bit. This luckily was during the actual Indy race on Sunday, whahey!!!

Swimming with Dolphins at Noosa

Noosa, Sunshine Coast

I headed up to Noosa for two nights on Tuesday this week and went out on my first night with some people from my dorm room. The hostel itself wasn't that nice even though from the website and outside appearance it does seem to be, it said "Koala beach resort" but there weren't any koalas and the resort wasn't really near the beach either!!

But anyway, I was really glad to be back in Noosa after going there on my first trip to Australia. The town has a certain charm about it, nice beaches, cafes and restaurants as well as a national park. I went on a walk to the national park on Wednesday morning and did the coastal return walk up to Hells Gates which was a mighty 5.4km. This was no easy task with a slight hangover from the night before in the hostel bar, but the walk did help especially with the smell of eucalyptus trees in the air (no koalas again though)!!

However I did again see dolphins and a small turtle in the sea from the coastal path. The last time I was in Australia I saw a few turtles up close whilst snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, but I knew that I still hadn't had the pleasure of swimming with dolphins.

It was a really nice walk and a good day for it. I had a swim in the sea on the way back, which was great because the beach wasn't too busy and the water was just so refreshing.

Late afternoon I ended up at Main Beach back in Noosa which was just getting quiet and was quietly reading Richard Branson's autobiography (highly recommended by many, and now me!) and every now and again I just looked out towards the sea.

After a short period, I noticed some splashes in the water around 50 - 60 metres off the beach and realised that some dolphins were swimming out there. So I watched them for a while thinking that next time I saw them on my travels I should just go out there and swim with them...

But then I thought, what am I doing - why not NOW!!!

So I put down the book, threw off my clothes (not all of them obviously!) and made my way over towards them with my watercamera in hand.

It was probably the most exciting, spontaneous and surreal thing that I have done on my travels so far. A couple of people left when I got there, leaving just me and another lady nearby on a kayak watching avidly around us. The dophins swam around me a few times, never too close but close enough!! They were literally only a few metres away and so close that I could see markings or scratches on their dorsal fins!!

It was simply amazing, I just remained as still as possible and merely watched around me for no less than half an hour. Luckily I did have my watercamera with me and I took a few pictures above water as well as below. I didn't have any goggles etc so I await to see how the underwater pictures turned out!!

So it was a fantastic experience and I was really glad that I did it, will hope to show you the photos as soon as I can.

Oz fishing expedition

Well, well, well, woke up at 4.30am this morning for our fishing trip at sea, seeing the sun rise as we headed out into the ocean. The water was quite choppy, and having just had brekkie, I felt a little dodgy at first but being the intrepid explorer that I am, I soon shook it off.

We fished at depths of around 40 metres with a heavier sinker than normal and waited, well, not really as we all at some point thought we had caught something big, massive maybe, but the majority of the time we discovered that the line was just merely snagged on a reef!!

Eventually we had a bit more luck, catching some good bait fish as well as some monsters of the deep, which we just chucked back in as soon as possible, so ugly!!

Meanwhile, I chucked in my line with a bit of calamari on the double hook and felt a definite and almost immediate pull, I reeled the line in quickly wondering what it was as the rod strained and arched in the process. I pulled up a lovely Snapper, a great fish to eat as I discovered on my first night here in Oz and the first real catch of the day.

I put down my line again, and straight away another pull, I reeled it up to find a second Snapper!!! No one could believe it. Also, this Snapper had the bends (I didn't know fish could get the bends until now!) as its tongue was swollen, very strange.

And guess what, I dropped down my line again for a third time, teasing everyone in the process that I was going to catch another and sure enough, Snapper number 3, the biggest one of the whole lot!!! Beginners luck!!!

On the way back we saw a whole school of dolphins quite close to the boat, so a great day especially with Snapper on the menu tonight too!!!

This evening me and Alex just put out our lines in the saltwater river behind the house and I caught another Flathead (almost exactly the same size as my first one), this beginners luck is really just too much at times!!

24 hours in Bryon Bay

Yesterday I went to Bryon Bay for the night as it is only an hour or two down the coast from Surfers Paradise into New South Wales territory. Admitedly it was difficult to leave my auntie's place, especially the bar, which I alone have been propping up in the last few days, albeit with a little help!!

Bryon Bay was a really nice place, even if it is "alternative" as all the guide books state. But all in all, the beach is really nice and the town has a bit of character about it. Also, Bryon Bay is also the most easterly point of Australia and me being the seasoned traveller that I am, got a picture on pretty much the most easterly rock in the whole of Australia.

This trip is becoming epic day by day.

Oh, those of you (and I did have a few emails about this!) who thought that I was really sleeping on the floor instead of the bed here at my auntie's place were mislead, now would I ever pass up a nice comfortable bed for a hard floor!!

I actually didn't put an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence which is probably why people thought indeed I was now more of a intrepid explorer rather than just a normal traveller!! Now, I do overuse exclamation marks so maybe I should just continue the theme so that people don't get confused!!!!

Anyway, back to Bryon Bay, it is a cool place and I spent much of my first hours catching a few waves and then I wondered what the hell I would do in the evening. In the end, I spoke to this girl from Manchester for sometime, she could talk forever and she did!! She didn't want to go out so I hooked onto the hostel van trip to a nightclub and it was a great night and ended up meeting lots of people!!

This morning I headed up to the lighthouse and the views that you can get from up there are great as the water is quite clear too. Of course here too was the most easterly point of Australia so that felt good. I was there for a while taking in the views and wondering whether I would see any turtles, dolphins and whales.

Sure enough a big turtle surfaced and I was so excited that I told everyone around me, so then everyone was excited too!! A few other turtles surfaced as well taking a few breaths and then diving back down again.

As for dolphins I actually saw some on the way back to town looking over the beach. There was a whole school of them and quite near to the surfers. I went down to the beach and went for a swim as well as bodysurfing a few waves before getting the bus back to Surfers.

We are going on a early morning fishing trip trip on the boat tomorrow, we leave at 5am, it is almost 12am so I better leave you now!!

Australia photo

Hey guys, check out the photo below, my auntie pointed out that between the gap of me and Alex it looks like the outline of Australia - and right in the middle is the Gold Coast skyline!!!

Good picture and purely coincidental!!

Maritime Ady

Weekend boat trip

Since I last wrote an entry on the website, Friday was recorded to be the hottest October day on record even though Spring has just arrived in Australia; of 37 degrees - it was actually even 30 degrees by 8am. Hot!!

On Saturday we went for our boat trip up the coast to some off-shore islands, on the way there we saw many boats and even a floating church as well as a liquor boat too!! That evening we went for a bit of a swim and played football on one of the beaches.

It was quite windy so it wasn't all plain sailing as we had to look out for the new boat and make sure that the boat was securely anchored. In the end, we found a nice secluded bay which was quite sheltered and found a city of boats all in the same area staying for the night too. It was quite a experience sleeping on a boat, and great fun, we didn't sing - "I had a drink about an hour ago and it went right to my head" because that just wouldn't have been funny!!

Sunday was a lot calmer and we moored off a beach for a bit and had lunch on the boat, we even saw a kangeroo on one beach and me and Alex did some fishing off the back of the boat and I caught a Flathead!!!

This was after launching my hook into a darkened area of the water to the side of the boat at first, I thought I had snagged the hook on a rock as I could feel something. So I didn't say anything at first but then there was definite pulling on the rod so I reeled the hook in slowly and said something to Alex and it was then we saw a fish on the end of the hook!! Alex shouted out "Flathead, get it in"!! So sure enough I reeled in a 50cm long Flathead fish, apparently a really nice fish to eat, so tonight we will have it for dinner!!!

Some photos may be attached in the next few days, these show us on the boat as well as the tender boat which tends to the bigger boat and gets us onto shore etc. Alex's girlfriend Ains came with us and Lizzie joined us on Sunday. I will try and get some more pictures in the next few days off this place too.

Surfers Paradise, Australia

Hello all,

Well here as I stand (or sit!) I declare myself no longer a backpacker. This tenure ceased around 41 hours ago when I stepped back onto Ozzie soil.

New Zealand was a great place to see, and out of the North and South islands, I preferred the South island by a long way simply due to the terrific scenery of mountains, sheep, more sheep and lakes.

And why I declare myself to no longer be a backpacker you ask? Well, simply after 16 solid weeks of travelling and moving pretty much everyday, I sit here now in the hands of the Wheeler family, my place of rest for the next 3 to 4 weeks.

Before I came my auntie Joanne (my Mum's sister) asked if I was missing any food in particular and with that came a resounding yes... Well, I do miss a good roast, but there is nothing better than a decent barbie as well as a few tinnies, especially in Oz.

So during my flight from Kiwi-land to Skippy-land I found myself reminiscing about my family's trip to Australia 8 years ago. I remembered my first sight of Australia was of controlled bushfires visible from the aeroplane at dawn when we had finally reached the Northwest coast of Australia going onto Brisbane, and the great excitement I felt at that point to be in Oz and spending some time with our family here.

I have many great memories too, including visiting the colourful, fish-laden coral reefs of the Whitsundays and Cairns. Seeing technicolour parrots, the kookaburra bird, turtles, dolphins, kangaroos, koalas, enormous spiders and massive grasshoppers. As well as travelling down from Cairns via Townsville to Airlie Beach, the visit up to Noosa and down to Surfers Paradise from Brisbane where the soft, white sandy beaches of the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast can be found.

During this time we were able to spend some time with our family, catch up, share stories and really just spend some time with them. At that time they used to live in The Gap in Brisbane and since, they have moved down the coast to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast.

My uncle Colin showed me some pictures of their new house when he and my auntie came over to England a couple of years ago. It looked good then but now I am here, I am able to put it into perspective the house is really nice and a great place to stay.

It is a very spacious and open-plan house, which in contrast to before at The Gap, there is another floor above as opposed to a standard Oz bungalow. And upstairs I even have my own room and a double bed. This is quite strange for a seasoned traveller like myself, so I have taken to getting my sleeping bag out each night and sleeping on the floor. It will take a while to adjust so I am taking it slowly.

So after being picked up at the airport by Lizzie my cousin and Joanne my auntie we went straight to Surfers Paradise. The house backs onto a saltwater river which comes in from the nearby sea. There are no crocs luckily (thank god!), but when I asked if I could go for a swim in the river, well, put it this way, swimming with Bull Sharks isn't on my list of "things to do" no matter how good the Manta Rays were.

We had a great first evening tucking into some great food, starting with my first starter since time began!!!! This was large prawns, oh yeah!!! Then we had the ultimate Aussie BBQ, my cousin Alex caught a Snapper from their river and that was whacked on the barbie. It was good!!! We even had desserts, I almost forgot what that was too!!!!

The following day I got up early with my cousin Alex (5.30am!) before he went to work and we went for a surf and bodyboard. It was nice and quiet and the waves were good too. Later on I went down to the beach again with my other cousin Lizzie!!

There is a pool table as well as a table football table here so we have been having a few epic games. Today I went with Joanne and Colin (my auntie and uncle) to get their new boat and me and Colin took it back to the house. This weekend we are all going on a little trip (Lizzie might join us on Sunday) and sleep overnight on the boat!!!!

Me and Alex will probably do a little bit of fishing like we have just done, I saw a stingray as well as large squid in the water. We caught a small bream, but hopefully we will be getting something bigger soon, maybe a Bull Shark!!!

I am pretty tired, it is 1am here now and went for a walk and a jog on the beach this morning at 5.30am with Joanne and Colin. Need sleep!!! Heading to Brisbane tomorrow for a bit of shopping and so will hope to check out the city again then.

Okay, 27 - 30 degrees here today (will be 36 degrees on Saturday!) will be in touch again soon. Take care.