4,600 kilometers in 14 days

Hello!

Well I'm just killing some time at the airport here in Brisbane... my flight from Sydney landed at 7:30pm on Saturday night and the next bus to Roma leaves at 6:40am Sunday morning. Wahoo, all-nighter in the airport!! But that gives me plenty of time to post a blog!

Why am I sitting at the airport all night? Well for those of you that don't know, my good friend Kane LaRose flew all the way from Harrisburg PA to visit myself and our other friend Kali (who is finishing her 10 month excursion here in Australia next week) for two weeks. Kane flew into the Sydney airport so I drove from Roma to Brisbane and flew from there to Sydney to meet him, while Kali and her boyfriend Michael flew in from Melbourne. We didn't have concrete plans other than renting a 5 person caravan for the two weeks, so after looking at the cooler temperatures down south (and yes, they were lower than 57*F...) we decided to journey north. Kane had a friend who recommended visiting this place and because Kali and Michael hadn't been there yet in their travels and it was once of the places I have on my list of places to go while I'm over here we chose the Whitsunday Islands as our northern most destination. Further more we decided to drive north as quick as possible and then take our time driving down the coast back to Sydney - where we had to return the caravan and catch our flights back to our respective "homes".

All these decisions were made on our first day of exploring Sydney. Obviously Kane hadn't been to the harbor yet, so we picked out a walking route around the city that brought us to the Opera House and Bridge and other attractions such as markets, places to eat, and contortionists. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was great to finally be together again and catch up. The following day we picked up our camper van - lovingly nicknamed Oscar - and headed north! Oh, wait, not quite... someone stupidly forgot her cellphone in the hotel room and forced everyone to drive back and get it. (Yes it was me, I was the idiot who forgot her phone...) But it gave jet-lagged Kane a chance to nap and we ended up at the Blue Mountains, our destination for the day, with no problems afterward. Unfortunately it was too dark by the time we got to the Three Sisters (a rock formation that's popular to visit in the Blue Mountains) so we made camp for the first night in Oscar and set our alarms to wake up early for the sunrise over the beautiful landscape the following morning. That was our first disagreement with the weather - because though we were up and at'em bright and early (well it was dark, dark and early) there was a thick and cold layer of fog that prevented the sun to officially rise. However it did enhance the mountains in a certain way, and we all still enjoyed the view.

In front of the Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge 

At the Blue Mountains (photo credit: Michael Trigg)

After the Blue Mountains we turned north and just started driving. We wanted to get up to the Whitsunday's in two days, which meant we had a hefty bit of mileage to get under our belts. There weren't too many exciting moments on the drive north - unless you count buying fuel at $5.60 a gallon exciting. But we made use of my iPod and the appropriate number of dance parties were held in the back as we cruised north. We got as far as Miles (only two hours away from Roma!) on the first day and then got up to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday's, the following day. Success! (However this success was dampened by a $200 parking fee we received that first night in the Whitsunday Region, because we were "camping on council property" - which was false - we were resting in a McDonald's parking lot... which had NO signs stating that we weren't allowed to park there overnight. Humpph. We are still contesting it, but it seems the Whitsunday Law Enforcement have better things to do than respond to poor confused tourists.)

But YAY! we were in the Whitsunday's! (You should google how pretty these islands and beaches are... you'll be excited too.) However this is when the weather decided to be a bit difficult again and rain basically the entire two days we allotted to staying in this area. But we made the most of it and went exploring the Airlie Beach, the surrounding beaches, and booked a "sunset" cruise one of the nights. The next day we spent driving again, south this time, past Mackay and Rockhampton and got to a little town called Gin Gin which was just outside of our next destination; Fraser Island.

Rainy day at Conway Beach up near the Whitsunday's (photo credit: Michael Trigg)

We got to Hervey Bay (the town closest to Fraser Island on the mainland) at about midday the next day and just enjoyed chilling out at the ferry dock, looking out at the island, watching some dolphins flip around in the bay, and actually basking in the sun that finally decided to show itself for the first time in three days. However the highlight of this day was our dinner - we all chipped in to buy tacos and beer and had a delicious meal that was something other than plain pasta or PB&Js, which had been our "poor person" diet the previous days. Maybe you can't buy happiness, but purchasing taco seasoning, hamburg, and a few stubbies definitely made us a bit cheerier! The following day continued to raise our spirits as the sun was shining bright and warm as soon as we woke up and we made plans to take the ferry across to Fraser Island and purchase a day package to chill at the Kingfisher Bay Resort, which included a morning tea and coffee, lunch, and use of all of their amenities. We enjoyed the morning lounging by the pools, a lunch that again was not a PB&J, a hike up to a pretty lookout, and then sunbathing on the beach that looked back out towards the mainland. When we got back to Oscar, we packed up again and continued heading south; with our next destination being Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast.

Looking from the ferry dock out to Fraser Island

On the ferry back from Fraser - a REAL sunset cruise. (photo credit: Michael Trigg)

The sun decided to join us again on that next day, though the wind was chilly. But that didn't stop Kane from swimming out in the ocean while the rest of us lounged about on the beach. We stayed at Noosa for the first half of the day and then continued down the coast into the outskirts of Brisbane. We stayed at a caravan park in Beachmere which was only a hour's drive away from Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, our next destination. So that following day Kane and I (Kali and Michael had already been here in their earlier travels) went into the park to look at the wildlife Australia is home to. I had seen many of these species of animals already, if not in the wild then at the Sydney Wildlife World when I first landed in Australia. But Kane hadn't even seen a live kangaroo yet, just some dead ones on the side of the road and a lone wallaby up in the Whitsunday's (we told him it was a kangaroo until he saw the live ones at Lone Pine though...) so it was fun for him to have the chance to see and take pictures with all the animals. And interact!! Lone Pine has this cool kangaroo pen that you can go into and actually pet and feed the roos and wallabies! I finally got a picture of a kangaroo with a joey in her pouch (a popular request from many of you back home...) and completely broke the "Do Not Touch the Joeys" rule and actually picked up one of the lil' guys. (Don't judge me! He was super cute and practically hopped into my lap anyway...) So after a couple hundred pictures later we continued driving with our next stop being very close at Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. We only did a quick stop here but had a lucky coincidence being able to meet up with a friend from back home for a few minutes, it's a small small world!

Noosa Heads

Boxing lesson at Lone Pine

Nibbles for Kisses

Joey!

Waves at Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast

Our next stop the following day was in Byron Bay, our first official stop back in New South Wales. Unfortunately the weather decided to be lame and cloudy/rainy so after a bit of window shopping and a few pictures of the beach we drove a bit up the coast to the Byron Bay Lighthouse and took a few more pictures of the fabulous landscape. Surfers were still enjoying the day - I suppose it doesn't matter to them if it's raining or not, they are already committed to getting wet anyway. Plus it was cool to walk out to the eastern most part of continental Australia at this spot too. Then it was back in the van and driving down the coast again, stopping at a few beaches and lookout points along the way. Kane decided to treat us all to a delicious meal at Outback Jack's that night (I guess having a real person job in real life pays off, eh?) so again it was nice to eat meat and veggies.

At an overlook up by the Byron Bay lighthouse.

That same lookout minus me plus a rainbow.

East coast! (photo credit: Kane LaRose)

The next day, the last full day, was mostly a driving day. We wanted to be as close to Sydney as possible but also had to find a caravan park (which believe it or not are hard to find in the middle of a city, 'magine that!) so we found an affordable site near Pearl Beach, which was a small little town built around this beautiful beach. We spent that night packing our bags and sharing photos and watching the video clips Kane had took through-out the trip. And the following day (today!) we cleaned out Oscar, drove into the city, dropped Kane off at the International Airport, dropped me and bags off at the Domestic, said goodbye and parted ways.

Which brings me full circle to sitting here in the airport at 12:30am! It was a blur of two weeks with all the driving and site-seeing but it was great to be with friends and see a lot of the coast and areas that I had been told about needing to see while I am here. Plus it gave me something to blog about for you all!

Here's a map with most of the places we stopped at. On our trip north we did as straight a line from Sydney to Rockhampton as possible, which obviously kept us inland for a while. The only place we stopped that's not on here is Byron Bay and that's about as far south of Gold Coast as Gold Coast is of Sunshine Coast. 

Hope all is well with everyone back home. Enjoy your summer!!

xoxo Zee