In similar fashion to my The journey so far entry at the end of my Thailand adventure, here follows a summary of my activities and achievements in Australia.
I flew into Sydney from Singapore on March 29th and spent a week or so exploring Australia’s unofficial capital. I saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, visited Darling Harbour and the Botanic Gardens and went clubbing with a friend I made at Base Backpackers, Steve. I spent a day on famous Bondi Beach and went to nearby Manly and Taronga Zoo with my brother’s girlfriend Kirsty. We also walked across the Harbour Bridge and caught the views all over the city from the Sky Tower.
On April 9th I flew to Ballina and got a bus to Byron Bay to meet up with Foley. I did two scuba dives here at Julian Rocks. I saw my first dolphins in the wild on the way to the site and a giant Loggerhead turtle before we went underwater. During the dive I saw an octopus, Leopard shark, Wobbegong sharks, another Loggerhead, Eagle rays and Bat rays. Other than diving in Byron I found time to climb up to the lighthouse and had a photo taken at mainland Australia’s most eastern point.
On the 17th Foley and I caught a bus to Yamba to spend a week at his cousins vacant holiday flat. Most of our time here was spent playing frisbee and saving money. After there it was time to change states; we got a lift up to Brisbane, leaving New South Wales for Queensland. Here Foley’s friend Steve joined up with us and we saw a bit of what Brisbane has to offer, including the drive up to Mount Coot-tah. We bussed it north to Noosa and had a messy night or two there before going further north to Hervey Bay. The next few days we were driving around the world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island, in a 4×4. This was a superb experience, visiting beautiful fresh water lakes and camping on the beach at night under the stars. The town of 1770 was our next stop. The only thing of note here was the Scooter-Roo tour, biking around the pretty townships of 1770 and Agnes Water spotting kangaroos and crocs. We got the nightbus to Hervey Bay - launchpad for the Whitsunday Islands. Sailing around those for three days was good fun, taking in the sights of South Molle Island and Whitehaven beach.
Magnetic Island was next, just off the coast of Townsville. It’s here I held a Saltwater crocodile and a Python. To further break up the bus journey north we stopped at cyclone-damaged Mission Beach before continuing to Cairns. I did another couple of scuba dives, on the Great Barrier Reef this time, at Green Island. Saw all sorts of things including a massive Hawksbill turtle I was swimming along with. Also on the island itself we saw the world’s largest captive Saltwater croc which was a bonus for the day. We had a couple of scorching days back in Cairns before flying back down to Brisbane. Some warm clothing has now been purchased here in preparation for New Zealand where the current temperature is a depressing 9 degrees celcius. I land in Christchurch at 10.35pm local time tomorrow.