Feb 10-15 Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, and Surfers Paradise

Coffs Harbour, Feb 10-11

On Tuesday morning, I took a bus from Newcastle to Coffs Harbour. Coffs Harbour is a beach town and I stayed here for 2 nights. Unfortunately, I didn't have great weather here which was the start of a trend for the rest of the trip. But, I did get to spend a day at the beach and I met a good buddy Nitzan from Israel. Nitzan is on the left in the pic below. He is one of the most well traveled people I have ever met so I enjoyed talking with him.

I also got to enjoy a $7 all you can eat pizza night at the hostel on Tuesday night! I had forgotten what a joy this was for cash strapped young 20 somethings. They were pumped!

Byron Bay, Feb 12-15

On Thursday, I met up with my friend Anke again and we took a bus to Byron Bay. I traveled with Anke for the next week and it was great to have a travel companion.

Byron Bay is supposed to be one of the best beach spots on the east coast so I was looking forward to this trip.

On the first day, we walked up to the Cape Byron lighthouse which is supposed to be the most easterly point in Australia. There were some great views from up here. Once we got to the top, it started pouring rain and we had to take a cab back down. I got some good pics but they would have been sooo much better if it had been sunny.

On Friday, I went sea kayaking! This is one of the things I had really been looking forward to. The trip was scheduled for Friday morning and there was a light rain when we arrived. We decided to go anyway.

Have you seen the movie Castaway? Remember when Tom Hanks makes his escape from the island and he has to get his raft past the waves before he can set out to sea? Well, that is what sea kayaking was like. We started on the beach and then went straight into the ocean taking the waves head on. It was awesome! It was like going up a steep hill, then you are lifted up, and then you fall down with a thud into the sea. We did this through about 5-6 waves before successfully reaching calmer waters.

That's me in the green shirt in the back of the kayak.

Here is a good pic of some other people.

We had to cut the trip early because it started storming pretty bad and the waves were getting rough. When you bring the kayak back to shore, you have to navigate the waves again. Its a bit like surfing.

Our trip to shore didn't turn out so well! We almost made it in but then capsized in a wave. You can see our kayak below but we're under water at this point. It was fun!

From this point, it rained continuously until Sunday morning. So, I didn't do much except hang out in the hostel and enjoy some of Byron Bay's nightlife. Sunday morning was beautiful and I tried to kayak again but they canceled the trip because the surf was too rough. :( Oh well, at least I got to hang on the beach.

Surfers Paradise, Feb 15

On Sunday afternoon, I took the bus to Surfers Paradise. Surfers Paradise is on the Gold Coast and it is really commercialized unlike the other beach towns.....lots of high rise hotels, nightlife, etc. I was only in Surfers Paradise for one night so didn't do much.

Feb 6-9

Feb 6

Friday night, I went to see Marley & Me at the Sydney Open Air Cinema. This was a very cool place. The movie theatre is outside and it faces Sydney Harbour. The movie screen actually sits in the water. Beyond the movie theatre, you can see the Sydney skyline and the opera house. It was an unbelievable view! I tried to take some pics but my camera doesn't work great at night. Here's some shots of me and my friend Anke in front of the opera house on the walk there.

Feb 7

On Saturday afternoon, I hung out at Darling Harbour. This is a pretty big tourist spot. They had some rowing competitions going on during the day.

For lunch, I ate at a restaurant in China Town and then had dinner with some friends on Saturday night.

Saturday night was my last night in Sydney. This is a great city with so much to do. I highly recommend it to everyone. I would love to do more but its time to move on! I fly out of Sydney so might have a few extra days at the end of my trip to do more.

Feb 8

On Sunday, I took a 2 hr train ride to Katoomba which is in the Blue Mountains. There is a lot of hiking and adventure activities to do here. I didn't do much because it was so hot but I did see some good views.

Feb 9

The heat wave is finally over!....Today its perfect weather in the 70's. I took a train to Newcastle which is a city on the beach. I'm only here for the night. I took a walk along the shoreline of Newcastle and was blown away by the beaches and the natural coastline. The pictures don't do it justice but here they are.....

They have a lot of these which are called ocean pools. They are for pansies that are scared of sharks. Someone like Beardsley would probably stick to one of these. They are filled with water from the ocean but completely isolated from it.

I walked out to the tip of this light house. They say you can sometimes see dolphins or whales from this point but I didnt' see any.

Feb 5-6

On the morning of the 5th, I took a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From this bridge, you can get great views of the city and the Sydney Opera House. Some of the views are below....

Next, I had lunch at a Spanish restaurant and then headed off to check into my first hostel! I booked myself in an 8 person dorm room and made my way upstairs to meet my roommates. I am new to this hostel thing, so I wasn't sure what to expect. As I approached my door, I heard a girl giggling inside. I thought this was interesting because I had assumed they separated the guys and girls into different rooms. I open the door to find 2 blonde girls staring right back at me....I guess these dorms are co-ed!!! The two girls were Lucy and Claire and they are from Edinburgh, Scotland. Later I met two other roommates.....a guy and girl from France. In total, we had 7 people in the room. 2 of them, I never met.......just happened to wake up the next morning and see 2 random guys sleeping in their underwear. The pic of my room is below. It was messy! My bunk was the top one in the top left corner of the pic.

That night, I went on a pub crawl that was organized by someone staying at the hostel. The plan was to go to 3 different pubs but I only made it to the first 2. I met some really cool people....Vincent from France, Karen from Scotland, and Anka from Germany. We had a great time! I am amazed at how many people are traveling alone like me over here and at how long they are staying. I thought my 4 weeks is a long time but its nothing compared to most people. I talked to several people who had been in Australia for almost a year!!!

Feb 2-4

Because I am changing jobs, I had the opportunity to take 2 months off and do a bit of traveling. This has always been a dream of mine.....to take a good chunk of time off from work and travel some place far and different. Not much of a plan, no itinerary, just living life baby! I picked Australia because of the great weather in February (its summer) and there is so much to do here. I'm planning to spend about 4 weeks in Aussie land. I flew into Sydney and will be working my way north along the east coast. Hopefully, I can make it to Cairns and see the Great Barrier Reef. A lot of my friends and family have expressed interest in following along on this journey so that is the intent of this blog. I hope you enjoy....

Feb 2:

Today, I began the LONG flight to Sydney...New Orleans to Denver (3 hours), Denver to San Francisco (2 hours), and San Francisco to Sydney (14 hours). Since I am traveling by myself and planning to stay in hostels, I have been looking forward to meeting some interesting people. On my first day, I met 2 interesting characters....

On my flight from Denver to San Francisco, I sat next to Alice. Alice is a yoga instructor in the San Fran Bay Area. The first thing you need to know about Alice is that if any of her muscles are tight or sore, she's going to perform some stretches....and it doesn't matter where she is. I saw her roll out a yoga mat in the middle of the airport terminal, lay down and do some stretches. On the flight, she proceeded to stretch in the aisle mid-flight. She really doesn't care....which is cool. Her facebook profile pic shows her doing yoga on a beach. She is leaning back into a position that I didn't know was possible for creatures with a spinal chord. If you saw the picture, you would add her as your facebook friend too!!! I'm glad I met a new friend in the Bay Area!

On my long flight from San Fran to Sydney, I was very curious who I would be sitting next to for 14 hours. This is where I ran into Bruce. How can I explain Bruce......Bruce just retired from a public library in Canada where he was a statistician. And you know, this didn't surprise me at all....If he had asked me to guess what he did, I would have thought about it for a second and then said something like......"I bet you crunch statistics looking for incremental improvements that could be made to the Dewey Decimal System and you focus on the western region of Canada.". It just fits! Bruce was one of those guys who is always fidgeting, looks anxious, and generally nervous.......After 5 minutes of meeting him, I didn't see how this guy was going to stay in a seat for 14 hours and not flip out! But he made it and was a cool guy. He's going to Australia for 5 weeks. He said he has a friend (a lady friend) who he hopes is going to show him around Sydney for a few days. He said this with a glimmer in his eye, the kind of glimmer that let me know.....Oh, he thinks he's getting some booty! Good luck Bruce!

Feb 3:

I have no idea what happend on Feb 3. I took off from San Fran at 10 pm on Feb 2 and I landed in Sydney at 8 am on Feb 4. Feb 3 was completely wiped out due to the 17 hour time difference and 14 hour plane ride.

Feb 4:

I landed in Sydney and took the train to my hotel. Its nice weather here, about 75 F but a little bit more humid than I had anticipated. I walked around Sydney for 2 hours and saw the Sydney Opera House (pic is below). It was cool but not as magnificent as I thought it would be, probably because its not very sunny today. I'll get a better pic before I leave. I also had fish and chips for lunch and learned that Aussies refer to ketchup as "tomato sauce".

Tonight, I'll try and check out some Sydney night life and get some good sleep in my nice hotel....tomorrow night will be my first night in a hostel dorm room!