Richard had two full weeks off for our first part of exploring Australia. We had a bit of a strange start to our holiday ...
Firstly we meet this guy on our shuttle bus from the airport in Sydney to the hotel where we were spending the night before flying to Queensland. He was hilarious. He started by giving us advice on how to get 'cheap' first class flights. By cheap he meant $5000 instead of $20000 - bargain (?!). We ended up chatting and turns out he made his millions early in life and has been travelling the world since. No pretence about the guy, just a happy rich guy travelling the world; for example he likes travelling to NZ once in a while to buy some Manuka honey. Cause you know, it's cheaper if you buy it in bulk in person (?!). He also flew to Vancouver just for a 3 day New Year's eve party. Turns out the party was with Bill Gates. I really liked the guy, he's so obviously making the most out of life. Either that or he was making the whole thing up in which case I don't even care, it was entertaining!
Anyhow, the adventure continues the next day when our flight to Airlie Beach is cancelled ... due to mechanical issues. And bonus they had no other flights that day. With some quick thinking we managed to dash to another airline in the airport and book flights to another airport close to where we were heading. So a wait in the airport, a new flight and a boat (yes a boat) later we're in Airlie Beach ... to find out our accommodation has been ruined by the Cyclone. They had apparently sent out e-mails to all their guests but we definitely didn't receive one. Thankfully a super nice Australian man helped us out and drove us to a hotel where he managed to find an empty room (not the easiest thing to find when everyone else's accommodation has fallen through). Ended up staying in a pretty swanky place after an exhausting day. Early the next day we booked accommodation through airbnb which turned out fine. Well we always knew things wouldn't always go according to plan but I didn't think it would all happen in one day! In any case it didn't ruin the holiday at all, and it's certainly a day to remember with a laugh looking back on it.
Now for the fun stuff!
The best part of Airlie Beach was definitely visiting the Whitsundays, which is really what we came for. We took a full day boat trip, and with the help of some super strength anti sea sickness tablets, I didn't feel sick at all, if just a bit drowsy. The Whitsundays were spectacular. Just amazing. Pure white sandy beaches and turquoise water. The boat ride ended up being fun too - the driver was a bit bonkers and took us over some waves pretty fast. After the seeing Whitehaven beach we went snorkelling over what is the beginning of the reef. Unfortunately due to the Cyclone which had only passed just over a week ago, the water was really too opaque to see anything. That being said it was my first time snorkelling so it gave me the chance to get used to it before our proper great barrier reef trip later on that week. Snorkelling is just amazing - I didn't realise it would be so peaceful. Your just floating, and breathing under water, the only thing you can hear is your breath, and you're looking down and the most amazing things. Definitely for the bug for it and I hope to do it again on our travels elsewhere.
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| Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays |
After a few days chilling out in Airlie Beach we drove the 8.5 hours to Palm Cove. It was a pretty cool drive; but mainly consisted of fields of sugar cane and then more fields of sugar cane. The end was pretty along the sea and we stopped for some delicious lunch by the seafront. I had some local crab, made into a crab burger yum... Palm Cove itself is gorgeous. We spent a few days just relaxing on the beach which was walking distance from our airbnb and then the last day there we drove to see some wild wallabies and to a 'hippy' hill town called Kuranda. There we explored the market and went to a butterfly sanctuary which was wonderful. In the market I managed to find a cute and cheap beach dress, and we bought two types of fruit we hadn't tried; dragonfruit which is delicious and another one which I can't remember the name but it's green and apparently tastes of chocolate (have yet to find out how it tastes as the darn thing won't ripped!! Watch this space (edit: was horrible).
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| Idyllic Palm Cove |
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| Hippy Kuranda |
From Palm Cove we drove up to Port Douglas which is an awesome drive. It's hilly and along the sea and just so beautiful. We spent a few nights there, and the main reason for being there was to snorkel the great barrier reef, and to see the Daintree rainforest. I can't even describe how amazing it was to snorkel the reef. It was peaceful and magical and amazing. We saw so many types of fish, including even little 'nemos'. The tour we took included a ride in a half submerged submarine so we managed to take some photos from that. The boat ride to get to the 'outer reef' was interesting. It was really rocky, so much so that they were giving out free sea sickness tablets ... I already came prepared with mine of course, as I have no sea legs whatsoever. Managed to not feel sick with the tablets, a bit of luck, and by listening to music and staring at the horizon on the way there and the way back! Was peaceful actually. Even Richard took some tablets and he never feels ill on boats. The day after the boat ride we made our way to the Daintree rainforest, and more specifically Mossman Gorge. We did a 2 hour walk around there, it was spectacular. Thankfully we didn't see any horrible spiders or snakes (there are huge ones around there), but we did see a huge 'baby' golden orb spider near the entrance to the park. Lovely.
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| Outer Reef (it's much more colourful than this photo) |
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| Mossman Gorge in Daintree Rainforest |
After our time in Port Douglas, we flew to the Gold Coast where we spent the rest of our holiday. I wasn't too sure about the Gold Coast when I booked it; I usually prefer nature stuff to glitzy cities, but honestly it was so amazing. It's the best city beach I've ever seen and the city itself is spectacular. We spent a day at Wet and Wild water park - so much fun even I nearly died (not really) on the scariest ride ever. Otherwise we just enjoyed the view, the pool, the amazing airbnb, and the nightlife.
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| Gold Coast, view from our flat |
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| Gold Coast, view from the beach in Surfers Paradise |
After two amazing and action packed weeks we finally made our way back to lovely Sydney. We're currently staying in a snug little airbnb near Bondi beach. Next week we'll be staying in central Sydney where we'll explore more of the city.
Before I finish, just one more quick story I want to remember - on our first morning on Bondi beach we were having breakfast on the balcony in the sun. These two guys walk by holding a huge hot pink inflatable couch. They wave, we wave back. Later on we walk down to the beach and we see them far in the water ... sitting on the couch. They catch a good wave and surf the couch right back to shore. They were so happy they put their arms in the air before capsizing the couch. It was so hilarious and one of the best things I've ever seen. Ps I want a hot pink inflatable couch.
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