Tackling the East Coast of Australia: Sydney - Cairns
'If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it...'
The Adventures of Cholly continue and following our time in New Zealand, we headed back to Australia to make our way up the East Coast over 3 weeks and 3 days. We flew in to Sydney from Christchurch where we spent our first 4 nights at 790 on George St Backpackers. We had a private double room, nothing fancy but a great base in a good location. We spent the majority of our first day in 'Happy Travels' planning our trip up the coast. As we only had a limited amount of time we wanted to make sure we could fit in everything that we wanted to do as well as ensuring we made it up to Cairns in time for our next flight, so whilst winging it is nice we ended up pre-booking nearly all of our activities and accommodation. Once that was sorted we took ourselves on a night time walking tour of the city to get our first glimpse of all the major sights - we ended up walking around eight miles!
The next day we got up early and finished off our walking tour (in the rain) of the main sights before getting a very choppy ferry over to Manly. If you're visiting Sydney definitely make time to head over to Manly, it's a beautiful little place. We sat on Manly Beach watching the surfers when the sun finally made an appearance! We then walked to Shelly Beach where we had a good laugh at a man trying to get his dog to move who flat out refused - he even tried coaxing him with coffee haha. We walked back and had some food overlooking Manly beach before getting an ice cream and getting the ferry back to Sydney. I made the most of the free Wi-Fi on-board as FaceTimed my mum as we came in to Sydney so she could see the bridge and opera house.
Random bit of information: Slurpees from 7/11 were our saviour throughout our time in Oz - they're only one dollar each and soo refreshing when you need to cool down from the heat!
We'd clocked up another eight miles of walking by the time we got back to the hostel so inevitably we fell asleep, waking up at 9:45pm. An hour later the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the building as firemen quickly entered. Turns out someone had been spraying deodorant too close to the fire alarm on the floor above us... ahh good old hostel life, like being back in halls at university!
On our next day we took the bus to Bondi Beach. it was the first real sunny day we'd had - I'd waited five weeks for this so of course the bikini and dress were on! We spent a little while at the beach having a dip in the sea - after spending some time laughing at a woman getting washed up by the waves of course karma came back and hit me in the form of monster waves... I got washed up like a beached whale on the sand! After managing to get my bearings, adjust my swimwear and make it out of the sea in one piece we set off to tackle the 6km Bondi - Coogee Beach coastal walk. The walk itself was lovely although a little tough in places as it went up and down hills. I Must say I felt a little out of shape as I panted and had people running passed me! Once we made it to Coogee we parked ourselves in a cafe on the beach and had a well deserved drink and bite to eat before heading back into central Sydney where it was time for our first laundry session in Aus and I said goodbye to my jeans (which had gone from full jeans to jeans with a rip in the knee) and my beloved coat (I can hear your cheers of joy from here mum!).
I was up early again on our last day in Sydney to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, which I got as a present from The Sisterhood (Tory, Laura, Lucy, Kim, Arps, Rach & Naheed). It was amazing and I was so lucky to get a great group and fab guide. It turns out that when they originally built the bridge they only expected it to last 85 years... this year is the 85th anniversary and I did my climb on Friday 13th... haha talk about living life on the edge!
Rainbow Beach was our gateway for our 4x4 tag a long tour in Fraser Island. We did the two days, two nights tour and had the best time. We had such a good car - there were eight of us in total. It was very strange at first driving along the beach in the waves but we had the music blasting and we loved it! It was nice to get a drive in too after two months without driving! We did lots of cool stuff whilst we were there like swam in Lake Wabby and the stunning Lake McKenzie, and went down Eli creek in rubber rings and enjoyed the champagne pools. It really is a beautiful island and a must see! I'd definitely suggest doing a 4x4 tag a long tour rather than a guided tour in one of the big buses, it definitely wouldn't be the same! We also camped and had to cook our own food as a car group. We experienced quite a bit of rain whilst we were there... mostly at night though so it wasn't too bad!
Our second and last overnight bus was from Rainbow Beach to Airlie Beach. It was 14 hours long but a lot better than our first overnight bus as we had working USB ports and comfy leather seats. As soon as we arrived into Airlie Beach we headed for our hostel which we was going to be staying at after our trip to the Witsundays so that we could store our luggage and valuables and have a much needed shower. We then set sail for our two days, two nights trip around the beautiful Whitsundays on the Tongarra boat. Wow, the Whitsundays really is just how the pictures show it to be, it truly is paradise! We had such an amazing time - we went snorkelling, visited the infamous Whitehaven beach and Road the red shark (a banana boat). What was really cool about our boat was that we got to sleep outside on the deck, it meant early mornings because of the sunrise but we would wake up to see turtles swimming around the boat which was pretty incredible!
When we got back to Airlie Beach and into our hostel room, I felt like I was still rocking from the boat! Luckily it went after a couple of hours. We spent our next two nights in Airlie Beach just relaxing and not doing a whole lot, which is what we needed after a busy week!
Our East Coast trip ended in Cairns where we spent our final four nights. On our first day we did a day trip to Atherton Tablelands where we got to see and swim in a number of waterfalls (including the famous Herbal Essences ad Millaa Millaa waterfall) and we got to act like big kids on a natural waterslide. We also met some really great people on the trip who we went out with that night. It also turned out that one couple, Ryan & Sophie, were heading to Bali the day before us so we made plans to meet up once we were in Bali!
We headed to the Great Barrier Reef on our second day for what was supposed to be a day of snorkelling and an introductory dive. Unfortunately as I burst one of my ear drums when I was younger, they wouldn't let me take part in the dive unless I had confirmation from a doctor that the scar tissue in my ear was strong enough to handle the pressure, so I just snorkelled. It turned out that I ended up getting to see a lot more than the majority of the divers did! We went to two different spots and I managed to see two turtles, a stingray, a family of clown fish, lots of other amazing fish and a starfish. I loved it even though I'm normally not good with the sea, though it did tire me out as the currents were strong and swimming back to the boat was hard work!
Our last two days were spent just chilling and catching up on things such as laundry ready to move on to Bali. We also had to spend some time making a brief plan and booking our first accommodation in Bali as we hadn't done it yet.
So that's it, another chapter of #chollyontour comes to an end as we say goodbye to Australia and hello to Bali where we will spend 10 nights... bring on new cultures, climates and experiences!
Until the next post,
#chollyontour xxx
The Adventures of Cholly continue and following our time in New Zealand, we headed back to Australia to make our way up the East Coast over 3 weeks and 3 days. We flew in to Sydney from Christchurch where we spent our first 4 nights at 790 on George St Backpackers. We had a private double room, nothing fancy but a great base in a good location. We spent the majority of our first day in 'Happy Travels' planning our trip up the coast. As we only had a limited amount of time we wanted to make sure we could fit in everything that we wanted to do as well as ensuring we made it up to Cairns in time for our next flight, so whilst winging it is nice we ended up pre-booking nearly all of our activities and accommodation. Once that was sorted we took ourselves on a night time walking tour of the city to get our first glimpse of all the major sights - we ended up walking around eight miles!
The next day we got up early and finished off our walking tour (in the rain) of the main sights before getting a very choppy ferry over to Manly. If you're visiting Sydney definitely make time to head over to Manly, it's a beautiful little place. We sat on Manly Beach watching the surfers when the sun finally made an appearance! We then walked to Shelly Beach where we had a good laugh at a man trying to get his dog to move who flat out refused - he even tried coaxing him with coffee haha. We walked back and had some food overlooking Manly beach before getting an ice cream and getting the ferry back to Sydney. I made the most of the free Wi-Fi on-board as FaceTimed my mum as we came in to Sydney so she could see the bridge and opera house.
Random bit of information: Slurpees from 7/11 were our saviour throughout our time in Oz - they're only one dollar each and soo refreshing when you need to cool down from the heat!
We'd clocked up another eight miles of walking by the time we got back to the hostel so inevitably we fell asleep, waking up at 9:45pm. An hour later the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the building as firemen quickly entered. Turns out someone had been spraying deodorant too close to the fire alarm on the floor above us... ahh good old hostel life, like being back in halls at university!
On our next day we took the bus to Bondi Beach. it was the first real sunny day we'd had - I'd waited five weeks for this so of course the bikini and dress were on! We spent a little while at the beach having a dip in the sea - after spending some time laughing at a woman getting washed up by the waves of course karma came back and hit me in the form of monster waves... I got washed up like a beached whale on the sand! After managing to get my bearings, adjust my swimwear and make it out of the sea in one piece we set off to tackle the 6km Bondi - Coogee Beach coastal walk. The walk itself was lovely although a little tough in places as it went up and down hills. I Must say I felt a little out of shape as I panted and had people running passed me! Once we made it to Coogee we parked ourselves in a cafe on the beach and had a well deserved drink and bite to eat before heading back into central Sydney where it was time for our first laundry session in Aus and I said goodbye to my jeans (which had gone from full jeans to jeans with a rip in the knee) and my beloved coat (I can hear your cheers of joy from here mum!).
I was up early again on our last day in Sydney to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, which I got as a present from The Sisterhood (Tory, Laura, Lucy, Kim, Arps, Rach & Naheed). It was amazing and I was so lucky to get a great group and fab guide. It turns out that when they originally built the bridge they only expected it to last 85 years... this year is the 85th anniversary and I did my climb on Friday 13th... haha talk about living life on the edge!
That night we experienced our first overnight greyhound bus to Byron Bay, a steady 13 hours!! It wasn't the nicest experience... we got a bus where no USB portals worked so we couldn't charge our phones to watch Netflix, it smelt and it was difficult and uncomfortable to sleep... and that's coming from me who has in the past been referred to as 'mattress back' and who can normally sleep anywhere! The odds were definitely against us but I guess that's what you get for travelling on Friday 13th hey!
After what seemed like a lifetime we arrived very bleary eyed into Byron Bay. Luckily for us it wasn't raining like it said it would be and we were thrown straight into our 3 hour surf lesson which was part of a package we had with Backpackers Inn where we stayed. Neither of us had surfed before but we both loved it and even managed to stand up! The boards are pretty heavy and I had a few big wipe outs! I really don't understand how people pull off the whole 'surfer chick' look, every time I came up out of the water from a fall I was spluttering salt water, hair all stuck around my face, and I definitely wouldn't of been able to run Baywatch style with my board, it was more of a drag it along the sand set up! We also got to see dolphins and whales in the distance as we surfed which was pretty cool!
Once we got into our dorm room it started to rain monsoon style and it didn't stop for the rest of the day. Luckily, we were so tired from the bus and our surfing lesson that we ended up sleeping for the majority of the rest of the day - other than waking up for the free BBQ of course!
We were supposed to go on a whale watching boat trip whilst in Byron Bay but due to the storm and the 'swell' it got cancelled. So instead we decided to do the coastal walk to the lighthouse after we'd checked in to Aquarius, our new hostel. The walk was great if not a little tough considering my body was already crying from the surfing lesson, but we got to see the most easterly point on Australia, some great views and even a whale!
On our last day in Byron we got up early so that Chris could go body boarding and then we got the bus to our next destination - Surfers Paradise.
Fun fact - the clocks go back an hour when you move from New South Wales to Queensland... we found this out on our bus journey when I turned to Chris and said 'get your stuff together we're getting off in 10 minutes', then looked at the time on my phone confused as to why we'd gone back an hour... 'sit back down, we've still got 50 minutes to go!' Haha
I'm sure Surfers Paradise, which is dubbed the Miami of Australia, is an awesome place to be when it's sunny but unfortunately for us it didn't stop raining for the whole 24 hours we were there. But, it did give us the opportunity to take a breather and get some rest!
We stayed at Bunk hostel and shared a room with two guys from Uruguay. Chris does this thing whenever we meet people from different countries and they say where they're from, Chris always responds by randomly saying footballers names who are from that country - in this instance, Suarez haha. You can always find a common ground with people from around the world through football!
For the foodie lovers - If you're ever in Australia make sure you seek out a 'Pancake on the rocks' restaurant... me and Chris got funny looks from the noises we made eating our raspberry and white chocolate pancakes, the best way to spend a rainy day in Surfers Paradise!
We didn't have long in Brisbane, just one night. We got there late so we didn't do anything that day, meaning the next morning we got up early, donned our walking shoes and set off to view the sights. We did want to tag onto a free walking tour but when we got to the meeting point no one turned up so we ended up doing our own instead! We managed to get around the majority of the main sights before our bus to Noosa.
Funny fact - I still giggle at the fact Aussies call flip flops 'things'... so bizarre but I love it!
We both fell in love with Noosa and wished we could have spent more time there. It's weird to explain but we got there at night and as we walked down the Main Street seeing it all lit up, I got goose bumps and felt so at peace and at home. It really reminds me of Villamoura in Portugal, a place I have visited so many times in the past with my family and which I love. The cute little restaurants, the relaxed vibe, it was just perfect. We spent 2 nights here although we only really had one full day here. unfortunately we couldn't get on to a trip to the Everglades as they were all fully booked due to the recent bad weather meaning earlier trips were postponed, so instead we walked up Noosa hill to the amazing Laguna look out. The sun finally came out and we got to see some great views over the whole of Noosa. We then headed to the beach where we decided to hire body boards. That turned out to be a big mistake because the waves were crazy big! I got taken out by a wave, finally coming back up with my bikini round my waist and ankles, only to find Chris had disappeared! I started to frantically call out for him and search the beach/sea when a life guard ran passed me and the tannoy went to say the life guard had entered the water to do a rescue. Turns out Chris had got swept out on his board and couldn't get back in! Luckily he was OK and he returned to me who was stood sobbing on the beach! Talk about two brits abroad, inbetweeners style! So that was the end of our sea time and we swiftly took the body boards back. We then decided to do the coastal walk to hell's gates which was nice and tame compared to our earlier events. We finished off our eventful day with a sunset cruise on the river which was beautiful and it was great to see all the million dollar houses - picked out a few of my future homes... haha if only!
After what seemed like a lifetime we arrived very bleary eyed into Byron Bay. Luckily for us it wasn't raining like it said it would be and we were thrown straight into our 3 hour surf lesson which was part of a package we had with Backpackers Inn where we stayed. Neither of us had surfed before but we both loved it and even managed to stand up! The boards are pretty heavy and I had a few big wipe outs! I really don't understand how people pull off the whole 'surfer chick' look, every time I came up out of the water from a fall I was spluttering salt water, hair all stuck around my face, and I definitely wouldn't of been able to run Baywatch style with my board, it was more of a drag it along the sand set up! We also got to see dolphins and whales in the distance as we surfed which was pretty cool!
Once we got into our dorm room it started to rain monsoon style and it didn't stop for the rest of the day. Luckily, we were so tired from the bus and our surfing lesson that we ended up sleeping for the majority of the rest of the day - other than waking up for the free BBQ of course!
We were supposed to go on a whale watching boat trip whilst in Byron Bay but due to the storm and the 'swell' it got cancelled. So instead we decided to do the coastal walk to the lighthouse after we'd checked in to Aquarius, our new hostel. The walk was great if not a little tough considering my body was already crying from the surfing lesson, but we got to see the most easterly point on Australia, some great views and even a whale!
On our last day in Byron we got up early so that Chris could go body boarding and then we got the bus to our next destination - Surfers Paradise.
Fun fact - the clocks go back an hour when you move from New South Wales to Queensland... we found this out on our bus journey when I turned to Chris and said 'get your stuff together we're getting off in 10 minutes', then looked at the time on my phone confused as to why we'd gone back an hour... 'sit back down, we've still got 50 minutes to go!' Haha
I'm sure Surfers Paradise, which is dubbed the Miami of Australia, is an awesome place to be when it's sunny but unfortunately for us it didn't stop raining for the whole 24 hours we were there. But, it did give us the opportunity to take a breather and get some rest!
We stayed at Bunk hostel and shared a room with two guys from Uruguay. Chris does this thing whenever we meet people from different countries and they say where they're from, Chris always responds by randomly saying footballers names who are from that country - in this instance, Suarez haha. You can always find a common ground with people from around the world through football!
For the foodie lovers - If you're ever in Australia make sure you seek out a 'Pancake on the rocks' restaurant... me and Chris got funny looks from the noises we made eating our raspberry and white chocolate pancakes, the best way to spend a rainy day in Surfers Paradise!
We didn't have long in Brisbane, just one night. We got there late so we didn't do anything that day, meaning the next morning we got up early, donned our walking shoes and set off to view the sights. We did want to tag onto a free walking tour but when we got to the meeting point no one turned up so we ended up doing our own instead! We managed to get around the majority of the main sights before our bus to Noosa.
Funny fact - I still giggle at the fact Aussies call flip flops 'things'... so bizarre but I love it!
We both fell in love with Noosa and wished we could have spent more time there. It's weird to explain but we got there at night and as we walked down the Main Street seeing it all lit up, I got goose bumps and felt so at peace and at home. It really reminds me of Villamoura in Portugal, a place I have visited so many times in the past with my family and which I love. The cute little restaurants, the relaxed vibe, it was just perfect. We spent 2 nights here although we only really had one full day here. unfortunately we couldn't get on to a trip to the Everglades as they were all fully booked due to the recent bad weather meaning earlier trips were postponed, so instead we walked up Noosa hill to the amazing Laguna look out. The sun finally came out and we got to see some great views over the whole of Noosa. We then headed to the beach where we decided to hire body boards. That turned out to be a big mistake because the waves were crazy big! I got taken out by a wave, finally coming back up with my bikini round my waist and ankles, only to find Chris had disappeared! I started to frantically call out for him and search the beach/sea when a life guard ran passed me and the tannoy went to say the life guard had entered the water to do a rescue. Turns out Chris had got swept out on his board and couldn't get back in! Luckily he was OK and he returned to me who was stood sobbing on the beach! Talk about two brits abroad, inbetweeners style! So that was the end of our sea time and we swiftly took the body boards back. We then decided to do the coastal walk to hell's gates which was nice and tame compared to our earlier events. We finished off our eventful day with a sunset cruise on the river which was beautiful and it was great to see all the million dollar houses - picked out a few of my future homes... haha if only!
Rainbow Beach was our gateway for our 4x4 tag a long tour in Fraser Island. We did the two days, two nights tour and had the best time. We had such a good car - there were eight of us in total. It was very strange at first driving along the beach in the waves but we had the music blasting and we loved it! It was nice to get a drive in too after two months without driving! We did lots of cool stuff whilst we were there like swam in Lake Wabby and the stunning Lake McKenzie, and went down Eli creek in rubber rings and enjoyed the champagne pools. It really is a beautiful island and a must see! I'd definitely suggest doing a 4x4 tag a long tour rather than a guided tour in one of the big buses, it definitely wouldn't be the same! We also camped and had to cook our own food as a car group. We experienced quite a bit of rain whilst we were there... mostly at night though so it wasn't too bad!
Our second and last overnight bus was from Rainbow Beach to Airlie Beach. It was 14 hours long but a lot better than our first overnight bus as we had working USB ports and comfy leather seats. As soon as we arrived into Airlie Beach we headed for our hostel which we was going to be staying at after our trip to the Witsundays so that we could store our luggage and valuables and have a much needed shower. We then set sail for our two days, two nights trip around the beautiful Whitsundays on the Tongarra boat. Wow, the Whitsundays really is just how the pictures show it to be, it truly is paradise! We had such an amazing time - we went snorkelling, visited the infamous Whitehaven beach and Road the red shark (a banana boat). What was really cool about our boat was that we got to sleep outside on the deck, it meant early mornings because of the sunrise but we would wake up to see turtles swimming around the boat which was pretty incredible!
When we got back to Airlie Beach and into our hostel room, I felt like I was still rocking from the boat! Luckily it went after a couple of hours. We spent our next two nights in Airlie Beach just relaxing and not doing a whole lot, which is what we needed after a busy week!
Magnetic island, the place where one of my childhood dreams came true! We only had one night on magnetic island, which ended up being cut short even more due to our bus arriving into Airlie Beach late. We ended up missing the boat we were supposed to get on by about five minutes, we watched as it sailed off, so we had to wait an hour and a half more for the next one. It turned out just under 24 hours on magnetic island was a perfect amount of time for us (although if you wanted to chill you could definitely spend longer here!), instead of relying on the buses to get us around the island, knowing we were short of time, Chris hired us a car. Not just any car... a fully pink Barbie car! It was amazing - I'm not sure who loved it more, me or Chris! It meant that we could get around easily and visit lots of different places. On the first day we pretty much drove the entire main road up to horseshoe bay then down to picnic bay. We stopped off at horseshoe bay for a while. We also went to see the wallabies which was awesome and even got to feed them! Some even had little joeys in their pouches. That night we chilled at the hostel, had some food and took part in the beer pong competition, which we didn't do too well at!
The next day we got up at 6am to go and do the Forts Walk. It took around an hour and a half and it literally killed us off. It was so tough in the heat. We also didn't get to see any koalas like you normally can do on the walk but we did get some special views from the top! When we got back to the hostel to shower and check out we discovered that we'd accidentally locked our five German room mates in the room... turns out if you lock the sliding door from the outside people inside cannot open it! They had to call reception to get them to let them out... oops! We spent our last few hours on Magnetic Island at the Koala Village at Bungalow Bay where we got to hold a whole host of animals including a turtle, a lizard, a crocodile, a snake and of course a koala - it was a great way to end our time on the island and I'd definitely recommend people do it if they ever go!
Note: if you want to see the whole island you'd have to hire a 4x4 not a Barbie car as they're not allowed to go on the tracks to get to the other areas of the island.
Note: if you want to see the whole island you'd have to hire a 4x4 not a Barbie car as they're not allowed to go on the tracks to get to the other areas of the island.
Our East Coast trip ended in Cairns where we spent our final four nights. On our first day we did a day trip to Atherton Tablelands where we got to see and swim in a number of waterfalls (including the famous Herbal Essences ad Millaa Millaa waterfall) and we got to act like big kids on a natural waterslide. We also met some really great people on the trip who we went out with that night. It also turned out that one couple, Ryan & Sophie, were heading to Bali the day before us so we made plans to meet up once we were in Bali!
We headed to the Great Barrier Reef on our second day for what was supposed to be a day of snorkelling and an introductory dive. Unfortunately as I burst one of my ear drums when I was younger, they wouldn't let me take part in the dive unless I had confirmation from a doctor that the scar tissue in my ear was strong enough to handle the pressure, so I just snorkelled. It turned out that I ended up getting to see a lot more than the majority of the divers did! We went to two different spots and I managed to see two turtles, a stingray, a family of clown fish, lots of other amazing fish and a starfish. I loved it even though I'm normally not good with the sea, though it did tire me out as the currents were strong and swimming back to the boat was hard work!
Our last two days were spent just chilling and catching up on things such as laundry ready to move on to Bali. We also had to spend some time making a brief plan and booking our first accommodation in Bali as we hadn't done it yet.
So that's it, another chapter of #chollyontour comes to an end as we say goodbye to Australia and hello to Bali where we will spend 10 nights... bring on new cultures, climates and experiences!
Until the next post,
#chollyontour xxx
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