My Trip To Australia, New Zealand and Asia

Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise

Location: some Auckland Cybercafe, New Zealand
Weather: Sunny and mild

The next stop was Byron Bay and the 'Backpackers Village'. There had been a cyclone a few weeks earlier and the surf was still huge, waves even bigger than at Pt MacQ. The dudes at the hostel said something about it being 'too dangerous' for us to use their surf-boards and boogie-boards! obviously the idiots didn't know they were dealing with Swiss Marcus and me, the Kings of wave-jumping!
Being world champions we spent about 4 hours each day in the water and got swept about 3kms down the beach because, in addition to the waves, there was a very strong rip-tide and current (the hostel also used this as an excuse not to let us borrow their boards). We had some wave-jumping competition one day from these 2 blokes, but they soon gave up after realising that they were no match! Has to be said Marcus was a total nutter on the last day and lept into a wave that must've been about 20feet high, I'm surprised he is still alive after this.
Anyways, being such superstars, we were very popular in Byron Bay. Especially with the hot Swedish, Dutch and German girls that happened to frequent the nightclubs. It was also really good when people kept walking up the next day and saying 'hello' and not remembering who they were exactly.

All in all Byron was a great place and so was the weather, even though I got a bit sunburnt. And at least the hostel let us hire a bike to go to the famous lighthouse...I must go back there one day.

After 3 days in Byron I finally moved onto Surfers Paradise, which is basically the Benidorm of Australia, skyscraper hotels, big sandy beaches and people everywhere. Central Surfers itself is a patrolled beach which meant that when I finally got to use a boogie-board I was stopped from going out to the best waves by a policeman on a jetski! oh well.

By JamesReed on 29.03.04 @ 06:10 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Port MacQuarie and Coff's Harbour

Location: Surfers Paradise Transit centre
Weather: Hot and sunny

Got to the quiet seaside resort of Port MacQuarie late at night and ran into a dude from Basal called Swiss Marcus, basically our reputation must've proceeded us because we were the only 2 people on the whole train that were told to get lost by all the popular hostels. Eventually some place called the Sundowner camp site, let us stay and gave us our own cabin near the beach, probably the best place to stay in town. Whilst in Port MacQuarie we visited a Koala hospital (our German neighbour worked there) and went wave jumping in giant surf (10ft waves) in a rain storm until after dark. On the way back we ran into two Mormons who were trapped by the rain in a shelter, which was most amusing.

After 2 days we moved onto Coff's Harbour and stayed at the YHA there, there wasn't that much to see at Coff's except some very rough seas, but after asking some Aussie chicks the way we found a local pub, had a few beers and met Erwin the Bavarian tuna-fisherman and his 'dole-bludging' friends, which was fun!


By JamesReed on 25.03.04 @ 11:20 PM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Moving Northwards at last

Location: Byron Bay Fuji free 1 hour internet on Wednesday shop
Weather: Hot and windy, but has rained quite a bit

Went back to Sydney again to see my friends Chrissy, Paddy, Gemma, Melissa & Nick. Whilst there I checked out Botany Bay where my (alleged) ancestor Captain Cook discovered and first landed in Australia. I had a short walk along the beach and along the heritage trail and saw the landing spot and monument, but I can understand why he moved onto Sydney after a few days, because it's not the most friendly coast around, lots of rocks and shallow water. Also visited the fine and salubrious areas of Kings Cross and Oxford Street - basically Sydney's equivalent to Soho. Also Chrissie took me on a day trip to Palm Beach - which is the beach where Home & Away is filmed! even saw the wire fence in the intro.

By JamesReed on 24.03.04 @ 02:12 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Went to Canberra

Location: Sydney
Weather: Warmish

On 7th March, I got a train from Melbourne to the Australian capital - Canberra. Everybody has told me this would be the most boring place on earth, but it was actually quite good, well except for the 5 hour train and then 3 hour bus ride to get there. OK, it's a bit like that fine Milton Keynes place because it's a new town and all the roads are planned out(although they're in a circular design, not a grid system), but the scenary and weather is totally different, there are mountains in the background and hundreds of cockatoos in the trees!
I visited the New Parliament and got to see PM John Howard at question time, which was most entertaining(the govt kicked the opposition all over the shop!) and the view from the grass roof of that building is spectacular - you get a 360 degree landscape of the bushland around Canberra! I also saw the Old Parliament building, the Australian War Memorial(and saw my name on the role of honour!), the National Gallery of Australia(they had a Monet I considered buying), Questacon - the science museum and the oddly/controversially shaped National Museum of Australia(they had an Outlaw exhibition there, but it wasn't that good except I discovered my friend Ben Hall is really a famous 19th century bush-ranger).
I stayed with Anne and Richard(my cousin's cousin's...I think). Along with their 4 children - Claire, Giles, Hilary and William, two crazy travelling Dutch dudes - Johan and Timon and their mental terrorist-style van - were also staying at the house so it was a most amusing place to be. Because we're all of similar age(or rather I am of similar mental age) to Johan, Timon, Claire and Giles, I got to see some of the Canberra night life at the Phoenix and Holy Grail bars in the civic centre, which was pretty good, I missed the famous Wig & Pen though and it's 12 home-brewed beers, oh well, something for next time


By JamesReed on 17.03.04 @ 12:34 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Saw Ramsey Street and the Grand Prix

Location: Melbourne
Weather: Hot n'Sunny

Went on the Neighbours Tour with my good English friend David. It wasn't that great to be honest. You just go to Ramsey Street, a real street called Pin Oak or something that looks different from the show and have fun seeing and taking photos of the houses and Erinsborough High. David had 2 free grandstand tickets for Thursday and Friday of the Melbourne Grand Prix and was kind enough to give them to me, so I went to that with him as well! I saw Michael Shumacher interviewed and nearly got his autograph, I also saw Rubens Baricello, Fisicella, Aussie star Mark Webber and did get the autographs of the Sauber drivers and owner. I found the racing pretty awesome as I've never seen motor-racing before and it was very fast and loud, there was no F1 on the Thursday, but the V8 Supercars, Carerra's and classics were good. Friday was great though as there were two F1 practice sessions, there were also about 10 times as many people on the Friday as on the Thursday. Schumacher broke the course record on his first lap, which was incredible!



By JamesReed on 14.03.04 @ 01:38 PM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Back in Melbourne

Location: Melbourne Cyber Lounge Elizabeth St
Weather: Sunny and Warm

Well I decided to stay in Tasy a bit longer than planned, flew back from Launceston yesterday, after spending a few days in Hobart and 5 days driving around in an automatic 1980's Toyota Corona! reminded me a lot of my first car, most excellent. First day I drove 20kms along a loose gravel road, stones flying everywhere, almost killing the car's suspension and writing off the windscreen to get to the most southern part of Tasy, Cockle Creek and Hastings Cave on the way. Even better in this remote area I almost ran out of petrol (the empty light went on!) and I had to coast down several hills to make it another 25kms or so to a petrol station at 6.40pm, just in time, since they all close at 7pm! I also went on 2 scary ghost tours, one at Port Arthur prison and one in Launceston (Australia's 3rd oldest city). Saw little penguins at fantastic Bicheno beach, was staggered by the biggest waves I've ever seen at the amazing Wineglass Bay (definitely one of the world's top 10 beaches, I did try to swim there but it was a bit mental) at Freycinet National Park, visited a Tasy Devil park (they get very excited at feeding time and it is not recommended to try to pat them unless you want your hand bitten off) and saw some very tall trees and waterfalls at Mt Field national park. Being a nutter I slept in the car for 4 days out of 5 and had to drive back to Hobart on the 2nd day to buy a sleeping bag after finding the temperature drops to below zero in the mornings! hooray!
In Launceston I had a go at cable hang-gliding - basically you get strapped to a hang glider and speed over a cliff for 20 seconds attached to a cable! see http://www.cablehanggliding.com.au

I also discovered a great new game called Possum Squash! you drive along at high speed in the pitch dark (there are no street or house lights in most of Tasmania), headlights full on and try to run over as many possums as possible! The locals are very good at this, judging by the amount of roadkill about and because the poor things don't actually run away from cars and the brakes on the Toyota Corona were non-existant, I too found it very hard to dodge them!

All in all, Tasmania - land of the people with 2 heads (as the mainland Aussie's say), is an awesome place, I recommend it to anybody, I would've stayed longer if I could! But now I'm back in Melbourne until Friday or Saturday to see the Grand Prix, then I'm off to Canberra!



By JamesReed on 02.03.04 @ 09:49 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]