Traveling..

Traveling Australia..
Currently down in Sydney.. or Melbourne.. or in Outback WA :D
Will write soooon... :)
Kisses, K. xxx

Port Macquarie, 16.03

Day 3

If you’re looking for silence, you’ll probably find it in Port Macquarie. We arrive there on the 3rd night of our trip and as soon as the bus is gone, realize we’ve been left alone with our two massive suitcases. If you think buses run all night long as they do back on the GC, then you’d better think again, because there’s no transport whatsoever incl taxis. And the accommodation we’ve chosen offers no pick-up service after 9 pm. However, the kind voice on the phone says it’s a 5-minute walk around the corner, which encourages us to push and pull our suitcases up and down the streets, around the corner, to the Sundowner tourist park. The caravan park-style accommodation turns out to be pretty nice with some 4-bedded houses for backpackers opposite the pool area. And as the peak season is about to end and Port Macquarie is quiet, the 4-bedded house becomes our private residence for the next 2 nights.

Port Macquarie, a former penal colony for slack convicts who found life in Sydney Cove too easy, was the 3rd town to be established on the Australian mainland. However, apart from some frontier architecture Port looks everything but a penal colony. Gateway to the subtropical coast, with its palm trees, rolling parklands, and beach coves, it’s now a popular place for idle Aussies to serve time there. And by idle I mean retired in Port’s case :) Something like the GC for the youth, Port is the place to be for their oldies. And for me and Ann when we’re tired of the GC’s never-ending buzz :D Jokes aside, I guess a day is more than enough to be spent in Port. What’s there to see? The breakwall behind our tourist park, otherwise known as the People’s Gallery, where visitors have been painting the rocks for 10 years. The art on display covers everything from beer cans to touching love poems and odes to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. There aren’t many bare rocks left; so brand yours while you can. If you keep walking along the breakwall, pass the continuous stretch of beach coves, such as the Town Beach and lookout, Rocky Beach, Flynn’s Beach, and turn right somewhere close to Nobbys Beach, you’ll come to the Koala Hospital that cares for sick and injured koalas picked up around Port, surrounded by koala habitat. The admission is by donation, and believe me, it’s one of these places where you’d donate even if you were not asked to, unless you have a stone instead of your heart. The hot (subtropical (H)) afternoon ends by the pool back in the caravan park. Chill out..

Coffs Harbour, 14.-15.03

Day 1, 2

It’s Wednesday night. 9 pm. Our bus arrives at Coffs Harbour after a lazy 7-hour drive from Surfers Paradise. It’s our first stop along the coast. And the first night away from home. Yeah, incredible, isn’t it, I call it home. Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. Monte Carlo Av. 3 months is a short moment of time, yet long enough to feel as if you’ve always known this place, these streets, these shops, these beaches. These people. People. It’s probably what I’m gonna miss most. People I met, people I worked with, people I lived with. At least some of them. And the word never, as in ‘I’m probably never gonna see them again, at least most of them’ is just frightening. But then again, we chose to go. I chose to go. Although I had been asked to stay. Go where? Go traveling. Down to Sydney and Melbourne.

Coffs Harbour, the biggest town between Newcastle and the Gold Coast, is our first stop. We spend a night at Aussitel Backpackers and a whole long day walking around the city doing some serious sight-seeing. The good spirit of the first days on holiday. Eager to discover, to see, to hear, to experience. It’s a beautiful sunny morning, perfect for a little walk down the road to the marina and the nearby Muttonbird Island with a walking access from the harbour’s northern breakwall. Named for the more than 12 000 pairs of birds who migrate there from late August to early April, it marks the southern boundary of the Solitary Islands Marine Park. And although we don’t get to see many birds, we have a nice little breakfast picnic at the far end of the island, and think to ourselves: isn’t that just so much better than the past couple of mornings in the Chinatown (read: Terrace Café). It’s quiet, as far as my eyes can see and ears can hear. With a little exception to the 3 Italians photo-shooting at the cliff edge in front of us. At least they speak an understandable language, at a reasonable volume. So the calm morning may continue. The views on the harbour are beautiful. Safe from all the storms between the island and the shore, it’s like a little marine park of yachts, boats and little ships. Back from the island, we head to the city centre, and finding nothing special in there, walk some good 5 km to the Clog Barn and Big Banana, the two Coffs main attractions. The first one is a miniature Dutch village with windmills, a clog barn with a ridiculously large range of collectable spoons, plenty of clogs, and Big Oma’s coffee house. The fact that Amsterdam and the Netherlands are amongst the few places back in Europe that I’ve really wanted to visit but haven’t had the chance yet, makes this tiny clog barn a cute little discovery on our otherwise so Aussie adventure trip. And, Martijn, if you happen to read this, then yes, my next trip back home is gonna be down to visit you and the magic mushrooms ;) But back to Australia, back to Coffs Harbour, the ‘banana republic’, where banana growing is still big business. Welcome to ‘Bananas 101’. Lesson 1: as Monty Python was the first to discover, the Earth is banana-shaped. Lesson 2: banana oil is actually made from petroleum. Lesson 3: bananas are, in fact, herbs. Big Banana offers a funny mix of a theme park and a banana plantation, although I have no idea what’s ice skating and a snow slope got to do with banana growing – just another Aussie wonder I suppose :) Anyways, we walk through the park.. notice the banana bunches pointing up on the banana trees.. and just as there is nobody around, try one. Iaccc. Lesson 4: never try a green banana! Our 20-km walk ends up back on the jetty. It’s sunset. It’s holiday. It's beautiful. And we take the bus to the next city - Port Macquarie..

Goodbye, Surfers Paradise

It’s Queensland’s entertainment headquarters. It’s Queensland’s only late night shopping precinct seven days, year round. It's action packed. It’s exclusive fashion. It’s vibrant. It’s Surfers Paradise.

The truth is.. I've had enough of Surfers Paradise :)

Better than flowers

...

K: Hey! Do you know it's International Women's Day today?
G: Is it? (read: What on Earth is that?)
K: Yeah, March the 8th. Do you have it here?
G: Hmm. No? What do you do on Women's Day?
K: Men bring flowers. Boyfriends, fathers, male colleagues, secret admirers.. Or take their women out for dinner. You know ;)
G: Do they? We take you out on jetski :)
...



















South Stradbroke Island. Tipplers Resort. Poolside Bar. Early Thursday afternoon. Drinks. Lunch. Live music. Jetski. $50 15 minutes. We don't pay. We don't rent. We have our own (a) We are out on the jetski. Back on Stradbroke. South Stradbroke.. and North. We 'run ashore' on the southern tip of the island. It's beautiful and wild. Peaceful and untouched. It's.. here. Right here.. in my photos. Forever.

The Moon and The Sun

Be the light of the moon like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun like the light of the moon,
and the light of them both the moon and the sun.

Money makes money

Did you know that my Aussi bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia has a NetBank Saver Fast Start account for under 25 year olds? It's a flexible, high interest online savings account earning a great 6.00% p.a. with as little as $1,000. There are no bank fees, no fixed terms, and no limits on withdrawals. Plus interest is calculated daily on every dollar for balances of $1,000 or more. And it costs nothing to open or maintain this account.

So I transferred my 'millions' on my Netbank Saver account a few weeks ago and got my first savings today, on the 1st of March. It works! Easy as that. My money makes money!! Just made an extra boost, too. Today was a payday :)