The land of Oz!

After about 3 months of living in undeveloped countries, our arrival into Cairns, Australia was like a breath of fresh air....until we remembered South East Asia was really over. Once we arrived we were picked up by one of our friendly hostel workers, Roxy from Castaway Backpackers, which was a nice perk after spending the night in Darwin airport. How quickly we realized we were back in a developed country when Roxy asked for $50 for a one night stay in a double room, shared facilities. What?! We just paid $20 for our own private bungalow in the Gili islands - yes those days are long gone now.
Cairns itself was a great little town and we spent 2 comfortable nights at Castaways. We had expected the town to be much bigger but found that it was very quaint and quite walkable. The town thrives off the tourism industry from the Great Barrier Reef, which supposedly brings in over 60 billion dollars a year! That's easy to see after seeing the prices they charged for trips out the reef. Since we were only there really to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, we decided we would book a 2 day/1 night boat trip out the the reef costing us a whopping $300 each - you can imagine what a blow this was after living off of next to nothing in asia, but oh well, the reef is a once in a lifetime experience, right? Well, as you have previously read, the story earned its very own blog post. If you missed it, make sure you check it out!

Once out of Cairns, we decided to head up north to Port Douglass & Cape Tribulation. We had heard great things about the northern east coast of Australia so we dedicated a couple days there. We spent 2 nights in Port Douglass and spent the majority of the first day in and around the small town, checking out the local shops, St. Mary's Church and eating some fish & chips. It was a very beautiful, peaceful beach town and could easily see how people can spend weeks there. Unfortunatly, the weather wasn't beach perfect, so we headed about 14 km north to Mossman Gorge, a rainforest river valley.

Mossman Gorge

Not really knowing what a mossman was or heeding the advice from Roxy to take mosquito repellent, we comenced our trek through the mossman. The first stop was by the river where some tourists were braving the ice-cold river water. We should have known then by seeing the number of mosquito bites on the people in and around the water to go get mosquito repellent, but continued through the treck around the rainforest. The treck turned into a full on run as the mosquitos were attacking the minute you stood still. By the end of the 30 minute walk/run, Rayann must have had 20 bites on each of her legs. After that, the bug spray never left our side the remainder of the trip!

Shaun posing with the rainforest trees

The following day we made our way up to Daintree National Rainforest & Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was at the Discovery Center, where we had a chance to learn some really interesting facts about the rainforest plants and animals. This was a great introduction to common plants & animals found in the rainforest. We spent the remainder of teh day driving through the rainforest stopping at most walks, bearing the rain, and trecking through the paths of the rainforest. Unfortunately the rain never let up the entire day but that didn't stop us from exploring and walking - we did bring raincoats after all! Our drive up Cape Tribulation came to a hault when we came upon a tree down over the road. It was probably a good thing as our small Getz would not have been able to handle the dirt roads the remainder of the ride up north. Despite the rain, we had an incredible day in the rainforest.

So then it was off to Brisbane. I feel like we say this at almost every stop, but Brisbane is a city where we could see ourselves living for a couple of years. Clean, quiet, comfortable and easy to get around, Brisbane felt like home as soon as we arrived. We booked a hostel called Minto which was located just outside the city and is one of the best hostels of the trip. It was a completely redone huge colonial with a big front porch looking out over the skyline of Brisbane. We felt as if we were sleeping over a friends house complete with the dinasaur sheets and multi-coloured comforter. Walking around we saw all the different nooks and crannies of the city from the converted red-light district to the up and coming parts. Our favorite stop though was in the Botanical Gardens after a walk along the riverfront.

Brisbane Skyline

Day 2 was raining... again...not to fret though we found a great indoor activity. A brewery tour of the Australian famous XXXX "fourex" brewery was a blast. The whole facility tour was set up like a Disneyland theme ride complete with a revolving stage bringing us back to the beginnings of the brewery and commercials from the 70's and 80's. Needless to say there were numerous mullets in the 80's commercials!


Our most exciting activity took place on the third day. This was when we began our first relocation of a campervan from Brisbane to Byron Bay. Basically the way it works is that the campervan places out here need to get their vans from one location back to the other. So, what they do is give you the van for $5/day with a gas allowance and unlimited kilometers just as long as you get the van to the next destination by a certain date. We figured we were heading to Byron Bay anyway so why not give it a try. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! The campervan was a Britz company van complete with a sink, stove, table, and a fold out double bed. We had 3 days to get the camper down to Byron Bay, so we slowly made our way down stopping at the beautiful beachside town of Coolangata with breathtaking views of the ocean and Surfers Paradise in the background. We eventually made it down to Byron Bay which was no less stunning. The whole Gold Coast is truely a surfers paradise. At almost every turn there is a new bay with a perfect break filled with hudreds of surfers. Byron Bay had a great little beach with a cool downtown area filled with cafes and restaraunts. Unfortunately we were there a few weeks too early as they were getting ready for the Byron Bay Blues Festival which had an epic linup. No worries though we had a great time there regardless.

Byron Bay

So, we liked our first cmapervan so much we decided to relocate another one from Brisbane down to Sydney! What we did was rented a car in Byron Bay, drove back to Brisbane, picked up the second camper, split up and drove both the camper and the car to Byron to drop the rental car off before heading to Sydney. Crazy, I know, but well worth it as our next relocation vehicle was a Mercedes Sprinter campervan that had everything from a shower and toilet to a flat screen tv!! This was our home for the next 3 days. We did everything from sleeping and eating in it, to watching old reruns of Charlies Angels on satelite tv. After speniding a cloudy return afternoon in Byron we decided that we needed some time away form the ocean so we decided that our next stop should be Hunter Valley. This is thier equivelent of California's Napa Valley except the awesome fact that they do not charge for tastings. A much better way for customers to sample all the wines that they have to offer :) Not only do they give the tastings for free but they also give you generous fills of the glass. At numerous wineries we had to ask them to stop filling our glasses because we were getting too tipsey. A funny sidenote is that Rayann actually recognized a few of the wineries that we stopped at from when she came out to Sydney while working on a project for Accenture..... Deja Vu! After a great day of wine tasting we parked the camper, cracked open a bottle of Cabernet Sovinough, ate some cheese and crackers and cooked up a couple of steaks on the grill that we got from the local butcher. Not a bad evening at all!

Sydney Skyline

Yet another great Austalian city= Sydney. It has a very similar vibe to that of Brisbane, with it's Botanical Gardens and it's proximaty to water. Except it is much larger and you can definitely tell you are in a big city. However it is just as clean and has just as much character. Of course a visit to Sydney is not complete without a photo op in front of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We sampled the local brews, walked through the Botanical Garden right at dark where we were joined by thousands of flying fruit bats, and visited local wombats that came down form the trees to hunt around at night. The day was topped off by sampling Harry's Cafe's world famous meat pies topped with whipped potatoes, mashed peas and gravy!

Because we were both sick of driving we decided to join a 1 day charter to the Blue Mountains the following day. We wanted to take a break, but did not want to miss out on this major attraction. After only a couple of hours we realized that guided tours are not our cup of tea, having to abide by a rigid timeline and other peoples speeds. Regardless we did get to see the spectacular Blue Mountains and the surrounding forests and aboriginal sights. The icing on the cake was definitely our last stop where we got to stop off and see 3-4 wild kangaroos feeding by a river bed. What is amazing about Australia is how different the animals truely are here. Because the continent broke away form the other land masses so early, it took a much different evolutionary path than the rest of the world. The locals are very proud of the fact that they are host to 6 of the 8 deadliest snakes on the planet, along with a varity of reptiles and spiders to boot.

Before leaving Australia we had one more day to burn before catching a flight to New Zealand. So, of course we headed over to the Sydney fish market. We got one of the best, and surprisingly cheapest feasts all trip. It consisted of the freshest sashimi we have ever eaten, cut from the fish right in front of us, a dozen local oysters, and a fried platter for 2 filled with fish, squid, scallops and french fries (or chips as they are called out here). We got on the plane nice and full after that amazing seafood feast!

Enjoy the photos! Link to Australia photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/rayann.torres/Australia#