Monday, 1 July 2013

Byron Bay, NSW & The Gold Coast, QLD


It became apparent that we had a week off uni and everyone, especially the exchange students went into hyper drive trying to figure out where they were going to go. I really wanted to make the most of it and see a bit more of Australia but I was running low on funds at this point.

I really wanted to go to Tasmania and started looking into it but it was going to be extremely expensive. So here I am surrounded by people going on and on about where they’re going and things they’re gonna be doing and I’m just thinking I want to go SOMEWHERE. So I started speaking to one of my housemates; Lisa about her trip as I knew she was going to Byron Bay and The Gold Coast. She went through the prices of things with me and I worked out I could probably scrape together enough to go.

My dreams were very quickly shat on though by my Research Methods lecturer John White when he told me I had a compulsory trip to the Grampians during that time. I just thought, how bloody typical! Well it turned out that there were two groups going and it meant I would have to either miss the first half of the trip and have a bit of time in The Gold Coast or to miss the second half and have slightly longer in Byron. I figured that the extra time was worth it and decided to go for the first half. This meant I was there for all of the Byron trip but would only have a day and a half in The Gold Coast as I had to fly back in time for the Uni trip.

The trip came round pretty quickly after all my last minute decisions but I was just happy to be going somewhere…especially as it was going to be hot! So the morning of our flight, me, Lisa, Veronica, Effie, Kelsey, Laura and Jodie got the tram to the city. We then had to get a shuttle to Tullamarine airport.

 
 
Check in was straight forward and I was surprised how laid back they are when it comes to domestic flights. There were virtually no security checks and they didn’t look at our passport and boarding passes like they do when you’re flying internationally. It was nice to not feel so stressed like you can sometimes in that airport atmosphere but then as it was quite an unfamiliar process, It kinda felt like something was missing. We milled around the airport and bought some snacks before heading down by our gate.

 
 
I don’t remember having to wait very long before our flight was called and they opened the doors. This in itself was quite an odd experience as I’d never had to walk out on the tarmac to get to the plane before.
 
 
It didn’t take us long to board and before we knew it, we were in the air. The flight was only a couple of hours and again, this was quite strange for me as I’d only ever done long haul! I think I dosed for maybe an hour and spent the rest of the time looking out the window. The view was pretty great as we flew over The Gold Coast.

 

We landed in no time at all and stepped off into a nice warm climate. We headed into the airport and found our transfer to our hostel. It didn’t take too long before we arrived and we settled into our room. The room had 4 bunks and a single bed and by chance we had the room all to ourselves.

We’d barely finished making our beds before me and Lisa decided to head down to the beach. The location of our hostel was pretty perfect. We walked through the garden area of the hostel and onto a path which lead across some train tracks and straight onto the beach. There was nobody around when we got there and it was dark by this point. It was really beautiful. The moon was big and you could see a lighthouse further down the beach. It didn’t take long before we were in the water. It was absolutely freezing but I’d been so long since I’d been in the sea, I didn’t care, much. I’m not gonna lie, the whole time we were in there all I kept thinking was I’m in Australia, there’s sharks, sharks hunt in shallow water, at dusk, why the hell am I in here…but ignoring my better judgement seemed to pay off as we had fun, and nobody got attacked haha!

The next day I’d booked up to go whale watching. I was pretty excited as I’d never seen any kind of whale in the wild before. The weather was perfect; it was as sunny as it could possibly be and about 34 degrees. I spent the morning on the beach with the girls before walking to town to find the company I was going with. Luckily Byron isn’t very big and I knew what the street was called. I filled out the disclaimers and then we headed to a briefing. The skipper explained that the whales we would be seeing would be Humpback Whales and told us some facts about them. He told us that there are government guidelines as to how close you can get to them so that the whales don’t become distressed. The rule is you can’t get closer than 100m to a whale or 500m to a whale with a calf. Of course if the whale approaches you for a look then that can’t be avoided and you just have to try and move a bit further away from them.

We were split into two groups that would be going on two different boats and headed down to the beach. I was quite shocked when we got to the beach and saw a turkey wandering around! They said they were bush turkeys and they were everywhere…it still seems rather odd to me but whatever….It took a little while for the team to get the boats in the water and away from the sand bank. When they were far enough away each group was sent out to board their boat. It was not as easy as it sounds and funnily enough there is actually a technique for doing this. Obviously none of us were pros but we all made it into the boat eventually. We then sent off; dodging surfers as we went and in no time at all we were quite far out.
We drove around for quite a while; keeping in contact with the other boat to see if they’d spotted any. It took a while but eventually we did see some whales and my god were they beautiful. Even though they were obviously quite far away, you could still see them and I guess that just reiterates how big they really are. One of them did suddenly appear by the side of the boat but as we started moving away, it took off in the other direction. Like any animal lover, I wish I could have seen them up close but I understand why the laws are in place and it’s good that they have them.

 
When it was nearly time to head back to shore, the skipper decided to take us by Julian Rocks. Julian Rocks is basically, well, a piece of rock in the middle of the ocean. It is however far more interesting than just a piece of rock in some water. It is a beacon for life. In fact, it is a great spot for scuba diving and also attracts a pair of seals that are often spotted sunbathing on it. As soon as we pulled up as you could see was cormorants; they were everywhere.





 
He took the boat around the rocks slowly and before taking us back to the beach. I managed to get some nice shots of the shore as we came further inland.



When we got back to the beach, we had the pleasure of jumping into the water and trying not to make idiots of ourselves doing so! Luckily I didn’t fall over as I by complete chance bumped into a guy me and Lisa had met the night before. He’d just come back from scuba diving and waved at me. I was a bit baffled and wasn’t sure who he was at first until I got closer to the beach and saw his face. We’d met him in a kebab shop of all places and he was a Brit like myself. He seemed really nice and I still regret not asking him for his number. Especially considering I knew that that day was his last in Byron. But it wasn’t like either of us had a phone on us or a pen, so it would have just been awkward and anti-climactic. It really is a shame as he was cute too…

After speaking to the boy for about 5-10minutes, the skipper called everyone over so we could board the trucks. We headed back and then I went down to the beach to meet everyone. They were in exactly the same spot I left them in hours earlier, except a little redder. Stupidly I’d not worn any sunscreen thinking I’d be alright as I ‘never’ tan or burn and managed to burn my chest and thighs. Smart I know. I wasn’t the only one though as Laura was pretty much lobster-like all over and the other girls had some redness going on to. Laura decided to call it a day and head back in to the hostel. The rest of us stayed on the beach and sunbathed and swam in the clear blue water of the sea. It really was a beautiful day.

The next day we’d booked up to go snorkelling. So me, Lisa, Effie, Veronica and Laura grabbed our swim suits and were away. After arriving we were briefed and given wetsuits. There were a lot of people there at the time for both snorkelling and scuba diving and so they struggled to find us all wetsuits that fitted us. Lisa ended up with one that was shorts instead of full length, Laura’s was too short and was a few inches above her ankles and mine was so big it was folding in various places but we made the most of it.


 
After a bit of a struggle to get the boat over a sand bank and into slightly deeper water, we all made our way out to the boat. One by one we threw ourselves over the side of the boat and sat down. Just like when I went whale watching, it was really incredible to see the shore line gradually disappearing as we got further and further out into the ocean.

The boat took us out to Julian Rocks and after a few health and safety reminders, including how to signal the boat if we got separated, we climbed into the water. At first it felt really cold, which was a bit of a shock considering how hot it was that day. I’m guessing the fact we were all sunburnt probably didn’t help with our thermo regulation! Anyway, so we separated into 2 groups; me, Lisa and Laura, and Effie and Veronica. It was really amazing to see all of the brightly coloured fish swimming around the edge of the rocks. I even saw some Wobbegongs, which are a type of shark. Not a shark in the sense of a Great White or a Hammerhead or anything but more like Leopard Sharks. They’re generally calm and have a flat sort of body, which explains why they’re also sometimes called carpet sharks.

But I digress…So here I was, face down in the water, bobbing along the surface, just drifting with the current, until i noticed the sea floor suddenly dropped away…Whilst it was quite a bit below me, It had always been in sight, until it suddenly disappeared into darkness. Naturally i looked up to establish where Lisa and Laura were, assuming they were just behind me but they weren’t. I then realised, not only was I quite a bit away from the edge of Julian Rocks but I had also gone a number of metres past the barrier, we were earlier told to stay inside of. I wasn’t worried however, well, I was a little, but more about how the boat skipper would react, as opposed to the fact I was alone surrounded by nothing but water. So I signalled the boat and they came out to me. I explained what happened and they said to grab onto the side of the boat and they’d drag me back in. So they did, within a few minutes I was back within the safety of the barrier and reunited with my friends. The skipper later told me I was lucky as I’d decided to go drifting into ‘Shark Alley’. And whilst I study zoology and fully understand sharks don’t go out of their way to try and eat people, it was a little un-nerving when he told me that whilst Great Whites and Tiger Sharks aren’t local to the area, they both to wander into ‘Shark Alley’ from opposite ends of the country.

Anyway, so back to snorkelling I went and sadly, a little while later Laura decided her sunburn was just too painful in the water and decided to spend the remainder of our time on the boat. When our time was up, we all gradually climbed back onto the boat, swiftly followed by the scuba divers who came out on the same boat. Within about 5minutes of me being back on the boat, I started to feel sick. Now I wasn’t sure whether it was swallowing too much sea water or the movement of the boat or even a little sunstroke, all I know is I felt like I was going to throw up. The skipper overheard me telling Lisa and told me to get it all up. So I stood up and within seconds I threw up over the side of the boat, nearly covering a nearby scuba diver who was making their way back onto the boat. Oops! So a little lighter and feeling instantly better, we made the journey back to land.

The next day, to celebrate Kelsey’s birthday, we all went out for a meal. It was a good laugh, and a nice way to reunite the group after spending a day or so apart.


 
After we left the restaurant, we went to an ice cream shop across the street and bought gelato. It was incredible and possibly some of the best ice cream, well frozen yogurt I’ve ever tasted! We then went home and whilst getting changed realised our sunburn seemed even redder….so, we decided to take pictures haha!

 
The day after me, Lisa, Effie and Veronica decided to go for a wander around the town. We explored small niche shops, generally eco-friendly ones and took some photos. Here’s some of mine…

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
When we were done we wandered back to the hostel to meet everyone…we then discovered a hammock. Now this hammock proved to be a hard thing to master, with me and Lisa falling in and out of it. It was all pretty hilarious and I think someone even has a video of the whole thing but here’s some of the highlights…



 
After covering my dignity and managing to get out of the hammock, we all decided it’d be nice to get a group photo…

[insert group photo]

During the rest of our time at Byron Bay, we just spent time at the beach (wearing adequate sunscreen of course) and wandering around the town. It’s a really beautiful little place and I like to think of it being stereotypically Australian. The people are laid back and kind, and everyone walks around barefoot…usually carrying surfboards. It’s just a really nice place to be and I hope I can go back one day.

Next came The Gold Coast…

Now I only got to spend two days in The Gold Coast including travel time, as I had to get back to Melbourne for a compulsory trip to The Grampians but I was determined to make the most of it.

After a little problem booking us all into the same hostel me, Kelsey and Effie ended up in one just down the road from everybody else. We checked in, we paid, we got to our room and within about 10minutes, we saw 3 cockroaches. They were all different species and naturally we were disgusted and went to complain. We said we wanted our money back and they said without the owner’s permission they couldn’t. So as you can imagine we made them call the owner! I spoke to him for probably 30minutes explaining we’d been there only minutes and were greeted by 3 roaches. He tried to say that they flew into the room and its hot there and of course cockroaches are going to be about. I said that I studied zoology and I was able to tell that they were different species, and whilst it is possible for one to fly in, how could he explain the presence of 3 different species!? After arguing for a while, he agreed to refund our money and we left. Luckily we managed to squeeze into the same hostel as everyone else in the end, although I ended up by myself in a separate building. This didn’t bother me too much though as I was only spending one night.

The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get to DreamWorld for when it opened. I was on a bit of a tight schedule as I had to make it back in time to get my luggage from the hostel and make it to the airport to catch my flight back to Melbourne. Nobody seemed to mind though as we had plenty of time to go on all the rides we wanted, some more than once!


 
 


When it was time to leave, we sat down outside to wait for our bus.



Not much later I was saying bye to the group and heading to the airport. I had an easy flight and got the tram back from the city to Burwood. I was greeted in Burwood by a storm. Now this was probably the craziest storm I’ve ever been in. The rain was relentless, the thunder was bellowing and constant and the lightening wasn’t playing around either. It didn’t help that I had to walk, with luggage for about 15/20minutes, up a hill to get home. By the time I got in, I was soaked to the bone…it was completely worth it though.

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