Sunny old Sydney

I had decided to book to stay in the YHA Railway as its close to where the greyhound drops and pretty central and modern.  As it turns out Ken’s friend (the manager from my hostel in Perth) works there on reception so he told me to look out for her.  Of course, low and behold I turn up and its her who ends up checking me in.  I was hot, bothered, knackered and stressed from my horrendous journey to Sydney so Mya invited me to join her and Ken for a little drink after they finished their shifts – it was pretty late but it gave me enough time to shower and freshen up and was a great start to my stay in Sydney.

On my Great Ocean Road trip there was a lovely lady I met called Celine who was from France who was also heading to Sydney but a day earlier than me.  I arranged to meet her on the Monday which was perfect timing as it was raining all day and we headed to the Sydney Aquarium.  

The Aquarium was pretty good however I would say no better than the one in Perth but I did have a lovely day hanged out with Celine and wandering about afterwards.Of course I spent plenty of time exploring Sydney, walking all around the Botanical gardens and the rest of the city but I have to admit, its not my favourite place in the world.  I can see that Sydney probably has its charms, the harbour is very nice, but to me, it was just another very large city.  I guess growing up in and around an amazing city like London you are so used to cities that they don’t necessary hold that much interest. 

I’d decided to make plans to head out of the city to the Blue Mountains.  There are many tour operators offering deals to take you out there for a day if you pay $100 odd and take you to all the usual tourist attractions.  Thankfully I had talked to Mya and Ken about it and they had given me the insiders knowledge about what to do.  Simply take a train from Central Station (right by the hostel) for just under 8 bucks, it takes 2 hours and you are there!  The ride is lovely and scenic and they go every hour so it was definitely the best plan.  I was booked to stay at the YHA there which had been recommended.  I checked in and got the low down on what to do as I was only planning on being in the moutains for 1 night. 

There is a great walk you can do that goes from not too far from the hostel all the way along so you get to see everything and it takes about 3 hours so off I headed.  It was definitely the best decision as there were packages you could pay for that took you on a scenic railway and a cablecar and stuff but the views I got were so much better and for free!

I’d kept in touch with Celine who was also in the Blue Mountains at the same time as me so we met up that evening for dinner and a glass of vino.  The following day the weather was appalling.  I decided to try out the tourist bus that’s hop on hop off but it was so crap you couldn’t see a thing!  The only advantage was the driver said that as I was the only one on it – ha ha ha – he would take me down to the bottom of these falls so I could see them as they don’t normally go there.  At least it was worth it for that as they were very pretty but then I headed back to Sydney for the night. 

Alison and Cairon, friends from Perth were also staying in Sydney when I was there but as they had been working I hadn’t really gotten to see them other than the cinema with Ali earlier in the week.  Ali and I arranged to meet up early on the Saturday to do the 3 hour Bondi to Coogee beach walk which was really great – amazing views and lots of beaches!  Highlighted of course by receiving lots of drunken phone calls from Nicola etc on her hen do!  

That evening I met back up with Ali and Ciaron for dinner and drinks.  The plan for the next day was to get up early and head to “summer bay” and then to meet up with Ken for a BBQ and his.  Well of course, as we all went to bed so late we didn’t make it out to Summer Bay but of course, we made it to the BBQ!  It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and or course, no food was had until late.  We headed back into the city with Ken as he madly had to do the night shift that night and I decided to head to a bar nearby with a girl that had also come to the bbq that Ken knew.  A very bizarre end to the evening as we got chatting to this group of people and she left me looking after her drink and then never came back!  In the end I had to get a guy who I had been chatting to all evening to walk me back to my hostel (no winking please – he was the perfect gent!).  It was a great end really to my time in Sydney but it was time to move on and detox the old liver again.

The Great Ocean Road

So I was really looking forward to hitting the road for one of the most famous road trips you can do in Australia.  I booked up with Bunyip and we got picked up at the usual VERY early time and taken to the office to meet the buses to head off.  There’s a good long drive out of the city before you start hitting the official start of the GOR.

So what can I tell you about the Great Ocean Road?  Well for starters and most obvious is that the scenery is fantastic.  The whole road is just one bend after another of stunning scenery. 

Our first stop along the road was in Torquay where our guide/driver was trying to get a coffee date that I had helped assist set up.  Let me explain…the drive out of Melbourne is long and boring, just highway.  A lot of people were just sleeping in the bus as well, there’s not much to see or do and it was an early start.  However as I was sat just behind our guide, anyone seated around the guide (front passenger seat or just behind) is generally expected to talk to them to help keep them entertained.  It also works for your benefit as a customer as being right there you get to ask a lot more questions and get much more involved in learning about what you are seeing on the tour. 

So anyway – our guide spotted this surf chick chuntering down the highway in her car with all these surf stickers stuck on her car.  As we overtook her he waved at her.  She looked over a bit confused and surprised but waved back. 

We separated slightly but then this behaviour continues with him getting me to write on bits of paper, what’s your name? do you surf? Are you going to Torquay?  Do you want to meet for a coffee in Torquay?    Luckily for him she was nice and was flirting a bit back through the cars, it was just tooo funny.  Unluckily for him, another car cut him up a bit further one and then we lost her so he wasn’t able to say WHERE to meet in Torquay. 

Well anyway – Torquay I felt was a bit of a nothing stop but in the main somewhere for our guide to pick up food supplies for us.  We had a bit of a wonder around as its very much a surf place for shops. 

Our first proper stop was the famous Bells Beach – you know the one – the one from the famous Point Break scene?  Well that was definitely cool getting to see that and the surfers showing their stuff really helped. 

Next up we visited another very famous place for lots of Brits and Aussies – the Round the Twist Lighthouse!  Do you remember it from when you were a kid? Well anyway, yes it was just a lighthouse, but it was pretty cool. Much of the tour of the Great Ocean Road is just sitting back in the bus and watching the scenery go by with stops at some particularly scenic places including stopping in the towns of Lorne and Apollo Bay.  Both were pleasant enough as seaside places but didn’t feel they were anything amazing. 

We then headed to the Otways to walk through the Rainforest seeing lots of giant trees, Golden Orb spiders, ewwww and lizards etc.

That night we were staying in the Otway Ranges National Park.  I had originally just booked to do the basic camping option but at the last minute after talking to some other people, I decided to upgrade to dorm accommodation.  I wasn’t going to as I didn’t want people to see me as some kind of spoiled brat not wanting to camp but then someone pointed out to me that really it doesn’t matter what other people think as long as I’m comfortable.  Its not that I don’t like camping –I do like camping, but as my friends will tell you, I need my comforts…my pillow, my nice warm sleeping bag, and a nice big inflatable mattress.  I’m a wimp, and I knew that this was camping basic stylie – foam mat, basic sleeping bag and well if you happened to bring a jumper you could roll up into a pillow. 

To be honest, deciding to go into the dorms was the best decision ever – as I was the only one on the tour to do it so it meant my shared accommodation was totally private.  Apart from me, only the guide wasn’t camping but they always get their own room so I was on my own!  What a luxury! I think a few people were a bit jealous really even though they didn’t admit it! hee hee hee. 

 

So the first place we stayed was very basic very much out in a National Park but had everything you needed.  There was a main lodge/kitchen area for us to prepare dinner and then the loos and shower block were pretty good and clean – but you needed to pay for the showers as there is such a water shortage out there.  You have to work out exactly how many minutes do I need to wash myself? My room was also quite nice – basic but clean and comfy – nothing to complain about!

Day 2 was the best day out of them all for me although the weather got pretty miserable with lots of wind and drizzle and no sunshine.  We visited the historic shipwreck coast famous for, well for lots of shipwrecks! 

This was also when I got to see the Twelve Apostles.  I had been desperate to do the helicopter road over them, half for them, half for the chance to go in a helicopter without it costing the earth.  Ok you might think that $75 for 8 minutes is a lot of money – but actually that’s pretty good value when you think that most rides available are for 30-60 mins and just hundreds and hundreds, so this way you get an experience without having to spend a fortune. 

Unfortunately when we got there it seemed that luck wasn’t on my side.  No one else on my bus wanted to go up in a helicopter, all thinking that it cost too much and the helicopter operators wouldn’t take me just on my own up. 

Our guide said for me to go down to the boardwalk to see the Apostles from there but to come back within 30 mins as he was going to hang round the helicopter centre to see if he could get me a on ride with other people if anyone else turned up wanting to go on a ride. 

Off I trotted feeling a bit disconcerted and disappointed but got some great views and photos anyway.  I headed back a bit earlier than everyone else as he said to before and then saw him waving at me from a distance and hurry up over there.  Low and behold he had worked some magic!  Two older ladies had turned up wanting a ride for 15 minutes which was over double the price of what I was wanting BUT somehow he had managed to get the ladies to wait for me and for the operators to agree to take me for the price of the 8 minute ride (providing of course I kept my trap shut and didn’t let on that I had paid half the amount they had!).  Well I was just over the moon.  They were all waiting for me so they had to rush me through payment, weighing me (lovely!) then giving me a quick safety briefing, the most important thing I got from it was – don’t touch anything inside the helicopter! 

I was really nervous about the ride given my fear of heights and the massive problems I have with pressure in my ears particularly when flying short distances as the ascent and descent is really quick.  Luckily they said we weren’t going high enough for it to really be a problem.  Being in a helicopter is like nothing else!  The manoeuvrability of those things is amazing, one way you are going to the right, the next curving round to the left and then dipping down and then back up again.  It was so exhilarating.  Yes, of course the views were great but just the whole experience was a never forget for me and if I get the chance to do it again I will do like a shot.

After the Twelve Apostles it was time to head further up the coast to see Lord Ard Gorge and the collapsed “London Bridge”.  On the evening of 15 January 1990 the main arch connecting London Bridge to the mainland cracked and fell away into the sea.  Fortunately no one was injured, however just before this happened two people had walked across to admire the view.  They were stranded there for 2 hours before managing to be helicopter rescued. 

The rest of the day was spent driving to the Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands and Tower Hill.  We then headed to our campsite in the Grampians National Park.  Unfortunately, it was here that our guide managed to get a bit lost and missed the turning and we added probably an hour an a half on to our journey.  Typical man though as he kept on just driving and driving without looking at a map for ages when he thought he had gone wrong – grrrrr.

Our camp was great for that night.  We were staying in the middle of nowhere on a place run by this old typical outback aussie guy.  He’s the local pub, and the local airfield and part of the volunteer fire brigade.  He told us loads of stories about all the stuff that went on with the last massive bush fires and how involved the local community get and all about the political side of things where the locals are arguing with what the government are saying to do about how to handle it and how to put it out.  They do a lot of back burning in Australia when the fires get out of control which means they basically burn an area on purpose in order to control the fire, but burn too much and you damage so much nature.  

Once again, I had a whole place to myself that night – bliss!  Unfortunately something didn’t agree with me about sleeping on my own as my last day on tour I felt decidedly ill!  I started off ok in the morning.  We headed off to Reids Outlook and Balconies to see some amazing views of the Grampians.  Then off to MacKenzie Falls.  We got a lovely view of the falls at the top, but this being a backpacker tour, of course it was on for hiking down to the bottom, but what goes down must come up.  This is when I started feeling worse and I can’t even make the excuse that it was the exercise as I didn’t get that far!

We walked from the car park to a look out point to see the top of the falls and I was already feeling a bit off colour and faint then but carried on.  We then carried on to walk down the falls, probably only 5-10 minutes after starting to walk down I started feeling really faint and lightheaded.  I could see how far down it was (I think it took about an hour round trip to get down and back so I’m sure you can work it out!) and thought to myself, my god, if I’m feeling faint walking down a few non-steep steps, how the hell am I going to get myself back up here?   Maybe I wimped out, maybe not but I don’t regret my decision as I think you know when you can push your body and when you can’t.  To be honest, missing out on the walk to the falls wasn’t the worst of it, that was our warm up to a 3 hour hike in the Grampians which I figured I definitely couldn’t do if I couldn’t do the falls.  I was incredibly disappointed, especially afterwards when I saw what amazing views they got, however I realised it was the best option for me when I saw the route they were doing and that it was a proper full on hike rather than some of the other walks that I had done before. 

The hike starts at one point in the Grampians and then ends in another so our guide doesn’t do the walk with the group, they have to follow signs and hope they get out the other end!  That also meant though that I was with our guide.  It wasn’t so bad, we headed into town to fill up petrol, had an ice cream and then had a snooze whilst we waited for everyone to come back. 

It was a disappointing end to my GOR trip but I had so many more great things to come!  We returned back to Melbourne late that night and I checked in to the YHA Melbourne City Central hoping to get some good rest.

The Melbourne YHA suited me a bit better than Habitat but I still wasn’t that keen on it – it was split up so each floor had a tiny TV room and a tiny kitchen, so it was ok, but not all that communal.  The backpackers bar that was supposedly there wasn’t particularly backpackerish.  Its hard to say if this is good or bad as some of the hostel bars can be OTT with partying, but this seemed to be full of outside people drinking and eating so generally not mixing as much as backpackers would. 

I went into a 4 bed dorm which had two older ladies in it in their 50’s-60’s.  I thought – great, no one coming in late, perfect.  The first night wasn’t too bad apart from heat and traffic noise L  Night two though – OMG, although I should say, the morning of check out.

I was due to get a 7.30 am bus from Melbourne to Sydney.  One of the other ladies in my room was also due to get a bus around that time.  I figured, well, if she’s anything like my mother she’ll need an age to get ready but I’m sure she won’t get up THAT much earlier than me.  Oh yeah? Try 4.30 am!!!  I have NO idea what the hell she was doing but what drove my really crazy was she got up and was in and out the room that many times I lost count.  So after a very early start - I was due to spend 12-15 hours on a bus doing the road trip to Sydney - would I recommend it to anyone? NO!  Definately fly!  

Next up catching up with folks in Sydney!

Next stop – Melbourne!

So, I was due to meet up with Amanda and Rachel again in Melbourne.  Amanda was doing some mad all over the place trip flying to Christchurch to see Rachel and then back to Melbourne with her for the Cup and then back on to Perth. 

We had arranged to all stay in the same hostel in Melbourne whilst we were all there together….Habitat HQ, one of the top rated hostels on Hostelworld.com.  One thing that this experience taught me was just that because it was top rated did not mean it was the right hostel for me, particularly up the typical backpacker route on this side of Australia.

Habitat HQ have a lot of things right so I’m not slating the place by any means, it just wasn’t for me, especially when my friends left and I had a few days there on my own.  But firstly, I’ll let you know about what we got up too!  So, although I had only been away from everyone for a few days, it was great to see familiar faces again in Melbourne.  Monday night was slightly hectic crawling over Melbourne bars to try and meet up with some of Amanda’s friends that we were meeting up with the next day at the Cup.   Being slightly sensible (for once) we didn’t have too much of a late night as we had to start pretty early the next day to get to the racecourse for a decent time.  Well…..Melbourne Cup morning at the hostel was a very interesting experience.  We were staying in a 10 bed dorm and thankfully I think everyone in it was also going to the cup – to such an extent that so many places were booked out we ended up having an extra friend of someone there sleeping on the floor of the dorm as they had no where else to do.  Luckily though it basically meant everyone was early to bed.  Thankfully we had decided to get up a little on the early side the next day to start getting ourselves all glammed up for a day at the races – lucky because as we were coming out the shower there must have been a queue of about 10 girls waiting to get into the showers!

 

After that, well it was a sea of woman elbowing each other out the way to try and do their hair and make up in the bathrooms, I’m sure you can imagine the chaos!  Eventually though, we managed to get ourselves ready.  Amanda had been told about this “ingenious” idea about hiding a small water bottle full of vodka inside a cut out loaf of bread.  Well, I had a loaf of bread but Amanda managed to butcher it so that idea went out the window.  We decided to risk it (no outside booze allowed inside the racecourse) and bunged a water bottle of vodka inside a carrier bag containing their extra shoes, wraps, hairspray, make up and the rest hoping we could sneak it in.  Anyway running our usual late selves we had to do a pit stop on our way to the races to get ourselves some food to try and be slightly sensible about not drinking all day on an empty stomach – Burger King it was!!!

Thank god, living in London prepared me for the chaos at the main station in Melbourne.  We had to queue for 20 minutes or so to get onto the platform before managing to squeeze our way onto the train, then had to tackle attempting to find Amanda’s friends amongst the thousands of people at the ground.  We managed it though and made our way to them! 

Well, the Melbourne Cup was definitely a fun and interesting experience…….we had the very typical Melbourne weather, one minute sunshine, one minute freezing, one minute pouring down with rain.  Placing a bet was doing battle with water soaked and straw laden grass in our sandals and heels.  Going to the bar was a 30 minute battle there and back.  I didn’t win – I didn’t loose but it was a great experience – would I go again? Possibly if I had a nice box to stand in and someone else was paying J

By the time we got to the end of the day it was all a mess, a few more drinks were had but in the end I retired pretty early.

 

The next day Rachel Amanda and I headed out for dinner in St Kilda and were going to go back to the hostel for a quiet night, but on our walk back we were confronted with a wall of people from our hostel all on an organised night out to one of the local bars were a free drink was to be head.  It was a “bad taste” night so they were all dressed up, erm lovely!  However, of course, we decided to turn round and follow them for errr just the one!  Hee hee hee.

Rachel departed us to head back to Christchurch and on the Friday I decided to go out sightseeing in Melbourne for the day on my own (Amanda wanted to go shopping instead J ).  I headed all over the city and thoroughly enjoyed myself exploring all the central areas, the botanical gardens and the museums.  I met Amanda at the end of the day to head to the Rooftop bar to meet another friend of hers for drinks that evening.  We wanted to go in search of food so luckily for us he took us to this little bar up a back street that you would never find that was lovely for a few more drinks and some food!

Amanda’s friend Laura’s birthday was on the Saturday and she was having a Masquerade party, and her being the lovely person that she was said I was welcome to come along.  I managed to find myself a little mask that cost a few bucks from a cheapo shop to wear and Amanda and I headed off.  Little did we know she was so lovely as it was free drinks for the first couple of hours – lovely!

The next morning I was feeling pretty delicate and woke up a bit late.  I wasn’t sure what Amanda was up to as she had moved herself into her own private room for a few nights for the end of her trip in Melbourne (she’s not a proper backpacker, in a proper sponsored professional job).  I woke myself up a bit and called her to find out what she was up to and low and behold she was at her friends Pat’s house round the corner (the one who used to live in the flat we took over in Perth.  Well….that was one random Sunday I won’t forget quickly – a bit of a session commenced and well, we’ll leave it at that!

After a few days in Melbourne with Amanda I had blown my budget well and truly so Monday was a well deserved liver and wallet rest.  Tuesday – the start of my Great Ocean Road Adventure!!

Hitting the Road in Australia

So it was time to say good bye to all my friends I had made in Perth.  Moving weekend was tough but worth it getting all our deposit money back.  My last evening was spent round my aussie mates house Sabine having dinner and drinks before I headed back to the hostel I booked myself into and a private room for the last time before I hit the road.  Well that was a waste of money – too warm with no fan so had to have the window open and the traffic kept me awake all night.  Well at least it helped me to be up early in the morning for my flight seeing as I wasn’t really sleeping!

Needless to say – I arrived in Adelaide pretty damn tired.  Thankfully I had booked myself into the YHA City Central – WOW – if all Hostels were like this I would say hotels would go out of business very easily.  This is classed as a 5 star hostel and I can certainly see why.  Ok, it may not be to everyone’s taste as its very big so I guess it can feel a bit more impersonal BUT they do do a lot to try and make it easy to mix with other people.

The whole place is incredibly modern and new and in fantastic condition.  A lift to take you to all floors (very handy with a heavy bag!) and a massive main communal area full of lots of comfy sofas and chairs.  Plenty of tables to sit and eat at and the kitchen has been really well designed with little pod like areas for you to cook in making it easy to not be on top of other people.  There’s a pool table in the middle of the common area, a ping pong table, more games rooms off to the sides and a TV room.  Every floor in the building also has a quite large reading room so a nice quiet spot to go to if you want.  Anyway – I was in a 4 bed share for the first night and was quite thankful it was full of older german woman who went to bed early so I got a great nights sleep!

The next day I was up very early again for my trip to Kangaroo Island.  Something I was very excited about especially as my friend Tami had told me it was one of the highlights for her.  Well – I’m pleased I made the effort to go – it was amazing and definitely one of the best things I have done.  In short – I felt like I was in a wildlife documentary the whole time I was there.

After much research and my obligatory posting on the Thorntree forum asking for advice I decided to book my tour with Sun n Surf for the 2 day option.  Our guide was “Hi, my name’s Doug” – a brilliant guy and incredibly knowledgeable without boring you – and loved me asking so many questions! 

What did we see on Kangaroo Island – everything! 

It was a very early start leaving Adelaide with a very long drive down the Fleurieu Peninsula down to the ferry from Cape Jarvis with a slightly rough but not too bad crossing.  After hitting KI we headed out first to hike up Prospect Hill to get a good view of the Island.  I just loooved that walk up the hill, but, I have to admit it was worth it for the views we got.

From there we headed to Pennington Bay, a really pretty beach only let down by the cloudy and windy weather we were having that day but showed me yet another beautiful and undeveloped beach in Australia – if only there were more places like this in the world!

We then headed to a Wildlife Sanctuary to go on a walk looking for Koalas – definitely got my Koala overload – they are so cute even if they can be viscous. 

Next it was time to see the very Remarkable Rocks and some fun photo ops followed by one of my very best highlights of everything I have seen and done – going to Admirals Arch and the fur seal colony.  It really was a sight to be seen, hundreds of these seals just laying there, playing in the sea and on the rocks just a few feet away from me and completely wild.  It was like something out of a dream being able to be this close to these wild animals and I never in a million years thought I would be actually doing it.  I must have spent 30 minutes just standing in the one place watching the seals with our guide and asking all sorts of questions and I would have been there even longer if the rest of the group wasn’t ready to move on (it was rather cold, wet and windy there!).

Another dream experience that evening was going on a night time walk to see the penguins.  I have to say I didn’t go to do the Philip Island penguin thing so I have nothing to compare it too but this was great as there were no crowds of tourists just our group walking along trying to find little wild penguins.  At first I was kind of disappointed as Doug found some penguins but they were quite far down the rocks and I just couldn’t see them – but of course, with a little persistence and more searching we got a great find!  Apart from seeing them just sleeping and laying down we also got to see some feeding their babies!   

Our accommodation that night was staying in Suf and Sun’s own private farmstay accommodation – The Woolshed. 

The next morning we were up early to do the Sandboarding at Little Sahara.  Ok, call me a spoilsport but I decided to sit it out and chill whilst everyone else did it.  I guess it was because I had tried Sandboarding when I did my trip in WA and it was fun to try it once but I really really didn’t fancy getting sand in my mouth and all inside my clothes at the start of the day.  I know – I’m boring – but at least I tried it once!!

 

I was really just saving myself and waking myself up ready for our trip to Seal Bay Conservation Park and our guided walk.  This area is very protected and you either have to stick to boardwalks to keep you away from the Seals or take a guided walk down to the beach.  It is very strict on what you can and can’t do and the guides are watching you all the time as the area is littered with wild Sea Lions and their pups.  We were so lucky as we saw some little pups playing and then when you get down to the beach you are told that you must be very careful and not to walk so that you are blocking a Sea Lions access to the sea.  Basically we could only walk as far along the beach as the Sea Lions allowed us to depending on where they fancied sitting.  It was again, one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had to be so close to such wild exotic animals – nothing like seeing them in some kind of Zoo enclosure or show.

 

Our second day was coming to an end so we spent some time driving around to some lovely remote spots of Kangaroo Island that would be very hard to find if you chose to go independently, including the very beautiful Vivonne Bay.  Just before we were due to get on the ferry we were treated to the Pelican feeding at Kingscote.  Every day a local man goes down to the pier, waits a few minutes for around a hundred Pelicans to fly in, then piles on his waders and gloves, walks down to the water with his buckets of fish and feeds them all – it really is a sight that you can only see.  Unfortunately all my photos of Kangaroo Island were very brief as it was at this point my camera screen decided to break so I couldn’t actually see what I was taking photos of.  After a long 2 days it was time to head back on to the ferry to begin our very long journey back up to Adelaide.

Well, you know how small a world it is when travelling when who did I bump into on the ferry on my way back to the mainland but Greg – one of my mates from the hostel in Perth.  He’d just done a day trip to Kangaroo Island and was also staying in the YHA in Adelaide. 

We had separate transfers so made arrangements to get together the next day to do some sightseeing.  Well the next day the weather was terrible.  Pouring down with rain.  Seriously, whoever thinks that Australia has beautiful hot weather all the time is deluded.  Well, it doesn’t help that I was there for the wettest summer they had seen for 10 years. 

Greg and I had talked about going to Cleland Park which is a wildlife park in Adelaide where you can cuddle a Koala, something I really wanted to do but have since heard some very mixed things about this and most states in Australia now won’t let you do it. 

We were umming and arghing and in the end decided to book these tickets for a bus to take us there that afternoon.  We thought we were mad as we are the only ones going – but in the end it turned out great as the park was practically empty and it stopped raining!  The best bit was, because the park was so empty and the weather was cool, I had no problems getting to cuddle a koala.  They are so fluffy and cute but weigh a ton! 

The next day I was due to change hostels from the YHA in the city centre to the only hostel in Glenelg for 3 nights, a beach town about a 20/30 minute tram ride from the city.  It sounded a great idea at the time I booked it- and it would have been – if the weather was even half as nice as it was whilst I was there.  Unfortunately it was raining so much and so windy you could hardly even walk down to the sea front. 

As for the hostel – well would I recommend it to anyone?  Only if you were really desperate to stay in a hostel in Glenlg but then, the tram is really quick and easy from the city centre so it really isn’t worth it.  Yes there are some good points about the hostel - No bunk beds are nice- and the beds are comfy with nice clean sheets, decent duvets and pillows.  I slept really well (when I didn’t get woken up by various people!).  As this is a basic requirement of a hostel – perfect and admittedly not all hostels get this basic requirement right. 

There were a few other good points - free "continental" breakfast is as much toast and jam as you can eat from 7am to 10am.  The location is right by the beach.  Its opposite the bus stop to and from the airport.  There are free dvd's available to watch on a lovely HD TV and the bar isn't overly expensive for drinks.

Not so bad you say? Well, the place is like a rabbit warren and there is no real signage to help you find things. It’s a strange combination of Hostel and Bar which could be great if the owner was just as interested in running a nice hostel as trying to have a "cool" bar.  I put it in speech marks as the bar is empty the majority of the time yet he still insists on pumping out music all day and night at ridiculous volumes. The TV room for the hostel is right next to the bar so if you are trying to chill and watch movies as we were in the terrible weather it was impossible some of the time.  I was told by other guests that even on quiet nights when he has been asked to turn the music down as they couldn't sleep he has refused saying its busy - but the bar was empty.  Its like the guests he has paying to stay there are an inconvenience to him.  Well, I could go on and on and on at the faults of this place.  As I said though, it wasn’t all bad - there was a nice bunch of people who I hung out with in the living/common area watching films and playing drinking games with.

Whilst I was in Glenlg I also booked to do a wine tour to the Barossa Valley and that was another disappointment! Argh!  Well lets just say that 3 out of 4 wineries were crap and I didn’t like any of the wines, only in the last winery, and I wasn’t the only person on the tour to think that.   

Overall what did I think of Adelaide – Kangaroo Island 10 out of 10 – Adelaide city and YHA, hmmm nice enough but the rest of it, not so in love with the place.  Still – it didn’t matter – another adventure yet to come in Melbourne!

The Australian Adventure

So where to being telling my Australian adventure story? Its now about 10 months and 20 days since I first arrived here. I really should have been writing as I went along but fun and to be honest, laziness got in the way! I’ll try and tell this as part reflection of life living in Perth and what interesting things I got up to as well!

I guess I should start in the logical place – the beginning……So I arrived in Perth feeling very jetlagged after my lack of sleep in Singapore after 10 days partying on Koh Phi Phi with Aoife!

I had made arrangements with Amanda to meet up with her in Perth and to stay in the same hostel as her. Amanda had been in Oz for a while and had just been to Sydney to find out about work and was due to arrive back in Perth later that Wednesday.

I arrived in Australia the day after Australia Day. If only I had known it would have been great to be there for it as I’m leaving Australia again before it in 2011 too! All I got to see was everyone hungover :-)

I got the shuttle bus from the airport over to the hostel where Ken the manager of the Emperors Crown greeted me. It was still about 8.30 in the morning and I had nothing to do so attempted a wander into town. If I thought it was hot in the countries before – this was something new as it was the middle of the aussie summer so it was around 40c! I remember walking into town with the sun beating down on me and of course nothing was open so I headed back to the hostel feeling hot and weary and had a snooze.
It wasn’t too long after I woke up and was sitting outside getting to know some people that I see Amanda walking in. Of course, everyone in the hostel knew who Amanda was – she had made quite the impression already!!

The Emperors Crown was a great start to living in Perth. It’s a fairly laid back hostel which isn’t focussed on being a party place, this was no bad thing as we didn’t seem to have any trouble having our own fun there! There was a great group of people there with lots of people coming and going but a lot of people who were long termers living there like me.

My first couple of weeks in Perth are a blur – thanks in part to the legendary goon! (VERY cheap boxed wine – about $15 for 3 litres). Oh how I remember the goonovers….not so good! I was out plenty in those couple of weeks enjoying backpacker life and getting to know everyone, however after 4.5 month travelling in Asia I needed to find work (not only for money but also for my livers sake).

It didn’t take me long to land work in a Solicitors office, firstly doing typing and then being a very highly paid filing clerk. It was worth putting up with the boring jobs though as a vacancy they thought they had filled became available in Family law which I very quickly offered to fill if they would have me…thankfully they did.

I never realised that working as a Legal Secretary in Family Law would give me much of an insight into the Australian way of life, but I learnt so much about life in Australia from being there.

So now after having found a job, I needed to find a place to live – and people to live with. Finding a home in Australia is no easy task – if you are renting an apartment there is a massive application process to go through and if you are wanting a room in someones place you also have to spend ages going to see them and hope they pick you! Its pretty competitive.

There was a couple of houseshares that I went to look at but in the end we found a place that was through someone Amanda knew. Some of the people in the apartment were about to move out and leave 3 out of the 4 rooms empty. I was a little anxious about living with Amanda – we have a volatile relationship (which she admits too as well!) as we both drive each other crazy at times – but as we said ourselves – we just have it out with each other and then its fine as nothing is left to simmer under the surface. We needed to find a 3rd person to move in with us and managed to persuade Claire into it. By this point I was pretty fed up of living and working in a hostel and having no privacy. Dorm rooms are hard to live in at the best of times but even harder when you have to work as well.

There were a couple of especially interesting experiences when in an all female dorm two different girls on two different occasions decided to bring their conquest back to the room for a tumble on the bed above me! Wednesday nights were a big night out and every Thursday I used to go into work knackered after being woken up at 3/4am so in the end I thought – if you can’t beat em – join em – may as well go in hungover and tired rather than just tired!

We had great fun all in all in the hostel as there ended up being about 20/25 of us at one point that hung out –the best time was when we decided to all go out for a Mexican – a very messy but fun night! Life in the hostel was generally filled with playing drinking games at the tables outside, cooking group dinners, watching movies…the usual sorts of things really with the typical backpacker nights out to Northbridge to places like Mustangs, the Shed, Black Bettys, Rosie O’Gradys, Brass Monkey, and various other places!

After 3 months living and working in the Hostel I was more than ready to move out into my own room and a proper home again! Our move also coincided with Amanda’s birthday so we had an awesome housewarming and party for Amanda.

3 of the guys who were living in the apartment were due to move out, Patrick – who moved out a couple of days before we moved in, plus Matty and Sharky. They were planning on moving on to other places but wanted to crash in the apartment for another week or so until they sorted themselves out………Sharky ended up being there longer than planned but Matty basically never even moved out of his room………..and was still there 6 months later when we all moved out of the apartment. He had a reason though – Claire and him ended up falling lurrrrrrrrrrrve! Awwwww.

Life in the apartment was pretty good – especially in comparison to the hostel – it was pretty great to have my own room and space and life felt fairly normal for a long time. We had 2 fantastic balconies – one with a view of the Swan River and one with a view of Kings Park and generally I fell into everyday life going to work and going out at the weekends.

Perth is a great place to live, especially for the winter season – I don’t think I could have picked a better place in Australia as it has the most sunny days per year than anywhere else in Australia.  Although don’t forget about my mad March where there was a hail storm the size of golf balls and the roof collapsed on the building where I was working!  But other than that, the place was pretty good, most winter days were between 15-20 degrees, occasionally it even reached 25 in the middle of winter!  The nights……….well the nights were bloody freezing!!  As cold as a typical English night time but we don’t have the proper heating to cope with it so many a night I spent on the sofa under blankets wrapped up in my hoody trying to keep warm! 

Now I’ve provided you with the overview of my time living in Australia I guess its now time to tell you about the interesting things that I did actually do and see!

So Easter was approaching fast, I had been in Australia for a couple of months and managed to not do anything too touristy. Life had started going back to normal …. Well normal for living in a hostel and working every day. I was getting 4 enforced days off work – I was determined to do something constructive rather than sit around the hostel in the day and go out drinking at night!

Some other people in the hostel – Tami and Tiit were talking about going away as well but I was determined to do something on my own on a tour to get away from everyone and try and meet some new people (hindsight is a wonderful thing – generally better the devil you know – although I did have a fantastic time on the trip).

After much deliberation and some advice from the wonderful and knowledgeable Ken Dobbie (manager of the Emperors Crown) I settled on a 4 day tour with Western Xposure which covered a total of around 2000 km’s as a round trip (that’s around 1200 miles so not too far to go then!). This was going to be my first real experience of how vast Australia is, and how remote Perth is from anywhere and WA is from anywhere else!

So day one…we leave Perth for our long drive (only 3 - 4 hours) north towards Nambung National Park where the Pinnacles desert is located, stopping at my first Aussie Roadhouse along the way. Well the Pinnacles is a magical place. You feel as if you have stepped off Earth and are on another planet. The place is full of these very strange rocks that have just grown out of the ground in all sorts of shapes and sizes with this amazingly yellow sand everywhere, which suddenly stops and becomes this much paler whiter sand. It’s the most amazing thing to see!

After my “out of world” experience, it was time to enjoy more sand fun – Sandboarding at Sandy Cape! After climbing to enormous dune to the top I looked down and nearly freaked out at the thought of having to go down to the bottom of it on this board thing! I stood there, watching the others having a go and eventually managed to pluck up the courage and got on….and sat at the top for about another 10 seconds although it felt like forever. I eventually managed to shoot myself off the top of the dune screaming my heart out until I got a huge mouthful of sand and then had to shut my eyes to avoid being blinded where I promptly lost balance and tumbled over (it wasn’t so bad – I was sat down on the board going down!). I stumbled up and proceeded to spend the rest of the day attempting to get sand out of places I never thought it could reach!


After a fortifying lunch we piled back on the bus for the rest of our driving that day – it was only another 5 hours or so to our night stop driving through Geraldton to reach Kalbarri. Here was my first introduction to just what can’t be cooked on a barbeque in Australia – nothing – ANYTHING can be cooked by Barbie here…..tonight’s dinner was chicken stirfry and again, another surprising introduction to en-masse tour cooking for 24 people – and it was delicious! Everyone was expected to help out chopping up veggies and getting things cooking, putting things away and clearing up – but it’s a great way to get everyone involved and mixing together. That evening was my first experience of some of the strange beds you get in some of the hostels in Australia – with our lovely rubber mattresses that squeaked and rubbed everytime you moved! Despite that, I had a great nights sleep and got up bright and early the next day to face some very difficult challenges for me.

We didn’t have too far to drive to reach Kalbarri National Park and Murchison Gorge, Nature’s Window and Z-Bend Gorge. Now, all the itinerary said about this was that it was a steep descent but worth the effort. I was prepared for some hard walking but that wasn’t the issue. Unfortunately what they don’t tell the uninitiated who have never done any walks in Australia, is that normal tracks are fairly basic anyway, but that the trek down the gorge (and back up again) was more like rock climbing.

We had two routes to take – the Look Out trail – a 1.2 km return walk – this was easy – a fairly flat track with some ups and downs but pretty easy going. The second walk was the Gorge trail – a 2.6 km return walk It was described as “demanding, exploring the steep sides of the gorge, expect loose rocks, steep descents, and ladder climbs”. This I wasn’t expecting and had nicely prepared for my hike by carrying my handbag!

This picture shows you just how extreme the hike down was. This was taken at the lookout point, but we basically walked from the top of here down to the bottom. Not only was it steep and uneven clambering up and down over and around rocks but there were bits of it were the walkway was so narrow I was clinging on to the rock face to make sure I didn’t fall down (party my own paranoia but partly it really was that narrow in some places!). Given my fear of hights this was a MAJOR challenge for me. I was lucky – everyone in my group was really supportive as there were quite a few moments where I froze and thought I couldn’t carry on but with patience and encouragement I managed to make it down to the bottom. I have to admit that I did not enjoy one moment of the climb down or up (except for thinking it was nearly all over) but I did have a massive sense of achievement at the end that I had managed it when I never thought I could do it.

Natures Window was our next stop which was a pretty impressive viewing point with another nerve wracking (but no where near as bad as the gorge) track to go along to get to it.

Thankfully I did make it back to the bus safe and sound having survived it all a slightly braver Caroline. We headed back to the hostel for a rewarding lunch of burgers to prepare us for the very lengthy 4 hour drive (again) north to Shell Beach a very pretty stop off to watch the sunset before heading on to Denham where I visited the most westerly bottle shop in Australia. We then travelled on to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, our stop for that night. We were treated to a very nice dinner again that night of expertly cooked steak on the bbq followed by a night time Aboriginal walk.

This was one of the most interesting things I have done as the aboriginal guide came to meet us and took us not too far from the resort but far enough away to feel like you were in the middle of nowhere. He had this secluded area with a fire lit and got us all to sit down where we listened to him telling us all about aboriginal traditional lifestyles, played the didgeridoo (where I learnt that traditionally only men should play it) and cooked us some fish over the fire. It was only supposed to last an hour or so but we ended up being there more than 2 hours I think. I tumbled off afterwards to have a quick beer on the beach and then headed to bed ready to rise very early to grab a good spot on the beach to watch the dolphins come in.

Well this was my first time seeing dolphins and it was magical. We were all there pretty early and then gradually all these people came down to the waters edge till there was a huge crowd. These enormous pelicans come down to the beach too as they know that the dolphins are going to get fed fish and they try to steal it from them so extra volunteers have to be on hand to distract the pelicans and feed them their own supply of fish so they don’t get in the way.

Years ago, there wasn’t much control over how much fish the dolphins were fed when they came into shore at Monkey Mia and people were allowed to touch the dolphins. They realised that it wasn’t good for their natural hunting abilities and now the volunteers are there to ensure that the dolphins only get fed a very small proportion of their daily requirement so that they still have to go out and hunt, and you aren’t allowed to touch the dolphins but if they swim against you or your leg for example, that’s ok - its all very eco-savvy now. After a relaxing morning on the beach soaking up the sun it was time to move on to head to Ocean Park where we got to see sharks being fed and then headed to Eagles Bluff – one of the windiest places I’ve ever been to and felt like I was going to be blown straight into the sea.

These were all stop offs really to our main destination of the day – Hamelin Pool, a World Heritage Site, to see Stromatolites. What are they you say? Well they are the oldest living organism on earth – only about 3.5 billion years old. Without the stromatolites we wouldn’t be here today as they are responsible for creating enough oxygen for air-breathing life forms to evolve. There are only 3 places in the world where they still exist and the site in Western Australia is the only one that is actually accessible. I have to say – it sounds more interesting than it actually is to see it. When you get there, all you see are these rocks growing out the ground and some bubbles in the water. It was however pretty cool to see it and learn about it and the area was so remote and undeveloped it looked like it could have come straight out of pre-historic times.

Our stop that night was in a farmstay. Our arrival was greated with a paddock full of about 200 kangaroos and joey that the family living there had rescued which I got to have a cuddle of. After a bit of amazing star gazing it was off to bed as we had another very early start in the morning – the best bit of which was the AWESOME sunrise I got to see!

So on our way back to Perth we decided to leave Australia for a couple of hours and headed to the Principality of Hutt River. Ok – so not quite as dramatic as it sounds, however I really did leave Australia and have a stamp in my passport to prove it!

A little excerpt from their website to explain a bit:

The Principality of Hutt River is situated 595 km north of Perth, Western Australia and is about 75 square km in area, consisting of some 18,500 acres of land.


Hutt River is an Independent Sovereign State having seceded from Australia on the Twenty First Day of April 1970 and is of comparable size to Hong Kong (not the New Territories).


The Principality consists of undulating farmland well covered in places with a wealth of shrubs and glorious wildflowers.

Hutt River is basically a farm. Many years ago when the government was putting restrictions on farmers in the area as to what they could and couldn’t grow and was causing them untold problems, this farmer decided to take a stand and declare himself independent of Australia which meant he could grow what he liked. Of course, it wasn’t quite as simple as that, Prince Ron is a very very intelligent man as, if it was easy, more people would do this. He has established his own post office, government office, church, etc, you name it, he has it! A very odd quirk of Australia to visit!

By the time we got to Hutt River we were heading back home towards Perth. Our last stop was at a lovely Wildlife Park where I got to feed Kangaroos, amongst other more “normal” animals! Oh and nearly had a very close encounter with a brown snake that they found in the grounds whilst I was there. I returned back to the hostel weary and tired but having thoroughly enjoyed seeing quite a bit of Western Australia!

Not too long after my trip north of Perth in April 2010, Tami, Chelsey and I decided to head 200km south of Perth to a place called Bunbury where you can go dolphin watching and swim with them if you want to. We hired a cheapo car - Hyundi Getz and I drove it. It was the first time I had driven a manual for about 2 or 3 years so kind of bumpy initially, and it was about 8 months since I had driven at all! It helps that in Aus you drive on the left so its not that different to being at home.

We went out on a boat for a few hours to see the dolphins and Tami paid to go into the water as well to try and swim with them but unfortunately they weren't having any of it and didn't come close to anyone. I chose not to go in as the water was FREEZING even with a wetsuit on! As the dolphins didn’t go near the people in the water I actually got to see a lot more from the boat. it was amazing seeing them in the wild and jumping in and out of the water.

My next big adventure was my Visa run to New Zealand in August 2010. Why did I have to do a visa run? Well all because I never planned on staying in Australia as long as I did, or being away for so long in total. I applied for all my visas before I left the UK in August 2009 which means you have to enter the country for Australia and New Zealand within 1 year of being granted the visa. With my original plan, it wasn’t a problem. Now, as I was wanting to stay in Australia until December/January it was a major problem. I had to fly to New Zealand or loose my working holiday visa! New Zealand is a pretty far away place to get to from Perth – a good 10 hours or so flying time! Luckily, I managed to change the portion of my round the world ticket that was flying me from Sydney to Christchurch to go from Perth so all I had to do was pay a bit extra and then buy my flight back.

As it happened – my little jaunt to Christchurch worked out perfectly. Rachel, a friend I made in Perth had left Australia and was working in Christchurch, and Amanda, my flatmate who is really close to Rachel decided she wanted to a break as well and decided to join me. Unfortunately – we ended up on different flights but all ended up together in Christchurch!

So what did i get up to? Well the journey over was a nightmare – Never again will I do a night flight unless I have to due to the length of the flight. I only got a couple of hours sleep so was shattered when I arrived. I had decided to book myself a private room whilst I was there and I was so happy I did - I was able to check in straight away as the room was ready, so went and got brekkie and then went to bed for 4 hours! It was a bit of a waste of a day as I woke up about 2pm and didn’t end up leaving the Hostel till about 4pm.

Well – the weather in Christchurch in the winter is slightly cooler than Perth to say the least – it was like a proper winter! I had a little exploration of Christchurch for an hour or so and then headed to the pub that Rachel is working in to meet her and Amanda. We had a very quiet evening and went to bed early enough as we were still exhausted.

I woke up really early the following day and knew that Amanda wanted to sleep in and wasn’t bothered about sightseeing so I went off to happily explore on my own for the day. Christchurch is a very pretty city but also very very quiet. I was surprised how few people I saw out and about in the streets. There is a lovely feel to the place though and has a great arts side to it which I really enjoyed. Later on I met up with Amanda where we went out on a last minute panic mission to find Rachel a bikini as we were driving to Hamner Springs the next day.

We were up early the next day to head out to the airport to go and pick up the hire car to drive up to Hamner Springs. They are natural springs 1.5 hours north of Christchurch. Its in a resort area which is very pretty and the springs are lovely and hot but it wasn’t quite as natural as I was expecting in terms of the setting but it was a lovely day relaxing in the hot water surrounded by snow capped mountains. It was worth it was a day out though especially with the amazing scenery we saw on the drive up there.

We were planning a "big night" for saturday but we were so relaxed and tired we managed to go for a lovely italian meal which ended up quite boozy where I had the biggest bowl of New Zealand Green Mussels I have ever seen! They were delicious and I can’t wait to get back there and eat more of them!

I was planning to do another day trip the following day but the weather was turning a bit dodgy and they weren’t sure if they were going to be running shuttles to Akaroa where I wanted to do a nature cruise, and if the weather was dodgy there wasn't going to be much to see anyway. I decided to have a lay in on sunday and then go to the Art Gallery and have more of a wonder around Christchurch (again amanda was still in bed!!) you must be wondering why she came - it was to sightsee the pubs not the town ;-) sorry Amanda if you read this!

It was our final night in Christchurch so we headed out for a few drinks and cocktails and a bit of a party – the next day I headed for my plane back to sunny Perth with a slightly sore head!

My return from New Zealand coincided with me only have a couple of weeks left at my 6 month job in Perth which I was a little sad about leaving as I had enjoyed working there and settled in. It also meant it was time for me to buckle down and start planning all the other fun things that I wanted to do!

One of these things was making it down to Margaret River the major wine region in WA! How could I possibly not go there? Well it was an interesting weekend to say the least which had its ups and its downs but I ended up having a brilliant time!

Aoife, one of the girls that I met in Laos and was with in Phi Phi had arrived in Perth, and some of her work colleagues were going down to Margaret River so she invited us along to join them all. Unfortunately they weren’t the friendliest and most welcoming of people. I’d known that they hadn’t wanted to “organise” everybody but they didn’t even seem to want to bother including us. I should have realised on the Friday night when we got there and I asked one of them who had just been to the bottle shop to come with me in the car to direct me as I wasn’t confident where I was going in the dark and none of them could be bothered to get up and come with.

So, although we had all driven 3 hours or so from Perth to one of the countries biggest wine regions, none of the other girls apart from Aoife, Amanda and myself wanted to pay to do a wine tour. That weekend was the weekend of the AFL Grand Final so they all wanted to go to the pub on the Saturday to watch it, even though they aren’t into the footie. Us 3 decided to leave them to it and booked ourselves on the Wine for Dudes tour which was great fun and I ended up trying so many nice wines I finished the day with about 8 bottles or so! We headed back to the hostel after the tour to freshen up and then headed into “town” to meet the girls for more drinks! That evening they seemed to disappear off from us again so I didn’t even socialise with them then but again – I still had plenty of fun with Aoife and Amanda!

The next day there was talk of going on a Sunday session at a place called the Castle. The only issue it was a 30 minute drive away and of course, no public transport to get us there. I had no idea what the plans were as the girls weren’t really saying anything – I was just told to get up and be ready to go out in an hours time…..which I did – only to sit around waiting for the others for the next couple of hours. It turned out that none of them wanted to share the cost of a taxi there (about $8 each so not too much) and wanted 2 of us to drive, leave the cars there overnight and then one of them would drive back the next day to pick the cars up. I was not up for this seeing as I was driving a hire car with a $3,000 excess, and one of the other girls didn’t really want to leave her car there either. It didn’t hugely bother me as I wasn’t too bothered about driving all the way to this place just to go for drinks when there was plenty of bars within walking distance. However, Aoife did want to go with them but it turned out that none of them wanted to compromise and share the cost of a taxi and they ended up squeezing 5 of them into the one car and going anyway. It did put a small spoiler on things for a short while but Amanda and I were determined to have a fun time which we certainly did as we headed down into town for more drinks – turned out we had the right idea all along as 3 hours later the girls had driven back to town as they didn’t want to leave the car there either! Unfortunately, the next day – I had to drive us all back up to Perth on a hangover!

I was very lucky that before I left Perth to hit the road, it was whale watching season! Both Claire and I were between jobs so we decided on one lovely Friday to book ourselves on a tour to go whale watching and what a sight it was!!! We must have seen half a dozen whales whilst we were out there and they really are something you need to see to be believed!

Next up….I hit the road – well the air – to Adelaide!