Gold Coast to Brisbane and beyond...

On our way out of Byron, we stopped in a small town called Lismore to see their koala sanctuary and hospital and to take a tour. I can't get enough of koalas and I just want to take some home in my suitcase!

From there, we continued up to the Gold Coast but decided to just pass on thru because there were more schoolies there than at Byron Bay. So we headed up to Brisbane, which was a disappointing city to say the least. Really not much there...except for a spectacular art gallery that we saw our first day there. We did some couch surfing with an older guy named Barry who was very generous in opening his home to us despite already having a young french couple staying with him. Aside from putting us up, he also had breakfast for us and between us and the french couple, we each made an evening meal to share.

We spent a large portion of our time in Brisbane doing planning for the rest of our trip up the coast. 

The only photo I took in all of Brisbane...the Brisbane Wheel

Noosa was next on our list of towns to stop in but the morning we woke up in Noosa, it was pouring buckets! So we continued on and stopped at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, which was absolutely phenomenal! Any place where you can hang out with and pet kangaroos and koalas is amazing in my book. But I'll leave that for my next post...

Byron Bay

The day that we drove to Byron Bay, we decided to play it by ear as far as accommodations so we ended up pretty much homeless...not realizing that schoolies were in town. What's schoolies, you ask? Hmmm, how to explain it...just imagine a bunch of high school graduates away from home and all parental guidance for a week in a beautiful beach town filled with nightclubs and bars in a country where the legal drinking age is 18. Pure chaos.

Anywho, we found ourselves in Byron Bay with absolutely no place to stay. Every holiday park and hostel is called just about laughed in my face that we had waited till 8:30pm to find a place to stay. Thank God for the Byron Bay police...and for the couch surfing website. A young Byron cop messaged and asked if we had a place to stay, and we of course took him up on the offer. Best way to have fun in Byron?! Be friends with a police officer! Ha, kidding, but he did help us find our way around. 

The next day, we put on our bathing suits, found free all day parking close to the beach and leaped and bounded into the water. We had been informed that the most recent (September 2014) shark attack (great white, fatality) was the first in 30 years so we were safe till about 2044. 

After wandering around a few of the shops, we sat down for coffees at an open air cafe to do a bit more planning for our travels up the east coast. 

The next day, we drove again to Byron Bay, only after I made Don stop at a few (5) yard sales :) I have a weakness for secondhand clothes, especially in stylish beachy surf towns like Byron! I purchased a Nixon watch for $2 that normally retailed for $200!!! 

We parked again in the free spots we had found the day before and started the walking track that leads up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse. It was a beautiful walk up and around the lighthouse. It was on this track that we found the most easterly point in Australia!! Went to the beach again after we finished the walking track and then got some food at a great restaurant right on the beach. 

That night, our host, Ben (the Byron police officer) had invited us to his to younger brothers costume party. It was 'm' themed since his brother was named Mitchell, so we went as 'mericans! Pretty good, right?

The next day, a distant relation of Don's named Doug Greene and his wife Tiffany, took us to a giant farmer's market about a half hour from where we were staying. Doug and Tiffany own a absolutely breathtaking house in Lennox Head, which is about 15 minutes from Byron Bay and after the farmer's market, they took us to spend the afternoon at their house.

See the lighthouse behind our sweaty faces?

Whattttttt?!

Pretty psyched about this so I had to do a few different poses...

Newcastle -> Port Macquerie -> Coff's Harbour

Our last day in Sydney, we picked up a rental car and drove to Newcastle to stay with a couch surfing host there. His name was John and he was Canadian! Back in Canada he had been in the Canadian Air Force and here in Australia, he ran the flight simulation program for the Australian Air Force.

He ate dinner with us and then took us on a walking tour of the coastal area that he lived in. It was a wonderful walk down to their lighthouse and thru the beaches and harbour area. We met up with his girlfriend and went to get some drinks all together. 

The next day, Don and I did another coastal walk and saw these very strange jellyfish that we later learned were Portuguese Man-of-War. Yikes.

After staying in Newcastle for two nights, we headed to Port Macquarie, where I was very eager to see the Koala Hospital! It was absolutely amazing. We learned all about some of the diseases and injuries that koalas get and what places like this hospital are doing to help them.

Next stop: Coff's Harbour. The weather was a bit lousy while we were there but we went to the Botanical Gardens, took a nap on their main beach, had drinks at their only decent bar, and went to a cartoon museum before heading on our way.

It was very easy to see the different layers of rock...clearly defined

Don's new car!

Don is vertically challenged from the waist up, otherwise known as having a short torso

A random bird in Port Macquarie...love finding these gem's in our photo folder

A koala we met at the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie

Did you know koalas sleep 18-20 hours a day because the eucalyptus leaves they eat have so little nutritional value that their bodies don't have the strength to do much of anything but sleep and eat.   

There were about 50 of these giant koalas all over the town. Each koala had a different theme...scroll down for a few more photos like this.

Oh, hello

This is a pretty good looking yogurt parfait if I do say so myself. Fruit is in season in Australia and it's amazing! Notice the fresh mint leaves on top!?

V-Wall on the way to Coff's Harbour...most of the rocks have been painted along this whole walkway

Don is famous in Australia. Don is Don. Don is good. Shaved leg ham?! 

Some of the beautiful flowers at the Coff's Harbour Botanical Gardens

If you look really closely, you can see me on the red bridge!

Went to a cartoon museum in Coff's Harbour where I proceeded to read an entire volume of Calvin and Hobbes...my version of a summer day doing nothing : success.

Waitomo, Wanganui, Wellington

After our days mountain biking and at Hobbiton, we camped out in Rotorua, literally, on the shores of Lake Okareka. It was quite beautiful as we watched the moon rise behind a lovely hill on one side of the lake.

The following day, we wandered around Rotorua, before cozying up in a coffee shop with our iced Americano (Don's) and my hot mochachino. Did a lot of researching and planning about where we were heading next and where we wanted to stay as well. Found a nice Airbnb home to stay in outside of Waitomo for that night so that we would be close to the glowworm caves for the next morning.

The glowworm caves were absolutely spectacular! Both Don and I felt like we could have spent hours just staring at all the glowworms on the ceiling. We couldn't take pictures, as that would disrupt the glowworms but Don took a few photos in the cave before we got in the boat.

Inside the caves on our walk down to the boat to see the glowworms

After we got off the boat, this is what we saw of the caves

 If you haven't ever seen glowworms before, Google it, they are absolutely breathtaking.

Next on our journey, Wanganui & Wellington! Stay tuned!