Ah Moreton Island.........sand sea and relaxation (thank you Shazza)!!

We woke up nice and early to get our connection to the ferry terminal where we would get the cateraman to Moreton Island. Laura's sister treated us to a bit of luxury booking us into a hotel on the Tangalooma resort for a couple of nights!! The catarmaran crossing was cool seeing Brisbane from the water and getting a bit of knowledge from the crew on the surroundings.

As we approached the jetty we could see what a beautiful place Shazza had sent us to.......a palm lined beach with crystal clear waters and activities going on everywhere you looked! We instantly relaxed let out a sigh and immersed ourselves into a little bit of luxury. We were met by a resort rep who gave took us to check in and gave us a quick guided tour en route, no heavy bag with our lives for the next year in to lug with us for once as the bags were being delivered to our door...we felt like we had landed in paradise!!......thanks Shazza.

We quickly made ourselves at home in the huge room before we headed out to sign up for all the free tours and activities then do a little snorkelling around some ship wrecks just off the beach. This was idyllic until Mike saw a fin about 30m down the beach- ut oh. We opted to abort snorkelling and did a spot of shark spotting from the beach instead. The shark fins appeared once more and in hind sight may well have been more dolphin fins than shark fins but the fear was well and truly set in!!

That night we headed out to the jetty and dolphin feeding before diner. That was v cool the dolphins are wild but have been getting fed every night at the same time for many years and bang on time swam into the bay and awaited diner. We got to wade out into the water with around 11 dolphins. And took it in turn to hand feed them fish. Mike dolphin was a 17 year old, with a few battle scars from shrak attacks a from a few years ago. 
 
 
 

We splashed out and ate in the resturant that night, eating as much of the buffet as physically possible, inhaling our food after a busy day!! Two deserts my have been a little greedy but Strawberry cheesecake and pavlova were tasty!!

The next day we got up in time to do a bushtucker walk with a local guide, getting to eat some wild passionfruit and some weird looking berries.  
 
 
 

After lunch we played some B'Ball, archery and yes Laura I'm man enough to admit you were better than me. 
 
 
 

Then we went out to the beach and tried to catch some diner. Unfortunately, it seems frozen Octopus is not a favourite of the Nemo's in Moreton bay, so after a couple of hours we headed back to the shop and made do with sausages for the BBQ that night (much to Mikes disgust having to watch the guy next to him land two snappers while we were not getting a sniff on our rod)!!

 

Before we had our BBQ we headed back to the jetty to hang out with dolphins for their dinner time. The time had flown by, we had our last night of luxury before we were to leave. We did manage to fit a sand safari and sand boarding in prior to the 4pm ferry. The sand boarding was cool 60kph on a piece of wood down a huge dune!! It took a few days to get all the sand out of our ears, noses etc!!

 
 
 
 

We got on the ferry sad to say goodbye to Moreton island a place we could have spent alot more time getting to know.
 
 
 

if carlsberg made bays...byron bay would be it!!

 

We arrived in byron bay late at night....a bit of a calamity as mike thought we'd booked one hostel and laura knew we booked the other, we wondered the streets at night with our packpacks in the rain looking for our hostel. A couple of helpful girls walked us to the hostel.. We knew we were gunna like it from then onwards we just had a good feeling about the place.


 
That morning we hired surf boards...the surf was up, with a nice off shore breeze holding them up nicely....unfortunately we are not surfing pros as we discovered we were battered royaly by the waves. we both managed to stand up a couple of times...then fall off. we were pretty tired and bruised after our day of surfing/ drowning...happy to have an early night.

 

The next day we had to move to the other Byron YHA, Cape Byron. A bit of a result as we had our own double bed in the upstairs loft type part of a six bed dorm!! We had a day of boogy boarding that day much easier than the surfing and let our upper limbs recover a little from the previous days battering. That evening we made friends with our room mates Liam and Tom by bribbing them to be our friends with Mikes pancakes. One thing led to another and a few pancakes led to a case of beer being necked at the hostel then onto the beach and a drunken trawl round the bars trying to sneek into a club but even with Lauras amazing stealth mode failing miserbly to get past the bouncers without paying!! We finished the night off in classic ozzy style with a few meat pies and not so classic ozy style a cake fight on the streets ned kelly style. A top night with our new buddies!!

 

The next day we had booked onto a tour to Nimbin a hippy town.. The bus pulled up a little late to find us two very hungover and not ready for a bumpy hot ride on the 1950's wagon!!

 

Nimbin was a classic tourist trap. With a few of the old hippies its famed for but heavily diluted by lost unhappy souls, junkies who probably need sectioning, crims looking to get some tourist dollar for 'cookies' and weed.......all a bit disappointing really not quite the hippy free love feel we were expecting!!

 

The ride home made the trip worth while however getting a nice BBQ and stopping at a waterfall where we could cliff jump and swim at the bottom of the falls....... it was quite magical when it started to rain while we were swimming on the warm fresh water!!

 

When we got back to base we had a night out in cheeky monkeys where we met up with Liam and Tom and some of the others from the tour. Cheeky monkeys- what a place. $3 brought you steak and chips that put weatherspoons value to serious shame!! Happy hour and the hula competition.....Gotta love cheeky monkeys!! Of course once happy hour finished off we trundled on a bit of a pub crawl around the Bay - loads going on and a great atmosphere!!

Sadly, we had to leave Byron Bay and the next day we took our battered and hungover bodys to the greyhound.

Surfers paradise is a bit of a misnomer. Its far from paradise. A bit more Benidorm really, not really set up for backpackers the YHA being a long way from the shops and bus terminal. We did take advantage of the beach that was only across the road though. The place would probably make a good holiday for an australian wanting the resort experience with loads of shops, bars and restaurants and high rise hotels. We also had our first night in seperate dorms which was ok for loo but a BO filled night for Mike sharing with all (unshowered) weirdos!! Slept with one eye open!!

 

We gladly left Surfers the next day and headed to Brisbane. Only a 30 minute trip as the clocks went back on this trip!!

Brisbane YHA is phenomenally good. A new well oiled machine. Mike and Loo back together in their shared dorms and life is all good.Its a clean and friendly place full of life! The place had a roof terrace with POOL and amzing views of the city!!
 

 

We went to sleep that night happy with the world and very, very, very excited at the prospect of the next few days of luxury on Moreton island courtesy of Shazza!!

Valentines weekend in Sydney and coffs harbour

Back at the MacDonalds we unloaded some serious verbal diahrrea on Louise updating her on all our exploits since we last saw them in what must have seemed to Louise to be one very long breath. We went to the kids school to pick them up and spent the afternoon charging around the play room with them.

On friday we planned and booked the east coast leg, the last part of our Oz adventure.

We then decided to have an early valentines day as it looked like we would be on the bus Sunday (14th Feb) for a long haul from Sydney to Coffs Harbour (7hrs).

We went to the Lindt chocolate cafe in Darling harbour then to the movies and watched Valentines day (chick flick but Laura seemed to love it and Mike might have thought it was ok too as long as you don't tell any of the lads)!! Scored top browny points!
 

 

The next day we had a day out with the Macdonalds to palm beach (where they film home and away). Cool to buy some drinks in the Summerbay cafe and see where they filmed it all, but no celebs made an appearance while we were there :(

 

As it turned out we had a chilled day sunday. Laura loved her card and Lindt bunny ( delivered a little late and after alot of unnecessary prompting), Mike had a look around and eventually found a card that Laura made from her note book- nice!! The romance isn't dead yet!!??!!

We took the overnight bus that evening saying a fond farewell to the MacDonalds and Sydney!!

After a full 20 minutes sleep that night we arrived in Coffs harbour jaded and ready for bed at 8am!! Luckily once the hostel opened they had a room ready so we crashed and caught up some of our sleep. In the afternoon we hired bikes and cycled about 10km looking around the place...........it was ok but a little sleepy and cut short as no gears or breaks gets a little boring unless your on a hill then a littl scary!! So we swopped bikes and headed back and to the beach and body boarded the rest of the afternoon. Laura tried to book a scuba session but we got the call to say it was cancelled so missed out on getting eaten by nursing sharks!! We drowned our sorrows in the Y Knot cafe looking out over sea!!

 

we moved into a shared dorm that night and made friends with a nice couple...you'll never guess where from......ipswich....and one was a physio...so we felt quite at home with them....Maybe a liitle too at home.. as Laura was packing up her stuff in the dark without her glasses on trying to be quiet, she managed to pack away one of trudi's flip flops!!! without realising!! they were leaving early the next morning. fortunately mike wasn't as quiet and woke them...which started the mystery of the missing flip flop....much to laura's embarassment she discovered it in her bag before they left... we're pretty sure they believed that it was a complete accident!!! whoops!!

The next day the surf was a little lame so we hired a stand up paddle board.....easy to use on the flat but sooooo difficult to surf in waves, Mike has the grazes to prove it, but 10/10 for effort!!

 

It was a very sad day though and one Mike will not be able/allowed to forget for some time...........Mike got sand in Lauras beloved camera!!!!!!! Laura would like to say she was very brave but Mike feels he is still suffering the repercussions and may continue to do so!! Some wounds just don't heal quickly!! This is further exacerbated by the grinding noise and inability to focus the camera now has.........Mikes in so much trouble!! :(

After the paddle boarding it was back on the coach and heading to Byron Bay, alot shorter jouney only 4 hrs!!