Merry Christmas!

Byron Bay is one of the very most attractive places on Australia’s east coast to spend your Christmas holidays in. For the same reason most of the hostels and camping sites are booked in advance, and Kirstine and I had to look for a place (to a reasonable price) outside the city. Apparently the local rugby team doesn’t use their field during the break and it is therefore used to camping. And old semi-crazy but very friendly man John is looking out for the place and we persuaded him to give us a discount. Since the place was almost empty and he grew so fond of us, he ended up treating us with pizza and champagne!

Funny how things turn out =)

Later that night a mate of John showed up, and it turned out that they play in a band. Their gear was set up, so I gave them a hand playing drums. Awesome!

On the 24th of December we met up with Camilla (our Danish friend, who also studied in Melbourne) some of her Danish friends + a bunch of Swedish people. We tried to make a traditional Scandinavian x-mas dinner as possible, this included browned potatoes, roedkaal but kangaroo steak! Before we went out to hit the closest club we played a present game with dice. Very hyggeligt!

I finally found the best way to spend the 25th of December: surfing! Never tried it before, but we had a lot of fun! The twins & Camilla rocked, they took same lessons prior and rented the boards.

John has a brother that owns horses and he let us go for a ride in the beautiful country before we left Byron Bay. Kirstine grew up riding so she’s very talented and tried to teach me a bit as well.

A great time at Byron bay! After that we moved on heading towards Coffs Harbour.

Countryside Australia

We took an extra night at Mt Warning campsite to relax after our climb and then we drove further down south to see some of the small towns in New South Wales (we ready crossed the boarder and left Queensland two days prior). The road twists through a beautiful landscape with small mountains and green fields with cattle.

After passing a million cows, we craved a big steak and went looking for a local diner, where we could get a good Sunday meal. No luck in the dull Kyogle so we continued to the cozy Lismore, which both provided us with a great steak and a good movie at the local cinema.

Grrr...

I like it nice and red!

We went to sleep at a deserted car park but the morning after (Monday the 22nd of December) we were woken by the load noises of last minute Christmas shopping. We joined everyone else, and spend a couple of hours apart (for once) to go on present hunt for each other. Lismore is a small, cute hippie town with heaps of nice cafés and interesting shops. After shopping we drove to back to the coast to spend the night in Ballina.

Wifey and me!

Mount Warning

We left surfer’s paradise looking forward to seeing something different than all the tourists and surfboards, so we decided to pay Mt Warning National Park a visit.
Though Mt Warning is not located at the most Easterly point in Oz, it still has an altitude that ensures that this is the very point where the sun hits Australia first. For this reason many people take the long and tough hike to experience sunrise at Mt Warning. And of course Kirstine and I wanted to do that as well!

The night we arrived at the campsite we met two young guys and their Dad, who by coincidence had planned to do the hike the very next morning. We decided to do it together, which definitely was an advantage, since they’d done it before. We met up 3am in the dark, and started the 4.4 km long hike up the mountain. It was amazing to walk in the dark rainforest only by the light of our torches, listening to all the exotic, unfamiliar noises.

We had to make a stop halfway up, because a snake was occupying our track, but we managed to chase it away. After a long struggle we reached the top, but unfortunately it was overcast and completely impossible to see anything than white clouds. A pity to miss the supposedly spectacular sunrise and amazing view, but despite that I really enjoyed the hike. Definitely one of the best hikes I’ve ever done!

After the two hours hike down again, we enjoyed water melon, coco pops and the company of the camp site dog!

Mmmm... Lovely day!

On the road again… Now with my wife!

On the 8th of November I picked up Kirstine at the train station, we spend the night at Joeys place and all of us had dinner with the Danes I went to Fraser with.

Kirstine and me

Joey and me

Next day we picked up our fabulous camper, in which we ‘re going to live in till the 3rd of Jan.

This is the beauty (called B. B. King)

Kirstine is enjoying our first lunch

The first stop after that was north of Brisbane; the Sunshine coast.
We went to Australia Zoo, and did the mandatory kangaroo petting, watched a bird show and saw all the crocodiles and snakes you find around Oz.

Kirstine has a mate (Ross) in Rainbow beach, so we spend a couple of nights there. Great to know locals; we went sea kayaking and around the beach in Ross’ 4WD.

Ross, me and Chris

On our way back south we passed by Joey & Kristo’s place, we made dinner and got pissed and had a ball.

The guys in their wife beaters


The only way to watch a good movie. Kristo knows how to treat a woman!

After that small detour, we continued down south to the Gold Coast, where the famous and very touristy Surfer’s Paradise is located. We spend a day in one of the fun parks called Dream World (rollercoasters are underrated).

The beaches on Gold coast are absolutely gorgeous, but in stead of going surfing we located a good spot for kite surfing and finally got out again. I managed to get up on my board actually riding for the first time ever! That was just awesome!
We met some other kite surfers on the beach, and after a good day in the water we had dinner at Sean’s place, watched a movie and Kirstine and I spend the night here. Holiday rocks!

Brissy

I arrived in Brisbane Sunday morning 5.30am. My lovely study mate and former colleague Anja studied in Brissy last year but fell in love with it and works there at the moment. I spend my first night at her place, we went swimming and to the Sunday markets in South Bank. Her boyfriend Jakob was there on holidays as well, so I wasn’t the only one being tourist.

The next couple of days I spend at the lovely Joey’s place (a friend of Nathan, who I met at a party in Melbourne). He’s apparently a pretty good cook so we had some nice dinners getting pissed in the weekdays (hey, who’s keeping track when they’re on holidays?). Poor Joey unfortunately had to work, but it’s not every day you have visitors from Scandinavia.

On Thursday I went on a little road/camping trip to Fraser island, which is the largest sand island in the world. For that reason Anja, Jakob and I rented a jeep, while two other couples (friends of Anja) brought their own 4WD.

Driving off road and in sand is much fun and doable if you know the technique, but since none of us tried it before, we got stuck a couple of times. After getting familiar with the cars and island we went around and saw some of the beautiful fresh water lakes with crystal clear water and the finest white sand.

You don’t wonna spend too much time swimming by the beach, because these waters are filled with one of the most aggressive type of sharks: tiger sharks. We see heaps from the lookout at Indian Head.

After a great weekend on the island I returned to Joeys place Sunday night, and the day after my lovely and missed wife arrived in Brisbane. Our wicked east coast adventure could finely begin.

10 days with 20 lovely people

Wednesday the 19th of November I was picked up by the bus, which was going to be my ride all the way to Broome. The west coast is beautiful and nothing like the rest f Australia.
We hiked around Kalbarri National Park, were Mark & I went abseiling.

We visited many gorgeous beaches including Shell Beach, Shark Bay & Coral Bay. We went snorkeling from a glass bottom boat at Coral Bay, as you can see I fed the fish:

Monkey Mia is the only place in the world where wild life dolphins swim to the coast and get fed by humans on a daily basis. Of course we went there with all the other tourists.

Like the east coast of Australia, the west coast also has a reef, the much underrated Ningaloo Reef. The waters are so shallow you easily can see everything by snorkeling. Mark, David (both from the UK) and I found a turtle we went swimming with for 20 min. Fantastic!

The pearl of the west coast: Karijini National Park. This is definitely one of my very favorite places in Oz. This remote, beautiful place is a mix of the characteristic red dust/sand and amazingly green gorges full of plants and animals.
We spend 3 nights in this little paradise, living as primitively as you can imagine. People were great team working, and everyone helped out cocking, cleaning and getting drunk. This is our little camp:

We went hiking in the gorges every day; it was great and very challenging. Absolutely amazing, don’t think you can’t find anywhere more beautiful in the world! Hidden in between the massive stone walls, created by the erosion of water, we visited several pools with clear, chilly fresh water. Much needed, everyone was soaked in sweat!

At Hancock gorge our guide took a small group of the most fit on a 15 min swim to an otherwise isolated little beach and pool. Here we went jumping of a cliff into the pool (approx 10 meters). The best adrenaline rush of the trip! Even Jesper can be proud of me now c”,)

It was also proven possible to open a beer with a magazine (and no, it wasn't a twist top).

Further North we visited the mining town Port Hedland, which isn’t a place you wanna live, but somewhere you go for a couple of years to earn good money. But they do have a playground!

We went for a walk at the pretty 80 mile beach (which is actually 90 miles, but that name was already taken!). No swimming unfortunately, because of the stinger season.

We reached Broome on the 28th of November; we all spend a great night together, eating pizza, getting pissed and dancing. It’s kinda sad to say goodbye to so many cool people after spending almost every hour of the day with them for 10 days. I’m definitely gonna miss them, even our crazy guide, Sharpy.

Next day I followed Mark to the airport and visited the famous Japanese cemetery. Years ago Broome attracted quite a few Asian people (especially Japanese), because it used to have a big pearl industry. It resulted in Broome today has a unique and interesting population of Asians, Aboriginals and white people.

Saturday afternoon I said goodbye to Broome, catching a flight back to Perth. I had 5 hours in transition, and can you spend them better than with a friend? Paul picked me up in the airport; we went to a great restaurant and got food + beers. Though I kinda lost track of weekdays it WAS Saturday night after all!
After dropping me off again around midnight, I spend the night on a flight to Brisbane to continue my adventure on the east coast.

Perth and Fremantle

Two days after my last exam (and after an enormous amount of beers) I caught a flight to the most remote metropolitan city in he world; Perth in Western Australia (WA). This gorgeous city is both beautiful and has a variety of cozy, alternative small pubs and fancy bars. I spend two nights here, and then moved on to the smaller sister town; Fremantle.

Three major advantages: Fremantle is right on the coast and thus has great beaches, the best brewery in the world, Little Creatures, is located here and Paul, the flower king himself, lives in Fremantle.

Though Fremantle is only a small town it still has great bars (Little Creatures) and if you’re into live music: Mojo’s. Besides that you find beautiful beaches, apparently one of the best places to kite surf (damn, why couldn’t I bring my gear??).
I also spend a day biking around Rottnest Island, which is located 30 min by ferry from the town. On this cute little island cars are a no go, and everyone has to bring/rent a bike. Awesome, it almost felt like home!
Paul was great, I spend the nights at his place and we explored the Fremantle night life together. I met Paul at Fremantle Prison on an interesting but long guided tour. Apparently Paul used to live in Frederiksberg, how random is that? He’s from Auckland NZ (hence kiwi) but lived in Melbourne before moving to WA because of work. Great guy, he just has to come visit me when I get back to Denmark.
My conclusion: Perth (Fremantle included) is the best city in WA.