Aug 2006

The worlds largest sand island was created thousands of years ago by longshore drift and sand washing off Australia’s east coast. Its hard to imagine as looking at this from the shore, it has an interior of rainforests, gorges, streams and swimming lakes. All of these are on a landscape that is 120km by 15km surface area and due to the enormous depth, contains more sand than the Sahara desert – apparently.

We had a choice of two ways of getting over onto the island, either getting the passenger ferry and getting on an organised tour, or doing the fly drive. Taking off from Hervey Bay on a single-engine 7 seater Cessna and landing on the beach on Fraser, then renting a 4WD and doing the island ourselves. Its fair to say that after a dodgy experience at the Grand Canyon in America, my parents we quite happy to get on the tour but we managed to convince them otherwise.

Theres a strange feel about Fraser Island, as 4WDs and buses with towering wheel bases and fat, chunky tyres all pull in to refuel against an idyllic beach backdrop of white sand and waving palm trees. The abundance of sand and the lack of paved roads mean that only these vehicles can negotiate the island.

Well worth it though, the sights from the air were just awesome, a bit daunting at times, especially when the pilot was not much older than Servane or me but we got on and off the island without dramas (although my mum had her eyes shut the entire time). We took the 4WD on the highway of the island (the beach) and visited places like Lake McKenzie with clear blue waters formed by water accumulating on top of a thin layer of twigs and leaves, the Maheno, a passenger liner that was blown ashore by a cyclone in 1935 and Central Station which apart from anything else the experience of driving through a thick jungle on top of pure white sand hills is pretty bizarre. We also managed to scale the sand dunes that make up a significant part of the island and are getting bigger every year.

Lake Mckenzie

We never stayed on the island but there was enough to keep us amused for at least a few more days, but due to timescales we had to leave.

Central Station

We picked up my brother from the airport and passed through Brisbane on the way up to Hervey Bay. It is Australia’s third largest city, and is also known for the high-rises and casinos. As we only passed through, we didn’t get to see too much and what we did seemed similar to what we’ve done already.

Hervey Bay itself is either a very popular place for spotting migrating whales or a launching pad to get to Fraser Island. Although we used it for the latter, it still has some pretty spectacular beaches, which the local retirees came to see a long time ago and ended up staying for.

Me getting 'roped into' work at the marina

But to be honest we didn’t spend too much time on the beach during the one day we were here due to the fact we decided to stay in an apartment on the beach and make use of the tennis courts etc. that they had to offer. Well that was the plan but we spent most of the day on the balcony/garden enjoying the sun (and a few drinks). We booked our trip to Fraser for the following day.

Surfers stands at the centre of the Gold Coast and earns its name as a giant, tacky, tourist development area consisting of endless shopping malls, theme parks, high rise hotels and miles and miles of bars, having said that, Surfers has some excellent beaches and a few quieter areas.

And due to one reason or another, we managed to stay is one of these quieter areas outside Surfers for the first night, called Nerang. Bit of a hicksville, it gave my parents a look at the ‘real’ Australia, but by the end we were all looking forward to getting back to the other end of the scale and getting a bit of excitement.

Didn’t have too far to look as the next night we found ourselves in Jupiter’s Casino in the centre of town. Its easy to see why they say that the Aussies are one of the biggest gamblers in the world. This area has more ‘pokies’ than all of Las Vegas. Its by far the biggest place of this kind ive been in, multiple levels of pure gambling craziness. Needless to say, its good we don’t go in these things too often.

My mum and Servane looking thouroughly bored

The beach had some excellent surfing breaks along with pure white sands, but of course you had to share this with about 200 other people.

Onto Hervey Bay.

We travelled the 10 or so hours from Sydney to Byron Bay in the hope that the weather would improve the further north we went, we were wrong. Apart from this, Byron Bay has a really chilled out hippy vibe, has still got one of the best beaches we’ve been to and has a kicking bar and nightlife scene.

We met up and had a drink with friends we previously met in Coral Bay on the west coast, who were just recovering from the Splendour in the Grass music festival which we just missed. The remnants and leftovers from this do could still be seen with hundreds of young people still mooching about in the streets.

We managed to pay a visit to Nimbin, the ‘alternative’ centre known for its hippies and marijuana. Also called the bush Amsterdam, it was quite funny to go if only to see all the crusties.

A few days later we met up with my mum and dad, who had made the long journey over from England and the less long journey down from Brisbane to meet us. Unfortunately they didn’t bring the weather over from England with them (never thought Id be saying that) and it rained almost constantly whilst we were there, so as a consequence, we spent most of our time either in the van or in their cabin.

As we moved up from Victoria, to New South Wales, we came to the place first set foot by Captain Cook in 1770, who decided to compare the area to Wales, hence the name. The UK then began to ship its convicts to Circular Quay in Sydney to establish the first European settlement in 1778. There, that’s the history lesson over.

We made it to our hotel with no dramas this time, probably due to the fact we took two toll roads to take us straight into the heart of the city and where we were staying, Kings Cross, another place renowned for its seedier side.

We made it to the most recognisable area of the city, the harbour which consists of the Oprah House, bridge, Circular Quays and The Rocks. After taking a few pictures, we had a guided tour of the Opera House. A place where 3000 performances ranging from ballet, opera, plays, concerts, even sumo and boxing on rare occasions. Not without its problems though, the building and designing of the place took 10 years longer than expected and 95 million over budget, the chief designer walked off the job and has never seen it completed. A worthwhile visit that looks pretty stunning close up.

We spent my birthday in style, staying in a 5 star hotel and getting complimentary champagne and chocolates in our room. In retrospect probably a bit too posh for us, especially when we got the valet to park our big blue van behind the Mercs and Porches in the car park, highly amusing.

We experienced some of the nightlife in Kings Cross and also went to Darling Harbour, the following day, which is basically a huge waterfront leisure park. On the day we were due to leave we spent the day at the Rocks, enjoying the weather and the attractions that the coffee festival brought.

Botanical Gardens

Darling Harbour

Onto Byron Bay