Australian Music Rocks!

I'm sure some of you never expected to hear the tag line that Australian music rocks, but it does. Yes, I know you're bored sick of the song Land Down Under by Men At Work, but I swear Aussie music is a gem waiting to be discovered by the rest of the world. Remember the band Silverchair from the 1990's? In 2007 they came out with their Young Modern album, and their single Straight Lines is completely different from what you probably remember. It rocks. Not like their classic Frog Stomp album didn't, but they've evolved to a new sound.

I spent about four and a half months in Australia, and let's just say a good part of it was driving some four thousand plus kilometers, with nothing more than a mix of ten hit or miss CD's, and the radio. I can attribute my musical awakening, and also my driving sanity, to Triple J, a national radio station which is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Triple J's programming focuses on Australian artists and new music from around the world. It is hands down my favorite station to listen to online, so you don't even have to wait for that long overdue trip to Australia to check out their music scene. Although, you should go visit the country at some point.

It was my friend Armin from Germany, who turned me on to Triple J's Hottest 100. The Hottest 100 is an annual poll of the most popular songs amongst their listeners, and it's announced every year on Australia Day, which is January 26th. It's a big honor to get the number one spot. In 2007 the winning song was Knights of Cydonia by Muse, and in 2008 the top spot went to Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. Both of these are fantastic songs, and each year Triple J puts out a two disc compilation, with approximately forty songs. The current collection, which is volume 16, is now available on the ABC site, and they ship globally.

I know what you're thinking. Both Kings of Leon and Muse aren't Australian bands. Okay, so it's true, but the Hottest 100 does include a good mix of Australian artists, and just by listening to their online radio station, you'll become enlightened by the talent from down under. Here's the artist line up from the last two Hottest 100 compliations:

2007 - Volume 15 (note that 52 of the 100 tracks are by Australian artists)

2008 - Volume 16 (this is the latest compilation)

Some of my favorite Australian rock artists that I would recommend are:

- Silverchair

- Faker

- Bluejuice

- Architecture in Helsinki

- Urthboy

- Angus and Julia Stone

- The Beautiful Girls

- British India

- Wolfmother

- The Panics

Triple J tends to be mostly alternative and indie rock, but there is also an amazing hip hop scene in Australia. I have to admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of hip hop until stumbling upon the Australian scene. I tended to avoid the commercial gangsta rap scene of the past, and listened to artists such as Aesop Rock and Mos Def. I do really like Mike Skinner from the Streets, and I guess that is why I'm probably a fan of Aussie hip hop, since their lyrical play is truly amazing.

As for my favorite Australian hip hop artists, I would check out:

- Drapht

- Pegz

- DJ Bonez

- Jase

- Muph & Plutonic

- Bias B

- Spit Syndicate
- Chasm

- The Funkoars

- Plutonic Lab

Hopefully you'll actually start listening to all these artists, and Triple J's streaming radio. If you're like me, and sick of US radio programming, this will be a breath of fresh air.

A quick visit to the Northern Territory: Darwin, Kakadu, and Litchfield

Ever since we got to Australia, we had been excited about seeing the "outback." Images of Crocodile Dundee, Billabongs (watering holes), and red dirt. The Aussies basically refer to the outback as anything inland from the coast/civilization. We tried to find some versions of the outback when we drove inland to Armidale, NSW, to see our friends the Greggs, and when we visited the Atherton Tablelands a couple hours from Cairns in FNQ (Far North Queensland). Here are photos from our trip to the Tablelands.

It wasn't until our flight was landing in Darwin, the northernmost city in the Northern Territory, that I saw red dirt from the window of of the plane, and I thought to myself that we are finally here!

Darwin is a nice spot to spend a day or two. My friend Eric from Holland who I met diving said he spent almost a month in Darwin just hanging out. There's no way I could do that, but the place has charm. We had less than 24 hours to see the city, but that was enough. It turned out that our one day coincided with a famous night market at Mindil beach, which rocked. We sampled food from the many stalls selling Thai, Indian, Malay, and even tasted some Crocodile and Camel.

The next morning we picked up a Wicked Camper 4x4 model, complete with bed and kitchenette (at a sweet employee discount), and headed off for Kakadu National Park (where they shot some of Crocodile Dundee).



Kakadu National Park is massive. I had heard that it is approximately the size of Switzerland, and I can tell you that we drove 1100 Kilometers in 5 days visiting both Kakadu and Litchfield. It took us a good day to drive from the North to South part of the parks. Note to any traveler, there are long boring stretches of road between the interesting sites. You need at least 2-3 days to see it all. I also think we went at the wrong time of year, since it was the end of the dry season. But there really is a small window of opportunity to see the park since it's flooded during the rainy/summer season.

We spent 3 days in Kakadu, and here is a map to follow our route. We drove in along the Arnhem Highway, visiting the ancient cave paintings at Ubirr, and spending a horrid night with mosquitoes at the Merl campground. The next day we drove to see more rock paintings at Nourlangie Rock, then visited the Warraddjan Aboriginal cultural center, saw a crocodile in the wild at Yellow River, and finished off the ridiculously hot day with a dip in the free pool at Cooinda. I should mention that the average daily temperature was about 38 degrees Celsius, and there are only a handful of places to swim in the park because of the Crocodile infested waters. The final day we drove along a 4x4 track to the swimming hole at Maguk, which was paradise. Probably the highlight of Kakadu for both of us. We didn't visit the famous Jim Jim or Twin Falls, which were dry this time of year, but they are supposed to be great at other times.

From Kakadu we drove out south along the Kakadu highway towards Litchfield National Park, which is much closer to Darwin. This is the place to come and swim. There are an abundance of waterfalls and swimming holes, that are for the most part Crocodile free!

We had two nights and almost two days to see the park, and that was plenty. You can really do it in a night and day if you need to. Here is the official fact sheet and map so you can follow along. On the way in we stopped by the huge termite mounds. These things were at least 10 feet tall and there was a field of them. I had no idea there were different kinds of termites, but Litchfield had magnetic mounds, which arranged themselves in a North-South axis to keep warm and cool, with the changing desert temperatures. There are also many fields of termite mounds in Kakadu, and this is where we first saw them.

We spent two nights at the Florence Falls campground. After two horrible nights in Kakadu, being eaten alive by mosquitoes (or mossies as they are known in Australia), we finally found peace in Litchfield. The campground is high up on the tableland, and a nice breeze seemed to keep them away. Florence Falls was my favorite of all the swimming holes. It was tiny, relaxed, and had great cliff jumping options for the fearless. I was happy jumping from a 20 foot cliff, but some crazy Aussies jumped off the main falls which are about 60 feet or more.

The main attraction is Wangi Falls. It's huge, picturesque, and a great place to swim. It's just overcrowded compared to the others. If you don't mind company of a hundred or more, then go for it. It is a good place if you have kids or don't want to walk much. Most of the other falls require at least a 1 km hike.

We didn't make it onto the off road track because of some deep river crossings, but I heard that Tjaynara and Surprise Creek Falls are supposed to be fantastic if you have a 4x4 vehicle.

Here are our photos from our visit to Darwin, Kakadu, and Litchfield National Parks. Photo captions by Julie.

Diving the Great Barrier Reef for Free!

Long before I came to Australia, the Great Barrier Reef was a must-see destination. I learned to scuba dive in Egypt's Red Sea, also considered one of the best places in the world, and I've also been fortunate enough to dive all over the world, including Thailand, Belize, Mexico, and Fiji. Every time I went diving in one of these places, there was always someone who told me I had to visit the Great Barrier Reef, so my expecations were very high to say the least.

One down side to the weak US dollar is that Australia is now one of the most expensive places to scuba dive. A day on the reef with two dives costs around $150-175, and the three day/two night live aboard dive trip that I was looking at doing costs around $600! Much too steep for a backpacker's budget.

But, I was lucky enough to hear through the grapevine that some of the dive operators will take on volunteer crew to work in exchange for food, accommodation, and of course some dives. Deep Sea Divers Den, who operate the Ocean Quest and Taka boats, came highly recommended. The Taka boat is a minimum of seven days and it visits the well known Osprey Reef and Cod Hole. Since I couldn't commit to this much time, my other option was a three to six day trip on Ocean Quest, in which I chose the three day/two night cruise to give me a taste. The Ocean Quest vessel visits Norman and Saxon Reefs which are about an hour and a half from the mainland, and are better preserved sections of the reef compared to the areas close to Cairns that get too many day-trippers.

All in all, the trip was great. I wasn't prepared for the amount of work I would need to do on board, and I didn't have a moment to rest, but it was well worth it. There are two volunteer "Hosties" as they called us, and our duties included setting up and washing dishes for four meals, cleaning rooms, making beds, and odd job here and there. We were on a luxury boat, so it was basically a floating hotel that just moved between the two reefs to whichever spot was best to dive at that time. I should start off by saying that the food was fantastic. There was a big dining area, a bar and lounge, plus some sun decks. The rooms were a good size with their own bathrooms that weren't that much smaller than a normal hotel. There was room for 48 guests and 12 crew, and I was lucky enough that there was only 40 people in total during my trip, since that was enough. It was a good mix of people as well, mostly couples in their twenties and thirties. We worked hard, but played even harder.

Here is how a typical day was structured:

- wake at 6 am for a 6:30 dive

- back by 7:20 to set up for breakfast and eat quickly

- clean breakfast dishes and get ready for a 9 am dive

- back by 10 am to clean rooms, bathrooms, and make new beds for arriving guests

- set up lunch at 11:30, eat quickly

- clean lunch dishes

- break for 30 minutes

- at 2 pm, get ready for passenger transfer boat that shuttles people between Cairns and the reef

- break for 30 minutes

- dive at 4 pm

- back by 5 pm to set up for dinner and eat quickly

- clean dinner dishes and get ready for 7:30 pm night dive

- back by 8:30 to set up for dessert

- clean dessert dishes

-10pm, PASS OUT, and repeat the next day.

Even with all this work, I managed to get in eight dives. My favorite place had to be Saxon Reef, and some highlights included seeing blue spotted stingrays, white tipped reef sharks, and some big sea turtles. The areas of the reef that I saw were spectacular, but there was a lot of dead coral too, and I think the Great Barrier Reef is a little over-hyped compared to other dive spots around the world. I'm glad I had the experience so I can cross it off my list, but my favorite is still the Red Sea. Maybe because it was my first dive experience, who knows.

If you come to Cairns, and you want to dive the Great Barrier Reef, I highly recommend this unique experience. I heard that Mike Ball is another great operator where you can work for dives, and our friend Eduardo from Spain signed up with the Cairns Dive Centre (CDC) to work in exchange for a dive master's license, but I also heard that there are numerous operators that still make you pay a little, so avoid them.

Scuba diving is something you can't really explain, but hopefully my photos of the Great Barrier Reef can help a little.

Working For a Living in Cairns

Hello from Cairns, Australia, where we can't help but cheer on the Aussies as well as the Yanks and Canucks in this year's Olympics. Actually, after visiting so many different countries on our trip, we find ourselves cheering for just about everybody.

We are happy in Cairns, a.k.a. "Cans" in Aussie-speak. Since the end of January, we had been moving almost every three days, and we were exhausted and burned out when we arrived here. For the three months we've been in Australia, we'd mostly been sleeping in the car or in a tent. Feeling homeless was causing some of the worst bouts of homesickness I've had on this trip. It was time to stop somewhere and settle for a while. Now that we have a place in Cairns, we can finally unpack for a little bit and stop living out of our backpacks. We're enjoying the little things that we take for granted at home, little things like regular showers, a closet for our clothes, and a refrigerator. It's nice to have a "home" in Cairns for a while.



Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, so we will both be making pilgrimages there before our time here is up. It's the dry season here in FNQ, or Far North Queensland. Days are warm and sunny, nights are cool and clear, and you won't hear us complaining about the weather. We'll skedaddle long before the wet season starts in November, when torrential downpours occur daily and the air is so humid you could cut it with a knife.



With our bank accounts slowly making their way towards zero, and an extension to our trip until June 2009 (20 months total on the road), it was time to look for work. We'd looked for jobs in Noosa and Byron Bay, but since this was our last stop on Australia's East Coast, we had to find jobs. And fortunately, we did. Right away, Jared found a gig working for Wicked Campers, which came with an unexpected perk--free accommodation. Jared spends his days renting camper vans to backpackers just like us, sharing all the tips that we learned on our drive up the coast. It's a big change from his previous work as a sales executive in the fashion industry, but it's stress-free fun for the time being. We live in a three-bedroom house above Wicked's office with Jared's two co-workers, Lucy from England, and Fabrice from France. It's about a 30-second commute to work for Jared.



On my first day of looking for work in Cairns, I found two jobs within hours. I work four hours a day at a nearby bakery, go home for a break, then I wait tables at a hotel restaurant. Both gigs are within walking distance of our house. It's nice to be working again, especially at the bakery, where I am surrounded by chocolate cakes, caramel tarts, and lemon meringue pies all day. I even got to make chocolate chip cookies on my second day, and the whole time I am thinking, "you're paying me to do this? Sweet!" Life is sweet, indeed. I love working at the bakery, and it's made me realize that our materialistic culture puts too much value on prestigous, high-paying jobs. Why do I have to have a high-powered career? Can't I just be a baker?



The Australian dollar is almost equal to the U.S. dollar right now, but minimum wage is nearly double. Minimum wage here is almost $14 per hour, so when our employers told us what we would be paid, we smiled and said "that'll do." A strong Aussie dollar means everything is expensive here for us ($6 a gallon for gas, $25 restaurant meals), but at least now we are getting the flip side of that equation by earning Aussie bucks. Now that we're working, we can finally afford that box of Froot Loops we've had our eye on.

We're both working six days a week, but we are still taking advantage of the area with our evenings and occasional days off. There is the swimming lagoon right next to the port, and when we want a good beach, we drive the 20 minutes north to Palm Cove. There is a great farmers market on the weekends, a botanical garden nearby, plus a fantastic nightlife. One treat for us was taking a dinner cruise around the Cairns harbor last week.

So while we tuck into our toast spread with Vegemite, (it's good, really!) check out our photos of life in Cairns.

Magnetic Island and beyond to Cape Tribulation

The tropical North of Queensland. This has been our final destination for the last two months of driving, and I should mention that we finally found hot weather. I know it's winter in Australia, and we figured it would be a little cool, but until we arrived in Cairns, the weather had really been quite chilly. So for all of you who think that Australia is always hot, try coming here in the winter season. The cold weather down south meant it was off-season and not too crowded, but it's the peak season up here.

From Airlie Beach, we decided to drive to Cairns as quick as possible, with a stop over visit to see Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville. Three of us set off for the four hour drive to Townsville, to catch the thirty minute ferry to Magnetic Island. Three people you say? Well, we decided to invite another traveler to join our trip since the cost of fuel is astronomical over here, and we met Eduardo from Madrid who clicked with us like chorizo y queso.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best when we visited Magnetic Island, and we stayed in possibly the worst hostel ever (Arcadia Hotel, formally known as Magnums, and Arkies), but the island is beautiful and definitely worth a visit if you have time. We had a great day of hiking around the island, visiting some old World War Two bunkers. Most people outside of Australia wouldn't know this, but Townsville was actually attacked by Japanese planes. We also had one of the best days of animal sightings in the wild. We saw more koalas, kangaroos, and got to feed the colorful rainbow lorakeet birds, and a huge group of rock wallabies, which look like minature kangaroos. Another highlight was winning our third trivia night at the local pub. This time we took home the gold...three jugs of beer, and two really tacky tee shirts.

After two days on the island, we drove the last four hours to Cairns, the largest city in Northern Queensland, and a major holiday destination for visiting the Great Barier Reef. We spent two days getting a taste for the city where we planned to settle for a bit, and then said goodbye to our new amigo Eduardo, and drove north to see the nice trendy town of Port Douglas and then spend a couple of days in Cape Tribulation part of the Daintree National Park.

You can't come all the way to Cairns and not visit the northern beaches and rainforest. Cairns unfortunately does not have a beach (they do have a man made swimming lagoon), but drive 30 minutes north and you have the breathtaking areas of Palm Cove, Eli Beach, and Port Douglas, plus numerous deserted beaches, except for the crocs! We spent a night in Palm Cove, the affluent and touristy suburb of Cairns, and absolutely loved it. There's even a city-run campground right on the beach if you are lucky enough to get a space.

Drive two and half hours north of Cairns, and you'll finally get to Cape Trib, as the locals like to call it. The scenery reminded us of Fiji with beautiful jungle mountains just beyond the shore. We had to take a car ferry to cross the croc-infested Daintree river, and once you're on the other side it's a sleepy area of several villages without cell phone reception. We spent two nights camping at the Noah Beach campground run by the National Parks, and had a huge beach all to ourselves. I think the highlight for the both of us was taking a cruise down the Daintree River to see crocodiles in the wild. We saw four of them that day, and it was amazing to see them in the wild, just sunning themselves on the river bank. In case you are wondering, crocs are found in Australia and are more aggressive than American alligators. The salt water crocs can get as big as 5 meters (about 15 feet)!

Just another note if you decide to visit North Queensland. Don't go swimming in the ocean near a river mouth as crocs probably live there. If it's the summer season (Nov-May), wear a stinger suit in the ocean, as the tiny box jelly fish can actually kill you. And if these two things don't get you, then there are the sharks. Basically, Australia has more animals that can kill you than anywhere else, including several snakes and spiders, but the chances are slim, and this place rocks anyway!

We are back in Cairns now, settling into our new jobs and new apartment, but that deserves a whole separate post. Here are our pics of Magnetic Island and Cape Trib.

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands

In the nine months we've been traveling, Jared and I have slept in hostels, buses, planes, a tent, a camper van, and a station wagon. Now we can add one more to the list, a sailboat. We just got back from a three day/two night trip through Australia's Whitsunday Islands, off the Great Barrier Reef.

We left for our sailing trip from Airlie Beach, which ironically does not have a beach. And it's just as well, because the ocean north of the Tropic of Capricorn is inhabited by lethal box jellyfish in the summertime, which the Aussies amusingly call "stingers." To make up for Airlie's lack of Beach, the town has a free swimming lagoon. It's basically a man-made swimming pool, but a beautiful one at that. On sunny days, it seems the whole town is sunbathing at the lagoon.

The entire town seemed to be desinged for tourists. We couldn't find a movie theater, but there were hostels and bars aplenty. We stayed at Koala's, which is a hostel chain in Queensland. I probably wouldn't stay there again as it was run-down, loud, and we had our food stolen from the communal fridge, but it seemed like the other main hostels in town were just as bad. There isn't much to do in Airlie outside of partying, but we also had a big night out with our boat when we got back, and it was fun!


For our sailing trip, we chose the Prima, a 47 foot yacht with capacity for twelve passengers plus two crewmembers. The cabin was snug but had plenty of room for everyone. Along for the ride were a German guy, an Irish couple, two Swedish girls, a Dutch girl, and three other Americans. (The four Americans onboard were the most Yanks I'd seen at once since we left the States. American travelers are few and far between here.) Including Steve the Skipper and Andy the deckhand, we really lucked out with this group, and would recommend this boat for anyone who wants more than just a party boat, although we did have some late nights.


The rain came down heavily as we left Airlie Beach and didn't stop for two hours. By then we all donned rain jackets and went on deck. The rain kept us from snorkeling that day, but I was enjoying the novelty of being on a sailboat. (Well, except for when I nearly lost my lunch. Thank goodness for Dramamine.) Jared and I were both surprised to see that the islands were covered in pine trees, not palm trees. Although we were technically in the tropics, the Whitsunday Islands resembled the Pacific Northwest in the rain. That night we anchored in Refuge Bay, settled into our private, cozy room (the size of a closet, or Jared's first New York apartment), and were rocked to sleep by the boat.


The next morning we stopped at Whitehaven Beach, reputedly home to the whitest sand in the world. Apparently it has an almost pure silica content, which NASA used to build the glass lens of the Hubble Space Telescope, just in case you were wondering. The beach is also one of the most photographed beaches in the world.

It had stopped raining for the most part, but the sky was still covered in grey clouds. The beach was gorgeous, but we could all imagine how beautiful the scene would be if the sun was shining. Andy kept us entertained by taking lots of silly photos of us posing on the beach. As luck would have it, the sun finally came out just after we left Whitehaven Beach.

That afternoon we went to two snorkeling sites, in surprisingly chilly water. In the coral reefs, we saw clown fish and a large Hawksbill sea turtle, who let us get really close to him. It was just like Finding Nemo down there - the coral was as good as Fiji. I think our skipper Steve took us to the less visited sites, so we were not complaining.

We finally had a full day of sunshine on the last day of sailing. We took advantage and all laid out on the small deck sunning ourselves. Jared was lucky to get another day of sailing in after the trip ended and it was the sunniest day of them all. Andy, our great deckhand, was taking part in a local yacht club race around some of the islands, and his boat needed extra crew. Jared and four others spent 8 hours racing a 42 foot yacht, and had a blast.



Check out our photos from Airlie Beach and Sailing the Whitsundays.

The Capricorn Coast as seen by a Capricorn.

Born in January, I am a true Capricorn. So I was intrigued to check out the Capricorn Coast which incorporates the areas of Bundaberg (known for its fruits and vegetable production), Rockhampton (the beef capital of Australia) and MacKay (famous for its sugar cane). We didn't care too much for these towns as they were pretty basic and bland, but venture a little bit further away and we found some great spots to visit.

We had a week to kill before getting to Airlie Beach and our planned three day boat tour of the Whitsunday Islands, so we took our time driving the short distance north. Our first stop was the town of Agnes Water with its little hamlet, the Town of 1770, so named for the date Captain Cook disembarked on its shores while discovering Australia.

Agnes Water and 1770 were hyped up for us well before we even got to Australia. We had met some Swedish girls in Fiji who raved about the place as their favorite, and even the Lonely Planet guidebook mentioned it as the next Byron Bay. I hope it doesn't become like Byron Bay, but it's a long way away even if it is heading in that direction. Sure, there are some big building developments going on, but aside from this, it was one of the smallest beach towns we have visited.

The town is the last official surfing spot when heading north. It is the start of the Great Barrier Reef, and so the waves virtually stop a little further north. It was my last chance to surf and so we set up camp at the nearby council-run site called Workman's Beach, and chilled out for four days. The first two days had great waves, but the last two were mellow and we just laid out and I finally got to play some frisbee with a Hungarian traveller we met. I'm still not sure why I didn't bring a disc (frisbee) while traveling as it's one of my favorite things, but the last two days filled a void not met since we played with our friends Kareem and Noah in Buenos Aires.

A little sad, I sold my surfboard to a happy local, and we headed north yet again. We sped through Rockhampton, but made a stop to visit the Capricorn Caves about 20 Km north of town. It's a privately run attraction with a labyrinth of caves, one that includes a makeshift cathedral where you can actually get married. They even set up pews and played us some beautiful music timed with lights. If the place was run by the parks department you would never have an experience like this.

Our next major stop was the Finch Hatton Gorge, and Eungella National Park, just west of MacKay in sugar cane country. We did a nice quick hike in the Finch Hatton Gorge to a waterfall and swimming area, and then rushed to get Eungella to try and see a platypus. Found only in Australia, we had been trying to see one for the last month. We had seen kangaroos, emus, dingos, wallabies, koalas, wombats, and the last on the list was the famous platypus. We were lucky to see them both at sunset and the next day at sunrise from the lookout at Broken River. I assumed these things would be as big as a beaver, but they were tiny. Almost like watching a mutated beaver/duck offspring the size of a swimming squirrel. If that makes any sense. But both of us were ecstatic and stood in the rain watching them dive around for about an hour. Unfortunately we couldn't get any photos. I'll never drink from my Platypus water bottle again without thinking of the little critters.

From Eungella we made our way back to the coast, and spent a night camping at the secluded Smalley's Beach, part of Cape Hillsborough National Park to the north of MacKay. With only ten campsites, it was a treat to have the place to ourselves so to speak. Then we drove up to Airlie Beach where we are now, heading on a much anticipated three day boat tour of the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef.

Here are our pics from our short visit to the Capricorn Coast.

Off-Roading in Fraser Island

A belated happy Canada Day, 4th of July, 9 de Julio, and Bastille Day to everyone! Jared and I celebrated every single holiday. For Canada Day, we were in Rainbow Beach surrounded by Canucks, so we had a proper celebration with lots of beer. I was feeling surprisingly patriotic on the Fourth, but we were on a tour with a bunch of European kids who couldn't quite understand why I wanted to track down fireworks. We grilled steaks and drank red wine for Argentina's 9 de Julio, and we rang in France's Bastille Day with baguette and brie. It's just a shame we're seven months early for Australia Day.


The Fourth of July fell during our three-day tour of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island and a World Heritage Site. We left from the port of Hervey Bay, four weeks early to see Humpback Whales migrating through the bay. Unlike other tours we've done, this one was self-guided. After about 12 briefings from our tour operator, eleven of us crammed into a 4-wheel-drive van, with Jared and 3 others sharing the driving. All of the "roads" on Fraser Island are only navigable by 4WD vehicle. Either we were driving on the beach, or on extremely bumpy roads in the rainforest.


We were incredibly lucky to have an amazing group of people in the van with us. There were six mellow Swedes, an awesome Irish couple, and a cool Dutch girl. As other groups bickered or left food out for the dingos, we all got along like fish and chips. It's a good thing too, because we had to dig 2 vans out of the sand, and nearly got stuck ourselves!


Tiger sharks breed in the ocean off Fraser Island, so swimming at the beach is a no-go. Fortunately, the freshwater lakes on the island are safe and inviting, if not a bit chilly. After a bumpy drive through the rainforest, our first stop was the beautiful Lake McKenzie. Doesn't it look like something in the Caribbean? After a stop at another, not as pretty lake, we made camp for the night. On the second day, we started driving on the beach. We stopped at the 73-year-old shipwreck of the S.S. Maheno, just as the tide was flooding through the rusted hull. Next up were the Pinnacles, colored sand formations that looked like cliffs.


Fraser Island is covered in dingos, Australia's dangerous native dog. We were given umpteen warnings about the dingos, but only saw one on our trip. They have a reputation for harassing tourists, and I was standing in the back of our truck with a ham sandwich in my hand. It turns out that this dingo was quite well fed since another group left out $80 worth of beef the night before, and their campsite was raided by 100 dingoes. This guy (or girl) seemed like an ordinary stray dog, but we knew better than to approach him. There is something amazing about seeing a wild animal and in their native environment, and we've been lucky to see a few in Australia.


The rain came out at lunch on our second day (the 4th of July!) and barely stopped for the rest of our trip. Because of the weather, we nearly missed Lake Wabby, but on the last day, we got up early to see it. The sun came out just for the hour we spent at the lake. Bordered by a giant sand dune on one side, Lake Wabby was one of the coolest things we saw on the island. Jared and two of our Swedish friends took turns rolling down the dune into the lake. The sand is slowly filling in Lake Wabby, and park rangers estimate it will be gone in 40 years. Maybe rolling into the lake wasn't the best idea...



All in all, we had an amazing time on Fraser Island and would highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a trip to Australia. Hopefully you'll luck out and get a group as amazing as ours! Check out our photos from Canada Day and Fraser Island.

Noosa, a gem in the Sunshine Coast

Everyone kept telling us to get to Noosa. "You'll love it there, it's more upscale than Byron Bay and without the attitude." I have to say that I agree. It's a tough time to find work here, as it's the off season, but people are still really encouraging and actually apologetic that they couldn't offer us jobs. That's a first for me.

Noosa is situated north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, and is actually made up of the towns of Noosa Heads, Noosaville, and Tewantin, that are situated along the coast or the beautiful Noosa River that flows through the towns to meet with the Pacific Ocean. The area has tons of beautiful boutique and chain resorts such as the Sheraton, for the Sydney or Brisbane family on holiday. There are also tons of gorgeous multi-million dollar homes situated along the banks of the river. It's very South Florida here with the canals and waterfront homes, but less glitzy than the Gold Coast. Add the famous Hastings Street with the numerous restaurants and boutiques, and you've got Palm Beach's Worth Avenue, without the stuffy attitude. This is the place I would want to vacation as a couple or family on holiday for a week. Treat yourself right, rent a nice beachfront condo, and eat great food until you pass out on the main beach running through town. Oh, did I mention that there is a national park that occupies a big area, and it has good surf with a beautiful beach at Tea Tree Bay, and wild koalas that we finally saw outside of a zoo!



We lucked out with the Noosa River Caravan Park where we've just spent the last week. It's affiliated with the city, otherwise the property would have been converted a long time ago. It's right on Munna Point on the Noosa River, and the sunsets are spectacular. It's cheaper than a hostel and is hands down the best caravan park we have stayed at so far.

So, besides looking for work in the town, we spent our week laying on the beach, surfing in the National Park, and at nearby Sunshine Beach, and went on a 3 day canoe trip through the Noosa Everglades.

I'm not exactly sure why they call it the Everglades as it's nothing like the swampy land in Florida, and there aren't crocs this far south, but it has some nice saltwater lakes and rivers to canoe and camp along. There are bull sharks and stingrays that live in the water, so it still had the risk of possibly getting eaten if we fell overboard, although unlikely.



The trip was self guided and organized by Gagaju Bush Camp. Not exactly sure if I can paint a fair picture of the place, but the camp is somewhat like MASH meets a redneck retreat. There are shacks of longterm residents nearby, living out of tents with couches, under make-shift porches. You have to see it to believe it, although I have only good things to say about the place. It has charm, let's say that. The camp itself has some army style barracks in canvas tents with bunks, and they have an outside kitchen, tv and lounge area complete with a massive bonfire every night.

Our group consisted of seven other travelers from Holland, France, Germany, Turkey, and a father/daughter pair from Canada. The dad was the hardest partier we've met to date, and put us all to shame. The first two days were basically spent at the bush camp, with a side trip paddling out to a nice ocean beach. The last day and night we paddled north along the river to the Boreen Point camping ground, situated on the shore of a salt water lake. It was relaxing, and we had a fun night out at the local hotel/pub to celebrate all of our paddling.

Besides surfing, laying on the beach, and looking for work, some other highlights from our week and a half in the area included a pub trivia night where we beat out the locals, playing in a texas hold 'em tournament, and finally trying kagaroo steaks and vegemite!

We are now heading north towards Hervey Bay to visit the famous Fraser Island on 4x4 safari. Can't wait for that. Here are our pics from Noosa so you can get a better feel of the place.

Australia Zoo: Koalas, and Crocs, and Roos, Oh My!

We are on a pretty tight budget, so we have to be careful which pricey excursions we choose. With discounted fares of $41 each, a day at the Australia Zoo was quite an investment. Our new friends Clementine and Ryan told us it would be worth the price, and they were right. The Australia Zoo is one of the coolest things we've done in our 8 months of travel.

Australia Zoo is run by the Irwin family, of Crocodile Hunter fame. Steve Irwin's image and legacy eminate throughout the place, adding a poignancy to the day. Naturally there were lots of crocodiles, many caught by Steve Irwin. All the crocs are deadly, especially the saltwater crocs, so they were each surrounded by not one, but two thick fences. One croc named Acco is 16 feet long and weighs one ton!


The zoo is one of the few places in Australia where you can actually hold a koala. Ever since we started seeing koalas, holding one has been a dream of mine, and at the zoo I happily ponied up $20 to have my picture taken with one. Since they sleep 20 hours a day, koalas are usually pretty docile when they are awake. My koala, a male named Minty, smelled like grass and poo and felt like a heavy cat. I only got to hold him for about two minutes, but it was absolutely priceless.


Australia Zoo's trademark is that you can get up close to most of the animals. Aside from holding the koala, we also got to feed an elephant, pat a few more koalas, and we fed kangaroos out of our hands. They even have packages where you can pay extra to walk a cheetah on a leash for 30 minutes. Where else can you do that?


We could have spent all day feeding the kangaroos. When we saw them in the wild outside of Armidale, they hopped away before we could get within 50 feet. The kangaroos at the zoo are used to people, and they will happily eat out of your hand. That's right, the KANGAROOS EAT OUT OF YOUR HAND! It's awesome! A bag of roo food cost only 50 cents, and last for quite some time. The roos walked right up to us, knowing that we had food. We had to keep them from just sticking their heads right in the bag.


There's more to the zoo than koalas and 'roos. We tried and failed to take a picture of a tasmanian devil, which never once stopped running around its enclosure. Safely behind a fence, we met a deadly Aussie bird called a cassowary that can disembowel humans with its middle claw. Bright orange dingos looked just like dogs, except they were only visible behind a thick glass wall. The only Australian animal we missed was the platypus.

So if you are going to be anywhere near Brisbane or the Sunshine Coast, don't miss the Australia Zoo! Don't forget your 'roo food! Take a look at our photos from the zoo.

Deja Vu on the Gold Coast

So much of Australia reminds me of home. It's hard to get homesick in a country with iced coffee, salt and vinegar chips, and movies that don't need subtitles. But in Australia's Gold Coast, the similarities were almost eerie. As we drove along the Gold Coast highway, I saw signs for Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Miami Keys and even Florida Gardens. It was as if this part of Australia confused itself for my hometown on the Atlantic.

Before we could hit the Gold Coast, we took a detour to Nimbin, the Woodstock of Australia. Nimbin is a tiny town known for still living the hippie lifestyle of the 1960s. If you ask a few of the residents, they might still think it's 1968. Set in among hills that are steeped in Aboriginal lore, Nimbin is a tiny little farming town. We stocked up on inexpensive, organic dried fruits and fresh beef. Just outside of town, we stopped at Protester Falls, in the middle of a tropical rainforest.


After a freezing night in Nimbin, it was time to head back to the beach. Surfers Paradise is the center of the Gold Coast, and from the name it sounds like a sleepy little town with a lot of dudes who say 'gnarly' all the time. Perhaps that was the case in the 1960s, before Surfers became a mecca for Japanese tourists. Now it is Australia's version of Cancun crossed with Las Vegas. Surfers has so many high rise buildings that we could see it from miles away.


From everything we'd read and heard, Jared and I were sure we wouldn't like Surfers Paradise. Then again, we were sure we'd love Byron Bay, and just the opposite happened. We had low expectations for Surfers Paradise, so it was easy to be pleasantly surprised. We knew it would be covered in high rises, flashing lights, and drunk 19-year-old backpackers. (Actually we joined the party for a night out, and had a blast.) But with an outlet mall and three Starbucks, we weren't complaining. In a country where cities are few and very far between, we loved being in a beach town that had all the benefits of a city.

Surfers Paradise is a bit of a misnomer, because the best waves are actually in the surrounding towns. Jared surfed the breaks in Coolangatta, and Burleigh Heads. In Currimbin, he accidentally rode into the middle of the Queensland state longboarding competition.

Taking a break from sleeping in the car, Jared and I checked into Backpackers in Paradise hostel. It was a great hostel, complete with a pool and mini-cinema. We even joined the Backpackers Big Night Out and hit 3 clubs on Saturday night.


From Surfers Paradise it was time to go to an actual big city, Brisbane. The capital of Queensland, Brisbane is Australia's third largest city. A river runs through the center of town, almost making you forget that the city is inland. While Brisbane seems to be a very nice place to live, we quickly realized there was little we wanted to see. We did get to see our good friend Julia again, and her friends Lucy and Sam were nice enough to take us in for the night. Thanks, mates!


We are in the posh beach community of Noosa now, trying to get caught up on our posts. You'll hear more from us soon, but until then, check out our photos from the Gold Coast.