Hi again,
We can’t believe it’s only been a week since our last email as so much has happened!
Monday
We got the ferry from Parramatta, near where Maralyn & Robin live into Circular Quay. All Kate recalls from the journey is the chocolate cake she had for breakfast. We passed by all the million dollar mansions including ones apparently owned by Nicole Kidman, Kylie & Russell Crowe.
The view from the Sydney Skytower
We walked to Centre Point where we went into the Skytower. We were supposed to go onto a four part ride but two of them were damaged due to the dangerous and deadly rains we had encountered the night before. Before we could go up we had to remove all sharp objects from our bags, Sarah took out her Swiss army knife and Kate removes her knife fork and spoon set! (For the already consumed chocolate cake). We had a 360 degree floor to ceiling window 250m up view of Sydney. Although, we spent most of our time spotting the roof-top pools and tennis courts. We went to get lunch after where Kate managed to eat a “super” KFC meal all by herself. We decided to then take a ferry to Manly from Circular Quay, after a 30min ferry ride we unfortunately realised we’d left it a bit late and if we got off the ferry we’d miss the last ferry back to Parramatta. So we stayed on board and went straight back again. That evening we packed our backpacks ready to head off up the east coast the next morning.
Tuesday
Gemma was up at 4am (to call a certain person who wont be named, but you know who you are). She went to see if Kate was up and found her asleep (at 5.15 with us having to leave at 5.30) face down holding her phone in the air apparently she must have turned her alarm off and consequently fallen asleep and overslept. Robin dropped us off at the greyhound bus station at 6.30am but Kate had left her phone in the car and realised after Robin had driven off. Therefore Kate is without her phone for the next 5 weeks of tough hostel living. The journey to Newcastle took 3hours.
Newcastle
Newcastle was an interesting experience, which was not what we were expecting. Mostly its characterized for us by the excruciating pain Gemma and Sarah were in as a result of sunburn- we had been wearing factor40 however despite the bleariness of those few days we met some great people, 3 Scottish girls and 2 from Wiltshire (Hannah and Sarah).
Sunburn!
On our first night we got a free meal at an Irish Pub which we weren’t going to refuse and a pub quiz- which we failed miserably at and had to resort to cheating by getting the barman to help us (has anyone heard of “Area 7″?) We also had an all you can eat pizza night where Gemma who has never been able to eat more than 3 slices finished off 6 and Kate-ever the one to accept a challenge had 7. After 2 nights in Newcastle where we were quite impressed with the hostel’s facilities- although it was a little big, enough to accommodate 4 basketball teams, we got on the bus again.
Port Macquarie
Kayaking
The hostel we had here was lovely-a lot smaller and a nicer feel apart from the manager who was a bit rude. We went Sea Kayaking which was great fun and included the 3 of us and a proper surfer dude. Kate and Gemma made the mistake of pairing up whilst Sarah had the ease of being in the same kayak as the instructor. We saw bats the size of possums (Kate’s comparison) basically they were large, as well as water lizards. Unfortunately, no dolphins. We ended up being with all the same girls we met in Newcastle and managed to meet some Australian air force pilots who were on holiday for the weekend. It meant we had a very cheap night the next night with all our drinks being bought for us by them. We stumbled home at about 3am after getting a kebab (Sarah not included). The downside of this great night was the seven hour coach ride the next day with a hangover.
Byron Bay
The hostel we booked into was very different from the others it was very open planned with its own pool, our dorm slept 15 people although most of the time it slept more due to some of the girl bringing back members of the opposite sex of an evening who were still there in the morning. We didn’t do much in Byron but we had a great night out at a backpackers haunt. There was no dance floor only reinforced tables for tabletop dancing. We discovered a new drink- don’t judge it till you’ve tried it- Tia Maria and orange juice – it tastes like Terry’s chocolate orange. They also had strawberry Daiquiris on tap which we took full advantage of.
Cheeky Monkey's Byron Bay
We crawled into bed at 5am after downing 3 litres of water and another kebab before being up at 8.30am for our bus to Surfers Paradise. Note: (mostly for parents)
We went to a travel company called Peter Pans and managed to sort out the rest of our holiday. We are now going on a 3 day 2 night camping safari (yes Gemma’s parents – she’s going camping!) on Fraser island, a 3 day 2 night sailing cruise of the Whitsunday Island where we moor at our own private island, a day snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, 5 nights accommodation on an island off of Cairns with unlimited ferry access back into Cairns also 6 night free accommodation in various hostels organised by the company. But best of all…. a free didgeridoo each!!! All for the equivalent of about 220 pounds a bargain even if we do say so ourselves.
This is where we sign off,
Hope to hear from you all soon
loads of love
Gemma, Kate and Sarah
xxxxxx
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