Kathrine Breivik

We spent Christmas Day on Fraser Island. Fraser Island is only a 40 minute ferry ride from Hervey Bay. It is the largest sand island in the world, and has a rain-forest. We did a 3 days and 2 nights camping trip with Fraser Roving, where we did a tag-along-trip, driving a 4 wheel drive throughout the dirty rain-forest tracks and on the beach.

We saw a lot of things on the way to the campsite, like the ship wreck ‘Maheno’, which was a former passenger liner that has been blown ashore by a cyclone in 1935.

We saw sand-dunes in contrast to the surrounding sea, very beautiful landscapes.

There is a lot of wildlife on the island. We saw spiders, lizards, birds and dingos and lots of bugs! Luckily we did not encounter any snakes on our trip, as 7 of the most dangerous snakes lives on Fraser.

We went to some of the beautiful lakes that are on Fraser, such as Lake Wabby (which is surrounded on 3 sides by forest), Lake McKenzie and my favourite Lake Birrabeen.

We had a competition of who could run the fastest up a sand dune and trekked trough the rain-forest.

We met this chap through spider alley…and had to go under the spider web to follow the path.

Every evening ended with setting up camp and making dinner. It was an amazing experience, where we met a lot of new friendly people and have a lot of new memories and experiences to look back on.

Brisbane was our next stop. This is a much bigger city than the recent ones that we have visited. The cities heart and soul is the scenic Brisbane River as you can see in the photo above.

We walked around the city visiting the different parts, such as the City Botanic Gardens, City Centre,  Fortitude Valley and Chinatown for some shopping and sightseeing. We also spent a day at the South Bank Parklands, where there is a funky artificial beach, looking a lot like a lagoon.

Our next stop was Australia Zoo, which was founded by Steve Irwin.

I saw a lot of crocodiles and other random animals like giant turtles.

I also fed kangaroo’s for the first time!

Next stop was Surfers Paradise, yes this is the actual name of the place. It was a lovely place, with a great beach. It is a little funny that it is called Surfers Paradise, as we did not actually see that many surfers there at all. It is definitely more of a holiday destination.

We spent most of the days relaxing on the beach, playing in the sand and jumping through massive waves.

We also went out for Blaine’s birthday! Was a lovely evening starting with drinks at some of the bars by the beach, then we went to a restaurant where they cook in front of us. Blaine had kangaroo and I got to taste some for the first time, and it was actually not that bad. The food at the restaurant was really nice and the chef entertained us with chucking food at us (into our mouths) and juggling salt and pepper holders. The night ended at the beach drinking a few beers, a very successful evening.

Byron Bay is a very relaxing town. We spent most of our days chilling on the beach. We tried body-boarding for the first time.

We went to a big market on the Sunday. Blaine ended up buying the most stuff, whereas I left with a small but nice bracelet.

SURFING! We also had a surf lesson, which was so much fun! I managed to stand up on my second go, very proud.

Yamba! Yamba! Yamba! This place might possibly become my favourite place in Australia. It is a small town which has everything to offer; 10 beaches, beautiful walking tracks, lovely town centre, the best prawns (still not as good as Norway), and some awesome blue and green pools (the Angourie pools) which are a few minutes drive outside the town centre.

When we arrived we attended Shane’s 10 bucks tour around Yamba, and it was awesome!! Shane who owns the YHA the only hostel in Yamba is a legend and had us entertained with some extreme activities, like feeding the pelicans.

We drove around and saw some of the beautiful beaches, and then he took us to the green and blue pools to do some cliff jumping. I was so proud as I dared to jump from 5 meters high!

John is a little braver than me and did a 10 meters jump!

The next day we went on a catamaran around the harbour of Yamba. We spotted some dolphins just next to the boat. We also stopped and jumped off the roof of the boat.

Yamba was definitely worth a visit, and is probably the place that I want to go back to visit! The best part is that not too many people know about this amazing little place.

We rented some bikes in Port Macquarie, and cycled to a Koala Hospital, where I saw koalas for the first time, funny and cute looking creatures.

There were a lot of birds at the hostel we stayed at, so we could hold the parrots and other birds whenever we liked.

The next day we rented some bikes again and cycled to the beach where we went for a camel ride!

It was really funny, and pretty cool as we had the ride along the beach looking out to the ocean. I have to admit I was a bit scared at times as I thought the camel behind me might bite me, however the owner said that: ‘they eat graass not aaaarrss’ haha.

After nearly 24 hours of travelling we arrived at Sydney. When we arrived at the hostel we met up with our lovely friend Blaine. We walked around Sydney all day, looking at the famous Sydney Opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The walk to our hostel in Kings Cross was not too bad as we walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens. After a lovely lunch at the harbour we went shopping in the city centre, where we met up with Ellie and Ashleigh (two of my close friends from Derby). Can not tell you how nice it is to see them again.  

The next day we jumped on a ferry to Manly Beach, which is just 30 minutes away from Sydney.

It is a really nice place, very ‘surfy’ looking. Sadly we did not have the best weather so we could not chill on the beach for too long. But, Manly was definitely worth a day trip.

Sadly this was all we had time to do in Sydney, however we are going back in a few weeks time so the rest will have to wait until next time.

Octopus, was the last resort that we went to. It had an gorgeous beach, amazing snorkeling (the best so far) and even a pool! We were upgraded to a luxuary suit when we got there. The room was amazing, and we had our own little area of the beach with our own sunbeds etc. We have been very lucky lately. I have also mastered the game of chess and managed to beat John!

The sunsets here are just wonderful to look at.

The resorts do a lot of activities in the evening, such as playing games to get everyone involved and the prizes are amazing. However, me and John only managed to win a cocktail, but that was great as we enjoyed it whilst sitting by the bonfire.

Vinaka Fiji, it has been amazing!

Next resort was Mantaray Resort, which is on an Island next to Barefoot. We stayed in a Tree House Bure which had wonderful views.

The beach was really nice, and had a brilliant volleyball net, where we had a game against the locals. I also learnt how to make my own bracelet from a coconut!

On one of the nights we got to see a Traditional Fijian performance, where they danced and sang, it was brilliant to watch, very entertaining.

The snorkeling was really good at Mantaray. On our last day we went for a guided snorkeling trip. On the guided snorkeling trip we went further out to deeper areas to see the drop down of corals. I was a little worried at first as this was the deepest I have ever snorkeled at, but it was just fantastic! I even saw a White-tip Reef Shark, which as nearly 2 meters long! I realised that the shark was more scared of me than I was of it, so I now feel a little more secure in deep water.

Barefoot Island! We arrived not knowing what to expect. We booked this accommodation through Captain Cook, who owns the island. However, instead booking it with the company, we booked directly with the Island. Therefore, when we arrived we found out that the last group of people who had been there with Captain Cook had left, which meant that we had the whole island to our selves! This meant 4 staff looking after us and 3 beaches that we had all to ourselves.

The facilities at the resort are really basic. You kind of feel like one with nature, which was really cool.

We used the kayak, snorkeled around the island and John tried fishing again with no luck.

We also tried coconut juice and took part in a cava ceremony (traditional Fiji drink) for the first time.