I left Auckland after a "Westcoast" Swing class (which I did not know but it was good) on a late airport bus and "kind of" slept on the airport, and arrived in Sidney on a clear blue day on may 10th
After booking a "tourist" package for the next weeks along the east coast I took the train to Newcastle, where John Moore, whom I had met in Luang Prabang in Laos in Febraury, picked me up and I could stay in his "house", an old car garage which he is doing up, with him and his 3 kids.
John is an easy going and generous guy, great fun and cool host!
On my first morning I joined in the usual saturday park run 5km with quite a few people and friends of John.
we went swimming with a friend who was Val Kilmer's double once in a movie with Marlon Brando..., unfortunately the waves were not right for a surf on that day
On mothers day it was just perfectly blue and we went for a morning run to the lighthouse and beach, spent the afternoon with Johns family at another beach close to town, his auntie and uncle celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!
In the evening we took the bikes and went along the waterfront to the lighthouse together with the nice girls Georgia and Roxanne (no pics, sorry!). Nice mother's day ! I am happy!!!
Breakfast in the backyard... where John and partners run the test garden for a "green" company, collecting food waste and changing them into fertilizer...
The next day I took Johns bike and went again around town and to the beaches... at first sight the city is not so nice because of the coal industry and huge port but it has got a nice waterfront, beaches around and nice views and green silent roads as well.
Thank you John for your open heart and mind! And i hope you liked the Kaiserschmarrn :)
After a nice dinner with Johns girlfriend Alex (who just came back after 5 months travelling in Asia and Europe) and his friends I took the nightbus to Byron Bay where it was raining :(( when I arrived, but got better soon!
Byron Bay is a surfer hot spot with lots of special people, ex hippies, surfer guys living in their vans etc
I had a nice host there, Glen, who during an overseas stay and European trip lived in Innsbruck for a year and learned to snowboard there when he was younger. He also lived and worked in London, Greece and Kanada (working on a whale watching boat) and spent 5 years away from home and is still dreaming of travelling again... Thank you Glen for the time with you and I am happy to have got
a new friend!
I had a great time, tried my first surfing!!!! ,
walked along beaches and to the lighthouse at the most eastern point of Australia
had wonderful sunsets,
and convinced Glen to get up early to see the sunrise on the most eastern spot of Australia! and on that morning we saw the first 2 whales of the season, lots of dolphins and even a shark down by the rocks!
My next stopover was the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise / Southport. On the bus to there I met Stefan from Mainz and he decided to get off the bus with me in Surfers and we cooked a good dinner together in our super nice hostel Trekkers, as a start!
I wanted to attend a Swing festival and dance through 2 nights,and also dressed up and went there,
but I found out it was unfortunately West Coast Swing which I cant dance and dont like, so I decided to leave the event and spend the evenings with the people from the hostel!
The first night was big fun with Stefan "the entertainer" and his two friends "goon" (a bad white wine) and Coke and lots of stories and laughter, with people from Ireland, Germany and Australia, most of them on a one year work and travel stay and lots of different experiences...
On the second night I went with the crowd on the Club Crawl,
Surfers Paradise and the whole Gold Coast is one of the main beach holiday destinations of Australia and a mekka for party people and it was worth going and seeing whats going on there... Unfortunately I did not take my camera! crowds of people, though it is not even high season, lots of mini mini skirts and high high heels and lots of alcohol...
We should have gone to 4 clubs, but we only went to 3, of which the third was bad, I would have loved to dance longer!!
Trekkers hostel, a nice old wooden Pippi Langstrumpf house with garden and pool!
and on the other side of the street these buildings...
The beach in Surfers Paradise is endless : 42 km long!! and 3 millions visitors per year, full of holiday appartments and hotels, and I was surprised that despite the fact that there are so many skyscrapers the atmosphere was quite nice, big waves, lots of young travellers and party folks of course, but families as well.
see more pics on Stefan's travel blog http://stefanweltweit.wordpress.com/ day 100 and 101!
Today is monday the 20th may and I arrived in Brisbane yesterday, said goodbye to Stefan who will travel on to Singapore, Thailand, Kambodja and Sri Lanka and start his teacher carreer in Germany from next autumn!
Thanks fo the nice company Stefan and good luck and have fun in Thailand with "sebi" Sebi!
first impressions from Brisbane this morning, cool city with a nice waterfront and parks and a beach and "laguna"and cycling tracks and climbing rocks along the river...
tomorrow I m going to start a 10 days helpx stay with a family in the countryside for free accomodation. ... really necessary, have spent far too much since my arrival! I dont know what to expect but they seem to be very nice!
http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostid=7088&network=2
bussi kisses hugs fest druecken liebe gruesse cheers!
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