Yeppoon & Airlie Beach

It is the 29th of June today. Currently I am in Airlie Beach, the backpacker mecca between Brisbane and Cairns. Things are definitely warmer and more tropical...but I get ahead of myself. Last post I was still in Bundy. (Bundaberg). On Sunday I was drinking again, and alas I got thrown in the pool. It wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact I was fully dressed and had my mobile and money belt on me. LUCKILY, the passport is fine, but the mobile is pretty much toast, so I have to get a new one. So for the parents if you were trying to call and couldn't get through, that might have been the reason. In other news, the Socceroos lost to Italy and their World Cup bid is over, leading to a dramatic shift to rugby games. Anyway, after waiting until Monday for Andrew to return from Brisbane, Jason, Andrew and I took off in the car early Tuesday north on the Bruce highway. The highway goes through tons of sugarcane fields as well as cattle country in the central Queenland coast, especially around Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia. Andrews car came with a table, stove, tent, chairs, etc. So we found a caravan park in Yeppoon, 45 km east of Rockhampton, and made camp. We stayed the night and left early the next morning. The stars were very vivid, adding to the tranquill atmosphere of the mostly retirement community. Most of Wednesday (yesterday) was spent driving from Yeppoon to Airlie Beach, through the capricorn and Witsunday coast through places like Mackay, Sarina, Claireview and Proserpine. We found another camping site in town so we are camping again. It is definitely a tropical feel here. Late at night the animals come alive - very erie in the tent, though we never saw much just had the feeling the we were surrounded. Lots of colourful birds. I am going to look into Witsunday sailing tours, and scuba diving, as I'm debating doing my open water PADI here in Airlie or waiting to go north to Cairns, the main staging point. Lastly, there is Tomato picking in Bowen, an hour or so north of here, so Jay and I might do that for a week...Andrew has decided not to work as he has a large line of credit. Until next time...

Bundaberg and Cellblock

Our group, looking for work, called up some hostels in Bundaberg, known mostly for its year-round vegetable and fruit picking. There was space in a newer hostel called Cellblock, a converted police station. So we got on the bus in Brisbane and travelled north to Bundaberg. We arrived late on Sunday, and have been staying at Cellblock for about a week. Right away on Monday morning I was put on the picking crew for the Barbera farm starting at 6:30 am. While I have a strong back, picking Zuccinnis all day definitely does a number on your back. On tuesday I had the day off, which involved me recovering from the previous days drinking and work. Wed and Thurs were both 10 hour picking days, after which I told the work organizer I didn't want to pick anymore. The plan as it is right now is to go with Jason and Andrew north to Airlie Beach, a backpacker haven. Andrew as I mentioned has a car and a tent so we might camp on the way up there. We'll leave tomorrow (Sunday), or monday morning. Last night was a night of heaving drinking starting at 5, and ending at a place called Central, which had live music and most of the Bundaberg Friday night crowd. I have met some nice people here, mostly because we are all toiling in the fields together. There are many Germans (it seems like a German hostel), some Americans and Brits, with a couple Sweds, Irish and French.

Crazy clubs and silver service

Yesterday (Friday) our group (all 6 of us) went to North Stradbroke island (you can look it up if you like - it is south east of Brisbane off the coast). Our group met in Sydney, and 2 of the group went there own ways, one to Cairns, and one to Brisbane, both searching for work. Andrew Bass, (dentistry at Dalhousie) is the one who bought the car in Cairns, and Angela (teacher from Florida) went to Brisbane early. The other 3, Jason, a nomadic type with the bare essentials and in Australia for a year is from California, Agi, from Berlin, came to Australia to learn English, and was in school in Sydney. She met us, then decided to quit and let us teach her. Finally Adrienne is going to do a masters in Criminology at UBC in the fall. She is originally from NFLD, and is 22. Anyway, on Stradbroke island, after taking the hour ferry over, we went to the beach. There are a number of beaches including the cylinder, main beach and frenchman's beach. We spent a few hours at main beach, and I got my first warning from the Australian beach patrol. You may know something about it, but basically these lifeguards train from boyhood to patrol beaches around Australia, and because of this there are very few accidents. Well, I decided to try to swim to the 'big waves' which ended up being pretty far out, and I spent a good 20 minutes swimming forward but going nowhere due to a rip; after which the lifeguard asked for me to stay where I could touch the bottom. I also found a soccer ball in the hostel - I took it and have been practicing my skills - the world cup fever here must be rubbing off. Later that night we went to the clubs. These clubs are pretty expansive - for 5$ cover you get access to multilevel complex with different music playing on different floors and too many bars to count...mot to mention the fact the bars serve alcohol until 5 am. Even going to bed at 3am was tough to handle!

On Saturday (today) Jason and I went shopping for a few items. He needed to fix his camera - ended up formatting his memory card (deleting all his pictures). I bought hair elastics to organize my clothes. After we bought groceries, where I bought 6 (small) bananas for 13.50$! While returning them, it was explained that most bananas are being imported due to the cyclone 6ish months ago. Anyway, after cooking dinner it was off to my first job. I was catering/waiting at the Ronald McDonald House Charity Ball (Brisbane). I worked for 5 hours, and did basically everything. The staff was very friendly (luckily) and helped me out with learning how to carry plates, where to go and what to do. Most of the night I spent serving drinks at my 6 designated tables (wine, champagne, beer, spirits, etc.), this was broken up with running main course dishes, doing break-out bar, coffee and tea, water, as well as clearing. All in all good experience and considering I had no training it went fairly well. Apparently there is work immiediately in Bundaberg picking vegetables (starting Monday) so I may leave Brisbane on the bus tomorrow, or leaving with Andrew on Monday in his car.

Rugby and laps

Still in Brisbane, at the Bunk. Last nights State of Origin game was won quite one-sidedly by Queensland, 30-6. This morning got up and went to the aquatic center for a swim; the pool was a 50-meter outdoor pool. Later, I made lunch with rice and beans (yeah, traveller's food) and went to an interview at a agency for hospitality work. We had to try and hold 3 plates, balance a tray, etc. The fellow was desperate for help so it looks like myself and the two other guys might be working on Sat. and maybe training next week. We'll see, still waiting to hear back from the interviewer. Otherwise, we were going to go to the museum and art gallery (free) but it was too late in the day. I'm also trying all sorts of new beers (facilitated by things like rugby matches)

Brisbane and Jobs

Due to the noise level and general rowdiness of the backpackers at the City Backpackers, as a group we moved to the Cloud 9 hostel, down the road. While no free internet, it was a little quieter and the rooms were a bit nicer. We stayed there Monday and Tuesday. Today is Wednesday, and we moved yet again into a hostel in the area of Fortitude Valley. The hostel is called Bunk, and it is very nice, with an ensuite bathroom. On Monday with our day off (holiday) we went walking all day. First we visited the Southbank parklands, the former site of the 88' expo which now is a park with a manmade beach. We went across one of the many bridges spanning the Brisbane river and walked through the Botanic gardens and the mangrove boardwalk along the river. We went through downtown to grab some groceries and headed back to our hostel (at the time, Cloud 9). Some of our party stayed up to watch a world cup game.
On tuesday, we spent the day on our feet job hunting. We dropped resumes off at a couple hotels, and 2 agencies, one specializing in hospitality work and the other office jobs. We also went into cafes to see if there was any work. In the evening we went to an relatively nice pizza place for dinner, and saw our first movie in Australia downtown (the girls dragged the guys to the Break-Up) the theatre was an old live performance theatre from the 20's, renovated. Today, Andrew, one of the guys with us who bought a car drove Jason and myself down to the Gold coast - Southport, Surfer's Paradise, and their associated beaches. (mermaid, main beach, etc.) We'll probably go back, since it is only about an hour drive to get there and really nice surfing. The girls went to an interview to sell credit cards, and it turned out to be a bum deal. Now they're into the bar scene type work. The hospitality agency called the guys back about work on the weekend, so we have an interview tomorrow. Now we're off to watch game 2 of the origin of species games NSW vs. Queensland. Cheers.

Brisbane

Well, we've moved on from Byron Bay after 4 days/3 nights at the Backpackers Inn. Yesterday was nice out, so we spent our time after checkout at the beach, swimming in 7-8 foot waves and playing soccer on the hardpack sand. We then took the bus to Brisbane, 2 hours drive north. We are staying at Brisbane City Backpackers, which is party central. For example, the guy below me on the bunk was sick all night and some other guy in our room was making a lot of noise. There was a pub in the hostel called the Fiddler's Elbow which had jugs for $7 so that probably didn't help the situation! At any rate, our party of 4 met up with 2 other people we originally met in Sydney. One bought a car when he was up in Cairns and drove down the coast over 3 days, so there is now a possibility of taking a day trip in his car to see some of the wildlife and parks around the city. It is the Queen's birthday here, so it is a holiday and no job hunting to be done. As a group we are thinking of getting an apartment and staying here for a while for work, so we'll see how that turns out.

Ballina and Byron Bay

Spent one more day in Sydney staying in a friends room for free, and went to the Sydney Aquarium with Dela and some other hostelers. The aquarium is in Darling harbour, and has crocs, sharks and seals as well as tons of corals, species of cod, as well as puffer fish, lion fish, seahorses, urchins, etc. Pretty cool. We stayed in that night.
In the morning we, being myself as well as 3 other backpackers Adrienne, Jason and Agni, a girl from Germany, flew to Ballina, a small town (16,000) on the north coast of NSW. It was super cheap, (A$81) and took about an hour and a bit. We stayed in a small hostel and I went for a swim at the beach. It wasn't super warm. We went to the grocery and got some food for lunch and dinner. We stayed in that night as well, as it was raining fairly hard.
In the morning (Thurs) we took the bus to Byron Bay, and are staying at the Backpackers Inn on the Beach.
Both Thurs and Friday were decent in terms of weather. A few clouds around 20ºC in the water. Bought some new sunscreen (they say Aussie sunscreen is twice as powerful and 40+ Canadian stuff would be like an Aussie 15 spf). The first day we took to the beach to swim and check out the scene, as well as into town to use the internet, get groceries and go to the bank. The next day we took out boogie boards and rented a longboard to catch some waves west of the main beach. There are 7 beaches around Byron Bay, hence it is fairly popular, as surfers can almost always find a beach were there are good breaks. Tonight (being Sat.) is our last night in town, before heading north to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and 3rd largest city in Australia. While not as surf oriented as some of the smaller cities, we're booked into a hostel which will help arrange some work. We will take the 2-3 bus in the morning. Tonight there is a BBQ at the hostel, and we're considering going to Cheeky Monkey's, the place to go in town were people dance on tables and party until at least 3. I may also take a bike to Cape Byron later today, the easternmost point of mainland Australia. Cheers for now.

Rain, and getting organized

Well, contrary to normal Sydney weather, it is fairly wet here. While the temperature is reasonable, the rain makes sightseeing and the beaches somewhat lame. However, the rainy day allowed for doing my orientation including getting a cell phone, my bank card and finding out about the available jobs. Right now i'm figuring out where to go, potentially to Brisbane or maybe a few stops along the way up the coast. Probably going to get out of Sydney soon.

Arrival

Well, after convocation, looking for housing in London, and flying half-way around the world starting in Kingston, I arrived in Sydney. After customs, quarantine and picking up my pack, I set off into Sydney to find my first hostel, Sydney Central YHA. I had a continental breakfast and already have met 2 people who are planning to do something similar to myself (travel up the east coast to find work, etc.) Today myself and 4 others bought a Day Tripper to be able to use the bus, train and ferries. We first went to Circular Quay in the Sydney harbour, then took the ferry around to Manly, and from there watched the surfers at Manly beach. There was also a Wine festival going on, and live music. After, we went to the Royal Botanical gardens and saw many species of plants, such as ferns, figs and eucalypts. We then tried to get to a rugby match but missed the ferry to the Olympic park and were too late. We went back to the hostel, found a cheap place to have dinner and made our way to Darling harbour, were, with more bad luck we missed a chunk of the fireworks that were on there. The rest of the night was spent at Scruffy Murfy's, a pub were we had a lot of beer and were entertained by drag-queen careoke. Well, I managed to stay awake the day, and hopefully i'll be set on Aussie time soon!