Sydney+Blue Mountains

Here we are, this is probably one of my lasts posts as Sydney is our last stop... sad and unbelievable how 5 weeks went by so fast and how much we've seen and done!
Wetook a night bus from Byron Bay toSydney on Saturday night and arrived in Sydney around midday last Sunday under a beautiful sun... and seeing the opera house from the bus when we entered Sydney was amazing!
We spent our first half day in Sydney on Sydney's Opera House Harbour and went shopping (window shopping lol) on George Street and the Market City. We were exhausted by 6pm and made it a very early night as we were leaving for the Blue Mountains the next morning. We hopped on th 2 hour-ride train to Katoomba (Blue Mountains point), dropped our luggage at the YHA and hurried directly to the famous 3 sisters (3 beautiful sand rocks), and ended up doing a 2 hour walk to the waterfalls and he famous echo point of the blue mountains and taking the steepest mining train which was fun! On our 2nd day in the Blue Mountains was our canyoning day which Wouter was so much looking forward too. The views we had while canyoning were breathtaking as we were literally inside the canyons, jumping into waterfalls (don't worry mum, we had a guide! :)) and climbing up rocks! The water was however so cold (15 degrees) andbecause i was the only girl, our guide asked me to wear 5 layers of warm clothes under and on top of my wetsuit...which was great for the cold water but really bad for the weight that i had to carry around the whole day while climbing rocks, on top of the backpack we were caring, and making my way up some really steep walks... you would have to picture my backpack and my 5 layers pulling me backwards everywhere and every 5mins!!! lol
In the end, Wouter and myself really enjoyed our day of canyoning but although Wouter will for sure canyon again in the future, I have decided on my side that it is a bit too physical for me and much too cold!!!!! :)

We've now been back in Sydney since yesterday and have visited Draling Harbour, which is a really nice area to hang around, heaps of cafes, restaurants, a lovely view over the islands off Sydney. Today we have been walking around Sydney's eldest area: The Rocks and have been window shopping AGAIN to decide on what to bring our families back!

Tomorrow we are heading to famous Bondi Beach (30mins away from Sydney) and will take it slow as Wouter is sick since our night bus of last saturday because of our constant change from airco to really warm weather... but I will bring him back in healthy conditions I promise! Sunday we are flying to Hong Kong and by Wednesday we will already be back home with our minds full our souvenirs ;)

love xxx

Sarah & Wouter

Brisbane + Surfers Paradise + Byron Bay so far

wouter won 5 free days in a camper van for us last night in a bar by scoring 10 basketball hits :)

Noosa Heads + Brisbane + Surfers Paradise (Gold Coast)

Hi there everybody!

Sorry, haven't really updated the blog in a long time... But we did so much and enjoyed so much our luxurious last days that my mind was somewhere else than on the blog!
Noosa was the St Tropez of Australia, but much more chilled, relaxed and laid back! Our hostel was the most luxurious we have had until now: own toilets, showers and flat screen tv! wouhou!!! Our hostel's manager was the surfer's club president wife so she lend us 2 surfboards and we TRIED to surf... oops lol we actually managed to stand on our knees and were auite proud of that for a first time (even if i had already surfed a few years ago...).

The shops in Noosa were really nice, the cafes and restaurants also... no surprise as Richard Branson owns his own island off the coast of Noosa! We did the 3 hours long coastal walk of Noosa which was beautiful and spotted some wild dolphins, turtles! On our last day in Noosa we went to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo (steve being wouter's idol and i had no idea who he was until we arrived here! hahaha) and i finally got to hold a koala!!! :) the koala was actually very heavy (20kgs) and stinky because of their main food: eucalyptus leaves... and because i held the koala first thing in the morning and i was the first in the line to hold him, the koala drilled on my shirt and i was stuck with this horrible smell for the rest of the day on my shirt and on my hair!!! nice!! lol
We saw crocs, fed red head and grey kangaroos (which were auite aggressive!!), saw the most beautiful species of birds...

Then, our next stop was Brisbane: it was nice to see a city finally! We went souvenir shopping a bit, went around the sunday markets and enjoyed the nice bistros, cafes and restaurants! On our last day in Brisbane was Wouter's birthday and because he loves and misses pancakes so much from home, i woke him up at 7am to bring him to the hostels cafe/bar which served pancakes before we left for the Gold Coast.

When we arrived in Surfers Paradise, from the highway you can see what the Gold Coast's all about: attraction parks, casinos, luxurious hotels and party during summer vacation (which actually started last friday for australian students!). When we entered in our apart hotel on Broad beach we couldnt believe how luxurious this apartment was compared to every other places we had stayed in! 4 star hotel finally!!! we've stayed 3 nights in this hotel but honestly, 4 more nights wouldnt have been too much... :) the bed was brilliant and not full of bed bugs as the previous ones were (beurk i know!!), the kitchen had an oven, a water boiler, and a toaster!! \, we had a balcony over looking the sea, a flat screen tv with dvd player and greys anatomy episodes now and then lol and we even had our own landry machine and dishwasher!!! You must think that isnt woaw but it was for us when we arrived in this place! and today we are leaving Surfers Paradise for Byron Bay and guess what? it is raining! First day of rain since we arrived in Australia lol and we must admit we are a bit scared to lose our tan! :p
Our days in Surfers Paradise have been filled by shopping, eating, drinking coronas, winning 20 bucks at the casino, watching dvds and greys anatomy (yeay!!) and relaxing at our fitness center/sauna/jacuzzi and pool :)

Will write to you shortly about Byron Bay and Sydney and Blue Mountains... fingers crossed that it won't continue to rain here cuz the blue mountains canyoning would be impossible to do with this kind of weather!

Still very hard to believe Christmas is arriving in not too long... and strange to see all the xmas decoration on the beach here! :)

love xxx

noosa heads + australia zoo!

Greyhound night bus drive...

Completely forgot to mention we unfortunately hit a 1.80m high kangaroo on our night bus drive from airlie beach to rainbow beach a few days ago... we got really scared and felt really bad for the dead kangaroo but the driver told us it happened very often...

Whitsunday islands + Fraser island

Whitsunday Islands + Rainbow Beach/Fraser Island

Hey there!
We have come back from our AMAZING Whitsunday Islands trip of 2 days / 2 nights on a boat with 8 other guests! the beaches we saw: Whitehaven beach, long island beach were the whitest beaches we have ever seen and the sand is knowed to be the finest on earth! Whitehaven beach is actually one of the most pictured beach on earth and we understood why... The shape of the beach is formed everyday differently because of the reef and the changing tides. Our skipper managbed to bring us to the look out point of whitehaven beach at night, which was very unusual compared to all the other boat cruises, and although it was beautiful we got bitten by sandflies everywhere and mine are still hurting because i have been itching :s

We have snorkelled everyday twice and we did actually swim with a giant turtle, we spotted wild dolphins yeayyyyy and the coral and the many species of fish were just exceptional! We have also tried the stand up paddling (SUP in aussie) (cf emily et fio: le sport favori de jen anniston!). Addind to the beautiful beaches, the amazing snorkelling and the paddling, the atmosphere on the boat was great! The 4 other couples were mainly british and we had a lot of fun. One of them was so burned that he was actually turning from pink to purple as the days passed by.... and their drinking wasn'tbad at all! I found drinking beer and white wine perfect on boat but not red as your stomach does get a bit upside down from the constant moving!!!


After this trip we directly took a 14hours greyhound night bus to rainbow beach, the get away for fraser island. We left yesterday morning for fraser island and just came back right now. We saw an awful lot of dingoes (quite dangerous wild dogs) and have swam in the most beautiful lakes: Lake McKenzie and Lake Wabby where the water collected by rain is turquoise! Our hotel last night was a resort and believe me we were SO HAPPY to finally get away from backpackers hostel and have our own bathroom, extremely clean rooms and shower gels, soap etc... :)

Tomorrow wer are going dolphin feeding and thursday we are leaving for Noosa Heads!

Pictures will be up tomorrow morning i promise!!!

Magnetic and Airlie Beach