It was strange to reach my final weeks in Australia. By that time, I was ready to move on, so parts of it almost felt like going through the motions before the day came when I'd start my next adventure. I had no more overnight tours booked, no set schedule for making my way down the coast, and no overwhelming interest in most of the places left to see. There were only three weeks left and I was mainly tying up loose ends, or at least that's how it felt.
That being said, there were some highlights still to come. Brisbane especially turned into an amazing few days. I've come across many people with different views to mine on the following areas. For example, I've met diehard fans of Byron and Surfers, but I wasn't particularly impressed by either. All I can offer is my own impressions!
Noosa
It was a 2 ½ hour ride on the Premier bus from Rainbow Beach to Noosa, and I stayed in a 16 bed dorm at Nomads. It wasn't a memorable hostel (and generally I'm a fan of Nomads), but it was all I needed for one night.
Due to my short length of stay, I wasn't worried about making friends. Instead, I dropped off my things and went on a long solo hike. Noosa is cute and small. There's a little main strip in town, Hastings Street, which was lit up with fairy lights, a coastal walk through the national park, a main beach, and plenty of smaller beaches further down. I thought of it as a place my mom would like if she were in Australia. Quiet and pretty.
I spent most of my time hiking the coastal path which had nice views and ended at Hell's Gates, a big cliff overlooking the sea and a beach.
On the way back, I stopped at some wooden stairs where I just watched the waves crash against the round rocks while the sun went down. It was really beautiful and I had one of those perfect reflective moments of appreciation for life that you only really get when you're on your own.
That's really all the time that I had in Noosa. I didn't feel like I was missing much by not staying longer, but there were backpackers partying at the hostel that night who couldn't believe I was only spending one night. Up to you!
Brisbane
I totally love Brisbane. It was the absolute highlight of all places in this post for me. As far as the cities of Australia go, I definitely prefer Brisbane to Sydney (although Melbourne will always be my favorite). It's on a small enough scale to be walkable, it's warmer than Sydney or Melbourne, and it's very pretty.
I also loved my hostel, Bunk Backpackers. I would easily put it in my top 5 favorite Oz hostels.
It's located in Fortitude Valley, the nightlife area, but also has its own bar, Birdeez, onsite. There's one bar outdoors with a cute seating area including circular bungalow booths, one indoors which has DJs and karaoke at night, and even an actual club upstairs that is open on the weekend.
They hold various competitions on certain nights, like the Bear Grylls eating competition where we watched our Scottish pal destroy everyone by devouring chicken hearts, sheep brains, and ghost peppers like a boss. I ate one of those ghost peppers following the competition and spent the next five minutes with tears streaming from my eyes drinking all of the milk that was intended for the contest participants who had eaten five of the things.
I was upgraded from a 20 bed dorm to an 8 bed, and the rooms were so nice. They had wooden floors, large windows, lockers, en suite bathrooms, and two bunks on each side of a divider. Each bed had its own personal outlet and light as well.
I went to explore Brisbane one evening, and a guy who worked at the hostel was nice enough to drop me off at Southbank while he was making a shuttle run to the transit center. Southbank is just the prettiest area. Even the walkway is lined with purple flower covered trestles.
First you'll reach a harbor view near the bridge where there's an Asian-inspired garden with fountains, waterways, and trees full of orange flowers.
Next up is the lagoon. Brisbane has no swimmable beach, but this more than makes up for it. It's huge with three different sections including a kid play area and a manmade beach.
Finally there are great views of the city over the water, and I was just making my way through the rainforest walk when it started absolutely showering down rain.
I took cover under a canvas overhang by the harbor where I had nice views of the ferris wheel, and when the storm passed about ten minutes later I continued on over the bridge into the CBD area. I saw the historical area with Parliament and took a short walk through the botanic gardens and then headed back to Bunk, passing Anzac Square on the way.
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
By far my favorite day in Brisbane was the day that I went to Lone Pine. I had been planning to go alone, but my first night at Bunk I introduced myself to a group of guys at the hostel bar and ended up inviting one of them, Chris, to come along to see the koalas with me the next day even though he was meant to be leaving. I totally didn't expect him to show up, so I was really surprised to come to the lobby and see him waiting in the morning!
It was so much more fun to go with somebody, and we had the most amazing day. The hostel ran a shuttle to Lone Pine, so we caught that, and it briefly stopped at the top of Mt. Cook where there's a lookout point over the whole city, then we headed on to the sanctuary.
It's a small park that holds only native Aussie animals, but it's fairly inexpensive compared to the Australia Zoo (aka Steve Irwin Zoo) which is the one most people visit from Brisbane. I haven't personally been to the Australia Zoo, but I don't think you can go wrong choosing the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We saw kookaburras, platypuses, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, crocodiles, lizards, wombats, and more.
If you've never seen a wombat, this is a wombat. It is adorable.
I enjoy this photo because the same type of bird is inside the cage as outside. I like to think they're discussing the fairness of life and liberty.
There was even my first real life sighting of a cassowary! It was pacing back and forth around the cage until all of a sudden the zookeeper walked by and it went into a rampage. She stampeded right over to us (and if you haven't read my summary of cassowaries yet, they are FAST) and just glared through the fence. The zookeeper told us she's a female and doesn't like the men who work there. I was willing to bet she didn't like anything else that was breathing, but sure.
There's a big enclosure where kangaroos and emus are roaming around freely as well, and you're free to go in and sit with them or feed the birds and whatnot.
I actually was surprised that the emus were docile enough to be around people without a fence! I was still too scared to get close to it though... just in case.
Awkwardly making friends.
There's also a strange petting zoo/farm area that is all green grass and sheep, and we totally felt like we'd been transported to England or something except for the fact that there were a wallaby and an eagle hanging out on the island in the middle of the lake.
Honestly though, the main reason for going was for the koala cuddles. I tried to save it for later in the day, but I was starting to get too nervous with anticipation and so finally we just went to get the photos. I let some people pass in front of me in line until I had the chance to hold the koala I wanted, a cute smallish one named Crumble. Obviously I wanted the most adorable koala available. The zookeeper showed me how to hold her and then put her paws up on my shoulder, and I swear there have been few moments in my life quite as adorable as the one where I saw a sleepy koala looking into my face and holding its arms out to me. I was so excited I think I may have been shaking. The zoo staff took one professional photo which of course I knew was going to turn out terribly, so I was thankful that they also allow as many pictures as you want to be taken on your own camera. I think it only cost about $15 and it was money well spent!
THIS IS HAPPINESS.
We stayed until mid-afternoon, bought stuffed koalas in Santa hats on the way out, caught the bus back, and then spent our night taking advantage of happy hour at the hostel bar and hitting the dance floor at a gay club. Best day!!
Surfers Paradise
When I finally but sadly left Brisbane, I took the Bunk shuttle to the transit center and caught a Premier bus down to Surfers Paradise. I caught another shuttle when I got there to my hostel, Backpackers Resort, which was decent but nothing special. I shared a room with four Finnish people who were all friendly.
Our hostel was about ten minutes from the city, so I took a walk in to explore in the afternoon and very quickly determined that I am no fan at all of Surfers Paradise. One of my friends at Fraser had warned me that it was just a concrete jungle, and he was right.
Besides that, it was here that I gained full awareness of the plague that is "schoolies." You see, for a few weeks after high school ends, these apparently orphaned children are let loose on unsupervised drunken holidays where they invade the streets like some kind of nightmarish post-apocalypse. It's chaos. You can't walk one block without tripping over children wearing red Schoolies lanyards out drinking booze. I mean, do they have parents?! Back when I was 18 in the great land of the United States of America, we spent these years building up our life skills of stealth and secrecy sneaking around with alcohol and throwing illegal house parties. It's a rite of passage! Kids in these countries learn nothing! Besides, those of us over 21 don't want to run into a bunch of high schoolers in our grown up bars. Go do your time.
It may have been an unfortunate time to be in Surfers, but I don't think I would have liked it regardless. First of all, I had no money for the Gold Coast activities that most people come to the area for like all of the theme parks. Second, I don't care much for the beach, although admittedly, it was quite a nice beach. It's very clean and looks cool with all of the modern buildings behind it.
One thing I had heard good things about was the nightlife, so I signed up for a pub crawl called Backpackers Big Night Out. Most of my hostel was going, and I pregamed with the Finns in my room. I did not enjoy it. It was $30 for three bars and only one free drink at each, and it was not worth the money. We went to the Beer Garden first which was on the second story of a building and alright, but we stayed there so long that by the time we moved to the second one I wasn't even in the mood to party anymore.
Our next stop was Vanity, a kind of cool place with dim lights and mirrors all over, and after that was SinCity which had a decent dance floor. Basically though I didn't really know anybody, had already decided that I was cutting my stay in Surfers way short and so wasn't that interested in meeting anyone, and spent a lot of time outside smoking cigarettes and being antisocial as I am prone to do when bored.
I left Surfers after two nights because I had zero interest in being there.
Byron Bay
I caught an early bus from Surfers down to Byron Bay, my final stop in Australia. I had heard people rave about Byron as some kind of hippie paradise, and in certain ways, it was. I also thought it was just slightly overrated, but one of its highlights is a beach, and as I've said, that's not really my thing.
What was awesome and totally deserving of its hype was the Arts Factory. If you come to Byron, you must at least spend a few nights here. It's easily one of the coolest, most unique hostels I've ever stayed in (and also Nomads-owned!).
It's everything a young hippie could want. There's a "jungle" area for camping, a regular dorm building, a few teepee dorms which are exactly how they sound- cots inside of actual teepees, and the island retreats. I totally lucked out by getting to stay in the island retreat, because originally I was meant to be in a cheap dorm. The girl at the desk told me though that I would have to check out and move every single day which is a pain in the ass, so I asked if there was anything they could do. She said if she put me in one of the 4-bed island retreats, I could keep the same bed all three nights, and she offered to do it at the same price. Major score.
The island retreats were new and so cool! There's a lake on the property which divides the main building from the camping area and island, so you walk across a small bridge that takes you onto this wooden boardwalk over the water connecting all of the island cabins. They're like canvas tents except with wooden floors and sliding glass doors, two bunks inside, and a front sitting area with table and chairs. I seriously lucked out too (again) with mine, because I was in the green tent #5 at the end which is the only one that also had a tiny back porch overlooking the lake.
The hostel also features a cafe which I am fairly certain sells pot brownies (or at least that's what I gather from the name "stoner surprise"), a vegetable garden where you can volunteer in the mornings, a volleyball court, swimming pool, quiet reading room, lounge with pool tables, hammocks outside, dream catchers in the trees, bushtucker walks you can join a few days of the week, yoga workshops, didgeridoo stations... a hippie dream.
There's always some sort of drumming going on which reminded me of my own hippie campground Nelson Ledges back home, and there were bush turkeys and water dragons hanging out all around the site. I woke up every morning to the sound of kookaburras in the trees which was amazing. Basically imagine a jungle packed with hyenas, and that's what the kookaburras sound like.
I had over two weeks in total to kill in Byron, and unfortunately Arts Factory was a bit expensive. Also a bummer was that I came down with something the day I arrived and spent most of my time there sleeping and relaxing. One night there was an amazing lightning storm that I was able to sit and watch from our back porch over the lake, and that was pretty spectacular.
Otherwise, there isn't anything worth mentioning from my short stay at Arts Factory besides the hostel itself. After my three nights were up, one of my roommates, Josh, and I both moved to a different hostel actually in town (Arts Factory is a bit out of the way) called Aquarius. I was in a 10 bed dorm and liked the hostel. There were four bunks in a very spacious room, plus one private room attached. The bathroom was also large and featured a skylight, I had a huge ledge next to my top bunk to keep my things on, and there was a decent sized balcony out the back. We kept the sliding doors open most of the time so there was always fresh air.
Easily my strongest memory from my time in Byron Bay was celebrating my 25th birthday. It fell on my second day in Aquarius, and I had extremely low expectations being that I barely knew anybody in town. Well, these are the times that the kindness of virtual strangers amazes me, because so many people made it really special for me.
First of all, I came back from the bars the night before after midnight to find just two of my English roommates, Ed and Josh, at the dorm. Once they found out it was my birthday, they gave me a beer and we sat out on the balcony talking. I'll never forget them introducing me to Joy Division, and I sat out in the warm night listening to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" for my first ever birthday on the opposite side of the world.
The morning started out great as well. I got a phone call right off the bat from somebody important, and I went to the computer lab to find all of the usual Facebook birthday wishes which, no matter how generic, always put you in a good mood. When I came back to the hostel, my Canadian roommate, Jonah, told me to wait and cover my eyes, and when I opened them there was a brownie with a candle there on the table in front of me. That meant so much to me! And the brownie was delicious!
I sat at the pool for most of the afternoon drinking beers, then a gigantic group of 12 of us went to a nearby Mexican, Miss Margarita's, for dinner. We sat on the cushioned bench out front and ordered drinks (chipotle lime margarita for me) until a table was ready for us, and they put us all together on the second floor. My garlic mushroom and zucchini enchilada even came out with a sparkler for my birthday! Then another Canadian in the group bought tequila shots for me and another girl in the group whose birthday had been that week and also bought our dinners. I was actually so blown away by how kind these total strangers were being and can't even express how happy they made me that day.
We went out for the night and ended up at a bar called Woody's where I danced for ages and also ran into my friend Elise from my Fraser Island tour who was also celebrating her birthday.
The following day I belatedly treated myself to a birthday ice cream sundae, and I had a call from one of my Melbourne friends who I hadn't seen in months. Later on, Josh from Arts Factory texted me to say he hadn't been able to give me my birthday treat the day before. I told him he could stop by, and he showed up at my door with a mud cake completely lit up with candles. It was honestly the sweetest thing! I just couldn't believe how much effort so many random people that I'd just met put into making my birthday so special for me. It meant so, so much.
I spent a lot of time over the next two weeks doing boring things. I filed for my taxes, sent in my broken camera with its warranty, ordered a new camera, read books, watched movies, and once again came down with a terrible cold which kept me bed-ridden for a couple of days.
Once I felt better, I did a little exploring. One day Josh and I took a walk up to the Byron lighthouse. It takes about an hour to reach from the beach and is uphill, but it's very picturesque. It's all white with big bricks and blue trim like from a storybook. You'll pass the most easterly point of the Australian mainland on the walk up as well.
I spent a couple nights with an old friend, Dan, I'd met at Gilligan's in Cairns, and we played drinking games at his hostel, Holiday Village, and went out in town.
Finally, on my last full day in Australia, I took the day tour to Nimbin. Nimbin is notorious for being a place to buy marijuana, and the tours are well aware of this. You know it's going to be a good time when the first thing the bus driver asks is if anybody on the tour is an undercover cop. I took the Grasshoppers bus along with a German friend, Matt, who I'd met in Fraser Island. Everyone on the tour was friendly. We stopped at a pub on the way to pick up drinks, and I'd finished 3/6 of my beers by the time we reached Nimbin and carried the fourth around town with me.
Nimbin is definitely another hippie place. There's an alleyway where all of the dealers are just selling straight out of humongous bags of weed, and others are selling special snacks everywhere. There's also a small museum which is an awesome mess of random clutter and legalization propaganda.
We all went down to the park afterwards to smoke and eat our purchases. Half a cookie is definitely enough! ...I mean calories, of course. ;-) The ride back was extremely chilled out, and we stopped at a big blue lake surrounded by trees for lunch and laid on the hill in the sun. We made one more stop at Minyon Falls before returning to Byron, but the waterfall was all dried up. For the rest of the ride, everyone was mostly falling asleep.
I was not sad to reach my last day in Australia. It had been an awesome adventure, but I was ready to go. I went out and bought a painted boomerang as my final souvenir, packed up, and took a shuttle the airport. I had been planning my trip to New Zealand for weeks now and was excited that the time was finally here. I'd had an unbelievable year, but there was a whole new country ahead of me full of people to meet and places to see, and I was happy to look ahead to what would be an entirely different but equally fantastic experience. Thanks for the memories, Oz!