riverECHO

After weighing the cons of cost and environmental impact with the pros of great recommendations, camping along the beach, and simply the act of driving along the largest sand island in the world, it was hard to say no to a three day weekend on Fraser Island. Fraser is on every traveler’s must-see list but it is also really popular among local fishermen. Although busy, at times we felt like we had the entire island to ourselves.

The entire island is made of sand, including the roads, and the only way to access the island is with a 4WD vehicle, requiring us to rent one for the weekend. We had in mind a jeep or SUV, but instead got a Suzuki Jimny. BJ actually asked the rental company, “are you serious?” But sure enough, the Jimny rocked. Where larger vehicles and trucks got stuck, we cruised on through the deepest sand you can imagine.  The beach, which you could only drive on in low tide, was actually the smoothest “road” on the island. It was in fact patrolled by rangers and police as it’s considered a national highway. BJ and I both took our turns behind the wheel and definitely enjoyed cruising at about 10-15km/hour along the inland roads the best, which were enclosed by rainforest. It is hard to imagine how huge trees, and in fact an entire rainforest, can grow in such soft sand.

There was a ton to see and do on the island and our car rental company, Aussie Trax, actually gave us a proposed itinerary for our trip length and tide schedules. We didn’t think much of it until we were on the island. It was so great to have the trip pretty much planned out for us. Some of the most popular sites include the many perched fresh water lakes, especially Lake McKenzie which we made a point of getting to in the early morning of our last day. They were beautiful, bright blue, and had white sand beaches just like the ocean. The Australians particularly got a kick out of swimming in the fresh water and we heard one boy ask his dad “will I sink” and “can I drink it.” Aussies spend so much time at the beach that swimming in fresh water is probably a very rare occurrence.

Another popular sight is the Maheno Shipwreck, originally a high class cruise ship that made trips between Auckland, Sydney and Vancouver. After 30 years of service, it was sold as scrap metal to a Japanese company who, while towing it back to Japan, lost it in a huge cyclone. It was beached along Fraser’s east coast in 1935 and has sat to rust ever since. Shortly after it wrecked, a government official actually held his wedding in the main salon.

We drove inland to check out a few different sand dunes, which sat like large barren hills among the thick surrounding rainforest. We had way too much fun making ski turns down one dune in particular.

Another highlight was overlooking the ocean life at Indian Head. We hiked up to an overlook and spotted huge sting rays, dolphins surfing the waves, and whales in about every direction. There were tons of fishermen at the water’s edge and the water was so crystal clear that we could see the fish that were escaping their lures.

We spent two nights on the island, camping along the beach during both nights. We fell asleep to crashing waves and a full moon and woke in the morning to singing birds and howling dingos.

1,896 kilometers around Australia

We spent the weekend exploring Lamington National Park, a couple hours drive inland from the Gold Coast. It was a sort of dry rainforest, if that makes sense, with tree ferns and lush foliage but a very dry ground cover. There are two main roads into the park; both follow a different ridge line to the summit of a plateau where there is a campground, lodge, and trailhead for numerous hikes. We spent a night at each campground, Binna Burra and Green Mountains.

From Binna Burra, a number of hikes lead out into the park. We opted for a half day hike, which was a nice change to not doing much physically other than a few bike rides and walks around towns. Our hike was quite a wildlife adventure. Our tally of snakes has now reached 8, four of which were spotted on this hike. We learned, after opening a children’s book about snakes in the gift shop, that one of the snakes that we carefully skirted around was a black red-bellied snake . . . only the 17th most venomous snake in the world. We also learned that Australia is home to the 16 of the top 20 venomous snakes in the world, 7 of which are the most poisonous. But no worries mate . . .  they are more scared of you than you should be of them. That makes me feel so much better.

Once we arrived to our second camp at Green Mountains, we immediately took off for the area’s famous tree walk, a series of wooden planked swing bridges and ladders, which reaches to a top height of 30 meters. It was a pretty cool structure and not surprising that it was very busy. I woke up extra early this morning to take another stroll along it without the crowds and only the sounds of birds and trees swaying in the wind.

After blowing through Brisbane this afternoon we made camp in a mozzie (mosquito) filled state park just a short drive from the Australian Zoo, Steve Irwin’s zoo to be exact. I’ve never been a huge fan of zoos but we have been told over and over that this is a must-do. Tomorrow afternoon we will enter the attraction and will surely have many photos to share shortly thereafter.

Well we are still in Port Macquarie and not too much to report this round. Our van has had one doctor’s appointment after another this week, but all for improvements so that we can feel better about driving him around the country. Customs has been holding on to my new computer for over a week now and they don’t seem too keen on releasing it to me yet. I spoke to a gentleman from customs on the phone today about the “releasing” process and he answered all of my questions with either “yes love” or “no love” . . . so that made me generally feel better about the situation. It’s hard to be stern with someone when they keep calling you “love.” Overall we are still loving the Australian way. It seems like everyone is just out to make a new friend. Things are a bit more expensive here than they were in New Zealand and we’ve noticed a trend of “bigness” especially when it comes to serving size. It’s no wonder the Aussies just surpassed the Americans in obesity rates. We are really enjoying acquiring new sayings like “no dramas” and “no worries” and referring to everyone and everything as “mate” or “doll” or “love” or “champ” or, and this was only one time, “champion.”

784 km around Australia

We spent the last two nights in Crowdy Bay National Park and although we still have another day to our weekend, I feel like we’ve already had more than a weekend’s worth of adventures. Here are just a few to add to the list:

• We mountain biked along an awesome coastal hiking trail that dropped off in numerous places to meet the crashing ocean below.
  
• We finally touched the cold (yes, cold!) waters off Australia’s east coast and looked on in awe as surfers played with the waves, despite warnings of high surf, shallow waters and deathly currents.
  
• We camped among a couple kangaroo families. Kangaroos are actually much smaller than I had envisioned, standing only to about shoulder height. They are amusingly enough pear shaped and are quite entertaining to watch as they bound across a grassy field. Their strong tail acts like a fifth leg, which they use to help them graze. You see they don’t walk or waddle, but plant their tail and front arms like a tripod as they gracefully lift and move their hind legs forward. If there isn’t already a yoga move out there called the kangaroo, then I will dedicate this trip to creating it . . . and then BJ can post photos of it for your enjoyment.
  
• I stepped on my first Australian snake. Okay, it was only a foot long and it didn’t bite me, but it almost made me wee my pants. I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s book about his travels around Australia called Down Under and he is obsessed with pointing out how deadly everything is down here. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to a rustle in the bushes, especially when we head up north to the land of the salties, their very endearing term for man-eating salt water crocodiles. The only rustle in the bushes we heard down here ended up being a goanna (monitor lizard) which was large enough that it made us keep our distance. Notice the lizard trying to climb the tree stump in the photo below.
  
• We made friends with a kookaburra who we named Bruce, who was particularly interested when we were cooking up eggs for breakfast. Kookaburras are known for making a shrilling laughing call. But until I actually knew what was making the noise high in the trees I swear I thought we were surrounded by a group of angry monkeys.
  
• We explored some of the east coast’s spectacular coastline. The ocean is crystal clear, brilliantly blue and totally inviting. I just need to get over my fear of Australia’s man-eating sharks.
  

We are now back in Port Macquarie, at the same campground we were in last week. It’s probably not a town that we would normally post up in for this long, but we are patiently waiting for my new work computer to arrive before we can continue our journey north. BJ has found a few biking trails just a short drive away and we stumbled upon a very cool used book store/café this afternoon, so I am sure we will have no problem staying busy until we depart. I must say we are already feeling like five months down here might not be enough time to see everything we want to see, but like any road trip it’s not about the destination and usually the unexpected things you find along the way are the things you remember best and enjoy most. We will, as my sister Shalyn said to me tonight, make sure to stop and smell the roses.

15 kilometers around Australia

We’d like to introduce you to our latest travel companion . . . Slim. He has a comfy bed, an extra battery, and a pop-top and after stocking him with a couple bins for our clothes and cooking items, we are excited to have him around while we tour the country.

After we picked up Slim we moved out of our hostel and into a campground north of the city in Sydney’s only national park. Although we’ve been catching up at work for the last few days, we were able to venture back into the city this afternoon for a show at the Opera House, the one touristy thing that we deemed necessary in Sydney. But when we found out that a concert or show in the main theater cost over $200, we opted for a much more reasonably priced performance in the drama theater, which is in the same building but just one floor below the impressive auditorium. In the end, I think we chose wisely. Put on by the Australia based Bangarra Dance Theatre Company, “Fire” is a dance production that combines modern dance with traditional aboriginal style dancing. We had seats in the second row and after two hours we were sad to see the show end. It was totally impressive and as BJ’s first performing arts experience of the kind, I think he’s hooked.

Post Opera House, we revisited the lovely Botanical Gardens, drank an iced coffee which in Australia is short for a coffee float (seriously  . . . they put a huge scoop of ice cream in a cup of chilled coffee), listened to a number of street performers playing a didgeridoo to techno music (BJ named it dij-dub), and had dinner at one of the 500 restaurants along the Darling Harbor. We would love to check out some of Sydney’s museums and other sites, but as it is only getting hotter in northern Australia, we are feeling like we should start getting on the road. But Sydney’s not done with us yet as we’ll probably be back to sell our van at the end of our trip.

Although we’ve been here for less than a week, I must say that the Australians are some of the nicest people I’ve met. They love to engage in conversation and love asking us where we’re from and where we’re going. We met a lady last night at the campground who, after finding out we were from a town near Yellowstone National Park, became really excited to tell her kids that we were friends with Yogi Bear and Booboo. We are starting to realize that living out of a van is not only convenient for our travel plans, but also a very social endeavor.

By now I would assume most of the world is aware of the fires that have been engulfing Australia, the largest fires in their history, having killed 130 people! Yesterday we experienced their magnitude when we woke up to an orange haze, the haze that back home I associate with a fire. It had us perplexed for a while as we tried to think of what was west of us . . . mountains covered in rainforest, the rainiest place in New Zealand, and the ocean. It was hard to imagine a fire taking place in any of these very wet places. But across the ocean a ways . . . Australia . . . of course.

The eerie apocalyptic sky set the tone for the day for us. Our plans for a big bike ride turned into a morning of drinking lots of coffee, cooking a huge breakfast (eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and onion covered in puff pastry), and reading on the couch. BJ’s quote of the day, which almost won as the title of this blog: “I love drinking coffee and doing nothing.” That pretty much sums it up. We finally dragged ourselves out of the house, went on a 30 minute bike ride, half of which was up a paved road near Coronet Peak, and then drove to Arrowtown to spend a couple hours reading and napping in a park under a tree under an orange sky, followed by our classic kiwi date . . . dinner and a mooooovie. This time, however, we didn’t watch the typical blockbuster. Waltz with Bashir, an animated portrayal of an Israeli soldier’s memory (or loss of memory) of the Lebanon War in the early 1980s, is one of the most unique and powerful films I have seen. Based on the dreamlike memories that he has, and those that he discovers through interviews of fellow soldiers, it seems only fitting that the film would be animated. We quickly drove home to look up a map and details on the war.

The orange skies had moved on from Queenstown today and we woke up with a bit more energy. We still spent a little time with coffee, breakfast, and books on the couch, but sooner than later got antsy and headed out to a place called Moke Lake for a bike ride. Despite the encroaching dark rain clouds, we set out anyways along a dirt road that wrapped around the backside of Ben Lomond Peak, which shadows Queenstown. The road eventually meets up with singletrack along the Moonlight Track. We had some hellish climbs and fast descents along the road but were clearly enjoying worrying the sheep, the lack of people, the historic feeling of riding along an old mining road, and the incredible views over the valley that dropped off from the road. On our way back to the car, BJ got an idea in his head (or maybe his belly) of a Fergburger, a famous burger joint in downtown Queenstown that we had yet to experience. I pictured Homer (BJ) sleepwalking (riding a bike) to the fridge (Queenstown) with a thought bubble of beer (big juicy burger) above his head. We tried the burger kiwi style by asking for a topping of sliced beets and, of course, a side of chips (fries). It was a delicious Monday afternoon in New Zealand.