Australia ~ Coastal Road Tripping

I was able to see a lot of Australia because my friend Kyle took me on a road trip up the coast.  I said a hard goodbye to my mom and was on my own for the first time taking a two hour scenic train ride up to Newcastle.  Kyle had to do some work up North so we got to use his company van.  They took some seats out of it and voila we had a camper van.  The first night we drove to Valla Beach.  It was dark when we got there but my trusty tour guide new right where to park.  After some stargazing we hit the hay and woke up to a beautiful beachfront view.

That day we stopped in Bellingen for some delicious coffee and breaky (as they call it in Australia).  I really liked that town because it reminded me of one of my favorite places in Colorado.  Bellingen is a mountain town where you can hike to waterfalls, hang out on the river, and shop in all the stores along the main street.  Then we had a pit stop in Couffs Harbor where Kyle had a couple jobs for work and I went to a coffee shop to do some trip planning.  After that we drove to Byron Bay for the night.  Byron Bay is a cute hippie beach town.  A lot of people go there for holiday so there’s always live music and fun bars to check out.  We went to The Rails, which is where most people start their night off and we met up with some of Kyle’s friends.  They were super fun, had entertaining dance moves, and sparkly gold sunnies on.  The next morning we woke up to another glorious beach view, grabbed some coffee and checked out some iconic views.  One of the places we went to was the lighthouse which is the most eastern point of the Australian coast so the sea life passes by when they are migrating.  I got to see some dolphins and whales!

From there we headed further north and drove through Surfer’s Paradise (the Las Vegas of Australia), Gold Coast, and Brisbane.  Then we got to our next destination, Noosa Heads.  This is another awesome beach vacation town.  It was dark when we got there but Kyle gave me the tour.  Then we overindulged in the sushi train and sake.  We stopped by the bicycle bar and a Backpackers after that and I called it a night.  In the morning we went to the farmers market then to the beach.  There were so many people, it took us 45 minutes to find a parking spot.  The beach was really nice though.  We finally made it far enough north for the good weather but the water was still chilly.  I took a much needed bath in the ocean and then a nap on the beach.  Then we found an amazing spot to watch the sunset right where the river met the ocean.  There’s something about sunsets that really brings people together.  There was a parking lot full of people doing the same thing as us, soaking in the sunset.  That night we met up with another of Kyle’s friends, Carissa.  We laid low and had some wine, chocolate banana bread she made, and watched Ice Age.

The next morning Carissa cooked us breakfast and we enjoyed it on her deck overlooking the ocean.  Our goal for the day was a hike in Noosa Heads National Forest.  It was amazing.  We walked through the forest past several beaches and then along A-Bay which I found out was a nude beach so you had to be careful where you looked.  We walked along the water and there were heaps of jellyfish washed up on the shore.  Then we went up to Hell’s Point which is a beautiful viewpoint.  We saw turtles and watched the waves barrel into the cliffs.  We capped off the hike with a happy hour and sunset walk down the beach.  It was a perfect ending to our road trip.  We started the drive home that night and finished the drive back to Newcastle the next day.  It was a wonderful trip and I got to experience a piece of Australia’s culture.  My takeaway is the east coast is absolutely beautiful, pretty expensive, the people are friendly, they have different words for things, and I’m the one with the accent there.