May 15th - Dani Arrives
May 15th marked the start of the next 4 - 5 weeks of visiting friends and getaways. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 am and grabbed a bus/train to the Sydney airport to meet up with the first visitor, Danielle. For those of you who don't know, I used to work with Danielle at Lockheed and we share a similar mantra on taking advantage of our youth, seeing the world, and being poor. Unfortunately for her, she has to put up with me until June 12th while she does the "seeing the world" part. The price we pay...
After I met up with her, I spent the rest of the day showing her around Dee Why, pumping her full of caffeine, and not letting her fall asleep. We took a walk up to Long Reef just before sunset (see slideshow for pictures) to drink in some scenery. Drop the curtain, cue next scene...
May 16th - Royal Botanic Gardens & Sydney CBD
In the four months I've been in Oz, I had never toured the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney before. Danielle and I decided to spend the day walking around the gardens, the city, and grabbing a bite to eat and a beer. A picture is worth 1000 words so I'll let the slideshow below do the rest of the talking.
May 18th - Bar-hopping in Sydney
Now on to the inebriation! It's been awhile since my Aussie friends and I had a night out in the city so we decided to head out for a night of social alcoholism. We kicked off the night at the King Street Brewhouse for a beer and game of pool. Then it was off to The Star Casino where we drank fancy cocktails and listened to 80s/90s covers. I don't remember the name of the next bar we went to but either way it provided alcohol to fuel the fire. We then proceeded to Helm in Darling Harbour/Cockle Bay for some more drinks and booze dancing. The last stop of the night was at Cargo Bar for more drinks and of course more uncoordinated dancing (speaking for myself only of course). We caught a bus back to Dee Why, stopping off at Kebab World for a delicious late night snack, as is the custom. Plenty of documentation in the slideshow below.
May 19th - Gold Coast Day 1
After shaking the fog from my head, it was time to get our things together in preparation for my first trip away from Sydney. Danielle and I flew up to Gold Coast (thanks for the ride to the airport Kelly) to enjoy 4 nights/5 days of fun in the sun. After we landed, we took a 45 minute drive north to Paradise Point where we were lucky enough to have a free place to lay our heads thanks to Danielle's family friends. This was also my first time driving on the left hand side of the road for an extended period of time. I think that's the first time I've ever driven with both hands on the wheel. On to Day 2...
May 20th - Gold Coast Day 2
Day 2 of the trip began with a cruise on the boat on the west side of South Stradbroke Island. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with mostly clear skies and temperatures around 23C/73F. Again, pictures. 1000 words. You get the idea. The second half of the day was spent with me trying to figure out where the hell Duranbah, the surf break, was. Apparently, it's nowhere near the suburb of Duranbah on the northern NSW coast. I ended up surfing for an hour or so before sunset at Kingscliff. Waist to chest but mostly short rides in semi-choppy conditions. Still better than not surfing at all.
After we got back and ate some dinner, we decided to go into Surfers Paradise for some drinks. We had our first drink at Melbas which was a pretty cool bar but full of somewhat sober people. We shifted venues to an Irish bar which had a crowd with an average BAC that was much higher than Melbas and had two guys doing an acoustic cover of Foo Fighters' Everlong as we walked in. Sold. All in all, great night.
May 21st - Gold Coast Day 3
On Day 3, Danielle and I decided to venture away from the beach and go up to Mount Tambourine. About an hour drive through twisty roads (which was extremely fun for me, not so much for Dani) and we pulled up to the Rainforest Skywalk. See the slideshow for visual representation. After that we went and grabbed lunch at a little restaurant that served up some fairly good Greek food for being in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Queensland. We stopped at another lookout spot that had awesome panoramic views of the countryside below and took a 900M trek through Cedar Creek to see some waterfalls and rock pools. Needless to say, we both had had enough walking for one day and began the hour long drive home. Nice change of scenery from my normal beach and saltwater experiences.
May 22nd - Gold Coast Day 4
Having not found Duranbah, the surf break, on Day 2, I decided to dedicate Day 4 to finding the actual break and getting in a few hours of surfing. Luckily, Google was able to give me the actual location of the break which is in the Coolangatta/North Tweed Heads area. Pulled up to clear skies, even clearer water, and waist to chest high surf. In those two hours, I probably surfed the best I have in my entire life. To bad I forgot the GoPro that day. After a quick lunch, Dani and I took a walk up along Kirra, Rainbow Bay, and Snapper Rocks. For those of you who don't surf, that stretch of beach is the epicenter of surfing in Oz. Think the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Since I got skunked on big surf this trip, I'll be making a trip back up there to surf those breaks before my visa expires.
May 23rd - Gold Coast Day 5
Our last day was spent being beach bums and enjoying the warm weather that the Gold Coast was so kind to keep around for our trip. No pictures from this day but you get the idea. Sand, sun, water. On a side note, the similarities between the Gold Coast and Florida were plentiful. Both are called The Sunshine State, have cities named Palm Beach and Miami, have a handful of theme parks, and are full of hotels that dot the coastline. Home away from home much? I'll definitely be paying the Gold Coast another visit or two before year-end.
To Come
May 27th: Dan, Evan, KP, and Kristen arrive
May 29th - 31st: Trip to Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef
Jun 3rd - 8th: Trip to Bali
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