Byron Bay Adventures

When we were in Cairns we had wanted to skydive at Mission beach which is one of the places where you can land on the beach. Unfortunately while we were there the weather was a bit overcast and we were unable to do it while we were there. We decided that the next best place to skydive would be Byron Bay so when we arrived in Byron we knew we were in for an adventure. We got in on none other than Cinco de Mayo! Another great holiday in my opinion but hard to celebrate in Australia as it seems everyone has a different interpretation of Mexican food. We found a place to park our van for the night at Art's Factory Lodge, a short walk from town but they have a shuttle bus running. We headed out to town on the shuttle and turns out the driver was from Tahoe. Small world, but honestly I think Byron attracts Californians with it's laid back mentality and hippie vibes. He recommended a nice Mexican restaurant for dinner, Miss Margaritas Mexican Cantina. We arrived just in time for happy hour and ordered up some mango margaritas. 

We ordered up some amazing nachos and fajitas that we ate so quickly I didn't snap a photo. 

After dinner we walked around town for a bit. We found the Ginger Pig which at the time looked like a quiet place for drinks and to lounge cause they had couches and comfy chairs but we quickly learned that they were not planning a quiet night. An acoustic band started to play and was followed by an acoustic reggae set. Both bands were really good and there was even a girl hoola hooping who was pretty amazing. After the reggae band finished up the DJ came on with all sorts of reggaeton and the place went crazy. We had a fun time dancing around and drinking Stone Wood, the local ale. The next morning we headed out to the beach to find a place for brekkie and coffee. We found Fish Head right on the water and it was really good. 

When we were all done we went on search of a travel agent and found one to book our sky dive. There was a trip leaving the airfield in 30 minutes and he asked if we could make it, we jumped at the opportunity and hustled out to the airstrip. We arrived and filled out all our paperwork, aka signed our lives away, and got suited up. Adam was my tandem partner and he had been skydiving for 22 years, I felt pretty safe. The nerves kicked in when we got to about 10,000 feet and even more so once we hit jump altitude of 14,000 feet and people started to jump out on their own. It was crazy! Then it was my turn and we slid to the open door of the plane and I put my head back and my feet back like a banana as I was instructed and away we went! We free fell for about a minute, it was such a different feeling from bungee and was actually a lot more comfortable because after the initial shock of "oh my god, I just jumped out of a perfectly good plane!" wears off, you can actually enjoy the fall and put your arms out and see the ocean and bay in all its glory. It got really cool when the parachute opened up and caught me (I was really thinking thank goodness that worked!). We made sharp turns and spiraled down a bit, moving really fast. I even got to take control of the turning a bit. It was a fun time. Before I knew it we were back on land and wind swept from the 14,000 foot fall!

It was a blast! I may do that one again! 

We hung out in Byron for a bit longer with some snacks on the beach before we had to take off towards Sydney since tomorrow we return the campervan! 

Sad day but it means I am closer to Thailand and I get to see my sister which I am super excited for! 

Ko Tao, a Divers Paradise

Ko Tao literally means turtle island, I was hoping to see turtles there but the name refers to the shape of the island and not the fact that there are many turtles in the surrounding waters. Occasionally you can see turtles and whale sharks on the island however both eluded me on this trip. For many reasons, Ko Tao is considered a hot spot for diving. The main reason, and the reason I traveled there, is because they have over 50 dive shops on the island. This keeps prices down however the quality of the dive school is not so consistent. For this fact it does pay to do some research ahead of time. Smaller class size and safety were most important to me which varies among the many shops. 

I got to Ko Tao around 10 in the morning knowing the place where I wanted to get my PADI certification from so I emailed them the night before and they had transport waiting for me when I arrived. This was fantastic since after an overnight bus and early morning ferry I was exhausted. I met a really nice French girl on the trip though so she hopped on my transport as well. Win win!

I checked in with New Way Dive and got signed up for my open water class that would start that afternoon. The class included a bungalow for 3 nights so after signing up I settled in for a nap but with no AC a midday nap wasn't going to happen in the room so to the beach I went.

The open water course went by fast and left me wanting more so I immediately signed up for the advanced open water class. This course allows you to dive deeper, teaches you navigation, and gives you a look into different types of diving. I tried underwater photography, fish identification, and a night dive in addition to diving down to 30 meters. In the span of 8 nights on Ko Tao, I went on 11 dives. I am super excited to check out some other locations in the future! Below are a few of the places I went diving throughout the week. 

Shark Island

Japanese Gardens

Sail Rock, meant to be the best place for diving in all of Thailand

Throughout the week I saw some incredible sunsets and even 2 sunrises. With bars right on the beach it is hard to miss a good sunset. 

There was also plenty of fire dancing to see and I even got to partake in some of the fun but there is no photo evidence of this. 

On the final night in Ko Tao I decided to partake in a pub crawl because everyone loves a pub crawl. A group from New Way got together for the crawl. It was a fun night out with a lot of people doing silly things and drinking lots of buckets.

A few of the highlights; there was an awesome one man band playing at one of the bars that would loop his sounds to make a full song. It was really cool and he was a really good performer. We also got to see a lady boy show and dayum. These boys have moves!

One of the best things about diving with New Way was the family atmosphere there as well as the people that took the class. Everyone was extremely friendly and made leaving Ko Tao harder than I thought. Thankfully, I was leaving with new friends to travel with to Chiang Mai and Laos. 

Great Barrier Reef Diving

We took off early in the morning for our Great Barrier Reef cruise and embarked on Down Under Dive. My nerves were starting due to the intro scuba dive I had signed up for and I wasn't sure how I would handle it. The cruise out to the reef was a rough one. So many people were getting sick. I had no issues without taking anything. My stomach of steel for motion sickness reigned supreme thankfully! We split into briefing groups, scuba and snorkel. I got briefed on the scuba with about 30 other people. This is when I realized how crowded our boat was. If you want to scuba it takes forever to get on the water since there is only one room to get geared up.

I went on my first dive and had to link arms with an instructor and 3 other people. One person felt too claustrophobic and didn't make it down. I thought it was surprisingly easy to make our way to the bottom of the ocean despite my initial hesitation. We dived for 25 minutes and saw plenty of fish, touched a giant clam, saw a sting ray, and we were able to kneel on the ocean floor to witness the fish swim around. 

It was amazing and I was hooked. I decided to snorkel a bit when I was done with the dive at the first reef we were at with Aniek. The dive was definitely worth it in comparison to the snorkeling at this reef. The boat crew prepared lunch which everyone happily devoured and laid out on the sun deck for a bit. Then we moved on to the next reef and I decided to opt for a second dive at that reef as well. On this dive we were able to swim out on our own. It was way more fun this way! I even got to swim with a turtle! So fun!

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Overall, the staff was awesome and there were plenty of fun people on the boat although the boat was pretty much at capacity. The experience was well worth the money even with the rough seas. 

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Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest

Leaving Cairns we headed north to reach our furthest northern spot for our travels on the East Coast, Cape Tribulation. On our way up we encountered a vehicle ferry and literally thought we were lost. We were not expecting a vehicle ferry by any means but after consulting our route we were in fact on the right path. I guess we didn't do our research very well here! Oh well because the ferry was running constantly and was literally to just cross a river. 

We found PK's Jungle Village and decided to park there for the night for $25 in our campervan. It was already dark out and we were ready to eat some of the good food we picked up at the farmers market that morning for dinner. 

The next morning we woke up and got a move on. We drove up to the Cape Tribulation lookout and walk at Kulki, a mere 1.2 kilometers to a beautiful lookout over the cape. 

The special thing about Cape Tribulation is that it is where the rainforest meets the ocean. It is a cool thing to see. The drive up to the cape is windy with many speed bumps built up to slow you down. Every where there are signs for Cassowary Crossing. 

These birds, although we didn't see any, are about the size of ostrich and can be aggressive. They are apparently an endangered species and one of the few animals who germinate certain flora and fauna. Their extinction will cause a ripple effect through the rainforest so they are wildly protected. 

We did a couple short rainforest walking tracks Kulki, Marrdja Boardwalk, and Jindalba Boardwalk. 

The last 2 boardwalk tracks were similar in vegetation but if I had to choose one, it would be the Jindalba Boardwalk. If I were to choose just one of the three it would be the Kulki track due to the fact that this was the only track that actually showed the most interesting part of this area, the jungle meeting the ocean. 

However, this track is the furthest north on the road before it turns unsealed so we didn't venture any further north. 

A personal note on the Daintree Rainforest...it is beautiful in its own right, however coming from New Zealand and all the bush walks I did, I think I could have skipped this portion of Australia. However, if you have the time and you are only doing Australia, this forest is well worth the visit. 

On our way back south from the Cape, we stopped on the opposite side of the vehicle ferry and embarked on the Solar Whisper for an hour river cruise to see some crocodiles up close and personal. We ended up seeing four crocs in our tour, a hatchling, a 1 year old croc, a 25-30 year old female croc named Beatrice, and lastly, Gump who is a medium size male croc about 40 years of age pictured below. 

These crocodiles are all salt water crocs which are the largest type of crocodiles. The largest croc found in the river we were boating was 8.9 meters in length. The average is a mere 5-6 meters...no thanks! Also, we saw quite a bit of other wildlife including Heron and Rainbow Bee Eaters that were playing in the water bathing themselves. 

We continued South towards Cairns in order to be close for out Great Barrier Reef tour we had booked for the following day. We ended up at Ellis Beach Bungalows right on the beach as it had been recommended to us by a few people as a good place to camp just out of town. 

The place was beautiful. Definitely worth the $32 for the night! 

Fjord versus Sound

Driving out to the Milford Sounds which are actually Fjords was drop your jaw gorgeous. 

The difference between a sound and a fjord is quite simple, one is created by water (sound) and the other ice or glaciers (fjord). We found a nice DOC camp to rest our heads for the night only 30 kms from Milford. The DOC sites are the cheapest in the South Island for campervans as there aren't many spots that have toilets open 24 hours that allow camping nearby. 

We took off earlyish the next morning for Milford and arrived with plenty of time for our trip. We grabbed coffee and relaxed a bit and went to the car to grab our stuff and check in...turns out we were late! The lady told us we needed to run to the dock, so run I did! There was no way I was missing a cruise and kayak trip on the Milford Sound which is something I was looking forward to before even coming on the trip. Thankfully we made it and the captain was waiting for us but insisted we were actually early. Good thing we ran...ugh. We were however the last ones to board and everyone was already enjoying the hot lunch provided on the cruise we took. As we left the harbor the sights got more and more beautiful. 

Mitre Peak hung over us as we cruised along. 

We even got to the Stirling Falls which claims to take years off of your skin. Why not give it a chance? I ran to the front of the boat for a "glacier facial". I got soaked. 

We stopped to see some adorable seals that hang out on this particular rock adorned the "bachelors" of the sound. 

We continued out of the bay to the Tasman Sea and turned back in to head to the Milford Discovery Centre 

This is where we got to embark on our kayak adventure! The place had a pretty cool platform that lowered you into the water while you were already seated in the kayak so there was no chance of tipping over. The kayak adventure was stunning and the water wasn't that cold either. Maybe it was just refreshing because it was so hot out!

We only had an hour in the kayaks and it was over too quick. This was definitely a big highlight for me on the entire trip thus far. 

We then got a tour of the Milford Discovery Centre which has a 10 meter deep viewing of the underwater world in the fjord. It was pretty amazing to see everything that lives and grows in the area. Another interesting fact about the Milford Sound is that the top 5 meters are freshwater and below is salt water due to the amount of rain water and waterfalls in the area. It creates a different ecosystem for fish to thrive. 

After our museum visit we made our way back to the harbor. It was a long day but beautiful with weather we could have only dreamt about. Apparently it rains 300 days a year in the fjord area. The weather gods have been following me kindly!

Leaving the fjord we stopped at the Chasm and Mirror Lakes for a quick vantage photo opp. 

We made our way into Te Anau to eat dinner and find a place to rest our heads. We went to the Ranch because of their advertised Sunday roast meal for $15. As a backpacker you are constantly looking for a deal and this had our interests piqued. The place was really good and the host even hooked us up with a place to park our campervan! It just so happened that his parents had gone out of town that day and lived just down the road so he told us to park in their driveway. Happily we parked for free at a huge house with an even bigger boat parked outside of it. We were also right by the lake. It was perfect. I have met some of the friendliest people here who go out of the way to help tourists out! It was a great way to get back to civilization. :)

The following day we took off for a day hike on the Routeburn Track. It was mostly a bush walk and it turns out Lukas was sick of these. He has been a great sport on going anywhere and everywhere I picked, so we decided no more bush walks on our last bush walk through the Routeburn. I thought it was beautiful regardless. 

Adventure City - Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown in time for dinner on a Thursday night. We made our way down to the water after finding a small hostel just outside of town, Bungee Backpackers, that allowed campervans. We found a bustling restaurant and bar called Pub on Wharf that was serving up all the Mac beer selections you could want. Mac's Sassy Red is by far my favorite! We found a nice booth and ordered off the menu, $20 fixed price for all their entrees and they were cooked perfectly and large portions. 

The following day we stopped in on the iSite in search of adventure. Boy did we find it. We left there with bungy jumping booked for the afternoon and Shotover Jet booked for the following day (jet boat in a river gorge). We opted for the bungy jumping at Nevis High Wire. A mere 134 meter jump from a platform literally hanging from wires across 2 mountains. 

The ride out to the place sure was scary enough in a bus riding a cliffs edge and then we had to get in a cage attached to a wire...smrt. So once we got there we got harnessed up and sent in a cart out to the platform. 

Lukas jumped first...He lived and I was next. I tried to turn my brain off a bit but when I was walking out to the edge I looked down for a brief second and had to avert my eyes to the sky. I was scared, the adrenaline was pumping. The next thing I heard from the bungy team was simple...1, 2, 3...BUNGY!

Away I went to fall the 134 meters to my hopeful bounce back...luckily all the gear worked and I lived I tell the tale. I am not sure I'll be jumping off any ledges, bridges, or platforms any time soon...unless it's out of a plane, I am keen on that!

We made our way back to town and the adrenaline high began to fade so we took off for a pub to celebrate our lives. Per a recommendation of a friend, we hit up 1876 to start the night. By far this place had the cheapest drinks out of any where in New Zealand. We met 2 kiwi couples traveling and proceeded to get pissed. I am picking up as much kiwi slang as I can but I still mess it all up. The night was a fun one out, Lukas even rode a mechanical bull!

The next morning we woke up with headaches but a trip to the Shotover Jet was booked. 

We got in the jet boat and it was a good enough time but I was never scared at any point. I think maybe we should have started with the jet boat and then the bungy jumping but it was best we didn't have long to think about the bungy prior to jumping. 

After we finished all out adventure for this town we washed it all down with a Fergburger. Everyone says you have to eat there and it is good but nothing to write home about even though I am writing about it now...

Since we were in Queenstown for the weekend we were really able to experience what it was all about. The nightlife was fun and the adventure was heart pumping. Definitely give it a go if you have some things to check off the bucket list. There is plenty more adventure to be had!

Celebrating One of my Favorite Holidays Abroad - St. Patrick's Day

Hokitika is a small town on the west coast just south of Greymouth and it is a sleepy town. It's name translates to "place of return" in Maori and I know I will be back. We arrived on St. Patty's day knowing we would be going out that night and in need of a shower. Thankfully, the Hokitika Swimming Pool accommodates heated indoor pool use and a shower for a mere $5. After a quick dip in the pool I had the best shower I have had since I have been traveling, no joke! 

I had a blast in this small town at Kaniere's Pub, a locals bar off the beaten path and away from town. The reason we ventured out to this bar was they had publicized their St. Patty's day festivities in the paper. We got out there early...about 4:30 and we were 2 of the 6 patrons at that time. They had Irish stew out and green bread along with deals on Irish beer. 

Presumably after work ended more celebrators showed up and people were decked out in green festive gear. We were by far the youngest patrons out but the people were so friendly that I couldn't help but feel like I belonged. We even had a couple older gentleman do a Haka for us which I videoed for you fine people at home...unfortunately I can't currently figure out how to upload it on my phone. Stay tuned for an update on that!

The following morning we made our way out to Hokitika Gorge which is meant to have the bluest waters and a swing bridge over it. Due to the downpour the night before the river was a blueish brown...not what we were expecting but it was still beautiful nonetheless. 

All and all, Hokitika could be a place easily bypassed but I know that one day I will return here.