Eastern Australia

Leaving Wagga, I headed north to Cairns. I arrived at my hostel around ten at night to find a drunk and happy Danni who had already been in town for a week exploring the area. We were moving on the following day giving us just enough time to do some solid coffee shop planning, book some accomodation for the next few nights and reserve some bus seats with our Greyhound pass that gave us ninety days to reach Sydney though we were planning to do it in a little less than two weeks. 

Our first stop was the city of Townsville though it only served as a springboard for our actual destination: Magnetic Island. Here, I had my first Australian ocean swim. You would think it would be incredibly easy to find a nice spot to go for a swim in Australia but stingers, crocodiles and the occasional sharks leave a lot of the Australian coastline unswimmable unless you are ready to face the consequences. This rugged and mountainous island also offered us a couple of nice swims, some good hikes with animal life like birds, wallabies and koalas (my first one!) and of course some pretty awesome views. 

Danni making friends

A little baby wallaby and its momma

Our next springboard was the traveller's hub that is Airlie Beach from where you can reach the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands. Now, Wagga might have the ninth best beach in Australia but Whitsunday Island, the biggest one out of the 74 islands, is home to number one: Whitehaven Beach and it is easy to understand why. Fine, white sand so light in colour that it never gets hot enough to burn you, crystal-clear waters and those pretty spirals and dunes of sand that change with the tides. Danni and I had the best time running around spotting stingrays and small sharks in the shallows. We also got to go snorkelling twice that day, first among streams of fish and then above beautiful and delicate coral in a tiny, tiny part of The Great Barrier Reef.

Whitehaven Beach

In line with tradition

Danni is a little better at it than I am

Getting ready...

Yep, that's me

Making our way down the coast, we also went a little inland stopping in the slightly-bigger-than-Wagga-town of Rockhampton. Here, we spent a night at an old hotel which hallway had some serious though innocent The Shining-vibes. Then we had half a night in Gladstone just to split up our trip in more manageable pieces before finally reaching Rainbow Beach where we were to celebrate Christmas. On little Christmas Eve (the 23rd), we ran around Carlo Sand Blow just as the sun was setting (one of my favourite moments of the entire trip) though our main reason for coming to Rainbow was Fraser Island: The world largest sand island stretching more than 120 kilometers with its own official highway along the eastern shore that changes with the tides. We spent the 24th swimming in lakes and creeks, looking up into rainforest canopy and walking along the infinite shoreline though no running unless you want the dingos to come after you.

Sunset in Rockhampton

Carlo Sand Blow

Lake Mckenzie on Fraser Island

Cruising down the highway

In Australia, they celebrate Christmas on the 25th (heathens) but Danes have some pretty serious Christmas traditions that we cannot forsake no matter how far away from home we are. So as soon as the kitchen opened up at our hostel, you could find Danni and I caramelizing potatoes. After Christmas dinner, we went to the beach and put our presents under/next to our tiny, 1-dollar-in-a-thrift-store plastic tree in the sand. Music from Danish Christmas series like Pyrus and Jesus & Josefine was playing as we opened the presents and read our homemade cards. Then rain started pouring down putting our Christmas Eve to an abrupt end. None the less, we managed to have a pretty magical Christmas on the other side of the planet and of course, we skyped with our families early the next morning who, in my case, hadn't even made it to the risalamande.

Celebrating Christmas on the beach

Scheduling a time to chat was a bit difficult since Peter is in Canada but we made it work

We made a short stay in Brisbane from where we had to make the rest of the way to Sydney by plane as all the busses were fully booked (damn you, Christmas holiday). Our final stop was the hidden gem that is Port Macquarie. A charming coastal town, this place is home to some rugged and powerful beaches that turned us into children as we were splashing around in the great waves. We stayed with Nicole's mom Anne and her partner Daryl and as a way of thanking them for hosting us, we cooked them dinner one night. They were rather quiet about the caramelized potatoes but loved frikadeller (Danish pork meatballs). In Port Macquarie, we also saw koalas rescued from the bushfires and a small pod of dolphins which made me give out a little squeal as they jumped about in the water. On my final night in Australia, I walked down to the beach and sat beneath the stars. The silver band that make up The Milky Way became brighter and brighter as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I do not want to get too cheesy in my reflections about my time in Australia (which is quite difficult after the scene I just described) so I am simply going to end with some thoughtful and eloquent words from Danni: It was a fun time. Bye! Next stop: New Zealand. 

Sunset in Brisbane

Walking along the shoreline of Port Macquarie