Road Trip: Grand Pacific Drive and the Southern Highlands

It's been a while since I've written. I am back in Los Angeles now. In our last month and half in Australia, we travelled around A LOT. So much so that I didn't have time to write about it as it was happening. Then it was time to pack up and leave, come back, quite a few trips once we got back . . . Yada, yada, yada. But now it's time to go back and catch up. I'm backing up now to the next trip Greg and I took after the Whitsundays.

I have always travelled the American Way – We plan. We plan where we're going, we plan where we're staying, we probably even have a few ideas about where we'll be eating. Plan, plan, plan. Leave as little to chance as possible.

I've been lucky enough to travel a good deal, but I never did the whole backpacking thing. I'd never even really taken a road trip . . . at least not in the 'let's see where the road takes us' sense. Neither had Greg. The Aussies make it look so easy though. There are so many backpackers in Oz, so many hostels and cheap places to stay. There are helpful tourist info sites everywhere. When we were in Airlie, we didn't bother looking for a place to stay for our last night until that same afternoon. We went into a tourist info office and they booked the room with the large balcony and the beautiful view and reasonable price tag for us. They do make it quite easy.

It seemed like the right time to try a new style of traveling. We decided to rent a car roll with the weather. Literally. We were torn between going north to Port Stephens or south towards Jervis Bay. The weather report the morning we left forecasted marginally better weather heading south, so south we went. We loaded everything up in the car and hit the road. Actually, I was the oddest configuration possible. We knew we'd be passing some beaches, so I wanted to bring the surfboard. The only way to make it work was to put the front passenger seat down, with me riding the whole way in the back seat behind Greg. It was weird, but it worked, and so we set off, heading south on the Princes Highway along the Grand Pacific Drive.

Day 1

The weather really did dictate our travels the whole way, and it kept us guessing the entire time. Our first day it was oppressively hot and humid. The air was heavy with the rain that was certainly soon to come. In the car we had the miracle of air conditioning to keep us cool, but as far as stops for activities along the way, beaches were the option.

Coalcliff Beach was our first stop. It was the first beach we hit after making it a couple hours out of the city and winding our way down the hills and mountains around the Royal National Park. It's a tiny little beach, but completely lovely. There is a pool and a small sandy patch, but the most inviting aspect were the gorgeous rocks. They were mostly flat, like a platform leading to the ocean, but water filled the crags and gaps creating large tide pools that simply demanded that we wade in them.

Our next stop was to grab a late lunch around Austinmer Beach. The heat was oppressive that day, so after lunch we hit the water to escape the heat. There were some good sized waves, and I felt like I was actually making some progress on the board. Sadly, this proved to be the only beach day of the trip.

After covering some length of road, it was time to find a place to stop for the night. I had the number for a YHA in Wollongong, and since we didn't want to press our luck with the time, we called them and snagged a room. We wanted to shower and rest a bit before heading out to dinner – ok, really we wanted to watch the finale of Australian Idol. By nine p.m. on a Sunday night, almost everything in the smaller cities and towns is closed down. Wollongong is a sizable city, but most things were closed nonetheless. We ended up grabbing dinner at one of the only Thai places still open nearby, Thai Basil Cafe, and got enough food for dinner and the next morning's breakfast. Turns out green thai curry and rice makes a surprisingly tasty brekky.

Day 2

A cloudy morning in Wollongong

On Monday the rain hit, which made it a good day to cover some distance driving. After Eungella, we knew we could handle some mountains on a rainy day and maybe even still do some hiking during the breaks, so we headed for the Kangaroo Valley . . . or we eventually did after taking a few wrong turns. Generally speaking, it's pretty easy to get from one place to another, but the Aussies could stand to get some better street signs. Also, Google Maps and Australian street signs are not friends. They contradict each other constantly and don't always agree on what the roads are called.

What? It's funny!

The reward for these little headaches is that within a very little time and distance traveled you'll see a huge variety of landscapes. We started the day on the coast, drove over wide expanses of farmlands, and then started climbing the hills into woods and rainforests.

By the time we reached the highlands, we were hungry and found adorable Cafe Pirouette, in the tiny town of Robertson, at which to gain sustenance.

The mountains around the Kangaroo Valley were some of the most beautiful areas we went through. I think we were both a little sad we couldn't see more because of the rain. We made a quick stop at the Fitzroy Falls Reservoir. Seeing the falls was impossible because of the thick fog, but it was beautiful. But in some ways, the heavy mist even added to the scenery by giving it a fairy tale aura.

After we wound our way out of the hills and down into the actual Kangaroo Valley, we hit the Bundeena National Park for a little bit of bushwalking. The name Kangaroo Valley might be a misnomer – we didn't see one kangaroo while we were there. However, we did see some very adorable wombats!

By evening we'd made our way to Huskisson in Jervis Bay. Lonely Planet directed us to a 'good-time pub' called the Husky pub. It claimed there were great views, rowdy on the weekends, but chill during the week --- and very affordable. Neither of us had ever staid at a pub before and we figured it would be an adventure. It was.

Upon our arrival, the bar/inn keeper kindly warned us not to expect much – rooms were clean, but very, very no frills. That was pretty accurate. The inn section was separate from the pub area, and made up of a few rooms and a couple of common areas, including some shared bathrooms. While it have fantastic views of the bay, as LP had indicated, I have to say the weeknight clientele was 'interesting.' Really, there were only a couple of other guys staying the night while we were there. They were the type of guys happy to have a smoke and a drink on the balcony . . . in their underwear. But to give them credit, they were also courteous enough to make sure with Greg that I wouldn't be coming around to the balcony and find them indecent. It was also the type of place that I kept expecting to be haunted. It definitely made for an interesting stay.

Day 3

Jervis Bay is supposed to be a hotspot for dolphin and whale sightings. Very little luck for us in this respect. It was sooo cloudy and rainy that the best we got was an occasional dolphin fin popping in and out of the water on the horizon. Since waiting for the weather to clear was likely to be a fruitless endeavor, we headed out of Huskisson shortly after breakfast.

The weather on the last day of trip did get progressively better and we packed it in with a wide variety of activities into our day. It took us a while to find our first stop, the Shoalhaven Heads, but we found some really cool birds in the process.

We did finally find the Shoalhaven Heads, and we wandered around the lovely sandbars and lagoons – we had company from the flies that hover around the shores the whole while though. They're funny little buggers. They don't bite, but they like to hitch a ride whenever possible. You won't notice them around you, until you shake and suddenly half a dozen fly off of you. Frankly, they're kind of lazy.

Supposedly, the heads are a nesting ground for many birds as well. We didn't see a lot of them, but we certainly heard them. Some of them had calls that sounded like something you'd hear in a video game – a long low whistle, followed by a couple of laser-like pings. I wish I'd been able to record the sound – so crazy.

After all the tramping around the lagoons, it was clearly time to head off to a couple of wineries. It was still before lunch, but well . . . you know. . . we were in the area. There is a small burgeoning wine region between the Kangaroo Valley and the Shoalhaven coastal region. We stopped at two that day, Coolangatta Estate – possibly the biggest winery in the area – and Two Figs Winery – a one man operation. In a lot of ways, I found these tastings more interesting than a lot of what we tried in the Hunter Valley – it wasn't necessarily all great, but there were some nice, new flavors. We took home a couple of bottles from each, but for the life of me, I can't find my notes on what we chose.

Coolangata


Two Figs

It became necessary to get some food after all of that wine. We stopped in the tiny, ridiculously quaint town of Berry. Cute really isn't a sufficient enough descriptor . . . and as you might expect, they have Berry everything. You can find berry festivals during the course of the year and a Very Berry Christmas weekend every December.

We had to settle for just one lunch in this little town, and we chose a place called Hedgehogs for it's pleasant little patio area and it was lovely.

After another couple of hours in the car we arrived in Kiama, which turned out to be our favorite stop on our trip. Our travel guides really didn't do this place justice. By the time we reached this little resort town, the sun was shinning and it had turned into a beautiful day -- which probably went a long way to put it in it's best light for us.

Kiama boasts not one, but two blowholes. They are aptly name the Kiama Blowhole and the Little Blowhole. (I found the Aussies to be very direct in their naming practices. If they didn't keep the Aboriginal name or name a thing after something British, they just call it as it is.) The big blowhole is on every map of the Grand Pacific Drive. We just happened upon the Little Blowhole, which isn't as publicized, but the view is extremely pretty and worth the search to find it.

Big Blowhole certainly produces an impressive water spout. . . and it's surrounded by lots of rocks. . . and we know how much Greg and I like to scamper along rocks.

After Kiama,we booked it most of the way back to Sydney, and only had time for one more stop. We hit the Royal National Park near twilight – there was just enough light to glimpse a waterfall, take a short stroll, and watch the sunset over the Hacking River. It wasn't enough time to enjoy the beautiful park, but it made a beautiful end to our road trip and we promised ourselves we'd go back . . . a decision that in some ways, would come back to haunt us.

Like pictures more than words, then see the slideshow:

View Larger Map

More Surfing and Dancing, with a side of Korean BBQ

Our Whitsundays Beach Holiday may have come to an end, but the travels were just starting. From now on, Sydney is the home base we come back and forth from as we launch off to see different parts of the country. However, before we move on to stories of the next trip, at this point we were back for a few days – enough time to rest for a couple of days and then party for a couple more.

Mark, Elad, Mike, Michelle, and Jonathan

The Friday after we got back, another Diversity Dinner was on the books. This time it was Korean BBQ at Madang Restaurant in the CBD. MMM! Korean BBQ. In addition to all of the tasty meats, this place had some very tasty noodles and pancakes.

Matthias, Laura, and Jein

You would think that after such a huge spread, they would've had to roll us out of there; however, most of the group was still able to move enough to head out dancing. Excellent! My favorite way to work off excess feasting. We went to a place not too far away. I did not get the name, but there are three monkeys above the entrance in 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil' formation. It's hard to miss and spans three stories. The dance floor was on the third floor, and while it was almost intolerably hot, we all danced our butts off. G and I debated the merits of the band. He thought they sounded like an American wedding band, albeit a good one. I argued that their American Wedding playlist is precisely what made it so much fun.

Day might've had a little too much fun.






And we might have taken a little too much advantage of his condition.
No worries. He was fine, and it was all in good fun.

The next day I was forced to face the facts that I no longer a spring chicken – my bum was in pain! Apparently, my body no longer wants to spring back right away from a long night of dancing. Nonetheless, I forced myself out the door the next day and to the beach for an afternoon surfing – or attempting to at least.

Prior to this, the last time I'd made it out was a couple of weeks before when I'd met my friend Carla at the beach. My foam board is pretty light, and a lot less stable than the giant yellow boards we used at Huntington Beach. Still I was really thankful for this when I took a knock to the head. It wasn't too bad. I was dizzy for a couple of moments, and then I was fine, but I get a slightly black eye-- although it was fairly easy to cover with makeup. I still have the remnants of the bump weeks later. Given this, I didn't much fancy going out on my own for the next round, so I waited for the next day G was willing to come with me. I'm happy to report that no further bumps have taken place!

While I was out in the ocean wrestling with my board and flopping around like a wet seal, I somehow manage to meet a friendly girl who was happily riding the waves and having a very good day. I thought she was a spunky French teenager, but I later found out that Isabel is German/Spanish and she is just three years younger than I am. She was very excited because she managed some moves she'd never done before. She ended up on the same bus as G and I, and as we chatted she mentioned that she really had been wanting to go dancing but the friends she was staying with were too busy. Some of the AGSM girls were going out again that night, and I'd been debating whether to go tonight – G had definitely hit his dancing quota for the weekend and my bum was still sore. However, I told her of the plan and said she'd be welcome to come with me if she wanted. And so I had a new date to take G's place.

With Isabel at The Rocks

All my dancing girls -- Jen, Carla, Isabel, me, and Alexandra.

I met up with her later at Circular Quay and we headed off to meet Carla, Alexandra, and Jen at Vivaz again. Of course we all had a great time, and I ended up being sooooo happy I'd rallied to come out when Xenogene from Australia's Beauty and the Geek congaed right by us. Yes, I admit it -- I've been watching Australian reality television and it is just as engrossing here as it is at home and there with the added charm of the Australian accent. Alex and I spotted him at the same time recognition washed over us, we took off to grab him for a picture.

Alex and I chased after Xenogene, and she flagged him down.


Carla and Xenogene

That alone would have made the evening sufficiently satisfying, but just as I got off the bus stop for home, my roomies walked by with the band of guests we had staying with us. Our house was pretty much a hostel on this particular weekend. Kate's boyfriend Ryan flew over at the beginning of November to stay a month and a half. Also, two of their lovely friends, Kim and Bryan, had come to visit for the weekend. Day's brother Mark was in town to top it all off. So if everyone went out together, it was basically a moving party. (I should mention that G was holed up in our room working, and while they knocked and I called, he could not be roused.) I was persuaded – go on, twist my arm – to go down to The Regent with them for a drink. We “sang” along with a few of the songs the had playing, but it really couldn't get better than everyone (and by everyone I mean our group, and a few other Americans) screaming along to Livin' on a Prayer, so after that I left my roommates to continue the party and headed for home.

Kate gave Day a demonstration of her punching technique. Luckily, Kim didn't get in the way.


Me and Kate, with Day's Brother Mark.


Kate, Ryan, and Day are Livin on Prayer - hardcore.

The Whitsundays

All the credit for planning the next couple of legs of our trip really go to Matt and Laura, and it was really by complete luck that we ended up on the same vacation.

It took G and I ages to figure out what trips we wanted to do while in Aussieland – limited funds and time and all that. Even after deciding that we definitely wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, there was the question of which port to leave from. We ultimately decided on the Whitsundays and booked our tickets. It turned out that Laura and Matt had just booked their flights for almost the same dates, along with Sabina and their friend Alvaro. They'd also already booked a sailing trip.

The Whitsundays are made of 74 islands and the big thing to do is sail to and around them. There are also lots of fringe reefs to scuba and snorkel around. For those without their own boat, there are many ships constantly going to and from the harbor on which you can book a spot. There are day trips to the reefs and ferries to and from the island beaches, and there are multi-day trips – but only a few boats leaving from here that go past the fringe reefs and all the way to THE Great Barrier Reef. I was planning on spending a good chunk of time researching our options. It just so happened that Laura, Matt, and Sabina's boat did go to the GBR and it happened to have exactly two spots left. We booked it and I no longer had to do any research.

They also did the all the work on the accommodation search – really, they probably should have charged a travel agent's fee. Once again, no work for us, and when we finally made it to Airlie Beach to meet up with the rest of the crew, our lack of effort paid off in the form of a lovely vacation unit at Airlie Apartments with a pool facing a gorgeous view of the water. Even better, it worked out that the price per person would rival most hostels. It was the perfect place to spend a couple of chill days in the little beach town.

Airlie Beach is the main port of call for getting to the Whitsundays – a tiny vacation town with a constant ebb and flow of tourists flowing in an out. Downtown consists of a strip of road about six blocks long made up of hotels and hostels, restaurants, and tourist centers ready to help you fulfill all of your beach vacation dreams. Over the next couple of days we do what one does in such cases – we have a cookout, hit a Mexican restaurant that serves sangria and margaritas for dinner, we go out for drinks, and lounge in the sun.

The afternoon before our sailing trip was supposed to start, we had to check in at their offices for a briefing. At this point we are presented with a sack that is smaller than paper grocery bag and we're told that we can only bring as much will fit in the bag – this is to prevent bringing on bedbugs and other pests that can attach themselves to people's luggage from getting on the boat. I'm not a good packer; this was a challenge for me.

Once we were onboard our boat, Kiana, I think we were all happy to have limited amounts of stuff with us. Kiana is a lovely little boat and it carries only 14 passengers at a time, however, the cabin space is tight. The six of us in our group shared a tiny little cabin with two sets of bunks, each with a double and a single bed. Only two people can stand in a the aisle between the beds at a time. Matt, Laura, and Alvaro are all pretty tall – they couldn't really stand up completely straight in the cabin. Considering the lack space, you become thankful that there's only a few small bags to fit in with you.

On board, the crew took to calling our group "Team America." Of course, the only possible response is "Fuck Yeah!"
Al is Spanish, but was automatically lumped in with the rest of us. Guilty by association.

In addition to the space constraints, everyone is alloted 2 minutes of shower time per day. You're not allowed to shave for fear of clogging up the drains. You're also not allowed to wash your hair and you can only use limited amounts of products because the chemicals can damage the already dieing reefs. At least the water in the shower is good and hot. There was also an emphatic briefing on toilet usage to avoid toilet clogs on the open seas. I'm pretty sure everyone did their best to make sure there were no problems on this front. This isn't exactly luxury cruising, and it might not be great for finicky travelers or for those looking to be pampered. However, it was a great time and like no travel experience I've had before. You eventually start to realize that you actually don't need all that much stuff while you're on the boat. The sun is really powerful in Queensland, seeing as how it's right under that hole in the ozone, so it's hot and you want to wear as little as possible. Moreover, since I have tendency to get a bit of motion sickness, all I wanted to do when the boat was moving was slather myself in sunscreen and lounge around in a swimsuit.

I may have wanted to lounge about, but on some parts of the boat all we could do was hang on!

The crew was all really friendly and the cook made really delicious food for all of the meals. For one dinner, he made wombat – perhaps the most adorable animal I'll ever eat, but it was quite tender and delicious.

The cook threatened that punishment for the breaking of any rules would be spoonfuls of Vegemite.

On our first day, we stopped off at Whitehaven Beach – hands down the most gorgeous beach I've ever been to. It's remote-- we had to hike across the little island to get to it-- but once we reached the beach it was dune after dune of powdery white sand broken up by glistening tide pools. Apparently, the sand gets it's super fine texture from its high content of silica, and it kind of squeaks as you walk across it. Because of the sand's texture and composition, its makes glass of superior quality. However, since it's a protected area, only the likes of NASA have been allowed to use it.

The water is equally spectacular – crystal clear and turquoise blue. The one downside to traveling to the Whitsundays at this time of year is that it's stinger season. Stingers are tiny, lethally poisonous jellyfish that are barely bigger than your thumb. To protect yourself from these scary little guys you have to wear a stinger suit – basically, a thin wetsuit that covers you from head to toe.

You have to wear it anytime you go in the water, even if it's for a short swim. Still the water is so inviting that it's worth it, and while bathing at Whitehaven, Laura spotted a sting ray swimming by. I caught a glimpse of his tail.

The rest of the trip was dedicated to snorkeling and scuba diving. Laura and Matt are nearly amphibian. Laura is a marine biologist and Matt is an Olympic level swimmer, so they're both incredibly comfortable in the water. They just look like they're meant to be there.

Sabina and Alvaro, are also fairly experienced divers and got in a few dives each.

This was mine and Greg's first time scuba diving, and Greg did just fine.

However, as with all sports and physical activities, I was no natural. I got queasy just from hearing our scuba instructor describe the effects of diving on your body. Damn. I had high hopes that diving might be easier for me than most other sports.

Sexy . . . Like a Turtle!

My graceful plunge into the water.

Starting to get the hang of things.

My first dive went ok. Us novices were taken just off shore from an island to learn to use the equipment in shallow waters. I had a little trouble getting used to things at first, but eventually I think I did fine, especially given that the water was filled with what looked like colonies of tiny jellyfish. Obviously, I thought these were the stingers our suits were supposed to protect us from, which made me a little anxious. I tucked my hands into the sleeves of my wetsuit to make sure every last inch of me was protected. It wasn't until later that Laura told me that were actually siphonophores, which are completely harmless. In addition, reef sharks are common to the area, and while they are quite harmless, I was still getting used to the idea that they weren't anything to be afraid of. In the end, the only shark I saw was from the boat as we were cruising along.

Our second dive was out on the actual Great Barrier Reef. It was pretty cool to get down there and see the coral and fish from close up. We did a swim-thru in between some rocks, which was really cool.

While we didn't see any sea turtles or sharks -- although, a lot of the others did see a sea turtle -- we did see tons of beautiful fish and swam with giant trevally and a huge maori wrasse. The crew has named the rass Albert because he finds the boat every time it goes out there – and he really did hang out by the back of the boat the entire time we were there.

Meet Albert.

Sadly, I didn't dive anymore after that because I had some problems equalizing the pressure during our second dive and I kind of hurt my ear. Not that it was any big loss, G and I just spent the rest of our time in the water snorkeling, which was equally beautiful and far more relaxing. While diving, every time I'd bump into one of the other divers, I kept worrying that I'd run into some coral and was responsible for killing decades of coral growth.

I would love to try diving again, but maybe in an area that's not quite as in a precarious position as the GBR. While snorkeling we could still take in all the beauty of the reefs while just floating along over them as the current carriers you along. I'd even argue that the colors in the coral are brighter from closer to the surface and the fish are all in shades of neon right out of the 1980's. I must say I, found it quite romantic to drift along with G, hand in hand.

The evenings were equally romantic as the sunsets were gorgeous and stars were spectacular so far away from land. More than one shooting star was spotted. Such pretty sights begged for champagne, so Sabina and I indulged ourselves with a bottle on our last evening on the boat.

After some early morning snorkels, the majority of the last day on the boat was spent on the six hour cruise back to the mainland, so there really was not much else to do other than just lounge in the sun. Cramped quarters and all, I was really sad when it was all over.

Back at Airlie, our crew spent one more night at out little vacation apartment and got in one more night of group Holiday. The place to go in town is Beaches Backpackers. This place seems to have the lockdown on the nightlife. First off, it's a huge hostel with a large bar, so all of their guests automatically go there. On top of that, they offer deals to all of the returning boat trips, and rope in a ton more people that way. The majority of the guests on our boat all showed up for one last round of drinks. That said, the scene at Beaches definitely skews towards teens on their gap year and singles of all ages looking to hook up. Not quite our scene, but still fun.

Alvaro spent the three days on the boat looking for his hat. When we got back, he found it laying in the middle of the road. He has since washed it and reports that it looks like it came from Abercrombie and Fitch.

Our friends all left on Monday, which gave G and I one more beach vacation day to ourselves.
We switched to smaller room at the Waterview down the road. We had a large balcony with a spectacular view of the ocean, so we had to take advantage and had a beautiful breakfast outside on our last morning.

We spent our last days lounging and swimming in Airlie's Lagoon. It's their way around stinger season --you can swim in the lagoon even when the beaches are off limits. It's basically a large saltwater pool with beach areas, next to the ocean, but it's lovely. No complaints here.

For our final lunch in Airlie, G and I happened into a little sushi joint that totally redeemed Australian sushi after our last unfortunate canned tuna sushi experience. The rolls were cut into large pieces stuffed with beautiful fresh fish. The proprietress of the place was a motherly broad who peppered her speech with “Honey” and Darlings.” We were in a bit of a time crunch, and she really hustled – although somehow without ever seeming like it – to make sure we got the entire sushi meal special we'd ordered. “This is Northern Queensland, Sweethearts, there is always a way,” she told us as she packed our dessert to go.

And with that our beach holiday came to a close. *sigh*

To see the rest of our boat adventure, check out these pics taken from the souvenir cd we bought -- which is where most of the pics used here came from, seeing as how I don't have an underwater camera: