On May 13th we decieded to go stop by the Billabong Koala Park hoping to see all the animals on our check list for Australia and pet some koalas. Little did we know we would get to feed wallabies, wallaroos, and kangaroos and also pet dingos. – Aimee
Me petting a super fluffy koala. This was was one of the only ones that was lazy enough to let the zoo keeper pull him off his tree.
We love the koalas…
And the dingos
We even got to pet them.
Excerpt from my journal, May 12th
We celebrated Aimee’s Birthday in today in Crescent Head, Australia. My “baby” turned 13 years old. Over the past week I have not been able to take my eyes off of her. I just stare in awe at her beauty and maturity. She has grown into an amazing young lady. I feel spoiled to have had her all to myself these past months. Her social intelligence far exceeds her years. She sees the world through creative eyes and has brought more color into my world than I could have ever imagined. She makes me laugh with her insight and one-liners. She lightens the serious side of me. She is adventurous and easy going. She is beauty.
Crescent Head is a pretty sleepy town with not much to do. We did our best at making the day special. Aimee woke to a birthday donut.
We had a picnic on the beach.
She got the fluffy mutton that she fell in love with in New Zealand.
We played pin the nose on the koala,
and limbo.
We shared a yummy chocolate birthday cake. This time I had matches to light the candles!
Our eco villa.
Bridge over river mouth to the beach.
The main beach at Crescent Head.
Willie surfing the beach break.
Another beautiful rainbow.
Unfortunately we did not get any surf in Yamba, but we did see our first kangaroos in the wild!
Australians refer to Byron Bay as the “hippie” town. It is a small coastal town with lots of cafes, surf shops, and a handful of oceanfront hotels. The main beach has a variety of surf breaks. Our apartment was located right in front of the Wreck because the remains of an old ship wreck can be seen above water where the waves break. At the south end of the beach is the Pass, where the waves wrap around the point to form multiple right hand breaks all the way to the shore. There is a lovely coastal walkway that is great for running and follows the shoreline south from the Wreck all the way to the lighthouse. Just south of the light house is Lennox head, another beautiful surf break. Willie says it was the best surf he had in all of Australia.
The Wreck surf break. The black thing that looks like a dragon head is the remains of an old ship wreck.
The beach at Wreck’s in from of our apartment.
The light house at Byron Bay.
One day we went to check out the surf at Wategoes and saw this stand up paddle boarding surfing with a pod of dolphins.
Lennox Head.
On May 4th we celebrated Willie’s Birthday in Noosaville, Australia. Surfing, presents, cake, Thai food, and a movie.
Aimee and I decorated the apartment.
We couldn’t light the candles on the birthday cake because our matches were confiscated at the airport in Fiji.
A new t-shirt and visor.
All along the coastal walkway out of Noosaville, there are different surf breaks. We would grab our boards, walk out our front door, cross the street and stroll along the shore until we found the break that looked the best.
Surfing First Break at sunset.
The bush along the walkway.
Checking out Granite’s.
Big spiders!
Big birds!
Big waves!
We stayed at the Ocean Breeze Resort. It was right in town and a 1 minute walk to the beach.
The little town of Noosa.
The main beach in town.
Our cute little apartment.
Harper is the town Koala. You can spot him in different eucalyptus trees around town.
The beginning of the coastal walkway out of Noosa.
We left Fiji and flew into Brisbane, Australia on April 27th. The next day we headed up to Noosa Heads and for the following 3 weeks surfed our way down the coast to Sydney. Prior to our trip we had heard a lot of negative things about Australia. People had told us that it was very expensive, crowded and too developed along the coast line.
We found the small coastal towns to be quite charming and the beached beautiful. There are lovely coastal walkways that extend for miles with amazing views of the ocean. We arrived just as the low season was beginning, so we missed a lot of the crowds and prices for accommodations had dropped. By renting small apartments, we were able to cook at home, saving quite a bit of money.
Everyone in Australia surfs, so there are crowds at most breaks. Luckily, we had the time to seek out uncrowded surf. There were beach breaks and point breaks, lefts and rights, big waves and small waves. It was a great place for the whole family.
We also LOVED seeing the koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies! The kids are still trying to talk us in to buying a wallaby.
