Travel Blog – mermaidsdontsweat

So Australia is a pretty rad place, my family flew over for a wedding in Melbourne then my sister and I decided to take on the Australian traffic and campervan up to Gold Coast. I have listed below some of the places and things we experienced and a few tips we’d like to offer.

Picking a campervan?

Weigh up your insurance options and don’t just go with the cheapest one, they’re cheap for a reason and you can incur high excess fees if there is any damage done.

We went with Jucy as they could offer an insurance deal for my sister who at the time was 20, and picked our converted soccer mum car up from the Brisbane warehouse.

Where to stay?

So apparently it is illegal to pull up on the side of the road and ‘camp’ in your vehicle.. so that put a bit of a bummer on our experience.

Good news is there are hundreds of campsites all over Australia and a good way to pick one that suits you is to use the Wikicamps app (you can filter every option possible and it includes the campsite phone numbers and reviews too).

Some hostels can even offer their car parks for a small fee.

Where to go?

We only had our car for 14 days (we had done the east coast before when we were a lot younger so this time round was all about places we wanted to revisit or things we had heard we’re good to go to.

Gold Coast (Mermaid beach, Nobby) –

Stay at Nobby beach resort, have dinner at one of the many cheap outdoor restaurants and definitely visit the Nobbys Putt Putt mini golf course for a morning or late night game. Mermaid beach is also a great spot for kitesurfing and sunbathing on white white sand.

Byron Bay (the land of hipster hippies and surfing souls) –

Stay at the Glen Villa Resort which is a 5 minute walk from the centre of town. A great atmosphere with some good hangout spots to meet new people and a small pool.

Visit the many tiny hippie shops, sourdough cafes and street side jewellery stalls for some good vibe feelings.

Hire a bike and cycle along the raised walkway overlooking the beautiful beach. Stop at every beach you can, the further you ride the nicer the beaches. Tip: if you get a chance visit the amazing Tea Tree lakes – we tried, but unfortunately due to the extremely dry weather the month before these were pretty much just tiny ponds.

Take a drive to the Byron lighthouse and watch the beginning of the sunset over the crystal clear waters (you may even spot a stingray or shark), then park down on the other side of the bay at Tallow beach to take a stroll along the usually deserted beach with views along the coast for miles.

Waterfalls –

Minyon Falls – 45 min drive to the viewing platform then hike the 9km very hilly round trip through forests and over giant boulders to the base of this lovely waterfall.
Protester Falls – another 1 hour drive to the nightcap national park, but an easy 15 minute round trip walk to the pools of this peaceful waterfall. On your way home keep an eye out for the quieter more secluded waterfalls about 10 mins drive down the track on the right hand side (be adventurous they’re not an easy find)

Noosa
We stayed a bit further out of town at the lovely little Noosa Campsite, mainly because they had a pizza oven (nothing can stop a girl getting her pizza).

Visit the national park, go early morning and get parked inside of the gates for free. Take lots of water, snacks, good trainers, swimwear and a towel and spend your day on the coastal trek stopping off at some of the many secluded beaches / fairy pools just off the pathway.

Fraser Island
Which company to go with? After some research we decided to go with a guided tour (we’d had enough of driving by this point and have done sand dune driving before).

We booked a 3 day/ 2 night guided tour from Hervey Bay with Cool Dingos and after a misunderstanding about our booking we were given an extra night/day free and a private room! Lodge accommodation, buffet breakfast/dinner, packed lunch, drink deal at the bar, and constant nightly entertainment from the staff.

You are driven around on a 4×4 truck/bus thing by crazy guides who have an incredible love and admiration for the island (ask for John or Davey) and then you hike and do activities and basically have a really good time.

Swimming and volleyball at Lake Mckenzie, subway style buffet, hike through the tall rainforests to central station, then to a sacred clear aboriginal stream, another walk through palm rainforests and some cookies & tea to end.
Drove along 75 mile beach, saw a White bellied sea eagle fight a wedge tail kite eagle (Davey our guide was amazed), pinnacles coloured sand, SS Maheno shipwreck, plane trip $80 over Fraser Island saw butterfly lake, climbed Indian head, swam in the Champagne Pools, had some snacks and floated down Eli Creek.
Lake Wimby (walked 1km from lookout to lake then 2.3km over sand dunes to the beach, buffet lunch, paddle boarding at Lake Birrabean.

Brisbane (the river city)

Our campervan drop off point. I never made it to Brisbane on our trip when I was younger but boy did I miss out. With no expectations we decided to have a few chill days here before flying down to Sydney.

Stay at Summer House backpackers on Upper Roma Street, very cheap and friendly with a Peter Pans travel agency in the hostel lobby.

Take bus (no. 445/ 430 $5.70 from Adelaide Street stop 41) to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, take pictures holding baby koalas, hand feed kangaroos and wallabies and look at Australians indigenous animals.

Visit the Botanical Gardens and the famous man made Street Beach on the river bank. There are loads of bars, pubs and night clubs with good deals, event nights and full of backpackers to make friends with.

Tip: If you can squeeze in a sky dive do it! Go with Redcliffe Skydive for good deals and the best instructors (ask for Cookie)

That concludes my places to visit with a campervan on the Gold Coast of Australia on a tight schedule.

For more info on what else to do in Australia take a look at my Melbourne and Sydney blogposts. More photos can be found on my instagram account @mermaidsdontsweat.

Oh what a crazy city it is! We flew via here for a mini city break (one and a half days / two nights) as a stop over to Australia and managed to jam pack quite a bit in.

Included in the massive piece of writing below are Taxi prices, The Eaton Hotel, Temple Street Night Market, Lantau Island, Tain Tan Giant Buddha, The Lin Monestary, Ferries, Peak Tram, Elevated walkways, Metro and the Sky100 viewing tower.

Feb 7th Hong Kong DAY 1 – We arrived at Hong Kong airport late afternoon and after pushing through immigration and passport control we made it out to the taxi rank pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the air and the helpfulness of the airport staff.

We had many options on how to get from the airport to our hotel but with minimum time and a lot to do we opted for a taxi (bearing in mind there were 4 of us and 4 pieces of luggage). The taxis in Hong Kong are brilliant, the rest of the world should watch and take note. Everything is metered and they stick to certain zones so as not to overcharge. Our red taxi took us to our home away from home, the Eaton Hotel in Kowloon on the mainland. We crossed over first of all into Lantau island then across the worlds longest suspension bridge to the main land, the views were astonishing and as it had taken us a while to get out of the airport we saw this view at night with the crazy bright lights for all to see. Our ride cost us HK$255 which is about £27.. bargain if you ask me.

The Eaton Hotel (Nathan Street, Kowloon) is definitely the poshest hotel I’ve stayed in, with a rooftop gym and pool, a fancy cocktail bar and huge buffet breakfast hall. We stayed on the 15th floor in room 15/19. The best thing about this hotel is the views in the glass outside lift, you can see for miles. We also bagged free wifi which worked really well, no lost connection although sometimes a bit slow. This crazy hotel also trusts you enough to lend you a phone tablet with tourism information, maps, guides and restaurant advice and the best hotspot wifi to take around with you. This meant we had no issues with pre-arranging our trips and last minute deciding as we could all connect to the hotspot and use our internet without any qualms.. even on the subway.
First night – after showering and unpacking ever so slightly we grabbed our coats and wandered down to the night markets on Temple Street. Markets are the same everywhere, tacky and full of annoying people. Yeah it was interesting but to me it’s just a waste of time.

We then wondered around the streets searching for a place that would serve something western (don’t judge us we were hungry , tired and couldn’t deal with weird menus and our empty stomachs any longer t was 10.30pm and we had a full day ahead planned). We found a little restaurant called Seasons that served stone baked pizzas and kebabs and that was us sorted. The pizzas were quite expensive HK$112 for a margherita but the service was quick and the food was lovely 4/5 overall.

We then wandered back to our hotel, the streets lightened up with neon signs. Our hotel had a fabulous cocktail bar called T-bar and they served a wonderful array of cocktails. I opted for a Vodka And Everything – vodka, cranberry juice, pineapple juice and lavender syrup – oh it was better than it sounds so refreshing and light.

Then it was bed time and an alarm set for 7am.

Feb 8th Hong Kong DAY 2 – okay I was a little jet lagged and had been awake from 5.30am so after laying in bed for ages my sister and I made our way downstairs to the the buffet breakfast at 7am, I had my usual of 2 slices of white toast and a bowl of coco-pops. My sister on the other hand had a full on English breakfast and she gave it a 4/5.

We then wanted to sample our hotels rooftop pool, silly idea at 8 in the morning.. even though the pool was heated it can’t have been heated for long and after a quick dip we gave up and went back to the room for a quick shower and to get ready for the day ahead.

First stop Lantau Island to see the Tian Tan giant Buddha and Lin Monastery. Again we had a few options of getting there but opted for a taxi as this was quickest. Our red taxi from our hotel to Tung Chung cost us HK$250 then a quick change to our second taxi, this time a blue one to the Lin Monestary wish cost around HK$160. We did want to take the cable car from Tung Chung up to our destination, unfortunately this was closed for repairs at our time of travel so a taxi was our only option. We arrived right outside of the main entrance and made our way up to the giant Buddha. An amazing site, very peaceful but also quite overwhelming as this is a big religious gathering for many Chinese buddhists. Then we wandered over to the Lin Monastery to take a peak at the hall of ten thousand buddhas. I was hoping to capture some photos of this but as with most religious gathering places this was not allowed. Another thing we saw was a lot of incense burning, I’m assuming this is a tradition and the smell is very overwhelming ! I definitely recommend taking the trip out to Lantau Island to experience this place.

After hailing down a blue taxi back at the entrance, we travelled to Mui Wo HK$150 to jump on a fast ferry HK$30ish to Hong Kong island (otherwise known as Central ferry station). Travelling by ferry is a good way to see both sides of Hong Kong, the business central is an amazing, chaotic and pristine area. Next on our itinerary was the Peak tram, to get to this station we had to meander through the city district via elevated walkways high above the road.. why this isn’t a thing in every city astonishes me, saves you time trying to cross busy roads and also means that when it rains you can avoid the wetness. This central district is very wealthy, we saw a lot of western people in suits and ties and even had a quick trip into the gigantic HSBC bank to get some more cash out as literally no where takes card (bet you didn’t know that HSBC stands for The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation?).

We arrived at the tram entrance just after 2pm and the queue took less than 10 minutes. A return ticket was HK$42 and this tram ride is 100% worth it. You go up the steepest of hills past some crazy wealthy houses to a peak on a mountain that overlooks the whole of Hong Kong central district and on a good day the whole of the mainland. Unfortunately we had a very overcast day so our view was a bit of a drag but oh well ateast we can say we did it.

Next stop was back to our hotel and the cheapest /quickest option was via the metro subway. A one way ticket cost us HK$10.50 each and experiencing the Hong Kong underground is a must, even just before rush hour!! Super busy, but we had no trouble finding our way around everything was clearly marked and very simple.

After some food at our hotel, a quick nap and refresh we then made our way via red taxi to the Sky100 viewing tower HK$32 (this was recommended to us by our first taxi driver and after doing some research we decided this was a must. Tickets for the sky100 were HK$168 each. Unfortnately it was still quite foggy so our views weren’t the best, however we still thoroughly enjoyed the view, I’m glad we were able to see the city from above at night, it’s a completely different perspective. After an hour or so up the viewing tower we wandered through the shopping mall connected to the lower floors then jumped into a red taxi on the north side back to the hotel HK$28.

Hong Kong has pleasantly surprised me, it’s a mix of London and Greece.. some people are crazy busy rushing to and fro and the others are just crazy. I’ve learnt that taxis here are great, everything has an English translation (thank god) and as long as your not in a rush you can enjoy the overwhelmingness of this huge sky scraper filled city. I would like to visit again, maybe live and work in the central district for a few months to enhance the experience.

And after a long two days of city siteseeing we are re-packing our backpacks ready for Australian immigration tomorrow, keep an eye out for us on ‘Nothing to Declare’.