Treated myself to an airbnb in Brisbane, turned out to be with and interesting host, Dave, a 3d digital animator and AI dabbler, with plenty of cool stories about Burning Man and humblebrags about talking to Jennifer Aniston for two hours in an LA bar without realising who she was.
I had a few activities lined up for my time here though, starting with AFL at the famous Gabba, which apparently the city wants to knock down to build something bigger, because Brisbane is hosting the Olympics??
So many missed kicks. 18 one pointers. That seems like a lot.
And I thought there was a lot of wasted possession kicking long, close to the posts. When all you need is a catch anywhere within 50m and it's a free shot at goal. Although since they missed 18 I guess that isn't foolproof.
Woman sat to the right commenting "well done Robbo!" "Well done Danny!" "Well done xxxx!" "Oh jeez!" I bet she has the squad calendar on the wall at home
Meanwhile little girl sat behind kicking my seat and poking me with a flag

After a couple of beers in a pinball arcade bar, next up was a gig, the band Diiv who I have seen before, and they didn't disappoint

Next day I ticked off a few cultural sights, the quite interesting City hall museum, and the museum of Mapping
Brisbane is a a decent sized city considering it's relatively recent founding, being settled by land grabbing ranchers after the decline of the initial convict colony on coast
I couldn't leave without a visit to Steve Irwin's famous Australia Zoo, to watch Irwin Jnr taunt large crocodiles and see a few new native creatures, including a lonely Tasmanian devil.

Due to a recent election pledge, all public transport in Queensland is 50 cents per ride, including for hour long train journeys, but some kids were still getting kicked off train for not paying

Next day I went to pick up my next rental for the next leg of roadtrip up to Cairns...

This stretch of coast has been severely disrupted by record flooding, so I can't rush even if I can wanted to. Decided to take public transport rather than drive, because a) need a break from driving
B) public transport is dirt cheap
And c) not much I want to stop and see

Bus, ferry to Manly, another hostel stay. This hostel turns out to be mainly long term stay working holiday visa kids partying late and working as delivery drivers etc
More miles of beach, Sydney residents flocking over on the ferry for the weekend.
I'm stopping here to do my refresher scuba dive before getting to more interesting places.
Was extremely unremarkable with terrible visibility, but necessary practice

Bus up to Palm beach, aka the famous Summer Bay from aussie daytime soap Home and Away.
A security guy with a walkie talkie (who vehemently believed Tusk is systematically destroying Poland!?) blocked my path - filming was in progress, but sadly I don't think I managed to get in the background shot

On the next, smaller ferry with a party of golfers, a retirement named Barry offered me a time saving lift to Woy Woy station.
Apparently he once got stuck on Stewart Island for 4 days due to weather. Spent most of it in the pub, but was encouraged by locals to go up to rugby field to loo for kiwis in pouring rain, then they all laughed
At Woy Woy I jumped on a proper train up to the former coal mining industrial port of Newcastle

Unlike Newcastle UK, here there was a 3 day surfing event in progress, qualifying for the World Surf League. There was also a good museum, a town wildlife reserve full of koala and wombats, and an intense lady in the hostel who kept telling me they she could see ghosts. And it rained a lot.
Spend a frustrating hour on text chat with my bank insisting that they send me a new card.

Next step, train to Port Macquarie.
Bought my ticket at the last moment, practically as the train pulled into the station, and jumped on to find someone in my seat. Caused a scene, he made space even though adamant he'd booked it.
Ten minutes later I triple checked my ticket - id booked it for tomorrow..... Mortification!
Spent the rest of the jounrey avoiding eye contact with the conductor - unfortunately this section was through the aftermath and hastily repaired bridges of the flood destruction around the Manning river, so the train limped along with interminable slowness.
Got their eventually though and I was able to go online and get a refund for my ticket mwahahhaa

Port Maq is a pretty enough sleepy touristy boaty kind of town, with the rocks of the sea wall each painted by a local family. Dolphins and pelicans abound, beautiful sunsets.
Sunsets seem to generally have a lovely red glow around the horizon, presumably all the dust in the outback?

Train to Coffs Harbour is known as "The XPT" but it's actually an old British rail intercity 125
Initially through pastures, then surrounded by forest of eucalyptus, occasionally broken by a glassy reflective body of water
Stops at tiny stations where only one carriage fits on the platform
The frantic phone calling of a woman who has realised she missed her stop half an hour ago

Coffs Harbour is my next dive stop
Pub live band classic rock, then disco till midnight... Sound travels easily to my bedroom
Up at 6:30 to dive solitary islands. Very rough boat ride.
Wobbegong sharks
Kings birthday bank holiday
Deliberating haircut

And yet another train and bus connection (the buses wait for the trains) to reach Byron bay
A whole lot of stairs brings you to a lighthouse at the eastern tip of Australia.
This is just happenstance, it doesn't mean anything (on this occasion)
On the beach a woman spins round non stop for a good 5 minutes, and later a pair of humpback whales cruise up and and down just off shore, with 100 camera phones trying to guess where they'll come up next

Trivia night. Scotlands national animal is a unicorn
The world's first Solar powered railway, but running on diesel cos one motor broken...
Driver is retired but used to drive this very train around Newcastle

Diving Julian Rocks
More wobbegongs than you can count... covering every surface. No wonder they're also known as carpet sharks
On the boat back we see more whales, this time in playful mood, slapping their tales and breaching, super cool!

And finally another bus, bus, train to Brisbane, skipping Surfers Paradise, which looked like a horrible Costa of high rises shudder

Australia is famously big, as they love to remind you, although 99% of people live in a tiny strip on the coast.
More interestingly, small towns love erecting "big things" of local interest.
Having already passed by the Big Potatoes/Meatballs, and the Big Moth, I was rather impressed by the Big Merino, which is big enough to contain a gift shop and a small museum of the history of merino sheep in Australia.

Heading for the coast, a tourist sign for a waterfall lured me in, and Fitzroy Falls were worth the stop, an impressive torrent dropping into a lush canyon which stretches off into the distance.
This brought me out on the coast south of Sydney, into surfer territory. I've tried it once and it didn't grab me.
I was heading for Wollongong to see a comedian called Frenchy, and a raucous evening it was.
Unfortunately next day was the drive into Sydney to drop off the car.
Driving into a strange city without proper satnav is stressful. The car has a usb connection but it kept cutting out, and I hadn't thought to buy a phone holder which would have been a simple solution. Anyway, removed kangaroo fur from car and headed into the city.
Turned out to be Light night, the quay area crazy busy, the harbour bridge and Opera house lit up with animations.
I'd snagged a ticket to see a gig at the Opera House, Sigur Ros, from a guy who was trapped by the flooding to the north which had cut off roads and railways. I was pretty excited for this, as seeing them previously is in my list of best gigs ever, however they were playing acoustically with an orchestra and it was all a bit wishy washy. Disappointed.

After that dash from Melbourne, I wanted to chill for a day or two, so got the metro out to the famous Bondi Beach.
Very Windy. Basic. All surfers and sunbathers
Walked around to next few bays, lots of swanky houses perched on cliffs
Memorials to the Bali bombings 2002, 80 victims from this part of the world
And on the news it's all about the anniversary of some stabbing rampage in the Bondi junction shopping mall that I've just been buying dinner at Coles in. Yay life!

The day starts with a frost, surrounded by grey nomads, and my first Kookaburra, sitting stoicly on a branch and completely uninterested in my approach.
I was hugely excited, although this would turn out to be another zebra situation. Same thing with kangaroos, the novelty soon wears off.

Then some classic creek names:
Old hat creek
Dead horse creek
Poor fellow me creek
Before taking some very interesting gravel roads through parrot filled forests and over wooded mountains ranging from Mount Pleasant to Mount Terrible

Perched on the ridges are various tiny hamlets and ruins of other settlements, each with informative notices proclaiming that once, during a mining boom, these places had 17 hotels, schools, and houses of ill repute.

Aberfeldy is one such, now just a few houses [...read the rest]

I had to fly somewhere, and there was that big earthquake in Vanuatu so here I am.

Arriving in Melbourne I had no clear plan beyond spending a few days unwinding in an Airbnb, eating junk food.
The city seemed more high rise and crowded than I remember, but I can't really remember much about last time I was here except looking for edgy graffiti down piss soaked alleys and visiting the set of Neighbours. One thing hasn't changed though, and that's Jamie who popped out for a beer or three.
With that duly accomplished I headed west on the sickeningly cheap train to Ballarat, to check out a gold mine museum, like an Aussie version of Beamish, complete with busloads of school kids dressed up in period costumes panning unsuccessfully for gold.
Next stop a pilgrimage, to the source - the [...read the rest]

Well, it's been a fair hike since the last update. Where was I? Wanaka?! Seems like a long time ago anyway.

After skirting the lake, and the hordes of tourists taking the same photo of a particular tree, it was a 4 day stretch on the Motutapu Track, which had lovely new huts courtesy of popstar Shania Twain, built as part of the deal allowing her to buy the farmland as a foreigner. A couple of big fat possums also seemed to appreciate the huts, while through some nice beech woods a number of curious fantail birds would keep flitting from branch to branch in front of you, or try to trip you up.
The third day contained 5km stretch of walking in a beautiful but freezing cold river, a disappointingly non existent abandoned gold mining town (Macetown), and a touristy still existent ex gol [...read the rest]