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| Opera house as viewed from ferry |
After enjoying some quality time with the family, I decided to enjoy some quality time with some strangers for new years! I got to Sydney on new years eve eve and slept off the jetlag. I celebrated the new year by getting sunburnt in a park with about 100 couch surfers watching the famed fireworks, and making friends. For some reason, cities and me don't work so well. Especially in 40C heat. So, I thought I'd escape to the serenity of Manly beach on new years day. Ha! I've never been to a noisier place. My second attempt at finding somewhere peaceful took me to the blue mountains where I hiked for the day.
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| Backpackers on the beach |
After five days in the city I started on another hitchhiking adventure with my friend Devon from the internet. The plan was to head north together to the Gold Coast so I could catch my flight back to New Zealand. He has tonnes of hitchhiking experience under his belt. We started out of Sydney on the train in the evening aiming to find a place to camp on the edge of the city before sticking are thumbs out in the morning. Well the trains had a bit of a mishap so we spent our first night in a roundabout. A couple of lifts took us to South-West Rocks where we ate copious fruit, swam and camped on the beach. There were heaps of
We took it slow the next morning and made it to Coff's Harbour where we were offered a trampoline to sleep on by Paul. Unsure whether to simply take up the offer or to keep going, we sat at a highway on ramp and played our harmonicas. Three different people pulled over to us half-hearted hitchhikers - the first two weren't going very far, but Kimberly offered to take us to her house in Woolgoolga to stay. Of course we said yes.
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| Stacey's house |
Well-fed and well rested, we set off again in the morning. I had three days left to get to Gold Coast and only about 200 km left... as such we ventured off into the woods and found a self-sustaining hippy community close to Grafton. We ended up staying on Stacey's land, and chilling out with her and her kids. She sent her on our way the following morning with fruit from her garden and feathers in our hair. After going inland to Nimbin with a funny Quebecoise called Alex, we were pushing it a little bit for getting to the airport by the following morning. Devon eventually left me so that I'd have a better chance of getting a ride. I arrived well after dark and camped outside the airport, ready to start the next chapter in my adventure.
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| Friends made on the way: Couchsurfers, Kimberley (+Devon), Stacey and the fam (+Devon) |
