THE HONEYMOONERS

As we leave this afternoon for New Zealand to begin 3 weeks caravaning (winnebago-ing) around the North & South Island, we are excited, but saddened to leave Australia, although we'll be back for 3 nights in mid-October.

We finished up strong traveling mostly by bus, a lot of bus, up the East Coast of Australia. After Hunter Valley, we were driven to Newcastle where we had a few hours of a layover until another bus took us to Port Macquarie, where we arrived late and spent the 'short' night, as we were up early to get on another bus that was to take us to Byron Bay. In Newcastle though, after checking out Kevin Spacey's "Beyond the Sea" flick where he brilliantly portrays Bobby Darin (neither of us knew who Bobby Darin was before the movie), we had our first semi-scary experience as a drunk man nearly accosted us by throwing his beer bottle at me for no apparent reason. When he went to pick it up stumbling, he says "What are you gonna do about it?" I said 'nothing' and we walked away. Amanda was scared, but I reassured her I would of crushed that guy as I'm a yellow belt in karate, but more importantly, he was completely hammered. We soon learned at dinner that this is not uncommon as Newcatle has a problem with there drunks. This put Amanda at ease, a little.

The bus from Newcastle to Port Macquarie was long and tiresome as we didn't arrive until after 1am and were picked up by a guy that looked like a scary Greg Popovitch. But "The Port," as it is known, is a nice sleepy town with a beautiful spot along the Pacific Ocean. We weren't there long, but it was nice nonetheless.

The fun began was we arrived in Byron Bay, whose Cape Byron represents the eastern most point of Australia. Turned off at first by some anti-American sentiments we overhearded, we settled in and had 3 great nights there, staying at the famous Art Factory Hostel. This place is the most unique accomodation we've ever been to as it is a hostel with regular dorms, but also tents, an old bus that sleeps a bunch of people, a movie theater, a restaurant, an enterntainment venue and a day spa. We stayed in the room dubbed "The Love Shack," which probably didn't look like you're imagining, but we had our room and bathroom - a luxury. Also at "The Arts," there are free classes like Yoga, Poi, etc. We went on a 45min bush tucker walk where this crazy (CRAZY) guy, cockadoo Paul, called that b/c he walks around with a cockadoo on his shoulder showed us all these things you can do with different trees - make string, get water, get gum, get soap, etc.

In Byron, I took my first surf lesson (of course I got up) while Amanda hung out at the beach and watched and filmed. It was fun and something I had to do while I was out here, but as of now, I think catching a wave on a boogie board is just as exhilirating. Another day we took the infamous Jim's Tours that took us to Nimbin, a hippy town about an hour west of Byron, where all 'hippy' things are basically overlooked and where there is the annual Mardi Grass and Aquarias Music Festival each year. The tour was fanstastic as there was about 25 of us on a Merry Prankster's bus, and the narrating guide had music choreographed for the whole trip. For example, as we drove thru the beautiful Australian landscape, we stopped briefly at a very small, conservative city, and as we went thru an intersection, he said something about the town being dull and then the song came on "Give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn right back around...."

As we were checking out of "The Arts," I learned from my new buddy Rod, the cleaning guy, that The Arts is where Ricky Williams stayed when he did his "running," as Rod called it, meaing when Ricky failed his 4th drug test a few years back and was reported to be living in Australia in a tent, it was at The Arts! He told me some great stories about Ricky - about no one knowing who he was for a few days, about him looking confused at the laundry machine and Rod asking if he needed help and Ricky saying "Thanks, I usually have a maid do this for me", about playing poker with Ricky and Ricky bending the aces (in fun), and about how Ricky put a homeless guy that he befriended up for 3 nights in the nicest room in the Day Spa at The Arts and the morning after the first night the homeless guy was walking around the facility when an employee interrogated him and he simply said "I'm checked in Mate."

After Byron, it was back on the bus for another 8-9 hours up to Hervey Bay stopping briefly in Brisbane to have a look. Hervey Bay is the main portal to Fraser Island, where we did a 2day/ 1 night tour, but not before we spent a day Whale Watching in Hervey, which is the Whale Watching Capital of Australia. Each year during this time, these mammoth humpback whales come North from Antartica, where they spend most of their time, up to the northern coast of Australia to mate, have their baby calfes, and ready the babies for the cold trip back to Antartica. We were so lucky to have been there during this time as a short boat ride gets you a first row seat to some unbelievable sights - whales breaching (jumping up outta the water), their calves trying to mimmick thier moms with a half-breach, the whales blowing huge amounts of air and water outta their blow holes, slapping their arms and tails (huge tails) hard against the water. It was all very VERY neat to witness.

The next day we boarded the ferry to go to neighboring Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. Once you get on the island, you can only get around via a big ass 4-wheel drive vehicle. Ours carried about 30 people. It was a lot of bumping and up and down, but the island offers some of the most beautiful natural lakes and sights including Lake Macquarie, where we exfoliated with the sand and hung out for about 2 hours. The tour was a lot of stop and go, see sights and get back on the bus, and it was expensive, but we couldn't come to Australia and not go to Fraser Island. It is such a special place.

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