loveliness.

Live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry.
loveliness.
  • Home
  • about
  • travel
    • Australia
    • Cambodia
    • Canada
    • Indonesia
    • Singapore
    • Mexico
    • Philippines
    • Thailand
    • USA
      • Arizona
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
      • Hawaii
      • Montana
      • New York
      • Oregon
      • Washington
  • loveliness
  • books
  • favourites
  • Category: Australia

    • tips for traveling australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 18, 2014

      tips for traveling australia

      We spent over two months traveling the east coast of Australia, basically living in our car, and trying to do things as cheaply as possible. Here are some of the tips I picked up along the way. You can also see my tips for traveling Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

      Airport Tax

      A little tip from me to you. Don’t rent a car from the Sydney Airport. We had one booked at Hertz a few miles away from the airport, but stopped in at the airport desk just to see how much it would be to get one there. The guy told us that because the Sydney Airport is on private property (I think he said it was owned by a bank?) there are additional taxes (he told us it was 26%) so it costs a lot more to rent from there. We took a 5 minute cab ride and saved ourselves over $100 AUD.

      Do your Research

      This may sound pretty obvious, but I’m not just talking about planning your route, and the things you want to see. When we were in Cairns, we found out about Divemaster Internships, where dive boats will pay you to work for them while you earn your Divemaster Certification, which is usually hundreds of dollars. These internships are offered all different places around Australia, but they only start certain times of the year, and they are usually at least 3 months long.

      If we’d known about it before we’d arrived, this would absolutely have been something we would have wanted to do. But since we didn’t, and we missed the entry on many of the internships, we weren’t able to do it. Think about the things you really love to do, and are hoping to do while in Australia, especially if you are there for a full year. Are you a great surfer? Kayaker? English teacher? These opportunities exist, and are a great way to make some extra money while traveling, but finding the right opportunity can be time consuming, so it’s best to start making inquiries before you get there, so you can plan your travels accordingly.

      RSA certificate

      If you want to work at a bar or restaurant in Australia, you must have an RSA (responsible service of alcohol) certificate. They are different for each state, so an RSA earned in Queensland can not be used to get a job in NSW. Queensland RSA’s can be gotten online for a minimal fee, but while we were there NSW had suspended its online RSA program because they were making changes. It had gone offline in January, and still wasn’t available when we were in Byron in September.

      Car Registration

      It was weirdly easy to register our car. We’d only been in Australia about a week, when we went to the RMS (the Australian equivalent of the DMV). I’d certainly noticed cultural differences, but the difference in experiences between registering a car in the U.S. (in Canada I’ve only ever dealt with vehicles at the tiny office in my tiny town where everybody knows everybody, so it’s not really a trying experience) and registering a car in Oz really reinforced the point that we were not in Kansas anymore.

      In the U.S., I get immediately stressed whenever I have to go to the DMV. It’s long waiting, usually I don’t have what I need, or there is some strange procedure that I’m convinced is only there to make life miserable. In Australia, the guy was super helpful, when we asked if we needed Australian licenses he said “If you can drive in California, I’m sure you can drive here”. And he let us register the car without an address, we just had to use the receipt from our hotel stay a few days earlier.

      You must have an address to register your car, the guy even told us that a lot of travelers end up renting a room just to get the receipt with an address on it, even if they aren’t staying in town so hold on to your hotel receipts if you’re going to be registering your car and you’ll save yourself some money. The whole thing took about 10 minutes, and was completely stress free. Except for the guy spent the entire 10 minutes cheerfully telling us stories of all of the things that were waiting to kill/eat us in Northern Australia, so there was that.

      Gumtree

      Gumtree is the best thing ever if you are traveling through Australia. It’s basically like Craigslist, but you can find anything you need on there, from places to rent, jobs, cars for sale, or even rides/ people to travel with.

      Buy a Car

      Buying a car was probably the smartest thing we did when we arrived. We rented a car for only two days while we were finding one to buy, and it was really expensive, definitely not something we could afford long term. The key is to look for a good car, preferably one that hasn’t been used by backpackers or travelers before. It’s often very hard to tell what kind of condition these vehicles are in, and mostly travelers just want to sell the car and get out of the country.

      The upside is, you can usually get these kinds of cars pretty cheap, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories of people spending all of their travel money fixing their car over and over. If you are looking to buy a car like this, we were told King’s Cross in Sydney is the place to go. People bring their cars there and sell them, so you’ll have lots of selection. We ended up buying a car (an Outback, good condition, with room to sleep in the back) off Gumtree from a guy who had it as a second car. He was only the second owner, and knew the first owner, so we had a complete history. We never had a minutes problem with our car, and we drove it all over the place, and we were able to sell it for the same price that we bought it for before we left, so we essentially traveled all over Australia for nothing but the price of gas.

      One thing to look out for is a roadworthy certificate. They don’t have them in every state (they don’t have them in NSW) but in some states they do, so be sure to look into it in the state where you are buying your car before you buy it, since you can’t register a car without a roadworthy certificate, if one is needed. Also, look for a car that has as much time left on the registration as possible, to save yourself the cost of re-registering it.

      Exit Melbourne

      This is a piece of advice directly from a born and bred Australian who has lived there all his life. We stayed with him in Byron, working on his acreage, where he gets hundreds of backpackers/traveller’s every year. Most people fly into Sydney, do their traveling, and then leave from Cairns, and try to sell their car or other camping/traveling gear before they leave.

      Since everyone is leaving from Cairns, selling your car, and getting any money for it at all is hard. We were sitting in a hostel in Cairns one day when a Swedish couple walked in and handed the keys to the owner, because they had to leave that night and nobody had wanted to buy their car. They even offered it for free, no takers. If you can plan your travels so you leave out of Sydney or Melbourne, you have a lot better chance of actually getting some money back when you sell your car or gear.

      Be a Barista

      I swear if I had known about this, I would have gotten a job at the coffee shop down the street from my house for a few months before we left. Baristas are a hot commodity in Australia. They don’t have coffee like we have coffee, they have coffee like Italians have coffee.

      There is no such thing as “I’ll have a coffee”. If you try to order one, you will get a blank look, and inevitably the question “What kind of coffee?”. Drip coffee is not a thing. You have to order an espresso, a long black, a flat white, a mocha, a macchiato, a cappuccino, etc. Everywhere. Even at Maccas (McDonald’s). Most of the jobs I saw advertised on Gumtree were for experienced Barista’s, and they make anywhere between $20-$25 USD per hour. Jealous.

      Jellies

      In the summer time (November to Januaryish) in the northern part of Queensland there are a lot of jellyfish. Like, you can’t go in the water without a stinger suit lots of jellyfish. Just something to keep in mind if you’re planning on being up north during those months.

      P.S.- I’m really not big on self-promotion, most people I know don’t even know I have a blog, it’s just something I do for fun. But recently I’ve taken the plunge and started an Instagram account for sharing the things I’m writing about, so feel free to follow along here if you’d like.

      Posted in Australia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, tips, tips for traveling, travel
    • most eastern point in australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 13, 2014

      At the very end of the trail past Watego’s Beach, Clarke’s Beach, and the Lighthouse in Byron Bay, is the most Eastern point of the Australian mainland.

      Just a few pictures, because the view is gorgeous, and it seemed like a fitting end to my posts about our amazing time in Australia.

      Also, a few intrepid souls had trekked all the way up there to put love locks on the fence, so that seemed to deserve some recognition.

      Who are these people constantly carrying locks around with them in case the opportunity to declare their unbreakable bond to the world via landmark vandalism presents itself? And why can’t one of them be in love with me?

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, beach, eastern point, love locks, travel
    • wategos beach: australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 11, 2014

      During our weeks in Byron Bay we would walk the 2+ kilometers up the lighthouse path almost every day. We had sold our car by then, and we were eating $5 Domino’s pizzas for supper most nights, so it seemed like kind of a smart move to get as much exercise as possible.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      The views are amazing, there are benches along the viewpoints so you can sit and watch the surfers, and we were there during whale season so we hung out up there for hours trying to spot whales and dolphins.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      The first time we made the trip, I was so enchanted by the view of Watego’s beach that I didn’t see the stair in front of me, and I stubbed my toe so hard that I thought it was broken.

      After several long minutes of fuming and general hatred toward the entire universe, I was able to keep walking, but about 5 steps later I was looking out at the beach again and I almost stepped on a big lizard.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      I can’t remember what they are called, but I was told by the guy at the Billabong Sanctuary that they have one of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom and that one bite could easily take off a good chunk of finger or toe.

      I saw it just in the nick of time, and almost flung myself over the cliff trying to avoid stepping on it. I managed to keep my gaze firmly on my feet after that.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, to Watego’s, I was hot, sweaty, injured and grumpy. But the beach was so beautiful that it didn’t take me long to get over it.

      On our last trip to Watego’s before we left, we happened to have front row seats to a wedding with the cutest flowergirl, and the most epic balloon in the history of the world, so I had to throw in a picture of her just to share the joy.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, beach, byron bay, travel, wategos
    • graffiti

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 10, 2014

      On the way into Byron Bay coming south from the Gold Coast is a huge graffiti mural on the backside of one of the buildings. I saw it the first time we arrived in Byron, and was immediately obsessed with it.

      I kept telling myself I’d get over there to take pictures of it, but I kept putting it off, mostly because the traffic coming back into Byron on that road is kind of a nightmare.

      It wasn’t until we were driving out of Byron for the very last time, on our way to sell our car before jumping on a bus to Brisbane that I finally was able to stop and see it up close.

      It was even more stunning up close, and made me feel sad and talentless. I can’t even draw a straight line (not really sure why people say that, if I could choose something to be able to draw, I would probably aim a little higher than just a straight line), and I am violently jealous of people who are artistic.

      graffiti graffiti graffiti graffiti

      Posted in art, Australia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged art, Australia, byron bay, graffiti
    • clarke’s beach

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 7, 2014

      Clarke’s is the main beach in Byron Bay. It stretches all the way down through the whole cove, and it’s a popular hangout for locals and tourists alike.

      clarke's beach

      clarke's beach

      The beach is very long, and very wide, but pretty flat and even, so it’s basically the perfect running beach. We stayed at the Aquarius Backpackers in Byron for a couple of weeks, and I went for a run on the beach nearly every morning.

      clarke's beach

      clarke's beach

      It’s also a popular beach for surfers and swimmers. Unfortunately, while we were there a man was bit by a great white shark and died from his injuries. It is pretty unusual in Byron, but I was terrified to go into the water after that, even after it had been confirmed that the shark was no longer in the area.

      clarke's beach

      clarke's beach

      At the very end of the beach is a rocky outcropping, and a little lookout platform where you can watch the surfers or checkout what is happening in the next bay over at Watego’s Beach.

      clarke's beach

      clarke's beach

      It was a little bit cloudy the day I brought my camera along to take these pictures, but most of the time we were there it was sunny and gorgeous. We had picnics for at least one of our meals, sprawled out on Clarke’s Beach, nearly every single day we were there.

      clarke's beach

      clarke's beach

      Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, beaches, byron bay, clarke's beach, sharks, surfing, travel
    • paronella park: australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 5, 2014

      On our way back from Cairns to Byron Bay, we stopped in at Paronella Park, about 2 hours south of Cairns. It was beautiful, and the history of it was super interesting.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      Jose Paronella was born in Spain, and trained to be a baker there, but he wanted to make a lot of money, so he left Spain in 1913, and his fiancee behind, and moved to Australia.

      He worked as a baker for awhile, but eventually got bored, and started working in the fields. He saved up all of his money from working in the fields, and used it to by land, which he then rented out to other farmers. He also loaned out the money he made from renting the land to other people in the community, and eventually he became very rich.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      His dream was to built a castle, so eventually that’s what he did. He designed and built it himself, using mostly found materials and concrete. It had a ballroom, a movie theater where people from the town would come to watch news reels every morning, and a lake/waterfall that served as the community swimming pool for many years.

      Jose was very smart. He used the river on the property to build a hydro-electric dam, so Paronella Park had electricity nearly a decade before the surrounding towns.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      In one area of land at Paronella, he wanted to build an underground aquarium, but the metal he used to build it eventually rusted, and the water leaked out. He was left with an empty tunnel which was eventually taken over by bats.

      Instead of being upset about this turn of events, he renamed it “The Tunnel of Love” because girls would get scared and hold on tight to their boyfriends when they ran through it, and charged couples a fee for the experience.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      He also had a wishing well at the entrance to the property, but local kids would come in and steal the coins. So he took an eel from the lake and put it in the fountain, with a sign that said “Beware of Electric Eel” and he never lost anymore money after that.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      The property is quite large, with lots of little projects that were completed, and also ongoing at the time of his death, but it wasn’t until a fire in the more recent years cleared out some of the overgrowth that the current owners realized that almost every single thing on the property was built to line up with and frame the waterfall.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      It was twelve years before he was able to return to Spain to get his fiancee, and when he returned he found out she had waited for him for ten years, and finally married someone else. Jose ended up marrying her younger sister Margarita, who was apparently much more beautiful, and the two spent the rest of Jose’s life fixing up Paronella Park.

      paronella park
      paronella park

      We were only there for about two hours, but we were able to check out everything on the property. It was kind of funny because I was standing on the edge of the lake, and I had this weird feeling that something was watching me, and I got randomly scared for no reason.

      Then when I walked back over to the other side of the park, I saw a sign that said “Beware of Crocodiles”. So that happened.

      paronella park
      paronella park
      paronella park

      If you are in the area, definitely stop in and check out Paronella, the entry fee is kind of expensive, but the owner was there when we got there and he let us in for student price, with a wink, and also with entry you can camp overnight at their campground for free, so if you time it so you can stay there overnight, it’s not a bad deal, especially because the park is supposed to be even more beautiful lit up at night.

      paronella park
      paronella park
      paronella park

      Posted in Australia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged Australia, jose paronella, paronella park, queensland, travel, waterfalls
    • scuba diving: the great barrier reef

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 3, 2014

      When I was trying to decide what I wanted to write about the experience of diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, I was going to start with talking about how it’s been a dream of mine since I was little, since before I even really understood how scuba diving actually worked.

      I probably thought it was some combination of magic/mermaid technology, but the idea to do it was there.

      great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef

      And then I realized how many of my posts from this trip have started with that, and I got to thinking about how lucky I am to have had the experiences I’ve had, not just the ability to travel and see the world, but going to school, moving away from home but still being able to see my family regularly, marrying the person of my choosing.

      diving the great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef

      Just thinking of all of the things that I dreamed of doing when I was a kid, with no reason in the world to think that I couldn’t do exactly what I wanted, if I could find a way to make it happen.

      I’ve always known, but it has been reenforced with my recent travels, that a lot of people never have even a tenth of the opportunities I have had, and that lots of children all over the world grow up without the belief that they will be able to one day make all of their dreams come true.

      Just something I was thinking about.

      diving the great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef

      So anyways, the GBR. We had been in Cairns for almost two weeks looking for jobs by the time we went diving.

      It was quickly becoming apparent that we weren’t going to be getting jobs immediately, we’d been talking to other travelers who had been in Cairns for four months before they were able to find work, and we were toying the the idea of returning to Byron Bay, but the thought of being in Cairns without going diving at the GBR was completely unacceptable to me.

      diving the great barrier reef
      diving the great barrier reef

      So even though it was very expensive (nearly three times more than what it cost to dive for a day in Indonesia) we decided we had to do it. We’d also heard horrible things about coral depletion and pollution in certain areas of the reef, so we wanted to be sure to pick a dive boat that would take us out to the outer reef.

      great barrier reef
      DCIM100GOPRO

      We were not disappointed. We didn’t see nearly as many exotic fish as we had been seeing in Indonesia, but we did see a shark, and the coral was nothing short of amazing. It went on for miles each way, and in certain parts it was almost like skyscrapers on either side of you, but instead of buildings, it was coral.

      The pictures aren’t the greatest (but I did see that GoPro now has coloured filters you can add to get the colour to transfer better from underwater) but I wanted to share a few anyway.

      DSC_3048

      Posted in Australia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, diving, gopro, great barrier reef, scuba, travel
    • jourama falls: australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 30, 2014

      On our road trip up to Cairns, sometimes we would just get sick of being in the car, and we’d stop at the next place that peaked our interest to roam around and explore.

      jourama falls

      jourama falls

      One of these stops brought us to Jourama Falls, for a short hike up into the hills to see the waterfall.

      jourama falls

      jourama falls

      At the very bottom of the falls the water forms perfect little pools. It was a bit cold for swimming since we were there in August, but there were still a few crazy people wading in the water.

      jourama falls

      jourama falls

      jourama falls

      Because it hadn’t rained for so long when we visited, the waterfall wasn’t as lush as in some pictures I’d seen before we arrived, but it was still beautiful, and it was great to get out of the car and stretch our legs for awhile.

      jourama falls

      jourama falls

      Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, hiking, jourama falls, travel, waterfalls
    • billabong sanctuary: australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 28, 2014

      On our way up to Cairns we stopped in at the Billabong Sanctuary because we had been in Australia for almost a month and I still hadn’t seen a kangaroo except for the ones that were dead on the side of the road (and there were hundreds) and a few fields of kangaroos that were too far away to really see.

      billabong sanctuary
      billabong sanctuary

      The Billabong Sanctuary was pretty cool, most of the animals, including kangaroos and emus just wander around, they aren’t kept in enclosures so you can actually see them up close.

      billabong sanctuary
      billabong sanctuary

      The koalas are in little treed areas, with very low fences around them just to keep people out, but you can see them really well (when they aren’t sleeping, which is pretty much all the time).

      billabong sanctuary
      billabong sanctuary

      When you come through the entrance they give you a little bag of seeds and grains that you can feed to some of the animals, but since everyone only wants to be around the kangaroos, the emus get super jealous.

      A few times when we were there the kangaroos and the emus came to fisticuffs and we had to dive behind a bluff of trees to avoid being caught in the middle.

      billabong sanctuary
      billabong sanctuary

      One of the kangaroos had a baby joey in her pouch, and it was super strange to see her wandering around with a pair of legs or a face sticking out of the hole at varying intervals.

      billabong sanctuary

      billabong sanctuary

      At one point a guy who was basically Steve Irwin, but with waist length blonde dreads, did a demonstration with 3 of the deadliest snake species in Australia, and told us what to do if we were bit by one. Apparently you should stay where you are, be super calm and wait patiently for the ambulance to come get you.

      I probably wouldn’t make it, is the moral of that story.

      billabong sanctuary

      Posted in Australia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged animals, Australia, billabong sanctuary, kangaroos, koalas, travel
    • whitsundays

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 23, 2014

      A few more shots of the Whitsundays, just because I really can’t get over the colour of that water.

      The first two pictures are of the amazing beach that you always see pictures of when anyone is talking about the Whitsundays, where the sand and the water look like they are swirling together into an underwater river.

      It’s not quite impressive when not seen from the air, but it’s still pretty stunning.

      We also did a cruise around the islands one day, and that picture of us was taken by a couple in their 70’s who had been married for most of their lives, and were traveling the world together. They were having so much fun with each other, laughing and joking the whole time, even when huge waves were coming over the side and we were all getting soaked.

      They asked me to take some pictures of them so they could send them to their grandchildren, and they told us that we made a really cute couple. I wanted to tell them that they were the cutest couple I’ve ever seen, but I was worried that it would sound insincere, so I didn’t say anything, but I wish I had.

      DSC_2866

      DSC_2863

      DSC_2784

      DSC_2778

      DSC_2747

      DSC_2749

      DSC_2752

      DSC_2742

      Posted in Australia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, beaches, travel, whitsunday, whitsunday islands
    ← Older posts
    •        
    • Follow loveliness. on WordPress.com
    • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    • Popular Posts

      • The mother's prayer for its daughter
      • HI life
    • Recent Posts

      • half dome: part 2 (the climb)
      • half dome: part 1 (before)
      • favourites
      • queretaro
      • white sands
      • orange county
      • life update
      • news21
      • land’s end
      • big sur
    • Instagram

      No Instagram images were found.

    • Categories

    • Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

loveliness.
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • loveliness.
    • Join 323 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • loveliness.
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...