Previous Day (Flights, Custom, Hotel & Late Night Walk)
Destination: Gold Coast, Australia
Duration: 6 Days 5 Nights (Aug 21~Aug 26, 2011)
Day 2: Byron Bay, Lighthouse & Crystal Castle
Breakfast in Islander was basically divided into 3 sections:-
Fat Section: scrambled egg, sunny side up, sausage, bacon, hashbrown
Less-Fat Section: breads (white & wholewheat) served with butter, jams & vegemite, cereal and fruits
Hydration Section: Apple & Orange juices and fresh milk
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| FAT |
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| Less FAT |
The breakfast menu did not change and we ate the same things for 5 consecutive days. One thing I like about the breakfast was the vegemite! It is some yeast extract and is similar to Marmite. Basically you spread a thin layer on your toasted buttered bread. I ate this without fail for 5 days! The hashbrown was always crispy and I also loved their winter melon. Bacon was a bit too salty for me though.
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| FAT FAT FAT!!! |
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| Vegemite on Toasted Buttered Wholewheat Bread |
After the breakfast, we took a short walk to the day tour office that we engaged before the trip. A friend introduced us this Scenic Hinterland Day Tours (www.hinterlandtours.com.au) which offered Buy 2 free 1 day tours with additional 5% discount when you booked online before your departure. Coincidentally, their main office was just around the hotel corner.
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| Day Tours Office |
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| Our Bus! |
We met our driver cum tour guide Barry and he was just such a lovely gentleman. The bus picked up some other tourists from other hotels before turning into Hasting Point. According to Barry, you can actually spot whale or dolphins here if you are in luck. Anyhoo, it was raining and so windy and we ran back to the bus after 5 mins. The wave there was very strong and it was totally unlike wave in Penang.
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| Hasting Point - Look at that wave! |
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| Windy & Raining there... |
We then arrived at Crystal Castle. I guess this is a new age thing – Crystal Castle had gardens with mystic statues, a miniature labyrinth, and shop selling exquisite jewellery, crystals and books. The crystals here were all in giant size but their bamboo garden particularly caught my attention. The area was simply serene and it looked like a movie scene especially when the wind was blowing. We also went for a short walk on their park trail with my 3 inches heels. *facepalm*
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| The Crystals are taller than me! |
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| Miniature Labyrinth |
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| This is even higher! |
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| Bigger than my head... |
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| Stunning View in Crystal Castle |
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| See what this is made of? |
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| Look at the wonderful background... |
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| The Bamboo Walk! |
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| The Park Trail... |
One thing I loved about this day tour was the route that the driver took to get us to our destination. Unlike major tour package, the day tour route was with the purpose of showing you different side of the place. We saw many amazing scenery in the bus alone with great explanation from Barry.
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| Random Photos taken from the bus... |
Cape Byron Lighthouse was up next in our schedule. Oh my Gosh, the wind there was particularly strong! It was in this kind of windy situation and I was glad to have some extra pounds on me to prevent me from being blown away by the wind! The view here was totally awesome! We walked down the trail to the most easterly point of mainland Australia and we really wished to have more time so that we can reach the bottom of the trail to be so much closer to the edge with strong wave pouring with close proximity! I have no idea why but this place is totally my top favorite during the entire Australian trip. It was simply breathtaking.
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| Cape Byron Lighthouse |
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| Amazing View... |
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| Walking down... |
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| Crazy Wind here... |
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| The Cliff |
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| Look at the wave! I'm obsessed! |
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| Wish there is more time to reach the bottom there... |
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| Look at the trees.. they are blown in 1 direction by the wind... |
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| Love the cloud... |
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| Scarf is trying to strangle me... |
After our too short lighthouse experience, we arrived in Byron Bay. Amazingly, there were people surfing at this cold and rainy weather. We bought our lunch at the Fish Heads Restaurant and brought it to the picnic table nearby to enjoy the meal and the view as the rain had stopped.
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| Fish Heads Restaurant |
Our meal was a “Meal for 2” consisted of 2 fish fillets, 2 calamari, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 potato cakes and tons of chips! It cost AUD27 which I guess was considered cheap for the local but pricey for us Malaysian currency earning tourist. *cry* But the food proved to worth the money – I’d never tasted seafood so fresh! The size of the scallops was huge and the fish was something else (Not the Dory like what we always got in Malaysia). It felt surreal to eat the hot food in the cold weather looking out to the sea. Definitely a treat not to be missed!
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| Meal for 2 - It can easily feed 3! |
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| Look at the scallop! |
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| Eating at the picnic table... |
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| The view from our picnic table... |
By the way, did I mention that the birds here love to eat chips?! It’s best not to feed them as they would come to you in pack if you fed one! We were surrounded by the seagulls because of this! *Run away*
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| Stalked by seagulls! |
Byron bay was basically a small town with the beach and a few rows of shops. Most of the shops were restaurants, souvenir shops, jewellery shops and some boutiques. We soon got tired of the shops and went back to the picnic table to enjoy the view before leaving the bay. This concluded our day tour and Barry dropped us in front of our hotel.
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| Last photo at Byron Bay |
We went to explore more areas near our hotel and ended up in Woolworths at Centro Surfers Paradise. Few things that we noticed there:-
- Food is cheap if you earn AUD
- BANANA is a luxury food in Australia
- Twisties & Chickadees is selling in Australia
- Strawberries are CHEAP! Only AUD2.99 per 250g
End up we bought strawberries every night for the rest of our stay here. That’s not the end of the story though - My friend went there in Sep & the price had decreased till AUD1.50! *bangwall*
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| Pick me! I'm single! |
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| Twisties & Chickadees! |
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| Strawberries! |
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| Hello little man! |
Next Day (O’Reilly’s & Tamborine Mountain)
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