My East Coast Climb

I couldn't wait to return for my second year in this wonderfully diverse and beautiful country. This was my year to do the East Coast, and wow was it THE BEST two months of my life! If ever you're doubting doing this alone, I can tell you that you will meet hundreds of people on the East Coast, like I was very rarely on my own and when I was it was because I wanted to be!

Here's my story from start to finish...

I'll try and keep it brief here, because I want to write separate blog posts in more detail for my fave places.

So I began my second adventure in the wonderful, vibrant Sydney, where I stayed for two weeks.

I absolutely love this city, it is possibly my favourite city in Oz! From the iconic sights of the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge, to the delightful Royal Botanical Gardens and the stunning collection of beaches such as the world famous Bondi Beach, Manly Beach and Palm Beach just to name a few, this city has it all!

There's never a dull moment in Sydney; for me there's always something to do. I've spent many hours getting lost in the concrete jungle, I wandered across the Harbour Bridge, and sunbathed plenty of days away in parks or on beaches.

My next stop up the East Coast was to Byron Bay. I absolutely loved Byron. So chiiiiillll.

Here was where I met some of the most amazing people who I ended up travelling further up with, and stayed in Sydney with them months afterwards.

I was in Byron for a week, and it was filled with so many awesome activities, I had the time of my life there.

To start the week off I had a surf lesson, and I can honestly tell you it is so much harder than it looks. Yes I did fall off constantly... but I did manage to catch a wave for about 3 seconds so this was an achievement!

Next to come was one of my fave days in Oz; I went kayaking with dolphins!

We paddled out pretty far to sea and before we knew it there they were, metres from our kayak; jumping, doing flips and surfing the waves.. they love to show off!

On more chilled out days myself and a group of fellow backpackers cycled to the tea tree lake, which is naturally red in colour and surprisingly warm, and amazing for your hair and skin! I definitely needed this as I got seriously sunburnt here from spending hours laying on the beach.. oops!

I went on a day trip to Nimbin from here, which is even more hippie than Byron, where I did cliff jumping which was epic! Painful as hell on my sunburnt stomach though...

Byron was a really fun place to party too, I had some of the best nights here!

Besties in Byron!

I then carried on up to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast and really loved my time there. Long stretches of beautiful golden beaches, consistently perfect weather and a great party scene. I went up the Q1 skypoint observation deck, the tallest residential building in the world, and wow... what views!

Surfers was one of my fave cities by far, the extraordinary combination of magnificent skyscrapers and glitzy city vibes mixed with the long strip of golden sand and gorgeous nature lying further ahead, making this place a postcard perfect location and a true paradise -living up to it's name! (Oh and there's even a place called Mermaid Beach just up from Surfers...that's my kinda place.)

I decided to walk miles along the beach and visit Burleigh Heads one day, and how breathtaking! You get a perfect view of the Gold Coast skyscrapers towering against the sand in the distance, the tropical blue water glistening in the sun and more palm trees than you could wish for. Some gorgeous hidden gems were stumbled upon on my visit, making this place an absolute must if ever you're here!

I then hopped on up to Brisbane for a few nights, which is on the doorstep to Australia Zoo and this is where I fulfilled my lifelong dream of cuddling a real life koala (I know, my heart could burst)!!

I also got the chance to feed and pet kangaroos here and saw pretty much every Aussie animal there is..real life Tasmanian Devils too and they weren't spinning round crazily either..

Brisbane is a great city, lots to do, superb weather, and across the river in Southbank is the place to be!

And then it was up to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. And they really don't call it that for nothing! Sun, sun and more sun when I was there!

Sunshine Beach (could there be a more perfect name?)

Noosa has some of the best beaches on the East Coast in my opinion. You can take a scenic walk through Noosa's National Park and this is where I stumbled across many of them; golden sand and sparkling sea, palm trees dotted here and there, and dolphin spotting on the agenda.

Check these out to experience the magical beauty for your own eyes...

I also joined a group tour to the Everglades whilst in Noosa. This everglades system is one of only two on the planet. The Noosa Everglades is a stretch of pristine, narrow waterways, wild flora and fauna and is known as the River of Mirrors because of the incredible reflections in the water.

We kayaked our way down the river systems, (which by the way turned out to be quite an extreme workout!) enjoying the sensational views ahead, and spotted some enormous catfish in the water.. at least it wasn't crocodiles!

And we took a dip in the water at the end, which was pleasantly warm but completely pitch black if you look underneath due to the tea tree oil from the trees on the banks...this is also what makes the water so reflective.

From here I went up to Rainbow Beach, and this was my gateway to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.

I stayed for 3 days, 2 nights camping, and truly had the most fun, awesome and enjoyable time here with a group of amazing and hilarious people. I will definitely be writing about Fraser in more detail in a separate post!

The picture-perfect paradise that is Lake McKenzie, the ferociously bubbling champagne pools, the chilled out, laid back 'lazy river', Lake Wabby - the deep freshwater lake which is home to those exfoliating fish, 4 wheel driving along the 70 mile beach and lots and lots of dingoes!

My next few stops were just for a few days; to Hervey Bay, a great spot for whale watching during the winter months, and then to the small town of 1770.

Here I visited a kangaroo sanctuary, where I got incredibly up close and personal with the adorable kangaroos and joeys. I got to feed and pet them, and then feed them some more...they just looove sweet potato!!

I also went on a spontaneous boat ride around the Coral Sea which surrounds the picturesque town with some new friends, and it's days like this that made me love the East Coast... no initial plans but it ended up being such an awesome day, ending with a bbq overlooking a view of the small, pretty coastal town.

Then the next destination up the coast was Airlie Beach; the doorstep to the jaw-droppingly stunning Whitsunday Islands.

I did a 3 day, 2 night boat trip sailing around the islands, and witnessed the famous Whitehaven Beach in all its natural swirling beauty. These couple of days and nights were thoroughly enjoyed, and again I will definitely be posting about the Whitsundays in more detail.

Such a lovely group of people, amazingly beautiful stops, scuba diving and snorkelling, and to top it off we had the most perfect weather for that 3 days. Just incredible. This was my biggest destination to tick off the bucket list.. done!

After Airlie and the Whitsundays came my most favourite part of the East Coast; Magnetic Island. I just adored this cute, chilled island and of course, the best part for me was spotting it's natural inhabitants in the wild; the adorable koalas.

I could have stayed on this island for a lot longer. I was with my very favourite people, driving around in topless barbie cars, hardly passing by anyone on the roads, blaring music out and exploring the island.

Stumbling across Horseshoe Bay, the incredibly hidden and gorgeously charming waterfalls and spotting koalas in the trees snoozing the day away.

I managed to get up very close to a mother and baby koala duo who actually climbed down from the tree right in front of me and just watched us! Honestly this was one of the happiest moments of my life, I could not contain my excitement!! So in love...

And then my final destination came. I'd made it to the top in one piece and finished my incredibly awe-inspiring East Coast experience up in Cairns, where I did my second skydive... see, I told you I was crazy! But again, another of my happiest moments.

And one last time chasing waterfalls in tropical north Queensland..

So that's my East Coast trip in a nutshell! I spent about 8 weeks from start to finish and I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time. I met some absolutely amazing people, some of which truly are now friends for life, drank and partied like there was no tomorrow, made my best lifelong memories and saw some of the most beautiful, picturesque places on this Earth.

Thanks for reading, I really hope you guys enjoyed it! To check out more pics head to my Facebook or Insta pages!