Brisbane

After a few days with many drinks and minimal progress, we ended up pre-booking the remainder of our trip with Peter Pans tour packages which got us a significant price break on all outings, but also arranged all accommodation, buses and excursions. All we had to do was drag our hung-over butts to each stage on our wicked itinerary.

That's fair dinkum, mate!

Surfers Paradise

Beasts of the east - just starting to hit our stride here… We made some fast friends while pub-crawling it and fired-up some high stakes mini-putt against said friends with national pride on the line.
Meter maids in shiny gold bikinis did their thing while we hung out at the beach and watched the waves, getting ready to head further north.

Byron Bay

My second time staying at the cool Arts Factory hostel from where Sean made a foray out to Nimbin on The Happy Coach. Caught a wilderness survival demo and gig by Aussie bushman/impresario Cockatoo Paul before catching a fire-turning show once the darkness set in.

Fraser Island

'More sand than the Sahara' is often how Australia's giant sandbar on the east coast is described.

The island is said also to be the home of the Inland Taipan; the most venomous (and thankfully reclusive) snake in the world. Great White sharks are also said to inhabit the waters off the island. A group of 11 of us spent 3 days & 2 nights bombing around the sand in these monstrous old land cruisers. The crystal clear blue waters of Lake McKenzie and the opalescent green of Lake Wabby were top stops. A full moon beach party beside the wreck of the SS Maheno was also a surreal vibe.

We had to deflate the tires down to about 10 psi at one point to get traction in that sand... Fraser Island was my personal highlight on my east coast roader with Sean.

Rainbow & Airlie Beaches

Rainbow Beach was our gateway to and from awesome Fraser Island, while Airlie Beach was our launch point for the Whitsunday Islands. Although these two amazing beaches are separated by about 10 hours as the Greyhound rolls, it was beer o'clock pretty much all the time for Sean and I at both places.

Whitsunday Islands

Perhaps it was this trip that sparked a fire deep within Sean... We headed out on a 40 foot sailboat called 'The Samurai' for 3-days, 2 nights around the sun & sand-blasted Whitsunday Islands. Disembarked for a gander around Whitehaven Beach where stingrays glided past your feet in the shallows and eagles flew overhead.

Cape Tribulation

Wrapping up our 3-week trip of binge drinking and non-stop Aus-someness, we hit the ominous sounding Cape Tribulation for a walk along crocodile frequented shores of jellyfish infested waters where we ended up being confronted by a large specimen of the most dangerous bird in the world; the Cassowary.

We also did a night bushwalk which revealed giant Huntsmen Spiders and then a morning horseback trek along the beach.

Cairns

Where I started here with Sarah on our east-coast roader, this was the terminus for Sean on his 3-week Aussie tour. We hit the hostel bar for some liquid courage and got this boy out for his first bungy jump at the nearby AJ Hackett jump facility. Then the Rhinobar for a last hurrah before getting Sean back topside and me back to Perth to my welding gig.
Great times, mate!