My very first Christmas cracker

Esplanade

Random bat spotted

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Kangaroo hides @night markets

Esplanade trees had origami and other decor

Merry Christmas!

Hyvää joulua! Merry christmas ja gud jul from Cairns to all blogfollowers!!! =D

I could've never imagined where I was about to spend my Christmas eve and day. The plan was to find a nice place to pull up the car but things ended up way better! To make long story very short, last Sunday I visited local christian church and there was an elder woman in her 60's who was about to spend Christmas with her relatives in Brisbane, 1700 kms away and needed a housekeeper. I was available and so she asked me to be her housekeeper during that time, could you imagine! Also I got an invite from another lady from the church to spend christmas day with them and surely I wanted to.

Having spent every single christmas in Finland with snow and sauna, it's quite intense change to be in Australia. Fist of all the heat is the major difference: today about 32°C. (Of course sauna gets hotter:) Other distinctive factors are green nature, colourful birds, people having barbie and people swimming. Well, here it's not weird at all, on the contrary.
I'm writing this text at cairns esplanade where a public pool is located. Considering the temperature it's no wonder why the area is crowded, mainly at shades though. When I walked through the shops, I couldn't help myself buying an ice cream because they look sooo tasty! I had wildberry dark chocolate sorbet and I can tell you it was absolutely one of the best cones I've ever had. It had also nice price for two scoops :P

A small example how backpacker eats: 

1) Breakfast at Innisfail: Coles roast chicken breast, loaf of crispy tiger bread, smoky cheese and onion&bacon spread. Lovely burgers.

2) Funny name, makes sense only in Finnish. Aika hyvä nimi pastaravintolalla, kasa pastaa =D

3) preparation of dinner @Ingham, by the sea. I wanted to try fast wok. Turkey meat was for sale :P Dessert was 3kg's of watermelon (80c/kg!!) 

4) Ready wok

Lisää kuvateksti

Sudden happiness

Finding a free overnight stay at 8pm led me park my lovely Pulsar on a quiet suburb street. In the morning I begun my morning routine which is placing the interior back to travelling position, thinking what should I do today and should I have an apple, pear or both for breakfast. A woman living across the street came from somewhere and suddenly asked me:
"how is your morning today?"
- "Good thanks, how are you?" I replied as usually, no matter how I feel that moment. At this point it's very normal that strangers ask each other howyagoinmate. The interesting part was when she continued "Do you want a cup of tea or coffee?" Now I got confused. Is she really going to offer me, complete stranger, a drink? Well, a morning tea is always welcome for a backpacker.
This lovely lady in her forties brought me not only a cup of coffee, but a slice of juicy watermelon and two choco rolls and said "here's your brekky."

Never before have I experienced this kind of hospitality. You really made my day!

Airlie Beach

What is the perfect day made of?

Finally I reached one of my major point of interest on my journey across Australian east coast, Airlie Beach. I must have been too excited to read the signs because only when I arrived, I noticed that there is additional i in the word; before I Always read it like Arlie =D
Airlie beach is relatively small town, surrounded by cannonvale and other suburbs, but incredibly busy, thanks to nature. In Airlie beach there are not many things to do for free, but for a few hundred dollars you will have the time of your life. As a budget backpacker I took advantage of free Airlie lagoon and cheapest accommodation, Magnums backpacker hostel. Where Coffs harbour's Hoey Moey charged 30 AU$ per night, I paid only 57$ for 3 nights at magnums making it 19$ a night (8-dorm). I have not been paid to advertise it, but should you make your way there, I highly recommend Magnums. Their dorms are clean on their side being cleaned daily, however backpackers are seemingly dirty (except I:) and there could be clothes on the floor around. No bedbugs and every dorm has ensuite and air conditioning which is absolutely lovely! Their accommodations are located behind the main street, in a small palm forest which was just amazing. Good location makes it easy to take evening walk around the town or as I did, enjoy the lagoon.

Magnums accommodation yard

Airlie lagoon

Main street at 8pm

In Airlie beach there are many activities to do: scuba dive, snorkel, skydive, airplane/helicopter over the reef and 3-day boat trips to name a few. I Had decided before that I want to get to the whiteehaven beach and go snorkling corals. After comparing the prices and offers, I ended up buying my full-day cruise from TravelBug agency. My trip with Cruise Whitsundays was 189$ and worth every dollar. Full day trip in my case meant departure at 7 AM and arrival around 6:20PM.

My perfect day

Yesterday I had quite a perfect day. The day started from Airlie marina at 7:15 AM when we started boarding in the Cruise Whitsundays' full day -cruise ship "Orca", sort of catamaran. After roughly an hour via daydream and hamilton island It landed us straight on the legendary whitehaven beach with an expandable bridge. It's true that whitehaven has white sand, which feels and looks just amazing. It doesn't heat by the sun as typical yellowish sand does and makes it lovely to walk, play beachvolley or lie on.

Orca

These waters have possibly lethal marine stingers, Irukanji and box jellyfish, at this time of year and we had to wear full body stinger suits. It's similar to Morphsuit if you have ever worn one. Makes you feel a sausage x)

Latest fashion: stinger suit

We were divided in two groups and I had the chance to be in the second group which I found out better. While group one went snorkling corals I jumped in my stinga suit and went swim for a while. The water is clear and smooth however in my opinion too warm =) in about 1,5 hours the first group came back and group 2 hopped in a 225 horsepower powered, about 5 meter long boat.
Snorkling area was not very big, but still there were plenty of corals to see and fish were everywhere. I think the corals were more colourful in ads but good enough. Being only 2-3 meters deep,  it was easy to dive and spend 10-20 seconds roaming through submerged forest. I bought supercheap action camera so I recorded as many corals and fish as I could. I think we had too little time to snorkle: an hour only. I could have spent entire day there. Anyways the next destination was also worthwhile.

Hill Inlet lookout is the place where postcard pictures are taken from. Breathtaking landscape is amazing as you see it with own eyes. You better have your camera ready because this is the place to take perfect facebook cover & profile photo. Friendly staff can assist you taking pictures of yourself. By the way Tyler if you're reading this, thanks for the pics one more time!

Hill inlet lookout, Whitehaven beach going left

After Hill inlet we had time to spot some baby sharks in one bay. They are quite impressive although just half a meter long.
After all this we went back to whitehaven beach and I joined in few guys who were playing beachvolley. Oh boys it was nice! I got only slightly sunburn on cheeks.

What Is your perfect day made of?

@ Gladstone, closing Cairns slowly but steadily =>

coastlink

Imagine a 4-lane highway at 4pm when people ends their day at work. Because it has 4 lanes it's not crowded and still moves at normal pace. After a while two lanes merges and it turns into 3-lane. Cars have to give way each other when cars from the merging lane joins in. At this point trafifc slows down from 100km/h to 60km/h but it is still running so no worries. For a few kms you thought it's going to be alright, it suddenly shrinks into 2 lanes. In addition there is a ramp where cars keep coming in and the entire traffic stops for a good while, sometimes moving at walking speed.

Welcome to Brisbane!

Yesterday I left Brisbane after spending a week with a great friend-family and having supergood time (thanks L&L!!). First time in my life I tried surfing with a long surfboard I bought from Target. At first I had hard time staying on it but in no time I got my first wave!

Mongolian Bbq, eat as much as you can!

Lol Marcoola :)

"No worries mate"

Brissy

Around Brisbane and surfing in palm beach which is just great!

Journey continues: Takeoff!

Finally !!!**88**!! long days of specified work towards second year visa are gone!! That means I am free to go and do whatever I want, whenever I want, and theoretically eligible to apply for extension, but that is going to take place in the far future. Those days included lots of hard work, long, I mean Very long days, blood and sweat. However, in retrospect, it has been tremendous experience what I possibly will never face again (hopefully!:). On saturday I packed up Pulsar and nailed the pedal out of the farm, this time for good.

My route went through famous waterfall road which has good amount of lookouts. There are woollomombi waterfalls, which are 2nd highest in Australia and Ebor falls for example. Even without them the landscape along the way is worth driving.

Coffs Harbour is well known for its big yellow landmark, Big Banana. It also boasts with great range of beaches and variety of activities such as skydiving and whalewatching. For accommodation there is vast amount to choose from starting from backpacker's to campsites to multiple star hotels. Shopping Plaza offers everything you need and even more: it's first time I've seen yoghurtland! Within an hour drive there are additional activities for those who have seen it all, for example, Rainforest Centre in Dorrigo which is a must.

I settled down in propably the best-known backpacker's Hoey Moey. One night during the current season is 30$ which I consider high for a backpacker, but amenities include free bodyboards, fishing equipments, courtesy bus and help with finding work so it's up to you.

Grounded ice with syrup, absolutely tasty!