We were both really excited about sailing the Whitsunday Islands, and we raced up the coast from Hervey Bay (Fraser Island) to Airlie Beach - that took about a day and a half solid driving!
We stopped off in Bundaberg just north of Hervey to visit the Bundaberg rum distillery. That was quite good, we got a few tasters, and a tour around the distillery which was interesting. A little pricey though.
We picked up our camper van in Brisbane 11th June and headed south towards Byron Bay. We were a little cheesed off with the camper company (Hippie Campers/Apollo) as when we booked it we hadn’t realised that unlike in New Zealand they insisted on taking the full excess on the insurance ($2500!) as a deposit, and it had to be on credit card. We couldn’t afford to do that on card of course so we were forced into upgrading the insurance to reduce the excess which was really extortionate. It meant paying less money on the day to have more insurance. The van isn’t as big as the previous one either which makes it a bit more cramped and more difficult to cook!
We arrived in Sydney Thursday afternoon and the weather was awful! We were told it had been raining consistently for the last two weeks as well! We found ourselves a hostel, and after some palaver involving going to the wrong hostel we got there and settled into our rather dingy room. We went for a walk in the rain through the botanical gardens to see the Opera House and Harbour bridge and then went back to the hostel when it got dark. That night we discovered that the room was not only a bit grotty but also had a slight leaking roof problem - it was literally pouring in! Thankfully they moved us to another room the next day which was much better. (It was the Globe Backpackers if anyone was wanting to avoid it - but it was cheap!)
