Finally!

Finally, someone from outside my "med" world has visited me in Brisbane! My very good friend, Stephanie, came for a week and we had a blast! I've know Stephanie ever since I got back from doing an exchange at the University of Malta. We bonded over quite quickly and it seems as if we have been friends for ages.

S0, Stephanie came to Brisbane to start off her one month sojourn of Australia. Even though my midyear exam is only a few weeks away, I thought that I 'needed' another mini holiday in order to give the appropriate attention to Steph and also to recharge myself.

We did a number of things in the shortwhile that she was here. The first day she arrived, both her and I went to Mount Coot-tha (which in one of the Aboriginal languages means "place of honey"), which the highest point in Brisbane and you can see over the city and, if you are lucky, the islands off the coast.

The next day, we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is one of the few places left in Australia that you can actually hold a koala. However you have to pay to get your photo taken with it and the time that it takes for one of the handlers to place the koala in your hand and then position it so that its face is facing the camera. CLICK. Koala goes back to the handler. Apparently, they don't like to be handled. Go figure.

And they are very cute. We saw so many of them - bachelors, breeding females, year olds, and those that were suited for retirement.
















We also saw other Australian animals such as kangaroos, wallabies and, our favourite, the southern hairy-nosed wombat.

































Steph and I also took a trip down to Byron Bay, which is considered of on the quintessential beaches in Australia. Not only that but it is the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. We stayed in one of the many backpacker's hostels and had a great time! We both concluded that Byron Bay was the Australian equivalent of Banff, Canada. It seemed like a hippy-esque/new age sort of place with a huge kick of surfing subculture. There were tourists everywhere; I reckon that if I were living there, I would get sick of things real fast.

My friend Lou gave us some great suggestions for eating and hiking down there. We went hiking in Broken Head Nature Reserve, which was absolutely breathtaking! Here's what I mean:





This is White's Beach. Steph and I climbed down some pretty steep terrain in the hopes of making it there. Alas, there was a large chasm between the rocks separating this beach and Craig's Beach, which was were we ended up.


























































This was taken at Craig's Beach. Here's a photo of our shadows. And in the sand I wrote, "Steph & Veevek, Broken Head '06"

















This is Mile Beach, and if you can imagine that White Beach is really really far down. Follow the beach towards to the back of the photo. Where the land stops, White Beach is right behind that point.












This is the most easterly point on mainland Australia.











The next morning, Steph and I got up at 5:30am (and it was cold as!) to go down to the beach and watch the sun rise. It was absolutely fantastic! Not only that, but we were able to see dolphins as well. It ws the perfect wasy to finish off the trip. We stayed in Byron till about noonish and headed back up to Brisbane via the Gold Coast. Spending good quality time with friends on the beach is a great thing!


I just hope that from seeing this, some other friends, hint hint, will want to come down. :)