Just Another Smith...

On our way to Byron we stopped off at Yamba for lunch and to admire the Angourie Blue Pool. Yamba was a cute little town, which is apparently packed in the high season. There were even two girls on the bus that would be staying for a few days. We didn't see too much of it, we'd left Spot X so late so were on a tight schedule. The Blue Pool was not as blue as we had expected, it had been infested by algae so was now a more green/brown colour. Here, had there been better weather and no algae, we could have tried cliff jumping. Instead, we wandered beyond the pool to the coast. We found no sand, but extensive rocks between us and the sea. Naturally, we clambered all over them and were rewarded with great views of Angourie Beach and beyond. Arriving in Byron, Wes gave us an orientation drive through the town and around Cape Byron. Most of us were staying at Nomads, bar Elle and Emily at the slightly hippie Arts Factory. We bid them farewell, unsure if we would be seeing them agai...

We had a five hour drive ahead of us, split into two with a stop at Port Macquarie included. Elle was DJ again and played a few good tunes to keep us awake. I didn't last that long though and did squeeze in a nap. We arrived at Port Macquarie about 1 o'clock and headed straight to the Koala Hospital. This was such a sweet place, totally committed to treating sick koalas and getting them ready to go back to the wild. They had a few permanent residents, and it was sad to read their stories. One had been so badly burned in a bush fire that she'd lost the ability to grip with her paws and was blind in one eye. One koala has been a repeat offender, he'd had a few car accidents, and on release day fell out of his tree so can't leave the hospital just yet. My favourite story was of a male who thought he'd have access to all the ladies if he was admitted.. sadly this wasn't the case. Once we'd visited each patient, the gift shop, and the information cen...

I checked out of the hostel at 7.30am to get to Wake Up for an 8am departure. I didn't realise it was actually just a five minute walk, but I wasn't the first to the Loka Bus. I rocked up and met our driver, Wes, dumped my bag in the trailer, and headed to 7Eleven for a cuppa. The weather had been terrible since I'd got to Sydney on the Friday, but hopefully the rain would stop the further up the coast we got. Typical, I had waited for cooler weather and just got warm rain. We managed to get out of the CBD and onto the highway before the downpours. My first Loka Bus was called Danny and there were twenty-one of us that would be travelling together for the next few days at least. Starting from the front of the bus, we had: - Naomi (Dutch) - Elle (English) - Emily (German) - Sinead (Irish) - Emma (Irish) - Guro  (Norwegian) - Isabella  (Dutch) - Koen (Dutch) - Frederico (Italian) - Dylan (Spanish) - Mart  (Dutch) - Mike (English) - Debby (Dutch) - Jul...

The wonderful Daryl and Steffi picked me up from the airport on Friday night, and by the time we got home it was basically midnight. I was shattered and really appreciated having "my" old room back to crash out. We'd agreed on a lazy start to the weekend so we could all catch up on some sleep. ~ Of course I was awake stupidly early, still not having shaken my strawberry routine. I tried to doze through the morning, but instead scrolled through social media and read a bit until I could be bothered to get out of bed. We headed to Fitzroy at 11.30am for brunch. Sam drove and I discovered a new radio station, Smooth, that is amazing. I knew every single song! The suburb was very hipster, with lots of graffiti and trendy cafés to explore. We decided on The Rose Café. The decor was gorgeous, very vintage and cool. I ordered a chorizo, capsicum (pepper) and onion jelly sandwich. It was okay, but not as delicious as I'd hoped. We also shared a chocolate zucchini ...

After a small omg-what-on-earth-am-I-doing-next moment and some frantic Googling.. I decided to stay in Tassie to complete some farmwork. To qualify for a 2nd Year Visa, applicants are required to complete 88days of Regional Work. This is how I ended up contacting Little Devil Backpackers. I was assured they would find me a job, and it wasn't a terrible price so I vowed to give it a go for a month. Huonville was a 40min overpriced bus ride from Hobart. I tried so so hard to stay awake, but we all know what happens when I'm on public transport. I was shaken awake by the bus driver himself at my stop and shuffled off the bus rather red in the face, apologising profusely to everyone in sight. I booked into a 4-bed dorm and paid my weeks rent. David informed me of a minibus leaving for the strawberry farm the next day at 6am. I met the lovely girls in my room; Ivy, Nene and Chihiro, and they got me organised for the morning. This involved writing out my picking number, 3333, over...