Australia's East Coast, Sydney, & back to Melbourne

There haven't been very many opportunities to update the blog these last few days, so this small post will cover a few thousand kilometers.
We never made it to Frasier Island from Hervey Bay. We didn't have enough time to do it proper and the day trip didn't seem worth the cost. Since we missed the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsundays due to the flooding, we'll just have to come back again soon and do all the things we missed.
From Hervey Bay we headed down to Noosa. Noosa is a really cute beach town, very hip and not at all overpriced like we were expecting. We stopped at the travel info center and ended up being able to book a small apartment for about the price as we would pay for a hostel. Our apt was 2 stories and had a pool, a grill, and laundry. It was a little paradise for 2 days. In Noosa we saw some beautiful beaches, a gorgeous national park (but no koalas like I hoped), and went to a huge outdoor market about 30 km outside of town. Here's a shot from one of the national park trails:

From Noosa we headed downmto Byron Bay. We stayed at a great hostel right on one of the quieter beaches. Byron Bay is another cute beach town, with much more of a hippy vibe than Noosa. Our hostel was next to a great little restaurant/bar, very nice and relaxing. These beach towns are very different from the Australia I've seen so far.

We also did the Byron Bay lighthouse walk, which was gorgeous. Its the eastern most tip of the continent, the views are incredible here.

From Byron Bay it took us a day and a half to get into Sydney. We stayed at a hostel in King's Cross, a neighborhood commonly referred to as "seedy" but I thought it was quite cute. We got to spend some time with Megan again so that was great. Our second day in Sydney we walked around the city, through the Botanical Gardens and to the Opera House. Then we took the ferry to Manly Beach and walked around that area a bit. Once back in the city we explored The Rocks and had drinks with Megan back at the Opera Bar. It was a good long day of sightseeing and we each got significantly sunburned in then process. Should've known better by now, but live and try and learn I guess.

The next day we explored Bondi Beach with Megan. I had a great photo on here and just accidentally deleted it. So, I guess, see Facebook for further proof.
We could've spent heaps more time in Sydney, it's so huge, but like I said, there will have to be a next time.
We spent the weekend about 1 1/2 hrs outside Sydney in South Maroota with Oli's friends Louis and Gretchen. They are lovely people with (I think) 12 horses and we had a great time staying there. We even took a drive through the country up to the Blue Mountains. The countryside is so gorgeous, just another beautiful part of Australia.

Last night we camped out at Wilson's Promonitory, a huge park about 2 hours outside Melbourne. We had gorgeous weather and saw loads of wildlife! We saw kangaroos grazing in the fields and off the road, and a couple wallabies hopping around, AND a couple massive wombats grazing! One wombat was at the side of the road munching on grass and one Oli almost tripped over at our campsite. They also have heaps of beautiful birds, they all look like some sort of parrot. One bright colored guy was hanging out with me for awhile. I have lots of pictures, but they're not downloaded yet, so I'll try andnput them on Facebook eventually.

Tomorrow we head to Auckland, New Zealand. We drove 9,000 kilometers in Australia, saw bush, desert, beaches, and countryside. The amazing part is, we didn't even see half of this massive continent. I hope to come again and see loads more in the future!