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I saw the New Year in with my brother and friends watching the impressive fireworks over Sydney Harbor. After the display we walked across the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and then headed down to the nearby celebrations in the Rocks area. It was really kicking down in the Rocks area with all of the New Year madness one would expect. It was a great feeling as the New Year rang in and I realized that the next year was mine to travel and have fun - not to work. As I wondered what the New Year would bring I had a feeling that this trip was going to be a long one! I thought I would probably spend 6 months in Oz and then head over to Indonesia - after that I had no idea!

1995 Travel Diary (Part 1)

Gjcmcclurg
2005-12-23 14:34:04

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I saw the New Year in with my brother and friends watching the impressive fireworks over Sydney Harbor. After the display we walked across the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and then headed down to the nearby celebrations in the Rocks area. It was really kicking down in the Rocks area with all of the New Year madness one would expect. It was a great feeling as the New Year rang in and I realized that the next year was mine to travel and have fun - not to work. As I wondered what the New Year would bring I had a feeling that this trip was going to be a long one! I thought I would probably spend 6 months in Oz and then head over to Indonesia - after that I had no idea!

For the first quarter of the year Sydney was my base and I hung out with my brother and friends. The summer months were fun in Sydney with plenty of outdoor festivals and events, plus the great weather. I had already explored the east coast of Australia quite thoroughly in 1986, but nonetheless I decided to do a 6 week trip up the coast to catch some of the places that I had previously missed. I visited several nice spots including Byron Bay and Noosa Heads, which both had a substantial traveler population so the social life was pretty good. The abundance of travelers and very cheap 4 litres boxes of reasonable wine led to many a boozy night! It really seemed to me that many of the young travelers were well on their way to becoming alcoholics.

The real highlight of my trip up the east coast was Fraser Island - apparently the world's largest sand island. I got a group of eight travelers together and we hired a 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser to explore the island. Fraser Island has no real population or roads - just tracks and the beaches that you can drive on. It was great fun driving along the island's ocean beaches and stopping off at some of the beautiful inland lakes. We were camping so every night we sat around a camp fire and hit the emergency wine reserves. ...