As soon as I arrived in Brisbane after the ten tropical days up in and around Cairns, I unpacked and packed my bag again for the next destination: Moreton Island. Mirjam and I were about to spend our weekend on this second largest sand island, with guaranteed sun and fun, only 1.5 hour boat transfer away.

The island-based pelicans welcomed us together with the friendly crew of Tangalooma Island Resort were we got to enjoy our own room just 50 meters from the beach. The staff had some good fun waiting for us, like quad riding and sand boarding.
As Mirjam and I were needy for speed, we started with the quads. A two hour racing through the sand dunes in the middle of a beautiful scenery. We made it even to the boys team that -ironically enough- did go a bit faster then the girlie group.
The Desert Safari Tour brought us to amazing white sand hills with traces of the mineral black sand. We took a board, waxed it and made our way up to the top for a sweet sand boarding equivalent to bodyboarding. Good exercise guaranteed if you want to go for many more rides as the hill is steep and the sand so soft. 
Yes, this was al very amusing, but the best thing of all must have been the amazing, breathtaking sunsets, every day around 6 pm.

As the total pallet of colors kicked in, mixed up, passed by and eventually dissapeared, the moon and a countless number of stars took over. That’s one of the things that I love so much about islands: it makes me feel being just that important inch closer to nature, to the universe.
Ok, back to earthly talk. Mirjam and I met great guys from the dive shop Dive In Sports, called Luke and Joe. Hanging out with locals is always the best thing to do, according to my experiences, if you want to get to know more about the place you are visiting and… simply having the best time. And so we did. The guys showed the freshly -by hand caught- Blue Barred Parrot and an hour later we got to enjoy the “after-version”, which I had to give a 10 out of 10 points…

The following day Luke, the owner of Dive In Sports, provided us with snorkelling gear and Joe brought us to the ship wrecks, that have been dropped 50 meters off the coast on purpose to brake the waves in order to protect the coastline.
Under water I felt I was on a one-man mission discovering the Titanic (as seen on TV) while accompanied by small colored fishies, which I bet taste good too with some garlic and lemon…

That night we fed some wild dolphins who come as close as possible towards the beach to get the fish we were allowed to feed them. Sweet creatures, and clever, because as soon as the bucket with fish was empty, they sonared “c ya” and off they flippered.

Mirjam and I flippered to Luke’s house again and met some more staff: Zeb and Shea. Another culinary dish was presented, yep; these islanders take good care of themselves, and their guests/ friends! I picked up some cool Aussie slang and typical sayings, that I’ll definitely try out in appropriate situations with my best Aussie accent. (Which still sounds way too Dutch)
We played some pool, danced to some Aussie bands and Dutch DJ’s and laughed along with the Kookaburra birds until they thought our imitations weren’t funny anymore…

Once being back the next day on that rainy Sunday afternoon in Brizzy, I already longed for more, much more Moreton Island…

Posted from Brisbane with Vodafone Mobile Connect on my notebook

If you ask me what’s my favourite part of Australia so far, now I can tell you that’s Tropical North Queensland for sure! I’ve been lucky that I got to hang out with a local, my friend Andy, who I know from when we were living in Barcelona. Having a house in Cairns, garden, dog, car, motorbike, the knowledge about the region and a humoristic fun loving friend at full pruposal for ten days is a treat at its own. Count with that this regions breathtaking nature, its winter temperature of 25C and the surpising quantity & quality of tours and activities offered… it makes you feel at least a bit sad when leaving.

Of all the great fun we’ve had – along came Julia to celebrate her birthday with us – I am glad to be able to share my best experiences in this region, made possible with the enthusiastic co-operation of several organisations and tour operators. Many thanks to them for letting me explore the beauty and excitement in this Sunshine State!

To kick off and get the vibe of the region, Andy and I jumped on his motorbike and besides showing me around in Cairns’ Botanical Garden, and the city centre, he also took me up to see, in total nine, waterfalls and never-ending cane fields.
By the end of the first day he made sure I’d have seen a fair bit of what he calls “the Best City in the World”. Cairns, that is. With its 130.000 inhabitants spread out over a relatively large surface, its breeze is one of  an easy goin town. At the same time the lively city centre and presence of many backpacker vans makes you feel like being in a popular holiday destination, in peak season. That last bit obviously doesn’t apply for Cairns, as it’s an all year holiday destination.

Which is perfectly understandable as the winters up here get as chilly as the best summers in the Netherlands…

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Gillies, Director of Tropical North Queensland, and Donna Gray, Sales and Marketing Manager, for their after work drink at the Blue Sky Brewery. Although I don’t like beer, I had to try an organic, home brewed ginger beer. Along with the rugby game displayed it actually tasted quiet good! Jeff offered to arrange a reef tour with Quicksilver for the next day, which I happily accepted. Once on board the great staff showed that they are having the Best Jobs in the World as they had so much fun among each other and with the passengers. We did three stops along the reef and the first two stops I went snorkelling. These were the best snorkelling times for me so far as the sun did its best to color the corals to their max and… I finally swam with a reef shark.
After a yummie buffet lunch, the third plunge was in diving gear. As we descented 12 meters, I high-fived with a sea turtle, found some more Nemo’s and met their crazy colored mates.
The vessel was very comfortable and I advice you to get that spot on the front deck in the sun as you return from your visit to this peaceful and relaxing world beneath the surface.

My hunger for more green, more rainforest, got easily tamed as the next day we visited Paronella Park, voted nr. 1 of 150 must-do’s in Queensland. It’s eco-certified and heritage listed.

This park tells the story of the dream of a Spaniard called José Paronella, to build a castle in the most beautiful part of the world. On 13 acres beside Mena Creek Falls he completed building his castle in 1935, along with picnic areas at the lakeside, tennis courts, tunnels and bridges, and wrapped it up in an amazing range of 7000 tropical plants and trees.
After misfortune healthwise for the Paronella family and battles with nature, like facing cyclones, fires and floods, this nearly lost park was rediscovered in 1993 by its current owners Mark and Judy. During my conversation with Mark I could imagine how passioned José would have talked about this mythical park. Mark spoke in a remarkably admiring way about José and his dream, which has become Judy’s and Mark’s main focus now to let the dream continue. Inspiring for sure, of great historical value too and the tour guide John made it easy to go back in time and use your fantasy.

So far sealife and greenery, but what about the wildlife on land? I desperately needed to cuddle Skippy and chill out with a koala. “Can we do that, Andyyy?” We visited the wildlife sanctuary Rainforest Habitat near Port Douglas, eco-certified as well.
The park is divided in the three surrounding environments: Rainforest, Wetlands and Grasslands. After walking through the habitat of cheering parrots and even the endangered Southern Cassowary, I tried to get frightened by the crocs, but they couldn’t even bother me leaning over the fence. Then happy times! After asking Andy to go see Skippies every day, there they were! I catched up with some and had the chance to cuddle – strictly in exchange for kangaroo food, that is.
Furthermore Andy and I visited a crafts market as you don’t get to see them very often. Quality organic products and authentic art, loved it!
When Julia arrived in Cairns, Andy took us to waterfalls, swimming lakes, swamps (mozzies!), postcard scenery beaches and more beauty.
These days Julia and I shot over 200 photos each, it’s hard to make a selection for back home, so poor friends who ask for some pictures; you better take a day off.

The 9th of June we celebrated Julia’s birthday with an exclusive dinner overlooking Cairns harbour and mountains at Donnini´s. Jeff le chef had a birthday cake made for Julia with, as Andy and I had to google for correct spelling, “happy birthday” in German.

The last day spent in the Terrific Trio formation was packed again with more fun, more nature and more animals.
In the morning we catched the old-style train travelling The Kuranda Scenic Railway, which is constructed between 1882 and 1891 and travels 34 km through 15 tunnels and acrosses 37 bridges. Two hours of spectacular scenery guaranteed as we came up close and personal with huge waterfalls and gorges and great rock formations in this World Heritage Listed Rainforest.
Yet once more it threw me back into history and I could imagine how, since the start only 150 years ago, Queenslanders remarkably managed to built their way through the overwhelming nature, in an environmentally respectful way.

Two hours of one of my best train rides later we arrived in Kuranda, a small village 400 meters above Cairns. We got picked up by Roy, who works for Blazing Saddles, a company that provides great outback adventures like quad riding, rafting and what we had planned for that afternoon: horse riding. As we drove along, Roy told us about his switch from city life to the purity of the outback. Since I have a crazy mix of absolute fear of and curiosity for snakes, I asked him if he often saw any snakes in this region and if this scared him. “At first”, he said, “I didn’t quiet like them, but now I got to know more about them and I’m not afraid anymore. I learned how to pick up a snake and they are actually great creatures.” “Why would you pick up a snake?” I asked as I thought this was maybe a crazy habbit to play with your life that the guys up here enjoy. “Oh well, to put them out of my house.” The expression on my face by hearing that, made Andy and Julia make fun of me several times during that day.
When we arrived at Blazing Saddles I felt like we entered an old western movie: guys walking around with traditional comboy hats, blocked shirts and firm boots; only the straw of hay was missing there!
As they were a cattle farm and had more animals grazing around, I was very pleased to cuddle little cattles, some pigs and little lambs. Never get enough of that! They even had a bull with the largest horns of Australia, each horn worth over AUD$10.000. Soon on TV. After the lunch we jumped on our horses and followed Tim and Marc, two superfunny outback guys who amused us with a perfect blend of information about the region and stories that left the credibility in the middle.

What Andy, Julia and I often noticed is that the tour guides are the people who make the tour special, they add soul to it and make the difference between “just an activity” and a unique experience with a personal touch. Although they might repeat these activities every day while you join just once, I have to tell you they ensured me they had their Best Job in the World. After a lovely ride down the hill, crossing the creek and going into gear 2 and 3, we returned to the farm to cuddle with the animals some more.
Marc provided some great pictures and Tim showed his lasso skills which were impressive! Suiting the perfect cowboy picture better then Tim is impossible…
Enough action for this day, we agreed, especially Andy as he hadn’t worn a special horse riding pants meaning he walked in a funny way for a while.
I faced my biggest fear and went to the Venom Zoo were I came eye in eye with the most dangerous, poisonous and aggressive snakes of Australia. The snakes and I looked at each other and agreed on a mutual understanding to better stay out of each other’s way. Julia and Andy wanted to pet a Water Python afterwards and as I am not a cry baby but just half a cry baby I at least touched the scary worm – quite liked the feeling though. I sat next to Julia who was playing with and caressing Miss Snaky with a look in her eyes as if it was a baby. Next time, I promised myself, next time I will put a Scary around my neck and look cool too…

“Back to Cairns!”, we said, and walked over to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.

To compensate all the need-for-speed motorbike rides, we were now about to hop on an eco-certified attraction that was awarded with ISO 14001, which stands for an internationally recognised environmental management certification.Innovative touristic opportunities combined with respecting and protecting the environment, that’s the way I like it!We glided just several metres over the canopy, it’s definitely the closest you can get to the Barron Gorge National park! Steep ravines under our feet, boasting coastal mountains on the left and the mighty Barron Falls on the right… It’s truly breath taking. It finally made the three of us be quiet for a moment.

So there you go, this was me trying my best to keep it short. Friends already warned me writing blogs might be tricky for me because there is this (unwritten?) rule about a maximum number of words. Well, too bad for the rule-followers then. If you enjoyed reading this chapter in my Australia Book only 50% as I did experiencing it for real, I’m not worried at all that I bored you.
Viva Tropical North Queensland, viva las aventuras!

Next post is dedicated to Australia’s second largest sand island: Moreton Island. So much to do in Queensland, even on the islands. Got to go to eat some fresh caught fish now!

Posted from Moreton Island with Vodafone Mobile Internet on my notebook

As mentioned in the previous post I had a great stay at The Greenhouse Backpacker Hostel in the middle of Melbourne’s city centre. I spoke to some staff to find out how green they actually are and they surprised me when pointing out they even have an expert on sustainable solutions amongst them; Adrian Booke, 32 years old and from Melbourne. In between the checking in and checking out of people around the world (love all the accents!), he found some spare time to answer my following questions…

What’s your job in The Greenhouse Backpacker Hostel?
“I’m the Assistant Manager.”

Do you consider you’re having The Best Job in the World?
“Yes! It’s a great mix of workmates that hang around for a while and become great mates, awesome guests that come and go and provide excitement and challenges from day to day and industry people that make for good times at all the industry parties and so on.
Another benefit is that once I look after the guests in Melbourne, when it comes time for me to travel, they look after me. Eg, one guest surprised me with free tickets to Australia vs Croatia in the last World Cup in Germany!! One flight later I was there!”

Which goals do you have for The Greenhouse Backpacker Hostel referring to sustainability?
“To become a leader in our industry with regards to sustainability and climate change.
Furthermore to constantly monitor our waste and resource usage and to be active, creative and intelligent about minimising them.”

What are the improvements that you introduced in The Greenhouse Backpacker Hostel so far?
“Among many others the following:
-         Conducted carbon audit
-         Water saving showerheads
-         Recycled office paper and ink cartridges
-         Use an environmentally conscious Print company for our marketing
-         Promote local business by shopping at the local markets
-         Encourage environmentally sustainable activities i.e. bike hire, walking tours, provide sports equipment for games in the park
-         Promote riding to work for staff
-         Send lost property to charity groups for the homeless
-         Completed the Community Waste Wise Program (a waste auditing program that ensures our recycling program is effective)
-         Participating in the ‘Grow Me the Money’ program. This helps us to continuously monitor, refine and improve our sustainability practices.”

What are the difficulties that you come across when trying to change/ implement a (new) product or service that benefits the “Green Commitment”?
“This can be divided in three obstacles:
The first one has to be the initial cost of implementing greener products and devices throughout the property.
Although we believe that once these energy saving items start paying for themselves, the money saved can be used to expand our sustainability program into currently unaffordable areas.

Secondly, promoting the ideas behind green practices can sometimes be hard to get across to some guests from areas of the world that perhaps have less exposure to this type of education. We are working on a sustainable knowledge program that we will implement into the hostel in the near future. This will be in the form of branded visual information posters which will be easy to understand and promote sustainable practices in the hostel and beyond.

Last but not least helping to steer the industry into the green way of thinking can be a challenge especially when many tour operators and accommodation providers struggle financially to stay afloat in such hard times as we’re in today.
We are working on becoming leaders in this area and hopefully we can become recognised as a benchmark for others to base their own sustainable programs on. We are certainly willing to help our industry peers and even our competitors if it means building a sustainable local/State/Australian wide tourism industry!”

How does your ideal vision look for the Greenhouse Backpacker Hostel in five years from now?
“Let’s start with a green rooftop garden with species of plants that are endemic to Melbourne and its surrounds and are naturally low water consumers. We are already in talks with the Victorian Indigenous Nursery Co-op for advice in implementing such a garden.

We will look at installing rainwater tanks in the rooftop garden and installing a fast flow compost to recycle food waste and to avoid the need for fertilizers in the future garden.
Change starts with education, so all staff members will be trained on our sustainability program and able to actively promote it where possible.
Furthermore all of our current ideas will be trialed, implemented and hopefully at the maintenance stage by then. Examples are retro fitted lighting and de-lamping of areas, better water saving devices, energy saving hand dryers and so on.”

Some inspiring words from Adrian to the world:
“Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children.”

Posted from Cairns with Vodafone Mobile Internet on my notebook

Once the interview event of “the Best Job in the World” and the dazzling extended itinerary had taken place, I got very excited going out there on my own and face “the real world” again. So far for 5 star accomodations and the best food available at any time of the day… it was backpack time! George and I shared mutual wishes on exploring the East Coast looking for some great surf, meeting more Aussies and travel in an authentic low-budget style – well, low-budget except for the new six-beth mobile home Apollo Camper provided us with then!
First stop was Byron Bay, the place to go to if I had to believe my friends who have been travelling in Australia. “Magz, you could live there!” and “Everything is organic and laid back, you won’t leave!” Yep, Byron Bay embraced me with its sweet and open locals and nothing is lied about the major organic supplies. This town is sure ahead on pure nutrition and its importance over many so-called “smart and fast cities” around the world.

George fell in love with a two meters beauty, sex-waxed her and carefully carried her to the sea to spend some good time together.

After having surfed with Black Dog Surfing I had sore shoulders for many days thus I decided to do some more exercise so I started running up onto the lighthouse every other day.
We drove up to Sydney while passing tiny fishing towns, stunning nature and some unfortunate Skippies. Here our campig adventure ended as George dropped me off at my friends Celine’s place.

Celine and I go back 13 years when we were living the easy life in Maastricht, a city in the south of Holland. We both have been living abroad and managed to miss each other out each time one of us was back in Holland for a while. To live her daily life was just what I longed for and we spent five days catching up on the “last few years”. Sydney is fast. Celine is very fast. They love each other and I was lucky to witness the spectacles that came from that. We proudly concluded that in all those years we didn’t change much as we treasure the child within ourselves.
I also met up with James for a serious sightseeing tour through his favorite city and another night we even got together again with Mirjam, Anjaan and Anjaan’s lovely wife Amrita. Big fun, no camera’s, well… my camera was present and I promised one particular candidate not to put certain photos along with this post, so I keep my promise…

Next and last destination before returning to Queensland was Melbourne. When I lived in Barcelona Australians I met there told me, if I was so enchanted by Barcelona, I would love Melby. It’s creative, European, alternative and sub-cultural vibe sure got to me, as well as the charm of a countless number of original bars and restaurants, all packed in a cosy way. Apart from the autumn kicking in I’ve had an awesome time.
The night I arrived at the Coffee Palace Backpackers, Celine’s friend Stijn took me out to a house party that rocked St. Kilda until the early hours. Including a brilliant band on the roof terrace, a beatboxer and trying to find back your drinks that you’ve hidden so carefully amongst all those thirsty party people. One of the following days I was walking down the streets with Stijn when at the other side of the pedestrian light a face looked rather familiar. It was Julia, a girl that I met and interviewed earlier in Byron Bay! I don’t know about you guys, but there doesn’t exist such a thing as “coincidence” in my life. It was great meeting up again and we spend the next couple of days together, while getting the welcome exercise by doing “we’re lost in a big city without a map-biketours” on fast bikes Rentabike provided us. (I miss biking so much! Come on Oz, get more biking lanes and fight your obesity-rate!) I also met up with Trudy, a friend of my friend from Holland and she took us to some happening places at night. Sipping from our cocktails on a roof terrace high up between some skyscrapers is something I don’t get to enjoy that much back home.

Speaking about home. I found a great hostel, right in the city centre, called The Greenhouse Backpacker Group. This hostel is doing a very good job on sustainable and conscience management to reduce its carbon footprint. To read and see more about this hostel and the inspiring actions they take, simply see the next post as I had an interview with Adrian, Assistant Manager at The Greenhouse Backpacker Group. In my opinion he is a brave and intelligent implementer of sustainable and clever services and products.

After two weeks of travelling south, it was time to look up the sun again; Sunshine State, I’m back! George and Hailey were so sweet to pick me up from the airport in order to prepare for the weekend we were about to spent on Stradbroke Island, where Hailey had a huge caravan. Mirjam came along, as well as some crazy friends of Hailey. We surfed a bit, sunbathed, walked up and down the beaches and rocks during sunset and finally I satisfied a part of my urge to be on a board again; sandboarding!

Mirjam and I had the privilege to have a private session with a very friendly teacher called Mark, who’s an ex-prosurfer and still rocking the waves every day while being 57 years old. Respect! To feel the sorest ever the day after, made us feel bad about the quantity and quality of our muscles so we stayed comfy on the couch to avoid these confrontations as soon as we moved around.
Moving around IS the only way to be honest, especially since I found myself in such a beautiful region like Queensland, thus I got on the plane yesterday to visit a friend in Cairns. I’m staying until the 12th of June, after that I’ll be spending some exciting times in and around Brisbane. Stay tuned for more info on my extended itinerary part 2!

Posted from Cairns with Vodafone Mobile Internet on my notebook

Over the last few months while being occupied with Tourism Queensland’s Best Job in the World, I’ve been talking to lots of people who were eager to tell me THEY had the best job in the world. It impressed me how passionate people talked about their daily work and the way they showed me the different angles of it.
Thus I decided to start asking people I meet along the way traveling down the East Coast about their Best Job in the World.
Wandering around in Byron Bay, I came across a Surf school called Black Dog Surfing. Since I’ve been trying to get my black dog Lluna to show off in the water or skating on a skateboard, I went in to check this dog out.
The owner of the surf school, Sean Johnston, proudly showed some photos of his dog surfing the waves of Byron Bay. “Freakin’ awesome”!
Some surf teachers came back from giving a surf class that morning and started talking to Sean about the progress the pupils made that day, the quality of the waves and so on. Because of all these “no worries” and the way they were showing their enthusiasm, as well as the pupils did, I asked Sean if I could ask him some questions about his job.
“Ye, of course, mate!”
I positioned myself comfortably on the couch in the surf school and fired my questions at Sean…

What’s your job, since when do you have this one and how come?
I am the owner of Surf School “Black Dog Surfing” (BDS) since june 2002. I run it by myself. BDS was already operating for 7 months and I got to work here as a surfcoach before I bought it. I liked the name so it stayed that way but of course I had to get a black dog. Because I can’t have a business called Black Dog Surfing without a black dog surfing! So I tought my dog surfing and he’s loving it.”

What are your biggest passions in life?
“Helping people, in any way. Teaching how to surf, getting to know different people, helping them to have a good time in Byron Bay.
I have been surfing since I was three years old and besides surfing my other passions are snowboarding and waterskiing, actually anything outdoors.”

Are you able to include the actions and skills you feel passionated about in your job?
“Definitely. I can say I do what I do daily because I love it, it’s not primeraly for the money. I combine what I love to do and what I can do best: surfing and helping people.”

Have you always combined business with your passions?
“No. I have been travelling for a long time and to fund this life style I often had jobs I didn’t like, but provided the quickest amount of money. Of course that always was my choise to do so.”

What’s your advice for people who want to get their Best Job in the World?
“Follow your passion. Combine what you really like to do and create a job out of it. For example for me that’s surfing and helping people, so there you go!”

Do you have any wishes or goals for the near future that you want to achieve?
“I would like to study again. I studied Tourism before and now I want to study Marketing. This comes in handy for where I want to go next. It will benefit my work in order to expand the sports that I teach. My dream is to live and work in Byron Bay for six months and spend the other six overseas, in Europe, teaching skiing. But part-time, he!”

We both laughed. Yep, life has to be lived and enjoyed in full awareness…
Then I quickly squeezed myself in a wetsuite and hopped on the surf bus with some pupils and two surf teachers – who were big fun, Joey and Marky – to have my first official surf lesson. After some basic information and the bounderies-braking stretching session, I enjoyed myself lots in the baby waves of Byron Bay. I simply love board sports and picking up new skills. My ear-to-ear smile was noticed by some, more professional, surfers passing by as they told me to “never stop surfing now!” They might be right as I had that smile for the rest of the day…

Posted from Byron Bay with Vodafone Mobile Internet on my notebook