Vern: Sydney was exactly the gleaming buzzing beachside metropolis we were expecting, although it was drizzling a bit when we bussed in and the Opera House isn't quite as brilliant when the sun isn't bouncing of its millions of tiles. Public transit was straightforward and we spilled out under an enormous Coke sign into "seedy, dodgy" Kings Cross where we found our hostel. Here we realised that Australians no nothing of "seedy" or "dodgy". The Kings Cross hostels...

Vern: We were delighted to find that our accommodation in laid back Coolangatta was effectively a hotel. A for-surfers-by-surfers beach retreat with a wood panelled bar and pool area littered with beanbags and day-beds. The building had room types for all budgets: apartments, hotel suites and dorms. Naturally we were in an 8-bed dorm, but we had the whole room to ourselves. Result! Over two days we walked several kilometres in either direction along the beach, b...

Andrea: Feeling great from our beach time in Noosa (and feeling like a holiday within a holiday with our own bedroom and apartment!), we pulled into Brisbane on the Greyhound. We had found a private room for a good price but it wasn't available for the first night of our stay so it was back to shared living for just one night. We booked the cheapest room we could find because, again, it was only one night...how bad could it be? (The previous sentence is a literar...

Vern: Our beach-to-beach jaunt continued further south down the coast to Noosa, the beach to 'be seen'. Naturally, we stayed in a shared apartment a little out of town and thus weren't seen. It was our best accommodation yet - a complete beachfront duplex with our own lounge and kitchen shared only with two young Spanish guys, a policemen and recently graduated PE teacher. We got to employ our Spanish phrases again and enjoyed their company. They were in love wit...

Vern: We arrived in Hervey Bay (said Harvey Bay, go figure) to find that the hostel we'd booked had been closed for breaching several health codes. Luckily, its travel desk remained open and they arranged for us to move to a nicer place (nicer in that its license to operate hadn't been revoked) for the same price. Hervey Bay was for a long time a caravan park by the sea, but several beach facing apartment blocks have since sprung up and it has forged its way ont...