Previous post: Australia - Lamington National Park Day 5

Goodbye beautiful.

This is it. Our flight is at 9pm today. We woke up a little late to pack stuff last minute, clean the apartment - we do have to clean it spotless and take out the trash. Reheat our last lunch and by noon we checked out from the apartment. I need to come back at 2pm to collect my deposit since I gave them in cash.

We decided to head off to Harbour Town again. Hehe tak puas shopping. So, we drive about 30 minutes to Harbour Town and the shopping galore starts again. Feeza and I bought two Rip Curl tshirts worth AUD10 a piece. Syima bought a lot of stuff plus another bag!We arrived back at the apartment at 2pm to collect my deposit, then we fill up the tank and off we go to cross the border to New South Wales.

We are intending to go to Cape Byron to see the Byron bay Lighthouse. During Spring, you can spot whales here. The journey took about 50 minutes per way. Here comes my biggest regret - My SJ4000 and camera were packed away and I miss the most beautiful scenery of NSW. You know you enter New South Wales when you see green and luscious farms on the side of the Pacific Coast highway. Syima was asleep and Feeza is trying to stay awake. It was late in the evening so we rush to the Byron Bay Lighthouse. I intended to stop at some beach but time does not permit it.

We went half way up and park at the parking bay provided - we were lucky that there are no crowd. We walk for 5 minutes and began to gasp for the beautiful scenery of the coast! Subhanallah!!! Truly magnificent view. The coast is stretch to as far as your eyes can see with waves rolling over. We walk up until we found the Cape Byron Lighthouse. First lighthouse for all of us.

We were standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. We went around the lighthouse and went down for some photos. There is actually a trail to go further down but as I mentioned, time just doesn't permit us.

Cape Byron Lighthouse

From the parking lot. Thats a cliff!

Below the lighthouse. The lights were switch on!

Sunset at Byron Bay

While we descend down to the car, we witness the beautiful sunset of that day. I really wish we could spent more time here. We went down and Syima and I again have to perform prayer at a local car park. Some surfer dudes were giving a weird look. We then went straight to Coolangatta Airport. We promised Europcar to return the car by 7pm. Since the fuel decrease a little, we filled it up a bit at the airport petrol station. Parked the car, drop the keys at Europcar and we checked our luggage.

We went inside and buy dinner at a cafe. We were then greeted by 2 ladies that is on the same flight as us. They are headed to Langkawi for a girls trip. Instantly I wish this was us when we are at that age. Being in Langkawi so much, I gave them loads of tips like place to go, where to eat and recommend them the spa. They were so friendly we ended up chatting for an hour while having our Fish and Chips.

8 hours later, we arrived to the land of Durian and Nasi Lemak at 4 a.m. We part ways and although tired, we find this adventure to be very pleasant and full of enjoyment.

Thank You Australia for a memorable trip. I do love Australia! Until next time.

I have always loved the idea of scenic drive since we drove in Switzerland. There is something very calming about driving. I have studied about the route I am taking for this short scenic drive and also find those sweet lookout spots.

We had breakfast and packed our lunch. So, in short today we are going to drive inside the Lamington National Park to visit Alpaca Farm and the lookout point name Kamerun. Then, we planned to head down for some shopping at Harbour Town - its like JPO, but better.

Check the petrol and off we go on the early morning. We drove thru some suburbs and see schools, clinics, grocery store and people going on with their lives. The weather was amazing with blue skies above and sun is out.

We can easily spot the transition of city to suburb and it gets more greener as we journey to the inland. There are two places you can venture out for some nature appreciation which is Lamington Park or Mount Tamborine. I've tried to squeeze Mount Tamborine but these two locations are on the different side of the national reserve.

There is a lot to see here - there's the O'Reilly's place which you can have tree top walks to Glow worm cave. I just wish we had more time to explore Gold Coast. To get to the national park, we usually go on the same route as the Mount Tamborine. There are few routes you can choose but all will pass a town call Cannugra.

This was the road signs for places in the National Park

Overtaking lanes

Beautiful clear blue sky

The total journey take almost 1.5 hours to get to the lookout point. There were only 2 lanes of traffic and there were a lot of hairpin corners especially when you are at Springbrook. I suggest you drive according to the speed limit and be careful on blind corners.

Also, they have a lot of a one lane street - You have to wait at on your end to let some one on the opposite traffic pass the road. There were 5 of these along the way but it was mark clearly. These one way lane is usually 250m long. So please stop at the STOP sign. Look if there is a car approaching from opposite direction. Blind corners here put Genting Highland to shame.

We finally arrive at the Alpaca Farm- AND IT'S CLOSE! What kind of business is close on Tuesday? We parks anyway and got to see the alpaca from outside. The souvenir shop was open and the ladies were very kind to let us in the alfresco cafe that overlooks its gorgeous valley. The travel buddy even got to use the toilet. We took gazillion of pictures and bought some cookie and postcard from the shop. It's a shame that the farm were close that day.

Hello! They do spit.

The Alfresco view of the Lamington valley

We move to our second location which is the Kamerun lookout - dubbed the best look out point in Lamington. It is tricky to get up here but we got it handled. It was starting to be cloudy. The grass were green and the look out was beautiful. We hang out for a while with some "Hindustan photoshoot" going on. There are no one else besides us up there.

Although while doing the Hindustan moves, we are caution about the Kangaroos poop everywhere. Come on guys.

3 stooges

Almost twist my arm to get this bloody shot.

Magical.

Panorama view

This was the most descent Hindustan pose we had.  Trust me you don't wanna know.

The clouds, the blue sky makes the experience slightly magical to us. We fell in love with this spot. This will forever be our favourite spot in Queensland. It was just us, no one else. So we take one good look/photo/selfie/wefie and we're off to the shopping galore of Harbour Town.

It took 45 minutes to reach there and it was raining when we descend from the Kamerun lookout. Drizzling is the best word to describe it. Syima was asleep as always. My SJ400 battery died during halfway of journey - that explain why I have few footage on the journey. I screw the camera to a bicycle mount attached to my rear view mirror.

We arrived at HB and had our lunch in the car then we went out hunting! We first went to Target - there was a clearance sale. I picked 2 tshirt and 1 cardigan, gave syima $30 to pay while I went back to the car to get my wallet. *facepalm*.

When I returned to Syima, she told me that ALL of our clothes are $30. I was shocked and check the receipe. Indeed!!!! There was a 80% discount on top of the already discounted price. I ended up to pay ONLY AUD8 for 3 piece of garments. Cheap! Thought of going back but the queue diminish my desire.

We went our separate ways inside the huge complex. What we buy:
- Went in Cotton On to buy my nephews tshirt, Feeza got some for her friend's kid.
- Went to Sunglass hut where I bought a Ray Ban Aviator for AUD86 = RM 240.8. It was on Sale. Ko gila ray Ban dap at harga ni?
- Went to Sketchers where Syima and I bought our shoes for AUD29 = RM81. Damn cheap!
- Chemist to buy perfumes for my friend and had some churros.

We lost track of time and the Harbour Town is closing. Syima and I ended up praying at an empty parking lot because the surau there was closed. The adaptability of Muslim women.

We headed off to Surfer Paradise where we cook dinner and rest. We went out again to shop for souvenirs at Surfer's Paradise. We ended up buying from several stores including one own by a Malaysian. It was cheap. You can get a tshirt for AUD5-8. I already got the magnets in Cairns and we went to a store to buy some nougats.

It happens that it was St Patrick's Day and the pub's are full with people wearing green. At first I thought of buying Nougats but then I tasted the macadamia nuts mix. It was awesomely delicious! It came with several flavour - I bought chocolate coated and original. Travel buddies bought them too. It was a hit at the office. Syima finally decided that she need an extra luggage - imagine the horror of our face. We went back to the hotel for packing and some laundry. This was our last night in Australia!

Next post: Australia - New South Wales Day 6