The first time in Australia convinced me.
I needed to spend more time in the land down under.
My plan was to work a summer in Wyoming, which the Hotel Wolf granted, and then head back to land of kangaroos.
That summer in Wyoming had me so happy, I bought a townhouse in Saratoga just before the summer ended. I was still determined to complete my goal of living in Australia again, and rented out the Togie home knowing I would be back in a year or so.
I had been content in Brisbane my first go round, but I decided the best thing to do was spend a little time looking for the right place.
I gave myself a month.
My first time I had flown into Melbourne and had bypassed Sydney, so this time, I flew into Oz’s largest city.
My first week, I spent in a suburbs called Glebe. I liked it and it was convenient to the downtown area. Sydney is beautiful, with many homes built in and around coves, and the nightlife was fun. Sydney had a big city, international vibe which I had lived in before.
It was not what I was looking for.
Next stop, Newcastle.
Newcastle is the largest port and a bit of an industrial city, and is also in the state of New South Wales, like Sydney. It is about three to four hours north of Sydney by train.
My time in Newcastle was only a couple days, but boy are they filled with excellent memories.
The train ride to get there was amazing and honestly the situation would not happen in this day and age. It was before 9/11.
Sydney’s train station is monstrous. I have been to large stations before and know it is best to ask someone who works there to make sure I am going where I need.
I walked up to a man who looked to be an engineer and asked him if the train I was looking at was going to Newcastle; It was and he was the engineer. After he discerned I was American, he offered to let me ride in the front with him.
Why would I ever say no!
It was great and an excellent way to see Australia. We even went through a town called Armstrong. The best moment was coming to the Hunter River. It rivals the Missisisppi on how wide it is. The Hunter Valley is known for its wine county, sort of like Napa.
We were about halfway across the railroad bridge which was a few miles long, when I mentioned I wished there was a way to get a picture.
They literally stopped the train so I could hang out the door and take photos. I was fast, partly because I was hanging off the train and bridge. I bet the delay was only three minutes, but I couldn’t believe the hospitably of the two guys running the train.
I stayed in a typical pub/hotel in the city.
Newcastle has a small downtown compared to Sydney and honestly the scenery outside the city was inspiring for its ruggedness. A friend of a friend took me out my first night and we closed down the bars. We ended up at sunrise next to the Governor’s Pool which is just a walk from the downtown although fairly isolated.
This saltwater pool was built by prisoners carved out whatever rock is next to the ocean a couple hundred years ago. It is just short of being Olympic size. The pool is next to the ocean and you could see the many ships waiting to come into the harbor in the distance.
We swam for a bit and then we sat and watched the sun come up and getting dry. As mentioned, the pool is far enough away from the city, at that time in the morning, nobody was around.
At least so we thought.
A woman photographer and her male assistant walked by us and we all said hello. She asked if it was okay for her to take pictures of the scenery around us.
We said sure. Then a few minutes later she came up and asked if she could photograph us like we were.
I guess this is the time to mention when we got to the pool, we stripped down completely to go swimming; so we were just sitting with our legs dangling over the pool’s side with no clothes as we chatted to this lady.
Australia has a lot of nude beaches and women go topless at most beaches, so being there without clothes is not quite the big deal it is here in the United States.
Again we said sure, and then started conversing like we had been before the photographer arrived. While we sat there talking, she started clicking away. Who knows what she did with the photos? Maybe they ended up in some art gallery which definitely would’ve been cool.
I left Newcastle a couple days later on my search for the perfect place.
I stopped in Brisbane and saw some friends for a few days and then got on a bus and headed north.
I don’t remember how many places I stopped, but when the bus came up over a hill to Noosa, I knew I had found the place.
Noosa is still in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast. This stretch is not as well known as the Gold Coast, but Noosa is considered to have some the best surfing beaches in Australia. It also has two national parks that edge right up to the town. One park is jungle next to pristine beaches ,which has trails throughout. Koala bears are always easy to see up in the trees. The other park is more of an everglades that requires taking a boat or kayak to get around. When I was there, Noosa was home to 8 of the top 20 places to eat in Australia. The total population is 20,000 folks, although it is a major destination for celebrities and tourists, so it feels a bit bigger.
Once I decided this was the place, I lucked out and found an apartment in a day and it was only a week before I found a job. I ended up being a bartender in one of the most beautiful venues in town. It was an awesome job and I created some killer drinks with all the fresh fruit at my disposal. I made a mango blueberry margarita that got me featured in a local magazine.
There were hardly any Americans around and my accent stood out.
I can’t tell you how many times people would say they loved my accent. My stock reply would be, “I don’t have the accent, you do.”
The beaches and areas by the sea were incredible. Some of the names were magical. The Fairy Pools were small pools in rock next to the ocean. Hell’s Gates was a rock formation the Pacific smashed against the beach. Alexandria Beach was a 9 mile stretch of beach which seldom got, overcrowded and was my favorite to visit. Noosa Heads Beach was the surfing beach where I learned quickly how bad a surfer I was in comparison to most out in the water.
I used to run the trails through the jungle and along the beach almost every day. It was spectacular having this scenery as my running trail. I can say my life in Noosa had me really fit.
Beach life suited me, but that was no surprise having lived in Hawaii a couple years prior.
I was approached by my boss to stay and make my life in Australia as my time to go back to the USA neared.
I won’t deny, it was tempting. Noosa was paradise and I had made a lot of excellent friends. My sister had come to visitme and loved Noosa, so I knew family could visit and enjoy the place. If I had not bought the house in Saratoga, I believe there is a strong chance I may have stayed in Noosa when asked. But I hadn’t really lived in the home I had bought, and there was the adventure to see if I could handle Wyoming year round.
I admit, it was a sad day when I left Noosa.
Friends took me to the bus stop and waited until the bus came, and all told me how much I would be missed. I remember looking back at the ocean as the bus drove away and telling myself, if Wyoming didn’t work out, I could sell the house and scoot back to Noosa.
That didn’t happen.
Carbon County got into my blood, even with the wind and winters.
As the years have gone by and I left my Saratoga home to live in Hanna, Carbon County gave me a sense of having roots, even during times when I was living overseas.
I am not sure that if I had decided to stay and live in Australia, I would have ever known this feeling.
I am glad I have this understanding of putting down roots and how good it feels, even if I don’t get to wear shorts all year round.
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