TRAVEL: Fraser Island Day Trip, Queensland, Australia

I’ve already been to Fraser Island once, and loved it (you can read about that here), so when offered the opportunity to check it out for a second time on a different tour, I of course said yes! This did however involve a pre-dawn wake-up, but for those who know me, you’ll know that my belief is that the only reason to be up before the sun rises is if you’ve got a flight to catch, and I suppose a tour bus also counts too.

I was collected by Brock as his first pick-up of the day, and we cruised through Noosa making a few more pickups before the real journey began. We took a different route than my last trip, this time through the Hinterlands, which really was truly beautiful as the sun rose with oranges and purples over the wide open spaces filled with greenery and the occasional cow.

It took us about an hour and a half to arrive in Rainbow Beach, where we were dropped off at a service station while Brock went to change our bus to a more ‘Fraser Island worthy’ form of transport. These moments were probably my least favourite of the trip, as we were pretty much stranded at a BP petrol station with very little to do. At least on the last trip, we were dropped on the Main Street, which gave those who wanted the option to buy some food from the various shops along the street, or to admire the pleasant views along the beach. We also weren’t entirely sure how long it would take Brock to pick up the other bus, which made standing in the cold even more frustrating.

It was very obvious which bus was ours as a huge grey monstrosity approached from around the corner. Inside were about 20 seats stuck into what felt very much like a theme park simulator, in that you felt so removed from the world outside you that it almost didn’t feel real. As it turned out, this truck was a retired Korean military vehicle, which made sense when you looked at it.

With the 20 passengers belted up, we trundled off to Inskip Point where we took the ferry across to Fraser. We raced along the beach, which acts the same as any other Australian highway, and I proved my worth as a valuable addition to the group by spotting a number of whales as we went along. This was definitely a highlight of the trip as whale watching had been on my Aussie bucket list.

We stopped at one of Fraser’s creeks for morning tea, which included tea, coffee or juice, delicious homemade lemon bars (which I’m still dreaming about), and Anzac biscuits for those wishing to get a real flavour of Australia. Bearing in mind it was winter at the time of my visit, it was pretty cold in spite of the sun, and I found myself wishing I’d worn something different to shorts as we stood on the windswept beach watching the light blue waves roll in.

Continuing onwards, we headed into ‘town’ (if you can call it that – it’s home to a resort and one shop) and closer to the centre of Fraser. I fondly remembered the bumpy roads which didn’t feel any less bumpy in our Godzilla-machine. Slowly but surely we began to catch glimpses of the blue water of Lake Mackenzie, aka the tourist hotspot of Fraser.

Parking up, we were given over an hour to spend at the water’s edge. With the sun shining down, in contrast to the rain showers we’d had the last time I was there, the dark blue fading into sky blue and then clear water looked incredibly stunning, so I entertained myself taking plenty of photos to capture such beauty that I felt unlikely to see again.

I’d packed my bikini, but even my adventurous side couldn’t convince me to dunk myself into the icy cold water. Nonetheless, the water colour and white sand was enough to make me convinced that Fraser really is a necessary visit for anyone up this neck of the woods.

We took a while for lunch (sandwiches as huge as the bus we’d come in) in a fenced off dingo-proof area along with the company of a friendly goana making his way up and down a nearby tree before we headed back into the truck and towards Central Station.

Upon arrival, Brock pointed out the impressive staghorns growing off of some of the trees, and then let us go on our merry way through the rainforest. Our thirty-five minute walk wove us through the forest beside a crystal clear creek, a pleasant time to reflect, think, and listen to the wildlife as we went along. We didn’t see many animals with the exception of a few birds, but the strangler figs and huge ferns much, much older than I am were pretty cool to see.

Our last sight of the day was a sign erected for Prince Harry’s visit last April to dedicate the forest to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy – a gentle reminder of my old home in my new home. And just like that, our adventure on Fraser Island was over. In just a day, it seemed like we had barely touched the surface of Fraser, having spent most of the day in the truck which, I’ll allow, is nice in itself to cruise along the beach, but we did only end up seeing two of the Island’s highlights.

As quickly as we’d arrived, we caught the ferry back to Inskip and then to our beloved service station which was made bearable by the presence of a cockatoo perched on one of the electricity lines. We ended up waiting here for over forty minutes, due to an issue with the bus, but again, not knowing when we’d be picked up or having anything at all to do made for a particularly boring part of an otherwise good day.

We scooted through the Hinterlands as the sun set in colourful hues before arriving back where we were picked up at around 6pm. Over twelve hours on the road, and I was pretty exhausted. Fraser will always hold a special place in my heart as a reminder of feeling well and truly happy in my new home, but I would recommend anyone wishing to visit to spend more time there than I did this time.

To compare this trip to my previous adventure, I would wholeheartedly say that Brock was an excellent and informative guide, however overall I preferred my previous encounter. This was partly due to the mode of transport, as travelling around in our little SUV last time really created a sense of community with a smaller number of travellers, all of a similar age, and all having a great time bumping tunes as we bumped along the sandy roads.

The biggest difference for me, and the biggest pro of the other trip, was definitely the overnight element. Staying on the island overnight not only gave us the obvious opportunity to see more things, but I loved getting to know my fellow travellers over the campfire glow, sleep under the stars, and wake up early to enjoy the sunrise. So from one traveller to another, give Fraser Island a bit more of your time. You won’t regret it. 

I hope you enjoyed reading today's blog! To stay up to date with my Australian adventures, make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and I'd love to hear your recommendations for where I must visit in Aus, so please drop me a comment below - thanks for reading!

TRAVEL: Brisbane Free Walking Tour, Botanic Gardens, Roma Street Parklands

Arriving in Brisbane, Australia; I found myself with a free day in which to explore the city. If you’ve read any of my city blogs before, you’ll know I LOVE a free walking tour, and think they’re absolutely the best way to get a feel for a city.

The tours start at 10:30am every day at the Visitor Information and Booking Centre on Queen Street, although you do need to book in advance, as they check your name off of a list once you arrive. The tourist office itself is interesting enough, as the site of an old theatre – make sure to look around when you go in at the elegant facades We were a small group of about eight; ranging from the UK, France, Germany, Canada, and South Australia.

Our tour began by walking through Brisbane Arcade, which was coincidentally celebrating its 95^th Anniversary on that very day. This small arcade reminded me somewhat of Burlington Arcade in London, with its niche shops (here we had a hatters and a ‘pen shoppe’ among others), and pleasant architecture.

Emerging the other side, we arrived at King George Square, home to City Hall which apparently has a bigger clockface than Big Ben. Unfortunately City Hall was closed for a function that day, but normally visitors are allowed in to see its impressive rooms – just another reason to come back some other time!

Continuing down Adelaide Street, our guide pointed out metal animals hiding in the lampposts, including reptiles, marsupials and amphibians, that you might not notice when just walking down the street. We had a look inside the Treasury Hotel to see the plans for quayside renovation expected to take place over the coming years – it’s clear that Brisbane will look quite different to how it does now in a few years.

We walked down to the QUT Campus and inside the Old Government House. I thought it was great that this was left open for visitors to visit as and when they choose, and had a room decorated with elements of the past to give an idea of what the building looked like in its days of use.

Our tour finished in the QUT Library, which certainly was very tech savvy with huge screens which that day were depicting the periodic table, an interactive game about gravity, and one to code robots to sort rubbish. Pretty cool. Whilst on a map it might look like we’d only covered a small amount of ground, it took around two hours and I did feel like I’d gotten to know the city better. The best bit? Unlike most ‘free’ walking tours, this one was actually completely free – just volunteers doing it out of a wish to share their city with others!

With half the day down but still plenty of time to kill, I decided to take a stroll through the City Botanic Gardens, conveniently located right next to QUT. I would describe the gardens more like a park as there wasn’t too much interesting flora to see, whether that because of the time of year, or if it is like this all the time. However, there was an interesting jungle section hidden inside which was pleasant to walk around, particularly with the tree cover shading me from the intense heat!

I strolled along the river and across the pedestrianised Goodwill Bridge to South Bank. This area was really pretty, the walkway draped in bougainvillea the whole way along. There are also a number of free public swimming pools along the riverside which I thought was very cool, and can imagine they get pretty busy during the summertime! Southbank is definitely a must-see when in Brisbane.

I crossed back over Victoria Bridge and wandered up Albert Street to Roma Street Parkland, passing few foreign couples dressed in their finery, presumably to take photos for engagement photoshoots. Roma Street Parkland was wonderful, and completely deserted – I probably passed about four other people in the time I was there!

I wandered slowly through the Parkland, passing by loads of water dragons bathing in the sunshine who seemed undettered by my presence. Crossing over Fern Gully Bridge offered pleasant views of the park fountain and city beyond, and then down into the Spectacle Garden which was a real highlight – beautiful flowers of every colour delicately placed in a wonderful display. How lovely! This was more what I had imagined of the Botanic Gardens, and would probably be my recommendation for those who want to see some spectacular flora, and indeed fauna too!

I had a lovely day exploring the best of Brisbane, but I’m sure there is plenty more to see – do you have any recommendations for what I should get up to next time I’m in the city? Drop me a message in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more Australia content coming soon!

What to expect: PADI Scuba Diving Open Water Course

I’ve kept a bucket list for almost ten years now, and although I’ve tried to tick as much as I can off over the years, one thing that has always eluded me was learning to scuba dive. Towards the end of last year, I decided that that would be my next item to check off. However, it being Winter in London at the time, I thought it might be best to wait until I arrived on the sunny shores of Australia for a better experience. Read on for my experience of learning to scuba dive!

First things first was choosing a dive school to undertake my course with. I knew I wanted to do the PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Course, as this is the most widely used association for diving across the globe, and the Open Water Course the base level that you need to have to dive. I also wanted to make sure I was choosing a reputable, not crazy expensive school that was reasonably close to where I was staying, which ran courses on the days I was available, and would also cover transport to dive sites as I didn’t have a car.

With all these pre-requisites, my digging led me to Brisbane Dive Academy, which offers two day Open Water courses twice a week for the cost of $550. Most of the equipment (BCD, regulators, computer, wetsuit, tanks and weights) and transport were included, and it was an extra $80 to hire my mask, snorkel, fins and boots.

A couple of days before the course, I was sent through my e-learning modules which were to be completed before the course to prove I had a basic understanding of how to scuba dive, the different safety elements you need to know before you get in the water, and how all the equipment works. There was a lot of information to cover with each module containing about 14 sub-sections within it. The e-learning is supposed to take 10+ hours to complete, so my first tip is make sure that you have some time put aside for this. I found the videos most helpful as they summarised all the information on the page which was pretty hard to read since there didn’t seem to be a way to download the e-learning onto my computer, so I was reading this all off my phone screen.

At the end of each module, you complete two tests, one which seems formative, and one summative, the results of which are collated to be sent off to your instructors. At the end is a hefty final test which pulls together questions from the whole course, so doing the e-learning all in one day (whilst a pretty boring way to spend the day) was beneficial as I hadn’t forgotten as much info as I might have done if I’d done it over a few days.

Other things to sort out before the course began including getting my wetsuit fitted (which I would have preferred to have done on the morning of the course rather than trekking an hour there and back for a five minute fitting), filling in a medical questionnaire, and doing another ‘diving environment’ test which had some of the strangest questions I’d ever seen.

And so began the course itself. Day 1 had a horrendously early start of 6:45am, which meant waking up at 5am to catch the earliest train across the city to the dive HQ at Tingalpa. Things were a bit hectic as as well as our Open Water Diver group, there was a group of scouts also doing their PADI course, which meant we were a bit delayed in starting. Eventually, we headed upstairs to fill out some forms, sign our life away, and do one final test to prove we hadn’t cheated on the tests and actually knew our stuff. This was pretty good though as we went through the answers collectively, so if there was something you weren’t sure of, you could check it with the instructors.

Ready and raring to go, we piled in the van – 7 students to two instructors, which isn’t a bad ratio. Travelling an hour down the coast, we reached Palm Beach Aquatic Centre on the Gold Coast, which would be our base for much of the day.

Changing into swimwear, the first thing to do was a 200m swim to prove we (probably) weren’t going to die as soon as we hit the water. I actually found this pretty tough, probably a combination of not having swum for any reason than a relaxing hotel pool swim in about 8 years; and being exhausted from spending the day exploring the city the day before, followed by my 5am start.

Nonetheless, slow and steady won the race and after a quick breather, we then had to do a 10-min tread water. Again, not the most fun activity, but the instructors were able to take our minds off of the arduous task by going round the group and getting us to introduce ourselves and explain why we wanted to learn to dive, making the time pass by quickly.

Done and dusted, next up was to learn how to set up the equipment. We were each equipped with a BCD, which is the diving vest everything else is hooked up to; a tank of air; and our regulators and computers. It’s very important to get everything right (again, you don’t want to die), of course meaning it wasn’t the simplest of processes, so the instructors have a rule of getting you to do it four times to make sure you know what goes where and what everything is.

Gearing up meant sliding (more like struggling) into our wetsuits and boots, slipping on a weight belt (they didn’t tell me it would be heavy), and then shrugging on our diving gear. By my estimation, the diving gear was about 20-25kg, the weight belt 9kg, and that’s not including the weight of mask, snorkel, fins, and wetsuit. Needless to say, I was carrying around over half my body weight, which was not an easy task!

Thankfully, getting into the water took some of the weight off, and so began our day of Confined Water Modules. Here we were learning everything we’d need to know in the ocean, but in the comfort of a swimming pool. Initially, it was just getting used to all the equipment – managing your buoyancy between the weight and air that you fill your BCD with, learning how to use fins, becoming comfortable with the fact that you can spend more time underwater than you would be able to holding your breath. It was quite the learning curve.

We also had to learn the different hand gestures (remember, you can’t speak underwater) for checking you’re okay and all the different skills we would need to know – including the ones you hope you don’t actually have to use, such as ‘out of air’ and ‘emergency ascent’. Once they’d been demonstrated, we practiced them – from losing or sharing your regulator, to removing or flooding your mask underwater (I hated that one). Lots and lots to remember – not the easiest thing to do when really all you want to do is sleep.

Once we’d passed all our Confined Water Modules, it was time to take it to the ocean. We hopped in the bus to travel down to Tweed Heads in NSW (new region, yay!) We set up our gear again, and then headed into the water. Here we were to practice what we’d learnt in the pool but in this new environment. Our group split into two, each group with a different instruction, and we descended into the depths.

To be honest, it was pretty grim. Visibility was utterly appalling that day, and you couldn’t really see more than a metre in front of your face, made even worse by the sand and silt we were kicking up when we got to the bottom; and believe me when I say not being able to see while you’re stuck at the bottom of the ocean is a pretty scary feeling. One of the girls in our group had an issue with her mask (which I’m sure would have made me panic – who wants things to go wrong at this point?) so our instructor headed back to the surface with her, leaving the three of us alone at the bottom.

Again, it’s a pretty scary feeling sitting on the ocean floor without anyone around to help if anything goes wrong, and not being able to talk to your buddies at all, just using the hand gestures that we were trying to remember from early. The best idea I had that day was to start playing rock, paper, scissors. Silly, I know, but focusing on something like that was so important in keeping us calm and collected before our instructor returned.

Then, it was time to do our drills. They were significantly less nice than they had been in the pool – ‘losing your regulator’ means getting icky saltwater in your eyes, and flooding your mask means burning your eyes with the salt which stings even after you’ve cleared it out. But good to know how to do it, worst comes to worst.

After about twenty minutes, we returned to the surface. Honestly, the worst part of the day was trying to get out of the water. It’s easy to forget about the weight on your body when the water’s holding it up, but it all came back as soon as I tried to pull myself out; and a few of us needed help to be hauled out of the water because the weight and exertion of the day had taken its toll.

Back in the bus, Day 1 was done. If you’d asked me how I felt about scuba diving after the first day, my response would have been something along the lines of ‘I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think it’s for me’. Having my first dive have been a pretty unpleasant one, due to the awful visibility and the nasty-but-essential drills we’d had to do, the fear that my mask would fill with water and I’d panic or my regulator would be pulled out of my mouth and I’d swallow a ton of seawater with no way to spit it out; it’s not the nicest feeling. I was going home saying ‘it’s only one more day, I’m sure I can get through it’, and was pleased to know I wasn’t the only one in our group thinking that.

Day 2 was even earlier, and I woke up ahead of schedule full of nervous energy about the day. Hiring an Uber to the dive academy as it was too early for trains to run, there was less chaos that morning and it was a simple case of jumping in the van and heading down south.

Tweed Heads was our only destination of the day, and we were to complete the other three of our four open water dives to be qualified. Thank the good Lord, because the visibility was far superior, and it’s amazing just how much of a difference this makes. It’s significantly less terrifying when you can actually see your surroundings, your buddies, your instructors!

Our first dive was more drills, but even these were better as getting seawater in your eyes and mouth seemed a bit less horrible now we knew what to expect. We had to do emergency ascents, which do funny things to your ears; but then got to do a bit of an obstacle course around some of the things on the ocean floor (highlights including a barnacle encrusted trolley). I was having trouble with my buoyancy here, floating up and away no matter how hard I tried to come down; which added to the frustration of not being able to speak and say ‘how do I fix this?!’

Back on the surface, I was told this was probably due to my shallow breathing. I’d noticed I was using less air than my counterparts, probably because my natural reaction was to store that little bit of air that I’d entered the water with and thus only breathe in and out a little amount as I went along – more air in your body means more buoyancy, so my task was to try and fix that next time round.

For our second dive of the day, we learnt to navigate using our compass and scouted a route out to sea, as well as some buddy lifesaving skills and anything else we needed to cover off in the ocean. All our skills out of the way, and it was finally time to do something just for fun. This started off not-so-fun as we had to traipse up the road with all that weight on our backs to get to the beach, but we then scuba-ed downstream, which was actually very nice given the visibility. This was what scuba was meant to be – seeing fish, your fellow divers, and revelling in the fact that you are somewhere that humans are not supposed to be; rather than the icky conditions we’d had the day before. Honestly, I could’ve stayed there for even longer.

We did it! It was a half celebratory / half tired ride back to the dive academy where we were told it was ultimately our choice if we passed the Open Water Course. We’d passed all the drills, but the instructors left it up to us to decide whether we felt able to take that and use it on our own. I thought this was a good thing to do, as even though you may have been taught everything you need to know, of course you can still doubt whether you feel comfortable enough with it, and may be better off doing another course to cement it. However, after the day’s events, I felt confident in my ability, and was signed off as an official PADI diver! We finished up cleaning off our kit, and then it was up to us to take our new diving knowledge and use in the world.

I am indeed glad that I did the course, and hope to be able to use it to explore some of the amazing places around the world and see things that only a fraction of the population get to see. What I would hark to anyone thinking of doing the PADI Open Water Course is the knowledge that the first day of your course may suck! The drills are not the most fun thing to do, and depending on the water quality, your first dive might not be very nice – but this does not mean all dives will be like this! I’m glad I gave it a chance and look forward to using my skills more in the future. 

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! Are there any other experiences you think I should try during my time in Australia? Drop me a message in the comments below and be sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to keep up to date on all the fun things I get up to - thanks for reading!

Concert Review: SEA N SOUND FESTIVAL, The Wharf, Mooloolaba, QLD, Australia

I’m a firm believer that one of the best ways to immerse yourself in a culture is to also immerse yourself in the music of that country, and what better way for me to do that than go and see some of the biggest names in Aussie music at Sea N Sound Festival in Mooloolaba.

The outdoor venue, The Wharf, was reasonably small given the good things I’d heard about some of the artists, but I like the intimate atmosphere it gave. I perched myself down on the kerb to wait for I Know Leopard, the next scheduled act, to appear, but realised pretty soon that there had been a scheduling issue when Kyle Lionhart appeared instead. Apparently flight delays had resulted in things needing to be moved around, but we sure didn’t mind.

Kyle and his long-haired band kicked off with So Close, Kyle’s latest single, a vibey number with a great drop in the middle. This seemed to be the case for most of Kyle’s songs, which started off quiet and then BAM! Big drop and energy increase. The Byron busker showed off his falsetto and deep tones on songs like Compromise and Heart Out First, a song written about being away from his wife for a long time.

His Byron roots showed loud and clear during the thought-provoking Keep Pushing, a plea to the people to continue focusing on conservation in Australia even when the politicians don’t seem to care too much. I very much enjoyed the next two tracks – Sweet Girl, written after a conversation where his father explained how much his daughter (Kyle’s sister) meant to him, and Sleep By Rivers, one of Kyle’s most popular tracks and the one I’d direct you to if you want to check him out.

Kyle finished with a snazzy guitar intro on Call Back Home, and plenty of screams from women in the crowd who’d crept forward to the front during his set. Obviously a man in demand, I think Sea N Sound made a good decision in choosing Kyle for the lineup.

After a short break, four piece band I Know Leopard took to the stage in red and white outfits which already made them seem pretty cool, and this was before they’d even started playing! The electronic keyboards used throughout the set on songs like Heather and Blame It On Me gave them a very 70s/80s vibe harking back to the likes of Wham! or the Stranger Things soundtrack. I’ve noticed a resurgence in this style of music so if you’re a fan of Mac DeMarco or Rex Orange County, I think you might like these guys too.

Frontman Luke provided most of the vocals on 70 Lies, Evergreen and personal favourite 1991, backed by Jenny and Rosie on electronic keyboard and bass. They ended their set with the catchy Everything Goes With You and the earworm Landmine which was stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Out of all of the artists playing the festival, this band were definitely my favourite, and I look forward to seeing them perform around Australia again in the future.

Ali Barter was up next with a set full of angsty punk rock that brought me back to Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne as she jammed on tracks like Please Stay and Ur A Piece Of. Ali was certainly a step apart from the previous act but I appreciate the variety that the festival had chosen to include, to show us the best of Australian talent, no matter the genre.

Ali was followed by Oka, who again were completely different from anything we’d heard so far. The band, who describe themselves as ‘Australian earth music with sublime dimensions’ led the didgeridoo do the talking with instrumental songs that contained very few lyrics. I found myself thinking of them as music you might hear at a spa mixed with dubstep as they took fairly relaxing sounds and turned them into dance music.

I liked the mix of traditional and modern that they brought to the festival in the way that changed the tone to more of a club atmosphere as people began to dance and let loose. If you’re looking for a band that encapsulates the old and new of Australian music, you really don’t need to look any further.

Next up was Didirri, who started his set in quite an unusual manner by just singing by himself with no backing instruments. I wasn’t sure that this was the best way to start as it didn’t really give us an indication of what was come, and the rest of his set was actually pretty different from this. The young artist, who could easily have passed for a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, had a style akin to James Bay, writing punchy songs about his ex, ‘not complicating stuff’, and ‘taking care of each other’.

He did show his humorous side in explaining the meaning behind Worth The Wait, written following a trip to a Maccas drivethru where one of the servers said ‘Sorry for the wait’, or what Didirri interpreted as ‘Sorry for the weight’ he’d gain as a result of going to Maccas.

The penultimate act of the day was Busby Marou a duo whose music was full of melodic guitar and harmony. I found it difficult to find a genre to fit them into, as they blurred the lines between indie, blues and a kind of Americana-roots style. Their songs like All of You, 5 Rocks and Getaway Car were all incredibly wholesome and the crowd certainly seemed to be lapping it as they cheered and sang along to the words.

They had obviously been a big pull for some people to show up to the festival, and I was again surprised at the small size of the festival given some of the acts they’d managed to draw, with fans more than willing to stick it out in the rain to see their favourite acts.

If there was one person I was sure most people were excited to see, it was definitely Amy Shark, whose music is consistently played on Aussie radio stations. Keeping with the theme of weird intros, Amy’s set started with an excerpt from Do You Hear The People Sing?  from Les Miserables (yes, you’re as confused as I am) before Amy traipsed onstage in front of her name in huge letters.

She began with Blood Brothers and I Got You, her voice a mix between singing and talking, giving herself quite an edgy vibe. She went on to introduce herself to the crowd (“I love you, Sunny Coast!”) and explain that she has always been a big fan of Blink 182, and got the opportunity to write a song with B182 vocalist Mark Hoppus, which turned into Psycho which, in spite of its name, was actually one of the slower and more heartfelt songs in her set.

She continued with Don’t Turn Around and a song ‘for the OG Amy Shark fans’, Spits On Girls. I liked her interaction with the crowd, constantly stopping to shout out positive thoughts to festival-goers and prefacing Mess Her Up with “I feel like we are already close friends and I could tell you anything, even if it was bad,” and indeed, Mess Her Up has a pretty bad subject matter when you realise it’s about a woman cheating with her best friends boyfriend. Regardless, it is a very catchy song and I was one of the many singing it at the top of my lungs with her.

Amy’s next song was about her ex, the aptly titled The Idiot, followed by a song yearning for a Sunday sesh, Weekends; and one bursting with emotion, Drive You Mad, which you could hear ripping through her voice. We got a huge treat next as she performed a cover of Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag which certainly made anyone who wasn’t raving already start dancing.

She finished with the song that started it all – Adore – and a song to all those who said she’d never make it – I Said Hi – with people jumping on others shoulders and waving their arms about wildly. A great end to a great introduction to Aussie music. Having entered the festival with very little knowledge about what this vast country has to offer in terms of talented musicians, I feel like I left with a much better understanding of who to keep my eyes open for, and certainly a few new artists I’ll be adding to my playlist.

I hope you enjoyed today’s review! If you’d like to read more reviews and interviews, make sure you follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to stay up to date. Were you at Sea N Sound, or wish you were? I’d love to know your thoughts – drop me a message in the comments below!