Blogs from Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Arrived in Noosa Heads and went straight to the lovely Halse Lodge down by the beach. I was just in time for an afternoon at the beach which was literally 150meters from the lodge. This one i must say was probably the nicest backpackers i stayed at, it was a very colonial wooden building and i luckily had a room with just 5 others sharing, 6 in total. I head straight to meet my lovely friend Maisie whom i had met on Fraser. Instead of doing a walk along the national park and ocean, we sat on the beach chatting all afternoon, literally until sunset. That night we decided to take it easy and spend a girly evening treating ourselves to a nice meal and bottle of wine which was just perfect and very much needed ... read more

We've been journeying slowly south over the last few days from the craziness of the Karnak playhouse to Yandina only about 200km north of the New South Wales border. Initially we travelled with Ania a friend of ours we met at Karnak an who left at the same time. Our first stop was at Magnetic island where we had a nice day wandering from one secret and secluded bay to the next. When we got back we stayed at Ania's parent's freind's friend's house (otherwise known as Liz and Wayne). The cooked some excellent bbq food for us and plied us with wine and whisky and picked a loofa off a bush for me (that's right a normal bath loofa, which was full of seeds and looked like an over-ripe banana in it's case). Feeling a ... read more

Reflections…July 31 John said to me that my writing wasn’t as interesting as has been in the past with our other trips. I knew he was right but it still pissed me off…here is the thing it isn’t really all that different in Australia. First of all, everyone speaks English and there is NO hint of another language really anywhere, in fact that part is kind of strange. So from that cultural standpoint I find language a huge factor in making a place ‘feel’ different. It is super easy to get around here, at first when we were going to the Outback the roads were shoulder-less ribbons of potholed tracks, paved, yes, but not in particularly good shape. Here along the much more heavily travelled east coast the roads are wide and in good condition. Even ... read more

I'm still waiting to be given a start date for my new job offshore so I've been killing some time in Noosa at the parentals house until I go. With no job and no money it didn't take long for boredom to kick in, so after a few days of sleeping in until 11am, sitting on my arse doing no exercise and making that futile trip between fridge and pantry in hopes that some food will magically appear I had had enough. I needed to break my crappy cycle so I got up early, packed myself a few apples and a sandwich, pulled on my runners, jumped in my van and headed down to the national park for a jog. Now i've spent the majority of my life in Noosa so obviously I'd been to the ... read more

I was up later than normal today, having stayed up late with Lee last night setting the world to rights. As soon as I had poked my head through the tent door I could see that Keith and Lee had already set about packing things up and loading the trailer. Keen to help I packed my bags, rolled up my sleeping bag and threw my things into the back of Lee's truck. Folding up and trying to stack the various bits of equipment as neatly as we had done when leaving home was a tall order. I wondered why it was that nothing, no matter what your doing, ever fits as well as it does when you do the return journey. None the less we soldiered on under Keiths instruction until it was time to stop ... read more

I heard Lee and Carmen being woken up this morning as I drifted in and out of a half sleep. Kemton's twin boys had gone in to wish them happy Easter and show them what they had been bought by the Easter bunny. I chuckled to myself about the fact that Lee and I had agreed to have a lay in today, and felt for him having been woken up earlier than expected. Sadly my feeling of smugness was short lived as Jet, one of the twins, and Keith unzipped my tent door and came in clutching a bag of chocolate Easter eggs in his small hand. I wished him a happy Easter and decided that the best course of action was to get dressed and join in the festivities with the sugar high children. I ... read more

True to my word, I was up and out of my tent just as the sun began to creep over the horizon. Lee had given me instructions last night to come round to the side of his tent to wake him up. Experience had taught me that waking him up after a skinful the night before was a lot easier said than done. Many was the time that he'd crashed at mine, or visa versa, and getting him up required either the promise of food or a marching band complete with air-horn! Surprisingly though, it only took a few nudges to get him out of his pit and into the car. We drove right the way down the beach to the point, where a handful of people were already waist deep in the cold ocean trying ... read more

After an amazing nights sleep and waking up with a really clear head I walked up to grab some breakfast with Carmen and Des. I made myself a coffee and Carmen offered me some toast with Veggie-mite and honey. Now I never used to be a huge fan of Marmite back home, but it had grown on me and I was interested in trying it's Australian counterpart. As I spread a reasonably thick layer of Veggie-mite on to my toast I was passed the jar of honey. I looked at Carmen quizzically and she simply said 'Just try it, it's good!'. I drizzled some of the golden honey on to the already loaded toast and took a bite out of one corner. It was a strange taste with the taste of the Veggie-mite almost being overpowered ... read more

I woke up with the sun this morning and turned over to see Lee was still with me in my tent. Carmen told Lee that if he wasn't going to shower after getting smoked out by the fire then he had to sleep with me rather than in their tent. When I woke up after falling asleep by the fire I had discovered he was doing exactly as he had been told, giving me a little bit of space to sleep on the bumpy sand rather than the blow up mattress. I wandered over to Des and Keith's tent and grabbed a coffee. Before long Lee had joined us and everyone started poking fun at the fact that we'd shared a tent. I could only assume that the Aussies had a thing when it came to ... read more

Even though I was up and ready for the off on time this morning, our departure was somewhat delayed. Even though we had packed everything last night and Keith had been quite adamant that we must leave early to avoid the traffic, he decided to repack certain things in the trailer. I had wolfed my breakfast down and thrown my things into the back of the jeep already and even though I asked if I could do anything was told 'No, it's all under control'. I felt like a little bit of a spare part sat watching early morning tv as the Lee and Keith started strapping down the trailer, but I had offered my help and I didn't know what else to do. As I sat there my mind began to dwell, as it often ... read more