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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Surfers Paradise
December 26th 2007

Published: December 26th 2007

...Ho, Merry Christmas! Well it has been a little while since my last blog and i've done some amazing things in that time! Australia has been amazing, having a great time.

ok so going back... last time i wrote i was about to get the overnight bus to airlie beach, that was a shattering journey. being 6 foot 3 it's not so easy to sleep when you have leg room roughly the size of a first class stamp, oh and a japanese girl who decided my shoulder would make an ideal pillow at 4 in the morning! Kind of getting used to the buses now though, for example our 6 hour bus ride to brisbane felt like nothing at all, in fact it kind of nice to have some time to yourself to read or listen to ipod whatever. We were in airlie for a few days while we booked and waited for our boat trip, it was ok, big lagoon, some bars and very touristy but nothing to special. However the next week or so was some of the best things i've ever done!

From Airlie beach we spent 2days 2 nights sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. We were aboard a boat called the clipper, 53 people so not a small one! had such a good time, met some cool people, saw some cool things, good crew, nice food. first main day we went to whitehaven beach. it was so nice, the view from the look out was spectacular, the sand was easily the finest and most white i've ever seen! aparently its 98% silicon or something and its really good at cleaning jewellery and even whitening your teeth!! (you never know, maybe thats where Richard Hammond got his teeth done!?!). we went snorkelling twice as we couldnt really afford to go diving again. It was really good though, i finally saw a string ray, which i swam with for a minute or so 😊 . there were hundreds of fish, the crew threw food into the water by your head and i couldnt see anything but brightly coloured fish! i think the strangest thing about being in the water there though was the stinger suit we had to wear because there were lots and lots or jelly fish about, some of there poentially deadly (which was a nice thought when all i had prtecting me was a thin layer and nothing on my face, hands and legs!). the funny thing was, wend had the same size suit as me so it, well, was a "little" big,we have some hilarious pics of it! We had a good crowd, so we had a good laugh in the evening, most boats were quite but aparently they could hear us! a drinking game that started as 4 of us ended up with about 34, so was a funny night! we were extremely lucky on the 2nd night. we had dolphins swiming by the side of our boat! they were amazing to watch, so fast and agile.

a day later we headed down to Rainbow beach, which is essentially an access point to fraser island! fraser island is a huge sand barrier, an island entirely made of sand which stretches around 70 miles! We spent 3 days in a group of 11 (which somehow, supposedly randomly, ended up a me and 10 girls! team "Lofty's Ladies!) driving in a 4 wheel drive around the island, no roads, just beaches and tracks - great fun!! we were fortunate to have a really good group, everybody got on, and had a really good laugh with it. driving the huge 4x4 was strange at first when we left the hostel as it was pretty big and really top heavy with the luggage on the roof, but was such fun on the island. was great to drive along the beach listening to something random from an ipod with the sea feet away! Lake mckenzie, a huge fresh water lake was beautiful. a place called champagne pool, where waves crash over rocks to create a natural wave pool, was so much fun. plus lots more! Camping in the evening was fun, lots of good food, and everyone sat around having a great time. we lost the other trucks on the 2nd day and ended up on our own, but all turned out fine, with lots of cheap wine, stir fry, random music, limbo and even singing bob the builder in german!(bob de meister...!!) we had a great trip and ended up covering around 300km.

Next we went to brisbane, had a good time, good night out, saw some of andy warhol exhibition and went to Steve "crickey" irwin zoo too! got right up close with kangaroos and koalas which was great and not so close and personal with the crocodiles! the crocs were really impressive. The guys fed them and we saw them leap out of the water - i definately have a lot of respect for them and they were certainly larger than the ones we saw in cape tribulation!

Saying christmas has been a little unorthadox, would be the understatement of the year! however it has been briliant! We originally planned to stay in byron bay but couldnt find accommodation and we've decided to come to Surfer's Paradise instead. We've travelled down with some lads we met in the whitsundays and a few others too. although the hostel put on food and games etc, a group of us decided to do our own thing. 7 of us cooked food at the hostel and took it down to the beach. wanted to BBQ but it's illegal excpet on the provided BBQs which are taken at about 4am! We had loads of great food, including prawns, chicken, salmon, potatoe salad, tuna salad, even sprouts and of course not forgetting Kangaroo (tasted really nice, like steak but a bit more flavour)!! plus mince pies and loads of other snacks. oh and the compulsory xmas morning bacon butty! i had such a good day. everyone was in the same situation, away from family etc, and so everyone pulled together. we also went body boarding which is a little different for a christmas afternoon!!

boxing day today, went to waterpark, good fun but rain and wind meant it actually got quite chilly - shock horror!

anyway, my eyes are going blurry through a combination of staring at the screen and extreme lack of sleep the last week of so, so i shall leave it there. i hope you all had a good christmas and santa brought you lots of goodies!

off to byron bay tomorrow morning and then sydney on 29th for new years!

Festive wishes!

David/Lofty

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