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Published: October 11th 2015
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Hi everybody!!
I know, I know, it's been too long. Since our last post we really didn't have much to say ... Until now.
So we left Surfers Paradise in the last blog and for 10 weeks we stayed with our amazing friends Mhairi and Stephen in their beautiful home just outside Brisbane. I worked for 9 weeks for a small start up recruitment agency and Sam worked at suncorp stadium in the corporate suites. The only real things of note we did in this time were: sam's birthday. A messy, messy affair which was supposed to be a day sesh. It ended up a night sesh. We also had a nice trip to Bribie Island with Mhairi and Stephen near the end of our stay. We really do owe the guys another huge thank you as they pretty much saved our trip to NZ!
Excitingly, we had a Contiki trip booked with Emma, Sam's little sister! This meant Emma had to fly to Brisbane, get a pint with us, stay in a hostel, wake up early and get a bus to surfers paradise (all within the space of 12 hours of
getting off a 25hr flight) to start a 10 day tour of the East Coast finishing in Cairns. This blog will outline that trip from the good, the bad and the "oh my god I'm getting flashbacks"!
The first few days we spent in Surfers Paradise, where Sam and I had lived for a couple of months so knew it well. Unfortunately the trip didn't start very well. We booked the trip under the impression that the whole thing started in Surfers Paradise. Turns out the trip started 5 days before and 50 people were now friends and we were outsiders replacing 6 of the 'original' group. 5 days doesn't sound like much, it really doesn't take long to form cliques. We were up against it from day one, however, at least we had each other and 3 others who were in the same situation (2 of whom, became good friends over the course of the trip). Our first night was a big night out in one of Surfers clubs, which was good but still at that awkward stage as we hadn't actually met everyone from our rooms never mind the group yet! However, we still managed
to pre drink with a few of the group and then a few more led to me being too drunk and going home early (as usual ...). Sam and Emma continued much later and as a result were just as hungover as me in the morning. The next day was a hungover waste of time, with all of us grabbing lunch, napping and meeting the group for dinner and then an early bed.
We finally got on the bus to Brisbane after a couple of days in Surfers (again Sam and I had just lived here so nothing too exciting!). We went a quick wander around the town with Tim and grabbed a pint before heading back to the bus for our first real trip. We headed along to Noosa, which is a great little beach town. After some lunch and a bit of a bush walk, we went to the beach for an hour or so to chill out - SAM FELL IN THE SEA FULLY CLOTHED!!! Best day ever. Our accommodation for the night was awesome and we had another group dinner and the lifesavers club which was pretty decent. Followed by an after party
at one of the girls rooms where we managed to get chatting to more people which is always good.
After Noosa, the plan was a big drive day to Fraser Island on the Sand Highways. Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island and is the home of what turned out to be our favourite place in Australia. A tad hungover and a lot of motion in our specially built 4x4 trucks led to a pretty tough ride for me initially. However, it was all worth it when we got to Lake Mackenzie, which is one of the worlds largest fresh water lakes. The pictures won't do it justice, no matter how much filter I smack on it. It was incredible. Our accommodation on Fraser Island was a bit more basic but we got a buffet dinner and camp style dorm rooms so all good for us.
A huge drive day was ahead of us to get to our Contiki special Farm Stay. Worth it. We stayed on a working cattle station, learned about their business and met the family before a huge home cooked dinner, karaoke, drinks and whip cracking! Sam was bloody
good at the whip cracking (years of practice I reckon) and of course the 4 scots had to sing 500 Miles (badly, very badly).
Another big drive day after the amazing farm stay to one of the most anticipated stops for us was the Whitsunday Islands. This is a collection of 70+ islands which are all basically white sand, blue seas and very remote. Half the group had booked a 2 day sailing trip, the other half (us included) stayed on DayDream Island Resort. Which was essentially a bitchin' resort with 5 pools, an outdoor aquarium running through it and a buffet dinner and breakfast! Our second day included a half day sail to WhiteHaven beach which was one of the main reasons I wanted to go up the East Coast. It is the worlds whitest sand, used to build the hubble telescope! It was amazing, similar to Lake Mackenzie and easy to see why it is so popular. Again, pictures won't do it justice.
After a relaxing couple of days on DayDream Island, we did another big bus drive to Cairns, our final stop. A group dinner where we almost all chose Kangaroo fillet steak which was incredible and confirmed that we have a new favourite meat. The next day and night was the big one. Early start to the Great Barrier Reef tour where we got to snorkle and see Clown Fish (NEMO), blue star fish, turtles and much more! The weather was pretty awful and the waves huge!! Nevertheless, we all had a great day. After the boat trip, we did a pub crawl with a larger group but mostly Contiki. It was messy. Like really messy. Jager Bombs, Beer, Wine, Vodka, questionable drinking games and even more questionable dancing. The flashbacks are still coming back to this day.
That pretty much concluded Contiki. The hangover morning was spent with Tim, Sam and Lianna where they all got Pizza and Pasta to get the hangover kicked. I watched on, head in hands trying not to die. We moved on to our new hostel with Alberto and Suzanne before picking our car up in the morning for our next trip.
Would we do another Contiki? Probably. The trip itself I really can't fault, however, joining a trip midway through and having to try work our way into established friendship groups was something we really didn't expect. A trip from the beginning in a non-English speaking country I reckon would be brilliant.
Sam, Emma and I had decided to hire a car and head up to Port Douglas for a couple of days and Suzanne from Contiki decided to join us which was great. Our hostel was amazing and Port Douglas was beautiful. We also stopped in Palm Cove which is also a great beach town and was very pretty. Port Douglas saw the first appearance of the Quizlamic Extremists - but not the last ...
Cairns was next up for one day before we flew to New Zealand!! We met up with a few girls from the Contiki group and had another dinner and night out - just for a change. We dropped off the car, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport.
Australia travelling is done. New Zealand here we come!!!!!!!!
Ciao x
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