Australia so far........


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Oceania » Australia
April 8th 2007
Published: April 8th 2007
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well, last time i wrote I was in Bali and had only been there 2 nights! the rest of our time in bali was ok, the weather improved so we made a trip to a different beach on the island which was so strangely secluded!!! the taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we had 2 make our while down these never-ending steps which were nearly virtical to arrive on this huge beach with no1 on! but the tide was in so we couldnt sunbathe for a while!! when we thought the tide had gone out enough, we lay down our serongs, ready to improve our tan more!! unfortunately, the tide hadnt gone out far enough and a wave reached us and soaked us, much to the locals amusement!!!!! anyway, we spent the rest of our time goin got a water park - which was actually a really good one - and we shopped shopped shopped until we dropped!! i think we had just got to that stage where we were sick of our dirty horrible clothes so we bought A LOT!! it was all cheap so it was all good!! my eye infection got a lot worse in Bali very quickly so i couldnt go out at night or anythin which was a bit of a downer! but i struggled on!!!

when it was time to leave bali and fly to melbourne, we were all very excited!!! and i can safely say we Oz has lived up to its exoectations so far!!! its actually exceeded them for me i think!!

we arrived in St. KIlda which we had been told by a lot of people its the best place for backpackers to stay!! they were right!! its like a little suburb town on the beach and has a funfair and lots of nice shops (which we took advantage of...again!!) and restaurants! its got a blackpool vibe to it but its obviously a lot nicer and hotter!! another major tourist attraction of melbourne is the neighbours tour and night!! so bein avid fans we booked our tour pretty sharpish but we didnt book the evening thing for some strange reason! so we went on the tour and met karl kennedy and visited ramsey street and the school etc etc!! this was all very surreal bein in neighbours!! real people actually live on the street
Synchronized Swimming Synchronized Swimming Synchronized Swimming

Strange but interesting sport!
and its a lot smaller than it looks on tele! we couldnt get into the neighbours night that night which meant we had 2 make sure we got in the next week which also meant stayin in melbourne for than first anticipated!

we happened to be in melbourne on the busiest weekend of the year apparently as the grand prix was on and there was the FINA swimming and Aquatics championships, along with a few more festivals (e.g. food and wine festival). This had its pros and cons - it was good fun to be in a major city when its so full of life and every1 is doing something but on the other hand we had to leave our lovely hostel as they were fully booked and we needed to stay for the neighbour night!!! so we searched on the net for a couple of hours and everywhere was booked until we found this one place so we booked it for 5 nights to get it over and done with! then........ we googled the hostel and all the really bad comments came up on it like 'never stay here, its the worst hostel ive ever stayed in!' and 'there are no doors on the showers and there are japanese men that perve on the women' and just general bad stuff! so we were reluctant to stay!! however, we had no choice and we stayed there the whole time and actaully really enjoyed it!! it wasnt dirty at all and our room was fine!! it had a really old skool pacman machine which i was obviously obsessed with and played every day!! i miss it so much!

anyway, the tourist stuff we did.....here goes...im just gonne list them coz ive soooo much to write about: synchronized swimming (FINA championships), men and womens diving (FINA), melbourne zoo, melbourne gaol (old jail), botanical gardens (fell alseep and got drenched with rain!) and of course the long awaited NEIGHBOURS NIGHT!! we met toadie, steph and boyd and karl kennedy;s band played for us!! such a good night!!

we tore ourselves away from melbourne to arrive in sydney! here we were planning on meetin up with 2 lads we met ages ago in thailand. so they showed us the good places to go out coz they were now living in sydney trying to get a job! we only had 6 days
The Sydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House

View from the Bridge
in sydney so everything was a bit rushed coz we wanted 2 see everythin but it all worked out fine in the end! we did the bridge and opera house which i have taken an obscene amount of photos of!! we did the tour around the opera house which im glad we did coz theres some quite interesting history behind how it was built etc! we wnt up the sky tower as well which had an amazin view of sydney!!

we also did the famous walk from coogee beach to bondi along the coatline which takes about 2 hours!! its such a gorgeous coastline with amazin beaches and really good swimming too!! we obviously attempted our infamous wave diving that we had mastered in thailand! the water was soooo much colder here tho than thailand! another famous beach we visted was manley beach! i wish we stayed there a couple of nights coz this place was so laid back and chilled out and the beach was a lot of fun with loads of surfers everywhere! but you cant have everything!! we visted darling harbour at night which is very picturesque, especially at night! the hostel we were stayin in
2 in 12 in 12 in 1

A view of the bridge and the opera house in one picture!
in sydney was called wake up and it was my favourite hostel so far!! everythin was perfect in it - they had got it down to a T!! there were to 18 year old english lads in our room who had got a permanent visa and moved out here for life!!! we thought that was a bit strange to do that so young!! overall, we met some really nice people in sydney and carried on meetin sound people up the coast!!

next stop, byron bay. we decided to get a ticket for the greyhound coaches and travel up the coast that way coz its an open ticket and you get to see more of oz!! and we cnt afford to fly everywhere! so we had a 12 hour overnight trip to byron which went quicker than i thought coz we could have a kip! we really enjoyed byron bay! the beach is once again amazin (i dont think there is a bad beach in oz!). we hired bikes from our hostel and went on a bike ride up the hill to see the lighthouse and get a good view of the bay! its also the most eastern point in oz! but the weather wasnt on our side coz when we got near to the top the rain got very heavy! so our photos arent that great unfortunately! the climb was knackereing coz we are soooo unfit at the mo!!
we also tried boogie boarding in byron as the waves were very big! every1 in oz has kept on goin on about how dangerous it is to swim in the ocean where your not supposed to due to these currents called rips! i dont think you can quite grasp how strong these currents are until your in them!!! the drift in byron bay was immense! we literally drifted about 30m in about 4 mins and that was with hardcore swimming against it! we obviously didnt get caught in a rip coz we probably wouldnt be alive if we did! but that current was strong enought ot get us slightly worried!! never-the-less we powered thru and tried boogi boarding but got a bit sick of it when we were absolutely knackered and had got nowhere!! so we just wave dived again!!
all-in-all, byron bay was an amzin place and we didnt want to leave once again but we had fraser island to look forward next and i could hardly contain my excitement!! i had butterflies in my stomach for 2 days!!

it was just a 5 hour drive up the coast to Hervey bay (which is where we are now). It is a stop off point for fraser island! we had booked a package through a company called beaches to include 2 nights 3 days trip on fraser island and 2 days 1 night trip on the whitsundays, and some extra free nights in hostels on the bays.

the first day of our fraser island trip, we had to meet at 6.30 to have the talk about everythin and sort out camping gear and buy the food and alcohol with the group we were put in!! we were so lucky with our group! we were all at pretty much the same stage in our lives (just finished uni) and every1 was easy going and had a great laugh together, apart from one canadian girl who was a bit older (28) and she let us know she was a corporate lawyer and thats why she is so serious all the time apparently!! but she was nice enough and got on with every1, just a bit patronising! our group consisted of her, us 3 (obv), 2 really sound lads from south england (posh medic students but not arragont at all thank god!), 2 french girls who were really nice as french people go and one lad from manchester who was as immature as me which was fun!!! we ste off, piled into our 4WD car and hooped on the ferry to fraser island!! there are no roads on the island, just sandy paths and "The Highway" which is just a 75 mile stretch of beach!! quite strange but fun! we had our itinery set out for us so all we had to do was follow it! the tracks were sooo bumpy that a few of us hit our heads on the roof! such a laugh tho!! You cant go to fraser island and not get stuck in some soft sand - and we got stuck a few times!! but we all helped and managed to push ourselves out! we visited 3 places on our first day - a gorgeous lake surrounded by sand dunes, a freshwater creek where you can walk to the top of and float all the way down to where the car was parked (you could drink the water it was that clear!) then we saw the shipwreck on the beach which is quite famous so most of you have prob seen pics of! we had to be at our base camp by 4.30 to set up our tents before dark! we timed in to perfection and we arrived (with me driving by the way which was soooo much fun!!) at 4.29pm!! every1 chipped in and we set up our tents in record time! then we cooked our dinner which was a lovely bbq (aussie style thru and thru!). our base camp was the only on eon the island apparently! we had all the ammenities - toilets, showers, cooking equipment! another group that was there the same time as were insane!! it was a mixture of swedes and essex boys which isnt a good mix, especially with a lot of alcohol! they were mad!

after a bit of a paryt the night before, we had to get up at 5.30 am in the morn to make sure we could get down the beach before high tide came in at 9.03am!! its amazin how much you can fit in 1 day when you get up soo early! on our 2nd day we visted a few more sights including a lake where if you clap under water all the turtles come up to see you! so cute! on the way to this lake we got stuck like 3 times in the soft sand and it wasnt even 7 in the morning yet! we were quite tired! after a long long day we got back to camp and had pretty similar evening to the night before! the next day we had to get up even earlier ( if thats possible!) at 5am coz we had to take the tents town! once again, we did this in record time!! 9 people with that number of sleeping bags, mats and 2 tents and we got ready, packed and everythin in 20 mins!! oh and loaded the car! thats what you call teamwork!

our last day we saw some of the most amazin beaches i have ever seen in my life!! you have prob heard of lake mckenzie - its number 5 in the top beaches in the world! this was gorgeous white sand and perfectly clear water you could drink! however we visited another lake exactly the same but not famous so it had no people there! so we preferred this one!!

before we knew it the trip was over and we had to come back to hervey bay! our group all went out for a meal together coz we all had such a good time in eachother's company! however, every1 has left now from our group and its just us 3 left waiting for another overnight bus to airlie beach where we do our whitsundays trip!! i get soo nervous with excitement every time i think about it!! i cant wait!! i love living and sleeping on boats (i think i take after my dad there!) and we might get to do another dive!!

all-in-all, fraser island has definately been the highlight of the trip so far and i think of my lifE!!!! but you never know, whitsundays may take its place!! we will have to wait and see!! i hope we get a good group coz that makes such a difference!!

until next time..................

P.S. these are a few links to my photo albums ive put on facebook! enjoy!! (you might have to copy and paste it into the toolbar at the top mum)

http://shef.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081617&l=91205&id=61100641
http://shef.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086685&l=e5b90&id=61100641
http://shef.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086696&l=cb447&id=61100641

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