Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy...

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Having spent a day in Singapore bored and patiently awaiting the arrival of the taxi to take us to the airport we were all ready to leave Singapore. We were taken to the airport under the impression that our flight was at a different time and with Qantas - it turned out that it was with Jetstar and was earlier than expected. Thank god we all have different intineries...good old STA travel and the reliable service we've been getting with them. Anyways we luckily went to the airport slightly earlier and got the plane no bother. Having been warned on several occasions about the price of booze I picked up a bottle of Vodka from duty free only for it to be confiscated on the way into customs in Darwin. Not best impressed I demanded to know why as it was a sealed bottle and bag that it was in and I was told that it could be liquid explosives...funnily enough not for the plane but for the country of Australia. Not a great welcome considering then flying into Cairns we were inspected again by a sniffer dog only to find that Holly was taken aside and told to empty his bag. The bag had a crushed forgotten 15 bun in it and a pack of biscuts that when suggested to the customs officer (who for some reason was wearing something that looked strangely like lederhosen) that this might be what the skinny hungry dog was after he replied, "No...I don't think it could be that...lets just keep on looking here the dogs are trained to only smell certain things." Anyway we got into taxis and headed for the hostel and got into a couple of rooms and headed straight for the pool slightly concerned at the "No Alcohol past this point" sign on the front gate. That would have to be ignored ove rthe next few days!

Anyway after lazing about Cairns that day having a walk down town to check it out we arranged to go to the Great Barrier Reef the following day, we had a carry out in the room and headed to a club called the Woolshed. It was an alright night's craic, Lenny making sure he was the first to pull in OZ with a thing from the black lagoon. Ciaran and I walked home that night and Ciaran and lenny got into a water fight back at the hostel which ended in ciaran putting his shoulder against the door of one of the rooms we were staying in "breaking" a fire door...we'll get back to that later. The following day, partially crippled by the alcohol we headed to the pier to set off on a boat to out reef. This was going to be a boat ride to remember as the McGoldricks had a rough bout of sea sickness, so bad that Barry was considering not going out to dive till a pep talk from uncle Cbass (which consisted of "get up you arsehole you didn't pay 150 bucks to sit on a boat feeling sorry for yourself and being sick!!") which seemed to perk him up. Anyways we all went a 7/8 metre dive down to see the coral. I enjoyed it along with Holly and a few others though I have a feeling that doing it yourself would be better and also without half the gang being sick and moping around. The journey back consisted of sickness, sleep and shrek so all in all a successful evening. That night everyone tried to sleep off the ill effects and got up with the intentions of sorting out travel arrangements.

For me the next day arrived with panick as first of all we decided to confess about the door as we were the only ones in the room and we were charged 1500 dollars!! Outrageous, but again i'm sure it was just the accent and the big thickoes from the island. Next I was cracking up at the thought of being in Cairns for another day. My fast tracked Vietnamese adventure had made me impatient with staying anywhere too long and I had seen the highlight of the town, in my opinion. Conan and Barry set off looking for cars and me and Daly took a wander. We came back with a few options however Barry and Conan had hit the jackpot. Two cars one 8 seater and one estate car for 1800 dollars. Barry, Mccarry, Mully and myself haeaded down to meet Taz (a strange fella from the north of Queensland) who was to get us sorted with the cars. I had fallen in love with the 8 seater which we would affectionately come to call the bug, a white toyota Hiace with bull bars for those pesky roos and which had no power steering and drove like an automatic tank. The second of the two cars was a Nissan estate which had no air con and was to be home to Barry, Holly, McCarry and Mully for the majority of our trip down.

We drove up to the hostel and loaded the cars up with bags and people and set off to mission beach. This was a very quiet town with not alot going on but an amazing beach. We had stopped on the way and picked up a tent and a few essentials like BBQ food for that night and we had a few drinks, mostly beer and goon, and a Auzzy barby. We met a couple of people and tried to head to a night club which consisted of the bar staff so we left it and headed home to the tent. Lenny and I went a walk thinking we could find a party at 3 am - surprisingly we didn't but came across two hippies, one of which tried to convince me that she was the lord Jesus Christ reincarnated and that she could perform miracles - i was unconvinced and began arguing which as always did know good so I agreed to disagree and we left to begin the start of sleeping in the cars.

The next day we got up and decided to move on and after a quick look around the sunday market and headed down the road with a stop in townsville for a swim and to cool down after the journey. Having arrived there was a though about staying there for the night and we asked at a couple of hotels and motels only to be replied to in one "You wana camp...in TOWNSVILLE" almost in disbelief at the thought. We also asked a random guy on the street for directions to the nearest campsite and he offered us to come and stay in his back garden, a thought that eptrified a couple of the lads having Wolf creek in their minds, though I think old Rodney just wanted some drinking buddies as Ciaran described him as "stinking of alcohol." We were in two minds about whether or not to stay in the town as we were given sound advice from a random who was in a petrol station to "get the hell out of here, townsville is shit." We decided to hit the road with a carry out and head to Airlie beach. I drove the bug and Mully drove the newly nicknamed sudan, as the rest of the guys picked up a carry out consisting of goon and beer and we hit the long road down. We arrived late on the sunday night and unsurprisingly we were out of luck finding a campsite that was cheap and was open at that time, so we found a field close to the town and set up camp there for the night. We headed out again driving down town and ended up in an irish bar and listened to an awful punk band while Lenny hunted on unsuspecting victims. We left the club early and being turned from the next place as lenny was a little too over the drunken limit we hit Micky D's and watched him gorge on extra fries.

The following morning I awoke around 5.30 having slept on what can only be described as being as soft as concrete and no blanket or pillow, so I went to retrieve the car parked down the road and Ciaran and I set out to find some showers to get cleaned up. On our travels we found showers along with a no camping notice that warned of on the spot fines of up to two and a half grand for camping in places that weren't allowed you to. This scared us enough to forget about getting a shower and race back up to the camp where we parked and in the day light saw that a sign was in the field saying the exact same thing. I think in the next 2 and a half minutes the tent was down, the boys being told the good news and them getting the same fright as Ciaran and I, there was no wasting time. We hit the town in search of a campsite and on the outskirts we came across a place with a pool and poolslide (more importantly) for about 11 dollars a night which as you can imagine in the searing heat wasa god send. We spent the day in the pool and having a BBQ and being Conan's birthday we were for heading out and having a bit of a shin dig. Unfortunately Barry and myself got into a heated argument which ended in both of us in bad form but we all headed out anyway despite my threats of not going out (some would say throwing the toys out of the pram). We ended up in a club africa which was one lady to 30 men so the guys were a little disappointed, maybe monday nights out aren't that big a night out...

The following day we set off once again south with the intention of getting down as far as we could. I had the joy of a six and a half hour journey in the cage (the very back seat of the bug where no one can hear you and that is very cramped). We were driving a good bit of the day and ended up late in a place called rockhampton where we styed the night to break up the journey. The campsite was cool enough but it was to be an kinda quiet night and a few of the lads met a couple from Meath who got chatting about south american over a dominos pizza. The following day we got up and hit the road once again to get down to Hervey bay. This is a quiet but cool beach town where we stopped in for a couple of days in a campsite owned by a guy called John Palin (again shit with names so apologies if it's wrong) who was decent enough to give us accommodation for half price and helped us sort out where to get a tour of fraiser island sorted. We've been lucky with some people that we've met when travelling and John was a gentleman and his kindness was far and above the call of duty.

After a couple of nights in Hervey we set about heading across to Fraiser Island. In preparation for this we bought supplies (some people going slightly overboard, McCarry buying 90 dollars worth of food and crap for the trip) and Ciaran set about making three days worth of food for himself - his own recipe which consisted of sweet potatoes, chicken, onions, carrots and amongst other things black bean sauce only to then taste it to remember that he hates the taste of black bean sauce. It was only 3 hours of cooking wasted but to be fair he put on a brave face and took it anyway. We arrived the morning of our excursion to Fraiser to pick up two Land Cruisers and headed to the boat. After a half hour trip across the water we got onto fraiser and experinced the most horrific treks for 4x4s ever seen. The best craic driving but also very dangerous and easy to get stuck as we came across many a time over the next three days. We headed to a lake towards the south of the island only to find it wasn't quite what we were expecting and so we headed to lake McKenzie. On the journey we came to a junction where a bus had got stuck and arguments erupted between those taking tours and those who were doing Fraiser themselves like us. One guy in particular tried to stop everyone going through except buses and was at one stage near fist fighting with an English guy. Eventually a warden came along who worked on the island and let us head on through and we arrived at one of the most beautiful beaches and fresh water lakes imaginable. Some of the guys had got there before us thanks to McCarrys sneeky drive through when the gestapo wasn't looking and they had set off swimming across this lake so Ciaran and I headed out too, last time I swim that far ever again! We headed back to the beach and set up camp about 5 km away from the nearest shop and bar. That night we started a carryout with just the ten of us and no light but by the end of the night and help of my guitar and a french guy called charlie and his guitar and harmonica combo there was a crowd of over 25 and we all sang and drank till we hit the hay. Lenny and I continued our dislike of the tent and slept in the jeeps.

The next day we got up and headed for the north of the island stopping by a ship wreck and ending up at the top called indian head where the view was mind blowing and the heat was deadly. A few photos and it was off again down to the next 'green river' wabby with a quick stop off and sleep for some in the nearest shopping market. We got to Wabby to find sanddunes surronding this green lake that was full of Catfish and we all spent the end of the afternoon cooling off. We returned to camp once again and got chatting to charlie and matt from another tour group and enjoyed the craic. We also met three girls from down, who did their best to piss everyone off and generally annoy us, ending with them kicking my guitar, nearly breaking it and losing conan's 35 quid torch. McCarry still had his fun and assured one of them that he wasn't usually this forward, christ knows how he kept a straight face. The next day it was one more trip to McKenzie before we went and then back to the mainland to leave back the cars. However when we awkoe we had a flat tyre in one of the jeeps so after an hour or so of mccarry trying to get the other wheel down he'd sorted it and we were off. Fraiser was unreal and probably the best part I'd seen of Oz. We hit the road that night and headed to rainbow beach for a night before we made our way to brisbane.

Conan drove us to bribane down the highway much to the rage of Sean leo and lenny as they wanted to go the scenic route. However we were there and we set out making our way to a hostel as there was little or no camp sites that we could find. We found one and booked in for the night. It didn't get off to a good start as we were split between two rooms and conan and sean leo were in a room without air con even though we all paid the same price for the rooms, and they had not given me a key to the room which was to be solved when I got into the room to find that there was no bed free. We went to reception and had trouble convincing the English bitch at front desk that I wasn't lying about the key and that there was someone in the room still that shouldn't be. Two of them came down to inspect the room and ended up taken out some asian girls stuff without her being there. Later on we started having a carry out in the room only for a staff member to come in and try to confiscate the booze much to the disgust and anger of the lads. 30 dollars a night seemed a bit steep for this sort of treatment but we all said ok sorry and then continued on regardless. We headed out that night with Nicky Frizelle who was starting work in the hostel the following day. The bar was ok and cool enogh though as everything very dear and as I headed home met Conan and we spent about 3 hours talking and walking home arriving in around 5.30am. We all got up determined to get our deposits back off the hostel and heaed to meet Davy O'Kane. We jumped into his pool and chated about our travels and about his work and whether or not he was coming with us for a road trip to surfer's paradise. He had food and a couple of beers and then agreed to meet in Byron.

We headed on down the road to surfer's that night where I had argeed to meet up with my uncle vinny and my cousin emma and family. I left the group and spent the night with them meeting them and catching up with with big vin. Lucky for me they offered me the couch for the evening and I had a great night's sleep. The next day I got up and went to meet the boys and to pick up some stuff having been invited to a BBQ at my other cousin Damien's house I arrived with the boys to find they'd spent the night on the beach and were in bad form and looking cheered up in the form of booking into a hotel. I helped a distraught Sean leo look for a cheaper alternative however it didn't appear and they checked into the islander for the day and I headed off with vin on the train to get to Damiens. I spent the night drinking "heavies" and having a gormet BBQ from the masterchef Damien. Was good craic catching up and again I was able to spend the night on thier sofa so was very greatful. The rest of the lads took full advantage of the hotel they'd booked into and enjoyed a nights sleep with conan, barry, holly and another (can't remember, apologies) went out for drinks and ended up in a late bar till the early in the morn.

The next day I got up said my goodbyes and had breakfast and met up with everyone and we spent the day at the beach and around the town and then hit the road once more to byron. We arrived into the town and found a campsite, the owner with a bit of a chip on his shoulder with us for one reason or another. Set up camp and headed into the town for a wander. Byron was really cool and chilled out and had a nice beach and surfer's attitude. Later on that night we headed to cheeky monkeys, a club at the far end of town. Lenny had been drinking red goon and we had met Melanie, who was a woman who actually worked in a circus. She drank with us and we headed out without her only to find that lenny couldn't get in, possibly due to the fact he was slurring his slurred words, maybe because he thought he was in Airlie beach over 900 miles away or maybe because his mouth and teeth were dyed black from the goon he was drinking. He was taken home and put in the tent and the rest of us bar Mully who'd manage to find a young cuddy in the queue and dissappear off with her, went into the bar. It was an average enough night and went home with a few pies from the 23 hour bakery. The following morning lenny got up and threww all the toys out of the pram, taking the biggest hissy fit I've witnessed much to my own amusement. That day was gonna be a road trip for me lenny mccarry and ciaran, along with weird melanie. We hit an hour and a half drive to Nimbin, hippy capital of Oz. It was a crazy crazy town with real hippies. It was like being in a time warp stuck in the 60s or 70s. We drove home after a while and then we had an earlier night. Another day in Byron went by, Ciaran, Daly and I seeing a 2D Avatar (shit film) and later on we were to meet up with Davy.

Davy arrived and it starting lashing down. We got some food and ended up in a bar buying rounds, even though none of us could afford it. So after us all clambering to get the rounds in before the price went up the bar man told the bouncers to go over to us and we were warned about taking it easy with the drinking much to our annoyance as we literally we doing nothing wrong. We left the bar and had more booze in the car and headed to monkeys once again. Another strange night Lenny and I ended up sleeping in a car park in the sudan while the rest of the boys bar mully and mccarry, who were 'curttin', headed on down to sydney. A long drive shared by holly and sean leo which they gained a few driving offences and fines adding up to around 700 dollars. The next morning I awoke to another parking ticket and after a few hours mully and mccarry arrived. Mully had his wallet stolen the night before but luckily it was found again outside the house he stayed in, though the two he suspected of stealing it were cursed to a painful death. We hit the road and as we started driving the rain started puring out of the skies. It was horrendous but at least we weren't out in it, untill the window wiper on my drivers side stopped working. Blinded by the rain we luckily made it to a garage and it was easy enough fixed. We hit the road again not stopping except in hungry jacks for food and reached Sydney and found the hostel relatively easily. Finding out how much it was for parking for the days we decided to leave them back the following day. Again the majority of us headed to bed earily except McCarry and Conan, McCarry doing his best to make me sick in the bottom bunk when he arrived in with a friend.

We all headed off the next day except McCarry, Daly and Mully (Mully staying with friends from uni) to leave the cars to Perry street which was deep into the suburbs of Sydney. After a long day of searching and looking for the street and then trying to get our way back into the city, we decided to just get to see the Opera house and bridge before we went back home. Pain in the arse but that night Kerrie and Keith met up with us as well as Hannah who worked with us during the summer and we headed out for a tame night of pool and scruffy murphys. Conan, the soberist one amongst us was turned at the bar for being too drunk even though he wasn't drinking as he had a bridge climb the next day so he was breathalized to see if he was eligable. Headed back to the hostel with plans of Bondi the next day.

We all got up and set off for Bondi without conan and got the train out to the beach. Was cool and the waves were unreal, though the water was as cold as home. We also had the chore of having to get the deposit back for the cars which involved finding a post office that didn't seem to exist and running all over town looking for it. Alas we were too late and depressed we headed home and got ready to leave for the airport. We arrived out around ten to find that the airport was to be closed at 12 so we had to sleep downstairs in the train arrival part that wasn't locked up. I started using the free internet to get advantage of doing this blog though was chucked off it before I could finish (unsurprisingly) so we made our beds for the night as Lenny McCarry and Conan all talked to a young american called Brooke. As we were sitting about and having a few jokes an Auzzy man sat down and seem to take a dislike to the American girl and was being a bit rude. Thought nothing of it except what a prick, and fell asleep only to be woken about an hour and a half afterwards to be told that my stuff had been stolen by the guy and the police had him. Filled with rage and panick I could barely speak I was so angry, I frantically started a search for my passport, phone and wallet which had been taken through the bins. The police were also looking, took my details and as I contemplated the doomsday senario of having to go back to Sydney to get to the embassy to get home a police man found my passport and phone in a sanitary towel bin. Never been so happy but at the same time pissed off that my cash card and wallet were still gone. Should count my blessings I suppose.

Anyway folks that's Oz for u and it was some 3 weeks but unbelievabley expensive but cool too. Roll on New Zealand, been here a day now and it's awesome. Happy christmas to all and will keep u all up dated as best I can.

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