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Published: August 11th 2006
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Heaven
Whitehaven Beach. Who needs that great British summer, look where I am! Hey peeps, sorry for such a long time since my last blog but Ive been having far too much fun to sit and put it all on here!
From Melbourne I made my way up to Sydney and was lucky enough to have a good couple of days of sunshine to do the typical Sydney stuff like the Opera House, Harbor Brigade and Bondi beach. I also went up the Oz tower, looking out over the city which was nice and it also had the 'Oz Trek' thrown in, which was the worst thing I have ever seen, little animated figures talking us though Oz. Gay as! Unfortunately the weather turned and boy did it rain. Apparently Sydney is blessed with 300 sunny days a year, shame I only saw a couple of them.
From Sydney I head south to Wollongong to see a friend, John that I had met up In Darwin. The city its self is really nothing special, but he lives right by the beach which made a perfect setting for lunch and eating donuts (well he is a policeman, so when in Rome) Nights were pretty much were spent in the North Gong, his local but also
included a poker night which being the expert at poker I somehow won! We also went to such a Basingstoke bar it was full of the white stilettos and white skirts, it almost made me miss it. All this living as a non backpacker with John and Claire and Andrew made me feel very strange about backpacking again but I met some wicked girls on the bus from Sydney to Byron Bay and certainly lifted my spirits.
The girls, Keeley, Gemma, Anna and Liz brought a very girlie welcome relief from traveling with the guys down the middle and HAIR STRAIGHTENERS!! We were staying in the coldest room ever so took it as an excuse to start drinking so we would sleep in our beer coats. This was my first introduction to 'Goon', wine boxes worth $7 roughly 3 pound and counting nuts, milk and fish?? It doesn't actually say wine anywhere on the box, but certainly does the job. So much so that Gemma managed to fall out of the club and sprain her ankle, all we had to do was cross the road to get home and we still failed due to the Goon. The next day
we stumbled upon the wicked sunset with loads of hippies playing bongos and didgeridoos, was so nice and chilled and very Byron Bay.
After that we decided it would be good to see the sunrise at the most Easterly point in Oz and we were also treated to a few dolphins too. Next stop was Surfers Paradise up the coast. It was very strange compared with hippy Byron it was all high rise buildings right on the beach. We hap pend to be there when the 'Backpacker Club Crawl' was going on so figured it would be rude not to. It involved about 100 backpackers being dragged around 5 clubs (very 18-30's) The clubs were true class but I somehow managed to make all 5, not that I really remember anything after the first!
On up the coast again Nossa being the next stop. Thankfully it was a really nice small chill out place, just what the doctor ordered. So we chilled on the beach for a bit and went for a stunning walk through the National Park along the coastline, where there are meant to be Koalas in the wild. Yer right,another 'wild animal' the Ozzie tourist
The Girls and the Goon
Me, GOON, Liz, Keeley, Gemma and Anna before the Club Crawl. You dont wanna see the after! board claim exist in he wild when they are blatantly bred to keep tourists happy, like the kangaroos! Keep the tourists happy the next day as we went to Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin- the Crocodile Hunter. Should so be named Steve Irwin Zoo, its soo all about him even with 'Crikey' com potions. Was a really cool day and go to pet koalas, wombats and roos. No appearance from the man himself but were other crazy men baiting the crocs out, thankfully no petting there!
Up the coast again and Rainbow Beach was our base for Fraser Island, the huge sand bar island home to many dingo's. We were on a self drive safari, being 5 girls we got put lots of boys, 3 Germans and 3 Irish who became know as Alvin, Simon, Theodore do do do do do. So we got sent off into the sand pit by Merv the VERY Ozzie hire car fella with 'smiles on our diles'. Our fist stop on the island was Lake Wabby a huge lake surrounded by sand as far as the eye could see. The Mareno wreck was our next stop for obligatory photos and a game
of footie to show the Gers how its really done. I took over the driving at this point, wicked fun and only a minor stickage in the deeper sand. That night was taken up by singing around the eskies (cooler boxes) and included Frasier Idol, oh what beer, goon and vodka does to you. My 'Stevie Copple's magic' wasn't a winner. Sadly overnight the weather changed for the worse , so much for the 'drought' here, my word did it rain. All to much for the Germans and they voted themselves off the island. Not before we strode down Eli creek in our undies in an attempt to lift team spirits. That night we arranged to meet other teams at Lake McKenzie only to get halfway there to find a no camping sign and have an incident with a 3 point turn and a tree. We ended up hooking up with another team a had a beer or 'two' only for one of them chuck up everywhere on leaving our camp. Great way to attract dingo's, time to sleep in the truck! Next day thankfully the weather came good and gave us a chance to dry off and sunbathe around
Go Team C
All that was left after the rain, chilling at Lake Mckenzie the stunning Lake McKenzie, beautiful clear blue lake with white sand beach. Back to civilisation and hot showers, all taken in allocated time slots being with 5 Girls. Sea kayaking was next on the agenda supposedly with dolphins but no luck for us, just cruising in on the waves as the sunset.
The Whitsunday's where our next destination after a night in Koalas in Airle Beach, prob the worst hostel ever, you even had to put a deposit on to use a saucepan. Our boat, Boomerang was a rather feminine boat with 24 out of the 28 on board being girls. We did lots of snorkeling around the islands and the fish were awesome if a little close to me when the crew decided to throw bread in around us. The next day was Liz's birthday and what a way to spend it. We snorkeled in the morning only to get back on the boat and see whales and turtles. Our destination was Whitehaven Beach and probably the most stunning beach I'll ever sea, clear blue water and stunning white sand, very easy to see why its the No.2 beach in the world and even had baby sharks in the lagoons. Awesome. Back to mainland with some real sailing on our maxi sailing boat, tipping all other the shop. After a rather heavy post sailing party, we just about managed to drag ourselves on the the bus next morning to head up to Magnetic Island for another chill out.
Was great, we stayed right on the beach and your could even see it from our room. Sadly this was the end of the five some. Gemma and Keeley had more time so stuck around as Liz, Anna and I head for Cairns. Sadly the nightlife was far to much fun and lead to a rather hungover trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. The journey itself was rough but add a hangover and pass the sick bag. The dive was sadly over far too quick but the snorkeling was so much better. Really gave you the time to explore me the chance to follow a turtle for 20 Min's or so. Time for goodbyes to Anna and Liz as we head our separate ways. I'm now back in Sydney after a trip to Wollongong, couldn't come back and not go to the North Gong, and flying out to New Zealand in the morning. Have to say Ive loved Oz more than I ever thought I would and am sad to be leaving But bring on NZ!
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