Drowning in the Goon- OZ Continued

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Hey guys,

Well time has sure flown by since the last time i wrote to everyone. I am now in Cairns, Australia on my Last day in this great country. Just sitting in Peterpans, wishing they would stop blasting really loud music and thinking about how the last 5 weeks flew by. My last entry was from a Peterpans in Sydney right before New Year’s so let’s start back from there.

New Year’s came to quickly, i was pretty tired and we were staying at the Strand Hotel, which trust me was not that great. The people in our 6 person dorm room were just insane...most of them worked for the Hostel and i felt like we were somehow involved in a weird incestuous soap opera. I have never been so happy to leave a Hostel as that one. So onto New Year’s, it was amazing. We had to get up early on the 31st and head down to Botanical Gardens around 8 am and then wait in a line for few hours with a few thousand fellow backpackers at some points it rained, not pleasant. When we eventually made it into the grounds we immediately tried finding the best sight to spend the next 14 hours waiting for New Year’s. We walked by the stairs to the Pier where you needed special wrist bands and to our luck the man handing them out came and gave our group a bunch. We and a 100 other people got wrist bands to the best viewing sight in the whole botanical garden and one of the best views in all of Sydney for the Display. There was a pretty large group of us down on the pier, some people i had known from the hostel or previous trips through OZ. We spent the day having a lot of chill fun down by the water, lots of good music, food and stories. When nightfall came around you could feel the excitement around as New Year’s was coming closer. We ended up buying a few super expensive beers just so we weren't completely sober for New Year’s. This ended up with us buying bottles of wine and spending far too much time waiting in Porto potty lines..large mistake there haha. When the two sets of fireworks finally started, i was completely breath taken. They were the best firework display i have ever seen and was just so taken back by the beauty. It felt like for the first time on this trip that i could just sit back and really enjoy the moment for once, i thought of nothing but this show and how lucky i was to be where i was at that moment. After the show was over, most of the people in the gardens crawled back to their hostels or to some kind of after-party for some more craziness. I for one was exhausted and passed out pretty soon after 1 am, only after knocking a whole glass of goon onto my bed...so my first night of 2012 was spent in a goon drenched hostel bed haha...couldn't think of anything better.

New Year ’s Day involved a bit of a road trip across town to Bondi Beach. Nat and I and a few other girls from our Hostel ended up busing it across town to this extremely populated beach destination. I remember lying on the beach getting texts from my friends back home, while they were getting ready for New Year’s parties. It was really weird to be into New Year ’s Day when everyone back home was still in 2011. We spent most of the time tanning/sleeping on the beach since the water temperature was actually quite cold. The only time we went in was to try and get onto Bondi Rescue the Reality TV show they have there for their Lifeguards. Not really sure if we did ever get on in the background and no one could be talked into fake drowning haha.

From Sydney we caught an overnight Bus to amazing Byron Bay, we arrived very early in the morning and once we made it to the hostel (Arts Factory) we find out we have to wait 6 hours to get our bed in the TEEPEE where we are sleeping. I ended up spending these five hours tanning by the pool and people watch. This was very entertaining especially since this was a very Hippie inspired Hostel with quite a few unique individuals. Nat Completely passed out in the lounge with our bags haha. By the time we got our Beds inside the 10 person Teepee, i was beyond tired that i was in hyper phase. Within 2 mins of being in the Teepee i was bite by a mosquito, spider landed on me and i was suffocating from heat. So we decided to run off to the beaches with our new Canadian friend Tosh and sleep there. The next morning i had to wake up early and head out Surfing with Mojo Surf. This was a lot of fun, spent 4 hours in the Water and i have to say i did pretty well. I cannot wait to go surfing again; i think my next trip needs to be to a surfing destination.

After a few days in Byron Bay we took yet another bus to Rainbow Beach where i stayed at Dingo’s. Rainbow beach is the gateway to Fraser Island and we had a 3 day Jeep tour planned for there. If you are not sure what Fraser Island is it is a UNESCO world site and largest sand island in the world. It is composed of tall rainforests, half of the world’s freshwater lakes, countless dunes and lots of DINGOS! This tour was a blast, we spent our time tanning on the beautiful dunes, climbing rock faces, swimming in the beautiful freshwater lakes, camping by the Ocean, sleeping in Swags/tents, getting jeeps stuck in dunes and lastly running from Dingo’s. We had far too many encounters with Dingo’s, they stole food, broke into our tents and more than once i would turn around from going to the bathroom and they would be right behind me. They are very cute but deadly wild dogs so i had a pretty healthy fear of them.

After we finished our amazing Fraser Island Tour we hopped onto another Greyhound bus and drove up the coast till we hit Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Island's. So now we have hit the area of Australia that is infested by Stingers (poisonous jellyfish). You cannot go near the water without seeing signs warning you about these deadly creatures. So naturally when i learned we were doing a 3 day sailing cruise, that included swimming and snorkeling in these waters, i was freaked. We jumped onto our Sail boat in the Marina called the Clipper the second day there to find it was composed of a large number of our Fraser Island friends, Fraser Part 2. The Clipper was a 60 person boat; hot tub, bar, diving board, beer fridge equipped! The tour was definitely oriented towards younger party goers than people trying to enjoy the Whitsunday’s. Pretty sure my liver was beyond angry at me by the end; I woke up with Goonmornings more than not. Most of this excursion was a drinking fest, with a lone time of heading onto Whit Heaven Beach. I did a pretty crappy snorkel of one of the reefs, but i spent most of the time freaking out about if my stinger suit was covering every inch of my body. I would not Recommend the Clipper unless you literally want to be trapped on a party boat for 3 days.

After the drunken fest that was the Clipper we stayed in Airlie one more night before heading up to Cairns our final stop in Oz!! Once we arrived in Cairns we got ready to head out on our ProDive trip into the Great Barrier Reef. We spent 3 days on a yacht and dived 11 times. This was literally EAT, SLEEP, DIVE. I was diving in my sleep by the end of this experience. One night the boat even broke off of its moors during a swell and i was almost thrown out of bed from the waves. Totally worth it though, this trip made me a far better diver then i ever would have been. They teach you how to navigate the reefs on your own and you grab your buddy and go. Nat and I did 11 dives all on our own well there was a compass involved as well! We had so much fun down there, especially when cameras were brought. The most memorable dive was called the Shark tank and was our second night dive. You literally jumped on top of Grey Reef sharks that are 2-4 meters long. We sat in the water and watch them feed all around us for 30 mins. Oh also saw a water sprout during one of the Storms, pretty sweet. I was excited to be heading back to mainland on the third day though but also sad cause i was not sure when i would dive next after this.



And now you are brought back to the present, I am in Cairns relaxing, slightly partying and getting ready to leave this great country to head over to Kiwi Land! Only spending two weeks in New Zealand so it will be jam packed with things to do and people to see, cannot wait!

So from the other side of the world i bid farewell!

Alicia

XOXOX

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