Noosa, Australia

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Luckily when we arrived in Noosa we had a mini bus transfer already waiting for us to take us to our hostel. We got chatting to an English guy called Christian who was sound and it was just a short 10 minute drive to the hostel, which on first viewing looked decent but it was small and we soon realised that everyone had their own little clicks which is a massive no no when you are travelling. Even when i said hello as i walked past one group i barely got a response, great start... We had a 4 bed room with an apartment style shared kitchen with one other room. There was a French couple sharing a room with us that looked like they had been there a while and they were very touchy feely with each other even when we were cramped in the tiny room with them so that was a bit awkward. After sorting our stuff we walked into the main town which ended up being much further than we anticipated and it was boiling hot so me and Freeman were both quite aggy. By the time we got to the supermarket we couldn't decide on what to have so we ended up just wandering round on our own and got our own stuff. However, we did go to the liqueur store together to share a 4L box of Fruity Lexia Goon, something that had become a mainstay in our pre drinking routine now, as with most other travellers. We genuinely didn't find it as disgusting as everyone else had made it out to be... After the hellish walk back to the hostel we made lunch and then walked down to the Sunshine Beach about 10 minutes away. They were giving young children surfing lessons so we sat and watched, we couldn't believe how far out these young kids were swimming on their surf boards to then ride the waves back in, it was impressive and something which i imagine would never be allowed in the UK because of Health & Safety, although it must be said they were supervised by a couple of experienced adult surfers. We had a quick paddle ourselves and for the first time the sea wasn't freezing cold! Back at the hostel we cooked dinner, showered, watched some of the Winter Olympics and went downstairs to drink our goon. We played cards and then got chatting to 3 lads who said they were from Nottingham, it turned out they were from Selston and when we said we used to play football against them we realised that we recognised each other and had played against each other the season before. If that wasn't strange enough, it turned out our teams were playing each other the following day, so if we all weren't in Australia we would have been with each other the next day anyway, crazy! Around 10 of us got a mini bus out as it was Valentines Day and it was fairly busy at the bar we went to but it was full of guys which wasn't ideal. We had a pretty average night which mainly consisted of talking about football, typical lads... In the end me and Freeman walked back to the hostel which wasn't as bad after a few bevvies.

In the morning we got up and had breakfast, watched the Winter Olympics in our living room for a few hours and headed down to the beach for the day. We were going to rent out surf boards and try to teach ourselves but they wanted a $100 deposit and a further $20 to rent it so we decided against it. Me and Freeman went in the sea for a couple of hours which was actually quite fun because the waves were pretty big so we were just getting dominated by them and loved it! Freeman then had a lie down so being the big kid that i am i just dug loads of holes in the sand until i reached water. Christian then found us so we all just chatted away and i managed to get them two to help me dig a bigger hole as my little arms couldn't go any deeper... As i was digging i felt something weird on my hand and it turned out to be a crazy shell creature that when we left it in a bit of water it would stick a tongue out of the shell and burrow its way back into the sand. We ended up getting a few of them and placing bets on which one would dig itself into the sand first, as you tell, we didn't have much time on our hands that day... It was late afternoon so we washed all the sand of in the sea and headed back to the hostel, cooked dinner, showered, got ready and got back on the goon with Christian. A Swedish girl from his room also joined us so we played some card drinking games and headed to the bar next to Nomads hostel again. We also met up with Laura and Amy again, who we had met in Byron, as we needed to give them their speakers that they had left behind. We all joined up as a big group and boogied all night long. I ended up arm wrestling one of Laura's mates which was quite funny because she was using both hands and all her weight and still couldn't beat me. Everyone then decided to see who could balance their drink on their head the best which luckily didn't end in disaster because we had 'spotters' to make sure the drink didn't end up on the floor. We then all just bopped around the bar before we headed back to our hostel, a great night out all round.

We were up early again in the morning to pack, get our transfer to the bus station and get our bus to Rainbow Beach, which was a 7 hour journey. We had one night in Rainbow Beach planned before heading to Fraser Island, something i was extremely looking forward to!

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