Week 7

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4/11/10 - Surfers Paradise
Off to some themes parks today. We paid for a pass for Dream World and White Water World. It started raining while we were on the bus heading to the parks.

We started in Dream World and were like kids in a sweet shop with the choice of rides to go on. I suggested we try the first ride we came to which was called The Claw and was like a giant swing that spun around, it was amazing and I felt my stomach being left behind with each swing. Bobby started the ride giggling like a child then went deathly quiet, it turned out that it unsettled his stomach a bit too much, maybe we shouldn't have gone out last night, mwah ha ha ha!

After a couple of roller coasters, lunch and a magic show Bobby spotted a ride called Motocoaster where you were sat on motorbikes to go around the roller coaster, it was great fun and from a standing start we shot off at such a speed I felt the thrills from the beginning.

I really wanted to do the Giant Drop ride which lifted you slowly to the top of a 120 meter track and dropped you to fall straight down at silly speeds before stopping gently near the ground. Bobby chickened out and it was a ride that I needed someone with me on so I didn't go on either.

River rapids next and I'm not sure if I got wetter from the ride or sitting in a soaked seat.

Headed into White Water World and onto some of the rides they have where you sit in an inflatable tube. We got to the first ride and as I sat in the water I said it was cold and the woman running the ride started splashing me, charming. We giggled and I screamed on all the rides we went on in the inflatable tubes as most of them had a sudden drop in them.

We went on the worlds only water coaster where I gripped the handles so tightly as I thought I might fall out. We raced on one water ride and I beat Bobby, yippie.

Our favourite ride was called the Green Room where we were in an inflatable tube and thrown Down a tunnel with a sudden drop which then opened up into a funnel that looked like a megaphone where we slid up one side and came crashing down the other to do the same on the other till we popped out the end.

We have been lucky today as we haven't had to queue for a long, the maximum being 30 minutes for a ride in the theme park and in the water park we didn't have to queue at all.

Time was getting on and we needed to get changed to catch the bus, but all I got from Bobby was just one more ride, we went on two more and got changed (he was still pouting).

We got back and had a shower while waiting for our all you can eat pizza session to start. The pizza was late and there were a lot if hungry people waiting around. We ate as much as we could but the king of the pizza was Nick, a guy who is on our Oz Experience bus. Every time the lady came out to ask if everyone was done he would say bring out one more.

Quote of the day from Bobby 'if oranges are orange then why aren't lemons yellows and limes greens?'


5/11/10 - Byron Bay
All packed again and ready for the next part of our journey. We headed to town as our bus isn't until 3pm. We went for a coffee and then lunch at the Hard Rock cafe which was expensive for what it was but at least I can say I have been to a Hard Rock cafe. We walked (waddled) to the crazy golf called King Tuts Putt Putt and we played a game. On one hole I walked roun

d the corner to take my 2nd shot to find I got a hole in one, yippie. I won the game and Bobby didn't seem best pleased, tee hee.

Caught the bus and headed on down to Byron Bay. Our driver is Wings who has an interesting moustache. We got to Byron and got on the shuttle bus to our new hostel, Cape Byron Lodge. They had lost our reservation so had to upgrade is to a 4 bed dorm. I really like the feel of this hostel, very chilled out.

We walked 20 minutes to town as Wings had booked us a table at cheeky monkeys for dinner. We arrived and ordered one of the cheapest meals we've had here, Bobby's meal came with a jug of beer and I got a free wine voucher, always a good start to the night.

Spent the night chatting to the pizza king Nick and watching bar games. One game involved painting the national flag on your body which a few girls (and bar staff) had painted on their boobs, needless to say the boys loved it.

A few drinks later we walked back to the hostel and called it a night.


6/11/10 - Nimbim
Woke up feeling very tired today and got ready for our trip to Nimbin, the hippie capital of Australia. The Happy Bus picked us up which was painted brightly in multi-colours. We certainly got value for money on this tour. The first stop on the tour was to a lookout point where we had views over Cape Byron Bay. We carried on to a waterfall and to went to the largest gumtree in the Southern hemisphere and I hugged the tree. The driver pointed out a strangling tree which climbs up and surrounds a tree and consumes it, we also saw an example where the strangling tree had consumed a tree and you could see daylight where the original tree had been.

Next stop was Nimbin itself. From the stories I heard I expected to see lots of old hippies walking the streets but it seems to have become quite a tourist attraction, however as we were walking we did get offered a lot weed and 'cookies'.

We had a BBQ lunch which was sausages in slices of bread but we certainly didn't go hungry. We went back to the town to have another look around and have a coffee to warm up as it was chilly today in short shorts.

We got back to the hostel and I jumped straight into bed to warm up (it was 5pm) I ended up falling asleep for a few hours. I was feeling really weak and pathetic and ended up getting ready for bed and sleeping on and off all night as I was hot and cold in the night.

Quote of the day from Mike the driver 'if you see the police then don't buy or do drugs as they won't like it, if you see people doing drugs then don't take pictures as they won't like it, if you use the public toilets then you won't like it'.


7/11/10 - Byron Bay
I woke up late morning feeling really unwell today. So weak all my joints were achy and my limbs heavy. After all the sleep I had I still felt I could sleep for a week. I wanted to see Byron Bay's beach, see the lighthouse and have a look around the town. We started to walk to town and I had to stop at a cafe for a rest. Carried on and I had to sit on a bench for a rest, by now I was getting pretty peed off as I don't want to be ill while travelling.

We decided to go for ice-cream as it was about 2pm by now and after 2 mouthfuls I proceeded to make a spectacle of myself by collapsing in the middle of Byron Bay. I tried to get up after a couple of minutes and Bobby threatened to call an ambulance, I had to sit down again and someone got me some water which Bobby kept getting me to force down.

After around 30 minutes I was feeling a little better and we started our way back slowly. We got back to the hostel and Bobby started dinner while I took all the meat off of a chicken. I came over all funny again and had to rush to the sofa to sit down before I fell, I didn't think I was going to make it. Bobby ended up looking after me all night and we watched movies in the TV room while I laid on the sofa. I still didn't get to see the beach or lighthouse.


8/11/10 - Spot X
Woke up with painful cramps in my stomach today. We got on the Oz Bus and were told we were going to be doing our surf lesson today, I didn't feel up for it at all. The journey to Spot X was around 2-3 hours. We got there and I didn't feel great, I decided to put my bikini on in case I felt better and wanted to try to surf as I had to pay for it anyway.

We were in a dorm with the other 6 people from our bus. We went for our all you can eat lunch with the pizza king Nick. This hostel is a proper surf shack and not that big but I still managed to get lost from one area to the other.

Our surf lesson began with a bit of theory. I planned to have a go and stop if I couldn't go on, i knew i was going to find it difficult when i was tired from carrying the boards to the beach. We hit the waves which seemed to last longer than the waves at 1770. I managed to stand up 4 times but not for long. Everyone was having a great time and we had a photographer taking pics of us all looking cool.

I stopped around 30 minutes before the end of the lesson as I was exhausted. The instructor came to check if I was injured, I said I was just too tired, he suggested I go back for a hot shower and I said I would but couldn't physically carry my board and I was happy to wait till everyone else had finished.

We got cleaned up and ready for dinner. We played cards with our bus crew and looked at our photos, there is actually one of me standing up on my board, hooray! We had a giggle with Nick and got to know Sarah, Alex and Ashley from the bus. Had dinner and we all entered a pool competition, I was out in my first round and Bobby made the final but lost to an awesome pool player.

I kept getting lost in this place and everyone was laughing at me, on the way back to our room Bobby pointed out all the land marks that would help me get to the toilets and back to our room, these landmarks included a manhole cover and a phone box (this meant I had gone too far). Just to rub it in he drew me a map back in our room.


9/11/10 - Sydney
Up early and breakfast was waiting for us. We tucked in and hopped on the bus ready for our 9 hours journey to Sydney. Around half way into the journey we stopped for lunch at little aires rock which was a service station with a tacky model of ayres rock over the building.

We passed over the Sydney harbour bridge to get in to the city and I got back to Sydney with a feeling that my trip is nearly over. We walked through Sydney with our backpacks and food bags to catch the ferry over to Manly. It took about 25 minutes to walk through to Circular Quay and I was quite tired when I got there.

Felt like coming home seeing the opera house and getting on the ferry again. We sat opposite 2 guys with their children and I was chuckling as I heard them talking about iggle piggle and discussing what time they put their children to bed, oh how the world is changing.

We met Zoe and went back to hers for a brief catch up and showers. Our Oz bus driver had booked us a table at a place called The Gaff so we had to disappear quickly. We got The Gaff and got a free dinner, 2 free drinks and the boys got some jugs of beer on the table. We had a giggle with the crew from the bus today and us girls got to see a male stripper and the boys got to see a coyote ugly show with girls dancing on the bar. We had a bit of a dance and Bobby was teaching the girls salsa again. The last ferry was at 11:45pm so we left early to catch it but we had to run half of it as we nearly ran out of time. We made it with 3 minutes to spare.

Bobby was amazed on the ferry as some sea gulls were flying next to the boat and managing to keep up with us. We got back and crashed out.


10/11/10 - Manly
Woken up with a cup of tea in bed. Spent the afternoon in Manly Oceanworld which was really small and the main attraction was the ocean tunnel which we walked under and saw lots of fish and sharks and a giant turtle as well as a massive sting ray, this thing was so big it wouldn't fit over my king size bed! Amazing how it managed to swim so serenely through the water and other animals.

We had dinner and then we had the best ice-cream ever! I had pistachio as it always reminds me of dad, and I had White chocolate ice-cream with was sooooo good, I know I'll be getting cravings for it for weeks to come.

Quote of the day from Emi 'that's cheating putting stickers on the tunnel... oh they're real fish'.

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