Two awwwwwesome weeks in OZ!

---

So party people I know its been over two weeks so I promise Ill try and make this a good one. I have done most of the major sounth coast things so I may ramble a bit but.....

Firstly I did my Whitsundays from Airlie Beach. I loved Airlie and it is a real party place as everyone goes there to do their Whitsundays. Its so expensive though and Ivana Trump has just brought so much land there hence why it has the most rapidly incrasing house prices in oz. Stayed at quite a cool hostel for a night and then had to go and register for my boat. I was sooo exicited and looking forward to catching up with Cal my irish friend from cairns id booked it with. Now in my head I was going to be on some lush catamaran which was as white as snow and brand spaking new and there are so many boats like that in the marina but our captain was just like "keep walking guys" until we came to the biggest heap you've ever seen. so much rust (we later foudn out it was made of 17tons of concrete aka a beast!!!) i couldnt stop laughing but as our captain johnny later said " guys you paid next to nothing, you get what you pay for and so lets all just make sure we have the best time ever" never a wiser word has been said as the 23 of us ( which was an eclectic mix of english, swedish, candaian, italian, american, japanese, swiss, south african and dutch!) had the best time ever. We ate like queens, I got two free dives due to the fact Im qualified (i love this padi!!) we went to Whitehaven beach which is truly like paradise- the whitest sands ever and the most turquoise seas. I loved it. Then we did more sailing and on our second night had a few goons and then the most inpromptu toga party ever! was crazy about 15 of us (some were slightly anal about getting their bed sheets doused in goon- I wonder why!!!) all dressed in our bright blue bed sheets karaoking on the deck of this boat in the middle of the Australian ocean. Dolphins even came up and swam by our boat as if they were trying to join the party!!! how cool is that! did loads more snorkling on our last day and our captain let us take food in which meant we had schools of fish everywhere. Even parrot fish and flowery cod which are both huge about 2cm from your face!!!

I was so sad to get back to land and showering was crazy and you rocked like you were still on the boat! hehe. Had a day to kill before the bus and that was when the guys I was going to my cattle ranch with came back off their boats so me, paula, holly, ted and shandy (who ended up travelling together for a good 5 days) went out for a little party! I ran into two people Id done my diving with in Thailand so had a mass catch up with them ( you realise how small a world travelling is- Ive been in the same hostel as 2 boys called owen and matt 4 times out of 5! crazy! Ive met people who I dormed with in Bangkok and also Ive also met someone who knows Cat, someone who knows Sean, and am currently travelling with 2 guys who went to Uni with Anjali's friend Helen!- so small!!) and we ended up in a club called mama africas. Such a bad idea as our bus left at 6 the next morning. We were all in quite a bad way and Sconsy our bus driver was so chirpy! eeek.
What made it worse is that the Oz bus love detouring and making you do things and on the road from Airlie to Krombit guess what you have to do....go lawn bowling!! the funniest thing ever in the smallest most elderly town in oz!! we had a two hour lesson by a cute old lady and then the 12 of us off the bus chipped in a dollar and played a match! i was quite good but crumbled under pressure. I think ive found a sport for myself in the future though! haha.

Krombit was the cattle station we had to go to and it was amazing. As soon as we got there we did whip cracking and had a tour of the farm. We had to stay in the funniest wooden shacks ever and as we were an even mix of 6 girls and 6 guys we stayed seperately (the boys were not happy about this as 1 of the guys on our bus is the safest Danish 35yr old ever called Peter but he is the worst snorer ever!!haha) we had an amazing meal- although they tried to make us eat goat and id been stroking them so wouldn't! and then all had a competition on a bucking bronco! I thought Id be good but was dire- I lasted a measly 1 second and was so embarased! The guy that won got 20seconds!eek. We then played loads of party games including the cereal box game which reminded me of uni and had an early night as we were goat mustering in the morning! This was so funny as it consisted of riding on a horse and gathering all the goats in the biggest field ever into a small hold, whilst shouting "eeeeyy up up up!" Me and Andy had quite possibly the most retarded horses ever (mine was called waitress name definately says it all!!) and so spent more time chasing each toher than goats but it was brilliant and the best 3 hours ever. We then all had to get in teams of 3 and lasso a goat pick it up and brand it. An all girl team was such a bad idea esp as Paula is a vegetarian and wouldnt catch it. We ended up kinfd of throwing it to the floor by pure accident ad everyone just gasped in shock. I felt awful but the goat seemed fine!!

After the cattle station the 5 of us from Airlie went to Harvey Bay together for a night. Was so fun but Holly, ted and andy went on fraser the next day and paula and i had 3 days to kill there and it was the most boring 3 days ever. Harvey is renownded for being retirement capital of oz so we should have known better. It rained the first day, we got bed bugs in our beds so spent all day washing on the second and then drownded our sorrows so much on the second night we coldnt move on the third day. All in all a waste really but was so excited to get to rainbow beach to do my fraser island I didnt mind.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and lake mackenzie on it was voted by lonely planet as 1 of the top 5 places to swim in the world. I was doing a self drive 4 by 4 trip for 3 days 2 nights so that was cool. Normally most groups have about 4 drivers but no not mine- there were 2 of us 1 of course being me so I- who is fully aware my driving is dodge- had to go from my clio which i like to drive alone to a 6 ton 4 by 4 with 12 people in it on sand! what an experience!!! I felt liek I was on top gear!!haha. I had an awesome time and was lcuky 2 groups went from our hostel at the same time and we kind of went in convey coz some of my group were not like me at all. Also there were 4 koreans who didnt spak english so that took us down to 8 and 2 were couples so 4 and we were all quite different. It was immense though and I made some great friends in both groups. We drove to Lake Birrabean, Mackenzie, Wabby (which was my favourite- a grren freshwater lake at the bottom of the biggest sand hill you could slide down!!), Indian Head, Eli Creek a shipwrecked! We saw so much although we had strict driving times because of the tides and we all fell in love with wabby and didnt want to leave and ended up getting stuck on the beach with the tide coming in after 4 which was when ourinsurance was up! I have never panicked more especially as I was driving. Some amazingly nice and kind Australians came to help and told us we'd broken our clutch so 1 of the girls started crying and we all wnt pale but then they finally got it to work (although we later foud out we'd broken our casket so we had no brakes for the rest of the trip, and a spring and a filter!!) woopsy. The car was in such a bad way we didnt manage to make it to our campsite but luckily the other truck hadnt either and they flagged us down by the side of a beach and we all camped there together. Was awesoem but no cmapsite means no toilets and fraser has wild dingoes everywhere. we also saw a snake!! try weeing when you know theres snakes and dingoes around- you cant so i just went to bed soooo scared! hehe.

when we got back we all had a big party together and I may have drunk a smidge to much and woke up with my stuff in the back of Ali and Sian (2 girls who I loved from the other group) camper van on my way to Noosa! Asin left a day early, later had to cancel my oz bus and just rode down in their van! so funny as there were there 2 best mates Chris and Waugh from home aswell/ We got to Noosa -which is amazingly nice, rich and posh. Richard Branson lives here! and we had our dinner in the carpark on a stove, met 2 guys from manchester who joined us with their van and we all slept in a shopping centre carpark! it was so fun to do it the other way but they dont get to shower and i was so cramped i must say i def prefer the hostel route!!they also meet much less people although it is cheaper by far as you an keep food for longer!!also saying that the girls had to leave so early the next day i just moved my stuff into Andy and Pat the manchester guys van and slept in theirs the next night as well! I am now in a hostel though and clean so do not fear!!
Ive been in Noosa for four nights now. Its seriously nice and I did a 2 hour surf lesson which was cool. Most epople go to the steve irwin zoo from here but im so zooed out after singapore and the croc zoo im going to save my money. I got up at 5 am this morning to watch the champions league final- could not believe it went to penalites i was sooooo tired. Leave tomorrow for Brisy to watch an afl match! should be good although the weather is about to get dramatically worse as i head down and noosa is boiling so im distressed!

love to all. a town dance. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---

Comments

[Helen Critcher]

Stephs i love ur stories!! I went2 Mama Africas!! How immense about the dolphins by ur boat, wood av loved that! U really r doin so much, the cattle ranch thing sounds like an interesting experience....Fraser Island is wikid2, the shipwreck is mental isnt it, bit errie, oh we had the prob wiv the tide 2 and gettin salt-water on our tyres!!! Oh i am so jealous of ur stories, so glad ur doin it n kinda wish id waited until after Uni n gone then, or jst saved my money n gone again, haha!!!! My friends Mick and Dom who went travelling in Oct get bck on sat! And cnt believe uve met so many people who no people from bck home- mental!!! Anyways better do sum work, lol, spk2 u soon n i am goin on Facebook4 u, hehe!! Loadsa love, miss ya crazy self xxxxxxxxx