Autumn Holidays: Goon Daddy

So I've been back to uni for a week but it feels like the holidays were forever ago. I flew into Sydney at 3pm on Sunday, then caught a train to newi and the work hasn't stopped since.

I'll do a run through of my holidays w/ some pics. Bare with me, this is gonna be a novel and a sequel... I'm typing it really quickly too and trying to put in pics. So here it goes:

We met friday night at the brewery hotel, had some drinks on the pier with a live cover band, then boarded a greyhound bus to start the 17 days adventure! We all thought it was a coach bus rented just for us... nope - STA travel (the sly bastards) just booked us all greyhound bus tickets and coordinated the stops very well. So no one from STA actually traveled with us (was a good and bad thing) - so with no tour guide, the group of 33 of us (30 americans, 2 canadians and 1 german) had to make sure we got to the bus stops on time, find our ways to our hostels, and coordinate everything else. After an over night bus ride, we arrived at Byron Bay early in the morning. Half the group got to go surfing right away from the bus stop (had to change in the van) while the other half of us (already pre-decided) went to the hostel, Aquarius Hotel. We also liked how STA called all of our hostels "hotels." Far from it.

So check in wasn't till 2pm.... since none of us could sleep on the bus, we all passed out by the pool. Right after check in the second half of us went surfing. I'd already been on a mojo surf trip so I got up right away. Plus the waves here were so small, so it actually got boring after a little while. But the next day they were a bit bigger which made it more challenging.
Oh yeah, and we went surfing at this little distant spot called Ballina.. might have heard about it because a boy was eaten by a shark here a month ago. And yes, we did see a shark while we were surfing and had to get out for a while. We noticed schools of fish being washed up in the waves and we could see them jumping out of the water towards us... the surfers said this is a sure sign sharks are near and to get out....guess it was our lucky day.




"Roar like your tigers" - how appropriate!


That night we went to "Cheeky Monkeys" for $5 meals... awesome food and huge portions! Got the chicken ceasar salad... you eat on these steal picnic table type deals, then after dinner, they turn into the dance floor - everyone dances on the stages and tables, not the floor - pretttty crazy. And they had these ridic games all night for free jugs of beer, like first to come up with $3.20 in all 20 cent pieces.. of footy games... whip cream, and it got worse. Some of this stuff I don't think would be legal in the states lol.

Next day I woke up early and did the coastal walk in Byron Bay to the light house - which is Australias mot eastern point. Soo scenic. I have heaps of pics but here are just a few :







The next day was a full day on the bus to Hervey Bay. Once there, we checked into Palace Backbackers and had an awesome aussie barbie for dinner. We got up early the next day and got de-briefed for our trip to Fraser Island! After watching a video, and singing a piece of paper, we were put into groups. They gave us Toyota Landcruisers 4WD, but were all manual. And you had to be 21 to drive... so that narrowed down the drivers from 30 to 6. Most of the drivers were guys... and since it was about 12 guys and 21 girls in the entire trip, 2 of us were stuck w/ all females. So Ulrick (the german) and I got stuck driving 7 girls around for 3 days on Fraser Island. Surprisingly, they never checked our licenses to see our age, or if we even had one... we just got into the cars and left. They were all parked on a steeeep narrow driveway, one after the other... and I haden't driven stick in a while, plus it was on the opposite side - I managed to stall out right away, send the 4WD jerking and all the girls screaming haha. After one try I got it tho and we were off!

We went to a giant garage where they gave us 3 tents, cooking supplies, water jug and sleeping bags. Then we made a quick stop at Woolworths for food - we had less than 30 minutes to shop before the ferry left for the island. We lived off PBJ/honey/nutella sandwiches, sausages, chips, and pasta one night. Not too bad - we surprisingly bought exactly the right amount of food! So we loaded up the cruiser and headed for a 30 minute drive to the ferry. We then re-grouped with everyone in the tour and drove onto the ferry for Fraser Island.





It was raining when we got to the island - which made for interesting driving. Once we got to the island, I had to back off on a narrow plank onto land.. haha I again surprised myself with no problems. Once on the island, you have to drive through about an hour of intense hills and offroad swamps to get onto the beach part. As I was driving I didn't say anything, but the 4WD was soo top heavy and we were sliding all over the place w/ the wet sand we were driving on. The girls were screaming their their faces off... I felt like a little kid in one of those jeep power wheels - it was one of the scarriest but best and most fun things I've ever done in my life. I dont know how to stress this and not seem like I'm exagerating... but at points we were so vertical I could only see the top of the trees with no idea what was on hte other side of the hill. Factor in it was all a 1 way dodgey road - so whenever another car came in the oppoiste way you had to drive into the bushes and wait for them to pass, then get out and back onto the "road." They had some pull off areas.. but not enough, and even these were about 2 feet higher than the road.





After quite a while of driving, and wrong turns (everything looks like same and we had to find a reserve to fill up our water tank with "fresh" water... we finally made it onto the island. All the groups had picked a point to camp for the night, so we all met up there. The surf was coming up and there was nearly no sand left to drive on - and if we drove the 4WD in salt water we'd be fined $500 (on my credit card too!). So I was extra careful. We (and surprisingly the girls were all about doing manual labor) set up camp and starting cooking for the night.

After dinner, while the rest of the groups drank the night away, we drove up the beach (even tho the tide was way in) to Lake Wabby - about an hour hike into the wood with goon sacks, we came to one of the coolest places - it has huuuge sand dunes that lead into a giant lake- which was warm as bath water. We did the natural thing and ran to the top then rolled down/ran down into the water.





That night is rained while we were sleeping, and we all woke up in puddles. Those tents were complete crap. So we packed up camp and headed for a 2 hour drive north on the island to make it to this awesome look-out point. The weather broke and the sun finally came out once we arrived. We hiked up the mountain and got a view of all Fraser Island and the ocean.

Pondered life for a while :



Afterwards we had lunch on the beach and drove down to the shipwreck :




We also stopped at Red Canyon - giant canyon made out of red clay which you could pick off :




Also stopped at this lagoon that when you hiked into the forest and got in at this one point, the natural spring water from the mountain carried you down to the ocean like a lazy-pool :




Then we stopped at the champagne pools. They had these soft pods on the rocks that would catch the water when the waves washed over them, then if you stepped on em they would squirt the water like 3 feet in the air :



We set up camp that night and made an awesome pasta dinner. The next day we got up and went to Lake McKenzie - the most beautiful lake and white beach I've ever seen:



Never thought I'd say this, but I was about 3 feet from wild dingos! They cover the island and were on the beach and car lot!:




After a day at the lake, we packed up and drove back to catch the ferry back to Hervey Bay.
Fraser Island was definitely the best part of the trip... so far. Despite waking up in puddles both nights.



We had another night on the bus before arriving in Airlie Beach. We stayed at Magnums hostel, which was the nicest by far - it had a huge outdoor boardwalk/bar/eating places. Live music (jewel cover girl) and a huge bar inside that looked like a church (ironic?). We stayed there for a day and bummed around the beach town (although the beach was pretty lame), then boarded the Condor.

We set sail for 3 days/2 nights sailing on the WHITSUNDAY islands - the most beautiful place on earth.

Condor is the yellow and maroon one - it was actually a racing boat that apparently won more races than any other in its league!



View from the water while we went snorkeling at some reefs:










The boat had "beds" below deck, which consisted of small benches that slept 2 people side by side, and about 1 foot above that hung a cot where another person slept, literally right on top of you. It also had a full kitchen on board - which the crew were able to make some pretty delicious meals. We actually got to set sail with the captain and owner of the company, then a huge guy called "shreck" who looks and talks just like the green oger, and 2 other crew guys. From the very beginning, we actually got to help sail! We were instructed to do this and that (knew the technical names but have since forgot... dad - I wanna learn how to sail! Maybe look into the baltimore sailing thing you did!)

Over the next 3 days we stopped at several of the 74 islands, snorkeled, and just relaxed on the boat. It was paradise. We were set up to have a race with another boat, just as a huge storm approached. I'm talking "the perfect storm" storm... pretty dang scarry. The crew had something up their sleeves to win where you put the sail on a special way and hoist it up last minute... just as we were doing this, the sail splits right down the middle! The captain said it was about a $500k sail. So we were outta the race before it even began. Then we hooked up the spare sail on the boat.... by this time it's pouring rain, skies are black, we're all on deck and being tossed around in huge waves which are crashing over the boat, its freezing... so we get the spare sail up and everyone starts cheering - about 5 seconds after its up it comes undone from the mast and half of it goes flying into the ocean!!! So the crew scream and everyone was ordered to run to the side of the boat and start pulling this massssive heavy wet sail back into the boat! We finally get it in and then we just used the motor to sail into a cove and wait out the storm - what a day.




We ended up being able to watch a perfect sunset each night thought :






Also, while I got to steer the boat, we saw a giant eagle circling - then he went behind a mountain. We got this girl Deana to whistle with her fingers real loudly, and she actually called the eagle from behind the mountain right along side our boat! The captain balled up some bread and threw it in the air and he dove for it - so cool!:




Whitsunday sailing trip was incredible! Could definitely see myself getting a boat in the future.
Although the captain told me in 18 months, he has put about double what the boat had cost him back into it for maintenance - ouch. Although he does get to sail the whitsundays for a living.

After sailing, we headed north to Cairns. We spent 5 days there and 5 long nights (crazy night life). We went to Cape Tribulation, kind of a boring forest nature tour, but still fun. I got to go snorkeling on the great barrier reef - AGAIN! Sooo amaazing. Although it got really shallow at parts and we ended up scraping the coral by accident, which we felt horrible about cuz it takes about 60,000 years to grow. They told us it was dangerously poisonous and would shock us (lie, less than 1% can do that, just told us so we would try our best not to hurt ourselves, even though it was to protect the coral). BTW dad - everyone was superiorly jealous of my camera, yet again. People were paying like $40 for disposable ones that only took 27 - one time.

I got to swim with a sea turtle this time for about 10 minutes! Soo cool he just bobbed along like I wasnt even there:

My deformed snorkle - couldnt figure out why I kept swallowing water:




Turtle turtle turtle!






One day we had lunch on a deserted beach with coconut trees - we cracked some open with branches for dessert:

There was a crazy tree everyone was sticking their heads in for a pic... but mine wouldnt fit :


We also got to go on a croc water boat! Saw a huuuuge croc named scar face who once took a full cow from the riverbank and ate it:



Another day we went to Tully River to go White Water Rafting!!! It's sort of like a tornado, where 1 is the lamest and 5 is the most intense - Tully was a 5.
I got stationed at the front of the boat where most people fall off. Our boat did really well and no one fell out, but people were capsizing left and right and we had to pull people into our boat to save em. It was an intense day but sooooo fun - maybe the best time so far. We went down some serious drops!













The last day in Cairns we went to Jims Extreme Sky Diving - I won't begin to describe what this was like.... just do it for yourself. I only paid for 11,00 feet but got to go up for free to 14,000 feet and jumped out for 60 seconds of free-fall then about 4 minutes of gliding to the ground - got to see the great barrier reef from a birds eye view - GOTTA DO IT. I hate flying and planes... well this one we sat on the floor and it had no door - everyone needs to skydive in their life - I'm definitely going again. I would classify this as life-changing.

Skydiving was the perfect ending to the 17 day adventure. The next day we got up early and it was on the plane home - all a dirty, tired, and very very sad.

This was the best half a month of my life... I've seen and done more in 17 days than in most my life. And I crossed off about a dozen things to do before I die. So yeah, thanks mom and dad!

Congrats if you made it through this. Sorry it took so long for me to post this and for you to read it - I even left out a lot.

Tomorrow starts my next adventure - I'm going to Tasmania w/ 2 friends for 6 days. We're flying into Hobart and renting a campervan to tote around and see the wilderness - apparently thats all there is in Tasmania - I'll find out. We also forgot it's way south and winter there.... we're packing lots of blankets since we plan on sleeping in the campervan.

More stories to come - hope all is well - less than 2 months till home!!!!!! LOVE EVERYONE