Alright, so here we are back in Byron Bay and we have 2 whole weeks to catch up on here so we will try to do it as summarized as possible so it's a little less painful for us writing and for you all reading as well.
So up in Cairns we were fortunate enough to get to party with our favorite swedes on their(and our) last night in town which was awesome. We set up beer pong using 3 square tables at our hostel and started playing with our friends from denmakr and were soon joined by 2 germans and our swedish friends. So basically we had an international tournament: Team Germany, Team Denmark, Team Sweden and Team Canada....it was a bitter fight between Team Sweden and Team Canada but in teh end TEAM CANADA won! WOO! haha it was a lot of fun and the first time we'd played since leaving so it was fun and it attracted a lot of interest from ppl standing by. We wrapped up that night around 3am and our swedish friends had to catch a plane at 5am but it sounds like the caught all their connections so that was good.
THe next day was our last day in Cairns and we were tired after checking out so we just hung out at the hostel. Half way thru the day chels came down feeling very ill and it turned out to be some sort of flu bug that held on for about a week...needless to say the following few days weren't a lot of fun. We caught a midnight bus from cairns which was 11hrs to Airlie beach...not the most fun bus trip but we made it none the less. We really didn't get up to anything in Airlie- Chels stayed in bed for a couple of days and we missed partying for st pattys day which was unfortunate but it was okay- we both caught up on some reading and just took it easy...plus the weather wasn't really great or anything so we didn't miss much. Our last day in Airlie Laura Zimoch and her friend Susan came into town so we met up with them for a drink and then since our bus wasnt leaving until midnight and they had a nice room taht they were staying in, we took them up on their offer to go and hang out with them and in their room until our bus left..it was nice to have a place to hang out and nice to see soem familiar faces again. We got on our bus around midnight and were headed to Bundaberg.
We arrived in Bundaberg around 10:30am and went straight across the street to get checked into the closest hostel we could find. Our sole purpose for this trip was to get Jeff his BUndaberg rum hat and stock up on some more liqueur. So we got checked in and hopped on a bus to the distillery. Upon our arrival we couldnt seem to find the hats so we inquired with the cashier and she said they had come in so she would grab one for us. Well it became quite an ordeal as they couldnt scan the thing thru the system so after about 3 cashiers and managers one woman just ripped the tag off and gave it to us for free - SCORE! so we purchased our liqueur and made our way happily back to theb us stop. Having been told that the bus ran every half hour we figured we would wait as the walk last time was just BRUTAL....big mistake...an hour later we were still waiting but were lucky as the woman from teh distillery saw us and stopped to give us a ride back to our hostel...she was so friendly and we were very gracious for the ride back :)
THe next morning we were back on a bus and heading for Maroochydore...we were planning on going back to Noosa but being just before the long weekend it was fully booked at all the hostels so we carried down the coast about40 mins upon the town of Maroochydore and we're quite happy we did. We got in Thursday night around 5 and found that the next day was a holiday so we needed to stock up on groceries so we wandered down to the store and then went back to the hostel and made dinner. The hostel was nice, in a suburban area and a fairly short walk into town and the beach. We had intended to be social after dinner but we both fell asleep and ended up calling it an early night. THe next day we got up and headed down to the beach- it was the first day of sunshine we had seen in some time and we were more then happy to make the most of it. THe beaches in the area were beautfiul and PACKED as it was a long weekend but we found a nice spot on one of the beaches and spent the day there. We just made dinner and played some cards that night, nothing too exciting. The next day we explored the tonw for a bit before hitting up our pool for an hour and then we got ready to go as Chels' relatives were picking us up at 2pm. We had intended to catch the bus to Brisbane but Keith and Linda(chels' relatives) insisted on driving up and picking us up so that was a nice surprise. They picked us up right on schedule and we got back to their place around 330 or so. It was so nice to have the luxury of being in a house, having our own room, a clean bathroom, and just all the other comforts of home. Keith and Linda have recently redone their house too so it's like new and tehy actually just sold it and were moving the Wednesday after our visit so our timing was dead on. Our first night we went to dinner at a friend of theirs place and it was very nice- they were very nice people and had a very lovely home. The next day we got up and went to visit Chels' great aunt alice and Uncle gord(They only live 3 doors down) so we had a good visit with them. Gord had an old video compilation of old 8mm films he'd taken of old family vacations etc which a lot of ppl hadnt seen so he shared that with us and we all had a good laugh. It was a little lengthy but neat to see some of the family in the past. We went back to Keith and Lindas for lunch with some more friends of theirs and then that night we were off to their friend Michael's place for a big bonfire. This would have marked easter day as well. The bonfire was a great time. The house was on a 5 acre lot so there were kids rolling around on ATVs everywhere and tons of room to set up a huge bonfire. It was a good night with some true aussie folk and they really made us feel right at home. The next day we considered taking the train into town but it was pretty rainy so instead we went and wandered a nearby mall(apparently the biggest mall in the southern hemisphere or something too) and it really was HUGE! neither of us were out to purchase anything but we had a good walk and look around anyways. This was our last day in Brisbane so we just stayed in that night and had dinner with Keith and Linda on our own. They were so so generous to us our entire stay it was amazing- we really enjoyed it. The next morning we went back over to have one more visit with Alice and Gord and then we were off to the train to get into Brisbane to catch our bus. All in all we really ahd a great time in Brisbane and Chels really enjoyed catching up wiht family.
Our next stop was Byron Bay- we arrived on Tuesday around dinner time and got checked into our hostel and headed right for the grocery store to stock up as we planned to stay for about a week. We had been in touch wiht Greg Wightman from home as he was staying in Byron as well so we planned to meet up with him later on in the night. After we freshened up and had dinner we headed over to their hostel where we found him in fine partying form, had a few drinks with him and his buddies and then headed to a local pub where we were told we were going to catch an amazing local act- they were not lying. The guys name was Harry Healy and he was a brilliant solo artist...playing covers for about 3 hours every tuesday at this particular pub, he could play EVERYTHING! anybody could shout out a song and he would just start rocking out, it was wicked! After experiencing that we decided we would extend our stay an extra night so we can see him again next week, YAY! We kept it a pretty tame night and were back at our hostel by about 1am.
The next day was gloriously sunny so we headed down to the beach and caught some rays for a few hours which was lovely. We made a delicious stirfry that night for dinner andt hen went for a walk to get ice cream. We took our icecream down to the beach and were surpised to see a lightening storm in the distance so we sat and watched that for a while before heading back to the hostel. It was a quiet night but we were intending on keeping it that way as the next day would be jeff's bday.
Sadly as soon as we got back to our hostel that night it started to rain..and i mean RAIN..it didnt let up all night so our plans to go surfing in the sunshine for jeffs bday got tossed aside and instead we just took it easy, did a little shopping and hung out. When we got back tothe hostel for lunch we met a couple from the states and just sat chatting with them over a few drinks. Around 430 we realized we would need more booze for the evening so we headed down to the bottle shop, bought Jeff a 24 pack(for his 24th) of Bundaberg colas and headed back to the hostel to get ready. We ordered some delicious pizzas from a joint nearby and by 630 we had set up beer pong in teh hostel dining area. SO we played beer pong with Team USA(Matt and Alicia) and taught a UK girl, Issabelle, from our room as well and then were joined by Steph, another girl in our room from Germany. AFter a few too many games of that we decided to settle for some card games instead and were then joined by 3 guys from England, Chris 1, Chris2 and Dean. We played games til about 10 and then made our way down to Cheeky Monkey's- Jeff's chosen destination for his bday celebrations. The Wet T-shirt competitions were just finishing as we arrived(miss denmark won in case you were wondering) and the place was packed! the night started off a little sketchy but we soon found Wightman and our Swedish friend Andrees and it turned out to be a really really great night. We drank and danced on tables all night and finally got out of there around 2. Of course the night wasnt over yet as we had to go to the 23 hr pie shop and get jeff a birthday pie...mmm bacon cheese...deliciousness! After that we were ready for bed and so off to bed we went.
We woke up surprisingly sober this morning, no reminence of a hangover at all, which only means we will have to do it all again tonight as it is wightman's last night in Aus tonight. The sun has decided to hide again today so we are just staying low key but it looks like we may see some breaks in teh clouds soon so perhaps a little visit to the pool will be in the near future. Other then that we are hoping to do some surfing over the next couple of days as well as a kayak trip with the dolphins- SO EXCITING! we will be here until Wednesday by the looks of it so it's nice to be able to call a place "home" for a full week...saves the hassle of packing/unpacking for a little while at least.
That pretty much sums things up for now...we've loved hearing from you and look forward to talkin to you all again soon! love and miss you all!
