I've been on Maggie (Magnetic Island) now for 2 nights, and I wish I'd missed out Mission Beach. I did absolutely nothing special except sit and watch cricket all day in the only air con room, the TV room. Great result for England, but I wish I hadn't spent $46 for it. Especially given that I was in a 10-share that had no aircon - was absolutely steaming all night long!
So now I'm on Maggie, and I've finished my scuba diving course. Only took 2 days, instead of the 4 that I thought it would, and I'm now just chilling out for the next couple of days. Spent the first night at the pub chatting to people from the bus down to Mission, and also with people from my bus to Maggie. It was a pretty good night, got to catch up with everyone from the first bus. Last night, again, at the bar, where Bar Olympics was being played, so a lot of people got their flags painted on their faces, me included, and joined in. Except that there wasn't much to join in with. The first game, limbo, lasted all of 5 minutes, and I was first in line, and straight away went out :( bad times, didn't do England as proud as the cricket team unfortunately. The second and final game of the night was an hour or so later, and it was musical chairs. I didn't do very well in that either.
Inbetween the "Olympics", I was spending the night chatting to a couple of girls I'd met in Mission. One of them called Jess, an Aussie, is 6'2"!! Same height as me! Couldn't believe it! Libby, the other, is from England originally and emigrated to Oz 4 years ago and goes to uni here. She turned traitor last night, deciding to go green and gold not red and white, so there was a fair bit of abuse from me. There was the most spectacular lightning show on though, this electrical storm in the distance was just incredible to watch, and we spent quite a while transfixed by that. Managed to get some video before my camera died, so I'll try to get it on facebook or something.
Today was just more dive stuff. There's a fair bit of theory to do, but a couple of dives in the afternoon, so it wasn't all 'head in book' stuff. I did actually get homework last night as well! Wasn't expecting that, but I was true to form (and WELL practised in this art) and did it this morning just before class began! In fact, I didn't even get it finished, but it was all cool! The reef out here is alright, but nowhere near as good as the Great Barrier Reef was when we came out here in August. It's a good place to do the course though, the cheapest by far because you just walk into the sea from the beach, no getting on a boat. It does hurt my ears though, diving, takes me quite a while to actually get down, but once I'm down it's fine.
Tomorrow I'm going to rent a car with the 2 German girls from the dive course and have a drive round the island. It's supposed to be really good, with wild koalas sitting in trees. The scenery from the resort is amazing anyway, massive horizon views of the other islands around, so it bodes well for the rest of the island.
After Maggie though, instead of heading down the coast some more, I'm going to Airlie Beach, the next bus stop down, and getting a plane down to Melbourne. The floods have really got in the way, so I've decided to give them a miss and come back in a couple of months when the floodwaters have receded. The bus won't run any further than Airlie Beach anyway, so I'm kind of forced to go elsewhere. I'll hopefully be staying with family and friends in Melbourne for a bit, at least until I can get a job and a place of my own, and for those down in and around Melbourne reading this, I'll be coming to visit you soon! That's about it from me, so until the next post, bye!! xxx
Maddy - I am having fun! The fruit picking was hard, yes, but I'm so glad I did it. It's all part of the experience, hey! I heard about the dancing, I'm kind of glad I didn't have to witness it to be honest :P It is awesome here, but study hard for your exams and then you'll get your time. Good luck with it all, I hope you get the results your hoping for. Head down for just a bit longer, and then you can have the time of your life!! xxx
Allan - The jungle surfing was pretty cool, you're right. Unfortunately, there aren't many Aussies around, but when I do find a few, I take every opportunity to make an Ashes related joke and rub it in! I'm having a great time mate, it's so cruisy here, I love it! What's new with you?
