Well if you got throught the last update im impressed, ive been terrible at keeping this up to date because whenever we have been online we have been trying to sort out jobs for new zealand and that seems to take up the entire hour. Luckily i am also keeping a written travel journal with abit more success at keeping it up to date than this as i dont need a computer, so when i do eventually get around to updating this i can remember everything that we have been up.
So the last time i wrote we had been running around Byron Bay for the day and were about to get a bus to Brisbane, and so i pick the story up from our arrival in Brisbane.. It was somewhat late at night and we were somewhat exhausted having had a very long day.. so you can imagine our dismay when our taxi driver couldnt find our hostel, and we had no number to call them. After rather alot of driving up dark streets with the meter running, we finally found it, however there was no-one there to let us in, we did eventually manage to contact the owner and he came and resued us but it was not the best start to our day. Our time in Brisbane was really quite relaxed, we did a walking tour of the city and saw lots of historical buildings and went to a really interesting muesum about the life of the convicts. They built a windmill in brisbane and then when they realised its not like england and there wasnt enough wind to power it they put the convicts on a treadmill to power it.... that would of got rid of any excess fat pretty sharpish, and they 14 hour shifts, made me tired just thinking about it. We spent several hours wallowing in the "town beach" which was like a giant paddling pool and jut what we needed to cool us down. And they we got all spiritual and went to the carnival spirtitual. I am now considerably better informed about yoga, idian dancing, sword fighting, drumming, and of course the meaning of life. I did concluded however that it may take me quite a few lifetimes of imbalance to achieve true spirituality. We have also been doing an awful lot of walking and went out to Mount Coot-ha where you can see over all of brisbane, and did a walking track through the forest to a waterfall, with the aim of playing in the waterfall to cool down once we had completed the 5km walk there in the blistering heat. Im sure you can imagine my dismay when we reached said waterfall and there wasnt even a drip of water in it, hot sweaty and disenchanted we made our way back to the city very much ready to relocate to a seaside town.
The next days our prayers were answered and our travels took us to Maroochydore, which for those who were in egypt i can only describe as australia's Dahab.. very chilled out, slowly slowly and totally my kind of place. From Maroochydore we went to Australia Zoo for the day (steve irwins love child). It was an odd type of zoo as there werent all that many animals there, but all the animals that were there were very interactive, so we fad kangaroos and elephants and cuddled koalas. I want a koala, im sure i could fit one in my bag to bring home, so if anyone wants to start growing me some eucalyptuse for it to eat id be most obliged. I was meant to be going to do a dive on the HMAS Brisbane the next day but was outraged to be told it was cancelled due to bad weather when it was 30deg with a light breeze. They would never go diving in England, our good weather is there to bad to dive!!! The rest of our time in Maroochydore was very laidback, playing in the surf, wallowing in the lagoon, watching live bands, eating BBQ's and sitting in the hot tub at our hostel! Scrumptious.
All that good work chilling out was undone though in one swift move. To get up to Hervey Bay,to leave for our trip to Fraser Island, we had to get a bus back to brisbane, and then another bus up to hervey bay, it turned out this bus went via Maroochydore, so 7 1/2 hours after we had left we were back in maroochydore only considerably more tired and stressed. Once we arrived in Hervey bay we consulted the trusty Lonely Planet to find our hostel, decided it didnt look to far and set off from the bus stop lugging our bags. The LP was deceptive and 40mins later we were still walking. If ever i doubted that i had packed to much stuff this walk forever dispelled that notion. When we did evenutally reach our hostel we discoverd that we didnt know where we were staying the next night, but were exhausted so resolved to sort that out in the morning. I awoke refreshed and revived in the morning only to be thrown into a state of panick when after several phone calls i was told we werent booked onto a trip to Fraser Island and there was no space available for 4 days, and that we had no where to stay that night. Fortunately after i gave our booking agents a severe ear bashing they fixed all this and we relocated to the lovely Beaches Hostel. Spent the majority of the day recovering for this upset and just when i was feeling good again my camera decided to commit suicide, so i was forced to run, and i mean RUN, to the camera shop, arriving 1min before it closed, and buy a new camera before we left at 630am the next morning!
For our fraser island trip we were put into groups of 11, given a 4wheel drive landrover and sent off to the ferry. We offloaded from the ferry thinking a whole load of fuss had been made about nothing regarding how bad the roads are... well when i say roads i should clarify i mean sand tracks, about 15mins away from the ferry we discovered what they meant when it took us 50mins to drive 8km!!! We managed not to get stuck tho a reached Lake Mckenzie. I dont know how to describe this place, all any of us could say when we reached the shores was WOW, its one of the places that you see amazing photos of and think it cant really look like that, but it actually does!! We lazed around there for far too long and then had abit of a panick when we realised you have to drive up the beach to reach our campsite and the tide was coming in and if we didnt get a shift on we would be stranded. So trusty Jen got behind the wheel and with her experience of driving tractors we fairly flew down to the beach and left the other 2 cars for dust, in fact we flew so fast we managed to stop and ses the creek at central that is so clear you cant hardly tell if there is water in it, and the shipwreck on the beach, before reaching camp and putting up the tents and having a few drinks.. clearly not enough drinks as i had a horrible nights sleep! Up at 6am the next day and off to Eli Creek which is like the Blue Lagoon in Iceland in that the low pH water is really good for your skin, and you start at the top and float down to where it meets the sea, we then raced up the Beach past the pinnacles of coloured sand to Indian Heads where we saw sharks, manta rays, dolphins and turtles swimming below us, we then walked over to champagne pools, basically a giant rock pool where jens foot decided it had enough and cut itself to shreds. We went back to base camp for alot more drinks and i managed to fall over trying to give jen a piggyback to the tent to keep her foot clean... i dont think me landing on top of her helped. And we got absolutely soaked because we refused to leave the beach until the eski full of drinks was light enough to carry easily. Did not want to get up for the last day on fraser, but 6am swa me taking down the tents and then we headed off to lake wabby, which is like an oasis in the middle of sand dunes... all you can see is sand. Got abit worried about crocs but it wasnt them that nearly killed me it was the walk back up the dunes to the car! We then voted to head back to Lake Mckenzie for a dip before catching the ferry back to Hervey Bay.
The morning we got back me and jen were both up at 5am with food poisoning so our bus ride to 1770 wasnt particularly pleasant, but the hostel when we got there was fantastic, we had the dorm to ourselves and our own bathroom - which was probably a good thing from the points of view of the other residents. We spent most of the next day recovering our strength and exploring. However this place was TINY so there wasnt much to explore. Yesterday we felt better so went and did a surf lesson for a few hours... the instructor wasnt my idea of an australian surfer, he was about 60, bald, beer bellied and lycra clad. but he was a bloody good instructor and apparently if i was to commit to surfing i have the possibilty of being very good. We left 1770 on the overnight bus last night at 1945 and arrived at Airlie Beach at 0715 this morning after an hours delay spent sitting in a car park whilst they fixed our coach at 1am! Totally knackered now so chlling for the day and set off for 3 days sailing around the whitsunday islands tomorrow morning!
