This entry is actually going to cover 2 places.. a place called Surfer's Paradise (yes thats the official name of the city!) and then our day in Brisbane! Just because it was rainy in both places and we only stayed there one night a piece!
So Surfers Paradise we decided not to book any accommodation as we thought maybe the bus driver would book it for us like they did for people to Byron Bay.. except he didn't! And the best advice he had was to head to the transit centres information centre and they might be able to find us somewhere. Eventually they did, but most places were fully booked.. oops. But at least we got somewhere in the end! Surfer's Paradise is only really famous for; a- surf (duh), b- theme parks (I think there's like 4 nearby!) and c- nights out. So even though it was cloudy we headed to the beach.. where it started to rain and so we contented ourselves with shopping in the sales, and that was fun also! Then by pure chance me and Emma met this guy who gave us free tickets to a club crawl worth $60! So of course we went along and got free pizza, entry into loads of bars and clubs and free drinks! This was the first time in Australia that we felt like tourists! So far we've just met so many Brits that it doesn't always feel like you're in another country, let alone halfway around the world! But this club crawl thing was chocka block full of Aussies, not all of whom believed we were English! But we had a really good night and one of the bars was so nice it had a computer in the toilets and velvet sofas, a chandelier and loads of mirrors! It was class and I think we definately spent longer in there than necessary, it was cool though! But next morning was the bus to Brissy! And even before we got there it was already raining! And then we got some lunch, and it rained some more. And then we had a snooze.. and it rained more. And then it eased off a bit and me and Em tried to go explore, but about 5 minutes later (after we had gone the wrong way anyway) it started to pour down again! I've never seen rain like it! Water was coming down the roads and paths, overflowing from gutters and there was practically no one on the streets! But we did try to see some of Brisbane, but we didn't really get far.. just wet! So it was an early night for us, even though our 8-bed dorm that we thought was empty, now contained a really smelly irish man who insisted on hanging around the room all night and sleeping with the least amount of clothes possible. It was not a pretty sight and we were quite happy to be leaving in the morning! Which leads us onto the story of the next evil OzExp wench! Hopper. Well at least that was her nickname, who knows what her real name is. But she was an hour late to pick us up, which wouldn't have been so bad except that this was Brisbane only a few hours before the massive floods, and no one had rang us to tell us that they were running late. So after ringing their head office, they said she would only be 5-10 mins. But then she turns up in a bad mood, doesn't apologise for being so late or offer any explanation, and then got back on the bus leaving us to sort our bags out with the luggage storage bit on the bus. Not happy. Other stupid things "Hopper" did, included:
1- forgetting which side of the bus the petrol cap was
2- hitting a pole with the bus which trying to move to a petrol pump on the right side of the bus
3- telling us its illegal to eat on buses.. while stuffing her face
4- not driving through a small puddle because "the steering will rust and we won't make it back from the other side"
5- telling a girl that ashe can't turn the air con down or the windscreen would condense
Stupid Hopper. But its ok, apparently she dinted some more buses and so is currently lets say "off road". One word.. karma! This was also the last time that we had more than 5 people on our bus for the reast of the journey up the east coast, bearing in mind that over 80 people set off from Sydney on the same day as us.. but once we got to Noosa, the bus could go no further as the Bruce Highway (the ONLY road up the whole east coast) is now closed in both directions, meaning that all the people who were waiting at Noosa to head to Rainbow beach were not only late getting picked up but were then told that they weren't going anywhere. The choices were stay in Noosa until roads clear, or (what a lot did) head back to Brisbane and the airport and fly to somewhere else. A lot of people we met went to Perth, Whitsundays, Cairns, Sydney, New Zealand and a few Asia. Hence the distinct lack of people for the rest of the East coast! And me and Emma were 2 of few who decided to tough it out for the time being having already booked Fraser Island for a few days time and Whitsundays boat trip.