O my good god. How I got up the next day, I do not know. Not even cold pizza for breakfast helped. The lads went pretty early so I got up and said goodbye, regretting immediately that I even lifted my head off the pillow. For once it was fatigue, not a hangover, that made me feel like death warmed up. Everything was an effort, especially packing my bag (still full of sand) and lugging it to the bus stop for the Greyhound to Noosa. Grace and poppy were heading the same direction so they hopped on the bus with me, along with one of the canadians who was making his way down to rainbow beach, a stop before Noosa. Rachel and Liz had left the night before to Brisbane to go for a job interview. After catching up with my blog and having deep life changing conversations with Kevin, we arrived in a very sunny and hot Noosa.
We quickly found a good hostel called Noosa Backpackers (original) which was pretty pricey but then we'd heard everything was in Noosa. We got dinner from woolworths and settled in for a quite night. I was asleep by 8:30. Screw having a raving night, I thought, I want my bed.
I had the best nights sleep I had in my entire trip so far and woke up refreshed and raring to go. The weather was even hotter than the previous day reaching to 35deg and 80% humidity. Beach day!! So Poppy, Grace and I made our way down on the free shuttle bus to the perfect white sandy beach that stretched along Noosas coastline. The area has many water sports, including kayaking, body boarding and surfing, so there were life guards prowling the shoreline. There were also warnings scattered everywhere of the dangers of burning, something I was very aware about. As a scare measure there was a big sign on the beach that claimed the burn time was only 6minutes! Six minutes!! I had spent six minutes standing there reading the damn sign! We picked a comfortable looking spot and settled down. Yey, more sand everywhere! Just what I need. The girls hit the water in a blink of an eye while I lathered myself up with lotion to get my tan on! After five minutes however I realised just how much my lotion was slipping off my skin due to my extreme sweatiness so I dived into the sea too. It was such a relief and the waves crashing over heads reminded me of back home at Bovey beach, trying to take on waves far bigger than we were. I quickly got bored on the beach and me and poppy went for a quick walk to find food. Two hours later and a hundred dollars later we came back to Grace on the beach with a new dress, a belt, hoodie, a top and two pairs of shorts. Shame on me. With the retail therapy complete we went back to meet a very angry Grace who had to be entertained by a couple of the canadian blokes who also landed in Noosa for a few nights. We had another quick swim and Justin was feeling faint so we came out to see if he's ok. Turns out his blood sugar was really low as he'd been walking around trying to find a barbers to get his hair done just to find himself stupidly lost and walking into the next one he came to, paying $30 for a quick tidy up. I'd be feeling faint if I had to pay that much too.
That night the girls and I decided to go for a boogie even as a storm raged the coast. It absolutely hammered down. I put on my new frock and met up with the lads again for yet more drinking games. I was drinking next to straight vodka so I got hammered pretty quickly. Us girls, Kev and Justin went to a club called Sogo which was a short cab ride away. Still raining by this point. I didn't have my passport on my so I was a bit nervous I couldn't get in but I blather myself in nonetheless. The bouncers probably just wanted to get the mad English girl out of their faces. The club was good, small and lively, but the drinks were crazy prices, not that I needed more in my system anyway.
The next day we set out alarms nice and early to go to Australias zoo, home of the crocodile hunter. None of us were in a fit state to go but it was the only opportunity we had so we sat for an hour on the free bus with our heads in our hands hoping the zoo was worth it.
It was bloody expensive, $56, but on the positive side the place was empty due to the fact that it was low season and on a weekday. The rain had also eased off which was a blessing. The zoo itself was pretty good but in my opinion it was a bog standard zoo. The main attraction was, of course, the crocodiles but they were all lurking under the water and didn't want to raise they're heads to the over-keen tourists. We saw a few shows, with demonstrations from one of the crocodiles, snakes, parrots, elephants and tigers. My favourite was typically the koalas and I even got to hold one! Yes, they are as cuddly as they look. I also got pretty fond of the 6week old piglets scampering around - I come all the way to Australia to get excited about piglets! O dear.
By the time we got off the bus it was about 5pm and because I fell asleep on the bus and rushed to get off, I completely forgot my koala photo. Gutted. Cost me a bloody fortune too but o well. I got some photos on my camera anyway. Early night again. I think I would have sniffed alcohol and passed out. Off to my first large Australian city tomorrow - Brisbane. And, if I'm really honest, I'm not even that bothered about going.