My final day in Rainbow Beach was of course spent basking in the sunshine on the beach. I got on the bus at 7pm to Town of 1770 (so named because Captain Cook landed there in that year). Unfortunately one of my headphones had decided to break so I had my iPod in one ear and Oz Night on the local radio in the other ear... There's only so much Savage Garden a girl can take. It does appear that everything purchased in Thailand (including said headphones) has a shelf life of just under 6 months as within the space of a week my fake Raybans, fake Havianas and fake Sony headphones all fell apart :(

I arrived at the drop off point for 1770 at midnight and then had to get a transfer to my hostel, meaning I didn't get there until 1am, man I was so knackered! The night morning I was reunited with many of my Fraser Island buddies. The hostel we were staying in was really nice, lots of little cabins with only 3 or 4 beds in them, set in several acres with a lake, a bonfire area, a pool and really nice communal and dining areas. Definitely one of the nicest hostels so far.

I've been in Australia over 5 months now and still haven't tried my hand at surfing, but that was all about to change as I booked myself in for a 3 hour lesson for the bargain price of $17. I'd love to say I've finally found my calling and I'm turning pro, but as balance and co-ordination are not my forte, I was crap. It was great fun although my instructor was not in the least bit hot, damn. After yet another rainy day mooching about my hostel (although with the added bonus of friends it wasn't half as bad), I had the joy of waiting until midnight for my overnight bus to Airlie Beach. Naturally I got a minimal amount of sleep and arrived at my hostel in Airlie tired and stinky, but happy that the 10 hour bus journey north had made the temperature far warmer. I hung out with my Fraser Island buddies and was even on the same Whitsunday boat as my friend Aoife. My two day, two night trip around the Whitsunday Islands was to be on the "Atlantic Clipper", a notorious party boat (although it certainly hadn't been sold to me as such), so I braced myself for excessive goon-drinking, raucous drinking games (probably involving partial nudity) and plenty of vomit. However, I was pleasantly surprised. There were 48 of us on the boat (mostly English and female) and we were surprisingly well-behaved. Of course there were a few idiots on the boat and the majority were very cliquey, but I set myself up with my own clique and life was grand.

We sailed to gorgeous Whitehaven beach, which is one of the top 10 beaches in the world and features in the picture above. We spent four hours sunbathing and posing for obligatory broshure style pics. That afternoon we wernt snorkeling and of course I wanted to take my underwater camera with me. Two minutes in, it refused to turn on or indeed do anything. I refused to let it runi my snorkeling and instead found myself swimming over the beautiful coral, surrounding myself with multi-coloured fish and even chasing a giant turtle. This is what I came for! Unfortunately the camera was completely b*****ed and I've still not had any luck sorting out how to send it back to Panasonic!

The Australian Office (Part Two)

I really felt that end of holiday feeling when I returned to Airlie Beach. My best trips were over and really funds were running at an all-time low. Nethertheless I managed to put off finding a job for the first couple of days, naturally prefering to sunbathe in the heat by the lagoon and party away the night with my new friends. Unfortunately, as is the case with travelling, it was time for my friends to leave and head on their merry way up the coast. Having now run out of excused to avoid employment, I spent the morning tarting up my CV and then caught the bus to the shopping centre for provisions (aka a lifetime supply of bread, avocados, noodles, timtams and crackers, which form my staple diet) and photocopy said CV.

After ambitiously deciding 30 copies were needed, circumstances of course meant that the first place I tried, Tribal Travel, offered me a job. Said job was to be the girl who stands on the street harassing people with free internet vouchers to get them in the store to book trips. This did make me feel like I was going back in time to my leafleting days in Dover Docks, but of course beggers can't be choosers, so I gladly accepted.

I was only to work two hours a day in exchange for accomodation at the bedbug-ridden hole 'Magnums', but it was a start. By day I was leaflet extraordinaire, by night I was watching 'Australia's Greatest Drug Lords' and over classic Aussie TV, before bed at 10.30pm. Hardcore! After two days of realising I was standing under next door's 'Adult Store' sign (yes I suppose a few people did think I was touting for the sex shop), my schmoozing to the management paid off and I was promoted to 'Travel Sales Consultant', behind a desk instead of in a doorway and most importantly on a pittance salary instead of just free accomodation. I spent the rest of the week still flyering and training to become Australia's best travel agent, but already the down sides were beginning to show. Airlie Beach is really just the stop off for the Whitsunday trips, meaning people only usually hung around for a day or two before they were off on their way. It was quite possible for me to meet and chat to the nine others in my room and for them all to be gone the next day. It's so exhausting answering the same questions and meeting new people every single day with no constants. I coudn't really afford to party it up with them either, so I spent my evenings like a loser in the hostel next door's tv room watching 'Neighbours' and 'Masterchef Australia'. It was pretty lonely and I was starting to think about getting my own appartment for some stability.

After moving dorms 3 times in 3 days (another definite downside of hostel life)m I was finally put in a room with others hanging around for a while. I chilled at the lagoon with them during the day and that evening we got extremely drunk on goon and headed to Magnum's bar where a wet tshirt competition was taking place and we were continually molestered by pervy locals. One of my roomies, Kirsty, stood up on the table and flashed her bum to the bar. She was told by security if she didn't put her shoes on she would be thrown out... Welcome to the raucous nightlife of Airlie Beach! We spent the night dancing away in Mama Africa and having a right giggle. Our friendship was cemented.

I completed my training at Tribal Travel the next day and was really starting to enjoy the job of selling and recommending to people something they actually want to buy. However, when I turned up to work the next day, the whole shop had been stripped bare and a sign in the window said 'Closed for Renovation'. I was very confused. I had been in the shop until 2pm the previus day and there had been no mention of closure then. I hurried down to the other travel agents owned by the same guy and was unsympathetically told by the woman there that it was closed indefinitely as it wasn't making any money. That however sounds like a pile of crap and I personally think something dodgy went on.

It was really quite depressing to go from having a job I enjoyed back to square one and unemployed once more and without anyone evern having the courtesy to let me know. I spent the day at the lagoon depressed and decided to join my room mates that night drowning my sorrows. Needless to say it was messy. You know when you're topping up your goon up with vodka and singing about McDonalds snack wraps ("Snack wrap all on the floor, snack wrap give me some more") that its gonna be messy and indeed it was. A couple of the girls invited some guys up to the room and before we knew it there was a queue of people outside the room waiting to join the party. After realising they a) may trash the room and our stuff and b) may get us kicked out of the hostel we moved onto the bars, before I had to take myself off home to bed.