25/02/09

Had a bit of a lie in, didn't get up until 0915 rather than 4. My stuff was in bit of a mess and all my clothes were caked in rusty sand, so we all put our things in the wash and checked out. Spent the morning wandering in to town, we each got a subway meal, Coops managed to get 3 cookies out of it. Rich went footlong, couldn't quite finish it so spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out a way to wrap it up, a random bloke in the queue was laughing at his feeble attempts. We went to Woolworths and got some more water, Rich left his subway on the shelf next to the padlocks so had to go back and get it. We wandered around town a bit, I ended up getting a T-Shirt and we all got postcards.

Walked back to the hostel and stopped in at the petrol station on the way back to pick up more water, Coops got told off by the attendant for reading the magazines. When we got back we all had showers again and packed our washing away. When we got to the airport Pat realised that he had left his towel behind, Coops called him a d*** head, in a nice way though. On the flight I ended up eating an entire bag of Doritos not knowing that we were going to be fed, the moment I finished them they came around and handed out pretzels shortly followed by a curry and chocolates. I've never felt so full in my life, I thought I was going to be sick.

We got in to the Cairns and had a laugh at how no one remembered who had booked the hostel. Apparently it was me, but I was pretty sure I was asleep when it was booked. When the car came to pick us up we realised it was a completely Chinese run establishment, and there were only 4 spare seats in the car. We piled in, then the guy came round and laughed at us telling us that it was dangerous and one of us should get in the back, we were a bit confused but then realised he had set up a seat in the back. We all struggled not to laugh the entire time we were in the car with him, it was impossible to understand what he was saying.

When we arrived at the hostel it was almost as if we were back in Thailand. The check in area was pretty much outside, we had to walk past burnt out TV's and Microwaves to a dingy corner desk where a woman greeted us. We spent a good 10 minutes explaining that there were 5 of us and we wouldn't fit in 1 4 bed dorm so we would like a room for 2 of us and a room for 3 of us and we would only need 2 keys. While we were writing all our details down the guy started counting out free meal vouchers for us. I'm not sure where he learned to count but he counted out 10 in 5 pairs, then went though them again and removed 5, I couldn't contain myself and just burst out laughing, while I was laughing the woman came back with 3 keys which didn't help the matter. When we paid for it, there was no till, it was a top pocket job, the change came out of the back pocket. We were showed to our rooms, when we got there the key didn't work anyway so we had to leave the door open all night and when we finally got in to the room it reaked of sick, I think it was coming from the guys bag that was staying in the bed beneath me. We were all nackered so just went to bed.

26/02/09

Had a bit of a lie in, didn't get up until about 9. walked in to town and wandered around random souvenier shops. We stopped off at the Big Apple Cafe, Rich and Coops got an Enlish fry up each, even though she was starving and gave all her bacon away Coops still couldn't finish it. Helen turned heads when she tried every piece of fruit on the plate that she got with her pancakes. She tried Kiwi and 3 different kinds of melon before informing us that it is mostly apple and lots of grapes that make her mouth prickly. The treacle/syrup she was given to go with her pancakes was so runny it looked like gravy. Pat had to go and buy a new towel and when he'd sorted that we wandered back home. Sat around doing arrow words in the girls room for ages getting very hot and sweaty, then had to have a shower, luckily I had overheard Pat screaming in the shower about how the hot and cold taps were reversed so I managed to avoid the seering pain of burning hot water all over my body in this hot environment. Monged about in the hostel watching the Simpsons and Neighbours then we went out in to town to use the free meal voucher that the guy had spent so long attempting to give us yesterday.

We got there and there was a choice of spag bol or sweet and sour, I went for the sweet and sour, it was more sweet than sour, not very nice really but it was free so I can't really complain. Spent the evening going around the night market, I think this is the first market we've been to since the one in Melbourne. It took me straight back to the days of being in Asia, walking up and down, losing the girls and Pat in bracelet shops and being harassed by Asian women for a 'Thai Massage'. We went to the global gossip so a few people could ring home, Pat spent about 10 minutes trying to ring ACE insurance before we pointed out that he was ringing the wrong number, tit.

27/02/09

Got out of bed and had a shower, there's no curtain on the widow which is waist height so anyone standing outside gets a nice show if they look up at the window. The girls and I went for a wander to the main mall, Coops had to get some new trainers because she had worn hers out in the Outback, and she had a $20 voucher for Cotton on, which didn't surprise me, the amound of crap the girls have bought from the place. She ended up getting some rather retro looking plimpsoles and because she had to spend over $30 to use the voucher got another 2 vest tops, I think thats about 10 all in different colours that she now owns. I was very tempted to buy some new shorts, but couldn't bcause my bag is already 3 Kg overweight. We spent the rest of the morning wandering around souvenier shops and some massive supermarket that was next to Coles. Managed to escape the shops after only buying a strawberry milk but got a bit peckish on the way back so we all stopped at a woolworths petrol station and got a sausage roll. The girls went back to the hostel and I walked in to town to use the net and book Auckland accomodation. Bumped in to them as I'd finished booking the accomodation and told them that I'd meet them at the lagoon. The globalgossip internet was painfully slow and took forever to put up photos. By the time it was done it was raining outside and I desperately needed a turd, so I walk/jogged to the nearest public toilets which I found using a great website Sandy emailed me, and let loose. When I got to the lagoon the others were nowhere to be seen, so I checked the place we had agreed to have lunch but still no luck.

After an hour or so of wandering around town I stopped of at McDonalds to use a bit of free internet and see if any of them were online, I noticed Coops had changed her status 6 minutes ago so assumed they would have been in PeterPans. When I got there I asked if any of them had been in, and they told me they were there 20 minutes ago, so I rechecked the Lagoon and hey presto they they were. We went to The Raw Prawn for lunch and ordered a plate called the Hop, Skip, Hump and Jump between all 5 of us. The waitress asked us if we realised that it was a meal for one and looked quite puzzled when we still just ordered the one. The food arrived and we tucked in to the Kangaroo first, tasted a little like beefy lamb, then was the Croc, as everyone predicted Fishy chicken. Next was the Camel which Rich and I had already had, very tasty, and then the Emu, not the best, really tender and a very strange taste that I couldn't place. My preferences, favourite to least; Camel, Kangaroo, Croc, Emu.

We walked back home, the girls wanted to walk a different way to the norm so we walked along the seafront through the park. We ended up walking about 4 blocks too far and Coops was moaning because her sandals were hurting her, she ended up walking barefoot. We finally arrived back and relaxed for a bit whilst watching the simpsons. Neighbours then came on, and to mark our last day in Aus it was also Harrolds last ever episode in Neighbours, we all watched in awe as Harrold said goodbye to everyone in Ramsay St. and got in his camper and left for good.

In the evening we went out to a bar, it started raining on the way, not anywhere near as heavy as in Melacca, but by the time we got there my shirt was soaked and you could see my nipples poking through. We used another free meal voucher, this one was much better than last nights, and the place served actual pints of beer. Once we'd finished eating Coops dragged us all in to Woolworths because she was still hungry and wanted a Mars bar. I pleaded with them not to let me in there because I'd end up buying some chocolate. I ended up buying 2 Mars bars and a Snickers the Lot, now I had 3 chocolate bars that I couldn't eat, but if I didn't eat them they would melt, what a predicement. I managed to only eat 1 Mars on the way back and saved the others for tomorrow. When we got back we set up a game of Party Scrabble, its mental, all scores end up being trippled, the girls spanked us by over 200 points. Everyone else packed their things for tomorrow but I couldn't be arsed and just had a shower and went to bed.