My first day in surfers was pretty chilled and just involved settling in to the hostel, having a wonder about and chilling on the beach!
Tuesday Dave turned up to the same hostel and we went to the beach for a bit then walked down to central surfers for some lunch and booked our theme park tickets for the following day. That afternoon one of the guys who worked at the hostel took me to the gym then the evening saw a night out with the girls and girls from the hostel.
A very early hungover Wednesday morning followed as Dave and I had to be out of the hostel at 8.15 to catch our 8.30 bus out to the theme park. In the morning we went to Wonderland which was very similar to Thorpe park, awesome rides and luckily was quite quiet so we didn't have to queue too much! We grabbed some lunch then in the afternoon we headed to water world next door which is the water park. This is very similar to wet n wild in the states and was good fun! That evening we got back, had some dins then just passed out after a knackering day!
Thursday morning was spent around the hostel pool, followed by a gym sesh in the afternoon. After this a few of us headed down to the sky tower and took a lift to the 88th floor where theres an awesome 360 degrees view looking over the whole of surfers paradise. Thursday evening was 2 dollar 50 a corona night, which is very good in any country but especially oz where they normally charge about 8 dollars 50! So many a corona was drank that night and then we ended up in a karaoke bar!
Friday morning I got the bus out of surfers and headed up to Brisbane. The bus got in at 3pm and after getting off the bus and collecting my bag the old man walks out! We headed back up to the hotel, dropped my stuff off and then went for a wonder around Brisbane. We stopped off at the artificial beach and got a well deserved pint, then headed on round the river to Brisbane beach and then back up to the hotel. After a quick nap we headed back out and found a British pub in the centre we where had burger chips and a few more beers!
Saturday morning we were up early and headed up to the Australian Zoo. Here we fed elephants, stroked kuala beers, laid with kangaroos, saw a huge range of animals and watched the wildlife warriors show, with the highlight being them feeding a 16 foot crocodile from about 5 metres away! Crazy!
Saturday night we headed back out in to Brisbane centre and enjoyed a pizza with a couple of jugs of beer then headed back down to the water front by Brisbane bridge.
Sunday we were up early again and travelled up to Noosa. After checking in to our very nice water front apartment we headed out and had a wonder down the beach and around the waterfront. That evening I cooked a spag bowl and we had some beers.
Monday morning we had some Breakie then headed out down the beach and hired a couple of surfboards for the morning. I gave dad a quick 10 min lesson then we got in the water. The surf wasn't the best as was a bit choppy but dad managed to catch a few waves and get about half way up so not bad at all for his first go!
That afternoon we had a couple of beers on the seafront, headed back to the apartment where I cooked us a curry then headed back out for some more beers!
Dad was up early on Tuesday morning as was driving back to Brisbane to catch a flight, so we said our good byes then later that morning I jumped on the coach up to rainbow bay.
Wednesday morning I got on a coach at 8am heading for Fraser Island! I thought I would be camping and in a 4x4, but it turned out I was going to be in a special 4x4 coach and staying on a resort on the island, which I was originally a bit gutted by, but after the 3 days was delighted with! I had a really good bunch of people on my coach, 2 of which were Beth and Daisy, both from Sheffield, that I am now travelling up to Cairns with! The first day on Fraser we did the Mckenzie lake, rated as the 7th best place to swim In the world, followed by some lunch, a rainforest walk then another lake in the afternoon. We headed down to the beach on the resort after and played a couple games of beach rounders, which of course my team won! That evening me and one of the guys from the coach went down to the resort pool and jacuzzi then headed back up to meet the others and headed down for our oriental buffet dinner! Back to the lodge and a few games of ring of fire and goon followed!
Thursday we were up early, had our buffet fry up, then jumped back on to the coach! We headed out to the champagne pools which are sort of like big rock pools right next to the coast and the waves from the sea come over into the champagne pools. You aren't allow to swim in the sea on Fraser Island due to the hundreds of tiger sharks surrounding it, but you could swim in the champagne pools which was good fun! We then had a bit of lunch and headed down to the famous ship wreck. That evening then followed a very similar pattern to the evening before!
Another early start Friday and after our buffet fry up, we checked out the resort and back on to the coach. We headed out to another lake for the morning and here we took some paddle boards down to the lake and had a play on them! After lunch we then went to lake waby which is an awesome lake! After walking 2k out to it, we then ran / rolled / fell down the massive sand dune in to the lake at the bottom! After we walked back to the coach for some afternoon tea, coffee and biscuits before setting off back to the ferry. I hadn't seen a dingo over the 3 days which I was a bit annoyed about, but just then as we were about to board the coach, one wandered out from the sand dunes! After saying our goodbyes to the guys from our coach, beth, daisy and me headed back to raindbow bay where we got some fish and chips and then just chilled out with a film in the evening!
Saturday we had a coach to catch at 3pm so just sat inside the hostel all day watching films as it was tipping it down outside! We got the coach for 3 hours up to Hervey bay where we had to wait for a further 3 hours before catching our overnight coach up to airlie beach. To kill the time we went to the hogs breath restaurant and got some serious steak and meat dishes as well as some wine and beer! We then got on the coach at 9pm and prepared for the 12 hour ride ahead of us!
Sunday morning we got in to airlie beach with very stiff necks and backs, headed to the hostel to check in, had some Breakie then headed down to the beach to enjoy the lovely sun! We stayed on the beach all morning then headed back up to the hostel for some lunch and just chilled by the pool in the afternoon. That evening we stayed at the hostel bar where they had a dj and guitarist playing, so watched them with a few jugs of beers!
Daisy and Beth were up early on Monday to head out for their Whitsundays trip, so I got up early too and headed down the beach to enjoy the sun! That afternoon I found a gym where I had a workout then chilled by the pool after. Tuesday evening was a very exciting one as I spent it doing my laundry!
Wednesday morning I was up early and in the marina for 8am ready to head out on my boat for the whitsundays! Most people do a 2 night tour on the boat but I was on a 35 metre racing yaught, so did two full days sailing and just one night as this thing was rapid! We checked in, put our goon in the fridges and got on deck ready to start sailing! We all helped the crew get the sails up then started sailing which was awesome as there was a bit of wind so had the boat tipped fully over to one side! Out first stop was the Whitsunday beach. After a small hike we got to the viewing point over the beaches, and it was simply stunning! After lots of photos we headed down to the beach where we got our stinger suits on then headed out in to the water! You had to be careful where you trod as there were quite a few stingrays about which were hard to see as they buried themselves under the sand! They let you get really close to them before they would glide off, which was quite an awesome sight as some of them were huge!
We then boarded the ship again, had some lunch then went on another sail up through the islands to turtle beach. On the way up here we had a couple of dolphins that followed us up for a part which was an amazing scene as behind them was the reflection of the lowering afternoon sun on the sea! We stopped on the beach here to watch the sunset with some nachos then headed back to the boat where we anchored up to spend the night. After dinner the goon came out and drinking games followed! I ended up sleeping (passing out) on the deck under the stars which was nice!
Thursday morning we were up early for some Breakie then got our stinger suits on again and headed out with our snorkels to turtle beach, but some how no one saw any turtles! The reef and the fish were well worth seeing though!
We sailed further around the islands and stopped off at another point where we went snorkelling again, this was the bottom point of the Great Barrier Reef. The fish here were crazy, there were just hundreds all around us!
After snorkelling here we boarded the boat again, had some lunch then got the sails back up to head back to shore! On the way back we were followed by 2 other racing yaughts, so slowed down waited for them to catch us up then raced them back in to shore which was awesome! We won as well after some pretty close calls between the boats!
That evening I went back to the hostel and met up with the girls to have dinner with them and a few drinks. They stayed in as had a pretty heavy one the previous night after getting back in from their trip, but I headed out to meet the guys from my boat and ended up having a pretty heavy one myself!
Yesterday the girls and I chilled out by the pool in the morning as it was an absolute scorcher, then we had some lunch and headed down to a lagoon which is on the beach for the afternoon. Yesterday night was film night at the hostel, so a massive screen was hung up between two palm trees and we chilled watching a couple of films with some beers and popcorn!
Today is Friday and we are currently on the bus heading up to Townsville. We are here for one night then head out to magnetic island tomorrow for the weekend, which is meant to be pure paradise with awesome snorkelling, before returning back to Townsville on mon! Mission beach and Cairns will follow on from that next week where ill be meeting up with Dave again and I'll update you then! Speak soon x