George’s Adventure

Monday 25th September 2006

Ok I am really not a happy bunny.  Just checked my blog and I have this notice leaping out at me:

“Maybe you noticed that your blog is missing posts dating back to August 17th? Or that your blog ain’t here anymore. Well, after doing this for 3+ years we have had a series of server errors and the database that was storing all the blog entries was wiped clean. The most recent back-up that we’ve been able to restore is from August 17th. All our daily back-ups between August 17th and now are missing for the moment. We are still working on finding a more recent back-up. If we do not find it, I am not sure if there is anything we can do. We are truly sorry about this.”Ok so something funny is going on….I was sure i had written since I left New Zealand but it appeared not and now I know why!! Got lots to catch up on then havent you!! I’ll keep the recap brief as I know some of you have already read about Sydney and Coffs Harbour (yawn yawn I know):

Thurs 17/08: Sydney – left New Zealand for Sydney and the next day we visited Sydney Tower and Oz Trek.  The tower is the highest point in Sydney and has 360 degree panoramic views.  The Oz Trek is a simulation ride – a bit touristy.  On the Saturday we walked around Paddy’s Market, I bought some new trainers as mine had all fallen apart and Janine bought some sunglasses which she later will lost in Coff’s Harbour.  That evening we sampled only one of Sydney’s clubs – ‘The Gaff’ and ended up stopping off at ‘Hungry Jacks’ on the way home.  This is actually “Burger King” but Oz have kept the original name for it – weird.

Sun 20/08: Coffs Harbour – We arrive here and the next day we go whale watching.  Janine has a go at being skipper on the way back and we get to see whales and dolphins jumping around and spraying water – the sun is shining!!.  That night we enter a local pub quiz with our hostel and meet Kyle, Helen and Leanne who we later travel on with.  We win some booze as we win one of the rounds – yay!  On Tues 22/08 we commence our PADI open water dive course.  This is one of the most amazing and best things I have ever done.  I love it!  The first day is all theory and I begin to find some brain cells – after all I havent used them in a while.  I have a medical and pass  The doctor comments that I have very “clear ears” – whatever that means!  On day 2 of the course we have an intense pool session from 08.30am – 1.30pm.  It feels so odd to have bubbles running up the side of my face but I get used to it.  We have to do 8 lengths of the pool any stroke in as much time as possible – Im first – yay!  On day 3 we go for 2 dives in the morning at Mutton Bird Island and it is incredible.  We practice our skills in the water and in the afternoon I pass my theory test.  No celebrating though as need to have a clear head for the next day where we completed our two other dives at South Solitary Island and received our certificates.  We are now qualified scuba divers.  We got to see a turtle, baby sharks, blue gropers, lots of different types of fish etc – amazing!  I even managed to have my first diving injury.  A lady flicker her reg hose in my eye and it came up all red – its fine now though!  Ha!  On Sat 26/08 we visited Coffs Harbour’s main attraction – ‘The Big Banana’.  Our tour guide looked like Johnny Depp (Janine loved this) and we had a tour of the plantations and went for a toboggon.  Thrilling!  On Sun 27/08 we had a walk around Coffs Harbour and left later that day for Byron Bay.  Our new friends Kyle, Helen and Leanne joined us.

Mon 28/08: Byron Bay – It is here that we get to stay in ‘The Pentagon’, a tipi/tent type style of accomodation – pretty cool.  We have a walk around the town which is pretty small.  The place is very hippy like and chilled out.  Good to relax here even though we never make it to the beach – it rains the whole time.  When I say rained – I mean torrential downpours all day and night.  It is here that we come accross the first hostel that does not provide cutlery or plates/general kitchen equipment – a fad that lasts pretty much up the whole of the east coast of Oz.  That night we watch a talent show in our hostel and then head out for the town.  We go to a few places and end up at ‘Cheeky Monkeys’ – a bar where you can dance on the tables – I say no more.  It is here that on the next night Janine gets thrown out.  So funny!  Tues 29/08 we go on ‘Jims Alternative Tours’ and visit Nimbin.  This is a place where they sell marijuana fairly openly on a street that is not even the length of Bromley high street.  Kyle, Janine and myself had a fun day here and on the way home stopped off at a protected forest where we ate macademia nuts and fruits before visiting the Minyon Falls.  The bus to get us to Nimbin and back was an adventure – leaking and playing crazy music. So fun!  On Weds 30/08 I make and paint my own didgeridoo.  I also learn how to play the didgeridoo and create my own design.  I then paint, wax and varnish it.  Is the world ready for my musical sounds just yet I ask?

Thurs 31/08: Surfers Paradise – This is meant to be literally a paradise for surfing and yes it would be if it wasnt raining.  Still as we have now left Helen and Leanne and we have only Kyle for company, the three of us are not complaining as we get upgraded from a dorm room into an apartment.  We have our own kitchen (WITH AN OVEN – this is dramatic!) and two DVD players and TVs – we are in luxury.  We are so excited we buy junk food – use the oven, rent 3 DVDs and chill out all night.  Love it!  The next day we walk around Surfers – have a little paddle on the beach, admire the high rise buildings for such a dainty place and head to Brisbane.

Fri 1/09: Brisbane – We wander around this delightful city.  Many people have strong conflicting opinions about Brisbane.  They either love it or hate it.  I love it.  As the three of us are wandering around we stumble upon the University there and can hear live music – we go to investigate and end up seeing INXS that evening.  Truly amazing.  They rocked.  Sat 2/09 we visit Brisbane’s man made beach and we are there at the time of The River Festival – a festival which celebrates the river running through Brisbane.  That night we watch the fireworks that have been put on for everyone on the South Bank (literally like London’s) and then head out on the town.  We bump into some locals who take us to a dire place which plays hip-hop and techno music.  We stay there just long enough to encounter party streamers and poppers explode all over the floor – we make a quick exit after that.  Sun 3/09 we visit Brisbane’s Chinatown and Kyle leave early the next day.  We are sad that he has left so we cheer ourselves up on Mon 4/09 by cuddling a koala at the Lone Pine Koala Santuary.  We see all sorts of birds and animals here – our koala is sooo cute!

Tues 5/09: Noosa – It is raining here.  We visit the cinema to see ‘Thank you for Not Smoking’ as there is really not much else to do here. We do go on a little walk though – exercise exercise!

Thurs 7/09: Hervey Bay – pronounced Harvey Bay, this is where our Fraser Island adventure begins. The next day we spend some time on the beach – horray it is sunny! – and then at 3pm go to meet the rest of the Fraser Island crew. We meet our group. We are with 4 irish girls, Natalie, Donna, Lol and Mimi and 3 guys called Nathan, Russ and Rory and one guy who is travelling on his own called Steve. We go shopping for our supplies – ie. food and alcohol for the trip and then the next day we are off. Saturday sees us lost the map of the island and tide times within the first hour of being there. I lose my Ray Ban sunglasses (im so not happy about this), Rory loses his ipod and watch that night and Donna loses her flip flops. The sand is definitely a thief. Fraser is the largest sand island in the world. It is definitely a sight to see. We visit Lake McKenzie which is beautiful and we go swimming here in the sunshine. We cannot swim in the sea, despite having to drive on the beach and it being so tempting, because of the sharks – not a good look apparently. We also visit Eli Creek on the first day and camp on the beach. We get our meat out to cook and it is all frozen so we decide to cook beans on the gas stove, which explodes into flames and nearly catches the tents alight.

The next day I am woken up by a ranger shaking my foot and asking me to get up. We all get up and out of our tents despite the hang-overs and are reprimanded quite rightly for leaving beer cans (might I add that Janine and I didnt drink beer that night) all over the camp site. He let us off a fine thank goodness. When we have all recovered, we drive to the champagne pools in our 4×4. We get stuck in the sand a bit – all fun digging us out – and then we head to Indian Heads where we climb to the top and see baby sharks, dolphins, whales and turtles swimming around. Russ shows me later that he can pull the key out of the ignition whilst we are moving – there is something wrong about that me thinks! We visit the ‘Maheno Wreck’ – a shipwreck on the island – pretty rusty but impressive and then we camp down on the beach for the night. We are supposed to be inland and not on the beach this night beacause of the tide times the next day but we didnt get in-land on time. The next day, Monday 11/09 we drive through salt water with our fingers crossed hoping that the car company wont notice the salt crystals and make it back to the ferry despite it pouring with rain, me nearly being sick and having to sit in the front, and nearly running out of petrol. We also discover that the handbrake doesnt work properly and the car still moves forward. Love it!

Tues 12/09: Agnes Water/Town of 1770 – This town is sooo cute and small and lovely. It is chilled out here and warm and sunny so we head for the beach here and take part in Scooteroo Tours. Yes, that’s right, I have overcome my fear of scooters from Crete and I ride a chopper (a mini Harley Davidson). Dad eat your heart out thinking your cool on your monkey bike – you just wait until you see the pics of me on my bike!!!! They are soooo cool and I have the best time. We rip it up around the island and then stop for potatoe wedges and watch the sun set on the town.

Thurs 14/09: Rockhampton – This is the beef capital of Australia (Gemma went here – hoorah!). We have the best steak here but in the town there is not much to do here. They have statues of bulls everywhere here.

Friday 15/09: Mackay – pronounced like it rhymes with ‘die’ – we take a bus to the ‘Dreamtime Cultural Centre’ and learn all about aborginal and the torres straight culture. I learn how to throw a boomerang here. Impressive! We also get a free bus around the town here and visit the Artspace centre (art gallery) and the beach and marina – very pretty.

Sun 17/09: Airlie Beach: This is where we began our Whitsunday adventure. We checked into a hostel that doesnt provide pillows or sheets or blankets of any description and if you do want them you have to pay extra – sleeping with my hoody as a pillow is greeeat! This hostel in fact is sooo good that the kitchen has no cooker or stove so you cant boil water….this means we have to buy dinner and all our food – not the cheapest option. Still, only one night in this delightful hostel and then the next day we went to meet the people who were joining us on our sailing adventure around the Whitsundays and collect my snorkell of course. So, 25 girls on board this boat and 3 men (1 who was gay and 2 who had girlfriends with them) – great! On the day we boarded the boat the sun was shining and the water glistened – beautiful. The 3 day, 2 night affair was on board The Pride of Airlie. We got going and sailed to South Molle Island. This is a lovely island and resort. As we checked into our dorm and had dinner and drinking games on the first night by the time i got to bed i was thinking it was great here – until one of the Italian girls in my room pointed out a cockroach and George to the rescue had to calm her down and chase this silly creature around the room. Eventually the other Italian girl bashed it to death with her flip flop. Nice!

The next day we sailed to White Haven Beach where Janine and I did a dive. We went to about 5/6 metres so not very deep and the visibility was pretty poor as lots of sand was being churned up but we saw some amazing fish and it was good for us to get back into diving and get our confidence up. It was the first time we had dived since qualifying. White Haven Beach has silica sand. You can clean your silver jewellery with it – probably good for exfoliating too but i didnt try that. After White Haven we got taken to a little spot for a bit of snorkelling. I have never seen such big coral and the amount of fish swimming around was phenominal. Eventually we had buffet lunch and headed back to our resort where Janine and I headed straight for the luke-warm spa. Just as we had started to relax after about 5/10 minutes, about 15 of the other guys (ok well mainly girls i know) turned up – there were so many of us in this little tiny spa – needless to say two of the men in the spa loved it! That night we had dinner and played some drinking games and I thought i would enter one of the games. I declined on the limbo dancing but took up the challenge of the box game. This involves picking up a cardboard box off the floor but with your teeth and hands behind your back. Your knees are not allowed to touch the floor. Everyone gets a go at lifting and after each round someone cuts a layer off of the box to make it lower. Eventually you are left with one square of cardboard on the floor. Somehow – i won!!!! Nice bottle of champagne for me thank you very much!

The next day we got taken to a sand bar where I went snorkelling and saw the biggest turtle. I followed it as it swam along slowly flapping its little arms and legs – so cute! As we headed back to the dry land of Airlie beach we sunbathed on deck – it was the hottest day. Back on dry land and we checked out the lagoon at Airlie beach. An artificial lagoon but wonderful to cool off in, splashing around and nicer than the beach.

We leave Airlie Beach and take a bus to Townsville where we caught a ferry to Magnetic Island. This island is beautiful and on Fri 22/09 there was a big full moon party with lots of different DJs playing and dancing all round. Tim Deluxe from the UK played. Very fun.

Sun 24/09: Townsville – We took the ferry from Magnetic Island back to Townsville and put all our bags into a big locker. We explored Townsville for the day, mainly lying on the beach, and then caught a late bus to Cairns where we are now. Ours Cairns adventure begins.