Last entry for a few days, as Graham and I are off on our sailing trip through the Whitsundays (islands). Airlie beach seems very nice, yet another tropical tourist town of Australia's east coast - although a little cheaper. We arrived last night at 1am to our hostel room, which did not have air conditioning, and somehow managed to fall asleep - sort of - in 30d heat. (yes, that's at night). I fell asleep okay because I took a gravol on the bus trip in, to ward of nausea while trying to finish my book. I discovered that Gravol is a lot stronger than I expected (good thing I didn't take 2), I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone think straight. From now on I will save the Gravol for emergencies only! We will talk soon.
Kacey
We find ourselves in Yeppoon today... a small town, probably with a population of around 12 - 15,000. Not much happening here, but that's fine with us. Maybe we will watch a movie - seems like all the movies in Australia are about 4 months delayed and I don't know why. Going out to dinner tonight for Kacey's birthday, don't know where we will end up either. I'm not much help today.
Still having fun,
Graham
Fraser Island itself is absolutely incredible, but the 4x4 we were given was a dud. They aren't lying when they say that the most beautiful lake in the world is located on Fraser is., as well as beautiful fresh water streams, sand dunes, large lizards, dingoes and a beautiful coast line. The beauty of the island made up for the fact that our 4x4 had 260 000 kms on it and wouldn't go in reverse. We also had a fabulous time with our english companions, who taught graham that wine and vodka are only for those born in england. But, I will let Graham the storyteller fill in the details.
Kacey
Well, I wanted to add my own little entry to our last couple of adventures, but grham is worried that no one will read his - so make sure you also read and comment to the entry below. Just like the two of us to get into an argument at the computer room at our hostel.
So, we walked to " A Bay" yesterday, but what graham forgot to mention was that you have to walk through a National park to get there, and we not only saw a HUGE lizard but also a Possom (really cute!) some Kookaburras (really furry birds), and some dolphins hunting off the coast. Although we didn't manage to do any body surfing in A Bay, it didn't matter because the walk there and the beach were awesome! Large cliffs, white sand and turquoise water. Too bad we could only tan.
The Australia zoo was just as fun as we expected, except i think we took more pictures of the animals in a day than we've taken on the entire trip. Oh well. You will see the pictures when we get back.
Talk soon,
Kacey
Went to the Australia Zoo today... good time. Saw lots of crocs, lots of 'roos, lots of everything not at home. But, sadly, Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was absent... he must have been on an expedition. Lots of photos, saw 2 Croc shows and some pythons eating a rabbit. Really good day to go to the zoo, only about 23-24C and cloudy all day, so being at the beach wouldn't have been as fun.
In Noosa yesterday we took a hike to Alexandria Bay (aka A-bay). That was good fun, too. There were too many choppy waves so we couldn't catch a big dog... sorry, Lou. The sea was angry that day, my friend. The hike there was cloudy, but it cleared and became really hot at the beach. Saw some sort of large, komodo dragon-like goana (probably 3 feet long)... we thought at first it was a big snake, but no such luck. Off to Hervey Bay tomorrow, then on to Fraser Island for some camping and four-wheeling the next.
All's well,
Graham
You can relax now mom, I finally know how to post my own messages on the website, so you no longer have to hear from me through Graham. But so far he has pretty much said eveything he needed to, except I would like to point out that Graham actually lost $10 at the casino. Oh well, going to the casino was the best part about Surfer's Paradise. There were a lot of other things we could have done - like go to "SNOW WORLD"!!! Yep, a theme park devoted to snow activities, from sledding to skating - we though it was rediculous. The place we stayed at was a dive too. Fortunately we didn't pay that much.
The hostel in Noosa is a zillion times better though. Very resort-like. Other than the very large dead spider we found (we took a picture for you Gaschler), this place is by far better than everywhere else, and far cleaner.
Well, we are off to see the Crocodile Hunter at the Australia Zoo tomorrow. We'll tell you all about it.
Kacey
Made it to Noosa today after a somewhat eventful day in Surfer's Paradise. Went to a Casino and lost $5.00 on 5-cent slot machines... Kacey broke even. Surfers is to Australia what Vegas is to North America. It's big and loud, but ha no substance. Huge buildings (I'm talking 60+ stories each) and too much hub-bub (is that a word). All in all, it was nice to see, but I'm glad we didn't stay too long.
Noosa is a different story. It's a tropical town surrounded by what would amount to Mangrove trees and rivers. The hostel is very nice, as is the whole city. Haven't made it to "A-Bay" yet, nor have I seen any "big dogs," but have only been here since 3:30 pm. Right now, we think we made a good choice to stay here for three days. Probably will go kayaking tomorrow and throw Kacey in with all the crocs just for laughs.
Arriva derci,
bon appetit,
Comment ca va?
Me.
What do "thunder," a "vegemite sandwich," and "where men plunder" all have in common?
First (correct) comment wins a prize when I get home.
P.S. Read Kacey's comment in the "Byron Bay 2" entry.
Someone thought it would be pretty funny to turn the a/c off last night, so 16 people in our hostel were a tad warm throughout the night. I couldn't get to sleep for a few hours. Oh, well. Went scuba diving today and met up with a Leopard shark... about 6 or 7 feet long... I would say I was about 5 meters away. Hundreds of fish in a cave, lots of water, lots of sand, 20 meters deep for about 35 minutes.
First day of cloud and rain today, but spent a lot of it underwater anyway. Yesterday Kacey and I more or less taught a bunch of people to bodysurf... 2 Canadians in Australia teaching them how to ride waves... funny.
Don't know if we will end up in Surfers Paradise tomorrow, maybe Brisbane instead. We'll see.
After spending some good, relaxing time in Coffs Harbour, we now find ourselves in Byron Bay today and for the next two nights. Had a good beach day today, pretty windy and got blasted by sand a lot, but we'd rather have that than 4C and rain... but by all reports the weather sounds good there.
Tommorrow I go scuba diving a few km offshore (Kacey will snorkel). Supposedly lots of sharks around a reef out there now as well as big manta rays... we'll see, I guess. Having a lot of fun so far and catching up on sleep as usual. Still taking pictures and we're working out some sort of plan to get to Australia Zoo (Crickey! Look at that Croc!).
Sun tanningly yours,
Graham
Got here yesterday morning and we are enjoying this town quite alot. Went up the beach, then i twisted my ankle so we (I) hobbled around the town until we found a bus. Forgot to put sunscreen on my ankles... oops. Today we went rafting on the surf (six people in an inflateable dingy)... good times. We will stay here a few more days, then head up to Byron Bay as its hard to get a place to stay being high season and all. But, we've managed to book most everything else in advance.
P.S. Yes, Shannon, it was $28 each per night in Sydney. Here it's $20, includes breakfast and got one night free (food is far cheaper, too).
All for Now,
G & K
Looks like we found ourselves a "deal". Pretty expensive, but end up being cheaper than doing everything individually. 20 days, 19 nights up the coast to Cairns with stops in a bunch of places. A 3 day/2 night sailing cruise as well as 3 days, 2 nights camping on some island (Fraser Isl) near the Great Barrier Reef (off the coast of Airlie) included in those days as well.
It's a pretty warm here, Kacey and I are sunburned (she more than I). But, it's fun nonetheless. Went to the aquarium today and saw sharks. Walked around and sweated pretty much all day. Have a few more hours to kill before we hop on the bus. I definately want to come back here someday.
Well, this city is amazing, too. Had a good day, half busy and half lazy. Kacey and I walked around Sydney (downtown) for a good 3 hours, then back to Bondi to laze around the beach. Found a good deal to take us up the coast... we stay tonight in Bondi, head into town in the morning and figure it out from there.
Pretty expensive here... can't wait to get to Thailand for $5.00 beach huts, now we are paying $28 a night and can't find anything much cheaper (high season and all).
Send more notes later on.
Flew around the Pacific Rim to get here, but got here finally. Had a 45 minute stop in Taipei, after a 13.5 hour flight from L.A. Then a 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur with a 9 hour layover. Took a train into the city, let me tell you Kuala Lumpur IS the future... it's so modern they build massive infrastructure before people start building homes. We saw 3 huge bridges with something that looks like a stadium, surrounded by new roads, jungle allcleared away, but no houses.
The next flight was 7.5 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney... now we reside at a hostel on Bondi beach. Probably stay here just for tonight, then head into downtown and leave for the North a day after that.
All's well here.
Getting excited for my trip. 2 more days... well, 3 more because we won't leave until Friday PM. Then I lose a day crossing the "International Date Line"... so, it's more like 4 days. Then again, it's already almost Thursday where we're going, so maybe it is only 2 more days.
4 days, or 2 days? Tuesday is 2 days away from Thursday, it's almost Thursday in Australia, so that makes it Wednesday... which isn't tomorrow... yet... but it will be. So it's settled, my title stands: 2 more days.