Time for some classic Aussie experiences! We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the first and largest of its kind in the world. It was a fun day of holding koalas, feeding kangaroos,spying crocodiles, spotting Barry the platypus and admiring the tropical coloured birds at feeding time.
That night we went to the hostel's trivia and our team WON! We are so smart and for that we won the big $75, which we responsibly decided would go towards our car rental. Robyn and Charlotte hit the hay while the party animals continued to The Down Under Bar. It was good for a Monday night!
Violet the Koala
Just hopping around
Sleepy koala
Pretty bird
So we should have booked hostels ahead of time. We not knowingly found out it was the busy period so Byron Bay was booked up for at least the next 10 days and Surfers Paradise wasn't much better. We also needed to organize a rental car and so long story short it took awhile to figure this all out. Finally, we got our sexy, red car and were ready for our roadtrip. It was a quick arrival to Surfers Paradise, where all 5 of us piled into 1 hotel room with 1 king size bed. We did a quick peruse of the main street and laid on our towels at the beach. We went back to the hotel room and played drinking games. The highlight of the night was Gerrit pulling the last king and having to drink the 'shit mix' (vodka, gin, rum, coke, ketchup and milk) from a bedside table drawer while in the closet. Somehow, Jen and I were the only ones who went to the bar that night.
Robyn, Jen and I at Main Beach
Q1 Building - tallest in Australia
Gerrit drinking from the drawer
Day 12
We checked out of the hotel and went straight to the beach and spent the majority of the day in the hot Aussie sun! Of course there was wave playing :) On the way to going to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch we bought tickets for the Wicked Pub Crawl. This was the most expensive pub crawl I've ever paid for and the earliest start at 6!! Anyways, we had our lunch and now Robyn could cross that off her list of Hard Rocks visited around the world. Then, we checked into our hostel, The Islander and got ready for our night out. We were late for the first bar but made it to the other 4. The clubs in Surfers are a little risqué with all female bartenders just wearing lingerie. It had a very Montreal feel to it. Why would you do that if you arn't working for tips? The night didn't get too crazy as you might expect with a bar crawl but we still had fun with lots of over the top dancing and making fun of other people haha!
Day 13
In the morning we had Mad Travel at the hostel book our Fraser Island 2 day trip with Fraser Explorer Tours. The first step was to roadtrip down to Hervey Bay, where the tour left from. In our hot red car it took us 4 hours to get from Surfers Paradise to Hervey Bay. Once we got there we roamed the beach and town that seemed like a cool beach town only 10 years ago. After our free sausage sizzle held by the local church and our massive plate of spaghetti we went back down to the beach. Again, we missed sunset but we sat on the beach anyways on the lookout for shooting stars.
Hanging out on the beach in Hervey Bay
Day 14
We were up early to catch the bus for our tour. A full day of sight seeing! There was a 15 minute bus ride and a 30 minute ferry ride to Fraser Island. Since the island is made completely out of sand only cars with 4 wheel drive are allowed. Making our way through the sand roads, we first arrived at Lake Mackenzie, the islands most photographed location. The lake has an impermeable layer of leaves on the bottom therefore anything put in there will be there for thousands of years. Despite the initial thought of disgust you find it's rich in minerials and has a 2.0 pH level making for soft hair and anti-aging properties. We were also warned to watch our bags because dingos were known to come and take them. None were spotted and we spent our hour here playing in the water :)
Lake Mackenzie
Next, we discovered the islands ancient rainforest and giant King Ferns (living fossil) at Wanggoolba Creek and Central Station.
Oldest living fossil
Our lunch stop was at Eurong Beach Resort, our base during our visit to the island.After lunch we hiked the Hammerstone Sandblow. It was a tough walk through the hot sand and we thought the bus driver must have left us there to die because the 'mirage' lake, Lake Wabby was no where in sight. We did eventually find it and had a much needed refreshing swim.
Lake Wabby
Day 15
The day started of slightly amusing when Jen and Gerrit slept in so I had to bang on their door while the whole bus had to wait for them.
We drove down 75-Mile Beach ocean highway along the shark and jellyfish infested ocean. Jen and Gerrit took the optional flight overlooking the island and landing on the beach. They took some beautiful pictures! The beach is also where we had our first dingo sighting! They really deceive you with their cute dog appearance.
Looking down 75 Mile Beach
Fraser Island beaches from above
We continued down the beach to Red Canyon, which as the name mentions is coloured sand and rocks.
The girls at Red Canyon
Next, we went to the Champagne Pools. They are sandy/rocky pools overflowing with ocean water and that creates the bubbly effect with the crashing waves.
Champagne Pools
Then, we checked out the Maheno ShipWreck. It was a passenger liner in 1935 that was being towed to a scrap yard in Japan but got caught in a cyclone that brought it to Fraser Island.
Jen and I at the shipwreck
We climbed up Indian Head to get a view of the beaches and water below. We spotted groups of stingrays but unfortunately didn't see any sharks.
Views from Indian Head
Our last stop of the day was at Eli Creek. Robyn, Charlotte and I did as the tour guide suggested and floated on our backs all the way down the stream. Its a hard life! Eli Creek seemed like the spot to be as people had music playing from their trucks, tents set up and coolers full of beer. We saw another dingo here but much closer this time and this could have something to do with stupid people chasing it out of the bush. If only I could bring it home! So cute!
That concluded our Fraser Island Adventure and we took the ferry back to the main land. Fraser Island is so beautitul and unique! We had previously planned to go to Rainbow Beach for the night so we drove for 2 hours to get down there. As Charlotte drove, all the Canadians drank beer in the car because it's legal in Australia!
Day 16
We checked out of our hostel and started making our way back to Brisbane. To break up the long drive we stopped in a few beach towns along the Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Mooloolaba. Noosa is mostly known for the big houses and flashy things. We hung out at the windy beach and swam in the super wavy water. Mooloolaba I had been told was where all the Canadians went and I can understand why. It was a cute and busy spot and possibly a place to go back to to look for a job. Our reason to come back to Brisbane was to drop Gerrit off at the airport to go back to where he lives in Perth. Jen was sad that her boy was leaving :( and after their goodbye we went to our hostel. The night was a the usual dinner and a jug of beer before bed.
Day 17
Since Byron Bay accommodation was completely booked up we planned to go just for the day. While we were doing our usual playing in the waves Jen landed wrong and really hurt her knee. She managed to make it back to shore and we had the lifeguard come and take a look at it. He couldn't do much about it but the accident left Jen somewhat immobile. Boo! After doing some stressful beach laying and patio drinking we headed back to Brissie. I hope to come back to the hippie town of Bryon Bay. Again, the night was the new routine of dinner and a jug of beer before bed.
Day 18
It was a lazy day while Jen went to the doctor and Charlotte, Robyn and I laid around and did some packing. Jen decided she would go to Perth instead of coming to Cairns with us because of her injury. Despite her reasons of trying not to slow us down it was hard not to be disappointed that she wasn't coming.
Cairns here we come!
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