Blogs from the past- The South Pacific- Part Trois.

Thursday, July 27, 2006
Country 2 of 3 still- Part 2- Airlie Beach down to Sydney Category: Travel and Places
Australia Round 2- Journeys between Airlie Beach to Sydney.

I last left off with Naomi and I in Airlie Beach. While there we went on our sailing trip through the Whitsundays. Don't feel bad if you don't know what that is because I sure as hell didn't until someone mentioned it to me at work. Its basically a big group of islands that have mostly remained undeveloped. Well it was a 3 day and 2 night sailing trip. We actually only sailed about 2 times during the entire thing but thats what motors are for. Our bad weather continued except for the 4 hours of sunshine we got when we were at Whitehaven Beach which worked out perfectly. I like to think I got a nice golden tan during that time but I think the sun just got to my brain. It was a nice trip overall but I think I am done with boats for awhile.
After the Whitsundays we decided to continue our travels South down to Hervey Bay. So we took the Greyhound for another lovely night ride which took a little over 12 hours to get there. We stayed at a pretty nice hostel and decided to get a twin share room. So instead of hitting "the town" we took a nice 5 hour nap before heading off to the local watering whole; the Club. It was basically a Members club that served a buffet for cheap and they also had "Pokies" which in American speak are slot machines. But just because its a members club we talked our way in. Well ok we just signed in as guests. I hit the penny slots and wound out on top at the end with $1 in winnings. I was proud of myself. But the buffet was a socialogical experiment in itself. We were the only people in the place under 50 if you don't count the 20 year old guy there with his parents for a free meal. It was pretty entertaining to watch the looks they gave us. We booked a Fraser island tour though so we had to catch that at 6:15 am the next morning.
Fraser island is basically a island of the coast with sand dunes. We took a four wheel bus tour. It was a little rocky. Not much to say there. A lot of trees, some whales off the shore, and a lot of sand.
Fraser island was right off Hervey Bay so when our day tour was over we decided to hit the town again. Naomi found a place in her tour book that had a pizza and pancake "all you can eat" deal. We were pretty stoked which of course led to disappointment and a slightly ill feeling afterward. After that Naomi was intent on finding this Irish pub we saw on the way in. After a good mile walk we finally found it. And the best part of the night followed. Basically we met some weird guys but then we met perhaps the hottest Australian yet. about 6'2" and pretty much fucking hot. After switching bars due to closing hours we ended up talking to him for the rest of the night. We were pretty proud that we finally found a hot Australian and not just another British guy. Definte highlight of the trip and you would understand if you had seen him.
(I know this is getting long but if you know me at all I like to chat and this will save me time when I get back from having to tell you what I did and if you don't read on then you will just feel really left out :)
After that we decided to head down to Noosa Heads. Which basically resembled Malibu, CA. It was gorgeous. It was a quaint little surfer type town that tourists like ourselves have slowly invaded. I did eat the best meal of my entire trip here which was fried rice at an Thai-Malaysian restaurant of course. While there I took a day trip to the Australia Zoo which is the zoo ran by Steve Irwin "The Crocodile Hunter." It was kinda a mix of theme park cheezyness and a zoo. Steve was there that day but I didn't see him, just the scooter he rides around on. I did see some lovely crocs though.
Then came our last stop before Sydney which was Brisbane. Everybody told us not to go there because it sucked and of course they were right. However they did have some crazy nightlife in "The Valley" which the name alone made me think of "Clueless." We went out there and stayed out till like 6 am and but you would have never guessed because the area was just as packed as when we got there. It was basically a block area of bars where the entire city was at. It was the most bizarre thing I had seen in awhile. People were getting in fights and then 5 bouncers would appear out of nowhere and tackle them and put them in headlocks. Plus it was raining which made it more chaotic then it needed to be. It was pretty much ridiculous but worth mentioning.
After Brisbane we had to get down to Sydney for Naomi to catch her flight. That was a 16 hour bus ride. It was the worst of them all. The bus sucked, there were an abnormal amount of crazys on the bus and the hippies behind us kinda smelled. But always a cultural experience and we made it to Sydney without much harm.Sydney is not really what I thought it was going to be. I have hit a bunch of the sites including Bondi beach where there were a total of maybe 10 people on it as opposed to the usual thousand or so when the sun is actually out in the summer. I went to the Zoo yesterday which was pretty good. I saw some local wildlife and the animals were cool too. Just kidding. It had a really good location with Sydney Harbor in the background. I have a couple days left and then I go onto Fiji which hopefully will only involve me lying on a beach. Until then.