Rest of Australia! - Ao Nang, Thailand
Ao Nang, Thailand
The next few days we explored more of Sydney, heading over to bondi beach (we didn't enjoy to much but maybe this was because it rained). We met up with friends for drinks in the evening and just enjoyed the buzz after new year in Sydney. On the 29th we got up at 3am to catch a flight to Brisbane and then a flight to Hervey Bay. After two taxis and two flights we arrived in the most horrendous heat. After being in nz and Sydney wasn't to to hot we did not cope with the nearly 40 degree heat. To top it off we had no air conditioning so there was no where to cool down! The next day we woke at 4 30am to catch a bus to rainbow beach which we were glad of because I can't say I liked Hervey Bay too much! In rainbow beach the heat was still so hot but luckily our room had air conditioning so we could escape from the heat. You may be thinking that you don't feel sorry for me at all but believe me this heat was not nice! You could even sit in the shade without sweating! We had a lovely couple of days at rainbow beach down on the beach swimming in the sea and chilling out at pippies beach house which was a really nice small hostel. On the 6th of January we were heading to Fraser Island (a huge sand island) which we were so excited about! We did a tour called drop bear adventures and it was amazing I highly recommend the tour to anyone who wants to go to Fraser Island. It was 2 nights camping and 3 day 4x4 tag along tour. This means we had one lead car with our one guide and then 3 other 4x4 cars that followed and we could drive any of these cars! Our camp site had no proper toilets and no showers so it was proper camping. We camped just off the beach which was so cool as you could hear how close the sea was at night. Camping also meant I would wake up as soon as was the sun was up so at 5 I was wide awake each morning and very very hot! As we were camping we had to be careful of dingos which were a wild dog on the island. You couldn't leave anything in your tents, the only place you could leave it was in the cars on your back or in the locked trailer. Recently they had taken a bag with a passport and flight tickets, oops so we were super careful! We headed over to the island on a ferry with all the 4x4 and after we set up camp and had lunch we headed to a spot called lake wabby. The day was so so hot and we had a 40 min walk on sand uphill in the scorching heat. The only thing keeping us going was that our tour guide promised us the most beautiful lake and spot at the end and how right he was. It was absolutely stunning sand dunes surrounded the lake with tee tree oil trees in the lake making the lake smell amazing. The sand dunes caused a hill down to the lake which meant you could sprint down and jump into the most refreshing lake after the horrendous walk! We stayed there for an hour just swimming in the lake. It was so peaceful and we just felt so far away from anything. It was difficult to leave the lake but luckily the walk back was more down hill and less hot! When we got back to the car our tour guide was collecting giant sea worms from the sea for bait. I have never seen such big worms there were meters long! That evening we started with beers on the beach and then a Aussie BBQ cooked but our tour guide. We had already seen our first dingos around camp and found the one of the most deadly snakes in the world on the bottom of one of the cars (luckily it was dead!). Our tour guide kept catching chickadas which he caught them in his hand and they were so loud! There was a big lightening storm this night and we watched from the beach which was pretty incredible. (Also a little scary as someone two weeks before had been killed on Fraser Island by lightening!) The next day we drove for miles along the 75mile beach stopping off at some amazing places these included Eli creek. This was a creek (river) that you walked to the top and then floated all the way back down. The water was so fresh you could drink it straight. We also stopped at the champagne pools and a lagoon which had amazing sand dunes all around. We also went to Indian head and the Mehino ship wreak. We had an absolutely lovely day and luckily the weather was a little cooler than the day before. This evening we again had beers on the beach followed by a chicken stir fry. We had a brilliant evening playing games, music, dancing and listening to everyone's travel stories. (Our tour guide was just fascinating he had been to 74 countries sailed from England to Australia and now wants to sail the rest of the world!) we then went out to the beach to look at the stars with everyone which was so cool! This evening our tour guide had managed to catch a Cane toad (which he decided to put on my head and make it kiss me!) a snake, a few huntsman (I also found one on my foot!) and lots more chickadas! The next day was our last day on the island :( but we made the most of it! We left real early and headed inland and over the other side of the island where we went to lake Mackenzie which is usually everybody's favourite place however the water wasn't as clear and the sun wasn't out so lake wabby topped it for us! However lake Mackenzie was still so cool! Again it had tee tree trees everywhere and the crazy thing was you could wash your body with the sand! We washed our hair and even brushed our teeth with this sand! Our guide found us a baby turtle swimming around which was cool. After this we drove to central station which is a big forest with another creek which was the most clearest water I have ever seen! We had lunch hear and played football and chilled until it was time to head back to the mainland. We were heading to Noosa so had quite a drive. We had an awesome time on Fraser Island our tour guide really was fantastic! Driving the 4x4 down the beach was so fun although a little scary at times there was some really tough tracks! When we weren't driving me and robin mainly sat in the back of troys car (our guide) who's car was pretty old and we sat on the back and it was so bumpy and not so comfortable but it was very jokes! We were sad to leave the island but also looking forward to not being on sand the whole time! We spent the next four days in Noosa which we absolutely loved! The place was so chilled out and beautiful! The main beach was stunning and the sun shone the whole time apart from one day. We did a surf lesson here which we absolutely loved! We had so much fun surfing! Except Noosa has quite a lot of sharks and even thought there is a shark net they have been easily coming through. So at one point on the lesson we all got evacuated from the sea as there was a bull shark spotted by one of the surfers. It was pretty scary as there was helicopters and so many boats everywhere all of a sudden looking for this shark and where it was off to next! But we all got back in Nd carried on like nothing had happened which I thought was very strange! We also did a costal walk at sunset in the national park which was incredible and so beautiful! One night we did a BBQ with the people we had met there and had kangaroo burgers which were actually very nice! We felt we had had a lovely chilled time in Noosa and after this we headed to Brisbane for a couple of nights before we headed to Asia! Brisbane we felt was really nice. The first afternoon we wondering the central city and in the evening went for lovely run down the river banks and over the bridges at sunset which was so lovely! The second day we took a bus to Lone Pine sanctuary which was so cool! We got to stroke and have pictures with koalas! We also got to sit and feed and hug kangaroos! It was so crazy there were loads in this park and you could just go sit with them and they were so jokes! We also got to feed paraketes which a was also crazy we held the feed table up in iur hands and loads just came flying. It wasn't like a zoo none of the koalas were in cages the paraketes were wild the kangaroos were roaming free in this park. It was a small place but so cool! In the evening we meet up with a friend who lived outside of Brisbane who we met in New Zealand on our travels. We had a brilliant evening with her she took us to south bank and it was beautiful! There were all these outside pools that they had built on the river bank and flowers and tree walk ways it was just incredible. We were sad that we were leaving the next day as we would of love to have had a swim! We then went and got a Mexican which was so good then Katie took is to her favourite cafe which we could see why and would never have gone there if it wasn't for her! It had the most amazing cheesecake and just so chilled out and a lovely atmosphere it was called the three monkeys. After we said goodbye to Katie we had to go home and pack because early the next morning it was time to leave westernisation and fly to Asia! We loved Australia a lot not quite as much as New Zealand but we still loved it so much! The heat at times was a bit unbearable but it cooked down towards the end which was good as you could then do things in the day! There is still so much I want to explore of Australia and talking to other travellers so many things to do which means a trip back is defiantly in order!