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So this morning I woke up about 7am again, had breakfast and decided to go off and try and get a surf in as it's my last day here. The forecast was for plenty of swell, but also pretty strong onshore winds. Sure enough the closer the to the coast I got the winds got. I was hoping to go to Currimundi, but it was obvious by the time I got to Caloundra there was no point, instead went to Moffats which I was hoping would be more sheltered. When I got there I was disappointed, the wind was much more easterly than I thought, trashing the surf along with the tide being too high.
As all the beaches would have been equally onshore, I went back round towards Dicky Beach where I hoped the beach would be making more of the swell. It turned out to be very marginally better - if you lived 2 minutes down the road you wouldn't have bothered going in, but as it was my last chance to surf Aus I went in anyway.
It was diabolical a 4ft storm waves breaking all over the place, and a cross shore current so strong you couldn't even paddle hard and maintain the same position. I fought for about 20 mintues, did 1 run around and managed to stand up on one wave before getting out again. Hardly the sort of last surf I would have hoped for.
From there I went into the centre of Caloundra to pay in the cash I got for my car, into my bank account. I got there to find the bank didn't even flipping open till 9:30am...Australians! As a result I went to a cafe up the street and killed the 40 minutes until it opened.
Having paid the money in I headed home, and stopped off in Landsborough on the way. I decided I would get Mark and Fenella a couple of bottles of wine as a bit of a thankyou, but was still unsure what to get Cecily and Diggor. In the end I decided on getting them a selection of sweets (which would be much to my mothers disappointment!) as they had talked about jelly babies etc recently.
When I got home I set about packing all my bags. It didn't take as long as I expected it to, as most of it had been laying around on the floor next to my bag anyway! I then packed up my surfboard bag, with both boards, snorkelling kit and hand spear all wrapped in my beach towel. At this point I was a bit worried about the weight of all the luggage. I weighed it to find it came to 33kg, and I have a total of 30kg alllowance, so hopefully I will get away with the few extra Kgs.
Not long after I finished, Fenella came back from a food shop with Subways for lunch. We sat chatting for a while, then I basically bummed around doing nothing all afternoon. It was overcast and drizzling occasionally outside, and not warm enough to go on the pool.
Having got everything ready to go and showered etc, I decided I would go and say goodbye to Kelly, Rich and Maddie. I ended up staying for a beer and a chat. Simularly to saying goodbye to Ron and Bubbles last night, it was strange saying goodbyes to people I Havnt really known really for that long, yet feeling sad to think you may or may not ever see again. Although I guess through travelling that has become normal to some extent..
I got back home just in time to sit down and have 'the last supper' (as Fenella refered to it). After we had finished I gave them their 'presents' which they seemed happy with (I really hope the wine was alright, but it was reccomened by the woman in the shop, so fingers crossed). It was then time to go off down to where I was being picked up by the shuttle bus to the airport.
I said goodbye to Mark at the house as there wasn't enough room in the car, and the others came with me. It took until we were in the car for it really to start sinking in I was leaving the house for real, let alone the country. It started to seem like a very long time ago that Fenella had picked me up in Mooloolaba and taken me back to their house..
We only had to wait for 5/10 minutes before my shuttle arrived early, as there were only 2 of us in the minibus to the airport.
Saying goodbye to Cecily, Diggor and Fenella before getting on the bus was horrible. I just about managed to stop myself blubbing, but as a result didn't manage to say much more than thankyou for letting me live with them so long and hopefully see them in the UK next year. Then that was that - I got on the bus and we were off to the airport, at which point I wasn't quite as successful at not blubbing..
I got to the airport at 9:30pm, found a sofa area to crash in and settled in or the 3/4 hour time waste until the check in desk opened for my flight. I read my Lonely Planet Bali book and found myself reminiscing about the time I have spent in Aus, which surprisingly made the time fly by.
When check in opened just about everyone in the terminal was quad up at the desk. After a bit of a wait I am check in both my Boardbag and suitcase without issue - no charge for being marginally over in weight or for the oversized luggage, I was stoked!
What I wasn't quite so pleased about was to find the flight was 2 hours delayed, so it would leave at 4:30am, not 2. This was the last thing I needed as I was already really tired, but nothing anyone could do about it.
I went through security and VISA control in no time, then set about killing the 4 hours until we could board the plane, which was great fun of course..
Having napped on and off in the departure lounge I was feeling like a zombie by the time we actually boarded and took off. Once on the plane it was much better. I ended up with a middle seat in the centre block of 4, so was cramped in to say the least.
It was a 7 hour flight, of which I napped for about 5, in 20 minute intervals before various parts of my body went numb and I had to move about again.
(Photo - Departing Australia, and what a time I've had!)
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