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We are now in Noosa, a little town a few hours north of Brisbane. Lovely beach and supposedly amazing national parks, which we will hopefully venture out to visit later if it stops raining! It's currently like, as one girl put it, 'England but warmer', pouring it down with rain over the past few days! We have been getting some nice bursts of sunshine inbetween though, so it's all good :)
Anyway, weather report over, what have we been up to for the past few days?
We stayed in Byron Bay for 2 nights, the first we mostly just spent chilling. We met a really nice girl called Fiona who we went to Byron lighthouse with on the second day we were there. We went up to the lighthouse through the rainforest trail, which was really pretty but very steep! Once we got up near to the lighthouse we saw some paragliders waiting for the wind to pick up, and got to go and have a look at the view from the platform they jump off. Looked very scary, might not be trying that one for a while! We also saw dolphins in the sea below us, first time I've seen dolphins so very exciting!! In the evening we decided to venture out for a few drinks, after first having a few too many glasses of 'goon'! Anyone who's been to Australia should be familiar with the stuff, as apparently it's quite famous with packpackers. It's basically just extremely cheap wine which comes in quite large boxes and gets its name because that's what it turns you into. Definitely quite true, let's leave it at that! We had a fun night and a killer hangover the next day!
With heads full of hangover, we got on the bus bright and early to head to Surfer's Paradise. We were there for only the one day and night, and needless to say we didn't see a whole lot of the place! We stayed down the road in a place called Main Beach, quite a quiet place compared to Surfers, but we did see all the sights whilst on the bus through the town. It's meant to be Australia's answer to Miami, lots of casinos and tacky shops, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of that and much more in Vegas!
We then headed to Brisbane, where we spent 2 nights. We stayed in Brisbane Backpackers, a pretty cool little hostel. The first night we spent there was one of the worst nights' sleep I have had in a long while! We were in a mixed dorm of 8, with several rowdy guys including a Glaswegian ('nuff said!) and an Asian couple who didn't know how to talk quietly! Alarms went off every hour through the night like clockwork, and needless to say we were not the happiest of bunnies!
The next day, after switching rooms to find 5 sleeping girls (success!) we headed out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to do what must be done in Australia, see koalas, wallabees, kangaroos, snakes and crocs! We had a really fun day surrounded by lots of kids on school trips, feeling nice and touristy! Gaelle and myself succumbed to holding a koala and getting completely ripped off for photographic evidence! Well, it will probably only happen once! In the evening we met up with a guy called Will, an old friend of Gaelle's, who took us up Coon-Tha mountain in his 4x4 for an absolutely awesome view of Brisbane. Perfect end to the day.
Which brings us to Noosa! We got here yesterday afternoon and we are staying in another cool hostel, Noosa Heads YHA, in a very welcome teeny dorm of 6 girls. Yesterday we managed to catch some sunny time on the beach, watching the surfers and the new craze which I have never seen, standing on a surfboard with a paddle! Very cool to watch, very difficult to attempt I'm sure.
Have finally gotten myself acquainted with skype, so last weekend managed to have an awesome chat with Huw, who I haven't spoken to in too long! This morning I talked to mum, dad and Calum who I haven't spoken to in a lot longer! I love skype :)
Also, since I won't update this for the next few days, it's Huw's 22nd birthday tomorrow (our time at least) so happy birthday to the best boyfriend, hope you have a crackin' day- and apologies to everyone else for that one!
- comments
Christine C Exciting adventures, thanks for the news! Just seen on the weather forecast that you should be done with the rain: 28° planned from tomorrow! Have fun wandering out of the beaches and into national parks!
Michelle A very comprehensive report! Sounds great. Gaelle has some useful contacts! Hope the rain stops. Have fun koala watching.