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Continuing through Australia... (Lau speaking!)
After the excitement of Fraser Island we continued onto 1770 (called this as it was founded in the year of...you guessed it 1992. No not really, the year of 1770). Not much to do here other than surf (it is the last place along the East Coast that it is safe to surf without a stinger suit) so we did! We both had our first ever surf lesson. It was a lot of fun! Lou managed to stand up and actually surf several times, I on the other hand got as far as my knees and didn't have the guts to get any further! Didn't take the fun factor away from it though (apart from when I got caught in a rip and looked up to find the rest of the group about a mile away. Took a long time to pull myself and my board back!)
We then travelled onto Emu Par which we all thought would be an actual park (yes, featuring lots of Emu's). It was however just a town and a small town at that. But we were staying in a really lovely resort with a pool so just chilled out for 2 days which was certainly needed!!
We then moved onto Airlee Beach for our sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands. As we set sail we were introduced to the group, made up of about 20 people. We all had our 'goon' (fruity lexia 'wine') and beers and got on it as soon as we could! We were taken for a free dive at Luncheon Bay and then snorkelled nearby, actually on the Great Barrier Reef which was a bonus! That night we had a great session of Ring of fire and decided to sleep out on the deck to watch the stars and woke to watch the sunrise. Heaven! The next day we took a walk on Whitsunday Island and swam in the sea (in our stinger suits of course), and just happened to come across 2 stingrays and a small shark, all in a days swim. That night we enjoyed feeding leftover steak to the small sharks and catfish who were circling our boat and were able to glimpse some dolphins off in the distance. We tried to sleep on deck but the rain kept us inside! The final day of the trip was a little windy (good for sailing) and wet. But we still went snorkelling in the dark murky waters, which Lou will refer to as 'how a horror film starts'. We also took part in some "Extreme Snorkelling" which involved hanging onto the back of a speed boat with your head in the water! Back at Airlee beach we enjoyed a night out with everyone including the crew. Great time had!
The next day we were set to catch our last Greyhound bus to Cairns but unfortunately the rainy weather had caused the roads to flood. We stayed in Airlee beach another night and were then told we could make it as far as Townsville, which was halfway to Cairns. Townsville left little to the imagination so we didn't want to spend long there and had a flight to New Zealand to catch in 2 days. We were starting to panic about whether we would actually make it. So, we decided to take a Greyhound back down to Brisbane where we then flew to Cairns. By the time we actually got to Cairns-after having 4 days booked there-we had one night til our flight and so decided to spend it in the airport. We were worried about whether this would be acceptable as there were no flights due until 8am so thought we would find some chairs and just put our heads down until someone came to move us. We were not moved and slept straight through for 6 and a half hours!! I think we would both agree this is one of the best nights sleep we've ever had! We finally got on our plane to Auckland and watched through the window as we flew out of Cairns, not having seen any of it!
However, that aside, we had the time of our life in Australia...but still, more to go!!!
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