Finally! Brisbane and Byron Bay

Well, after much procrastination, here is the rest of my Oz adventure! I think I'm finally dealing with the depression of it being over.

After leaving Noosa I stopped off in Brisbane for a day on my way to Byron Bay. The main reason was to meet up with an old friend from back in Van, Cousin Andy. Not my cousin, but on of my best mates' cousin. I got there midday and walked around the botanical gardens. Andy and I were supposed to meet up that evening but he finished working way later than planned and I was exhuasted so we met up the next day for breakfast before I left. I gotta say I happy to get out of Brizzie, as it's a pretty boring big city and that wasn't the point of my adventure.

Byron Bay. Byron is the surfing/hippie central quiet town of New South Wales. I met up with 5 of my best mates from Oz there and we rented a SWEEEEET pad for the week! It was so good to see familiar faces again! Especially Rosie who none of us had seen in a few months. For 5 days we surfed, ate like kings (in some of the most expensive and best restaurants NSW has to offer), and drank like fish! Including regular stops at the Beach Hotel and The Balcony Bar. Not too mention one of the highlights: Dancing on the tabletops with Amanda! Couldn't ask for more!!!! Oh and stories of me standing on our balcony shirtless, smoking a cuban cigar and calling out to "Ladies" are greatly underexagerated! ;) Sucked balls leaving those guys but I was headed to excitement! Surfers Paradise and the Indy 300!

Goodbye Oz!

Well my friends, this is it! My time left in Australia can be counted in hours not days or months. To be honest, as excited as I am to see my friends and family back home, I don't want to leave just yet. Today has been a big bag of emotions for me: mostly sad and mad even. But I look back on my time here and I'm filled with warmth and happiness. I've accomplished and seen so much both professionally and, more importantly, personally. I've made some great friends that, despite being temperarily thousands of miles away, I'm sure I will keep in contact and see again in the future. A couple of years ago one of my best friends, Danny, proclaimed that summer was "The Summer of Danny", well this has been "The Year of Steve". Or The King, or Sking, or Cousin Phil, or whatever you know me as. I'll end this post like many of you know I like to do, by qouting a song. Find Yourself by Brad Paisley:

When you find yourself
In some far off place
And it causes you to rethink some things
You start to sense that slowly
You're becoming someone else
And then you find yourself

When you make new friends in a brand new town
And you start to think about settlin' down
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell
And you find yourself
Yeah that's when you find yourself

Where you go through life
So sure of where you’re headin'
And you wind up lost and it's
The best thing that could have happened
‘Cause sometimes when you lose your way it's really just as well
Because you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

Thank you OZ and everyone in it!!! Good on ya, mate!!!!


ps. Oh and I'll finish recapping my trip back in Vancouver.

Noosa!

The King is back! Sorry it's been so long since a good update but as Gibbo says "Backpackers spend half their trips doing stuff and the other on the internet telling people about the stuff they did" so I decided to cut out the later and make the most of my last few weeks of Oz. I'm having a hard time swallowing the fact that I'm leaving in 2 days!

Anyways, back to Noosa! Noosa is this resort town that seems to cater to the "money-people". Beautiful, quiet town where you can't find a house under $1.5 MILLION. I kind of liken it to Miami with all these mansions on the river, except it doesn't have the high skyscrapers on the beach. That's because it's one of the few places in Oz that has a law against highrises. Oh, and the restaurants are high-class! A perfect vacation spot for my parents. But wait, it's still a great place for us young troublemakers! A big, beautiful beach, waves to surf and the hostel I stayed at, Koalas, was one of the hotspot bars in the town.

So I arrive at the hostel and straight away I meet these two Vancouverites I met on my last day of Fraser Island, one being one of the hottest girls I've seen while backpacking (figures she'd be from Vancouver ;) haha). But they're quick to bed as they have to be up super early to catch their bus out of town so I head to the bar and met another fellow BCer, Krysta from Nelson. After seeing a grand total of 0 Canadians so far, Noosa is filled with them! Next day I decide to hit the waves! after teaching Krysta the basics, It's just me and the waves! It felt so good to be back in the water... until I bailed on a wave and the fins board raked across my stomach and the board smashed into my hipbone. Came away with a nice bruise and a small scar. SWEET, I have a surfing scar!!!! Not too big or anything but just enough so that in years to come I will be reminded that I was cool enough to surf in Australia. Went back to the hostel after a nice dinner on the beach and partied with Krysta, who while being a bit crazy and "unique" became a good friend and a nice piece of home, a couple of boys from White Rock BC, and a couple of Finnish kids from the room. That's pretty much what happened all 4 days I was in Noosa: roll off top-bunk with huge hangover, go have a surf, eat like a king, and party till the wee hours!

Krysta and I

Dade County Down South (aka Miami)

The Beach

Back in Sydney!

Well, my travels in Oz are almost over! I've finished my tour and am now going to spend my last few days enjoying my "home" of Sydney. I've had some great times since my last blog and I'll probably update them tomorrow when I can find a place to put up pics.

The last 10...!

...Days that I haven't "blogged" about and the amount of days I have left in Oz :( This isn't going to be a big update. Terrible computer and no way to post pics so I'll leave you hanging. But The last ten days have been awesome surfing and relaxing and partying in Noosa and then even better relaxing, eating and surfing (with a little bit of partying :P) with Rosie, Gibbo, Brendan and Dan in Byron Bay! Now I'm in Surfer's Paradise for the Indy 300! day one of 4 was today and despite the Champ Cars and V8's not taking the track today it was still a lot of fun. Oh, and I passed Claire from Big Brother on my walkabout. Man, I thought that chick had big tits on the show but they seem bigger in real life... allong with the rest of her body :P

Gotta run and iron my clothes I saved especially for partying in Surfers!!!! haha

Fraser Island

What a weekend! What an island!! What happened?? Somebody remind me pleace cuz I drank all my memories away... stupid Goon! haha but seriously, Fraser Island is unbelievable! An island about 70kms long and made up of almost eniterly sand! I had to be up @ 6am to take the barge to the island. I went on a self-drive 4wd Safari with 10 other people. Really good group! I have now seen heaven and it's a lake called Lake McKenzie! unbelievable white sand and the bluest water. Then went went to Lake Wabby which is the this Lake in the middle of a sand dune and it's so steep to get down to it we all ran down and dove into the water... I also was the only one to ROLL down it. Good Times! though it took me about three tries to stand up again after! We spent so much time there that we were an hour and a half late getting to our basecamp for the night. We figured the deadline was so we could put up the tent before it got dark... but it was really because that's when the tide gets too high, as the main "highway" on fraser island is the Eastern beach! going 80km/h on a beach is AWESOME! So we made it to the beach with still about 50 km ahead of us and the water coming up real fast. Rule #1 on the trip was salt water kills cars... OOPS!!! hahaha. It got pretty harry at sme points as most of had to pile out of the car and let the driver go through the creeks that run to the beach alone. The second day we went to a place called Indian Head, where you're supposed to be able to see turtles, whales, manta rays, and tiger sharks feeding but we only saw whales. beautiful place though! Second night's a bit of a blur ;) but the third day we went to the second most beautiful lake ever and swam, and played some soccer!. I scored 4 goals!! I'm awesome! ;)

The group @ Lake McKenzie

Lake Wabby

Me rolling down Lake Wabby!

Life's a beach... and a highway too!

Me and the 4wd

The group at the shickwreck of the Maheno!

Me @ Indian Head!

We had to pull over so the plane could land! Awesome!

The deadly Golden Orb spider... at our campground!

Me and the the Manchester dou: Dave and Mark

Dave decided, drunkenly, it would be a good idea to sleep under the stars!

Dingo!

Update from Noosa!

So I'm here in Noosa now as I make my way back towards Sydney. I've finished my trip to Fraser Island and I'll do an update on that (UNBELIEVABLE!!!) when I can provide the pictures to do it justice! I went surfing today for the first time since April... felt so good to be back on a board!

Oh, I've had a change of plans! Instead of heading down to Surfers Paradise next monday I'm going to go past it to Byron Bay and catch up with Rosie, Gibbo and Brendan on Saturday until I have to leave on for the Indy in Surfers on Wednesday. Can't wait!

Gotta go... I need to get back on the sauce... my liver's enjoying this 10 minute break too much! ;)

Goodbye Airlie Beach!

So I'm sitting here in the internet cafe waiting for my bus down to Hervey Bay... the 13 hour bus ride... ugh.. Not as long as the 36 hour bus ride from hell from Vancouver to L.A. in 2000 but still a long time! I'm doing it overnight so hopefully I'll get some sleep but knowing me, I highly doubt it.

And so comes to an end a week of Airlie Beach and the beautiful WhitSundays. I'm definately sad to leave it... and the tropics :( I should pass the Tropic of Capricorn just outside of Rockhampton around 2-3am. No photo op there. Airlie Beach is the perfect blend of sun, relaxation and partying... while I'll miss it as a whole my liver is probably happy to to put it behind me. Little does liver know that it has Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast coming up! MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!! But first, my next stop is the much hyped Frasier Island! Everyone I've talked to has said it's been the highlight of their travels but it's gotta be pretty damn good to compete with sailing for me!

PS. I've just realized that I've burnt myself today by reading a book and forgetting to put on sunscreen! DAMN YOU KNOWLEDGE!!!!!!

Pictures

Added pictures to the Magnetic Island and Cairns to Magnetic posts!

Sailing the WhitSundays

AMAZING! that's all I can say AMAZING!!!! Best time of Oz so far!!!!! But it went by sooo quickly. I went on a 3day/3night sailing trip on a Americas Cup style MaxiSail boat called Spank Me (hehehe) around the WhitSunday islands and out to a different part of the Great Barrier Reef. Arrived at the marina with daypack over one shoulder and a 24 pack of Crown beer under the other. We get assigned wetsuits for scuba-diving and then it's off to board the boat. This thing is HUGE. The skipper and crew take our beer and put it in a huge storage bin built into the boat, probably originally meant for sails but this is a much better use for it in my opinion. I get assigned a bottom bunk that's smaller than a coffin. At some point every night I would wake up and lift my head up to see what time it was or whether the sun was up and would SMASH my head on the fiberglass bunk above me... that was usually followed by a "Son of a...!!!" or "FUCK ME!!!!" cursing from my lips. We sailed out to the closest island to dock for the night and for me being back on a boat under sail power was the coolest thing ever. For those who don't know I used to race little sailboats until I was about 18. And yes Dad, I am now regretting cancelling my Royal Van membership before I left. Oh well... It was pretty funny cuz as soon as we started sailing and the boat tilted one girl yelled out "Is it always going to be like this?!?!? Don't we ever sail flat?!?!?" I was too busy smiling my HUGE smile to reply! Once we got to the pass where we were going to stay for the night we dropped anchor and had dinner. After dinner, the drinking started.. and the music. On my boat were a Swedish band (of 3) and about 10 of their groupies. It was straight out of woodstock! The band brought their guitars, harmonicas, AMPS (!!?!??! on a boat where EVERYTHING gets wet?!?!?!), everything! Including the biggest supply of VB beer known to man! We had a concert right there on the boat! including their "hit" single Coco Pops, yes, about the cereal. Pretty damn fun night!

Our boat!

Beautiful sunset!

The band and everyone under the wind tarp!

Woke up to the sounds of the engine roaring to life @ around 7am... went up top and watched the sun, which was already up. As I did everytime we had to put the sails up, I was one of the 8 people on the grinders helping raise the sails. We sailed to the famous Whitehaven Beach. Easily the most beautiful beach I've EVER seen or set foot on. The sand is so fine and it's part of the WhitSunday marine park so you can't take any back with you. The sediments in the sand turn the water into this BEAUTIFUL turquise color. That being said... it's easily the most foulest tasting water I've ever swallowed! We were there for about two hours, most of which I spent wading in the waters taking pics of/chasing stringrays and sand sharks. Don't worry, they wouldn't let you get closer than like 4 feet from them before them scurried away. I got some cool pics of the rays. After that we sailed to one of the islands and had our 20 minute free scuba dive. Some nice coral and fish but not as nice as at the reef and nowhere near as deep, maybe 5 metres only. After that we sailed to the bay near an exclusive Island resort (minimun $1500 a night!!) and anchored for the night. more drinking and partying ensued.

Me on Whitehaven beach! Before I got tanned!

Whitehaven Beach!

Stingray!

Next morning I woke up @ 5am to help raise the sails to get to the Great Barrier Reef, some 30-40 kms past the islands. It was supposed to be 4am but the skipper (who was younger than me!) slept in. Honestly, being up that early and seeing the sun rise was really cool! We sailed to the reef and started more diving ($50 a time) On the first dive I went down with the certified divers... because I'm awesome and good enough that the dive instructor thought I didn't need to be with the other intros, who struggled. I mean, I was still paired with the instrustor but it was cool to feel like I was holding my own. I, honestly, love diving. I feel right at home in the water. I wouldn't follow in my sister's footsteps and maybe make it a career but it's a lot of fun. The reefs we went to were columns right next to each other and we would swim in the passages between. Very creepy and dark but very cool!!! unfortunately my mask kept fogging up (I hadn't used enough spit, I guess) so I found that having a little water in the mask helped. The second dive after lunch was at a site and only 3 of us went down. It was the better dive of the two sites! I saw a shark and a turtle. The turtle was awesome!!!! I was following the guide around and then he points and it's right there beside me, maybe 5 feet away! we watched/followed it for a minute or two before it swam away. Very cool. Then we sailed back in some of the roughest water I've ever been on. Even though we were getting drench I loved every minute of it! sitting on the ledge, hanging me feet over the side. I got very drunk that night and partied till 1am (the last one up) I know that sounds early but when you're the first one up @ 5am, it's pretty impressive!

Dive Guide Lindsay - cool kid! Though I think all the nitrogen went to his head after the 7 dives he did that day!

Turtle! SOOO COOL!!!

On the boat!

On the last day we went snorkling in Echo Bay and had a jumping competition off the side of the boat. Good thing I had my wetsuit on as I underrotated one of my backflips and landed flat on my back in the water. We set sail from home and I decided it was a good time to put on my music from the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack. Everyone was loving it! then about 3 minutes into the first track, as the tempo was coming to climax... the halyard (rope) on the mainsail snapped! SOOOOO not my fault!!!!! haha we sailed all the way back with just the jib (foresail) and the motor. and as we all waited for the bus to take us to town the skipper climbed the 35 meter mast and fixed the line cuz the boat was doing another tour that afternoon.

Deckhand Chey rocking out on the dijuridoo!

Skipper Murray up the mast!
Then we all went to the bars and got shitfaced. again. The End. :)



The Lagoon @ Airlie Beach

Magnetic Island

Me and my sister, Kathryn - First time scootering!!!!

First time Jet Skiing! - The beach (and girls) at Horseshoe Bay

The walk at Airlie Beach - Airlie Beach


So I spent Monday night and all Tuesday on Magnetic Island with my sister, Kathryn. She works at this backpackers resort that's right on the beach with the most stunning view! We rented scooters for the first time and I swear I didn't think we were going to make it one hundred metres. Kathryn couldn't start hers and I couldn't turn. But we finally figured it out and Made our way to the other side of the island... at a crawling 15 km/h! Yeah, the cars behind us were not so happy but whatever, it's a fuckin island man! If you need to be somewhere quickly you're missing the whole point! We got there, eventually, and bought Kathryn new sandals, appearantly not getting paid means you can't buy $10 flip-flops! After a couple hours of sunbaking I hired a jetski and went jetskiing for the first time! MY NEWFOUND LOVE!!!! The thrill of going 90 km/h over water is AWESOME! I was doing tight figure 8's, jumping over my own wake.... everything! So much fun! though my back took a beating and It's still sore 3 days later! I feel like an old man! We ended up being so tired we all passed out back at her place with her roommate before we had the chance to go out drinking. Oh Well, one night off drinking won't CURE my liver!!!

I'm in Airlie Beach now! So Beautiful! I'm going sailing for the next 4 days, which should be AMAZING!!!... oh and appearantly the german backpackers portion of my adventure is over and the American portion has begun. The last two nights I've had two different sets of Uni students in my room! Lots of fun!

Cairns to Magnetic Island!

Saturday I spent walking around Cairns. Not much there really, just the lagoon (man-made pool) and the clubs/pubs. I guess it's a big tourist center because you can go the reef on one of the MANY tours there, bungie jump, skydive, raft white-water, etc. It's more of a place you go to so you can go to other places. Anyways, after walking around and getting chased by a big-ass bee I met up with another animator from AL Sarah and her friend James. We had dinner at this restaurant where the servers were hot! but also as dumb as they were hot! So, as you could imagine, I was in heaven! Not really sure what their jobs were as we had to go up to order and then go and pick up the pick when it was ready, but I didn't care! Then we hit up this western-looking club with Sarah's dormmate's. What's the obsession with black lights?!?!?! SO ANNOYING!

Sunday I took the 6 hour bus ride down to Townsville, Capital of North Queensland :P. I get there and I ask the thing behind the counter at my hostel what's good on a Sunday night? "Cri is the best. It's two blocks away. get there at 9, trust me. Oink." oooohhhkkaaay. So I hang out at my hostel watching Finding Nemo with a bunch of Germans until 9. Now this is what I want for our movie, or any movie that I work on in the future, that it can have EVERYONE riveted and glued to the screen even though they barely speak english! I get to the club @ 9:05 - 9:10ish and the first thing I hear as I enter is: "Do you want to see that shirt coming off?!?!?!?!" SWEET!!! I've walked into the middle of a wet T-shirt contest!!!! Thank you beast!!! The chick who won took everything off but her panties and had some good moves. She ended up coming away with $700 for her... umm... talents. Sorry, no pics.. I thought about it but some guy tried it and the bouncers were all over him. It was funny though cuz once the contest ended all us guys were like "OK, cool... lets talk to some chicks!" and then I turned around and realized there wasn't any so I went back to my hostel and passed out!

Monday will be remembered as the day I walked more than I think I ever have in a day. It started off with me hiking up Townsville's version of the Grouse Grind, except I did it @ 10:30am on a scorching hot day... without having had breakfast... or bringing water... and in flip-flops... yeah I'm a tool! then I walked down it again and down to the beachfront called The Strand; voted Queensland's cleanest beach. A nice 2.5 km walk down it to the end and then another 2.5 km walk back and I was ready for some food... and water. I ate at this cafe on the Strand with a beautiful view of Magnetic Island, home of my sister Kathryn. After lunch and a shower I boarded the ferry to "Maggie". And then walked 3km, with my pack on!, to Kathryn's work.

I climbed that!... in sandals!

From the top to the bottom!

Townsville with 'Maggie' in the distance!

And the river shall run... pink?!?!?

Some pics

Some photos from Port Douglas. I wanted to put up more but this cafe sucks!

Port Douglas Part 2

So I write this in Cairns, having just finished my time in Port Douglas. After Diving the Reef I went out Thursday night to PD's only nightclub Fluid. Appearantly some big UK dj was spinning so pretty much every young'un like myself was there. Partyied hard with some German, Irish, UK and american people from my hostel till 3am. So drunk that I passed out and wake up to the couple in the bunk below getting it on. For my last day in PD I went to the Nature Habitat, which was SO MUCH cooler than the Zoo in Sydney. I had birds flying all around me and some big one flapping his wings at me, telling me this was his territory. It was pretty funny actually, I was tempted to push him off the railing. The Kanagaroos and Wallabes were so cool. I sat there crouching and had this one wallabee come right up into my lap. The german girls (WHAT'S WITH ALL THE GERMANS?!?!? Not that I'm complaning ;)! ) behind me were loving it! After that I went back to the beach and worked on my tan! Watched the rugby with the guys at the hostel and then passed out.

I'm in Cairns now, which is pretty much a snooze-fest. For a relatively big town that boast tourism it has shit all to do! Maybe tonight will be better. No pictures this time... this place is too basic for that!

Great Barrier Reef!

Day two! Up and on the boat @ 8am (groan) after a second shitty night's sleep. I don't know what it is about this place but I seem to have the wierdest dreams. Last night's could've made me millions as a horror/trippy suspense film if only I could remember the details now. ANYWAYS, after a two hour ride in a huge catamataran we got to our 1st dive site. I ended up getting the div supervisor of the boat as my guide for the first one; Dude looks EXACTLY like Hugh Laurie aka House for tv, so much so that EVERY day someone mentions it. After the first minute of "Oh Crap! I'm breathing underwater" hyperness, I got used to it and let me tell you they don't call the Great Barrier Reef one of the 7 wonders of the World for nothing. The place is BEAUTIFUL. So Colourful, so many fish! At the first site, besides the normal little fish we also saw a stingray and a reef shark. Now I thought I'd piss myself when I saw a shark but I wanted to chase this one. So excited. Granted he was only the size of my leg but still a shark none the less! The second site was more colourful than the first and the third was crazy! as soon as you got off the boat into the water you were swarmed by little fish like Nemo and Bubbles and they would start nibbling at your dead skin! A weird feeling and they loved my knees with the scrapes from tennis. there was also this HUGE (IE almost as big as me) fish that our guide fed a little bit and a foot away from my face. It was sweet! My only regret was that I didn't have my own camera so I had to buy the Professional Guy's photos.

It was 8am and this guys shoving a camera in my face?!?!?

The Bare-chest Look

AWESOME!!