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