Queensland, Con't

Okay, where was I?  Oh right, so the next day we headed up to Brisbane, were we took a river tour.  And saw a big duck.  It was awesome.  (The duck, the tour was alright, too, but the duck was the best part.  It was HUGE!)

Then we had free time, where we could shop and get lunch.  That was good.  Then we boarded the bus and headed to Noosa.  Once we arrived in Noosa, we went on a walk along the beach, hoping to see koalas in the wild.  Nope.  But the view was incredible!

Afterwards, we went to for drinks and dinner at another hostel, I guess it was.  A bar, but at the hostel.  Whatever.  After dinner, we started talking to a couple of the guys staying at the hostel, and found out they were at the beach, kayaking, and that they had been waving at us, but no one had been paying attention to them.  Haha, we found them in a few of our pictures, too.  (They're in a few of mine.  Just look at the Noosa ones of the beach and you'll spot some kayakers in the distance.  Also, I ended up with one of them talking.  Just so they would really be in our pictures.  xP)

The next morning was really early.  And by early, I don't just mean seven or eight AM.  I mean five AM, so we could get going by six AM.  We were heading to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island.  And while most people just found it very, well, sandy and bumpy, I really enjoyed being there and getting to see it for all it's beauty.  We went to Lake MacKenzie before lunch.  Wow, was the sand ever white and the water ever clear!  It was absolutely gorgeous.  It was a shame we only were there for an hour.

Before we got to the lake, or ever to Fraser Island, we found an animal.  A dingo!  Awesome, and incredibly gorgeous animal.  Actually, it looking like a larger version of Chloe, just a little more red.  We discovered it was a male, as all the dingoes in the area are tagged in one ear or the other (to determine the gender) in order to keep track of their dwindling population.  Ah!  He just remained so still and posed for us so we could take pictures of him.  Such a good model! :3  haha

At lunch, we ran into a kookaburra!  haha, it stole the sausage of one of the girls, it was THAT aggressive.  And then, we watched it while it ate.  So weird.  But kind of cool.  You could get really close, as it wasn't paying attention to you, only the food.

We walked through the rain forest on the island next.  Kind of cool, kind of boring.  Just your average walk, to be honest.  Nothing special.  I mean, we did see lizards, but I really couldn't care less about those weirdos.

The next morning, we got to sleep in a bit later, six AM, as we had to get on the road to Kroombit Park, seven hours away.  We had a bunch of stops along the way, I sent most of my post cards, got some food for lunch, and then we finished our trek to the farm!  Ah, the farm was so much fun, you would not believe!

First, when we got there, we had the option to spend A$10 and buy both a ringer (cowboy) hat and bandanna, which would not only keep the sun off your face, etc, it would also get you cheaper drinks at the bar.  I was just excited by the idea of having a new, cool hat, and not spending a fortune on it!  (haha, I just realised I should have bought an extra bandanna for Chloe...she would have loved that! :3  Meh, I'll get her something Aussie, not that she's going to know or anything.... xP)  Anyways, we found our rooms, changed into something we wouldn't care if it got dirty, then headed to do some lassoing and to have a goat rodeo!  woo!  So much fun!  I actually got the lasso to go around the target about a half dozen times! yey, so exciting.  And then, it was time for the rodeo!  haha, everyone had to have a team of three, and a name for said team with a word related to 'goats'.  It could be anything.  I teamed up with the fellow Canadian, Dan, and one of the many Germans, Dori, and we were "The Goats Show"!  haha, it was fun.  I got to 'brand' the goat.  The best part of the rodeo was when Dwaineo caught three goats and then got knocked to the ground by them (or so we thought... it later turned out that one of the other guys on his team, Chris, had accidentally pushed him down.  But no one noticed until the video was shown, haha!).  It was so funny and so much fun!

We headed back to our rooms or the pub after that.  At the pub before dinner, we tried a mystery meat, which we were told by Deano (or Dino (depends on my mood...), the driver of our bus) that it was koala.... It was really goat.  Anyways.  We had dinner after that, then did some bush dancing, and we even learned how to crack a whip!  Ah, that was sososososo much fun!  I had a lot of trouble at first, and then the girl who was helping me called the main guy over and he tried a few things, and then gave me a different whip, and then, shortly after that, I was breaking the sound barrier!  Woo!  And then, I caught myself up the back, so that was the end of that.  Hahah, but I loved it anyways!

In the morning, we did some activities.  Some people didn't do anything, and just hung around the farm or whatever, some went and did horse riding and a goat muster, and the rest of us went quad biking!  ah, that was a lot of work but oh so worth it!  so much fun to be had on those beasts!  haha!

After that, we headed to Emu Park for the night.  Bleh, and then it was to Arlie Beach!  Yeah!  We boarded the British Defender and went sailing for 24hrs.  A lot of fun to be had there!  The Whitsundays are incredibly beautiful.  Ah.  In the morning, we went to Whitsunday Island and to Whitehaven beach, which is even WHITER than Lake MacKenzie's beach.  ah, that was incredible!  I didn't want to leave.

Then we went snorkelling after lunch.  I figured it'd give it a go, even though it freaked me out.  Eh, didn't like that though.  Less than a minute after I was in the water, I hit my heel on the coral as the tide was so low and it was RIGHT UNDER THE WATER LEVEL.  And then, less than a minute after that, as I was trying to fix my mask and snorkel so I could see and breathe without having salt water everywhere, I scraped the other foot across them.  So, of course, now I'm all panicked and wanting to get away from the reef and everything that has to do with it.  It turned out I cut both feet, just the one on the heel wasn't quite so noticeable...

Anyways, shortly after THAT, we went sailing.  Kind of, sort of.  If only the wind then was as strong as it is today...or was today.  40+kms/h!  (Sydney's airport is apparently only opperating on one runway because of these winds.  And, no wonder I was having such a hard time moving while I was outside...wow!)  Anyways, then we arrived at South Molle Island!

We were able to sleep in a relax during our day on South Molle.  There were activities that we could do if we wanted, but we didn't have to.  Most of us went on the hike to the kop, where the view was so amazing that...that, I don't even know.  I was just really glad I didn't miss out on that.  haha, we spent the rest of the day around the pool (it was nicer than the beach, in all honesty) and just relaxed.  The first night, we had a Plastic Fantastic party, where everyone was to dress up using coloured bags.  haha, interesting...  The next night, we had karaoke, which was fun!  I sang "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen with Kata.  And everyone sang Grease's "Summer Lovin'"!

The following morning, we caught a boat back to Arlie Beach, where we once again boarded the bus, Matilda, and headed on a 9-hour drive, this time to Cairns (pronounced, so you know, as 'cans')!  Long drive, many stops, plenty of games (okay, two), and lots of napping.  It was our last real trip on we would be spending on the bus, so we had to have a good time, haha.  The first game we played, Alan (tour guide) asked us questions about Australia and things we'd learnt while on the tour.  The second game consisted of Dino playing a song from a movie or TV show that kind of defined whichever.  Dan and I played together as we were sitting together and it was just easier.  It was a good thing, too, as I didn't know very many of them, and a bunch of the ones I DID know, Dan didn't, so I got to give those answers...the two three of them... Sorry, six!  haah, I just counted.  (Shrek, Cars, The Love Guru (had a small argument about this one, just about how I thought it was a bad movie, and how Dino thought it was alright, haha; but we were the only ones to get it! haha, go Mike Myers!), Slumdog Millionaire, The Wedding Singer (thanks, Heather!), the Lion King, and the Sound of Music.  That was seven, I know...I forgot about the Sound of Music, and I think he knew the Lion King, haha.)  It was fun.

I'll tell you about all the large objects we stopped at, and the few we simply drove by, later.  We stopped at a couple on the way to Cairns.  I can't remember the order of them right now, or I'd just tell you now.  haha

Anyways, we arrived in Cairns a while later.  And it was bound to be a good time, even though I had signed up for a Great Barrier Reef day trip and was having second thoughts about it, as I wasn't a fan of snorkelling after the last time I had been.... haha, anyways, I'll tell you about that tomorrow, as I've been writing this for a LONG time now.

ttyt! xx