4 December, 2010
Who knew I would end up here, in a hostel in Noosa? Not me. The past few weeks have been just as they should be. A lovely outline of where to be on what dates but nothing strictly planned. I had a flight back to Melbourne but I forfeited that, to keep traveling just a couple weeks longer.
Jake and I left Melbourne and headed for Brisbane mid-November, excited for our new adventure. Our first night in Brissie we saw a few sights and enjoyed take away Indian Food on Kangaroo Point with Megan and Wade. It was a great start to a great vacation.
We bee-lined for Byron Bay the following morning. It was time to enjoy the life of a beach bum. Byron proved to be amazing, even though it rained quite a lot. Jake decided that since we were essentially in the tropics the rain was something of a novelty, always the optimist. Rain or shine we were happy for Byron is a great town. Our first hostel, The Arts Factory, was a resort style hippie community. It had basketball, a swimming pool and “slightly warm” tub, a café, hammocks, bungalows, dorms, camping, turkeys, the famous Cockatoo Paul (a local celebrity), giant lizards and a laid back vibe. We enjoyed it so much we came back for our last two nights. Our second dorm was about 200 yards from the beach with a bar and back patio. It was set up more like a motel. It was cool, but paled in comparison to THE ARTS FACTORY, ahhh. Throughout the week we played frisbee on the beach, saw a fantastic group play music at a Sunday market, went to a wedding bbq and reception thanks to our friend Rob, ate delicious Portuguese chicken burgers (3 x’s…they were sooooo good), went surfing a couple times, swam in a lake stained red from the surrounding tea trees, hiked through the wilderness reserve to a lighthouse, were serenaded by backpackers singing karaoke (Jake performance was classic) and mainly just chilled beachside. One of my favorite moments happened while we were surfing. A wave was swelling up and just as it was about to crash over we saw a school of bright orange and pink fish swimming on the wall of the wave. I loved it. Then two seconds later I finally came to realize there really is a LOT of life swimming around in these oceans. Obviously I knew that before but now it was real. And I was concerned for my limbs. I find it’s best just to pretend I’m in a wave pool at Wet ‘n Wild, no creatures there, just a bunch of warm, pee filled water. ☺
At one point we were fed up with the rain and rented a car with Rob and a girl from our hostel and drove to Nimbin, a place I can’t begin to describe. It’s a very small hippie town that is petitioning for the legalization of marijuana. They promote themselves as a friendly, peaceful and open-minded community but truthfully it has fallen far short of success. The main street is jam packed with drug dealers and miserable, crazed addicts. Ironically it was more of an anti-drug advertisement, if you ask me. “This is what you’ll turn into to,” is the phrase that stuck in my head. It was a sight to see and the drive in was beautiful, lush countryside. I drove the rental car and managed to keep it on the left side of the road most of the time. Luckily Rob is English and when I got out of line he’d yell, “WRONG SIDE LIZ! WRONG SIDE!” We all made it back in one piece. AND we saw a Kangaroo on the side of the road!
After a week in Byron we headed back to Brisbane to stay with Johnny and Wade. Their house is just how I imagined a house in Australia to be. It was tropical and lively, with possums, geckos, spiders, cockroaches (gross) and god knows what else crawling all over the place. After our action packed week in Byron we thought we deserved a break, so we spent most of our time in Brisbane lying around. When the weekend came we had big plans, Thanksgiving in Australia! It was ambitious but thanks to Megan we pulled it off beautifully. I was in charge of whipped potatoes and they were delicious. We had a turkey, 2 kinds of stuffing, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes and marshmallows. It was the true spirit of Thanksgiving, two different cultures meeting together to share a delicious meal and lots of alcohol. And I didn’t even have to watch football!
Sunday Johnny and Wade took us to Mooloolaba (good luck pronouncing that). It’s a beach town north of Brissie. We stopped at a famous Aussie pub for lunch called The Ettamugah Pub, I think. It was massive and had Aussie sayings and photos and decorations everywhere. We spent the afternoon playing frisbee in the ocean and getting tossed around on boogie boards, another great day in Australia.
Jake and I decided to part ways at the end of last week. He will be staying in Brisbane and I have gone north for a couple weeks before returning to the working life in Melbourne. I’m using a hop on, hop off bus tour to get from Brisbane to Cairns. My first stop was Noosa, a wealthy beach community situated around Noosa National Park. The past couple days have been a bit rainy but whenever the sun was out, so was I. I spent most of yesterday wandering the town and reading on the beach. The national park was stunning and kept me occupied for a good 3 or 4 hours. I kept looking in the trees, fingers crossed, for Koalas. I realized I should probably focus more on the ground when I nearly stepped on a MASSIVE Goanna. It was probably 3 ½ ft long. I’ll leave you to imagine what choice phrases came out. The rest of the trek was coastal views and trails through dense forest. I dipped into the ocean at the end to cool off and it immediately started pouring rain. So here I am back at the hostel watching the Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? And waiting for the bar to open.
xx
Elizabeth
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