My time in Queensland

Surfer's Paradise was amazing.
After my last post I went for Pizza and made friend's with two girls from Norway. After pizza we hung out in the tv room and watched two movies. it was quite a small hostel so it seemed like everyone came to watch movies and I met the whole gang.

The next day I just went to the beach.. because we were 4km from town. everyone from the hostel who was not working came to the beach as well and we all sat together.
We became like a little family.

That night we had a bbq out on the balcony and then bought cheap wine from the bottle shop and played card games. There were people from Columbia, Norway, Sweden, Israel, Canada, Germany, America and Austria. Around 11pm we all shared cabs into Surfer's Paradise to go clubbing. We went to a couple dance clubs and then left around 2am.
Before bed about 6 of us went down to the beach. there were so many stars out it was amazing.

The next day we all just went to the beach again. There were clear blue skies and it was hot so we did a bit of swimming. My friend Keren, from Israel, and I went into town to buy groceries and then came back to make dinner. Shortly after we all started drinking cheap wine and playing card games again. We didn't go back into the city because it seemed like a waste of money.

Sunday morning a big group of us checked out and moved to Brisbane -- I think there were 8 backpackers in total. It was nice having the same group of friends in the new hostel.
Our first night was movie night in the hostel and we watching Slumdog millionaire.

Monday I went on a guided tour of Moreton Island which is the 3rd largest sand island in the world. It was cloudy and raining all day which was just bad luck. The tour bus picked me up at 7am outside the hostel. It took 30mins to get to the harbour and then 1.5 hours on a ferry out to the island. We had a 4WD bus that came with us on the ferry. I made friends with two german guys and an irish girl on the tour. When we arrived we all got back into the bus and our guide drove use through the woods to a place called the desert. we had to leave the bus at the entrance and walk in. Thankfully it wasnt raining too hard but we did get really damp.

There was one massive sand dune right in the middle of the desert and we can to climb it with our boards. It was so steep I couldn't believe it... it seemed like it went straight downwards!
We spend about an hour sandboarding.. we probably would have spent longer if it wasn't raining.
There was a competition to see who could get the farthest down the dune, and I won! no one even came close to me.
Climbing back up the dune was so hard. way wayyy too steep.
After sandboarding we got back into the bus and drove to a lagoon that is protected by shipwrecks.
We all were given wetsuits, snorkels, flippers and gloves to protect our hands if we touched anything.
At first our guide just had us swim straight out to the shipwrecks and once everyone arrived she said "look down" and we were right in the middle of a school of fish!! I actually kicked one accidentally haha.

I think we spent about an hour and a half swimming around the wrecks and looking at the corals. There were lots of these little silver diamond shape fish everyone, a couple really big guys too and some pretty bright blue ones. Towards the end I saw a lion fish which was so pretty.. it was just floating around near a ship looking like a big bunch of seaweed. I swam right up close to get a good look at it and afterwards the tour guide said they are very venomous!! oops. glad I didnt touch it.
Right before we swam back to shore two dolphins appeared on the other side of the shipwreck! that was pretty amazing to see.

On the beach we all got dried off, I was freezing!! and then went to a campsite where we made sandwiches. Our tour included lunch. :)
Straight after lunch we went back to the ferry and I arrived at the hostel around 530pm.

I was so tired that I just layed around the hostel all evening.
This morning I got up early, checked out of the hostel and went to the airport for my flight to Melbourne. Unfortunately, just as I arrived Tiger Airlines called to tell me my flight was cancelled and I can't fly out until tomorrow morning.
I couldn't be bothered taking the train back to the city so I'm just in a airport motel now.
I didn't have any big plans in melbourne so  I'm not bothered. It was a beautiful sunny day and I went for a long walk this afternoon. Now i'm just going to watch a movie on my laptop and get to bed early.

One week from now and I will be somewhere over the pacific heading home :)
See you soon!
T x

Surfers Paradise

Yesterday I took a brisbane city train and then bus to get to Surfer's paradise.
The beach is pretty... white sands and it goes on forever, and the town seems very much like Cliffton Hill lol. they even have that Ripley's Believe or not place

When I got back to the hostel is was movie night so I went to that.. they played the WORST canadian movie ever. The love guru.... hahahaha.

This morning I decided to move to a hostel at Surfer's paradise so I lugged my bags all the way over here. I met two nice Columbians in my room and then went for a walk down the beach.
It takes an hour walking along the beach to get from my hostel to the main town centre. But there is a marina and a mall right next to  my hostel.

This hostel is pretty quiet.. a lot of the rooms seem empty. it's pizza night so in an hour Im going over to a pizza restaurant with a group of people from the hostel.
Tomorrow I was just planning to lay on the beach but it looks like it's going to be 21 and cloudy which is pretty shit. I might go to sea world... everyone keeps saying if you're staying at the gold coast Sea world is the best place to go. It's just up the road from my hostel.

Sydney and Brisbane

Sunday it actually was sunny but my legs were still killing me so I just went to the botanicals gardens again and spent the day laying in the grass.
I just had a really relaxed low key day.
Monday I went to the sydney aquarium and wildlife centre. I was really excited to see a cassowary because Liam and I always joke about them.

Tuesday morning I woke up early. Checked out of the hostel and headed to the airport.
I'm in Brisbane now. It's warm here but it's been raining!! as if..

I met one of my roommates, I didnt catch his name but he's from Mississauga and went to Erindale. I thought that was pretty funny.

I'm going to take the train to the gold coast tomorrow morning.

Mom and I got an alert this morning that my parcel finally arrived. She mailed it three months ago! I have to pick it up soon in Melbourne or they'll ship it back to Canada so I just booked a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne for next tuesday the 10th. That means I'll be spending my last week in Melbourne.

Brisbane seems pretty boring. I think Thursday I will either move to the gold coast or up to the sunshine coast.
Yesterday I got my haircut and the hairdresser told me that if I go to the Gold Coast, I have to go to sea world. So i might look into that... I really want to go out on a boat! haha

all for now,
T