We are now in Surfer's Paradise! We got here yesterday afternoon and are stayin with a couple of Stew's buddies from highschool Jeff and Matt. They have an apartment right in the heart of Surfer's and have been nice enough to give us a pull out couch to crash on for a few days. We drove 8 hours from Yepoon on Monday back to Mooloolaba to stay with Mick for the night and say goodbye to Emily again before she flew back to Canada Tuesday morning. Tuesday we got up and got me stuff for the van like a new pot and pan to cook on our portable stove, stew got new fishing equipment and then we headed to Surfer's Paradise which only took a couple hours. We'll be here til Friday and then are heading toByron Bay to celebrate Stew's 26th Birthday and meet up with Mick and Andrew for the weekend. We went out for a surf yesterday but I didn't last long as the rip tide was insane and basically dragged me across the ocean floor repeatedly, so NOT a good day back on the surf. Stew and Jeff had better luck but the waves were pretty intense so they had some juicy nose dives as well. Stew and i had dinner at the hard rock cafe and then we just had drinks with the guys at their place.
Today we'll hit the beach again and then tomorrow we're going to check out Wet n Wild water park! So excited! We love it here so far. I was here back with Em and her family for the night in September and I fell in love with this place then too. It's so busy and reminds me a lot of Niagara Falls if the falls were a beach. SO many stores, restaurants, bars, etc. and people everywhere. I couldn't live here per say but it is a nice change from being on an island or in the quiet area of Mooloolaba.
Pumpkin Island:
Ok so we got to Pumpkin on the friday and the weather wasn't the greatest for a lot of the time but we did manage ot get a couple of really nice days. Work was a joke there and basically we just had to help clean a couple cottages on the island every now and then which only took a couple hours max on the days we actually had to do something. Not to mention Wayne and Laureth the owners and the couple who was also working on the island Cavin and cherraine helped the entire time so it was a piece of cake. When we weren't working we got to snorkel, swim, fish, go out on the paddle boats, etc. The one day Stew wanted to fish off the paddle boat so we paddled out but the weather wasn't the greatest and the wind was so strong it blew us way the hell out into the middle of the ocean where panic 2.0 started for me. The waves were hitting our boat and we actually started to sink. I was freaking out thinking about the movie open water and how we were about to capsize in a freaking paddle boat and become shark bait since stew had a bag of fish and prawns for fishing. greaaaaat. So we tried to get the water out and stew had to paddle his side only to avoid the waves hitting us and sinking us further. Needless to say, I didn't go out when the weather was bad again. Theres that added nervousness being out in the reef when Wayne willhardly swim and there are no shark nets.
Snorkeling was really cool and we saw some really cool looking fish. However, a lot of the reef was brown and dead from the floods last year so it was a little sad to see so much coral life ruined. It would have been really cool to see the bright colours that were once there but we still got to see some great things that we never would have before. Lots of sea cucumbers as seen on jackass haha and we decided to pick them up many times. For those who don't know, when you pick up a sea cucumber if they feel threatened they shoot out white threads that look like...er....nevermind you can probably imagine so we had some fun threatenin the cucumbers and taking inapprorpiate/immature pictures that will soon be on facebook hahaha.
Wayne and Laureth were great and we had a lot of fun with them. They cooked for us a few times which was super nice and we spent our last night in their house because a huge rain storm hit and nearly blew our tent away. I sadly did not get to spear a fish but it was probably for the best. there weren't any sticks or bamboo strong enough to build a spear and the fish were pretty small and reef fish so i couldnt have eaten it anyways. However, we did find coconuts and i got to bust open a coupel to eat which were amazing! on the rainy days we just watched movies or read which was nice but we did get a little stir crazy some days needing entertainment. all in all it was a great experience and we were grateful to be able to see the great barrier reef.
Christmas is gettin closer and closer! can't believe dad will be here in less than 2 weeks. We will begin our drive on Monday towards Sydney. Our currymobile is driving well and we've pretty much got driving manual down no problem. We had a couple incidents on our way back from yepoon which included driving away with our van door open unknowingly and stew losing a flip flop somewhere onthe bruce highway, oops! our second incident was stew got caught on the radar of the police in trap zone that went from like 80 to 60 in a matter of stesps. we got pulled over but i think our bein canadian helped as we didn't get a ticket! they made stew do a breathalizer which was hilarious but apparently is standard here in aus whenever someone gets pulled over.
I will post pictures soon but for now its time to hit the beach here. I want to give a HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEee congrats to my best friend Caity and Dan on their recent engagement!! I could not be happier for you guys and cannot wait for the wedding!!! I can't believe my girl is gonna be a Galbraith! So awesome!!
Anyways, pictures to come and more updates I'm sure. Thanks guys!
