Fraser Island

Well i got picked up 2 hours late which wasn't helpful - i could have had 2 more hours in bed! we drove to Rainbow Beach where i got on the 2 day bus as opposed to the 1 day bus, a total of 10 people on a 30 seater bus. 5 Japanese, 1 Korean, 3 Germans and me. great! The bus was a huge 4WD with biiig wheels. although it was automatic, which i thought was weird. not that i know much about 4W driving.
anyway so we got on the barge across to the island and drove up the coast along the beach before heading inland to Lake Wabby, the driving was pretty mad along these teeny sand tracks! got out and had a 1.8km walk across the sanddunes before getting there, very hot indeed and everyone was very ill prepared, including Jurran the Korean who seemed to wear high heel wedge flip flops for the entire 2 days. After about an hour there swimming in the freshwater with lots of catfish and one of the Japanese girls almost drowning as her friends decided to swim across and just leave her and she started panicking as soon as she tried to turn around, not even trying to swim. After an all you can eat buffet lunch at the Eurong beach resort where we were staying that night we went on to Lake Mackenzie, which was apparently a top 7 beautiful place, or something. i have to say it wasn't that great, but i have been spoilt i think by the beautiful beaches of Fiji. however the water was very clear and the sand almost white. Then a short rainforest walk (imagine that - rainforest on a sand island!)where i was convinced i was going to be eaten by a spider, alongside a 'ghost stream' water that fell as rain 16 years ago and had been slowly filtered by sand and charcoal and was now so clear you could hardly see it, and because there are no rocks to go over, it makes no noise. So we stayed the night at the Eurong beach resort, the best bit being the mexican buffet and apple crumble, and then me having a whole apartment to myself! bliss! managed to get the Japanese and the Korean down to the beach bar where they enthusiastically said they loved beer. the next morning we were delayed yet again by another 1.5 hours as the bus was broken. then we drove up the beach (its a bit like a motorway with no lanes) to Indian Head, a look out point, then saw some multi coloured sand (very exciting) and the Maheno shipwreck which had a long life as a cruise ship, troop carrier, hospital ship then was sold for scrap and while being towed to japan was wrecked on the island. the air force then used it for target practise during WW2 so it was pretty broken up.
Got back to Noosa last night and checked in to the YHA here which is in an old colonial white wooden building, a very nice hostel. it always helps staying in a nice place!
will post another update in Darwin on thursday before i fly to Bali.

Noosa

Oh my gosh i haven't updated this in ages.
Spent a nice peaceful night in Port Macquerie and then caught the bus to Byron Bay. despite everyone saying i'd love it i have to say i didn't like it at all. Didn't help being stuck in a truly skanky hostel with English drunk tarty girls, no wonder we've got a bad name, they were 18 and on the Oz Experience bus, all they wanted to do was get drunk and lie on the beach.
I checked out a day early and got the bus to Coolangatta which was much nicer. About 10 miles down from Surfers Paradise it was similar high rise apartments but much quieter. I stayed in the YHA where most of the residents were there for the surf. I made some good friends in my dorm and also went for a surf lesson, where I learnt what i am doing wrong (should be looking up as I spring up, not as easy as you think) I also practised springing up to my feet, instead of 1 knee 1 foot like I usually do. got one good wave but spent most of the lesson trying to get out back again because the rip along the beach was incredibly strong and pushed me over several times. stayed there 2 nights and also got the bus into Surfers, truly awful for a place with such a great name! lots of tack and not much else. oh yes then went out for dinner with an American from my dorm, we went to an italian place and i managed to avoid the carbonara and had salad instead. i have put on so much weight since i've been away. ooh and the really annoying thing is that the Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro surfing contest are RIGHT THERE starting tomorrow, and i'm missing it. would have been good to stick around.
So yesterday i got the bus into Brisbane, stayed at the YHA in a lovely dorm with only 2 other people in it. got straight on the bus to the Lone PIne Koala Sanctuary, where i spent the rest of the afternoon enjoyably feeding kanagroos, looking at snakes, crocodiles, womabats (not tasmanian devil though) and about 130 koalas, including holding one for a photograph. they said the photos were online but i can't find them, you'll have to see the evidience when i get back. Mine was called Orion. surprisingly heavy and he didn't do much except hold on, but he did obligingly look at the camera.
Today i left my bag in the hostel and wandered round Brisbane for the morning, including the gardens and the lovely Southbank, where they have a beach and a seawater pool.
I got on the bus this afternoon to Noosa, which looks like what i expect Florida to look like minus crocs. Lots of expensive houses along waterways, and a great beach. hope to do some surfing when i get back from Fraser Island. Tomorrow the bus picks me up at 6.15am for the 2 day fraser island trip.
flight to Darwin booked for Wednesday night, then i fly to Bali thursday night.
love
Charlotte

i love koalas...

I got to cuddle a koala today... I also hand fed some kangaroos...
More tomorrow when i'm not being ripped off in an expensive internet terminal in the hostel.

Skydive - Sydney - off to Port Macquerie

Hi everyone, just to let you know how the skydive went, well it was awesome, great fun, and pretty exciting too.
we all got kitted up and trained in how to jump out (bend like a banana) and how to land (get your feet up in the air) and after about an hour of faffing, and me changing shoes etc etc we met out instructors (mine was called Luke, reasonably good looking) and went off in the bus to the airport. took what seemed like ages to climb to 14000 feet in this tiny tiny plane with the door still open (I was worried Paul might fall out as he was right next to it but it turned out he was tied on). when they pointed out 4000 feet (where they open the parachute) everything was already very far away and we were still climbing!
we didn't have very much notice to jump and before i knew it Paul was already gone and i had to shuffle forward and poke my knees out the door. looking down i was scared for the first time (Luke said i was very relaxed and calm on the way up) and then i had to look up and we were out, wind rushing past and me shouting woohoo! a lot. apparently this helps you breathe. it didn't seem very long before there was a sudden jerk and we slowed down, the parachute opened thank goodness.
Luke let me have a go steering which was fun, and then we did a practise landing before landing very very gently on my feet next to the beach.
waited around for an hour for our dvds (i look AWFUL in mine, paul looks great of course) and then we drove on and finally found a site in Sydney after driving up and down the road for ages. went into Sydney for the evening and found ourselves in Chinatown, of course its Chinese new year this weekend so there were loads of people and stalls. had a really nice bargain meal only 15 dollars each.

yesterday i waved paul off at the airport and have already made a new friend in the hostel ;-) called Martina. I have been discussing with her what to do next as it dawned on me i have only got until a week on thursday before i fly out of Darwin to Bali. hmm. looking at changing my dates but i can only do this on a weekday at a Quantas office. Anyway i have bought a pass which will get me to Brisbane on a hop on hop off thingy, and then i think i am going to abandon plans of going up to Cairns and doing the Whitsundays/Great Barrier Reef. I can come back next time, when Paul gets a career break / well paid consultancy job! (eh Paul).
so I need to be at Sydney bus station tomorrow morning at 6.30, great. will stay in Port Macquerie for a night before going on to Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise before Brisbane. I think i will then do a trip up to see Fraser Island before coming back to Brisbane and catching a flight to Darwin. better to see less and not rush i think, especially with the huge distances here. otherwide i'd be on a bus all the time.
Am slightly worried about Bali as i accidentally picked up a book in the bookshop today about a girl who got drugs planted in her bag on the way into Bali and now she's in jail for 20years. am looking at changing my flight to go straight to Singapore instead (not that they've got a better record of drug smugglers) but just to save time. do SE Asia proper another time! Will pop into the Qantas office in Brisbane. meanwhile i'm looking forward to surfing and yoga on the beach in Byron, and koala cuddling. (got to cuddle a koala somewhere before i leave)
see you guys in a few weeks, make sure the weather's good for me, i'll miss this heat.

sky diving

Hi everyone a really quick post just to make you jealous - its a really hot sunny day here in woolongong just south of sydney and we're just about to go sky diving onto the beach. will update this blog properly on sunday when i'm back in Sydney and Paul's gone home. and i'll let you know how it went.
ps getting the dvd so you can all see the evidence.

great ocean road

a really quick post as i'm running out of time at this expensive internet plae. at the end of the great ocean road at the moment, a place called port campbell. a really hot evening and i've heard you've got snow there! saw koalas today, so sweet. arrived last night at lorne, a big surf town after visiing bells beach during the day (big surf spot) anyway the ozzie surf boat lifesaving championshios was on, basically a team of 4 plus a cox row out into the surf and back, about 1k each way, about 150 teams competeing and a great atmosphere. lots of collisions and capsizes in the surf. more when i get to a decent internet cafe! driving back to sydney on wed, its a 2 day drive. got a sky dive booked for friday.

have fun in the snow, i've got a great tan!

Australia

So much has happened it has been too long since i last updated this. here we go. arrived in sydney last thursday and spent a few days with Kerstin, who I met in New Zealand and was on her way to SE Asia. so she occupied pauls side of the bed for 2 nights. staying in a lovely B&B type place about 25 minutes walk from the city centre, really clean and homely. Kerstin gave me a great tour of the city so i got to see the bridge, the opera house, darling harbour, etc etc. on saturday Kerstin left and i went to the airport to pick up paul, who was very jet lagged. we spent the afternoon walking around the city and had sushi on the waterfront by the opera house. paul so tired by the time we got back he couldn't remember anything.
got up on sunday (my birthday) and opened presents, thankyou guys, and then walked into town and went up the sky tower, great views of the city. entrance also included the 'oz trek' a 3d and moving ride type thing in front of a big screen showing australian highlights. in the afternoon we got three buses to get to Bondi beach, only to have 1.5 hours there before having to get the bus back! however the 1.5 hours was great (hot and sunny!) i did attempt to go in the water but it was freezing.
had a nice dinner at Darling Harbour in the evening, i had kangaroo steak which turned out to be juicy and delicous.
yesteday we picked up the van at about 1pm after waiting patiently (kind of) in the queue for about 2 hours. turns out everybody else picks up their vans on monday morning as well.
drove out to the Blue Moutains and saw the fantastic Jamieson Valley and the Three Sisters. I expected MOUTAINS but i think they're very old and worn down. now covered with eucalyptus trees which give off a blue haze. a great view from Echo Point, to give you some idea Paul reckons it looked like the grand canyon but covered in trees. stayed in a local campsite and had a glass or 2 of wine. went for the local "Katoomba falls floodlight walk' along to a lookout point and got freaked by a large animal right beside me on the railing. looked like about rabbit size and colour but it was on the railing (kind of rat like) and had a long tail (kind of rat like). no idea what it was but it was about 1ft away and looking at me not scared at all. maybe a possum?
got up this morning and shock horror its cloudy! so we're driving south, currently in a place called Woolongong south of Sydney. some great surf beaches. heading for a place called Jervis Bay which apparently has white sand, dolphins, etc etc. got more kangaroo steak for dinner tonight.
will update again asap!