Day 13 - Whitehaven & Daydream Island

16/2/15

Today we got up at 5:40am (I hope you're proud of me, Mother!) and we were on the main boat by 6:30am for breakfast. We then sailed for a while before we came to Whitsunday Island, got into a little motorboat and went to the shore. We walked to a lookout point over Whitehaven Beach and it was incredible!

I have never seen anyting so beautiful in all my life!
We all then walked down to the beach and got given some sexy stinger suits as its now stingray season and the most dangerous ones are the tiny ones called irukandji. I'd rather look like a an idiot in a ninja suit 5x too big than dead. So I'll take the suit, ta v.much. We spent about 2 hours here sunbathing and swimming. The sand here is 98% silica and it's ridiculously fine so it can polish up your jewellery, teeth and make a great exfoliator but it gets in every nook and cranny of your electricals. Still have grains of sand in my camera and phone. Not good.
We get back to the boat for lunch and the lunch was so good! Ta Philly! We then sail away from Whitsunday Island and to another one where the sea is so calm and clear so we can don the ninja suits once more and go snorkelling!

We spend quite a while snorkelling, swimming and chilling on the boat before we all dry off again and then we're en route to Daydream Island! When we get there, we're greeted by a guy who gives each of us a shell necklace. It's so cute! We then get given our keys and see some kangaroos just sitting on the grass. I'll never get used to how people here are just used to seeing a kangaroo like we are to a dog! Strange! The rooms are massive and so nice! This whole island is so pretty, I don't think I ever want to leave this place! We head down to dinner and I swear I'm still rocking at this point. After dinner, Lou, Claire and I take a stroll around the Island. They have a pond where they keep stingray and small sharks! This place is crazy.  We then meet another group in the bar area, have a few drinks and listen to music. We're all so knackered from a day full of activities at this point so at 10pm we all head to bed. 10pm! Now that is very early for us!

Ciao -x-

Day 12 - The Whitsundays

15/2/15

We had breakfast and everyone (bar the people that get seasick) is really up for today! Today is the start of sailing The Whitsundays. We leave Emu Park Beach Resort and have an 8 hour(!!!!) long drive to Airlie Beach. We get dropped off and then PJ and Alan leave us to go and pick up 4 new people and this time we get 4 Kiwi guys. Lou pretty much wet herself when she heard they were from New Zealand. I think she likes the accent. Just a guess though...
We finally all get on the boat and I'm pretty sure everyone has a bag full of alcohol and several boxes of goon. Surprised we didn't sink if I'm honest. We get a talk about the boat; no wings or strings in the loos and only 3 P's allowed. Pee, Poo and Paper. Too much information, I do apologise, but I found it hilarious.

Our group has 3 sail boats. The main one we're all on as a group called Siska, another called Sox and one called Rags where we split up and sleep. After about 10 minutes on the boat, it starts hammering it down, the boat hits the waves and everyone just gets soaked. This doesn't make me a very happy bunny but it soon passes and we're out of the rain and we've stopped in a calm area where we can all jump in the sea. It's just a pretty chill day, eating drinking, just general chilling and watching the sunset. I've seen some pretty cool sunsets and sunrises in such a short time I've been here.

My group go to the boat we're sleeping on and it's so cosy. The rocking put me straight to sleep and it was the best sleep I've had in so long!
Thats that for today!

Ciao -x-

Day 11 - Valentines Day

14/2/15

This morning at breakfast we handed out our love letters. I had a guy called Aaron who is a dairy farmer and I wrote him a poem relating to dairy and my undying love for him. Goes together quite well actually. I got an anonymous letter (who I found out to actually come from Alan) it read:

Dear my sweet, beautiful, cute, magical, english rose, honey-bun Lauren

Happy, sexy, naughty Valentines Day

I knew from the first day that you were the girl for me

Today is the happiest day of our lives together.

xoxoxo
Always Yours

Your Secret Valentine

Who knew Alan could be so darn adorable?

A group went to a goat muster and another group went off to do quad biking while some of us decided to have a chill morning and lounge by the pool before its time to get back on the coach and head off to Emu Park!
So today is Aus v England in cricket or something or other and somehow us Brits have accepted to do a forfeit if (when) England lose. If England loses, us Brits have to go skinny dipping. This ought to be fun!
We get to Emu Park, have an hour or so to ourselves, so it's shower, washing and sorting out the backpacks time! Rivetting. We go down to dinner, go to the bar and theres a guy working in there from Bromley! Go to the other side of the world and meet someone who lives on your doorstep.
We all congregate in the living area? lounge area? Don't know but we've all got beers and watching the cricket like we all know whats going on. We have dinner and then it's on to valentines games! We each get one half of a broken heart and we have to find our partner, there were couples from Beyonce & Jay-Z to John Lennon & Yoko Ono to mine and Katarinas pairing: Adam and Eve. Best couple out there I reckon. We then had to swap a piece of clothing with our partners, I'm not really sure why actually, but everyone got into it anyway. Alan liked his girls t-shirt so much that he kept it on the whole night. What a trooper.
The games were suck and blow (everyones favourite), Flip cup and then everyone went to the bar and got a little worse for wear. As you do.
A group of us went to the beach at about 10pm-11pm-ish, built a bonfire and then suddenly its time for the brits to strip off and get wet. Unfortunatley, I do not have a picture of us lot skinny dipping and I'm not quite sure I'd put it up if I did. Who am I kidding? I totally would!
Carla, Kaitlin, Kerry and Danielle started off a little sing-song round the bonfire because it's no beach bonfire without a little Ho Hey or Wonderwall. Dec treated us all to a little interpretive dancing around the bonfire, just for the reason that it's Dec and then it's off to bed.

Heres a little picture of our tour guide dressed in a girls t-shirt

Alan, ladies and gentlemen. Oh Alan....

Ciao -x-

Day 10 - Kroombit Farm

13/2/15

Today we left Fraser Island and headed back to mainland Australia. We got back on the coach and were en route to Kroombit Farm! On the way, Alan (our tour guide, remember?) passed around a hat with all our names in, we had to pick one and whoever we got, we had to write a valentines card/ love letter to and give it to them on Valentines Day. How cute! (Ew.)
At the farm, one of the guys called Woody got on the coach and told us all about the farm and what we were going to be doing that day. We quickly shoved everything in our rooms and jumped on the back of a trailer and was taken up the farm. Here, some people tried their hand at trap shooting whike the rest of us practiced lassoing ready for the goat rodeo!
There were 3 people to a team and my team was Helen, Claire and I. Every team had to have 2 people lassoing the goats and and the other person had to 'brand' them for 3 seconds, we then had to get the rope off them and drag the goat out of the pen. We took just under a minute thanks to Helens lasso skills. I thought we done rather well until Brandon and his team waltz into the pen, lasso, brand and get the goat out in 27 seconds. 27 seconds!! What?!

We left the rodeo after Braden, Aaron and Brandon were crowned the winners and were told we were having 'mystery meat' for dinner. Being on a farm with a load of goats and having just done a goat rodeo, we were all pretty sure we knew what the meat was. Yes, you guessed it, Lamb!! Totally kidding, it was goat (no shit). It was pretty tasty and it did actually tatse like lamb. We then had duck soup and a beef roast, then washed it all down with a beer or ten at the farms bar. This was such a good night as we all done some line dancing, all had a go on the mechanical bull (which I had to take a running jump to actually get on) Tony had the longest time on the bull so won a bottle of bubbly.

In the bar area there's a metal bin for cans and you have to chuck it in from about 10 feet away and yell "FIRE IN THE HOLE" or in mine and Lou's case 'TOAD IN THE HOLE". Well, we thought it was funny. Anyway, you shout that before you throw it so everyone can move out the way and watch you either fail or win. Theres also a bin for glass bottles where you stand on a tree stump, put some sexy goggles on, launch the bottle at the metal plate a the back of the bin. You have to smash the bottle or you've failed. It's a lot harder than it looks, trust me. You don't win anythng from doing any of this, it's just awesome fun. We also had story time with the owner of the farm, Big Al and we also learnt how to crack a whip. This was hilarious and so many innuendos flying about had us in stitches.

If you ever find yourself at Kroombit farm and you need to use the loo at night, remember to turn the lights off and shut the door when you leave them. Us girls didn't and we had a carpet of ants, ants on the loo seat, stick insects, flies, mozzies and every creepy crawly you can think of and more in our bathroom. No worries though, the guys were smart and shut the door to their bathroom so we just used theirs. Cheers guys!

Ciao -x-

Day 9 - Fraser Island

12/2/15

We got up pretty early for our tour of Fraser Island and I'm pretty sure the truck ride woke everyone up as it was the bumpiest and scariest ride ever! Kept rolling back down the hills, some scary stuff right there.
Gaz, our island tour guide told us that the island only has about 150-200 dingoes left and Lou comes out with "are they spaniel size?" in the most innocent way possible, like, it was a legit question. I'm not even sure why we both found ot so funny.
So we drive from our accommodation out to the beach and going up and down these sand tracks, all of us bouncing around in the back and then finally, after what seems like hours, we reach the beach! It's such a beautiful beach and its 75 miles long! They'd had a storm recently so the sea was too rough for us to swim in, but that didnt matter as we stopped at Eli Creek, the largest freshwater creek on the eastern coast of the island. It was beautiful.

Fraser Island could not get any more beautiful at this point. Some guys were playing frisbee, others playing football, others sunbathing and some of us were just paddling in the fresh water. Lovely Gaz, the island guide, had brought some oat fruit cookies with him so I guess you could say he became everyones best friend that day. They were delicious and definitely weren't around for too long! We hopped back on the truck and carried on down the beach and stopped at The Pinnacles. The Pinnacles is a sacred womens site for the Aboriginal Butchella People.

Back on the truck again and went past a shipwreck called The Maheno. It was an ocean liner then became a hospital ship during WW1.

Gaz then started telling us about a plane ride over the island and stopped to let a pilot on board. Gaz continuously took the mick out of how young he looked and his uniform which he had to wear knee high white socks with. They were sexy.

The pilot sold the plane ride to me, and no it had nothing to do with the fact he was rather good looking. It was the socks okay?!

Anyway, we got on the plane on the beach, flew over the sea and the island and we were able to see just how big the island actually was. There were creeks and lakes in the middle, a sand blow (mini desert) in the middle of the island. The views were just stunning.

After the plane ride we got back on to the truck and dropped at the edge of a rainforest. We were told to try a be quiet for the first 5 minutes of the walk and just appreciate the forest. The 5 minutes turned into the whole 2k walk through, no-one really spoke at all. There was a fresh water river running through the rainforest, insects, geckos and birds.

It didnt take us long to walk it ans it was time again to get back on the truck to our final destination. Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is definitely one of my favourite places ever. It's just beautiful!

I managed to use the GoPro for the first time and managed to capture Helen, Ceclile and I swimming towards the camera. The water is unbelievably clear, we got some good footage. We were only at the lake for an hour which isnt much time at all. I feel like our days are so packed full of stuff to do that we don't spend enough time in one place!

We get back to our accommodation and go to the pool where Helen, Lou, Olly and I had quite a serious game of rummy. We didnt finish the game before it was time to head to the beach to watch the sunset but we kept our cards and the promise of the winner gets to choose who goes in the sea. So we all headed to the beach and Lou and I decided to organise some of us to spell out the word Topdeck and this was the result

Brandon, Claire, Me, Aaron, Cecile, Helen, Lou, Olly, Natalie, Carla & Kaitlin

Not too shabby, right? Yeah.

We finished our game of rummy and it turns out Helen, Lou and I had to run into the sea fully clothed. Our best decision yet..

We went back and ordered pizza, listened to the 4 canadian girls Kaitlin, Carla, Kerry and Danielle sing by the piano and play the guitar. All four of them are crazy talented! Taught Lou the Hoedown Throwdown dance in preparation for the farm, went back to our accommodation and the canadian girls taught us all 'Flip Cup', a drinking game where everyone gets very competetive and very very drunk. We got too noisy for our accommodation so we moved to the bar where we carried on with the drinking games. One we all love and everyone knows is Ring of Fire. Theres a card that if you pick it, you have to come up with a rule. One of the guys came up with the rule that after everything you say, you have to say "in my pants" at the end. Lets just say, it got extremely funny very quickly.

At this point, I'm sure everyone's a tad merry and we decode to head on back. The next day is the day everyone's stoked for. The farm!

Ciao -x-

Day 8 - Brisbane

11/2/15

Again, woke up not feeling so fresh but the breakfast was heaven. A Full English and green tea went down a treat! I also looked through my photos of last night and found 94 selfies of Tom and Dec on my phone. Cheers guys!

We packed up the coach and was on the road again, travelling to Brisbane. We went on a river cruise and learnt all about Brisbane, Story Bridge and the flooding. Lou and I had a very serious discussion on how you pronounce scone. I say scOne and Lou says scon. Do you pronounce it rhyming with gone or tone?
Anyway, after the river cruise, we had an hour free time to look round the city centre and get some lunch. Turned out to be a pretty expensive hour as I decided to buy a GoPro. With accessories and stuff, it put me back $630 but it was so worth it!
We said goodbye to Anna from Germany and Lucy from China and in their place we got a fab girl called Claire from Nottingham, another British lass!
After another fair drive, we pulled up at the ferry jetty and caught the ferry to Fraser Island which is the biggest sand island in the world. We didnt really have much time to do anything by the time we arrived so we all just went to the Dingo Bar and had a buffet dinner which was pretty good. We had a pretty chill evening, had a few drinks, played twister which was painted on the floor and Lou being Lou, abandoned the wheel and decided to call out the most awkward positions ever. I won so those painful positions were almost worth it.
We all went back to our rooms at midnight which is pretty early for us. We have a tour of the island tomorrow so it's another early rise for us. No rest for the wicked.

Ciao -x-

Day 7 - Crossing the border to Queensland

10/2/15

Woke up with a slight hangover this morning. Sign of  good night, aye? Shame it was another early start, but early mornings mean jam packed days and thats what I love. We left NSW behind and entered Queensland. The first stop in Qld was springbrook national park. We had a 45 minute walk through the rainforest which was beautiful, had clear water, a waterfall, a cave full of bats and so many different and beautiful trees.

We left springbrook and headed off to Surfers Paradise. We checked in to a great hotel and then had a few free hours so Nat, Aaron, Tony, Claire, Kath, Christina, Lucy, Brandon, Braden and I went to a bar, bearing in mind it's only 11am at this point. Living that Aussie life! We left the bar, walked down the town centre and saw this lovely sight!

The famous Surfers Paradise sign!

I've been looking forward to seeing this sign for so long. We all walked along the beach and Claire, Brandon and I decided to go up the Q1 tower which is the tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. You can get a 360 view of the Gold Coast from up there and the views are incredible.

Brandon is so terrified of heights and he was trying to get a picture of him and the view in the background and he was slowly edging backwards and holding onto the pillar. Didn't matter that there were windows stopping him from falling, he had to grab on to something. Was an hilarious sight and kinda adorable at the same time.
We left the Q1 building and went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. Helen, Lou and I were getting ready, Olly, Tom and Dec were drinking on the balcony and then all of a sudden, Helen stares at the wall and says "Oh, cockroach". Well, I took one look at this massive cockroach crawling up the wall and I shot outside to the balcony. Lou didnt even look at it before she screamed and legged it from the room. Luckily the guys were on the balcony and came in to see what was going on. Olly and Dec try to get rid of it, Tom comes out to the balcony and says "if it comes near me, I'm hiding behind you". Somehow, I dont think so Tom!
Olly and Dec get rid of it with a few OH MY GODs chucked in and we got back to getting ready. We all go to the Helm Bar next door to the hotel and had this amazing steak and then onto the bowling alley. I was tragic at bowling until I got the hang of it, Tony was great and Helen was incredible. She doesn't need the bumpers like I do. The game finished and Brandon decided to teach me how to play pool, I lost by a mile! We all then moved onto a bar called The Avenue where they had live music. We had a great crowd out that night and we all had such good and slightly merry time. Couldn't tell you what time we left so I'm guessing that's a sign of a good night?

Ciao -x-