Fraser Island/Bunderberg (May 24-29)

With a good night sleep under our belts we loaded up the 4 by 4 with all or our camping gear and departed for Fraser Island via the ferry ride. There were 5 groups of 11 people and at night we all camped right next to each other in order to maximize the noise and project the party outwards in the hopes of attracting others. For the next three days all we did was cruise around the island, go swimming in the fresh water lakes and party like it was our job. Since I hadn't been camping in awhile I wanted to show all the other countries what camping Canadian style was all about. I was the last one in bed both nights and unlike the others who wimped out and slept in "tents," I (being the ultra man that I am,) spent the first night with a blanket on the top of the 4 by 4 and the second one in the 4 by 4 with nothing but a bathing suit to keep out the cold.



Had to get the party hats going!!



Andrew weighs in at 230lbs. He wanted to drive first.... so we let him.



Others opted not to drive but to load up on enough food to feed a small African nation and to consume it in the span of several hours.



At night we slammed a few glasses of "goon" before cooking a little something gourmet. For those of you caught unaware, goon is the name of cooblah wine that's not really wine. It's made with the extracts of milk, fish eggs, fruit and a whole bunch of nasty shit that you don't even want to know about. The "wine" comes in 2 L bags stuffed into boxes for less than $14. Do the math and you can figure that it's the equivalent of 2 1/2 bottles of wine for the price of one. Not surprisingly, it makes for the WORST hangover I have ever had. It felt like a fat chick had me in a headlock from the time the sun came up until my first glass of afternoon goon the next day.





Our surf instructors from a few weeks back were in the neighbourhood so they popped by for a little beersbie, (a game involving three players per team where the object is to knock the opposing teams' beer can off a stick with a Frisbee which results in the chugging of goon,) and other forms of recreation. The night went downhill from there.





After briefly nursing some serious hangovers, the next day we made off for the sights and sounds of Fraser Island. These included an old rusted wreck of a ship seen bellow.



Big Deal!



Much better.



Near.......far......our captain hit the bar......



Goon o'clock came much earlier for some that afternoon.





True to form, I found out that cooking in the dark is more difficult no matter which continent you are on.





Don't spill!!! That sip cost $0.03!!!!



After another awful morning in which my body completely shut down we decided to sweat out the booze with a death march across Indian Head to see the Champagne pools. Made for some great scenery but none of us was up for stepping too close to the edge due to the previous night's activities.





While not recommended, you were allowed to go swimming as close to the edge of the pools as you wanted. A few of us even brought in some refreshments to quench our thirst from the death march and a good time was had by all.



This is why you don't go swimming in the ocean.



Instead you go swimming in beautiful Lake Wabby and Lake Mackenzie which are so clear you can see right down to the bottom even when you're swimming right through the middle.



After a long and exhausting few days I had a huge laugh at this sign when we got back to our hostel. Paddy and UJ, this one's for you.



On to rum town!!



After the debauchery in Frazer Island I decided to relax a little by heading to the town of Bundaberg with a smaller group of people. Apparently Bundaberg is world famous for being a producer of fine rum....I was not aware of this until it was too late.





By the time we were done the tour, our mouths tasted like molasses, our clothes reeked like a distillery and we were all a little worse for wear.



We also got free samples.



#%^*ing free samples!!!!



After realizing that this side trip was going nowhere I hopped on a ten hour bus and I arrived in Airlee Beach. Tomorrow I leave with 27 other people on a Whitsunday sailing tour for three days. It will be EPIC......providing no one gets sea sick with a stomach full of red goon....

Noosa/Croc Hunter Zoo (May 20-22)

I can now die a happy man as my life long dream has been accomplished! Yesterday we went to my idol Steve Irwin's famous Australian zoo! (Those of you who aren't true fans probably refer to him by his television show, "The Croc Hunter.) I have been an avid lover of the show since about 1999 when a friend's brother showed it to me over a couple of beers in Montreal. By the time I graduated high school it was a tradition that whenever I had a spare, a group of us would rush to the nearest McDonalds and then over to a house where we could watch Steve get bitten and mauled by whatever animal he happened to be handling! As a planet, we were all saddened by the death of Steve last year when a sting ray stung him through the heart but his memory will live on forever.



Oh yeah, I have not seen rain in Australia like I did on the day we went to the zoo. Here's us in our official Australian zoo ponchos! So cool.






I thought I'd show the bird pics first since they're the least interesting.



In case you're new, this is a tiger.



Feeding time!



This cheetah can get from 0 to 100 in under 3 seconds. He's so fast that the keepers can't even stop him when they let him out for walking tours! Instead they have to run along side the cheetah and yell out, "I'm sorry but I can't stop him he's too strong!" whenever someone runs up to take a picture.



This is a Tasmanian Devil. I know, I know, it doesn't look like the cartoon character but this thing was still pretty bad ass and it didn't stop moving the whole time I was there!



Wait for it.........................wait for it.........................A DINGO ATE MY BABY!!!!



Apparently you don't need to run in zig zags if you're escaping a croc. While you wouldn't want to try and out swim one in the water they can only run fast for a few seconds......but I still wouldn't want to test that theory. On second thought scratch that, just stay away from them all together as they have jaws that can crush something with the force of 300lbs per square inch.



Yep, it's a Koala.



Whoever said that slow and steady wins the race has obviously never met this guy. If I didn't see him blink I would have thought that he was made of plastic.




So bad ass!






This is Agro the Alligator, he's been on the show quite a few times because of his temper.



I stayed in a hostel that was a two minute walk from this beach, it was beautiful!



Since I had the outdoor bug from my visit to the zoo yesterday I decided to go on a nature walk this morning.



I ran into this meter-long lizard about halfway through my hike so I dropped all my stuff and took off into the woods after it. It only took a few minutes to realize that I was chasing an unknown animal into the brush in a country that has eight of the ten most poisonous snakes in the world, alone and miles from the nearest hospital, and that I was not in fact Steve Irwin. So I made a speedy retreat.

Surfer's Paradise/Brisbone (May 14-20)

AAaahhhhh........life is good. As usual the beach at Surfer's Paradise was packed. It being the off season and all. Ironically the surfing here isn't that good because of the rip that pulls you up the beach. Never the less the sun was out so I sat down on the beach and tried my best to turn into a Jamaican. We got bored one day and headed to Wet and Wild which is a pretty shitty fun park. One could say it was a "watered down" version of Canada's Wonderland....one could say that if they were trying to be "punny."






After that it was back to the beach and then onto Brisbone.....I'll be honest this isn't much of an entry, all we did in Surfer's and Brisbone was drink our faces off and sit on the beach hungover!



I did meet up with a friend of a friend for two nights who shared an apartment on the beach in Surfer's....the view from the balconey is incredible, I think I could stand going to school if it was here!



This was a terrible entry. Won't happen again!