half a world away....
So I've been in Australia for over 2 months now so thought it was about time to update all those who want to know what I've been doing.....And yes, this is pretty much exactly the same as the email I sent a while ago.....Australia is making me lazy....
Ok, first week: Oz Intro week....arrived in Sydney early on 22nd and got picked up from airport and drove to hostel in Coogee (Surfside Backpackers hostel in case anyone cares...)....met the other people in the group and hung around the hostel for a few hours before driving into Sydney. Walked around Botanical Gardens, saw the Opera House (which is actually quite dirty....not as pretty and white as on the postcards!), and then went for a cruise around the harbour....Next day was surfing day - we went to Boat Harbour which is a beach, not a harbour, and is part of Cronulla Beach.....I gave up surfing after about 20 minutes as it was impossible....spent the day sunbathing and drinking beer which seemed like a much more productive way to spend the day! On Wednesday we went into Sydney and did boring stuff like sorting out medicare cards etc, then wandered around the shops.....and they DO have Topshop, but they call it Sports Girl instead....! Wednesday night was wine and cheese night at the hostel (although it was actually box wine and cheese and onion crisps) so we got a little bit merry there and then went over to a club called The Palace (where we'd been every night so far already...)
Thursday we were supposed to go to Bondi but the weather was rubbish so we stayed around Coogee and then got the ferry over to Manly in the afternoon, where we went kayaking around the harbour....although I say 'we'...I was in a kayak with Kim and there were several times I looked behind me and she was just sat there letting me do all the work! Got the ferry back in the evening and saw Sydney lit up at night....
On Friday got up ridiculously early to go to the Blue Mountains....saw kangaroos, a few bugs, and the home of a funnelweb spider.....luckily the spider itself wasn't in....Got back to the hostel and got ready to go into Sydney....went to Darling Harbour in the evening and saw the Australia Day fireworks which were the best fireworks ever.....England should really take firework lessons from Australia....
Saturday we went to Bondi, did half of the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, and stopped off for a barbeque....didn't do the rest of the walk because it was too windy and we probably would have fallen off the cliff.....Went on a pub crawl around Sydney in the evening which was mental and I have no memory of how we got home!
Sunday went snorkelling and then had dinner at Sydney Tower Restaurant which was very odd as it revolves, so one minute you've got the buffet beside you then you look back later and the toilets are there!..
The next week and a half is all a bit of a blur....I stayed in Coogee as it's right on the beach and I wanted to sunbathe, and we pretty much spent our days on the beach and the nights in The Palace or Coogee Bay Hotel.....met some really great people, and some others who weren't so great!
Started the Oz Experience buses on the 8th, so got a taxi into Sydney at 6am (I was supposed to get the taxi at 5.45am but accidentally got a bit drunk the night before and overslept...) and met Kim, Tracy and Claire on the bus. Stopped off at a surf camp first (didn't surf), and then the next day drove up to Byron Bay. Had been in the hostel for all of 5 minutes and saw Luke which was a bit odd as he'd also been in the hostel in Coogee! It's very strange when you're on the other side of the world and you bump into someone from home.....Stayed in Byron for 2 nights, and then discovered I was broke so had to book all my buses so I'd get to Tully as soon as possible!
Left the girls in Byron on the 11th and got the bus to Brisbane, stopping off in Surfer's Paradise for 45 minutes on the way. Met a girl on the bus so we checked into the same hostel, then went for dinner with the people in our dorm. Had an incredibly lazy day of doing absolutely nothing the next day!
Got the bus from Brisbane to Hervey Bay on the 13th, and stopped off at the Glass House Mountains, which looked like any other mountains....was chucking down with rain and there were about 10 million mosquitos so we pretty much just went up the hill, then down the hill.....(the next day I woke up with lumpy arms from the amount of bites I got!)....from there we went to Rainbow Beach and learned how to play didgeridoos, and how to throw spears and boomerangs....Our bus driver decided to have a party at the drivers house in Hervey Bay that night so we all decided to go.....Got to Hervey Bay and bought several boxes of wine (or goon, as they call it here) and went over....Hervey Bay was really boring, but most people are only there to go to Fraser Island (as I was broke I'll be doing this another time)..
Left Hervey Bay and got the bus to a cattle station in Kroombit which was SO much fun.....went horseriding and herded goats (!), watched people fall off a mechanical bull, and learned how to crack a whip (I was the only girl who could do it with the massively long whip and the old man teaching us how to do it wanted me to go and live on the cattle station......I declined....)...
Next day carried on up to Airlie Beach....most people go here to go sailing around the Whitsundays, but again, I was broke so am going to go back at some point to do that.
Arrived in Tully on the 17th, and this is where I am now. Staying at a hostel called Banana Barracks and have been banana picking for 5 weeks now.....I'm not actually picking the bananas though as girls get easier jobs!...I'm on a farm called Weary Pocket, and so far I've learned how to string banana trees, prune trees, and drive a tractor....yes that's right, the girl that never passed her driving test can now drive a tractor.... It rains nearly all the time here but when you're outside all day that's a good thing....especially when you're pruning banana trees and the disgusting sticky banana sap is dripping on you every minute of the day! It's really hard work, but as soon as it gets to 6.30pm on a Thursday and you get paid it all seems worth it!
Have met some awesome (I'm sorry, I'm in Australia - it's against the law if you don't use the word 'awesome' at least once a sentence) people, and because Tully is the deadest place on earth it's essential to have a good group of friends so that you don't go insane....During the week no one really does anything (except the pub quiz on Wednesdays) because we're all too tired from working....So Monday to Thursday is pretty much work, shower, eat, watch tv, sleep.....And then at the weekend everyone goes slightly mental....Friday nights we get a free jug of either beer or wine (yes, jugs of wine..!) and they're usually drunk by about 8.07pm (they start giving them out at 8pm) and then the drinking games begin.....Namely 'Fuck You', or the '3,6,9' game....Basically just an excuse for us to drink much more quickly.....
So that's pretty much everything that's been happening so far.....Updates from Tully will be few and far between because nothing ever changes here....!
Kim's arriving in Tully next Wednesday, and I think we're going to stay for another 2 months, then fly to Adelaide and do the Great Ocean Road (Adelaide to Melbourne).....
Hope everyone's well.
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