Visiting Tanya! and Byron Bay

So after we had to leave the moms we hopped on an airplane up to the Sunshine Coast to stay with Tanya and her family for a while. Their house is incredible in such a cute town called Perigian, near Noosa so we were in for another treat! It was amazing to see Tanya and be with a good friend from home, and so great to be in a home for a while (and the homecooked meals really topped it all off!) We had a few really fun nights out in Noosa and got to enjoy the beaches for a few days.



Luckily Tanya was able to get the weekend off so we decided to head down to Byron Bay which is an adorable beach town. We stayed in the Arts Factory Hostel, a funky, hippie-type place. Gary and Sara, two of our friends that we met on Kiwi Experience in New Zealand met up with us too which was great fun! The first night in the hostel we all stayed in a room together, not the nicest but it was fine. Then...the second night they said they only had room for two so we figured what the hell, we can pay for two people and squeeze in four. Ooo were we wrong. We ended up staying in a tent basically. It was one bed with a tent over it, not even room for the bags, they had to go under the bed. So we squeezed three of us in one bed and Gary slept in the car haha! We decided we needed to be pretty drunk to be able to sleep like that so we read Lonely Planet on what bars to go to. They said Cheeky Monkey was "a backpackers' bonanza - cheap food, cheap drinks and cheesy tunes. Expect (dodgy) table top dancing, instant friends, long nights and easy sleazy fun." Perfect! Ended up being one of the most fun nights we've had! They didn't have a dance floor, there were only tables of all different heights for everyone to dance on. It was great, we even went back the second night. During the day, though, it poured rain, non-stop for 2 of the 4 days we were there which kind of sucked. But, regardless Byron was a really cool little beach town!


We went back to Tanya's for a few days and just relaxed at a beautiful cove in Noosa before hopping on the Greyhound to head up to Rainbow Beach.

Frasier Island and Whitsunday Islands

From Tanya's house we headed to Rainbow beach on the Greyhound bus which is where our Frasier Island adventure would begin. The bus ride was 14 hours of driving with a 3 hour stop in the middle of nowhere! Condsidering it was Sunday, no only were we in the middle of nowhere, but nothing was open. We had to sit in front of an ice cream shop for 3 hours...good thing the ice cream was good! After that we got on the bus for the 12 more hours only to find out that Brittany's seat wouldn't recline and neither one of our lights worked to read. We had to practically break Brittany's seatbelt so that we could tie it around the outside arm of Shanna's chair to hold it back. It was quite funny but we are definitely glad to be back to sleeping in beds and not busses.

Once we got to Rainbow beach we went to an orientation meet the other people you would be traveling with. There are 11 people in each 4WD vehicle and 2 cars caravan and camp together. You then head to the groccery store and stock up for the next 3 days and 2 nights you will all be camping together on the island. The next morning we packed up the cars...more like the boys packed and the girls supervised..and we took a ferry over to Frasier Island. We thought the whole time we would be driving on the smooth sand of the beach but we were definitely mistaken. About 70% of the time you are on backroads where all of the 8
passengers not sitting in the 3 front seats are literally getting tossed all over the car the bumps are so bad...but great fun!


The first day on the island we headed to Lake Mackenzie which is a crystal clear lake. It was absolutely beautiful and even when you are shoulder deep in the water its like you are in a bath tub. We wished we could have stayed all day but becuase of the tides on the beach we had to get to our camp site and set up. After setting everything up we hiked down to the bbq's where we made burgers and hot dogs!


The next day we went to another lake, we can't remember the name but something like Lake Wantabe. We were told it was a short 30 minute hike, but it turns out it was really 50 minutes in extreme heat and humidity. All we wanted to do when we got to the lake was jump in and never have to hike back! In the lake there were giant cat fish swimming right up to us..too bad we couldn't eat one! When we got to our second camp site we set up, ate some PB&J's (which only the americans eat apparently, everyone else thought the jelly on peanut butter was gross?), and headed to a Eli Creak to cool off before heading back to the camp sight. The second night we realized that sleep would come much easier with some drinks so we decided to break out the boxed wine (cheeper than beer) and do some damage. Needless to say, the tents were much more comfortable the second night! (Apparently we have a theme going between Byron Bay and Frasier Island)! We drank on the beach and got to watch shooting stars....great night!


The last day we went up to Indian point where you are supposed to be able to see sharks, sting rays, possibly whales and other wildlife but of course we aren't that lucky...only a sting ray, but the view was georgous! After that we headed back down the beach to the shipwreak which apparently has been there since 1937 and is how the island got its name! We took some good photos and headed back to the ferry which would take us back to Rainbow Beach for one more night.



From Rainbow Beach we headed to Airlie beach which is where the Whitsunday Islands are located. We boarded a sail boat for another 3 day 2 night adventure. There was only 15 people on a boat that could hold 25 (10 ppl canceled thinking the weather would be bad) which was great for us! We met a lot of really fun people and the views from the boat of the islands were spectacular! Only mistake we made was to go out the night before the boat took off. We woke up with a small head ache, which turned into a horrible hangover with the swaying of the boat! You have to wear "stinger suits" (they look like wet suits but are to prevent you from jelly fish stings) and after snorkling we could only peel them half way off before needing to pass out on the deck of the boat with horrible head aches! At least we got to snorkle for a little while with sea turtles and enormous bat fish...sooo cool!


The second day, feeling better, we headed to whitehaven beach which has really fine white sand and crystal clear blue water and then off to another snorkling adventure. This time we made friends with the a school of fish that followed us around the whole time we were in the water. Everytime we thought we lost them we would look back and there they were. Then they would come up and practically hit your masks they were so close.

One the last night on the boat we docked on an island with three other boats and partied at some random little bar. It was an absolutely great night and half the people out drinking were still wearing their "stinger suits" from the afternoon!


We made a lot of really good friends on the boat and a few doing the same route as us up the coast, so we will get to meet up with them again on our way up!