There was not a single sober night involved in this, so I figured I’d write about it drunk. The Celtics just got their asses kicked and I still have almost half a day to get through.

So I got to Rainbow Beach around 7 pm. Checked into my room and met my roommates, a guy from Scotland, his girlfriend from England and Jolien from Germany. We went to bar trivia at the hostel. We were killin it. I got us 5 extra points by chugging a pitcher of beer with mussels in tomato sauce in the bottom. I only had to eat one mussel. Got 2 by accident, it was gross. Free pitcher of beer though. I guess we tanked the last round and lost by a point. Two teams tied for first and played rock, paper, strippers for first. Yea, RPS and take a piece of clothing off if you lose until you aren’t willing to take clothes off anymore. Turns out getting naked in a bar in Australia is fine.

There’s nothing to do in Rainbow Beach. Literally, only the beach and it’s not that great. I spent most of the next day waiting for our 4:30 Fraser Island safety briefing.

After the briefing, I ate my last Nimbin cookie for dinner, drank a few beers and then went to the Dingos bar for karaoke. I drank a pitcher and then once again hit the best high ever. I have found my perfect high. 7 beers and 1 Nimbin cookie. I sat there and laughed until I couldn’t handle it anymore and then went to bed.

Well, that was as far as I got with my drunk writing before I had the great idea to ask some of the people I had done these trips with to write me a paragraph about their experience. Seemed like a brilliant idea to get me out of writing and a handful of people were keen to it, but people are busy enjoying their travels and I’m falling behind on my blog. I ended up with a paragraph from Emilio about Fraser Island and one from Ellys and Nicole about the Whitsundays.  The drunk writing night ended pretty hilariously, but that will be a later post about Cairns.

Ok, so Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and home to the purest breed of dingo in Australia. The car I was in was all girls; Stephanie, Lucy & Vicki (the Brits) and Jolien, Elisa, and Maggie (the Germans), so musically it was going to be a long 3 days. We took the ferry over around 10 am after a very thorough vehicle inspection (which apparently they only do once or twice a year) that included breathalyzers for all the drivers. Thankfully nobody had started the party yet. 

The Brits

When we got to the ferry departure point, there was a mystery ship that our guide, Graham, had never seen before and it was kinda creepy. We never really figured out what the story was with it as we were pretty far away from it, so maybe someone reading can figure it out.

I’m going with ghost pirate ship.

It was a short ferry ride over to the island, but on the way we saw a couple dolphins and a dugong (kinda like a manatee). I wasn’t quick enough to get pictures of any of them.

A lot of our day was spent driving down 75 Mile Beach and our first stop on the island was Lake Mckenzie. When we arrived at the lake, we were greeted by a sign literally warning people that dingoes will eat their kids. Hilarious. It was a beautiful lake and I decided my tattoo had healed enough, so I went swimming and laid out in the sun.

We stayed at the lake for a couple of hours before leaving for lunch. Eventually we made the drive to setup camp, get settled and start making dinner. It was time to get the party started. I had brought a 30 pack of Great Northern beer with me for the 2 night trip. I would run out around 9 or 10 pm the 2nd night and bum some goon off a few people. Everyone ate and then the drinking games started. How better to get to know people than King’s cup, “Never Have I Ever” and whatever else we ended up playing that night.

We got up early the next morning, which was a struggle for some of us. During the day our group separated into two smaller groups of 3 or 4 cars, each with a lead guide. Our group’s first stop today was The Champagne Pools. We spent about an hour there before we took a 10 minute walk up to Indian Head to see if we could look down and see any marine life. The water was too choppy so we couldn’t see anything. Another tour guide did find a big mud crab though.

After the walk back down from Indian Head, we made our way to the lunch spot for the day. There was a cafe and bottle shop. Thank the lord, because I needed a beer or 2 to chase the hangover. While we were there, we saw a monitor lizard that was about 3 feet long.

After lunch, we drove back to camp, grabbed some drinks and drove down to another lake to see some freshwater turtles. On the way back, we stopped at the Knifeblade Sandblow lookout.

At this point, it started to rain and we drove back to camp to start getting ready for dinner. The other group got back a little after us and some of them, well the guys in one car, had started the party earlier in the morning.

This is the party car (John, Emilio, Alex, Áine, Beth, Hilde, Annabel and Katie). It should have been my destiny, but for some reason I was denied by the Fraser Island gods.

The night was going to get weird. Like….goon weird. For those of you that don’t know, a goon sack is Australian backpacker slang for a cheap bag of wine. Nobody likes it, but so many people drink it and it messes you up. We’ll return to the goon later.

On our last day on Fraser, we stopped at the Maheno shipwreck, which we had driven past a couple times already. The SS Maheno was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand that operated in the Tasman Sea, crossing between New Zealand and Australia from 1905 until 1935. She was also used as a hospital ship by the New Zealand Naval Forces during World War I. She was washed ashore on Fraser Island by a cyclone in 1935. During World War II, the Maheno wreckage was used as target practice by the Bundaberg Aviation Training School and the resulting holes can still be seen in the hull of the ship.

After a quick stop at the shipwreck, we went to Lake Wabby. It was about a 40 minute walk inland to the lake and once there we had an hour to enjoy it. Most of us laid out and took naps. Lake Wabby will eventually be swallowed up by the sandblow, which pushes toward it at about 1 meter per year. When we got back to the cars we went and had lunch.

Next we made our last stop for a float down Eli Creek. From there it was a long drive back down the beach to the ferry. We finally saw a couple dingoes though. They walked right up to the cars on the beach. They seem harmless to me.

Goodbye Fraser Island!! 😔

When we got back to Rainbow Beach, we got settled in our new rooms, relaxed for a bit and then met up at Dingos Bar for the after party.

As I said, Emilio wrote something a included his favorite picture from the trip. I find it amusing enough to post it even against my better judgement. I will explain it after.

“Highlight of my trip was definitely Fraser Island.. not for the scenery or activities but because of the people I met. And since then we’ve been meeting up every chance we get and it’s always been a good laugh 😁” – Emilio

It’s not what it looks like….I swear.

I told you, shit got goon weird. That’s Scottish John and this apparently is a game called “pass the goon.” The object is to take a mouthful of goon and pass it to the person next to you and then they pass it to the person next to them and so on and so forth. It’s just a silly drunk game that I wanted no part of because a man was on my left. I was just sitting there having a lovely chat with some people when I was forced into the game. His drunk, Scottish strength was too much for me. Somehow, the next day at least 4 people had a picture of it on their phone. Now, let’s all just forget it ever happened.

This should have been hanging in our camp.

The next day, I hung around the hostel and relaxed while I waited for my overnight bus to Airlie Beach. It was a very uncomfortable, 14 hour bus ride and all I wanted was a shower and a nap, but it was still too early to check in to the hostel when we got there. I checked into the travel agency for my Whitsundays sailing trip, got lunch and walked around town for a couple hours. There was a lot of damage in Airlie Beach from Cyclone Debbie a few weeks earlier. Some trees were uprooted, the lagoon was being repaired and many businesses were closed for repairs.

Finally, it was time to check in to Nomad’s and I took my nap and then a shower. I was still pretty beat from the overnight bus, so I mostly just rested up for my sailing trip the next day. I did go to Shed Bar, the hostel bar, for a jug of beer, but decided to go to bed around 10:30.

The next morning, I packed my boat bag, checked out of the hostel and went down to the beer garden at Magnum’s for breakfast. It turned out that Stefan and Judith, two of the Dutchies from my Outback tour, were in town so they came down and had a beer with me a little before lunch time.

I walked down to the marina with my 10 pack of beer and 4 liter bag of goon around 1:30 to board the Tongarra (again, I would run out the 2nd night, but Ellys and Nicole shared their goon with me). We boarded around 2:45 and after a few safety things, we were off!!!

We sailed for 3 1/2 hours before dropping anchor for the night just off the coast of Whitsunday Island. Our deckhand, Kane, and captain, Mick, made fish for dinner while we all drank and got to know each other before going to bed around midnight.

I woke up at 6 am and while Kane setup breakfast and everyone else slept, I jumped off the back of the boat for a swim. It was warmer in the water than outside. The rest of the boat woke up to the sound of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. It was just like the end scene from 50 First Dates, but instead of Alaska, we were in the Whitsunday Islands in tropical Queensland, Australia. It was magical!!!

After brekky, we took the dingy over to the island and walked up to a lookout over Whitehaven Beach on the other side of the island. Whitehaven Beach is ranked the #1 beach in Australia and one of the top 5 beaches in the world. It has been used in the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean and Fool’s Gold, as well as other movies I’m sure. We took some pictures and headed down to the beach for a couple hours.

Here I am making love to the camera…really workin it….givin Mick everything I got. I could have been a model, no?

The weather wasn’t great, but we made the most of our time on Whitehaven. Soon it was time to head back to the boat for lunch, but I went for a bit of a climb and got a few more pictures before we left.

We ate lunch, pulled the anchor up and headed for Manta Ray Bay to do some snorkeling. We saw lots of fish, but the water was still too murky from the cyclone to see down to the corals.

My first Fosters!!

This was a lighthouse, but it was washed away by Debbie.

Snorkeling ended and we spent about a half hour jumping off the top of the boat into the water. I would be a bit sore by the end.

Oldest person on the boat doing backflips off it. Seriously….the oldest person on the boat including the crew.

It was time to sail to the spot where we would spend the night, but first it was time to start the party!!! I “beer bonged” 2 beers out of a didgeridoo!! Absolutely one of the highlights of my drinking career!! There’s a video, but didn’t pay to be able to load videos on the blog. We sailed, we drank, we danced the night away!!

A beautiful sunset on the water.

We woke up the next morning, had breakfast and then it was time to sail back to Airlie Beach. It took about 4 hours to get back because we were dealing with 8-10 foot seas. A couple people got sick and everyone got soaked. I stood at the front of the boat loving every minute, but mostly I was scared that if I tried to join everyone at the back, I’d get thrown overboard.

We got back to Airlie at 12:15 and I went to KC’s Bar and Grill and had the Roo and Croc Medley for lunch. Kangaroo steaks and crocodile tail. It was delicious!! When I check back into the hostel it was nap time. Living on the water is exhausting, haha!! Eventually about half our group met at Shed Bar for the after party. We drank there until about 11 and then went to Boom Nightclub. I was still pretty tired, so I called it a night around 12:30. Boom is open until 5 am.

I was hungry, so I went to McDonald’s and as soon as I looked up at the menu, I felt like I was back on the boat. Food wasn’t going to happen. It took a couple days before the swaying sensation stopped randomly popping up.

I spent my last day in Airlie watching the Celtics, doing laundry, relaxing and packing up for my next adventure to Magnetic Island.

“Well our Whitsundays trip is one of mine and Ellys’s highlights of our East Coast travels! Finally found a GREAT group of people who knew how to socialise, have some fun and of course enjoyed a good drink! Despite our miserable weather we had, we had a bloody good time! Whitehaven Beach was definitely a favourite despite the constant moans we were cold and wanted to get back to the boat. Our time wasting skills went down a treat making half like pyramids and of course spelling out the good old GOON! The evenings of course were another highlight when everyone’s ready for a good old drink! From heart to heart conversations, playing games, to Greg joining our FaceTime to our parents!
Thanks for your company along the way Greg, it’s been a pleasure! 😊🍷”- Nicole and Ellys

The O’s didn’t leave it all on the beach that day.

Don’t mind their funny spelling or whatever “our time wasting skills went down a treat” means. They are silly Brits. Also, their parents love me. I assume they talk about me like a son now.

I have much more to tell of my East Coast journeys and I’ll do my best to catch up, but tomorrow morning I am off to see my dear friend, Matthew Thomas Hardwick in Vanuatu!!! I’m very excited to have adventures with him for the first time in 10 years.

My flight from Christchurch to Sydney was scheduled for 6:15 am, which meant I needed to be at the airport for 4:15, which meant the airport shuttle was picking me up at 3:15, which meant I got up at 2:45 am. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep, but I did sleep for most of the 3 hour flight.

The airport shuttle dropped me off at the Jolly Swagman hostel in the Kings Cross neighborhood of Sydney. I went to check in and when the receptionist asked for my voucher, I reached for my day pack and it wasn’t there. Oh shit!!! I went out to the street and it wasn’t there either. All of my trip vouchers (valued at $1,700), plus my camera, journal and travel guides were in there. I called the shuttle company and after a few minutes they called me back and told me the driver had it. Phew!! That’s what happens when you have to be up at 2:45 in the morning for a flight.

I only had one night in Sydney and I spent it getting everything ready and then I walked down to Circular Quay. It was ANZAC Day, but I had missed the parade. All I got to see was a shitload of fully dressed military personnel drinking in bars all around the city.

The next day, I hung around the hostel waiting until it was time to leave for my overnight bus to Byron Bay. It was a 13 hour bus ride and I got into Byron Bay at about 8:30 am, but had to wait until 1 to check in to the hostel. I watched the Celtics game while I waited. Byron is a surf town and other than the beach and the bars there isn’t much going on.

What I hadn’t considered in Christchurch was the piss poor timing of my tattoo. I was supposed to wait 2 weeks before exposing it to the sun or soaking in water, so the beach was out. This would be a problem over the course of the next few towns. Eventually, I got a case of beer and sat around chatting all night with some of the other backpackers.

The next day, I took a day trip to Nimbin, the weed capital of Australia. Our bus driver encouraged us to drink alcohol and smoke weed all day. In fact, we stopped at the liquor store at like 10:30 before we ever got to Nimbin. I was rockin a pretty serious hangover, so it seemed like a hair of the dog kind of day. I grabbed a 6 pack and drank 2 on the way to Nimbin.

When we got to Nimbin, I went to a hotel and ordered food and a beer. Nimbin was a trip, not literally, but it could have been. We were there for an hour and a half and I got asked 5 times on the street if I wanted to buy weed. Eventually, I did go into an art gallery and buy a few pot cookies. I took half of one right before we got back on the bus. I had a beer on the way to our dinner spot and then ate the other half cookie when we got there. I drank my other beers and pretty much landed in the best high of my life.

We got back to Byron Bay at 6 and I accidentally took a 2 hour nap. When I woke up, I went and got some food and then ended up going back to bed at 9:45, hahaha.

The next day I took the bus to Noosa and checked into the Nomad’s hostel. Most Nomad’s have a reputation as being a party hostel and this one was no different. I needed a couple nights off after Byron though, so I relaxed both nights there. During the one full day that I spent there, I walked an hour down to Noosa National Park and did a 3 hour coastal walk. The beaches were beautiful, but I still wasn’t able to fully enjoy them.

After the walk, I took a stroll down the main street of Noosa andd then headed back to the hostel. That night I ate my 2nd cookie, but without the added alcohol, it didn’t do much for me. The next day I would be taking the bus to Rainbow Beach and it turned out this would be my last relaxing night for a week.

My last week in New Zealand was mostly spent in Christchurch, but I stopped at Lake Tekapo for a night. In Tekapo, I stayed in a 5 person tent. It was basically a giant teepee.

When I woke up in the morning, it was 4° C (39° F) and I was freezing. What happened to summer?

My bus to Christchurch wasn’t until 4 pm, so I decided to take a hike up to the top of Mt. John. It wasn’t a particularly difficult hike, but it took about 3 hours roundtrip.

At the summit of Mt. John is the Mt. John Observatory. In June 2012 an area of 1,700 square miles around the observatory was declared as the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark Sky Association. It is only one of 4 such reserves in the world and the area has a Bortle Scale rating of 2. The scale is 1-9 with 1 being the darkest night sky in the world. There’s a short walk from the observatory on the Northern summit to a special stargazing bench on the Southern summit.

After the hike, I was off to my last stop in New Zealand. I had 5 nights booked at the Jailhouse Accomodation. 5 nights sleeping in a jail cell sounded interesting. The jail was built in 1874, closed in 1999 and was opened as a hostel in 2006.

It was around 8 pm by the time I got settled, so I got some dinner and spent the night at the hostel. The next day, I walked down to the Canterbury Museum and took a shuttle bus to the International Antarctic Centre. The IAC is home to the New Zealand, United States and Italian Antarctic programs.

I spent a little extra money and got the Penguins Backstage Pass. The Antarctic Centre takes in rescued blue penguins that are no longer capable of living in the wild. We weren’t allowed to touch the penguins, but we did get to go into the enclosure. We also went down to the office area where they bring penguins to monitor them. One of the penguins had been acting strange so he was down in the room.

After the penguin tour, I walked through some of the other exhibits before going on a Hagglund ride. Hagglunds are the track vehicles used by the scientists in Antarctica. The ride was about 10 minutes through a course designed to demonstrate the vehicle’s capabilities.

Our Hagglund

When the ride was over, I saw the rest of the exhibits including the Antarctic Snow and Ice Experience where the air temperature is -8° C (19 ° F). Every hour they simulate a storm with wind chills up to -18° C (-3° F). They give you a jacket when you enter, but I was still wearing shorts and the storm got a bit chilly (even for me).

It’s really friggin cold in Antarctica.

I took the shuttle back to the museum and walked the 30 minutes back to the hostel. Christchurch was devastated by an earthquake in 2011 and much of the city is still under construction.

After I made dinner, I grabbed a case of beer and hungout at the hostel for a while. Later that night, I went to Sullivan’s where they advertise the “world’s largest glass of beer.” Don’t tempt me with a good time. Turns out the glass is like 9 liters and they don’t sell it. They got my hopes up and then crushed my dream of drinking the biggest beer in the world.

I spent much of the next day hungover and watching the Bruins and Celtics playoff games. After the games ended though, I went and found the tattoo parlor that I would be getting my pohutukawa tree done at. Then I went to Peter Pans and spent a couple hours booking my East Coast Australia trip.

The next day I walked back to the museum and took a shuttle to the Christchurch Gondola. The gondola ride to the top of the mountain takes 10 minutes. At the top is a gift shop, cafe, observation deck, a short “ride,” and great views overlooking the city. The Time Tunnel ride was a 6 minute ride about the history of Canterbury. After wandering around the mountain and the shop, I took the gondola back down the mountain.

When I got back to the museum, I decided to take an Uber to the Willowbrook Wildlife Reserve. They had lots of animals, but they also had a nocturnal kiwi house and I saw 2 kiwis!!!

Doin monkey things.

Lemurs are awesome!!

Kiwi!!!!!!!!!

My last day in Christchurch was spent at Zealand Tattoo. I got a pohutukawa tree on my ribs. For anyone that missed my Cape Reinga post, the Maori people believe that when they die, their spirits travel across the land to Cape Reinga. At Cape Reinga, the spirit passes down the roots of an 800 year old pohutukawa tree into the ocean. The spirit then swims to Three Kings Islands, where they climb to the highest point, Ohaua, and look back to the mainland to bid their final farewell before returning to Hawaiiki-A-Nui, the land of their ancestors. I wanted something to symbolize my time in New Zealand and I think this is a really cool belief about the afterlife.

The rest of my day was spent packing and relaxing. The airport shuttle was picking me up at 3:15 am. 6 am international flights are the best!!!!

A couple days after leaving New Zealand, I came across an article about the Southern Lights that had been on display a couple nights while I was in Christchurch. I had no idea it was happening and I was devastated to know I missed an opportunity to cross that off my bucket list. I stole some pictures from the article. They were taken with much nicer cameras than mine and by much more talented photographers. I assume they were both long exposure shots and the one with the Milky Way is probably 2 photos spliced together, but they make me want to take photography lessons.

Just saying “Hi” and letting you all know that I’m alive and well. I know I haven’t written in a week, and I’m a few weeks behind on trip updates now, but I needed a break. I’m tired. I haven’t spent more than 5 days in one place since Melbourne in February. Most places have been 2 days, 3 tops.

I’m going to spend the next 3 days hanging with the dingoes on Fraser Island and relaxing in a little slice of paradise. Hopefully it will recharge my batteries and I’ll get a few posts done when I get back from the island.

Cheers!!!