"Let's start a blog for a trip where we will not have a computer, and we will have very scarce internet access!!!"

I know that it's been a while, but as I'm sure I mentioned before, internet access and computer access (put together) is basically non-existent. :( Right now I'm staying with the Enlgishes (Alan, Sharon, Tom, Ebony, and Eloise) who were in Canada for a year several years ago. It's been good to catch up! Now let me catch you up on my happenings, Dear Reader.

Leaving Melbourne was INCREDIBLY sad. The Birds were amazing to stay with and took care of us like their own children... as Beatrice said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." When we first got there (to Melbourne) I couldn't wait to get out of the cold south, but when we did leave, it was too soon! Our last day in Melbourne was spent clearing out the van and our rooms and then we headed in to the city to meet Andrew for lunch before we left. One of my favorite things about Australia: I can walk into any burger joint, big or small, gourmet or ordinary, and order an absolutely fabulous meat free meal. They have lentil patties and veggie patties and awesome burgers. Yeah, I'm impressed. Our flight out of Melbourne was not without it's adventures. It was delayed two hours. And THEN when we got to the Gold Coast and called Chris to come pick us up, he was at the Brisbane airport waiting for us. Oops. So Jana calls Dan to come get us, and he says sure. She calls Chris to say so, and he says, "No, I'm on my way; this will be easier." She says, "OK" and calls Dan back. Then Chris calls and says, "Oh, I'm in stop and go traffic, better let Dan come get you." So Dan came to get us. An hour or two after we arrived at the airport, plopped our luggage down outside, and sat on it like homeless people. As you can tell, hilarity ensued. (Dan is a friend of Jana's, Chris is the guy Jana works for.)

We arrived early Friday morning to the Gold Coast (Clara got some sleep and flew out later Friday morning for home), and Friday night we went to "the girls' place" to hang out with "the girls." These are the girls that Jana lived with for the majority (I think) of her stay in Aussie this year. We went out to eat at a posh restaurant and then went to see a movie. It was a pretty nice night, just relaxing, except for the "spending more than $40 Australian on dinner and a movie per person." Ridiculous, I know. But the seats were really nice... Saturday was Jana's going away party, with the girls and a lot of the young friends in Brisbane/Gold Coast area. It was on a beach, which was nice :) We woke up at 11 and it was supposed to start at 11:30, half hour away. We got there at 12:30. That night everybody went back to the girls' place to hang out. Once again we were late - other people left earlier, but Chris decided we should have a game of hacky sack in the parking lot. Four people, only one of which is actually good at the game. Yeah. And then we had to get food and go to the supermarket before going to the house. Taking "fashionably late" to a whole new level! On Sunday we went to special meetings in Brisbane (we were almost late - does this surprise you?) and they were wonderful. We left halfway through the second meeting to get to the airport on time, though, dragging Chris, Jana, and Jess (ooh! another person to insufficiently introduce you to!) with us. Jess is a friend of Jana's and Sarah's - She and Jana met on an earlier Aussie trip of Jana's, and then Jess came to the states to visit and met Sarah at that time. I think that's how it goes. If not, I'm sure I'll be corrected but I'll leave that here, because it doesn't really matter to you. The flight to Airlie Beach area was without adventure.

And now: Airlie Beach. *sigh* this is SOOOO LONG. I contemplated breaking it up into several smaller blogs, all done today, but decided you could read this in bits and pieces just as well. Though it might be more terrifying :P

We got checked into the YHA in Airlie Beach, got our own 2 bedroom twin bed room. This enabled us to A) not have to put up with strangers walking in at all hours of the night and B) storing our stuff during the day and not worrying about locking it up. It was nice and clean, and we stayed there after the sailing trip as well. (Though the first day I did "trip" over a cockroach... and then it was wiggling there on its back for the longest time, looking pathetic, while we skirted around it.) Once again, supper consisted of an extremely tasty veggie burger. I can't wait to get home and try modifying some of these on my own. Aussie burgers are kind of famous.

[At this point there is an 8 day break in my journaling, where I got lazy and then had to recall everything at once. This may be a little sparse for details for a bit - which you, Dear Reader will rejoice at, I am sure.]

Monday we got checked in for our sailing tour, which was to leave at 1 pm and went to buy ugly bags with no zippers for use on the boat. This kept us from bringing everything we had with along, which was a good thing because of the extreme lack of space on the boat, even in our own cabin. We did get free storage for our backpacks, which was extremely nice. Our cabin space consisted of a bed and a bathroom (which included what they called a "shower" though that could be debatable) and 1 1/2 square feet of floor space. We were very glad to have our own cabin though, because those who didn't slept out in the "dining area/living area/socializing area," the scariest part of which being the "socializing" part. Our skipper was Steve, and our "hostie" was Sarah. There were 10 other passengers on the boat besides us: 5 Irish girls, a German girl, and and English girl (who all came equipped with loud, high pitched voices for the hard of hearing/earplugged!) and Irish couple, and a German boy. The first day, we went for a snorkel in an alright area off of the Whitsunday Islands (which was the point of this sub-trip - to see these islands and do fun things. Like go sailing). We also sat out on the deck and tried to get tans. Tuesday was better for that as we went to Whitehaven Beach - one of the top ten in the world - for a couple of hours. White sand, blue water, hardly any people. Awesome combo. The beach is reached mostly by boat, and those boats have to be smaller and have permits to get into the area - mmmmmm..... :) We now have awesome tans. Hopefully mine will survive Argentina. We got two more snorkels in, both on Tuesday, though Sarah and I (and most of the people) only did the first one, because it was REALLY cold. We saw clown fish and really old clams. The beach and the sailboat were the most awesome parts of that trip. Wednesday was a lazier affair, leaving where we had spent the night later and getting back into Airlie about 10:30AM. We spent the rest of the day walking into and out of shops and chilling at what they call the "lagoon" which isn't a lagoon at all. It's basically a free public pool that all of the backpackers go to, with grass or sand around it instead of cement (but it has a cement bottom). I don't think we took any pictures but it was very pretty and very populated. We also were able to go on a walk/hike outside of Airlie for a bit. Thursday our flight left pretty late so we had till 4:30 in Airlie - Once more, hiking, except for longer, then chilling at the lagoon, working on our tans :)

That night, the Englishes picked us up from the airport, which we were not expecting them to do. It was (is) greatly appreciated. This part of the trip is what I refer to as "Englishes #1" which is before the beach house weekend. Friday we took public transportation - City Cats and buses - out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (City Cats are which are basically ferries on the river that are frequent and probably even more useful to the commuter than buses.) The sanctuary had all the Aussie animals, plus lectures throughout the day about the various ones. I was planning to name this post "Wallabies, Kangaroos, and Wombats, Oh, My!!!" But then figured I should apologize for my lack of posting. :S We saw those, and Aussie birds of prey, Aussie snakes, a platypus, a crocodile, emus, Tasmanian devils, (no echidnas - their place was being renovated, and they were supposed to be hanging out in the wombat enclosure - hiding, of course.) That night, Jana and Chris came from the Gold Coast to pick us up and continue on to the Sunshine Coast. We were able to coordinate supper (tea) at the Englishes, which was very tasty. Once again, we were late. Noticing a pattern here?

We stayed at what was basically an apartment-type resort in Noosa. We went to the Eumundi Markets on Saturday and walked around there after having brunch with the bunch (sorry haha!), and then sat by the pool and waited for supper to be prepared. Swedish style fondue... Really good, but really really rich. Our fairly large group of people was split up into two groups - Saturday supper and Sunday supper. It seems a lot of the weekend was spent eating. We were part of the Sunday crew, which decided on Japanese food. I'm fairly certain that we had more chocolate and other junk food than actual food in the apartment. And downstairs one of the couples had a deep fryer. YEAH. Steven and Russ would have loved this weekend. Monday we went for a walk around Noosa and then up the boardwalk for a while. We then headed back to Brisbane and got there around 5 PM and had a two hour wait until ROCK CLIMBING!!!

Chris decided to sleep in the car while we walked around the area. I absolutely love that river and how the residents of the city live with it. We all climbed up, except for Chris, who stayed wrapped up in his sleeping bag but did come out of the car. It was pretty terrifying, because this wasn't just a climbing wall made for indoors - it was a legitimate cliff face that runs parallel to the river, but doesn't go right into the river. It was also free. !!! To climb, you have to have gear, but a couple of the guys had the stuff that they let everyone use. It's a pretty organized event for the young friends in Brisbane. :) Monday night we went back with Ebony and Eloise to stay another night with their family. Tuesday, we went into the city with Sharon to go for a walk with the ladies and then spent the day in museums and art galleries and walking around that part of the city. The art museum had a hat exhibit - pure amazingness. All sorts of funky designer hats, and then at the end, you could make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. This happened to be one of the middling things we hit up, so we wore our hats for quite a bit wandering around the city. We were supposed to get back to the Gold Coast tonight, but we're heading up tomorrow morning instead and staying with the Englishes one more night.

If you've read this entire thing, well done! Sorry, that's all you get. Laters!