So, Halloween will have to wait because I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about Queensland yet. But, I guess what with the craziness of the semester ending (I have finally turned in my research project, and gotten back High Distinctions in my other two courses, huzzah!) I never got ‘round to it. So, here’s the story:
Over mid-semester break, 10 of my friends and I went up to Hervey Bay which is right on the eastern coast of Queensland, a short plane ride from Sydney. When we arrived the first thing we did was pick up our rental van. Now, it was our understanding when we booked this 12-seater van that anybody over 21 could drive it. However, when we arrived at their office the lady said, ‘Nope, over 25 only.’
Well…being as most of my IH friends are between 19 and 23, I was pretty much the only option for driver. Which, if you don’t know my history with cars and driving and roads, may not seem like a big deal, but, you’d be wrong I’m afraid. At the age of 16 I started out very excited about learning to drive but, well, my driver’s instructor was so bad that not only did he squelch the excitement, he pretty much undermined any confidence I had about my ability to not kill people while behind the wheel (bear in mind I have never even gotten a ticket and the one time I was pulled over was for turning right on a street that, rather arbitrarily, has no right turns from 4:30-7:30 pm, oops). So, suffice it to say that when I found out that for the next 4 days I was going to be responsible for driving a 12-seater van, full of people whose death I did not want cause, on the wrong side of the road (from the wrong side of the car), my first reaction was….crap. And, admittedly, the first day was pretty dicey. I had the person in the passenger seat watching the curb for me because it took a long time to adjust and stop edging away from the middle of the road. I think I almost took off a few mirrors from parked cars. Then there was the parking garage debacle, when we tried to get the van into the underground garage at the hotel. Unfortunately the garage was at the bottom of a steep ramp and when we got down there we realized that the van was too tall to fit (note: read “realized” as “didn’t notice until the top of the van started scraping the safety board with the height restriction written on it”). This realization was further complicated by the door to the garage almost closing on the bonnet of the van (heh heh, bonnet). But, the story ends happily. Not only did I succeed in doing many hours of driving in order to get us to several different locations without mishap, but by the end of the trip, I was really enjoying it and didn’t want to give up the vehicle we had, by then, termed “the beast.”
During the trip we stayed at a great place called Delfino’s Bay Resort. It’s a hotel, but it’s made up of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments with kitchenettes and everything. So, we were able to save a lot of money by getting groceries and preparing our meals instead of eating out. It was also right across the street from the beach, which was incredibly relaxing. The first night we pretty much just got food and hung out at the beach to unwind. One of the things I loved about this beach was that, although I never saw one, there were little crabs that tunneled in it and left all these tiny balls of sand in cool patterns.
On the second day I drove us out to a little town called Maryborough, which, incidentally, is where the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, was born. We took part of the town tour (a bit boring) before we decided to just wander around. Probably my favorite thing was the gigantic Strangler Fig tree they had. I was really wishing that I hadn’t worn a skirt and flip-flops because climbing it would have been a lot easier in slacks and sneakers, but I did alright anyway.
We also went to a historic candy shoppe, where I got some of the best ice cream. It looked like Superman flavor and sort of tasted like it, but better (You’re probably thinking “how could it possibly be better?” Well, it just was. That’s the magic of Australia.).
We then found the Mary Poppins Statue before heading to the Street Market where I bought some jewelry, a skirt, and some delicious kettle corn that made me a little homesick for the Michigan Renaissance Festival (although I didn’t need to use the kettle corn bag to keep me warm like Linds, Sim1, Drew and I had to do our first year there). Back at Hervey Bay we spent some more time on the beach, which was lovely. We even found some hermit crabs, though the boys were upset that they couldn’t get them to fight.
Who wouldn't want to share a talking parrot umbrella?
The next day was spent on Fraser Island, a fairly sizable all-sand island off the coast which has beautiful freshwater lakes and rainforest. Getting there is a little complicated because you can only drive on the island with a four-wheel drive vehicle, so we had to rent jeeps and then take them with us on the ferry to the island. It was a decently long ferry ride, I’d say about 40 minutes. Fortunately, I didn’t have to drive either of the jeeps. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see as much as we were hoping too because there hadn’t been much rain recently and some of the “roads” were pretty impassable. We did make it to a nice rainforest walk and to Lake McKenzie, which was gorgeous, with the clearest water I think I’ve ever seen. You aren’t supposed to eat on the beach because it attracts dingoes, so we had a picnic lunch at some tables near the road beforehand. But, some idiot people didn’t listen to that rule; hence we saw our first dingo, stealing a packet of crisps.
After spending some time swimming in the fresh water and enjoying the amazingly white sand, we headed back to the wharf a little early. This was mainly because driving between lakes was so difficult that we didn’t think we would make it to another one before we had to leave in order to catch the last ferry. As we waited for the boat, Eva and Courtney had a bit of a misadventure in a marshy area with scary crabs…they don’t really like to talk about it.
On our last day most of the group went on a one-day trip to the Great Barrier Reef, but it was really expensive so Eva, Kellie, Kristie and I decided to drive to Rainbow Beach for the day, hitting a weekend market on the way. The market was kind of cool, although we arrived as they were starting to close up. I still managed to find an awesomely tacky belt buckle and a sterling silver wombat charm. Rainbow beach was also cool. There really are several different colors of sand within a short amount of space. Also, our time on the beach led to one of the strangest photos of me so far. Lunch involved trying to finish up the groceries that were left from the trip, including a whole pineapple. As you may be aware, trying to eat pineapple without really coring it properly results in a lot of fibers getting stuck in your teeth. I was complaining (or whinge-ing as my friends here would say) about this and saying I wished I had some floss. Well, Kristie actually had floss, hence: Me on the Beach, flossing my teeth.
The day ended with a moderate amount of danger. As we walked off the beach Kellie and I were almost taken out by a paraglider who was landing, and the drive home was a bit dicey as it was getting quite dark and that’s when the kangaroos decide to hop across the road unexpectedly (though we luckily didn’t see any).
Oh, I also bought a new hat. When I tried it on, I asked my friend Eva what she thought and she was like….’about what?’, ::blank stare::. She didn’t realize that the hat I was wearing was different from the hat I had worn into the store. But really, I don’t see how she could have made that mistake, I mean, they are completely different, as you can see:
I also enjoyed my first Rainbow Paddle Pop…which was delicious.
We flew back to Sydney the next morning, which was a harder trip for some of the group than others, depending mainly on how much Goon (Slang for extremely cheap box wine) they had the night before. I had not over-indulged, thank goodness, so the roughest part for me was saying good-bye to my ridiculously over-sized van. Dad, I think I know what type of car you should be on the lookout for at the used lots. But please, try to make sure the wheel is on the right.
