Fraser Island

Hey everyone,

It has been so long I almost forgot my username and password for this thing. My mom also informed me that April 12th was my last update. I was for sure someone else would get on me for that, but no one did...

Well, a few weekends ago we went to Fraser Island. It is the largest sand island in the world and was only about 2 hours away. Michelle and I went with all international students. There are no roads on the island, just beaches...we had to transfer into a four-wheel drive bus and it just drove on the beach!! They warned us about looking for cars because you can't hear them coming over the sound of the waves. It was a little bumpy at times but a really fun experience. We first went to Lake Wabby. We had to walk what seemed like forever over sand dunes to get to the lake. We rolled down a big dune into the water, getting sand in crevices I didn't know I had. The lake was a really beautiful green color. In the afternoon we went to Indian Head. It was a rock shaped like an...you guessed it...an Indian Head. The view was amazing. We got some great pics! We stopped at the wreckage of a desserted ship...Michelle will have to fill in the details, as she had a long chat with the tour guides.
The next morning we got up early and went to Lake McKenzie. It is 10 meters deep (according to Sara's blog) and you can see to the bottom. It was sooo beautiful. We were there over an hour and I could've spent all day there. The aboriginals had great skin, hair and teeth and was previously attributed to their diet. It was later found that the water and sand of Lake McKenzie was what was making their skin to great. We spread the sand over us and put it in our hair, which left our hair feeling super solf. Michelle brushed her teeth with the sand and supposedly her teeth felt cleaner. Right after leaving Lake McKenzie is started raining, so we passed on the rainforest walk. We were all ready to get home. We were gone only 2 days but they really packed those days full and the nap on the way home was a much needed one.

Well, I'm all computered out (if that is a word) and I will update again soon and tell you about the Rugby game and our trip to Surfer's Paradise. Hope everyone is good, great and wonderful.

Miss ya all.

love, hilary

Another Rainy Tuesday.

Hey everyone,

How are you guys? It has been a while since I've updated. Not too much has happened. We luckily got a bus out of Byron and on to Brisbane. I think we took the last 3 seats. We took a train from Brisbane and will start the rest of our trip in June in Brisbane.

Michelle celebrated her 20th birthday on the 7th. I made her a cake and she didn't see much of it, as Bryan, JP and Matt pretty much devoured it...must've been good. Anyways, we went to Motown for cheap burgers and drinks. Michelle got a free shot with Absinth in it and of course it was a flaming shot so that made it much cooler. We went swimming afterwards (Michelle insisted on it) and then we went to a dancing club which is always way too busy and you can't walk through it without having a drink spilled on you or spilling a drink on someone else. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long.

On Saturday we took advantage of another one of those free international student trips. This time we went to Eumundi Markets, watched an aboriginal show, learned to throw boomerangs and play the digeridoo, and made a final stop in Noosa. We left at 7:30 in the morn and got back at around 5:00, so it was a long day and we took a few naps on the bus ride.

So, ever since we've gotten back from vacation it has been raining. Literally, it has rained everyday but one. Believe us, that one day we were definitely outside enjoying the weather. This weekend we go to Fraser Island, which is the largest all-sand island. We are really hoping for good weather. I'll make sure Michelle doesn't do anymore rain dancing. I'm sure I'll have something more interesting to talk about when I get back from Fraser.

Well, I'll write more later if I think of anything good. Hope everyone is going great!! Love ya and miss ya all.

hilary

An after of Michelle's leg and Hilary surfing. 

A before of Michelle and Hilary surfing in Byron Bay 

Us with a guy from Holland wearing a shirt that says Grand Forks, ND on the back. He even bought it in Holland and had no idea what it meant or where it was. (We met him in a bar in Sydney) 

We found New Zealand beer!!! and got a little excited about it. (Hostel in Byron Bay) 

Hilary, Sara, Michelle and Marc in our wetsuits ready to go surfing!! We took lessons from MadDog Surf Co.  

Dolphins

I can't believe I forgot to tell you about the dolphins we saw. We saw them while we were taking surfing lessons. It was so neat to see them. There were probably about 7 of them about 70 meters away. It made surfing that much more memorable.

Yesterday (Fri) we went to Nimbin. We stopped at this guy Paul's house first. He moved from NY 27 years ago and he basically grew a rainforest. He showed us around his place. We saw some of the different plants, flowers and trees and he told us some pretty far fetched stories. He collected stuff like mad too. He was so much a hippy it just wasn't funny. He carried a knife with him everywhere he went and had really old ripped windpants on....kinda creepy.

Before Paul's house we stopped for macadamia nuts. There were about 50,000 trees growing in the area we drove through. They were really good by the way too!

Nimbin was pretty crazy. They had a lot of different hippy shops. They had a museum there and a bunch cool painted buildings. Saying no thanks to a 13-year old trying to sell you weed it a little disturbing. We weren't in the actual town for very long. On the way home we stopped at Minyon Falls. The waterfall wasn't really flourishing but the view was spectacular. When we got back Sara and I had an all you can eat BBQ. It was surprisingly very good.

We are still trying to figure out how to get out of Byron. All the stupid Oz buses are still full. I'm sure we'll figure something out, and soon.

Happy April Fools by the way! Anybody get anyone good?!? Tell me about it.

I miss you all. Take care!

love, hilary