Hookers and Lookers

So we were told to stay in St Kilda once we got to Melbourne....what a mix of people out here! From homeless to ritzy and everything in between...we even watched a hooker pick up right outside our hostel lastnight! Yikes! We sure had a laugh though...and no worries mom, we haven't been approached about any waitressing jobs yet!

We spent our last two days relaxing, shopping and seeing the sights: we went to the markets, the casino, watched cricket and checked out the nightlife....At the casino we sat and watched a real good jazz singer and he was loving us, we clapped along. Then some old chinese man stole our spotlight by doing prima ballerina type dancing with some fat white lady -it was hilarious. Then he tried to hit on karen outside the loo. haha. She called him David Suzuki!

On the Tram ride home we ended up sitting by some guy with dreads and he stank...Karen had to lean into her jeans for a fresh breath of air (and she's been wearing those things for 5 days now!)

We hit the airport tomorrow morning and are dreading the long flight...but for those of you who don't believe in time travel we will definitely be traveling through it - we leave here at 1pm and get to LA at 10am! Far out (as they say here)....

One last blog coming to you so stay tuned...

Finally...The GREAT Barrier Reef!!!

Thursday was a big day for Cally and I. We went out on another boat for an entire day of diving and snorkelling. After the first three seconds in the water we both came up and just started giggling with eachother! The reef here was 10,000 times better than at Airlie [NO] Beach, so colourful and so many more fish (quantity and types!)...it is all I ever expected the reef to be. There was a huge fish (Napoleon Wrasse - search google images to see it's size), his name is Wally and he swam around with everyone and a photographer took pictures so Cally and I have pics with it! We also saw sharks, a scary eel, a big stingray, clams bigger than us and tons of colourful fish! It was awesome - we didn't leave the water all day!

That evening we met up with Chantell and Karen and had a "real good time" (that's for you mom) out on the town together. We didn't get home until 5am and we saw alot of delivery men - the bread guy, the milk guy, the muffin man - and don't think that Cally never jumped into every one of the trucks while they were in the convenience store because she did! And she layed on the horn the whole time (we have video footage!) They loved it and we thought we got a good deal because the bread guy gave us crumpets and muffins - we couldn't be happier.

Needless to say we didn't feel too good the next day...after eating a few more free crumpets we found out they were moldy. YUK. Then we really didn't feel good...but we had to get Rah Rah back to the Autobarn so off we went in the sweltering heat reeking of booze. Haha. Headed to the plane that night (friday) with sore heads and tummies and made our way back to Melbourne! Two days there and then we are outta this country...are you ready for us?

Where Are We Going? HIGHER!!!!!

WEll, well, well... sorry to our mommies but Cally and I took the plunge...literally...Straight out of a plane at 14000 feet! We free-fell for 60 seconds with the wind flapping at our lips and giving us pig noses (the wide angle lens doesn't help much- see above pics for free fall) The free-fall took us from 14000ft to 4000ft - over 200km/hr they say! Then we parachuted for another 4 minutes, twisting and turning with each pull of the cord. A safe landing and a rush of adrenalin, we are on the ground and alive! We loved it!!!!

The End of the Yellow Brick Road

Here we are in Cairns- me made it here on Sunday. This pic is of the lagoon, you can see the ocean behind...You are not allowed to swim in it because they have alot of saltwater crocs here. It looks yucky anyways!

We are staying at Shenannigans (Farva's Favourite) and the first night there was live music and 2-4-1 drink specials from 5-6 so we hit the bar pretty earlier. The lead singer picked on us right away and even made Cally sing a line, I am not going to lie here - she sounded absolutely horrible! But it was a good laugh! haha

The next day we lounged around at the lagoon and checked out the stores. Karen got some eye disease along the way and I was tired so we stayed in that night. Those other two party animals wouldn't hear of it - we are still not sure what time they stumbled in but we do know one thing for sure: it was late enough that the garbage man was already out and caught them peeing beside a garbage bin! He said that they could get fined big time but, like any Australian, NO WORRIES MATES! After inquiring as to where they were headed, he let them know they were going in the worng direction and kindly gave them a ride home!

Off to Cape Tribulation and The Daintree Rainforest tomorrow (the oldest rainforest -120 million years). Hopefully we'll spot some crocs, but not where we are taking a dip! hehe

On the Road Again, Just Can't Wait....

On our way to Cairns we stopped at Josephine Falls for a quick dip - it was so hot out!!! This is a picture of the lower swimming pool, you aren't allowed to go to the upper ones anymore because of too many drownings. On the very left of this picture you can see water running down the rock - this is where we "waterslided" into the pool. Crazier kids were skidding down on their feet and jumping in from tree branches 30ft above!

Club Hoppin With Our Scrubs On

A little blurry but worth the story...we went out for a walk around Townsville looking like sweaty girls who have been in a car all day. Why? Because we were! Cally decided it would be a great idea to check out all the clubs and we soon found out this place was more ritz and less backpacker than we thought! OH well...did we care? Not really...a little embarrassment or smelly shame never hurt anyone!

So we checked out The Mad Cow, Coyote Ugly (for real), Some Irish Pub, The Bank, and then thisnplace in the picture with the GOLD sign...Cally went up to the dude and the chick and was like (all in one breath): "So, is this a bar? Or a pub? Or a club? Are you open? Can we check ot out?" And he gave us a real weird look and said "We aren't open til a little later but we are a strip club!" Hauled ass outta there and then almost got hit in the head by a beer bottle flying across the street...close call.

Overall, really nice town (with another lagoon) and a huge hill right in the middle...we took our poor Rah Rah up it and she almost coughed up the motor! (We named her Rah Rah after the toothless, mullet-haired Colac Crew member from way back!)

Onto Cairns for the last stretch..I'll try to get back soon!

Airlie [NO] Beach

This one is coming to you a little late but we have been busy, busy girls! We made it to Airlie Beach which has no beach (hence the title) but does have a lagoon to swim in...I guess most places from here on have lagoons (basically big swimming pools) because of the jelly fish and sharks... which brings me to the next story....

On our 2nd day Karen, Cally and I went on a dive and snorkel trip to finally put our Scuba certifications to good use. We headed out to the outer reef and along the way met Canada and Isreal - they were our dive instructors. The boat took us out to a huge pontoon where a waterslide slid us into the ocean. A glassbottom boat tour showed us the coral, as did a submersible boat...The diving and snorkelling got us up close with all kinds of coral, fishies, sea cucumbers and HUGE clams with big purple lips! It was awesome! The best sight of the day: a human clownfish, living and breathing here on earth! In reality, it was a weird looking super-white dude who, for some reason, thinks it is fitting to wear neon orange speedos with a matching orange T-shirt! Yikes!

In the meantime, Chantell took a sailing trip that was all inclusive so you can imagine the shape she was in when she got back. In her own words (repeatedly) : Drunk as a skunk! Haha, I have to give it to her though - she still lasted as long as the rest of us that night as we tore through the town. Look how pretty we were...


Our roomies for the 2 nights were Australia and 2 different Canadas! It was weird when we asked where everyone was from and we all kept saying Canada (6 out of 8!)...it is rare that we meet Australians so we had a good time learning about eachothers cultures - they were shocked to hear about how we have to plug in our cars! Which reminds me: While on Fraser we asked Ireland how cold they thought Canada got and they contemplated hard and finally said: I bet it gets as cold as -5 or even -7! Haha We all had a great laugh!

Flying Fox Pile Drivers

Cally: Chantelle? Are you guys getting shit on over there?
Chantelle: No, why?
Cally: We're getting pile drived over here!

Haha, I haven't laughed that hard since the last car ride and someone's smelly fart.....the huge bats in Rockhampton decided to poop all over our tents and chairs! Karen was so scared to pee during the night that she contemplated (for over an hour) if she should just pee in her sleeping bag and pay for the dry cleaning the next day! IN the end, she sumo-squatted herself away from the tent and peed as fast as she could while the large ugly beasts swooped at her head! What a night! We packed her up quickly and got out of dodge.....

We headed to Emerald, Sapphire and Rubyvale and did some mining for sapphires and found a few, it was pretty neat! The cutest old lady gave us a tour and helped us with the mining and she loved giving us a hard time about our tattooes and peircings (Does you mother know about that?) haha.

We rolled into Mackay late and found a tent spot only to be awoken a few hours later by a huge storm rolling through - luckily our tents are state of the art and we made it (without pegs!)

The Dingo Took My Baby!

The Dingo took their baby?!! Well, who knew that was a real story?! Apparently it happened on Fraser Island and the parents were blamed and sent to jail! Crazy! I just thought it was a stupid line from some show (it is used in The Simpsons a few times me thinks!)

So we are back from Fraser Island and what a wonderful time we had! We did a guided tour with Cool Dingo (take note anyone who's interested!) and our guides name was Peter "Danger" Meyer (request him by name - he's awesome!) We stayed in a lodge with 8 other girls(Ireland, England, Germany, Finland and Denmark) so we finally got to gossip about celebrities and complain about men! (Karen and I were complaint-free of course!)

Animals we saw: Guannos, Dingoes, HUGE Spiders, Turtles, Sharks, Sting Rays, Gekkos and a harry shirtless boy from England!

Things we did: swam in some freshwater lakes and creeks (you can't swim in the ocean here because of the sharks and jellyfish), hiked through the rainforest over 10K, walked over a huge sand dune, boogie-boarded down a sand dune into a lake, climbed Indian Head to look down into the ocean and saw a pod of turtles doing their thing and a large shark.

Sunday morning we got poured on while on top of the huge sand dune and the guide wanted to get us somewhere sunny for lunch so he took us to part of the island we weren't supposed to be at and we sunbathed, dried off and ate lunch. He got spotted and got in trouble for being there (was supposed to pay $50 per head = $2000 but he thinks he'll get off) We lifted the mood by playing some sing along songs on the bus and had every country doing the YMCA! It was a good time!

After the 3 days we headed back to Hervey Bay and met everyone form the tour and partied together all night! It was great.

I'll have to post some pics when I find a place that will let me - they are hard to come by sometimes! Check back again!

What's UP DownUNDER?

We hit The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on our way through Brisbane today and it was nice to finally see a Kangaroo! Apparently he was pretty happy to see us too! Cally thought it was a girl, carrying a little Joey but soon realized otherwise when she zoomed right in with her video camera and he was doing his business! We could walk right up to them and snap pics, it was neat. We also got some pics taken with Koala's. Mine was a little dude named Dudley and he was a cutie. Karen and Cally's was a grampa named Mark and Cally asks me later: "Did yours have a crusty butt?" I was happy to say NO.




It is Chantelle's Birthday today (November 11th)! We made her pancakes for brekky and tonight we had supper in a cool Bistro in Hervey bay. We are saving the fun stuff for Fraser Island - we leave tomorrow morning bright and early! We can't wait.

We decided that Queensland is to Australia as Saskatchewan is to Canada - the roads at least! It is getting pretty warm here now (+35) so think of us when you are playing in the snow - we are so jealous!!! Haha.

Off to the Island, talk to you soon.....how big are tiger sharks!? Hopefully we dont find that one out!

Three Times a Charm

Byron's Bay was everything we ever heard it would be...but less men! haha...The girls went out on the town the first night (I stayed home) and the report came back that not ONE straight man was to be found in the entire town! Although one gay dude kissed Chantelle to make his ex-boyfriend jealous...does that count?

The next morning came and wild turkeys had eaten our carrots! They were all over the place! WE headed into town to shop and boogieboard in the ocean and guess who we ran into for the third time? Germany! We made a plan to meet at a bar later and had one last night of partying with those 3 crazy dudes. (HI guys!)

Not much else to tell about that....headed to Surfer's Paradise for a night and decided it was the Las Vegas of Australia. Chantelle and Cally even saw some dirty dancing at a club they hit!

Gotta run....hope all is well with everyone!