Airlie Beach

I am in Airlie Beach now. It is in Queensland south of Townsville. It is pretty tropical here. There is a nice lagoon with sandy shores and lots of palm trees. Yesterday, Ben and I cracked open a cocunut with just our hands... and the help of a large rock. We felt like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. The milk inside was real warm and not that great. In less than an hour I'll be taking off for my boat to sail the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef! I'm looking forward to it and think it'll be great. Hopefully by the time I get back to the mainland LSU will be the national champs, boys and girls! (basektball) Geaux Tigers!

Fraser Island !

I just receantly finished a 3 day camping safari on Fraser Island- the world's largest sand island. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip thus far. The island has rainforest and over 200 freshwater lakes as well as sandblows that are over 200 meters tall. I was in a group of ten people, who were all great. We rented a 4x4 land rover to tour the island. The first day we went to Lake McKenzie, which is one of the most amazing lakes I've ever seen. The water is so clear and the sand is so white. We camped out that night and traveled around the island the next day seeing an old ship that wrecked on the shore a long time ago. The last day we were at another lake where a huge sandblow (mountain of sand) sloped into the lake. It was a ton of fun to run down the side and dive into the water. Driving the 4x4 in the sand was different, but lots of fun as well. All in all, it was an awesome time.

The picture above is Lake McKenzie.

I forgot to mention that the ocean surrounding the island is full of tiger sharks; therefore, no one swam in the ocean. And on the island itself were "deadly dingoes". These are wild dogs that have actually killed some kids. There was a 9 year old boy from Brisbane who died from a dingo only a few years ago. We saw three or four of them, but they didn't bother us.

Sunshine Coast: Noosa/ Rainbow Beach

It has been a while since I've been able to get to the internet, but I finally got it. After Brisbane, we headed north to the Sunshine Coast and stopped in Noosa. It was described as an exclusive low rise resort area. The town was very nice and different than the other beach towns I've visited. The cyclone was still lingering and keeping people from leaving Noosa; therefore, there was no accommadation when we arrived. So we just slept outside. It wasn't the best night's sleep, but we made it.

From Noosa we headed north to Rainbow Beach, a town of only about 1,000 people. Not much going on there, but there is a really cool place called the Carlo Sandblow- a lot of sand that has been blown into a small mountain with a great view. And there are lots of different colors to the sand, hence the name Rainbow Beach.

Brisbane

Today I arrived in Brisbane. It is less than 90 km north of Surfer's Paradise and is the third largest city in the country. We played didgeridoos today at an Aboriginal shop. The didgeridoo is a musical instrument played by the Aboriginees (native Australians); see the pic above. Brisbane seems to be a deceant city, but not that much for tourists. It is just a stopping point for me on my way up the coast. Below is a pretty cool pic of the Brisbane river.

Gold Coast

I've entered the Gold Coast which is in the state of Queensland. The Gold Coast stretches about 90 km or so from the state line towards Brisbane. This place exploed in the 1960's after heavy marketing in Asia. There are now lots of high-rise apartments/condos along the beach. There are a lot of tourist attractions here as well including several theme parks. I'm staying in the town of Surfer's Paradise, home of the worlds tallest residential building (aprox 1300 feet).

The cylone that came to Oz was well to the north of me and I didn't get any bad weather. That area is where I am planning to go, but I'll have to check to make sure it's alright.

Byron Bay

I have continued travelling up the east coast to Byron Bay. It is the most easterly point on the mainland of Australia. I took a bike ride to Cape Byron Lighthouse (built in 1899) to watch the sunrise yesterday.

I also took a trip over to the nearby town of Nimbin. It is full of hippies, which is it's attraction. There's not really much going on there, so it was a bit boring. However, I did learn that area is full of macadamian nuts; Australia is now the number one provider of the nuts worldwide. They just passed up Hawaii.

The surfing here is different than 7 Mile Beach, but it was pretty fun. It's funny how many people I've run in to here that I met in Sydney even though Byron Bay is about 14 hours (by bus) from Sydney!

Next stop: the state of Queensland! I'll first be going to Surfer's Paradise.

Coffs Harbour

The picture above is from the ferry in Sydney.


I have made it up to Coffs Harbour now. If you look on the map below it is between Newcastle and Gold Coast. It took about 10 hours on the bus to get here, including the stops. It was cool to see the countryside as we rode along the pacific coast hwy though there isn't much going on out there. Coffs Harbour is a relatively small and quite coastal town with some specatular views. I think I got some great pictures as I was biking around today. We hiked up this really steep hill/mtn to see awesome views of the ocean, the rocks along the shore, beaches, and the mountains in the distance; it was breath-taking. And the wind on top was so strong that it almost knoced you over. On the way down was a brown snake which is deadly. After patiently waiting, the snake moved off the path to allow us to walk by.

Surfs Up

I have been at Surf Camp for the last week. It was awesome! We were at 7 Mile Beach, about 2 hours south of Sydney. We surfed about 4 hours each day. I have a new appreciation for surfers and for the word wipeout. Water is very powerful and can really push you around. There were a few times that I was under water for what seemed like forever, and I was rolling around not knowing which way was up. But most of the time was spent riding the waves in. Actually a lot of time was spent getting out to the waves. That takes a lot of work. It is kind of like eating crawfish- lots of work, but it sure is worth it.

We had waves up to 8 feet high one day. That means from the top of the water to the top of the wave is 8 feet. When I tried those waves is when I experienced the major wipeouts. If I just waited for the wave to break and then catch it, it was more manageable but still very powerful.

Dennis Quaid or Ashton Kutcher

You would not believe how many times I have heard someone say, "You know, you look like someone..." I know without a doubt they will say one of two people. It's either a young version of Dennis Quaid or Ashton Kutcher. I heard that a few times back home, but I can't tell you how many times I have heard it here. I need to start keeping a tally. I guess it comes up when you are meeting new people, and I've met a lot of new people receantly.
So here's a picture of Mr. Quaid. I don't have one of Kutcher. What do you think?

Offensive cartoons

Today I spoke with some Muslims who were promoting their student organization. They were having a seminar to explain why the Muslim people are offended by the publication of a comic strip which shows Muhammad. A Dutch writer has been drawing the comics and it has been published in several (or maybe lots) of magazines including some in Australia. Some Muslims have been extremely offended and attacked the embassies of the Dutch and Netherlands. A few Australian magazines have decided not to publish the comic strip in fear that their may be attacks in Australia.
I told them I was interested in the seminar but I'd like to hear the reason they are offended. The reason is because the Koran specifically teaches to have no drawings of Muhammad. Sounds like a pretty good reason to be offended. When I asked about freedom of the press, they responded with the question, "Shouldn't there be a line that the press doesn't cross?"
So I leave it up to you to make your own decision on that, but I found it quite interesting to talk to them. I don't believe I've every talked to a Muslim person before.

Army bloakes

I have been doing the promo work at the uni this week and met a couple of guys who are in officer training for the Australian Army. We talk a lot throughout the day and it's been real interesting to hear what they have to say. They feel that Australia owes a lot to America starting with WW II. The Japs were coming to invade Oz and the American's helped the Aussies stop the Japs. Apparently, Australians are afraid of being invaded because they feel they cannot defend themselves so they want to remain good friends with the U.S. Some of the general public does not like the alliance because they feel America is to quick to send troops out. For this reason many people here don't like George W. Sometimes you get the vibe that they don't like American's but then you turn on the TV or open the paper and it's all about Americans. And then there's the girls who want you to keep talking to them cuz they love our accent. (I've had a few people recognize my accent as not only American, but Southern.) The army bloakes say that right now it's somewhat trendy to be "anti-American" but that it's only amongst the crowds who follow the trends.
The Army guys also talked about how laid back Australians are and that some people take this to mean they are lazy and not hard working. They said the average Aussie now works longer hours than Americans. When I asked how long they work, he responed with 50 hours a week. I had to tell him that I was working minimum 50 hours/ week at my job and I don't think its uncommon to work that much or even more.
We also discussed the Prime Minister's receant statement about acting as an Australian while in Australia. He spoke out against primarily the Muslims in the country who want to bring their own culture, religion, and laws to Oz. The PM said if they can't be Australian they may loose their visa. The guys said that Australians don't really care if it seems to be racist because they are tired of some internationals causing problems here (like the riots in Cronulla).
Anyway, we talked about all kinds of other things but I want go in to any more details.