A 2 week birthday

Oh man it's been a while since I've gotten the chance to update this. Lets start with last Saturday...

So since the following weekend everyone would be going to various places for weekend trips, I decided to throw my 21st birthday party on the Saturday before. About 35 of us met up at room 411 to have a champagne party in their larger than normal apartment and absurdly grande wrap around balcony. 6:00 comes around and we all got in taxis to go to the Temple Bar facing the inland water. We all arrived and got a free drink and hung out until like 7:15 or so. Then, we boarded a party boat, ate some pizza and departed the dock. 

The boat had about 200 people on it, all aged in their young 20s and everyone was having a really good time! Beck and I participated in this golf ball game and Sahill and Amanda managed to win the dance competition. Amanda deserved the victory, but Sahill should have placed last if it weren't for the Bond Uni audience and girls undressing him on the dance floor. We met a bunch of Australians and docked back at the Temple Bar around 10:30 or so. We then went to Melbas to continue dancing and having all that fun. We just did some more bar hopping and dancing (etc..) and ended up back in our lovely apartment...

The following Friday morning we had to be outside at 8:00 in the AM to get in our van/taxi thing that would take us south along the coast and then west to a small town of 800 called Nimbin. What a cool and neat little town. It is an alternative lifestyle town where everyone is hippies, art and bright colors douse every wall and surface, pot is smoked inside restaurants, and the people are some of the friendliest I have ever met. We met some hippies from New Zealand in the Rainbow Cafe and some other locals. While talking to this one local, a news reporter came up to ask the character we were talking to about the government's "War on Drugs." Prezz Star Limited, the local, proceeded to give the worst interview I have seen and had a picture taken of him by the photographer with the reporter. Let me tell you what Prezz Star Limited looked like. Say 5' 9" wearing large female Prada sunglasses with the lenses removed and a haircut resembling asparagus (dreadlocks sticking straight up with buzzed sides). Quite the character indeed. Paul and I walked around Nimbin and stumbled upon a nursery school and a bunch of other buildings which were all covered in very colorful and artistic graffiti and art. The town of Nimbin just breathes creativity and friendliness everywhere you go.

Our ride to Byron Bay came in the middle of the afternoon and took us on a scenic drive from Nimbin to Byron Bay through bright green mountains and windy roads. Once in Byron Bay, we settled into a very nice apartment where we squeezed around 8 people. By nighttime, most everyone was extremely exhausted. Not Paul, Scotty and me. We got ready and went to a popular bar in Byron called Cheeky Monkey. The town caters towards backpackers and 18-25 year olds and this bar seemed to have all the 18-21 year olds in the town packed inside of it. Apparently the bartenders at this bar do not wear shirts or bras. Instead, they paint a black bra on and let their ta-tas breathe. No complaints here. We had fun there for a little while before the three of us moved on to several other bars on the street. The people were extremely fun; everyone in the town was just there to have fun and enjoy the nightlife. 

The next day the weather continued to be terrible and we were stuck inside for a large majority of the day. The most outdoors we got during the day was hanging out on our balcony watching the torrential rain pour down. At night, everyone was awake and pumped to go out. Quite the difference from the night before. We went out to Cheeky Monkey again, sadly this time the bartenders wore clothing, but the bar was just as fun as the night before. 

Of course the sun decides to poke its head out the last day we are there just to tease us on how much better the weekend could have been... We went straight to the beach. The whole town is based around the beach with really neat and funky shops. Byron Bay is a hugeeee surfing town so there are surf shops every 10 feet. Once we got to the beach, we were able to see why people love Byron Bay so much. The beach was so nice and the waves were perfect. A few of us chose to go for a monster hike to the lighthouse in the distance, a distinct landmark of Byron. The walk gave us so many great views of Australia's coast and Byron Bay. 

We came back Sunday evening and Craig, Sahill and I went to the casino to celebrate my 21st. We took the night very easy and just enjoyed the casino. Monday night we went out hard to celebrate my 21st birthday. A bunch of us went to Melbas where we got free drinks for the b-day boy and met a group of Celtic football fans at Fiddler's Green and ended

 the night at Sin City. 

Heaps Fun. I'm 21. 2-1. It's about time.

Fraser Island

Bright and early Friday morning we had to make our way to campus to start our adventure to Fraser Island. Since we had to be awake so early, it would have only been foolish to go to sleep or pack in advance for that matter, so we just stayed up to do laundry and get our stuff together for the weekend. 4:30am came around and we decided it would be a good idea to gather everyone and get ready to get moving. We spent about an hour looking for LB because she decided not to sleep in her room that night which gave us a shaky start to the weekend. We got to Bond to meet up with the other 7 girls and our tour guides. Our tour guides, Wes and Sal, two extremely rugged individuals driving large jeep safaris took us on a four hour drive to Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the world's largest all sand island (75 miles 

long). It is home to rain forests, fresh water lakes, beautiful sights and a unique animal called a Dingo. Since it is an all sand island, there are no roads on the island so we used the beach as our highway. 

Flying down the beach (and back "roads") was quite exciting. We drove to our campsite which was surprisingly nice. It had clean and new bathrooms/shower areas and cabins for those unwilling to camp out. We had a nice corner of the campsite set apart for our crew and five of us (Craig, Sahill, Scott, LB, and me) shared one large tent while the other 7 girls split themselves up (Rhode Island in one and Maryland in the other). 

We boarded our jeeps and drove to this rainforest pretty deep in the island. Once there, we filled up our water bottles with the fresh water from the creeks and walked about 1.5 miles through a rainforest. Our tour guides met us on the other side, we got in the jeeps and drove to McKenzie Lake. 

This fresh water lake was huge and the water was crystal clear. 

 We stayed there for about an hour and a half then got in the jeeps again to go to the campsite for dinner. Wes and Sal concocted a huge dinner of freshly caught fish, salads and something else. Some of the spices used for the fish were picked off trees/bushes from the island. Delicious. After dinner, we hung out around a bond fire and looked at the stars. The stars were incredible. We were able to see stars as far as the eye could see in any direction. It was absolutely wild.

In the morning, we woke up to some cereal and toast, then proceeded to board the jeeps and make our way to Eli Creek. This creek was sort of like a lazy river pouring fresh water into the ocean. Some other tourists were there playing cricket along the creek and a few of us hopped in and gave it a try.

 After spending a while there, we made our way to a fantastic lookout point called Indian Head.

Indian Head is one of three rock cliffs on the island and it acts as a sort of anchor for the sand. We hiked up Indian Head and had a fascinating view of sand dunes, waves, beaches and trees. 

We stayed up there enjoying the view for a while before our hike back down and into the jeeps. Wes and Sal then drove us to this trail that would take us to Lake Wabby. We got out and followed the sandy trail through another forest for about 2/3 of a mile. Then the trees disappeared and all of a sudden all we could see in the distance was sand. Over the past years, sand has been accumulating in this area that was once a rain forest. We were now walking across sand dunes covering an entire forest of trees beneath us. 

The heat was pretty intense and no matter how far we walked new signs would continue to say "Lake Wabby: 1 Kilometer"... Finally we got to a steep sand dune and saw Lake Wabby. A small fresh water lake surrounded on one side by trees and the other by a mountain of sand. We played for about an hour and a half, took some photos, dried off and made our way up and down a different forest path until we could see the ocean waves and our Jeeps again.

It would now be time to go home. It took us 3 to 4 hours to get home and we played a bunch of games to pass the time. Especially the "i'm thinking of a person" game which we managed to play for an hour and a half. We finally got home at dark and I jumped right into the nice clean Meriton shower and got on some nice clean clothes and cooked up a nice and clean meal. Civilization feels great after tents and camping for a few days.