The end of Australia...off to New Zealand

Technically i am already in New Zealand, booking trips and preparing to enjoy the sights over here. But the end of Australia deserves an entry. After touring the Northern Territory i ventured back to the east coast (Brisbane) and met up with my buddy (Ricky) from my Kenya/Tanzania overlanding-safari trip back in June (he is one of my new British mates). We took a bus to Hervey Bay from Brisbane and booked a Fraser Island self-drive tour. Spent 3 days and 2 nights on Fraser Island which is a massive sand island off the eastern seaboard of Australia (about 1/2 way up the eastern coast and a UN world heritage site). We had an old Toyota Land Cruiser and jammed a total of 10 people in (with all their stuff) for 3 days. The group was composed of 4 Germans, 1 Swiss, 1 Chilean, 3 Brits and the token lone American. Overall it was a good group. Of the 7 dudes (yeah, we had a dude heavy group) 5 of us drove the manual 4wd on the sand, but we had one kid (Chris) who took control in the really tough driving situations. The island has not had rain for ages and the sand is very, very dry which causes most groups to get stuck multiple times. We actually didn't have any major problems and only had one slightly annoying situation when we got stuck behind 3 vehicles that didn't know how to drive and kept getting stuck every 50 feet. We eventually blasted around them after a bit of negotiation and pushing our own vehicle through the thick sand...we made the ferry off the island with 3 minutes to spare! The highlight of the Fraser trip (besides the funny drunk antics Ricky and I pulled off the first night) was Indian Head. This part of Fraser is a massive rock cliff that sticks out over the beach. You climb to the top and look down into the crystal clear waters. We saw 3 sharks patrolling (reef or tiger, hard to tell) as well as turtles, rays and a pod of dolphins. It was quite a sight.

After Fraser we took a nice 13 hr overnight bus ride to Airlie Beach which is a small beach town established for sailing to the Whitsunday islands. I am going to post whitsunday island pics on facebook because the water and scenery we experienced was unbelievably breathtaking. Since Ricky and i didn't book our sailing ahead of time we had to book different trips. He had plenty of time to chill but I already had the flight here to NZ and took the last spot on a large, old sailboat that was leaving the next day. The crew of our ship was very helpful and chilled out and our group was a nice mix. I spent much of my time with 3 Frenchies - 2 guys and 1 girl - you know, repairing relations across the Atlantic with our old ally. Our group enjoyed 3 days snorkeling in various spots around the islands as well as hanging out on Whitehaven Beach (pictured above). Whitehaven beach is the most photographed beach in Australia. The sand is perfectly white and the water is more blue than you can imagine - and filled with sand sharks and sting rays (don't worry we kept Steve Irwin in our thoughts and shuffled along the sandy bottom so as to not get a barb in the foot). The Whitsundays were a great way to end the ~6 weeks in Australia.

Overall Australia was an interesting experience, tons of new friends and plenty of amazing and diverse landscapes to experience. Looking forward to New Zealand!

Not to disappoint those looking for more from this entry: there will be a final entry of Aussie language for everyone's edification!

I know you are excited, it is ok, you can get excited at work, after all this blog is helping you kill the day, right?

1) Too easy! - This is a great phrase. There are quite a few variations of this Aussie phrase such as "It's too easy" or "easy peasy" and my favorite "Its too easy, lemon squeezy." Only a few Aussies I met actually use it (our tour guide up in the Northern Territory gets the award for most variations of the phrase and most frequent usage)! This phrase effectively is a variation of "thank you" or "take your time" or "no worries" depending on its use in a sentence. It is most frequently used as a version of "thank you" if you are accommodating to someone.

2) You're Alright - An Aussie version of "No Worries." If you bump into someone or get in their way or drop a pen or accidentally stab someone in the hand - they will just respond with "you're alight." Not as exciting on paper, but a good one to hear in person

3) Bugger/buggered - this is an Aussie and British phrase and has many uses. "Bugger off" can most realistically be translated to "f-off." The word can also be used in this context: "this bloke tried to dance in the club and totally buggered it" - meaning he screwed it up. They also use bugger as a noun - usually referring to animals or...u guessed it...bugs.

4) Chips - This is very important to the Brits and Aussies. Fries...what people sometimes in the US refer to as French Fries and what some nutcases in the US call Freedom Fries (and by nutcases I am referring to conservatives...you know the people in our country who shouldn't be allowed to vote such as the ones that think religion includes speaking in tongues and that all Muslims are terrorists or those that still think Saddam Hussein is harboring weapons of mass destruction). OK, strayed a bit off point there...but what we refer to as Fries are CHIPS. Yes, i know, makes no sense, but that is what it is.

OK, that is enough for now. The next update will officially be about New Zealand - hope to have some interesting pictures, stories, etc.