Te Waka-a-Maui

I lost my hat on the ferry :( it was particularly blusterous on the deck and my hat was not securely fastened enough...

However, once I was off the ferry and onto the canoe (sorry, terrible joke - if it can even be called a joke) things picked up again, I met up with some of the old (but still beautiful) faces and found a couple of new ones too.
Once we had arrived in Nelson and settled into our cottage at Fern Lodge, a couple of my friends and I walked to the Centre of New Zealand. It was very central. We were treated to a real roast dinner complete with Yorkshire Puddings that evening. Nom. The next morning we set off to Westport, a town on the west coast known by the KiwiExperience bus drivers for being the town with the ungliest inhabitants in all of New Zealand. We had thought this was rather unfair until we got there. Suffice to say that it's quite difficult to get to the West Coast which may have diminished the gene pool slightly...
On the way we paused for lunch at Lake Rotoiti where, as I sat innocently making a sandwich, a savage duck crept up on me and literally stole it from me - right out of my hands! It was then mobbed by every other duck on the lake - it just goes to show that everyone gets there comeuppance.
It was here in Westport that I had my first New Zealand night out! Admittedly there was only about one pub so it wasn't a huge one, but it was good fun and it was an initial forming of South Island friendships.
From Westport we travelled down the coast towards our next destination; Lake Mahinipua where we would be spending the night at The Mahinipua Hotel, also known as the Poo Pub. Along the way we stopped for a couple of walks, one of which led us to one of New Zealand's largest seal colonies at Cape Foulwind. This is also New Zealand's closest point to Australia. The second walk led us through a geographical wonder; the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, which are, to put it simply, rocks which look like stacks of pancakes.
Having arrived at the Poo Pub we wandered down to a beautiful if a little breezy beach to relax for a while before heading back for the group barbeque. This was another case of me eating more than my own weight - people sat at our table watched in disbelief as I polished off an individual quiche, mounds of pasta and salad, roast potatoes, some venison stew and half a steak. I'd like to say it was the fresh air what done it but really I'm like that all the time! Once we'd finished eating we were sent off to prepare for a fancy dress party in the theme of "What I want to be when I grow up". As I didn't have my little mermaid costume with me, I fell back on my insurance fancy dress outfit - the cowgirl. Although there were some particularly odd costumes - mostly everyone looked fantastic with the prize going to 5 of the boys dressed as Tiger Woods and his lady friends. Funnily enough it seemed like lots of the guyswant to be female when they grow up - what is it with boys and cross-dressing?!

Our first stop the next morning (luckily for the majority of the coach who were in the grip of post-merriment trauma - travel time was minimal) was Pukekura, a town with a population of two. It's a surprisingly large town given there are only two inhabitants, included are a cafe, a pub and a museum; The Bushman's Centre. The highlight of which were three possums which you could feed cereal to. These possums were a particular novelty for two reasons. One, they were not road kill. And two, they were not in pies. ("But I don't want to be a pie; I don't like gravy")
Possums are considered pests in New Zealand - natively an Australian creature, they were introduced to the wild in NZ and have been chomping their way through the forests ever since.
From here we headed into Franz Josef, a small town with views of one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. We spent two nights in Franz Josef - with a night out with the bus drivers for those too lazy to spend 8 hours the next day on the ice. All the bus drivers I had had up to this point had been absolutely hilarious and brilliant fun to hang out with. There are 35 drivers in total and I'd travelled with 6 of them and 3 out of the 5 girls.

Day 6 on the South Island was a long day of travelling, split up thankfully by some some scenic stops. We stopped at Lake Matheson where on a clear day you can see the reflections of the Southern Alps mirrored around you. However, as it wasn't a clear day you could only see the refliections of the trees and some clouds. Still, it made for a nice picture and for the more energetic of us that morning, namely me, it was a gorgeous route for a jog. What?! Excercise? I know, I was almost as surprised as you. We paused again for pictures in front of the Thunder Creek Falls and the icy blue glacial river. This was an opportunity not to be missed by the extreme paddlers and saw plenty of involuntary dismounts into the water. So cold! Passing through the mountains to shelter, we warmed up quickly and soon were at another lake (there are lots of lakes in South Island) ; Lake Wanaka - our stopover point for the night. Having spent a couple of hours down by the lake and wandering round the town, which is predominantly a ski-resort during the winter, not a lot goes on there in summer, we headed back to the hostel for the evening. Sadly, we had to bid one of our party - none other than Tiger Woods himself - goodbye as he would be jumping on a plane to Canada as soon as we reached Queenstown the next day. I should point out that he wasn't just bored of our company, he did in fact have an important interview to get to... I'm almost certain he was telling the truth! :)

The journey to Queenstown was a short one with a couple of compulsory stops along the way. First of all was Puzzling World, which was a bizarre feature but said to be excellent by those who ventured into the Illusion House and maze. Our friend Thierry certainly got his money's worth and spent some hours trying to navigate his way out; the bus nearly left him behind! There was a free option within the cafe - tables and tables filled with puzzles to while away the hours, which meant I could entertain myself without having to be sociable so early in the morning! Soon we were making our way to Kawarau Gorge where Tiger would be completing his final act in New Zealand - a bungy jump! Of course I scorned his mere 42m jump having completed a lofty 47m myself... Once everyone who wanted to had jumped we headed on down to Queenstown for a final group photograph before we all went our seperate ways. Of course this meant a last night out together, with the legendary teapots in the World Bar and Fergburgers to end the night. If you've never heard of a Fergburger then you would be like me before I'd had one - sceptical as to how a burger could be quite so amazing. But let me assure you, despite the size of it - a whole one was literally the size of my head and half was plenty to fill you up - it tasted incredible too and even if you were full after half - you would honestly rather make yourself ill than not finish it...
My second whole day in Queenstown I spent in Glenorchy, famous for its filmworthy scenery. I toured around it on horseback and had all the noteworthy trees and mounds of earth from the Lord of the Rings films pointed out to me. I even got to see where Boromir was shot three times in the chest. This was particularly enlightening as I had previously thought that Boromir got his head chopped off, but there we are, you learn something new every day. But it wasn't all LOTR geekery, oh no. I saw filming spots from the Narnia films and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In fact my guide in the afternoon had been taking a trek one afternoon while they were filming Wolverine and emerged from the woods, turned a corner and came face to face with Hugh Jackman robed in nothing but a yellow towel. Can't be such a bad job...

The trip from Queenstown to Christchurch was a nightmare - we got on the bus at 8.30am had about 2 hours worth of breaks and got into Christchurch at 4.30pm. Yuck. I spent a couple of hours exploring the town but mostly I had to reorganise my rucksack for jumping on a plane back to Australia the next day. Once I'd eventually got this sorted and had some dinner, one of the girls from the Kiwi bus and I went down to the bar for our complimentary champagne and met an 'interesting' local who'd been asked to leave a cricket game... just as we were about to make our excuses, two of the Irish boys off our bus turned up and were immediately involved in a conversation about Father Ted. Sadly though I had to be up early the next morning and so I excused myself - after a rather emotional phonecall home, and went to bed. I was up at 4 the next morning, heading to Melbourne but thinking about home.

Te Ika-a-Maui

The story goes that Maui, was hated by all four of his brothers and was never allowed to go fishing with them. One day he hid in the boat, Te waka-a-Maui (the canoe of Maui), and jumped out when they were out at sea. The brothers would not give Maui any bait to fish with so he broke his own nose and dripped the blood onto his deceased grandmother's jawbone. With this he caught the biggest fish anyone had ever seen, and he hauled it up to the surface where it can still be found, Te Ika-a-Maui (the fish of Maui).
This is part of the Maori creation story, and is the story behind the names of the North and South islands of New Zealand.

So, for the last 2 weeks I have been travelling down The Fish of Maui, having lots of fun and completely neglecting you lot back home... :)


I left Auckland bright and early on Friday the 5th February on a Big Green Bus, trademark of the KiwiExperience. In the whole of the two weeks, it's the only green bus I've been on - some people only booked this trip for the colour of the bus!
We arrived in the Bay of Islands around lunchtime which allowed me plenty of time to explore Paihia and set my affairs in order, or in fact, as actually happened - sleep on the beach.
As you know, the 6th was Waitangi Day, and as it turned out, no buses were running. So I had a whole day to enjoy the festivities, which were pretty expansive. The day began with a demonstration of the Maori wakas (canoes) in the bay. There were about 8 canoes in total each filled with 50 to 100 Maori warriors in each. They performed a haka - though without much stamping - presumably so as not to rock the boat too much, and the chief waded out into the sea to greet one waka which had been renovated for the celebration. Following this was a 21 gun salute, which was quite exciting at first as there was some commotion as to whether the Prime Minister was safe and whether the shots were aimed at him (apparantly there was an assassination attempt last year!) but everyone quickly regained composure as we realised what was going on. After all the excitement of the morning, I took a peaceful stroll up to Haruru Falls and then promptly returned to my position on the beach for another afternoon nap - well, I wouldn't like to overexert myself so early on in the trip!

The trip back to Auckland was an indication of what travelling with Kiwi is like in peak season, i.e. chaos. 54 people turned up to get on a bus intended for 48. I was 49th on the list. Us surplus were told that we were being transferred to another company's bus which would leave in 4 hours. So we made our way to this other bus company and tried to check when we would be leaving. Unfortunately we weren't on the list for this bus either... it was looking pretty grim for getting back to Auckland at all until 10 minutes before the bus was due to leave when Kiwi got in contact and confirmed our seats. Some hours later we were back in Auckland and ready for the Southbound part of our trip.

Come Monday, I was leaving Auckland for the second time - this time to Mercury Bay, or Whitianga to the locals. On the way we stopped off at Hot Water Beach and although the tide was in, a few of us did venture in to find the hot springs which come up under the sand. It was a very odd experience - being frozen by the waves crashing over you, whilst your feet were being scalded by the springs below the ground. when the tide is out you can dig pools and create your own natural hot tub!
We stopped again at Cathedral Cove, filming spot for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was absolutley beautiful with stunning blue sea and cliffs surrounding it. Water was cold though! We arrived at our destination fairly late on and sat down to the typical traveller's meal - noodles. My noodles were definitely superior to some of those around, which was almost certainly down to my amazing culinary skills of being able to boil water...
On arrival, our bus driver Dave had told us that the sunrise over the bay was absolutely beautiful and should we be so inclined we could get up and go down and watch it before catching the bus. So that is what I did. I got up at quater to six, and went for a run down to the beach. I got to the beach, no sun. I ran a bit further down to the end of town and back, no sun. So I sat and waited a bit. Eventually it was light enough for me to see that in fact the sun was probably already up but that the thickest blanket of cloud ever was getting in the way of my picturesque view. Nevertheless, I got some quite nice pictures of the sun not coming up... I walked back; I wasn't in the mood for running.

It was a fairly long drive down to Rotorua from Whitianga and on the way we paused for a walk through an abandoned goldmine at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve. I even saw three gloworms. From there we drove straight into Middle-Earth to stop for lunch in Hobbiton. The houses had all been long since removed, but there were plently of signs around to let you know where you were. In fact, Hobbiton was about 20 minutes down the road, we stopped in Matamata, but the signs were still there!)
Getting off the bus in Rotorua is a bit like walking into S20 at Harrogate Grammar School (a chemistry lab). The smell of Sulphur is so overpowering that you think you're going to faint; five minutes later and you barely notice it at all.
the Hot Springs at the Polynesian Spa remedy this however, and you are definitely reminded of the smell as you ease into the pools overlooking the crater lake. Although it smells bad, (and you'll probably have to throw away the swimmers you used in the pools) the water is supposed to be a miracle cure for a myriad of illnesses. It's reported that a lady suffering from lead poisoning, recovered fully after soaking in the pools once daily.
Once we'd finished relaxing in the pools, and then scrubbed ourselves to within an inch of our lives in the shower to get rid of the smell (I don't think you're getting quite how pungent it was) - we were transported to a traditional Maori village and introduced to its inhabitants. Before we were allowed in, we had to elect ourselves a chief (I was hoping it would be me, but apparently girls aren't allowed to be chiefs...) who would be challenged on arrival, and if he did not complete the challenge with appropriate dignity, could expect to be severely pummelled. Thankfully, our Chief Dave (not the driver - we switched drivers at Matamata, now we're onto Dylan) performed the ceremony almost perfectly and we were allowed in to be treated to a concert of traditional Maori songs and dance and to listen to a haka. (I didn't know before I got here that actually there are hundreds of different hakas for different occasions and for different tribes - so when the All Blacks do The Haka, they are in fact only doing a haka. Makes them seem much less scary...) Following the concert we sat down to be served the most enormous meal ever, Hangi. It was cooked in the traditional way, i.e. in a pit, and tasted so good. I piled my plate high in order to make the most of every penny I'd spent and was happily munching my way through that when one of the servers came out and announced that the pudding table was now ready. What?! They never said there'd be pudding as well! Thankfully, I had trained myself in early childhood for moments like these, designating part of my stomach the 'pudding hole'. Nom nom nom. I could barely move after that.

On the 10th, (I've lost track of what day that was), we headed down to Waitomo where six of us were put up in Juno Lodge, which was a lovely little cottagey type hostel with a pool and a trampoline. While some opted for Black Water Rafting, i.e. sitting in a rubber tube and floating down a river through the gloworm caves, I chose the rather more sedate wander round the caves and surrounding bushland. We six, rejected from the main group, discovered weird and wonderful facts about each other whilst chatting on the sofas and were reminded that the world is a very small place.

Coming down from Matamata, the bus had been experiencing some problems and had in fact borken down twice in that time so we were relieved when it turned up for us on the morning of the 11th to take us to Taupo. Taupo is set on a big lake, which is in fact not a lake, but a volcano. This volcano is still active, it erupts every thousand years or so, but none of the locals can quite remember when the last eruption was. Not far from Taupo is another cluster of volcanoes, used in the Lord of the Rings films to depict Mount Doom. Naturally, the only sensible thing to do would be to climb it. So I did. It's known as the Tongariro Crossing and on a fine day has spectacular views. On the day we climbed it, the rain came down and the winds tried to push us off the top of the mountain; it was so cold at the top that there was frost on the little hairs on my legs - yes, I was wearing shorts.
Nevertheless, it was a brilliant walk - though very challenging in places, but definitely worth it. I celebrated the next day by tying my ankles to a bridge and jumping off... Interesting way to celebrate you say? Well, yes, there were moments when I regretted handing over the $95 (about 95% of the moments, I would say) but it was incredible! and terrifying! and absolutely the stupidest thing I have done in my life! But I enjoyed it :)

Valentine's Day:
Once again there were difficulties with buses and myself and two friends I have made, Caroline and Julie, volunteered to skip the drive to River Valley and head straight to Wellington. We were put onto an intercity bus where we met Skippy Nate. We had stopped about an hour into the journey to take photos of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom) and off the bus bounded a labrador. He ran up to Caroline who had moved away from the bus and practically leapt into her arms. Ok, so it was probably unfair to describe him as a labrador, but that it truly how he came across. Obviously he had decided to make Caroline his Valentine and wouldn't leave her side for the rest of the journey. Once we reached Wellington, he disappeared off into the city with a little wave and was gone...
After a long lie-in and a late start, we headed down to the Te Papa museum for a bit of (free) culture. It's a particularly good musuem, with plenty of information and interactive displays and stuff going on. The shop is also pretty good... As we were about to leave, however, who should we spy but our mate Skippy Nate? Whilst we were hiding from him, we had plenty of time to admire postcards and the gorgeous paua and jadestone jewellery which you find all over NZ.
On an aside, there are plans in action to actually change the name of the country from New Zealand, which was given by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, to Aoteroa, the Maori name for the country which means Land of the Long White Cloud... at least that explains the weather.

Yesterday, was Shrove Tuesday :) nomful pancakes for everyone. My sister's friend, Hywel, who I am staying with in Wellington, made me the fanciest pancakes ever. For mains we had pesto pancakes with cashew nuts and parmesan (nom nom) and for dessert we had pancakes with nutella and chopped almonds followed by the traditional lemon and sugar (nom nom nom). I ate almost as much last night as I did at the Hangi! Anyway, yesterday - Caroline and I went to the botanical gardens on the Cable car which was fun and then wandered down into the city to have a look at the Parliament buildings which are very grand, the Beehive is a slightly bizarre building for governemnt but I suppose it's good to be different? We also made our way to the Archives to go and view the Treaty of Waitangi itself. My cultural tour of New Zealand certainly leaves nothing to be desired!

Which brings me to today. I haven't done a lot so far today (unless you count the 1.5hours of blogging), but I shall make myself some lunch shortly and go and climb Mount Victoria where the best views of the capital city are. I will also be purchasing my ferry ticket for tomorrow morning, in order to continue my trip down onto Te Waka-a-Maui.

Much love,
Missing you all heaps!
xxxx

The Big Smoke

Kia Ora!
Choice as, but eh, bro?

Ok, that's all the Kiwi I know. I'll have to speak English again.

Well, New Zealand in the height of its summer is a lot like England in the height of its summer; that is to say cold. But so far it has been quite fun. I landed in Auckland at 4am this morning (I'm now 13 hours ahead of you Brits - for those who are keeping tabs) and it was very very cold. So I huddled up in the waiting area while my tent was torn apart by biosecurity. They didn't actually tear it apart, I presume what they actually did was blast it with Gamma rays, but then most of my physics education pretty much leaked out of my brain as soon as I left the exam room last May. And possibley even earlier than that...
Anyway, I'm on the other side of the world. I know I was on the other side of the world before as well, but now I'm even more on the other side of the world. It makes sense, honest.

Today I have mainly been milling around the city - exploring the harbour and the quayside and the main square, which was unfortunately being refurbished so there wasn't actually that much to see there. This evening however, was pretty exciting. I wasn't going to go up the SkyTower, because it the cost is the same as one nights accomodation, and I'm quite keen on sleep... but, I was convinced by the urgings of Anrich (see Hervey Bay), and really I'm grateful he's so bossy. The view up there truly is incredible. And because I left it until the evening, not only did I get to see the sun set from 220m asl (which is a fairly disorientation experience), I also saw the city lights flicker on one by one until the whole of Auckland was lit up like a Christmas tree. :)

Tomorrow I set out on my KiwiExperience tour, heading north to Paihia. The day after tomorrow, the 6th February, is Waitangi Day - the anniversary of the day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, a document which gave the Maori people the same rights as the English and is also associated with the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand. It all takes place in Paihia and so the 6th definitely promises to be an interesting day. Once the fun and games of the North are over I'll be returning to Auckland for the night and then beginning the journey south. I'm a little bit apprehensive about actually doing so much travelling; so far I've been able to have plenty of rest in between baby steps. It will definitely be an adventure.

Lots of Love,
xxxxxx

Return to Lady Elliot Island

It must be almost exactly 6 years and one month since I was on LEI for my 13th Birthday. We spent 3 days there on that occasion and if I remember correctly, my sister and I were pooed on by nesting seabirds 9 times between us. But this time I came prepared; my hat (purchased at Woodford Festival and much loved by all who meet it) would act as a perfect shield from the launched missiles. All was going well until I nipped to the toilet cabin, thinking I would be outside for the briefest of moments and surely I could manage wuthout the hat for that long? But oh, no. The very second I stepped out from under my porch I was splatted. They suggest you look up before you walk anywhere, the only problem with this being that you stand a fairly good chance of getting a direct hit in the face. (In fact the hat wasn't all that helpful against attacks; I got hit on the shoulder too.)

It's beautiful though - over the coral cay the water is so turquoise and peaceful - lapping against the white coral shores and further out dropping off into deeper darker waters. The bottom temperature of the water was 28 degrees and the water was so clear, which made the dive pretty spectacular; just like being in the middle of Finding Nemo. I even saw a Dory :)
Also to be found were leopard sharks, white and black tipped reef sharks, manta rays, a HUGE Moray eel and of course plenty of turtles coming up to be scratched and play.

The Glass-Bottomed Boat wasn't so much glass-bottomed as metal-bottomed with a couple of glass panels. Nevertheless, the view was impecable - clear waters for 15m with sharks lounging on the bottom, schools of giant fish drifting by, giant schools of little fish drifting by - there is so much down there that you never even think about. I spent some time observing a Manta Ray who was enjoying a clean from some little blue fish. There's a reason why it's said that Lady Elliot Island has some of the best snorkelling in the world.

The aeroplane which transports you to the island is brilliant. It's diddy - like a toy plane, and has a little propeller fuelled by a little engine on each side. It's a wonder they can get it to stay up in the air! The runway on LEI is the diameter of the island and you can walk it in about 5-10 minutes. This is good for getting around the island (you can walk around the entire circumference in about 40 mins) but as you're landing, it's always a bit of an uncertainty as to whether you'll actually stop before you fall off the edge of the island into the sea...

And now I'm back from both Lady Elliot and from Hervey Bay, sad though it is. It really was beginning to feel comfortable - if not homely. Not to mention I made two friends during my time there that I'll never forget. So for now I'm back to the planning game - preparing for the really independent part of my trip. On the 4th February I'll be flying to New Zealand to spend a month on the Kiwi Experience Zephyr tour which I'm looking forward to immesely. From there I'll be flying our to Adelaide then to Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and back up to the Sunshine Coast. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

The Cleaning Manager...

Is apparently my job title. I have a feeling the actual manager was trying to make me feel less lowly. Which as he discovered, probably wasn't necessary.

So, I have my job down to a tee now, and it seems that being so anally retentive comes in useful when it comes to cleaning. Obviously, I've found my calling in life...
One of the perks in this line of work, that is cleaning a backpacker hostel, is being allowed to raid the fridge when guests leave. Often this is a fruitless experience as backpackers are more often than not strapped for cash and therefore do not purchase a huge amount of exciting produce. There are however exceptions... So far I have acquired, encouraged by the owner, half a watermelon and 4 bottles of wine! I have to say I haven't actually started on the wine, I'm contemplating saving it and throwing a Friendly backpacker party :)
Another of the nice things about working here is the people that I've met. Not only are the owner and manager of the hostel absolutely lovely and interesting people, the guests - though many of them are only passing through on their way to Fraser Island all have their stories to tell and recommendations for places to visit, and most are more than welcome to adopt a lone traveller in their plans for the evening. I've even started getting to know some of the persons about town - the family who run the cafe/restaurant '2nd Kitchen' (which in itself is highly recommendable if you're ever in Hervey Bay) and the man behind the checkout at the local supermarket have all been so interested in where I've come from and what I'm doing. The atmosphere round here is just so friendly!

Whoever said that Hervey Bay is sadly necessary as a gateway to Fraser, was doing it a great injustice. I admit that 2 weeks is probably too much time to spend here on holiday, but there is certainly a few days worth of interest. Walking along the miles and miles of beach for one thing provides plenty to look at. I've seen some truly peculiar creatures including what I assume to be baby 'Spanish Dancers' which are orange wormy things with ruffles which 'dance' through the water evading hermit crabs and other predators with amazing agility. There are miles of rockpools to explore further up the coast and some very disturbing Soldier Crabs, which when I first came across them, reminded me of the scarab beetles in the Mummy films, at which I had to get away from them as quickly as possible and then observe them from a distance. They burrow under the sand and leave tiny holes surrounded sand ball bearings. They also make excellent surfers.

Of course, there is Fraser Island to explore, which as yet I haven't done, but have heard that it is incredible from absolutely every single person who has stayed here! Personally, I'm trying to get up to Lady Elliot Island for a couple of days before I leave, and hopefully the green turtles will still be there for diving with.

Much love,
xxxxx

In the land of backpackers

Well, after a long and hot coach journey at more like 5 1/2 hours than 4 (and the air conditioning wasn't working) and a slightly dubious start to the evening (a man who looked like he might have been trying to pick me up turned out to be trying to pick me up - I responded with something along the lines of "Erm, no, thank you. Sorry" British to the very end...

Thankfully a mini van with The Friendly Hostel plastered across it came to my rescue. He didn't actually see my unfortunate encounter which probably explains why he looked so nervous when I practically jumped into his arms upon meeting him.
Having been shown to my room and told to repot for duty at 9.45 the next morning, I thought I'd have a wander into town to find some food. On my way I witnessed something unexpected. The sun sets fairly early so it was around dusk when I was leaving the hostel. Now, you know how all the natural science presenters rave about starlings when they do the big swarmy thing? I saw one of those. Actually I didn't but I thought it was one of those. In fact they weren't starlings, they were big bats. But they were swarming in the hundreds and thousands. According to the hostel's information booklet, these bats are actually called flying foxes and there are three different varieties in Hervey Bay. It was absolutely incredible to behold, and I certainly hadn't expected it! It was a pretty spectacular experience to start off my time here...

The sea runs at bath temperature here - and not a luke-warm 'I'm only staying in for three minutes' kind of bath either. It's like a hot tub. With waves. You could probably boil an egg in it if you were patient enough...
I made a friend in the sea today; I'd just set out with my snorkel and mask to observe some aquatic life when I noticed I was being followed. I have to say he looked pretty dapper in his yellow and navy get-up... Yes, he was a fish. And no, I have never found any guy to be attractive wearing bright yellow with navy stripes...
It wsn't a fleeting friendship. This little fish was swimming around with me for a good half hour while I drifted over the corals, or things which looked a bit like they might be coral - the visibility wasn't very good. Sadly, I lost him as soon as I got out to go for a drink. I won't blame him for that though.

Tomorrow...

I will be setting off on a 4 hour coach journey to Hervey Bay. If you look on a map, you'll see that Maroochydore and Hervey Bay are practically next door to each other, and yet a 4 hour journey? That's like driving to Scotland from my house.

So, Hervey Bay. The Gateway to Fraser Island.

I'm going to work in a backpacker hostel for 2 weeks, which hopefully will mean meeting lots of exciting backpackers, and also getting discounted trips to Fraser :) but it's not excedingly popular for its own attractions.

The moment I had arranged this, I received an email from the Heron Island Research Station, who have a space for a volunteer from the 11th to the 18th January and would I still be interested? - Why, yes! Thank you for letting me know so soon!

Heron Island is one of the Great Barrier Reef islands slightly north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and somewhere I would really love to go and spend some time. Hopefully they'll book me in for later in the year...

But for now, the sun is out again and it looks like I'll be spending a relaxing couple of weeks a bit further up the coast, before returning to Brisbane airport to fly over to New Zealand to spend a not so relaxing but brilliant month.

Hope you are all well,

Em x