Jun 07

Hey all, sorry for the delay between posts. I’ve been in Brisbane for over a month now and I’m loving it. I’ve found a great hostel full of cool people and a job with regular hours. But more about that later. I wrote the entry below weeks ago, but never got around to posting it: here’s what I got up to after the dreaded bananas!

I’m sorry to say that sailing the Whitsundays was a bit of a let down. Well, the sailing element anyway.
Perhaps after all the hype that I’d heard, I was expecting too much. Maybe it was because the weather was bad, or that the crew were incompetent or that the boat was crappy: we actually had to bail water out at one point. Or perhaps it was a combination of it all!

There were around twenty of us onboard and we made the best of the situation by getting very drunk on cheap wine. the guys on board were the best part - we did had some wicked laughs.

The trip kind of degenerated into a three day booze cruise. Perhaps that’s what it was destined to be from the start – but it wasn’t what I’d hoped. I could have gotten drunk on land – plus saved money and stayed dry. Ah well, I’m over it.

After Airlee Beach (the Whitsundays) I travelled down the coast to Noosa, which was very nice. It’s quite a bit more upmarket than I’m used to. It has big expensive houses, nice shops and restaurants, a small national park and great beaches. I’m reliably informed that the surf is also quite good – although I’m biding my time before I take the plunge.

I spent a couple of days there drying off after the Whitsundays (I’m over it, really). It put me in a good frame of mind to travel down to Brisbane, which is where I’ve been for about a month now.

As I mentioned above, I’m staying at an awesome little hostel called the Yellow Submarine. It’s not much to look at but the people are really cool and very friendly. I have a really good group of friends made up of people from all over the world.

People tend to stay here for months at a time because of just how relaxed and friendly it is. There’s always something going on or someone to talk to. It’s like an extended family. I’m going to stay till September.

On my first day there the hostel got me a job doing house removals with an Australian guy called Pete. The job can be hard work at times, but the money is decent and hours are regular, so I’m managing to save up a fair bit. The job lets me see a lot of Brisbane and the surrounding area, I get to meet lots of ‘real’ Australians and snoop round there houses… which is nice!

I like Brisbane very much. It’s the state capital and so big enough to have decent bars, clubs, shops etc but not so big that you feel lost in it – like Sydney. The Brisbane river runs thorough the centre of town and there are some great buildings – old and new – dotted around the place.

There are plenty of parks and open spaces but no beach unfortunately. Last week I got the train out to the coast for a day of free sailing. It’s run every week by some yacht club, to encourage people to get into the sport. It was a full on race between about twenty little sailing boats. I acted as ballast (I’m a natural) and had a great time. It more than made up for not sailing the Whitsundays.

I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks. I’m meeting a friend from Uni who’s over for a holiday this week, my friends from New Zealand should be arriving from Sydney soon, the weather is getting warmer by the day and we’ve got some big nights out planned at the hostel.

I’ll leave it there because this entry is already pretty huge. Hope you’re all well and suitably jealous. Lots of love, Rob.