I'm On A Boat! Again!

Nelly and I just spent and amazing few days on a boat named "Matador" sailing through the Whitsunday Islands with 20 other people. Our original trip was supposed to be on a boat called "Spank Me" however that trip was cancelled due to a lack of bookings so they put us on a different trip a day later (along with paying us for an extra night's accommodation and a free scuba for the inconvenience).
We boarded in the afternoon and headed out for our 1st snorkel sight. It is currently jelly fish season here so anytime we went in the water we had to wear stinger suits. It kind of took the fun out of jumping off the boat on a whim, but better that than a sting!
This is our group on the first night which including the crew there were 3 Americans, our dive instructor from NZ, our captain and deck hand both from Australia, 2 Swiss, 2 Swedes, a Brit, our cook from France, 4 Irish, 3 Germans, a Korean, one guy from Taiwan and our favorites, 3 Mexicans.

To get to know one another the captain made everyone write their name on their left foot and their country on their right. It worked!

The next morning we were up in time for the sunrise in order to get all of the day's activities in. Luckily the sunrise was at 6:30 and not any earlier!

We then headed to Whitehaven Beach where we met up with people from other boats. This beach was picture postcard perfect (except for the fact of having to wear the stinger suits).

Has the news of all of the shark attacks in Australia made it back to the states? This one was quite scary, but luckily no one was seriously injured.

After Whitehaven Beach Nelly and I got to go scuba diving and saw some amazing coral and then we snorkeled and saw even more amazing fish. We spent the afternoon laying out on the boat before socializing on the boat that night.

The sunsets were so breathtaking.

On the 3rd day we woke bright and early again and did some more snorkeling. This was the best site of all and I felt like I was in a fish tank. They swarmed us and literally were inches from our faces. Their colors were amazing as well. There was not much wind over the three days so we didn't do much sailing, however on our way back to the marina the captain made the boys hoist the sail and we caught a bit of wind.

One of the local bars in Airlie Beach gives free beer to everyone that went on a boating trip and groups the tables by boat. The Matador had the best representation of all of the boats that had returned that day.

With a boat named Matador and a sign holder shaped like horns, this only seems natural, right?

And then our friends from Mexico City treated everyone to a great performance of La Bamba with the local singer playing guitar.

It was a great 3 days and we were so happy to be able to spend it with such fun people!

Oh, and not one drop of rain! God is smiling on us!

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Location:Whitsunday Islands

Evolution of Relationships

Phase 1: Initial Attraction

Phase 2: Man Courts Woman

Phase 3: Man Sweeps Woman Off Of Her Feet

Phase 4: Man Tries To Prove Who's The Boss

Phase 5: Man Comes To His Senses

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Location:Fraser Island

3 Days and 2 Nights on an Island Made of Sand

After both my Australian and US birthdays passed, we found ourselves in Hervey Bay, the staging point for adventure tours to Fraser Island, a beautiful island made entirely of sand.


Kelly and I joined seven other people (from Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia) and two guides in two land cruisers and rode a barge over to the island. Just driving along the paths of sand and the beach was a enjoyable experience and a sight to see!

We even went through lots of water!

Yep, that's water splashing up over our hood!

We also ventured on foot through rain forest

and across dunes and sand blows

to picturesque lakes

and fantastic beaches

We saw turtles

birds

and dingos

We jumped from trees

played games

explored tide pools

climbed to lookouts

dug up and cooked pippies

and visited the wreck of Maheno

After 3 days and 2 nights with the same group, we came back with great memories and new friends. Of course the trip would not have been complete without a good old game of homemade Twister with our new pals.

Next Stop: 3 nights in the Whitsunday Islands on a sailboat named "Spank Me"!

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Location:Fraser Island

No News Is Good News

I apologize for my lack of blogging this past week but we have been laying low and taking it easy. The weather has not been very cooperative with us which has put a damper on the amount of activities we have been able to do.
After leaving Byron Bay we headed to Surfer's Paradise for 4 days. We stayed in an awesome hostel and met some really fun people that we spent a lot of time with. Nelly played nightly games of Volleyball with them and we hung out at the bar with some of the people who worked there. Surfer's Paradise reminded me of a wannabe Vegas. I told Nelly that one morning and literally right after I said that we walked around a corner and saw a sign that said "Vegas Paradise".


This entire trip I have been amazed at the lack of sky rise hotels clogging the shorelines, nothing at all like Hawaii. Surfer's Paradise had them and I found out why; most of the resorts are owned by the Japanese, much like Hawaii, and they build the really big and elaborate places.
We spent an afternoon at the beach there but the surf was so rough that we could not go in.

But it did wash up some pretty neat sea creatures!

The following day we bought a pass to Dream World and White Water World. If Disneyland or Great America are Nieman Marcus, then Dream World Walmart. We did get to hold a koala and see kangaroos and tigers which was really special. In the afternoon we headed to the water park where we spent the day on the slides.

Kangaroos are really weird creatures. From the way they move to the joeys in their pockets, everything seems so unreal!

The next day you better believe we found a bar at 10:00 am to watch the opening day Giant's game. Luckily the game was on early because I don't think if we had been there when it was crowded the locals would have sat through 3 hours of baseball!
After leaving Surfer's Paradise we spent 24 hours in Brisbane. We walked around the city for a couple of hours and then went to the movies that night to see Lincoln Lawyer (go see it, it was entertaining!). I took this picture to prove that we actually went to Brisbane and am going to assume that the river is not normally this brown. Kyle?



From Brisbane we headed to Rainbow Beach for 2 nights which is a sleepy beach town that is literally two blocks long. We attempted to lay out at the beach which was comparable to being inside of a sandblaster because it was so windy, so we played in the waves and then spent the afternoon on the grass above the beach. While we were in Rainbow Beach we celebrated Nelly's 31st (and my brother, Zack's, 22nd a continent away). It was rather uneventful compared to the epic weekend of his 30th, however it was still a great day. He has actually been celebrating his birthday for two days now, April 4th and April 5th, which is the 4th in the states.
Nelly does not like cake but devours pavlova, so I arranged for him to have some after dinner. I'm surprised he didn't bite my hand off when I went in for a scoop!!

We head to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, for 3 days. Pray for us that the rain stops!

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Location:Surfer's Paradise, Rainbow Beach