Let's Go Surfing Now,

Everybody's learning how, come on a safari with me...... As part of our bus tour, we got a free surf lesson at a private beach in a small town called Arrawarra.  This has to be one of the highlights for the both of us so I have included lots of pictures! We started off with an explanation of where it was safe to surf and some safety rules.  

Our group with the instructors in the front.

Listening intently to the instructions

Practicing the procedure of standing up

Practicing our stance

At first, I needed one of the instructors to hold the back of the board to keep it steady.  

They would hold on until you stood up and got going and then let you go.

Dylan seemed to be more of a natural.  I guess the all the snowboarding paid off.  

Actually, the first wave he tried to catch, he made it.

We started out with just a few smaller waves at first and as we got better, braver and could catch a wave by ourselves, we could move further out.  By the end it started to get pretty cold and started raining.  They had a board with a board cam attached to it so that if you wanted to, you could watch yourself.  Dylan never had a chance to use it but I did.  The instructor running it had to stay where he could stand so we could not go very far out which was pretty unfortunate but I did get a few runs on the board.   Below is a video of one run!! Hope you enjoyed these few pictures of our first attempt at surfing.  We are planning on trying this again before we leave here.  Hopefully the plans work out!!

Surfer's Paradise

I wasn't sure at first either but yes, Surfer's Paradise is the actual name of our next stop.  It is well, a popular surfing city along the coast.  It is very popular destination not only for it's waves but also for it's theme parks.  In the surrounding area there is Sea World, Wet n' Wild, Dream World, Movie World, and quite a few more.  We decided to visit both Sea World and Wet n' Wild.  Below are some pictures of Sea World.  We got to see alot while we were there but of course, we could only post a few pictures!!  We do not have any pictures of Wet n' Wild because it is just a giant water park.  Most of the rides are tube rides which was pretty awesome!  It was a pretty big park and made for a good day!  

A Funny Fish

Shark

Shark

Polar Bear

Dolphin and Baby

Sand...And Lots Of It

Fraser Island.... the largest sand island in the world.  We took a two day tour to visit the island, and it was so interesting.  Below are some pictures from our visit there.  We boarded a 4WD bus and drove onto the beach, onto a ferry, and right onto the other beach.  The main highway on the island, is indeed the beach.  We would drive along with the waves coming up to the tires.  What is also interesting about the island is that there is a rainforest that has managed to grow in the sand.  Here are a few pictures.  The pictures of the beach were taken out of the bus window.   

On the Island is the Maheno Shipwreck.  The ship was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship.  The the First World War the ship served as a hospital ship.  In 1935 the ship was declared outdated. During tow to Japan, they were struck by a cyclone.  On July 9 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island.  During the Second World War, the Maheno served as target bombing practice.  Now it is a just a tourist site.  From what you can see, there are four levels buried underneath the sand.

Take a Guess

I will give you one guess as to what Dylan is eating here!!

Does this help?  Maybe you can see it clearer. 

You are looking at the meat on the far left.

Any guesses?....  

Ok well it is Kangaroo!  One night, we were late getting into our hostel so our drivers decided to stop at a grocery store so we could go together and get ingredients for a meal.  Since none of us (the passengers) had tried Kangaroo before, we thought we would give it a try.  When we got to the hostel, the cook was still there but the kitchen was closed.  Surprise!!!  One of our drivers was friends with the cook so we didn't even have to cook it at all!!  Turned out great for us.  There is no fat on the meat at all so it had to be cooked medium - rare.  That was the hardest part for me to get over.  But over all, it was really good.  Something that we would definitely have again!!

Kroombit

Part of our bus tour included a stop at a Cattle Station in Queensland.  It was interesting to see the differences between a farm in South Australia, Queensland and Canada.  The cattle in Queensland are Brahman so that is one big difference already.  Then all the cattle graze and look after themselves.  The properties are huge so that the cattle can find enough feed for themselves.  To round them up, they use helicopters or a one way gate to dugout.  While we were there, we took a quad tour of the property, learnt how to crack a whip, and we had ourselves a goat rodeo.  There were also opportunities to do the Limbo, ride a mechanical bull, skeet shoot, and be part of the goat round-up.  Below are some of the pictures from our time there.  

Airlie Beach

Another one of our stops was at Airlie Beach.  This is one of the more popular places to visit because you can tour the Whitsunday Islands from here.  The Whitsunday Islands is a group of 74 islands.  The most popular thing to do obviously is to tour via sailing.  We never got to see them from a boat, but we did take a helicopter up to get just a small taste of them.  There is a wide range of options of different activities that you can choose from.  We did get to go on a tube ride which was pretty fun.  We were pulled behind a speed boat which created huge wakes and therefore big jumps!  The only thing is, the salt water really burns the eyes and tastes disgusting.  We were scheduled to go parasailing but it was too windy to go up so we had to find other things to keep us occupied.  Here are a few pictures from our stay here.  

Sailing boats in the bay.

We were there over the weekend so the Markets

were open.  They gave camel rides up and down the beach. 

A few of the Islands

This is a boat with just a small corner 

of one of the islands

Magnetic Island

One of the popular places to visit along the Eastern Coast is a place called Magnetic Island.  An interesting fact about this, the Island is not actually magnetic in any way.  When they were exploring, the compass quit while they were on the island and they believed that it was due to some sort of Magnetic Force.  It was really just a faulty compass!  We only stayed there for one night because of  lack of time.  Our hostel was right along the beach, so we took a few moments to send a message home! 

'Missing You In Australia'

On The Way

One the way to our next destination, if there is something worth looking at, our bus driver will stop and take us on a short tour.  Here are a few pictures from two of our stops.  The first set is of Boulders Gorge.  There are huge rocks in the middle of this river.  It is actually a pretty amazing sight.  There is a story that the Aboriginals tell in regards to why there are huge boulders there but it is fairly long and I didn't catch it all because the river was so loud.  So anyways enjoy these few!!  

We also got to stop at a crocodile farm.  They raise the crocodiles from young to sell for their leather and meat.  No we have not tried any of the meat yet!!  They also get 'Problem Crocodiles' from the local rivers.  These ones are  not aloud to be sold for their meat or hide.  They are just used for breeding purposes.  They have around 80 large crocodiles and thousands of little ones.  They grow extremely slow!  The place that we stopped at is known to have the largest crocodile in captivity.  Five meters long.  He is huge!!  We also got to watch a feeding which was pretty cool.  We never got any pictures of that due to dead batteries in the camera and the rest of the batteries in stow-away under the bus!!  We did get video of it.  The videos are not uploaded onto the computer yet but I will try to post them at a later date!!  The crocodile in the pictures below is eight years old.  Believe it or not, one that size could take a finger or two and if he got you on the back of the leg, he would take a pretty good chunk.  Then there are a few of us with a Bearded Lizard.  These little guys are surprisingly pokey!  They are the ones that there neck flares out when intimidated.  Enjoy these!!