There was no time to get a nap in - quick bus to Emily and Devin's house in Sunshine Beach, then another to Tewantin, where the house boat was anchored and awaiting our arrival. Devin, the man with the plan, managed to organize an amazing house boat trip up the Noosa River with us and a bunch of friends from his restaurant job. Mar and I were pretty excited just to see our two friends, but the thought of spending three nights on a river with a bunch of food, beer, and several apprentice chefs was icing on the cake.
Arrived in Noosa after a 40 min bus ride to be enthusiastically welcomed by Emily. Taking in the scenery during the ride, we immediately noticed how tropical and lush everything is in this area. Living in the states, most people tend to imagine Australia as this desert wasteland solely inhabited by venomous insects, snakes, 20 foot crocodiles, and crazy people who think it's a good idea to live there. While a fair amount of the country fits that description, there are also huge tracts of rainforest - predominantly in Queensland - that look more like Costa Rica or Colombia. I'm sure there are still plenty of killy creatures around, but that's pretty much a given wherever you go in the world. There was no time to get a nap in - quick bus to Emily and Devin's house in Sunshine Beach, then another to Tewantin, where the house boat was anchored and awaiting our arrival. Devin, the man with the plan, managed to organize an amazing house boat trip up the Noosa River with us and a bunch of friends from his restaurant job. Mar and I were pretty excited just to see our two friends, but the thought of spending three nights on a river with a bunch of food, beer, and several apprentice chefs was icing on the cake. While the overall trip was a blast, it had its fair share of interesting moments - like when Reese (one of the young chefs) forgot to tie up the dinghy to the back of the boat and Emily had to throw on some flippers to go grab it before it floated all the way down the river. Or when Reese (again) drove the 12 ton boat straight into a clearly marked sandbar and we all had to jump out and push the boat back into deeper water before the oncoming current drove it further onto the bar...good times. Most of the restaurant staff that were able to come on the trip were aged 19-20ish, so being the oldest, most mature members of the boat crew was, well... a bit weird. Also the "kids" were all about the Death Metal music, and as much fun as Slipknot is for 72 hours, it didn't really fit the theme of the river trip so we raged a passive-aggressive music battle. We did manage to eat like kings - steaks one night, spaghetti bolognese another, plus some self-caught mud crab sauteed in butter for a midday snack. I managed to get some fly-fishing in...actually just fly-casting, as I didn't even get a nibble no matter what I tried. :( It was pretty disheartening when this old man floating by managed to reel in the biggest fish I'd seen on the trip, just as I was packing up my rod for the last time. I may or may not have weeped openly at that moment.
1 Comment
Absolutely Exhausted.
After a miserable, sleepless, shotgun start to make a 6 am flight on the "cheap as" (as the Aussies would say) Tiger Airways (the Easy Jet of Oz), we made it to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast only to find that the Greyhound bus we had tickets for to go to Noosa did not have any pickup station even remotely close to the airport where we landed. Luckily, the bus wasn't scheduled for another 3 hours, so we hopped in a cab to go into town. The cab driver, in both voice and appearance, was a perfect likeness of Richard Attenborough/John Hammond in Jurassic Park. Driving through the lush rainforest/tropical landscape we very well could've been on a dinosaur-filled island. Which brings up a good fun fact -- apparently there used to be a species of carnivorous kangaroo in Australia. Essentially a furry velociraptor, though probably way too dumb to open doors. Anyway, Mr. Hammond dropped us right by a shopping complex called Sunshine Plaza, a kind of indoor/outdoor mall split in half by a river traversed by footbridges. We noticed that people were using grocery store shopping carts all over this mall, so we grabbed one and loaded all of our bags in and wandered the shops. Needless to say, we looked a little bit like the Clampetts, or maybe gore-tex gypsies, given our dual instrument cases and haggard appearance. A man with his wife and baby asked us if we on the Amazing Race TV show. We found out that a local bus would take us straight from the shopping center up to Noosa where we were meeting Emily for only $7, so we scrapped our Greyhound option for the cheaper, much faster route. We've finally made it to Melbourne! We got in late-ish on Friday after a long, weather-related redirect and rebooking in NZ, but here we are! Our mate Gareth has graciously set us up at his place in West Richmond (a suburb just east of the city central) and we've spent the past couple days walking the city and surrounding neighborhoods. So far, we absolutely LOVE Melbourne and can't wait to spend more time here later in our travels. We've found it to be a bit like Boston - very walkable, very laid-back, cultured, artsy, with a big emphasis on food and drink. We overheard some aussies mention in town that "coffee is the new wine." They certainly have enough coffee shops and cafes in Melbourne to caffeinate the world. One of the coolest things about the city is that it's filled with hidden alleyways, side streets, and bars and restaurants that you can only find by wandering down random, seemingly dead-end paths. Graffiti is also legal here and is considered an art form, so the street art we've encountered (see Melbourne photos) is incredible and really adds to the slightly grungy but oh-so-cool artsy feeling of the city. It's also the end of fall, beginning of winter here, as southern Australia has seasons much like the northeast of the US. It was too bizarre to think about how it's the end of May and we're walking through parks with palm trees and colorful trees with falling leaves in the 59 degree (F) weather! Of course in Boston this would call for flip-flops (or thongs as they say) and shorts - but here everyone complains about how freezing it is. Ha. We will come back and spend some real living time here though when it's warmer. Until then, ciao Melbourne, we're Queensland bound. Happy Birthday to Ben! (We're celebrating with our new Melbourne friends tonight and Ben might whip out the Kookaburra song on his uke) San Francisco was great though – thanks to Mike and Bethany for putting us up, and dealing with our stuff everywhere! Eric and Sam, our superfriends from Portland, made the long drive down and spent the better part of our 3 day west coast adventure with us. Chris Franz, you were missed. The Bay to Breakers race was happening the day we flew in, and for those who are unfamiliar, it's basically an all-day, all-city, costumed/naked drinking bonanza. Oh yes and there's some running involved in there somewhere. Great fun to watch - while on the phone with Sam, he saw a dinosaur trying to ride a unicorn, just to give you a general idea. For the rest of the stay, many a great night was spent at bars in the Haight and during the day we played at the Academy of Science and in the beautiful Henry Coe State Park (just south of San Jose). It was there we discovered soft rolling green hills, a tree that disliked Eric so much it essentially bitch-slapped him to the ground, and a baby rattlesnake, which Ben nearly stepped on. Good times were also had with John and Amy, and Emily Doe, friends from Winchester now living in SF, and with several other CC alums in the area. Cheers guys! Oh and congrats to Sam on the new house!!! Can't wait to see it! If there’s one clear lesson we’ve learned so far, it’s that packing and moving is the worst thing ever. It also didn’t help that we lived on the 4th floor apartment at the top of the most inconveniently designed spiral staircase man has ever seen. On the upside, Mar and I probably got more exercise in the last few days than we’ve gotten in the last 6 months. After a mad dash at the end, we were able to scrounge everything together and dump most of it in my parent’s attic. So thanks mom and dad for not forcing me to buy long-term storage!
|
Marielle & BenWe're two people in the midst of severe quarter-life crises who decided to leave good jobs in a bad economy to travel to the other side of the world because, well, why not? Archives
April 2011
Categories
All
|