Noosa

Friday 2nd - Monday 5th June 2017

Lily picked me up from the train station and, although we hadn't seen each other in years, it felt like we had never been apart! It was just under an hours drive to get to Noosa and we stopped off at a look out, just catching the sunset. It was phenomenal. It's pretty easy to see why Lily has chosen to live here! Afterwards, we went back to her place and I met her boyfriend, Sam and we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican place, then went out for a few drinks.

Lily had work in the morning, and I really meant to make the most of the morning so I got ready sharpish, but then I made the rookie mistake of lying down on my bed and I fell asleep for a few hours... oops! At least my hangover wasn't so bad after that?

We decided to bring Sam's sister's dog, Max, to the dog beach after getting food from a local French bakery (had the most delicious pulled pork pie). The beach was stunning (unsurprisingly) and it was a nice to be able to sunbathe in the winter!

We went out for a few cocktails this evening, with a few of Lily and Sam's friends. However, we didn't stay out too late and headed back to their house. Sam wasn't feeling too great so he went to bed,      but Lily and I stayed up and reminisced on the good old times of brownie pack holidays! This ended up on the memory of being rudely awoken at 7am by 'Crazy horses' blasting out and then us finding 'The very best of the Osmonds' to sing along to. To our surprise, we still remembered a fair few words and had a lovely sing along, and, naturally, we recorded ourselves singing and posted it on Facebook. (One of those things we probably should've waited until we were sober to do but too late now!)

The next day we made our way down to Rainbow Beach, and to get there we had to go on the ferry and drive on the beach a fair bit. We had a BBQ (because if I didn't have a BBQ in Australia I would have considered it a waste) and chilled out for a bit before heading back home, where Sam made a delicious roast dinner! Yum!

Sadly Monday came around too quickly, and it was time to head back down to the Gold Coast. I sorted out all my bits, or so I thought! Lily took me to the national park for a quick walk, where we saw dolphins literally 10 metres away from the shore... the closest I've ever seen them! It was then a rush to get to the train station and grab a maccas before my train left. We said a quick goodbye nad then I made my way back down. An hour into my journey, Lily messaged me. I had left my iPad at hers because I am an idiot! I debated going back up to get it, but I'm the end Lily got it posted down to the Gold Coast for me!

So despite me being a slightly hungover idiot, I had the best time in Noosa and I know for sure that I will be back again!

Robinson Crusoe Island, Coral Coast, Sigatoka, Biausevu and Pacific Harbour: Whole Hula

Tuesday 28th February 2017

I was particularly sad to leave Robinson Crusoe Island this morning. It is now my favourite place I have ever been. But I was super excited for the rest of the day so the sadness didn't last long! We got the boat back to the main island after breakfast, but had quite a wait at the dock for our coach to come back to us... Fiji time!

We travelled up the Queens highway to get to Sigatoka, but almost got stuck in the mud half way there! Luckily the driver managed to get us on our way pretty sharpish! Langi pointed out more things to us on the way, most notably a hummingbird and hawk, such stunning creatures. There was also something that looked like a rainbow in the sky, but didn't arc just sat behind the clouds. It was beautiful.

We also stopped off at a beach, I can't remember it's name exactly but it was stunning! There were a couple of horses tied out in the sun, they didn't look like they were looked after properly which was sad, it was too hot for us in the sun let alone animals. Langi said that this wasn't unusual, and their owners were sitting in the shade nearby!

We stopped off in Sigatoka for lunch, and we're greeted by the staff in the department store Tappoo with a necklace each which was neat! Langi showed us to a small bakery and I got the nicest chicken pie and coconut slice for about £2! It's crazy how cheap some of the things are here.

Our next stop was at the Biausevu waterfall. It was about a half an hour hike each way and we trekked through rivers to get there. Langi pointed out coffee beans, bananas, wild pineapple, bread fruit, various tea leaves, ginger, mandarins and managed to find us ripe guava to try! It's crazy to think that all that fruit can be found in one part of the rainforest! The waterfall itself was beautiful. The water was very refreshing and a few people climbed up the rocks and jumped through the falls. I started to climb up, scraped my elbow and thought it's probably not worth me injuring myself further for!

After we hiked back, Linga was telling us that it was the Biausevu village's anniversary and they invited us to join in with the celebrations. We had more Kava and tried some of the local food. The fish and something that tastes like an onion baji were so delicious! They invited us to stay longer but Langi politely refused and he later told us that it was unusual for us to have had that experience as it was in the chiefs house and the chief was present so that was awesome!

We then made our way to Uprising Resort in the torrential rain. Our dorm was really nice, and we had hot water showers! I had a beefburger for dinner and it was amazing, but I couldn't finish it all! We were serenaded as we were eating and it got dark really quickly. Linga was telling us about how this place is the adventure capital of Fiji, and many people do shark diving which sounds awesome! I was pretty tired so a few of us went to bed earlyish, but I didn't sleep very well at all sadly!