Christmas and so on....

Christmas was rather wierd and uneventful. The family I stayed with was nice. I met Jess in greece last year and she kindly invited me to spend christmas with her. After a shopping marathon the first few days we had feasts for the next few days. It was fun, but not christmas. First off it was a seafood bbq for christmas dinner and largely for christmas eve as well. I mean, I love squid, don't get me wrong but i just don't think christmas is a squiddy kind of holiday. But the whole event was pleasant and my friend's sister in law had a baby on christmas day so i got to go see the baby. Cool, but meh. Then it was off to the airport to fly to melbourne to meet up with a girl I'd met in Sydney for new years.

Gold Coast.....again

Somehow, however I plan I always end up back on the gold coast. Benny came to pick me up from the train station (had to take a train from the airport b/c i flew into brisbane) and I went "home" to mudgeeraba. I spent about a week there and it was nice to unwind, be on familiar turf, and have people I knew around me. I went shopping and made up for lost time at Starbucks. I LOVE the gingerbread lattes!! Wish they had them year-round. But then it was time to fly down to sydney for christmas.

Back down the coast

So, after going all that way up it was time to turn around. I picked up Jacque, the dutch girl, and we were on our way to Airlie Beach. It was a long day in the car but we made it, having picked up about 35lbs of free mangos on the way down. We lived on mangos and bummed around Airlie Beach for a week. She went on a sailing trip (I wasn't about to do that again!) and I sold my car and bought a plane ticket back to the Gold Coast. During this time I went a little nutty making necklaces, but did manage to sell a few so it was ok. Then it was time to part ways and I got on my plane (surfboard and all) and went down to the gold coast. It was pretty cool, they took my board without charging me any extra. I looked it up online first and it turns out that all sports equipment can be checked in for free. However, if you want to bring something on the plane with you and have it sit next to you, it can only be a cello. If you would like to book a seat for your cello please contact customer service.

The Rainforest

The Daintree rainforest is incredible. There's a small town called Mossman that's right in the thick of it. We went to Mossman Gorge and who'd have guessed, it was raining in the rainforest. We didn't let it get us down though. We went on a hike through and became obsessed with 2 things. The first was taking pictures of really cool trees (see below), and the second was picking leeches off my feet! I thought those things lived in water but I guess the rain made it wet enough for them to be wandering around and attach themselves to my flip-floppy feet. So the whole day kinda went "ohhhhh ahhhhh treeeeeees. ewwww!! It's on me! It's on me! Get it off!!!"
A few days later we were taken on a tour of the area by a friend. He took us to see rock wallaby's and they were sooooo cute. Obviously people come up to feed them so they are super friendly and even the babies came right up.

Port Douglas and the great barrier reef

After my huge trek to Cairns I was very disappointed. It's a crap "city" that's really just dodgy looking. After one night I was ready to move on. Silvia and I headed for the next thing north (Port Douglas) having no expectations. When we got there we absolutely fell in love with the small town. It was alltogether charming with it's palm tree and mango lined streets. A small white church stood in a park with really old mango trees that were all heavy with fruit. Most days we went "mango hunting" and picked the good ones off the ground, and sometimes from the trees.
We quickly found a place to work for accomodation by cleaning for a few hours a day. Most of the time it was totally worth it. We had a tv and a mini-fridge in our room, luxury for a backpacker. I made friends with some people at the nearby hostel and met Jacque, a dutch girl travelling by herself. For two weeks we hung out, then decided that we would travel south together. One day we got to go on a trip out to the reef for free b/c they were shooting photos for the brochure and needed more people on the boat. Then, a friend of mine wanted a dive buddy so I got a free dive on the great barrier reef. It was amazing, like nothing I've ever seen. The coral was brilliant. Not that you can tell by the pictures.

Funny story, our first night there we were unwilling to spend money on a place to stay so we decided to sleep in the car. Some rugby game was on that night and the pub was crowded so we went to see what was going on. To make a long story short, we met some nice people and got to stay in a gorgeous beach house and drink expensive wine instead of sleeping in the car.

Now I'm back in Airlie Beach with Jacque. Not really sure what the plan is other than to sell some necklaces at the market next sunday. So I've got a week here.

My chat with Matthew McConaughey

The movie "Fools Gold" has been filming in Port Douglas (the town I'm in) for a few months now and just as I got here they are moving south. So, being that it's a small town and word travels fast, I found out where the wrap party for Pt. Douglas would be and decided to go. It was a restaurant/club called The Watergate. Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey were there. I chatted with Kate's personal assistant for a while but didn't get an introduction. The bar was packed and it was taking a long time to get a drink and I saw Matthew up there and he (of course) got the ear of a bartender straight away. So I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to get me a glass of water. He did. I asked if i could get a pic, he said no. He looks really ragged, not at all as nice as on TV, but anyway the night just went on as normal from there until we went to leave. A friend of mine knew his assistant and was talking to him, which left me standing with Matthew for a while. So we chatted a bit. Someone pointed out that my friend and I had almost the same necklace, but I made mine myself and said so. Then we were chatting about my problem finding work and Matthew said maybe I should be a jewelry designer. I blew off the idea at the time but have since been giving it more thought. If I can find a place to sell my jewelery then I will. This internet is freaking expensive so I have to finish the story now.