DAY FOUR Sunday, September 26: After contorting my body in a thousand different positions throughout the night in attempts to make my box of a seat comfortable, we were abruptly awoken by "Dynamite" and Doggie pouring goon into his mouth and slapping the bag. Of course, I threw my hands up in the air and got ready for the drunkest day of the entire vacation. We were extremely disappointed to see that the weather had no plans of clearing up as it drizzled all over us while we packed our 3 day packs for our stay on the Whitsunday Islands. We loaded up the banana boats and thrashed and crashed our way to the island. After dropping everything off at our awesome hostel, we jumped back on the boats and swerved and jumped off waves made by the other boat. Thought I may lose my life a couple times, but it was super fun! THAT'S WHEN WE SPOTTED THE SUN! It came out to play and the rest of the day was
gorgeous. Arriving in the middle of the ocean, we anchored up and people went snorkeling and sunbathing while we consumed more goon. After a short time at this spot, we went to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. All we could see was cloudless blue skies for miles and the clear water rippling next to the white-sand beach. Seriously, out of a postcard. Things got a bit messy as goon races, chicken fights, nudity and girl on girl making out action broke out. The trip back to the hostel is a bit cloudy for me as well as bringing our belongings to our room and resting up for the party that night. Apparently I missed the memo on the "Jungle Fever" theme of the party and continued to run around in my bikini from the day for the rest of the night. At least I was a bit more clothed than most of the Loyola boys who were sporting their animal-print thongs. Speaking of thongs (Australia's word for flippy-flops), I lost my shoes and walked around bare-foot for the next few days. Liberating. Also painful. After a while of dancing on stage, running around in my bikini
and probably making a giant fool of myself, I found myself with Dom, Tom and Sheehan and had a rendezvous on the massive golf course with a view of the mountains in the distance against the wide-open sky. We had some green on the green and the boys tried to kill toads. I can't remember if this is when I went and had a crying heart t0 heart with Mackenzie or when I went out to the dock and chatted with Mallory and Ant for a good 45 minutes. Either way, I wound up wandering home at some odd hour of the morning and had a chuckle at the state of my roommates passed out in crazy outfits with paint all over their faces and clothes, bags and alcohol cluttered on the floor. Fabulous night one, Whitsundays.
DAY FIVE Monday, September 27: This was one of those days that you wake up still out of it for most of the day until around the time you start drinking again. Wow, my liver hates me after this vacation. We were given a free day around the hostel so we lounged around the pool most of the day. The freezing cold water felt fabulous against my hungover head and we got some great sun-soaking time. The tour theme song was born and annoyingly, we were singing "ONE FISH TWO FISH EVERYWHERE WE GO! ONE FISH TWO FISH EVERYBODY KNOWS! WE ARE EXTREME AND WE'RE LIVING THE DREAM!" for the rest of the day. Or the remainder of the trip I should say. It was nice to have a break from waking up super early and putting massive amounts of alcohol into my body. Of course that couldn't last for too long and before I knew it, we were showering and getting ready for the "Plastic Fantastic" theme party that night. My outfit was pretty banging, if I do say so myself, although being stuck wearing plastic bags in the middle of tropical Australia is quite sweaty and uncomfortable. Daisy: "I'M WEARING ALL MY FAVORITE BRANDS, BRANDS, BRANDS, BRANDS!" Annaelle: "No you are not, you are wearing plastic bags..." (another classic Frenchie one-liner).
We pre-gamed for a lifetime, went and had some dinner and craziness ensued. Highlights: 1. Drinking games galore and epic pee stories 2. Meeting a dude from Namibia in South Africa who owned a farm with rhinos 3. Not losing my camera after a random hooligan took millions of pictures of everyone's bodies without their heads 4. More green. Two days in a row may be the record in Oz -- how disappointing. 5. Hanging out with complete randoms in a completely random room while wandering around on my own after an accident down by the beach. 6. Creepily taking sleep pictures of Jackie and being forced to sit on Adam's face. Which I might add, I would not do. Way to go again Whitsundays.
DAY SIX Tuesday, September 28: Disoriented wake up, I've grown quite accustomed to you after this trip. Had to say goodbyes to our amazing hostel that kept our disgusting secrets, a few pairs of shoes and my Ray-Bans. Hopefully someone else will now find my found Ray-Bans and enjoy them the way I did. It's all I can hope. We embarked to a large sailboat and more gooning began. At this point, I'm sure anyone reading this thinks we are all a bunch of alcoholics and would be repulsed by the amount of drinking. You should be. I can't believe I'm alive. Especially seeing as how me, deep water and proper breathing techniques with snorkel masks just don't go well together. I always forget how to breathe while snorkeling and have to
shoot out of the water when my mouth and mask fill with water. Put me out there with that while under the influence, OH! and horrible weather conditions, yeah...probably not my best idea. At least I had a noodle to keep me a float and Mary to desperately cling on to.After this life-threatening adventure, we enjoyed a delicious lunch and I played DJ while we danced away and people had a cold-cut ham fight. We docked off in a little town and while I should have purchased new shoes to wear (still running around barefoot at this point), I instead went with Molly and Sherm to the piercing place. Deciding I have already mutilated my body enough, I just offered moral support as Moll got her belly button pierced and Sam got her nose. Harry and Big Mike then decided to show up to get their nipples pierced. Good times. I ran around wasted for a bit (never actually getting shoes), spoke some gibberish, got some ice cream and passed out on the bus as we made our way to Mission Beach.
DAY SEVEN Wednesday, September 29: My favorite day of the entire trip! :) Although we had to wake up super early to head to the Tully River, it was totally worth it because we got to go white water rafting on Grade 4/5 rapids. Absolutely incredible! Our tour guide was a bit of a creep, but I think the entire company was just a little overly sexual because all of the rapids had sexual names like Double D Cup (where a girl lost her top once), The Climax and The Two Inch
(where the water gets really cold). Pretty funny though. We lost a few members in our boats as we crashed down the rapids, but luckily I stayed in. I was a bit nervous for Kelsey's life as she fell out in one of the worst rapids, but we came back with all members and we were already
battered and bruised from the days before, so overall it was a success. We flipped our boat, jumped off a cliff-like rock into the water, saw beautiful scenery and waterfalls and flashed some construction workers along the way. At one point the boys had to climb into our boat because they were stuck and clearly our boat of all girls were better navigators. There were a couple of points along the way where we could jump out and swim and float down the river and we stopped for a nice picnic lunch about mid-way through. The flies were a bit annoying and my arms were tired, but I would definitely give white water rafting another go.
Next, we got changed, cooled off with some ice cream and crammed back into the bus again to
head to Cairns. The drive was absolutely stunning and I didn't want to fall asleep to miss it. The plants and trees in Australia are so unique. I've never seen so many colors and shapes. We passed by a lot of sugar and banana farms and saw so many gorgeous flowers. When we arrived at our last hostel, Gilligan's, we showered up and got ready for BUNGEEEE JUMPING! On the way to Cairns I found a liquor store that actually sold normal spiced Captain Morgan (first bottle EVER in Australia) so I was ecstatic to get my drink with my real draaank. We had some liquid courage shots and boarded the double decker party bus to get to AJ Hackett. I felt like I was in a dream. We blasted loud music while dancing and taking in the hot air and cool breeze of the first night in Cairns and pumped each other up for what was sure to be one of the scariest experiences of our lives! We had a choice between bungee or the sky-swing first and it worked out I did the sky-swing first with Ali and Rhys. It wasn't really that scary at all, but still lots of
fun. By the time we were done with that, they were almost going to close down the Bungee. I would've liked one more tequila shot before taking it on, but there was no time for that and it came down to now or never. I ran up the millions of flights of stairs to the top and patiently waited my turn. Heights don't usually really scare me and I love thrill rides, but looking around at the pitch darkness and not even being able to see the water below was a bit disheartening. A ton of people had gone before me so I knew I would be fine, but jumping head first into nothingness still gets your heart racing a little bit. Luckily they don't even give you time to think when you're standing at the edge and the next thing I knew I was flinging through the air like Gumby with my boobs sliding out of my jumper. Between my shrieks people heard me shouting, "MY TITS ARE COMPLETELY OUT!" By this point in the trip, my boobs being covered was more of a shock than not so I guess it made sense for them to fall out here as well. This had to be one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. I felt like my body parts were made out of silly-putty being stretched and pulled every which way. When I stopped whipping around, a man grabbed my wrists and pulled me onto a little a boat where I was safely brought back to shore. WOOOOO! We then returned back to the hostel and quickly got more drunk and ready for the Woolshed. I participated in a wet t-shirt contest and lost to huge breasted ladies. They were all in our group though, so go them. Probably lost some dignity, but it was a great time. Only live once, why not be stupid and crazy while having a great time. Story of my lifeeee.
Ta-ta for now x
