Melbourne!

Once I was done in Canberra, I made my way to Melbourne which I would consider one of the more beautiful cities I have been in. On my first day in Melbourne I spent a good chunk of it sleeping as sleeping on a full bus without leg room doesn't make for the nicest sleep, but it did get me there.
That evening I did go out a bit to see a bit of the city and saw a bit more of the area around Southern Cross Station before heading back to the hostel and catching some of the views of the city by night.

The next day I went to the Queen Victoria Markets where I bought some souveniers and gifts for the family as well as meeting up with the Irish girls I met on the Fraser Island and Whitsundays Trip (Small world).

Just one of the like at least 10 sheds

Later on in that day I did a bus tour around the city seeing some of the major areas as well as making the city a little less disorienting for me. After that I made my way towards the AFL game that was on that night at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) between Essendon and Richmond. This is an Aussie Rules Football game rather than the one I went to in Brisbane which was a rugby league game. It was quite interesting watching this game as it is quite different than anything I have seen before and it was pretty cheap as well. I figure there were probably at least 70,000 people there as that stadium can hold over 100,000 people. Also thanks to Emma I actually understood a bit of how the game works.

War Memorial

You can still get horse buggy rides in the city

After the game I met a few other Canadians and then I made my way back to the hostel. The next day I moved to the Melbourne Metro YHA which is in downtown Melbourne. Since it was raining that day I made my way to the Melbourne Museum to check out the King Tut exhibit that was there at the time. This was one of the last stops before the exhibit before heading back to Cairo, and I don't think I have ever seen so much gold in my life. Unfortunately I could not take pictures in that exhibit.

The Melbourne Mueseum

The Australian Coat of Arms

Now if I could only trade in some of that weight for actual gold

The for the next and last day in Melbourne me and the Irish girls rented a car and did a trip along the Great Ocean Road. To be honest it wasn't quite as spectacular as I imagined but we also didn't quite make it to the great apostles before we had to head back to the city.

That night I went to the Eureka 88 Skydeck which is the highest viewpoint in the Southern Hemisphere. The elevator to get up 88 stories takes just 38 seconds! And once you get up, everyone is like "Oh, Wow"

Later on that evening I met up with another friend that I met along the way in Airlie beach where we had a bit to eat at Bertha Brown's, which has some of the best pizza's you can get (and if you stay at the YHA they are only $5 each!)
The next day I got a train back to Sydney so that I could make my way to Bathurst the day after so that I could meet up with my friends from there again before I fly back to Canada.

Canberra and the EUG's

On my first night in Canberra I stayed at the YHA and was quite exhausted after only sleeping about 2 hours at the airport the night before due to the cancelled flights. The hostel there was actually really nice and the rooms were massive! Didn't feel like a 10 share room at all. While there I met a German girl who was also backpacking (not so many backpackers in Canberra) and we made our way to the Australian Parliment House and the Australian Mint. The new parliment building is quite impressive sitting at the top of a hill with some great architecture. We did a tour of the building and then made our way to the mint. Since it was a good long walk we actually ended up hitchhiking on a city bus. At the mint we saw some of the process involved in making the coins. It would have been another long walk back to the hostel so we asked around and there were some very friendly people from Queensland there that actually gave us a ride back to the hostel. From there I got picked up by a friend so that we could get accreditated for the Eastern Uni Games (EUG's) and stay at our accommodation there. 

Australia's Parliament Buildings

Great Hall in the Parliament Buildings

Looking out over the old Parliament Buildings and the War Memorial way in the distance from the top of the new Parliament Buildings

Inside the mint, was not operating due to it being the weekend

I was on the CSU Falcons Ultimate Frisbee team at the EUG's which was good fun. We also actually managed to do fairly well, coming in 7th out of 16. It was quite a challenge as it was very windy and cold while we were there except for maybe the last day which was windy, but not quite as cold. We played at the University of Canberra and usually had theme nights either there or at ANU. On one of the nights there was an ultimate frisbee gathering at the Uni Pub at the Civic which was good fun. And that is one of the reasons I love ultimate frisbee is that it is more of a game where people are in it for the fun, rather than for the win so much. After the last game, we went and watched the CSU basketball team get second place, and then most people from our team left to go back home. I was able to snatch up a last minute overnight bus ticket to Melbourne which left at 11:55pm so I had some time to burn. I had some friends on the Hockey team (field hockey) who were staying that night, so I met up with them at their accomadation before heading out the the Uni Pub. After a good time there I made my way back to the bus stop for another long bus ride. As usual I did not get any sleep on the bus, and as soon as I got a bed in Melbourne I slept for a good while.

Guy in the red is on our team and is also on the Aussie Nationals team

Group Shot!

Ice Skating in town

Last night in Canberra!

Cairns!

After a very long and boring 11 hour bus ride during the day to Cairns we arrived in warm but rainy Cairns (The warmth there made it well worth it) Since it was late, rainy and dark me and a friend hopped on a shuttle to one of the hostels where I ended up staying 2 nights before going to the YHA nearby. The highlight of my stay in Cairns was definitely diving the Great Barrier Reef which was an absolutly amazing experience and is something I would love to do again in the future. I actually ended up doing two dives of about 25 minutes each that day and throughaly enjoyed both. Its considerabily better than snorkeling and is not as difficult as I thought it would be. We went to a depth of about 8 meters and saw a massive sting ray, lots of coral, Nemo, and plenty of other cool fish.

Despite it being a "cooler" day it was still 24c with the water being the same, so it was actually really comfortable. I don't think I ever had to put on a jumper or pants there. T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops (or thongs as they say in Australia) were sufficient day and night.
After that I had another two days in Cairns where I mainly just walked around the area and hung out with some friends that I met along the way. The city center has a nice layout and anything a backpacker would want is within walking distance. They also have live music daily to keep the good atmosphere and a nice pool to swim in as you can't really swim in the Ocean there. By night there was also plenty to do, and me and my friends went out every night while I was there. My favorite place was probably The Wool Shed which is actually where I celebrated Canada Day with some fellow Canadians and some Poutine!

Daily live music

The relpica of the Endeavour ship that Captain Cook used

Some of the Canadians I met along the way

Canada Day!!

Poutine anyone?

Sadly that night I did have to leave to go to Canberra. Unfortunatly all the flights I had booked through Tiger Airways were cancelled that night, so I had to quickly book another flight on Jetstar to Syndey, where I found someone else on my ultimate frisbee team who was going to Canberra and lived near the airport. So it actually ended up working out perfectly as I got to exactly where I wanted to go. Which is one of the things that I learned when travelling is that everything always ends up working out no matter how bad it may seem at the time.

Airlie beach and the Whitsundays!

After Hervey Bay I had another overnight bus to Airlie beach which is where I did my Whitsundays sailing trip on the Avatar. I started with one night in Airlie Beach at the Base Backpackers which was pretty good and the next two nights I spent on the boat. The boat was a trimaran and there were 10 of us plus 3 crew.

While on the boat we did some snorkeling at some of the coral near some of the islands. It was a little cold especially the first snorkel, but the second time the water was a lot warmer and it was a bit nicer. It was really cool seeing the coral and the very colourful fish up close and was something I have never experienced before. We also visited Whitehaven beach which is almost pure white since it is 98% pure silica. Sleeping on the boat was alright for a boat, and the food was alright. On the last day I did manage to get quite seasick and managed to throw up over the side of the boat. So I did learn that life on the sea is not for me, but it was a good experience none the less. Once we were off the boat we spent one more night at Base Backpackers before an 11 hour bus ride to Cairns. We were all pretty exhausted after the boat trip, but being a backpacker, sleep can always come later. So me and a bunch of people I met along the way went out for a while that night.

Out on the boat

Whitsunday Island

Beach that is almost pure silica, to bad the weather was not great

The boat we were on

The lagoon in town

Some of the people I met along the way

Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

From Noosa I kept going north to Hervey Bay which I mainly came for to go on my Nomads Fraser Island Trip which was a great experience seeing some more of beatiful Australia. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and I went on a tag along 4x4 trip which showed us around some of the main highlights of the island.

Hervey Bay Beach

Ferry to get onto Fraser Island

Driving along the Beach

This was a 3 day 2 night trip in which we stayed at a camp overnight in 3 groups of 8 or 7 people each. On the island we saw some very nice areas such as Indian Head, Champagne Pools, lake MacKenzie, and varius other sights such as a very nice freshwater creek.

Our group!

Our group

Really cool freshwater creek

We also got to hold a turtle which was really cool and unexpected.

Shipwreck

Winter in Australia!

A Norwegian, (short) Brit, and a Canadian

The group that I was with was pretty good, and was made up of 7 people, 5 girls, 2 guys, yet us guys wern't allowed to drive due to the age restrictions. Nevertheless the girls were good drivers and I had a great time. After a great time on the Island I had one more night in Hervey Bay before taking the bus to Airlie Beach for my Whitsundays sailing trip.