Goodbye Sydney, Hello Airlie Beach!

Stacy, Lauren, Mary, me and our big backpacks left Sydney yesterday headed to Airlie Beach. We had a connecting flight trough Brisbane and ended up having to stay the night in Brisbane as our connecting flight was canceled due to flooding in Airlie. Airlie Beach is located in the state of Queensland and this area has experienced heavy rain, cyclones, and flooding this summer.

We were surprised that the airline (Virgin Blue) paid for both our hotel accommodations in Brisbane and all transportation to and from the airport. The hotel was nice and in the center of Brisbane. We only had the afternoon and evening to explore so we didn’t see all Brisbane has to offer. We walked through the Queen St. Mall area where there were many shops and restaurants. We didn’t make it to the beach as it is about 20 minutes outside of the city but we did see the Brisbane River, which runs through the center of town. We went to bed early as we wanted to make the most of our “luxurious” accommodations and couldn’t wait to jump into our double beds as we are use to sleeping on a twin bed, couch or the floor!

To catch up on our last weekend in Sydney…Mary arrived in OZ on Saturday and was able to see much of the city in 2 days. We moved out of our house in Coogee on Friday and were supposed to move into a hostel; however, the hostel lost our reservation. Danny was kind enough to let all 4 of us crash at his house in Maroubra Beach for the weekend. Thanks Danny you are the best!

We spent Mary’s first day at Maroubra Beach and then went to a birthday party at an outdoor restaurant/pub in Watson’s Bay. The place was fun with amazing views of the city and reminded us of Sam’s in Tiburon. We took a water taxi back to the city and hung out at Opera House Bar, which is a cool outdoor bar overlooking the Harbor Bridge and Opera House. Mary was a trooper and made it out until 10 pm without a nap!

Sunday we took a Ferry over to North Sydney to Manly Beach. We met up with our new friends Erika and Ester who are both from the US and just arrived in Australia to work through the Bunac Program as well. After the beach we all went to Gooneville* and then back to Erika and Ester’s cool place overlooking Darling Harbor.

We were rerouted through Hamilton Island where we caught a boat over to Airlie Beach. We are staying in a hostel on the beach in Airlie tonight and tomorrow we depart on an overnight sailing cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. We are here until Saturday and plan to snorkel and dive at the Great Barrier Reef.

Today it finally stopped raining in the afternoon and the sun came out! It is supposed to be sunny and warm for the rest of our visit! We had an orientation for our sailing cruise and we spent the day swimming at the nearby lagoon.

*Gooneville: A place one goes while drinking an entire box of Goone (wine). Goone is the Aboriginal word for pillow, and legend has it that after consuming a box of wine they blow up the inside bag and use as a pillow. I am unsure if this story is true or if someone was lying to me because they know I am gullible.