Oz: no wizard- just a witch. (brisbane and noosa)

I arrived in Australia to cold steel. That is, the cold steel of the throwing stars I had worked so hard to secure in Singapore for Nat being siezed. Lucky I declared them instead of just trying to march through customs, because they told me i would have been served with a $1000 fine if I had so much as tried.
Hurrah.
An hour later after having my whole bag turned inside out (and me drawing a deep deep breath when they pulled out the bag of shells I'd been collecting in every beach I'd stopped by all over the world for Lizzy, who makes pretty necklaces and jewellery with things like that).
They didnt confiscate them, thank god.. but they were in question.
I finally got into brisbane proper, and waited at the train station of Buranda for Gina to pick me up. Gina was kindly letting me kip at her place in Brisbane, and it was her birthday so I felt bad enough for having her come get me.

I felt even worse when we had to find a hospital for my overdue rabies jab, and ended up taking a total of 6 hours to have the whole thing sorted out.
The inefficiency of the Aussie hospitals was amazing. Incredible even.
There I was telling them I needed a rabies vaccination, I had the name of the medicine and everything, and had already had two similar jabs, and they insisted i needed to pay to see a GP first who would order me to have the vaccine. Waste of resources, time, and my money.

The woman who was working there, Lynne, whined and moaned the whole way through about getting me the vaccine (did i mention we were at a PRIVATE hospital, where you pay for the pleasure of their facilities) and she finished up by telling me how hard it was to find a rabies vaccine in Australia, and that SHE WAS DOING ME A FAVOUR. A favour, that she was charging me $240 for, no less.
I was not impressed. That, and they told me to go home and wait till I was telephoned, as it would take a while to get the vaccine brought over from the pharmacy one floor down.
Once I got back to Gina's they called to say I needed to pay for the vaccine before it could be even released, to head to me. So I had to go back to pay to go back to gina's to wait to go back to get injected. Stupid? YES.
I asked the woman, "uh, and why can I not pay over the phone with my credit card?"
"oh. Yes, you can do that. Yes, you can"

DAMN RIGHT I CAN.
UGH.

Due to the delay of that arsy hospital, We were late for Gina's birthday party.
Poor girl, late for her own bday because a perfect stranger had to battle with the system. UGH.

Anyways, had a barbecue (what aussies to best) on Kangeroo Point, and then fell asleep there out of sheer exhaustion until it was time to head home.
I slept till 1pm the next day, and found that Gina was heading to Byron Bay, so I'd need to find another place to stay for the night. Ut Oh.

At precisely 4pm was when I found this out, and by 4:10 i was panicking about where the hell I was going to go.
Gina suggested Noosa, so Noosa it was.
Hostels were all fully booked. Except one, I got their last bed.. hurrah.
I had a train leaving at 5:25. By now it was 4:40. I dashed, packed my shit up and left in a hurry, catching my trains perfectly and arriving late at 9pm at Noosa.
Hostel was fine, even better for them giving me a free glass of wine upon arrival- to calm my splitting headache and the drowned rat look I must have been sporting.

I met a few girls that night and played pool with them, but generally had an early night. Or so I had planned.

At around 3am a swedish guy who's sleeping on the bunk below me wakes me up:

"Can I sleep with you?"

"I BEG YOUR PARDON?!" (that's me)

"There's ants in my bed! I'm getting bitten"

So, what girl with any humanity in her heart would say no? I mean, no one can sleep with misery, so I squeezed myself against the wall and let the boy have half the bed.

Then. Then. Then. I find out after he continues chatting to me, that he had made the whole thing up. I have to give him credit, its the best chat up line I've ever heard, because its so convincing, and no girl would ever say no, because that would make her seem cold hearted.

Well. I was not impressed. And the nice people in the hostel the next morning did offer to have him thrown out. Again, an appeal to humanity, there's no way I'd have him chucked for something so silly- but still, what balls the swedish have!


I went to the beach that day and just chilled out, and went to a travel agent after panicking about my ever decreasing time in oz, and all the things I wanted to see and do.
Within an hour an itinerary was planned.
I was going to be heading
Horseback Riding,
dolphin feeding
to Rainbow Beach,
to Fraser Island on a day safari
to the whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef on a sailing expedition that lasts 3 days
and to Airlie beach.

It cost me a bomb, but i'm sorted. yes.