Australia - Fraser Island - Mehron Gets Off Her Plane and Into Our 4WD

After oodles of anticipation, my next travel buddy Mehron finally arrived in Brisbane this week. Like myself, Mehron has abandoned her responsibilities and opted to saunter around the world for a year. She just left a bit later than I did, which in the long run was probably very clever, since I will ultimately return to Canada in the dead of winter, while she will return home just in time for summer. Mehron 1, Holly -1.

Having come directly from Hawaii, she is finding Australia a little bit cool. Our 20-25 degree days and 10 degree nights would seem frosty compared to the paradise islands. Confession: I am wearing a sweater right now - the mornings are on the cool side and my house is made of cardboard. So I can't give her too much of a hard time over it.

Her first incredibly jetlagged day or so in Brisbane was spent on the important tourist landmarks of our neighbourhood. Namely, the wicked Cold Rock ice creamery (actual word) and the scuzzy Stafford City shopping mall. And both lived up to their descriptions. Cold Rock is the ultimate DQ blizzard - they use hard ice cream and mash in whole mini chocolate bars and other toppings according to your wishes. Stafford is the Westgate mall of Australia, complete with senior citizens, multiple dollar stores, a dodgy food court and sleazy clientele. If only it wasn't also the location of the only banks within walking distance of my house...

These fascinating experiences were leading up to the big event of her week in Brisbane: our roadtrip to Fraser Island on the weekend (for people who enjoy trivia, Fraser is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the largest sand island in the world). On Friday night, Mehr and I put our lives in the hands of Mick and our giant 4WD rental that made pick-up trucks look like delicate flowers. We drove out to Samford to meet up with his brother and sister, Jordan and Alisa, and headed out at the absurdly early hour of 4:45am the next day.



The tides north of Noosa and on Fraser Island were against us from the start, with high tide being between noon and two p.m., making beach driving impossible during the bulk of the normal hours of the day.



Mick took us up the northern beaches of Cooloola in Great Sandy National Park (very fitting name). After a missed turn or two, we did eventually make it to Rainbow Beach and Inskip Point to board the incredibly overpriced six minute ferry across to the island. On the way, everyone was trying to come up with clever ways to play on how my last name was the same as the name of the island or somehow make a joke at my expense. This was the best they came up with: "Hey, your last name is Fraser. That's the island's name". Good effort, team, but no dice.

We then spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the island by doing a whole lot of driving and a whole lot of loud-and-not-necessarily-in-tune singing along to the music blasting from our speakers. No wonder the dingos stayed away from us.



Other stunning sights seen include the Eastern beach, the Southern Lakes (Birrabeen and Mackenzie were tops), Happy Valley (actual name), the sandblows (massive sand dunes), the Cathedrals (sand formations resembling steeples?), the coloured sands, the Maheno shipwreck (beached in 1935, once carried 500 passengers), Indian Head, and the Champagne Pools.



The driving was great for the most part. We did reach one impasse when we encountered a tree that had fallen across the road, but our lovely rental towed it aside with relative ease.



There was also an incident when I was not reminded by the driver to roll up my window before crashing through a big beach creek... a significant splash and a lot of laughter at my expense ensued. Moreover, the only time we got bogged was when our car boarded the ferry on the way home. The ship drifted too parallel with the shoreline while loading cars with strong winds and waves and the docking end was more than a little mired for a couple of minutes. All in all, a fantastic weekend.