Going BALL-istic all the way to Heron Island

Its been a crazy past few weeks (nothing new there really) and I've got loads to update on. Two weekends ago I travelled up to Hervey Bay for our Ask Weekend with the other Lockley guys and all of our partners for Ball. It was about 5 hours of travel but my friend B1 has an awesome house right on the beach that definitely made the trip well worth it. The gals had already had a bit to drink on the ride so we were all rearing to get our weekend started by the time we finally arrived.

We quickly unloaded the two cars (the third would come later because a couple of the people had exams to take that day and ran out to the water and played out there for a good few hours. The water got a bit chilly for us so we went inside to get some dinner and to play some good old drinking games (Taylor and I had been put in charge of those since being the resident Americans it was assumed we had an extensive knowledge of them :P). The next day a few people had to go back to college because of school/work obligations but the rest of us spent the start of the day lazing about watching TV and laughing at the pictures from the day before.

Eventually we managed to corral the energy to go outside but since it was low tide we had to walk a good couple kilometers out to even get to the water. B1 and Boomer taught Fuster and I how to play a backyard version of cricket which was alot of fun as well. We had a fire that night on the beach and we introduced our Aussie friends to the best version of s'mores that we could create. Apparently they don't have graham crackers here!? So we had to improvise with some cookie/cracker things I figured would do the trick. And their marshmallows are about the 1/3 of the size of ours so we had a bit of difficulty roasting them over the fire but we made it work and everyone was quite happy with the result.

Took us about 9 hours to travel back because of troubles with the train schedule but it was all well and good as I got to converse with B1 quite a bit. He's a pretty chill guy and we had endless chats about the weekend, his friends who had visited us and the shenanigans they used to have, and he taught me quite a bit about how the Australian government works. Needless to say, its got some similarities to American government but its got quite a few interesting distinctions (a part from being a part of the commonwealth of course). People vote for parties and not the candidates that the party endorses so if a party is voted in and they decide they don't like what the candidate is doing then they can oust them for somebody new. This happens even to the Prime Minister, most recently Kevin Rudd having been replaced by Julia Guillard.

Anywho, thats a whole conversation and a half to itself that I shant be getting into now. This last Friday we had our Ball and everyone first gathered in the Dining Hall for some predrinks and hors d'oeuvres. Everyone was up in their finest and looked absolutely amazing! It was still a secret at this point as to where we were going but we piled onto the buses and eventually found ourselves at the Rydges Hotel downtown. An elevator took us up to the top floor where we were greeted by waiters with champagne and the most beautiful view of the city and the river that I could've imagined. There was a live jazz band playing, two balconies, an endless stream of wine, beer, and champagne, a delicious meal of steak and potatoes, an amazing brownie type dessert, basically a phenomenal evening all around. I sadly didn't have my camera but others got pics and I'll be sure to get some up once I've gotten them myself.

The next morning we all got up early for the day after event called Recovery, basically a fun hair of the dog kind of idea. Everyone got dressed up in absurd clothing, started drinking out on the front lawn and then hopped on a bus to a local pub called the Down Under, aka the Dunda.

Sunday I travelled down to the Gold Coast with Fuster and Jeeves where we stayed with our friend Mussels. We had really only expected a ride down there but she and her family were wonderful enough to let us stay with them and Mussels played tour guide to us through Tuesday (now). We were well and knackered after two solid days of drinking but we managed to get out Sunday night to enjoy the beach a bit. Monday avo we went out to the Hinterlands (bushland = country) where we drove up into the mountains and did a fair bit of hiking. The Gold Coast and the surrounding area was actually a massive volcano some 20 million years ago but has since eroded leaving a web of rivers and a circle of mountains. We went to a place called the World's Best Lookout which though a rather immodest name it offered a spectacular view of the entire area. We also went on a 4km walk around a sweet waterfall before having a nice picnic lunch in the park. After an afternoon power nap we went into the city to get dinner with our friend Echo on the beach. We also ran into another Cromwellian Towel, who was having dinner with his parents.

Its been a busy past few weeks with class, trips and such, and it continues tonight. I'll be leaving for Heron Island in bout an hour and will be up there for bout five days snorkelling with the fishies, turtles, sharks, and such! Should be a great time and there'll be plenty of pics and stories once I return at the end of break. Until then, I bid you all adieu!