Airlie to Agnes... good times

Last time I wrote I was off to the Freight Train after party at Beaches bar which was fun - lots of giggles and as much free beer as i wanted! Woo! Dragged along a couple of the girls from my hostel too - erin and nicha - who are lovely girls.
On Saturday I spent a long time reading my book on the terrace of the hostel and finished it.. dont you hate it when you get to the end of a really good book... especially when you don't have enough money to be picky about the next one - just whatever is lying about in hostels! Later on I ventured to the best smoothie bar in the world (was addicted to the fruit crushes in there) and saw on the notice board outside that there were several people offering lifts south in exchange for petrol money (Id already looked on gumtree but nobody was going the same direction as me at the same time) so I rang a few of the numbers and one of them said he was heading South on Monday morning... perfect. I met up with him for a hardcore lemonade and he was with a group of friends who were all really nice and laid back and normal. I ended up spending a few hours with them and agreed to a lift to Rockhampton in return for $30 towards fuel, which saved me over $100 compared to going by bus. I planned to then get a bus from Rockhampton to Agnes Waters which is where I wanted to stay. In the evening I met up with Linda (who I first met randomly at the lighthouse in Byron Bay) and her boyfriend Matthew and his friend James. Linda is from Switzerland but has been at language school in Airlie Beach for 6 months - then took some time off to travel up the east coast before she heads home, which is how I came to meet her in Byron. We all went for dinner at a nice italian restaurant on the waterfront(I pulled out my backpacker $10 special voucher like a true cheapskate haha) and Matthew and James bought us cocktails from Oskas bar which were just a little bit lethal... including one which had tequila in it.. I had to stop after that because I hate the stuff, it is pure evil! Afterwards we went to Paddy Shenanigans which is a bar/club to go a' dancin'. They had a rock band in there who were really good and Michael and Sam, the dive instructors from freight train were in there too so that was great and we had a good laugh.
Sunday I went to the lagoon though I couldn't bring myself to swim in there..it just seems like it must be full of germs - i know i am not the sort of person to concern myself about germs but people said its really warm etc.. and I just thought it would be like swimming in pee which i didnt really fancy! I met up with Paul (the guy who was giving me a lift) again just to make sure he was definitely normal and had no axe murderer characteristics... not that i know what they would be... haha. I went and bought fresh calamari and chips with great big lemon wedges and sat and ate them on the beach watching the sunset... happy times! I spoke to mum on the phone (Mum, sorry I told a slight white lie about the transport arrangements but i knew you'd worry!) and then went to bed about 8pm and got up at 3am for the start of the road trip! woo! We went to mcdonalds for coffee... Then the masssssive journey began... one beautiful sunset, loads of terrible music (including that awful band hilltop hoods!), one slightly scary de-tour to an aboriginal carving in the woods, lots of funny stories and about 20 dead stinking kangaroos later, we arrived in Rockhampton - 'home of the bull'. Apparently young kids always hack-sawed the bollocks off the city's trademark bull statue and the council kept having to replace them. Now the bull has detachable balls and someone in the council is responsible for putting them on in the morning and taking them off in the afternoon.. how funny is that!! That must be a good job title.
Anyway we had some breakfast in Rockhampton and then continued on our journey. Paul is a really nice guy - he is a chef and has had some great jobs including chef-ing for 5 star resorts on the whitsundays, working one of philip green's multimillion yachts based in Monaco(well it didnt sound much like work but he got paid for it) and at the moment he is a chef for Movie World near Surfers Paradise and has been cooking for the cast of the 3rd Narnia film. He was living in Holland for 6 years but moved back to Australia about a year ago. Paul had originally planned to drop me in Rockhampton but decided he would come for a surf at 1770, the village next to Agnes Waters which has some of the best surf in Queensland. It was only about an hour de-tour of the highway for him and we eventually arrived in Agnes Waters/1770 area at about midday... Paul went for a surf, I went for a swim, we both went for a smoothie and then drove to the first backpackers we could see which is where I am now. Its a lovely little backpackers and I get on really well with the girl that runs it during the day... she cracks me up! Its pretty basic but has everything I need and its clean.. whooopeee... and I've got a bottom bunk... double whoopeee! So tonight will be my second night in Agnes Waters.. last night I didnt sleep much because some bloke kept coughing every minute and the fruit bats outside are sooo loud! However I have found some earplugs so hopefully will get some sleep tonight! last night I went on a sunset tour - it was only $12 - bargain so i decided to do it to get my bearings of the place. The tour guide was so funny.. and gorgeous! I called him Bazza (i.e Barry White because he kept trying to do a sexy voice on his new microphone toy in the minibus) and he permenantly took the piss out of my apparently dirty laugh which I didnt realise was that bad! We went to several different look out points in the area and then went to a beach to watch the sunset.. ahhhh... it was very pwetty.
Hope you are all well and its getting warmer in England! xx