FRASER ISLAND

Hi everyone! 

Hope you had a great Easter Holiday - and apparently you guys had a REALLY GREAT easter this year! I'm almost jealous. The weather Gods gave you the whole package didn't they. 

Well, we have also had an wicked holiday, and we'll try to sum up the highlights from out trip to Fraser Island in a bit, 

But first: "Stemnings rapport" from our normal life in Brissie the last couple of weeks, in pictures:

Brisbane River

The campus

Late evening at Uni

Dinner home..

Dinner out ;) Our favorite in Toowong!

Biking to Uni on the very yellow Citycycles

The Lolly shop at Uni.. I'm to found of this shop..

Stans Birthday!! We went to Regatta Hotel/Bar with Ingrid, Torbear
and som more pepole form fysio

Fraser Island! 

"It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"And it was! Both Stan, Ingrid, Torbear and me really got our bums shaked and stirred in our Toyota Landcruiser.

Seif, Emilie, Ingrid, Torbear, Stan and me - and our 4WD!

We rented this monster of a car at Britz rentals, and they actually rent you the car with all you'll need for a Australian camping holiday. So in the car we got our tents, sleeping bags, mats (even pillows!), chairs, table, cooking equipments, a fridge and even a portable shover:P haha. They really know camping in this country, hey!

What they don't know down here - is driving on the right side of the road- 

Stan took the load and offered to try and bring us safe out of the city. Not without some struggling, but at last Stan learned not to put the wiskers on when he wanted to side blink, and he stopped asking "Hvor i helvete kommer bilene fra her?!" at every junction. 

Feeling cinda left-handed!

Torbear learning the tricks from Seif.

Such a beauty!

On the way to Fraser, the expression "Stay safe with Seif" emerged. Lucky for us, Seif showed us some important things to consider when driving a 4WD!

The Kids in the backseat!

 To get to Fraser Island, you typically take a ferry. That's something we're used to from Norway. Well, I guess you could say they do it a little "less complicated" down here. The ferry just anchored straight at the beach. Easy. 

The ferry to Fraser Island!

After a short ferry ride we were speeding onto Fraser and, heading for the Pacific beach highway. That was a rare experience. It was something I've never done before. And not the others either. So, in the first ten to fifteen minutes there were a lot of screams, funny noises and  happy faces emerging from the car windows. 

Driving on the sandy highway!

Yippeyyy!

A beautiful place!

The shifting of the low- and high tide is pretty big, and the highway gets flooded at high tide. Therefor we had to get to our point of camping before the swell got to high. This was no problem - this day- ;)

The first two nights we stayed in the middle of the island, called Central Starion - funny how this name gives you misleading associations to some urban centre when it's only some toilets in the bush. This place was beautiful, with high trees and a lot of bird noises. We were eager to get our camp up and to try our fancy facilities! But then we found out that the rental company had sent us away with mismatching tents… We had two small tents, one with a rain cover -and one without, and a big cover without pools ect. 

But, as the Aussie say, "No worries". Stan got his McGyver hat on and made a fantastic totempel of our camp:) In the evening we were eating tacos, accompanied by a (either) big mouse or a small rat. In the end we were all sitting more on the table than beside it and the guys felt they needed to protect us from this threat with wooden mallets.

hmmmm... 

The McGyver solution!

Candlelights and curious mouse.  

The next day we met Seif and Emilie (his girlfriend) and went to lake McKenzie - Or actually - first we had to fix the fridge, cause it'd shut down. When we didn't menage to fix it - we just bought ice ( I will probably get smacked for saying that "we" were trying to fix it, hehe, OKOK, Stan and Torbear tried to fix it). And second - we got stuck in the sand! And this time Stan and Torbear felt "they didn't get the change to try to fix it!" - cause there was two other guys coming over and helped us out right away. Her vil vi klare det sjoel ja! - 

We are beginning to learn how it is to do real 4WD!

A dingo!! Sooo quite!  

Finally getting to Lake McKenzie!

After taking a swim in lake McKenzie we headed over to make dinner and drink some beer with Seif and Emilie at their camping spot by the beach. When the night came out, the sky was bright with stars! Infact, we could view to the whole Milkyway from our spots at the beach. I felt quite small then. Me and Stan revealed some mystery riddles to the others around the bonfire, and especially Emilie got completely carried away with the game. All I was missing was my "Lommelerke" with some good whisky ;)

Beauty at the sanddunes 

Of course - the campfire!

It was hard to capture the Milkyway ...

Our kitchen in the back of the truck.

The ride home in the dark, got more exiting than planned… We had to drive some part of it on the beach, and since it was getting high tide things got a little challenging. But Torbear was steady as a shadow, and managed to swing the car back to position when I was certain is was gonna tip over. A little shaky, we bumped into the dirt roads, leaving the beach behind, feeling lucky our car didn't end up in the swells of this nights high tide:P 

The next days were filled up with more 4Wdriving, fresh lakes, sand dunes, dingo visits at night and more sand. We moved our camp to the beach for the last two nights, and had breakfast at the beach on the morning. Life was good!

Ingrid and Emilie with wind in their skirts:)

Small living things inside 

Happy clappers 

Stan makes a jump for it at Lake Wabby

I did jump after this picture...;P

A beautiful morning, promising rain...

Our monster car!

"Gass, gass, gass, gass, gassssss!"

We even saw a snake! In the bush! We were walking to Lake Wabby, and suddenly Seif points at a snake crossing the path in front of us. Pretty undramatic. And I didn't even get afraid! - Australia does something to ya - that's for sure;) 

The Maheno wreck, just lying at the Pacific beach highway

The Maheno wreck. Once shaped for the sea, now shaped by it.

Freedom!

The island is over 125 km long, and 25 km at the widest. The northernmost point we got to was Waddy Point. Here you have a small community of what we would call 'Fancy cabins', a shop and a camping ground. But you also have a wide, untouched beach more sheltered than the everlasting Pacific Highway. We were looking for freedom - and here we found it! ;)

No use in stopping here!

Holiday smile!

Walking barefoot from the Indian Head cliff.
You don't need shoes on Fraser:)

Car posing in front of Red Canyon

This trip really offered the peace and quiet that we needed. To be on an remote island, having all this open space and freedom was like a kick of an experience! And all this beautiful beaches and lakes… They said you couldn't swim in the sea cause of sharks and underwater streams, but we didn't see any sharks, so we took some dips father all. 

At the same time, Fraser Island gets many visitors that drive around in 4WD cars. The Australian Government has done a good job to make sure the wildlife is protected, and that people enter this place with respect. You could not drive wherever you wanted, and there was strict regulations on the amount of visitors entering. The police was aslo present at different spots, performing alcohol driving test and checking security. We could all imagine how this place could become if people had entered this 'no mans land' with their 4WD and beers. Hopefully they will be able to perserve Fraser so that this beautiful place stays beautiful. 

Looking south on Fraser Island from Indian Head cliff. 

Taking a dip in the bobbeling Champagne Pools 

Doing the dishes at the beach 

Eating breakfast with beach view.  

Ingrid and the clear green kulp.

The City cat taking us back to Brisbane

After getting back to Brisbane again we have spent some days at school. I have a midterm exam next week in sport psychology, and Stan has always something to do:)

But two days ago me and Ingrid took my Blue Hurley out to play! We went to Currumbin down at Gold Coast to check out the waves. And Hurley and I really bonded. I think we can learn great things together;) 

Trying to catch the small waves rolling in;)

Yesterday we also went to our first Aussie Football game (called Footie). The Brisbane Lions vs the Adelaide Crows. That was real fun! this game is so strange in many ways, but entertaining - especially when the players start to fight each other (you don't get red or yellow cards here). 

When you guys are feeling the warmer season getting closer (or do you really?), we feel it's getting chillier. It's actually nice, cause then we don't get so 'svett' when cycling to Uni in the mornings.

Alright peeps! Thank's for keeping up with the news! 

And remember that we are also curious on what you guys are doing!! So please post photos, write or call;) Both our mum and dads have just been to Tanzania and Peru!, and our lovely friends have been to USA and other beautiful places in Norway. Arn't we lucky, hey?

Lots of love! 

See ya later!!

"From the place you'd rather be" .... ;)