Bella Scipione

Jan 13 2023

The past 48 hours have been filled with a series of unprecedented events. Long story short, G and I are back down south in Surfer’s Paradise for the weekend. Our original plans of driving up north to Cairns had to be changed due to flooding all up the northeast coast. G and I are obviously disappointed that we will not be able to venture more into Queensland’s national parks or dive into the Great Barrier Reef, but we are sure that everything happens for a reason and are eager to see what our remaining 10 days bring us.

While we haven’t decided on an official plan, we are thinking about driving further south to Byron Bay and other coastal towns or catching a flight to visit the city of Melbourne before heading back to Sydney for our final weekend. Either way, we are taking it day by day and enjoying the chaos and uncertainty for what it is. We believe this is exactly how it’s supposed to be.

Upon leaving Noosa Heads on Thursday, we drove a few hours north to Hervey Bay. To put it bluntly, Hervey Bay is not it. The town of Hervey Bay is widely known as a site for observing humpback whales. When I was planning our trip, this was something that I was so excited to see. However, my lack of attention to detail failed to read that it is not prime humpback season as we are not in the months of July-November. Without decent weather and mating whales, Hervey Bay has very little to offer.

For lunch, G and I ended up at a small country club near our air bnb. We felt like imposters entering the quaint little club and most definitely looked like it too. The club sat on a golf course but also included slot machines, keno, and horse betting. The servers were dressed in bowling outfits and spoke with rustic Australian accents. This country club is proof of the idea that we all live in a simulation. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our burgers and ice cream and respectfully went on our way.

We struggled to find something to do with our night back at our air bnb. G and I were both sick of just going to restaurants and spending our limited money on food, so we decided to drive to the grocery store to get supplies for a wine and cheese night. We made our own little charcuterie board and watched the Hunger Games.

After our hectic morning yesterday of changing plans, we are happy with our decision to come back down to Surfer’s paradise. We are staying in an awesome hostel located right near the beach and crazy nightlife. G and I were both starting to feel socially deprived, so we were keen to meet some new mates. One of our hostel mates, Pirim, is from Switzerland and studying in Surfer’s for the next nine weeks. Pirim told us what to expect from the social atmosphere of the hostel. Surely enough, we were very pleased.

G and I walked across the street to the ‘bottle-o’ to grab a bottle of a vodka to share with potential new friends. Just minutes later, the common area of the hostel was filled with people from all over the world. There was about 30 of us sitting around picnic tables sharing stories of our travels and laughing about cultural differences. We played some card games and listened to music before all walking to the nightclubs.

G and I went to three seperate nightclubs all along the same strip. We started our night at a club called Empire, went next door to Asylum, and finished the night at the Lost Kingdom. Each club had a fun unique atmosphere with different genres of music. My personal favorite was Asylum, with their crazy strobe lights, fog, and house EDM music. I’m certain we will be going back tonight and will be relaxing at our hostel’s pool in the mean time. I am unsure what our upcoming travels will consist of but look forward to welcoming each new day for what it’s supposed to be.