Zelma’s Trip

I headed to Noosa on the bus from Surfers’ and checked into Dolphin Backpackers’ on Sunshine beach.  The place had a good feeling about it and the setup where I was staying had two dorms in a self-contained unit with a living and kitchen area and a balcony at the rear.  There was a group of eight English people traveling together who were really cool and friendly which made the place even more welcoming.  That evening I joined the group for some wine and card games.  The only exception to the friendly atmosphere was a group of confrontational Israelis and a very strange Canadian guy who was in my dorm.  The Israeli group were just outright rude to people in the group although this did provide a basis for comedy banter.  Stuart was particularly good at this and coined the best term of, “preemptive retaliation” which I decided to adopt for the future.  I’m not going to say too much about the Canadian guy as we later found out that he did actually have mental health problems (he booked a room for four people – presumably for the other three friends in his head) but he was -really- strange and not only said very inappropriate things but behaved very inappropriately in a shared room.  Okay, I think that’s enough on that subject.

On Thursday I went on a camera hunt.  I think I failed to mention previously that Surfers’ hated cameras.  Matt’s screen died on his digital camera and then, literally two days later, mine did the same.  He was able to identify when he may have squashed his but, somewhat annoyingly, the only time my camera could have been squished was when it was sat on one of the Irish girls’ beds as the next time I checked it the screen just had some crazy squished splodgy picture on.  So, I went into town with a couple of the guys and asked in various places about where I could get a camera.  I eventually ended up taking a bus ride quite a way out of town and found a bargain at Harvey Norman.  The camera was in the sale and was already reduced from $349 to $300.  I don’t know why, I think I may have had my Asian head on still, but when he told me the price I said, “I’m not paying that”.  The poor spotty eighteen year old assistant looked a bit worried but eventually agreed that, as it was the display model, he should let me have the camera for $260.  I slowly headed back to town via some amazing riverside and beach side places and got off the bus by sunshine beach near the hostel.  Having been back to the hostel and got changed into my bikini I went and sat on the beach and ventured nowhere near the freezing looking ocean.

In the evening I had some drinks with the group which quickly depleted to just Shorty (a guy who had been picked up in Brisbane who was from Scotland) and Lloyd as the rest of the group went to bed.  We drank goon and listened to music before several of the group emerged from their beds and suggested that we go down to the beach to watch the sunrise.  This sounded like a good idea partly probably due to the wine and also as I had suggested this the previous night.  The sunrise was absolutely amazing and I took some fantastic photos.  Actually I say I, but a lot of them have me in so technically I guess someone else took them!  Checking out that morning with no sleep and on the verge of inebriation moving into a hangover was less fun and after struggling to do so I crashed out on the sofa until it was time to get my bus to Hervey Bay.