Banana Benda Island- Gold Coast

Saturday June 6th

Up early and snuk out of Poms so that his parents didnt see us. Not that we were not welcome, it was just we didnt have the chance to wash the previous night off our faces, and the mascara decided to travel about my face all night! My hair also decided that it didnt like the way I had it, and re-did my doo! I drove us home as well.

I got ready really fast after a nice shower. We were going to an island today!!! I guess Rons

friend Scott who I have met once at Bells party, found out that this small island about the size of a foot ball field had not yet been claimed. I guess there is this law, that if the government doesnt claim it first, then you can as long as you put a sign up. They have a friend who is a lawyer and knows all the details. Anyways, they were going camping on this island. Ron invited us along. We were hesitant as it was Ron, but didnt want to give this opportunity up! We are here after all to see Australia, and the clubbing and drinking scene I can enjoy back home.

So while getting all our stuff packed into the car, and waiting for Ford and Peat, I hopped on Joels crotch rocket- ninja- bike- thing and went for a spin. It was a quick 5 min ride. I should have worn a pair of shorts, but it was sontaneous and alls I had on was my bikini, with a little summer dress over top. Ihad to really stretch it down to be held under my tush so the wind did not whip it up exposing my bikini'd butt!

As I was getting off the bike, Tess and Bella showed up. They were up for the weekend to visit Shon and they were all going to Cammy B's house to drink that night. I was sad because they are all my friends, but, island is going to rockout! We hopped into the car and on our way we went!

We stopped at a gas station that sells Krispy Kream Doughnuts. I had never had any before, and so Amanda and I bought some. They were ok. I love doughnuts, so they were yummy, but my fave still reside with safeways honey glazed. hmmm I could sooo go for one now! The melting in my mouth goodness!!

On our way again! We were a tad tired and bought some energy drinks. They were super cool becuase they were silver cans with red skulls wearing top hats on them. Nice!

We went through a couple of tolls and saw some neat looking cars and trucks on the way. Enter Gold Coast! Yes. thats right! I didnt mention that the island was off of the Gold Coast did I??? :D

We stopped first at Alex's house to pick him up. Gold Coast so far, is sooo nice. Its well manicured. Not what I expected. I think I like it more then sunny coast so far. Alex is a short Italian man. He looks exaclty as all members of his family do. Its kind of cute. Picked him up and we did a quick shop for food. We met up with Scott and others on the dock at the shore. Im not exaclty sure where this dock was. I would like to see it on a map. But I dont know where we were. I think somewhere near Coombabah ( this is where Scott, Alex, and Ron all grew up).

While waiting for their boat to get laoded up, there was a man fileting a fish. He let us hold it and take photos with it. We were being silly girls! pics on fb. He was such a nice man, he even gave us special fish wipes to wash our hands!! It took the smell out and everything!! Sweet as!

On the boat and to the island. Us girls on the first load. We quickly started setting up camp. It was a very small island. You could see right across it no problem. It was only a 2 min boat ride off of shore, and it was an island that did occasionally sink with king tides. ( large tides that happen not often...) There was a threat for one on this night, but no one thought it reall would. The island had a handful of trees on it, and was covered by water plants all in the middle, where the tide does not frequent. On this island, there also happened to be three crosses, with flowers, and special palm trees planted to each one. The boys told us that there were three different murders on this island. We later- after drinking a bit- went ot visit these graves in the dark. We were respectful, even pouring some for our hommies!

The view from this island was amazing! You could see all of Surfers Paradise from it. Surfers Paradise is the city of the Gold Coast. This is something that was new to Adog and I. So super cool! What a site!!

We did not know where, or whos tent we were to sleep in. Ford had a big tent and offered to let us shelter with him, and so we helped him set it up and out our stuff in it. We all then Cheers'd and began drinking and making a fire. I was looking for the axe for a good long while when we noticed an odd piece of wood burning in the fire. The axe! Somehow it managed to crawl into the fire and was now red hot and glowing, after rescuing it out of the pit!

Adog and I went on a small adventure trying to find some hot dog sticks. We actually found some real hotdogs. I made an ultimate stick, and we had fun being crocodile hunters on the way. We made a little video. Unfortunaltly, I some how managed to be an Irish crocdile hunter! lol I cannot even do Irish accents when I want to!! Weird!

We made some crazy hotdogs and mingled. We were drinking Effin Vodka with lemonade and so appropriatly named it effinade! As the night went on, Peat spilled some petrol on the sand by mistake. He then lit it on fire. The sand stayed a light for a little while. We slowly all made it down to the beach and began running through it, then dancing in it, then PEAT ONLY- crawled through the long line we made of it! It was a good 6 meter line of fire, and the moron CRAWLED through it. He was later seen standing in the water, and in the morning wore some pretty nasty blisters on his shins! I didnt realize it, but, we had used all the petrol to fire dance. How silly of us! At one point, Scott even conjured fire out of the water... or so it looked! Peat had also been throwing fire sand at people. haha in a playful non threatening way.

I believe after this, I went for a walk around the Island. Then Scott, a very interesting 25 yr old accompanied me for a second walk. We met up with some people and sat by they Island sign for awhile. He and Dale- his co-owner- named the island Banana Benda Island. Its suppose to be slang for a queenslander. The sign merely says "Benda Island". Its pretty sweet!

Time for a swim! How else but in the skinny! Jade even joined us. She is more conservative, but she came with us. Skinny dipping is always good fun, is what I used to say! hahha Not so fun when you whip off all your clothes and expect to quickly hide your naughty bits in the comfort of the dark night water! Little did we realize that it was shallow tide about 40 meters or so out. I never made it to the end to see just how far it went. I was on operation get some warm clothes on!

After getting back, I was finally dry and in my warm clothes. We heated some soup in the can, right on the fire. Campbells Chunky! It got soo hot that when I was trying to eat it, I burned my lip badly. Owch! I think time to end the night. I crashed in the hammock.

Sunday June 7th

When I awoke, it was very bright out. I pulled the blanket back over my face. People were up and moving around. I could hear Scott calling out "soilder crabs!" He was soo keen on showing them to us Canadian girls. He said that they come in the thousands on shore and it was a big mass of all blue! We were excited to see them, but they never showed!! He kept screaming it out. It was funny. Classic had- to - be- there - moment! All the sudden, the next time I looked out, it was dark black storm clouds! It rained! I stayed in the hammock! From my weight, it sunk to the ground during the night. I would have stayed dry, but my butt was on the ground, and water seeped in, soaking my butt and thigh! OY! I was toasty warm though. Wearing my favorite woolley socks which I stole from my sister Mandy! Thanks sis!

The storm ended quickly. It was only about 15min. Then it was hot blue skys! Nice! When I got out of hammock, I learned that I had a big blister on my lip. Gross. Then I learned we were out of fire wood, not that it mattered because our food was... less then appetizing! I also learned that we used all the petrol for fire dance, and so now, we didnt have any for the generator to produce music! We could just pack up and leave as we had some how lost the propellar to the boat! Scott later found it, but we still did not have the nut to hold it in place. Luckily, we did have Fords jet ski. He went and bought a replacement nut.

As we waited, we packed up camp. We played frisbee and loaded up the boat. As I was walking with a load to place in the boat, I felt a tickly on my left shoulder. I looked and scratched. Nothing. I was standing around talking to Scott and Peat by the boat. I felt the tickle again. I looked and went to scratch in a habitual way, when I saw it! A spider!! A FREAKING BROWN SPIDER!!! On my shoulder! I frantically wiped it off! Screaming and splashing and jumping around as much as my body would let me! Scott and Peat looked at me as if I thought I were on fire. When they saw that I just had a little spider on me about the size of the circumference of a can of pop, they laughed! I made one of them kill it as I did not want it to crawl onto the boat that I later had to ride on!! That was my first spider-on-me experience and I would rather not have another! Later on, while getting something out of my bag, Scott tickled my back which produced a similar response from me! Not cool!!

We went for a walk around the island. It was sooo nice. Amanda and I collected some seashells. We also found this bright red dead Crab. A large one, one that could be served on a plate. We named him Larry. He finished the walk with us. He was our Mascott until Ron smashed it flat! GRR!!

Ford let Amanda take the jet ski for a spin, which means I am on the back! lol She was going crazy, and I was a bit worried that we would crash as it was very shallow in places. She was going pretty slow when we hit sand! haha I had to get off and push us out. We got started again and Amanda turned sharp, while going slow. This made us tip the jet ski and Adog fell in behind me! I was about to fall in as wel, but managed to stay on. Pure skill! *wipes dirt off her emmensuly skilled shoulders*. My whole leg was soaked though.... it had just finished drying from the rain storm too! lol We took it back after this, though it was a good idea, and so I brought us back in! hahahha

The boat was fixed. Adog and I were the first load back. The guy who was taking pictures of all of us in the parking lot the day before was out again. He continued to take pictures and pretended to write something down. Im thinking our lisence plates. He came by yesterday when Ford revved his jet ski out of the water. I think he was checking to see if it was working properly. Apparently this guy did not like this and threatened to report us. Oh well. There is no rule saying not to do this.

We hopped in Scotts Ute and went for some food. While eating our food, there was a pigeon walking around. It was crazy! It only had one foot! It was walking around on its one foot, and one stump!! It was a pirate bird!! I took a picture with my phone, unfortunalty Adogs camera's battert died! What a crazy bird!

After we went to Scott's friends house. Its Scott's second home. John Micheal lives here with his parents. Really nice people. Very accomadating. At this point, Ron had agreed to stay the night so we could hit up and see Surfers Pardise. Scott was keen to take us out to see the city and a night club. We went to go buy an outfit because we only had packed camping clothes, and they were all wet. So we went to the mall and did a bit of shopping.

When we got back, we showered with what we had. All our stuff was in Rons car and he was at Alexs. At this point, he told Scott that he was going home, and so Scott told us he would drive us home. How annoying. Its out of Scott's way. What a nice guy. So basically, we had what we bought, our flip flops and what was in our purses!!! UGH!

We got ready anyways, and we all went out to Outback Jacks. It was a bit pricy, but Adog and I decided to share the big challenge dinner. It cost $20 each. Usually, if someone challenges this dinner, they have to eat this huge thick steak, all the potato wedges, and the seasoned veggies in under a half hour to get half price! Its massive. I was completly full after half, and we didnt even eat it all. Delicious though.

After dinner, we went to get into a little club. We werent in Surfers yet. Im not sure where we were, but it took a while to get to from Coombabah. We waited in line, in the cold, just to find out that we wouldnt be allowed in with our flippy floppys! UGH!! So we walked around looking at all the really cool cars. There happened to be a car show at the same time we were there. They were all really old fashioned cars. Sweet as! Its too bad Adogs camera battery died!

We were going to go to a club in Surfers, but I was falling asleep in the car. Instead, Scott had Jade and Ryan take us to this place, forgive me I forget the name, where a bunch of ships were taken out and sunk. It has a huge compass- N, S, E, W. Right through it is the border line of Queensland and New South Wales! It was soo cool! We were able to stand in two places at once! It was such a good time. We could also see the lights of Surfers from it! We went for a quick walk and then hopped back into the car. We were cold. I would love to see it during the day. It was also interesting to read a little bit about the history. Scott was saying that even some Canadian boats were sunk there. All by the Japs I believe.

We drove to Surfers, and Scott and I fell asleep. We parked under the tallest residential building in the world. It was such an awesome photo moment, when you looked straight up, and the moon was right beside it! Im going to take photography one day! I cannot help it if im going to be awesome at it! :D

We stopped at the bottleO. Scott wanted some beer. I guess there was a seedy guy inside asking everyone for money. We kind of stopped and watched him for awhile. Nothing incredibly exciting. We drove back to John Micheals house. Scott, Adog and I crawled into bed. We were sooo tired!!

Monday June 8th

Woke up and I warmed myself in the shower. Got ready for the day. Ron walked in. What? Ron walked in?? WTF!?!?! So he didnt go home, and i could have had my stuff?? UGH! Well he was keen to go home today as were we. Scott took us back to the mall so we could get some Boost juice- not booster juice, just boost, but very similar. He treated us. He then took us to an environmental park to look for some Koalas.

We went into the park and right away there was some wild passion fruits growing. Scott was into telling us all the different types of plants. I love it! So interesting. He picked one and we ate it. It wasnt quite ripe, but very tasty all the same. He would grab some leaves and scrunch them up and tell us to smell them. Eucalyptus. SO FRIGGIN COOL!! There were so many different types too. My favorite was the lemon smelling one! It had thinner leaves too.

We were heads up looking for koalas for some time. Almost at the point where we would give up. Scott says that you would be able to smell their euculyptus smelling feces before seeing one. I ididnt smell anything. Bam! I saw one in the tree! He was on such a skinny little tree too. Scotty says that sometimes they do fall off. He had seen one fall quite a distance once, andit bounced about a meter up. Then it got up like nothing happened, and climbed back into the tree! hahaaha THEY BOUNCE!!! How cool is that? Scotty shook the tree slightly to wake wally the koaly up from his high induced slumber. He woke up and looked at us. Then he went back to sleep. We walked on.

We were still looking up into the beautiful jungle trees when Scott saved my life by pointing out what I was about to step ON, and what Adog just stepped OVER! There was a dead black bearded dragon in the middle of the path. Scotty informed us it was dead or else it would have ran away before we could get this close. Amanda picked it up from behind by the tail. She had it a couple feet fromt he ground, when it gave a big hiss and the neck and belly flared up!! She dropped it quickly and we all jumped up and watched it hiss more in the center of us. Then all the sudden it turned around and began chasing poor Amanda. She ran backwards, too afraid to turn her back on it. It chased her about 4 meters and then stealth mode- into the bush! She immediatly jumped over to me where I was still screaming up and down, and we continued to jump around and scream for another mintue! Scott had jumped over the lizard at one point and was now in shock, and slowly began laughing at us!! After a moment or two, after we realized our wet pants, we all began laughing! That was the craziest thing!! Our hearts pumping like mad! We continued on, watching both the ground and trees!

We hopped in the ute and headed to Alexs. Here we met Ron, said our good byes, and were on our way home from the Wonderful Gold Coast!

We got home and relaxed. Unpacked. I went over to Adogs to see the photos from the weekend, as we werent able to see what we had captured, due to the silly dead battery! Some funny ones.

Laura came by to see me before she leaves to Scottland. When she walked upstairs, she caught me- and then assisted me in stealing the mattress from the empty room. It is newer then mine! Had a little chat with her about her weekend, about my weekend. Gave her a hug good bye.

Shonleigh came home from work and we talked in my room for a while like usual. Pom came over straight away as well and we all share conversation over some tea and Tim Tams that miss Kim left. She moved out. How sad! I didnt even get to say good bye!! :(

We all went to bed!