After two days of driving and one night camping off the side of the highway, we've arrived to our first destination...Hervey Bay. The town is about 400km north of Brisbane and is the direct mainland across from Fraser Island. Couple of my buddies that are traveling with us lived here for a few months, so we decided to spend some time here for them catch up and show us around.
It was definitely a fun stop. We camped in our tents in a caravan park on the ocean. It's a really fancy place with clean showers and toilets (sometimes they can be quite gross, but this one is in good condition.) I seemed to somehow make friends with the owners, a really friendly Irish and British couple who can talk your ears off, they ended up giving us a fantastic deal for the 9 of us. Right up the road is everything we needed, grocery store, bottle shop, and bakery. The local circus had just came to town also, so there were heaps of things to explore. There is even a fancy water park up the road that is free for public use.
All across Australia, especially along the coast, there are always parks and playgrounds built for the tax payers. And these areas are done very nicely. People take care of them too, unlike my idea of Americans and our parks, Australians seem to understand how awesome of facilities they have and don't seem to abuse them too much. Most major areas have nice boardwalks that run alongside the ocean, and some even have outdoor exercise equipment to promote healthy lifestyles. There's always free toilets, showers, gas grills, and open areas that we can post up some tents for the night. I think it's a such a great convenience, especially for us travelers to have these amenities at most major stops.
One of my buddies that's with us had a friend who ran a extra tiny fun park. When I say tiny, I mean it has a very simplistic 18 hole putt-putt and a giant water slide...that's it. It may be small, but getting free rides down the water slide provides hours of entertainment for a poor traveler. We spent a couple of hours there each day, just continually going down this one giant twisty water slide...I felt like a nine year old, and yet I totally enjoyed it! It wore all the skin on my elbows and feet away, but I'll chalk that up to the sign of a good, fast, water slide.
Well mama, close your ears for this one...had my first run in the cops here in Australia. I knew it would eventually come, and while we were in our last night in Hervey Bay, it happened. We all decided to go out on the town the last night we were there, so we had a local friend show us around. It was fun, not too many people were out, but all of us together for the last time was a fun event.
When we left, we took a short walk to the Macca's (McDonald's) up the road, where then we had the issue of figuring out the best way to get home. There was 6 of us, and a cab was too expensive for our wallets at the time. So we lucky had Ash's (a friend who lives in Hervey Bay) mum come pick us up.
Here lies the 'problem', Ash drove a little hatchback civic looking thing and there was 6 of us, plus her mum driving.
Yet we convince her to let all of us squeeze in, so we all crammed in, 4 in the back seat with Gerby (my Dutch island roommate) and his bag of Macca's in the boot (trunk). Her mom was a saint for coming to get us, she even offered to stop at a local bakery that was baking fresh pies at that hour of the morning. I can't say no to a fresh bakery. So we pulled a U'ey and went to the bakery. Soon as we pull into the spot, here comes the paddy wagon with his red lights on.
Wonderful. The coppers came from behind us and must of seen us doing a U-turn and needed to investigate. I could hear a pin drop...we all knew that we were breaking the law with none of us buckled up and all the bodies that were intertwined inside. We all immediately jump out the back seat, hoping to pull a fast one on the fuzz.. But the two officers walked up immediately and counted heads. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 he one of the officers counted. Gerby, the guy in the boot, didn't get out. Luckily he kept his head down so they wouldn't be able to see him easily.
He breathalizes our driver and asks her the standard questions..."I think we're going to get away with Gerby in the trunk", I thought to myself! The second officer obviously was bored so he decides to walk about the car with his flash light...shinning it in the windows, searching for something that our faces were telling him. I watch him closely as he does a double take in the rear windows.
"Can you let the bloke outta of the boot please" He sternly commands. My heart sank...no idea how this was going to go over...we're caught...our friends mom is about to get hit with a nice fat ticket..not to mention maybe Gerby as well.
I pop the truck open to let him out...soon as the door's lifted, I can here the cop give this huge cheeky laugh. Gerby, laying like a contortionist, had a half eatin cheeseburger in one had, and a coke in the other. He looked right at the officer with his food filled cheeks and gave a Dutch sounding "GOOD MORNING".
Hahaha, we all starting laughing..definitely lightened the mood.
In the end, the comedy show and the cooperativeness of everyone helped ease the hit of the ticket. My first run in with the Australian Law ended up being no sweat, another bullet dodged, and another comical moment in this adventure.
