Hooking up, Part 4

Continuing in our Random Meet-Up theme, let’s move back to Australia.

July 22, 2003

The town of Noosa must have some sort of supernatural forces bending reality, since such strange and wonderful things have happened to me here. First of all, I’m staying at a place called the North Shore Retreat, which is located a ways out of town on a lake, and is very beautiful. There are roos, turkeys, and peacocks wandering around the grounds. When I got here the backpacker lodge was full, so me and this nice, soft-spoken British guy named Andy were put into a Unit, which is like a pimp motel suite. I have my own king-sized bed, plus kitchen, dining room, and bathroom to share with Andy. You have to catch a van back to town and the beach, but that’s OK.

So, I sign up for a surfing lesson, and am waiting in town to be picked up by the company, sitting on a bench, reading a book, when I get the feeling that someone is staring at me. I look up, and there is Douggie, with a silly grin on his face. “Of all the gin joints in the world…” he begins. I only could just laugh, seeing a friend from home standing there with a big shit-eating grin on his face, and gave him a big hug. Turns out he and his lab group from Sydney were in town for a Polymer conference.

After my lesson I met up with Doug, and we surfed all afternoon. I love surfing! When I finally caught my first wave on two feet and rode it for a few seconds I felt like I had just learned to ride a bike or drive. It's so much fun to hang out in the ocean and chase a few waves, especially on the beautiful Noosa beach under a blue sky and bright sun. I've always sort of liked going to the beach back home, but always felt like there was not quite enough to do. Now that I can surf, the beach has a whole new appeal for me.

So, Doug Holmes and I spent the next two days surfing, crashing at the sweet Swiss-style cottage his lab group had rented, and eating giant burgers off the grill. It's a great way to spend one's time, and I've kept going back to the beach and playing in the waves.

Today, another random encounter: I'm bust surfing, without my contacts so I can't really see that well, when someone calls out to me. It was Xander and Suuz, two Dutch people I had hiked the Routeburn and Greenstone tracks with in New Zealand! They had been in Noosa about as long as I had, and were loving it as much as I was.

So, two chance encounters with friends in one small beach town. Seems like a little magic to me.

Hooking Up, Part 2

April 12, 2006

By this time I had moved on to a different island- Kon Tiki, AKA Nananua Lodge, on the island of Nanu-i-ra. Back to Random Encounter Theater:

More time on the beach today, with a sunburn to prove it on my chest and stomach. The day was undershot with anticipation, though, since one girl named Jody and a Dutchman named Melvin collected money from everyone and went into town, returning with food and BOOZE! I hiked the ridge of the island, which apparently the owners of the Kon Tiki also own. It’s actually quite a big piece of land, about 400 acres or so, and most of it is pasture; rolling grassland dotted with the occasional spreading tree. The batteries in my camera are dead, so I’ll have to try to preserve the scene in words instead. After a short walk you come to the ridgeline, above the lodge, where there is a small sort of observation deck and an electricity-generating windmill. From there you basically follow a cow path through the swaying grasses up and down the rolling landscape. The view of the ocean is spectacular, blue water in every direction, discolored where a reef lies below the surface, waves breaking where a shoal is. It’s a small taste of the scope of the Pacific, the sheer size of it. Down by the beach it’s easy to forget just how huge this is. The sunset from up here is amazing as well, stretching orange and yellow shades across the water.

At night some of the backpackers cooked a huge curry, and soon we all sat down at the end-to-end picnic tables to eat. It was like a small family had sprung up out of nowhere: we ate and drank rum and Cokes (made with the very potent and foul local Bounty rum). It didn’t take much to make everyone fairly tipsy, noisy, and happy. Joe and Oscar, two local employees, joined in the fun, and for a little while it was like we were all old mates, joking and palying CDs and just enjoying each other. Later there was a bonfire at the beach, but the combination of Bounty and the late hour made for a lot of people sleeping in the sand. I love how these things seem to happen, that in a very short period of time you can become so friendly with complete strangers.