Since I had only one day left on my Greyhound bus pass - it was originally a 45-day pass from Melbourne to Cairns (but New Zealand kind of ruined that for me!) - I decided to use it to get from Brisbane to Mackay. I did not realize that I would end up spending about 15 hours on the bus for the trip! I left Brisbane at 3PM and did not arrive into Mackay until nearly 8AM the next morning.
We had not gotten a lot of sleep the night before we left New Zealand, and the entire day of traveling to Mackay left me exhausted (even though I slept most of the 15 hours). As soon as I got to Tanya’s house, I took a nap and then a shower, and I finally felt like myself again.
Tanya had taken off the rest of the week from work so that she could spend some time showing me around Mackay and the surrounding areas. On my first day, she drove me down to the marina and showed me their local beaches. The beaches were pretty nice, but the waves are not big enough for surfing which immediately made me like them less. Apparently, the only time when surfing waves are present is when cyclonic waves appear during/after a storm.
The other thing with the beaches in North Queensland to watch out for is the “stingers.” Even though they are more prevalent in the summer months when it is Queensland’s wet season, people still wear special stinger suits when swimming. These “stingers” are not just any jellyfish; when stung by them, people need immediate medical attention and could even die!
On my second day in Mackay, Tanya and I decided to pretend like we were kids again (while her actual kids were in school/daycare) and went to the show that comes around once each year. Basically a glorified carnival, the show was filled with rides, games, etc. We went on two rides (the swings and Space Roller), ate Dagwood Dogs (sort of like corndogs), visited the petting zoo, got airbrush tattoos (the Southern Cross, of course!), sat for caricature drawings, played the balloon game (where you have to hit them with darts - and we won a huge stuffed monkey!) and ate “fairy floss” (Australian way to say cotton candy) and chocolate-covered honeycomb.
We had such a great day and wanted to continue the fun into the night. The next day (Thursday) was a public holiday in Mackay because the show was in town. We figured that a lot of people would be out since there was no school/work the next day. Ezra (Tanya’s 18-year-old son) drove us to the bars and gave us suggestions on where to go. I think he told us good places but also recommended bars that his friends would not go and see his mom haha. We ended up making some friends, listening to live music, playing pool and dancing until late in the night. Such a good time!
I think we had too good of a time that night, because we were hurting the next morning. Tanya’s young kids were actually very understanding when we told them that we would be hanging around the house (instead of going to Eungella National Park as she had promised them). Instead, we laid low all day to recover and relax, which was actually really nice.
That night, my right eye started bothering me, and it was red and puffy when I went to sleep. Normally when this would happen at home, I would take out my contacts, go to bed and it would be fine when I awoke in the morning. However, when I woke up the next morning, it was still bloodshot and swollen and felt like something was caught in it. I would not normally worry, because I could just go to the eye doctor and get my eye checked out, but since I do not have one here (or even medical insurance!), I was a little concerned.
Tanya took me to the eye doctor that her mom goes to, since that is the only one she knew about. He took a look at my eye, but said that he was unable to prescribe me anything since he was too new to the profession. He did not charge me, but instead referred me to another eye doctor in town. I went to see this eye doctor, and again he did not charge me for the visit. He could not figure out what was wrong with my eye since it was so irritated, so he told me to rest it and come back the following morning...
That afternoon, Tanya drove me to Eungella National Park which is about an hour and a half from Mackay. We did a walk in Finch Hatton Gorge to the waterfall which was really nice. We also drove to the top of the mountain and ate lunch overlooking the gorge. On the drive home, we saw a rainbow!
In the morning on Saturday, I went back to the same eye doctor, but he still did not feel comfortable diagnosing me. He referred me to his dad who is an opthomalogist in town, and again he did not charge me for the visit. His dad’s office is not usually open on Saturdays, but he agreed to come in and meet me because I was leaving the next morning. After a quick consultation, the opthomalogist sort of diagnosed me and prescribed me some drops that might help. He said my cornea was scratched (which is why my eye was so sensitive to the light) and I either had a viral infection (although unlikely since I had not felt sick lately) or a bacterial infection (more likely since I had been traveling on planes, buses, etc.). The bad news though is that I am not supposed to wear my contacts until my eye completely heals, so it looks like it will be glasses for awhile...
From the eye doctor appointment, we were headed to Airlie Beach for the day with Tanya’s two young children, J and Daniel. Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, and Tanya wanted to take me up there to see it. Amy, Vic, and Mark were already in Airlie Beach, so we were going to also meet up with them for the day. When we got in, we went immediately to the lagoon so her kids could go swimming. Amy, Vic, and Mark met up with us for lunch at Hog’s Breath Cafe. During lunch, two kookaburras came and landed near our table and J attempted to feed them chicken nuggets.
The weather in Airlie Beach was perfect, and we enjoyed relaxing by the lagoon before driving back to Mackay at night. The next morning, I would be flying from Mackay back to Brisbane to meet Humme who was coming to visit again. Since we only had time to go to Sydney and Melbourne on his first visit, he wanted to come back and see more of Australia. On this trip, we were planning to visit Surfer’s Coast, Gold Coast and then fly to Cairns.
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