Number 2. Fraser Island

So number two on my favourites list of the East Coast is Fraser Island!

If you're a backpacker seriously low on funds, this is the one ultimate trip that you absolutely, under no circumstances can miss.

After weeks of moving from hostel to hostel, eating your meals 3 times daily from the local Woolworths, and generally floating about, it is wonderful to pay a one-off all inclusive fee that sets you up for a couple of days on a brilliant adventure.

There are a couple of options you've got when heading to Fraser Island, you can hire a 4by4 with a bunch of friends and head over yourselves, or you can book in with one of the tours that leaves from either Hervey Bay or Rainbow beach.

On my trip I went from Rainbow beach with the company Rainbows on Fraser, which is, if you're familiar, mixed with the Dingo's groups.

The basic idea is that you arrive and spend a night or two at Rainbow beach in the hostels getting organised for the trip. A group consists of around 8 4by4 jeeps which have 8-10 people in each.

Furthermore the groups of jeeps are then split in two, so you will be going around the island in your car, following 3 other cars.

But at nighttime all the groups mix together in one campsite.

Because of the size of Fraser island there is a lot of ground to cover so its important to get in a good group for your car.

I was with my friends Laura and Gemma, but we made the great decision to split into different jeeps, and therefore in the evening we could meet up and introduce all our new friends!

Sounds kind of cheesy but it was brilliant!

I may be slightly bias... but I do believe I had the best group in my car.. such a mixture of personalities and we all loved having a good singalong and jokes. needless to say there was never a dull moment in all the hours of driving..

A highlight was definitely the drive to lake McKensie, a pretty famous lake for being so beautiful.
But it does take over an hour to get there on an extremely bumpy off-road track.

In my jeep, the seats faced one another along both sides of the car and we just had a seatbelt which went across the waist, which as it turns out didn't do too much because for the entire over an hour there and back, we were all falling around the place and grabbing each other and parts of the car, its was pretty hilarious and definitely one of my favourite memories.

Lake McKensie.


Fraser island is host to a number of different beautiful spots but one of the best is Eli creek which is a freezing cold creek that is so powerful it brings you right downstream to the beach.

So if you can bare the cold, you just have to jump in and lie straight on your back like on a lazy river, and let the creek do its thing.

Eli creek.

Lake Wabby.

In the evenings on the island we would all make dinner taking turns cooking or cleaning between the 10 of us from our car. Then the drinking would comense.. there was a big campfire and plenty of goon, and one of the nights we discovered a brilliant german drinking game called flonkeyball, which is very like snatch the bacon except with alcohol.

I had the best time on Fraser island and with the group afterwards on Rainbow beach, before we all headed our separate ways.

If I was to go back to the East Coast this is a trip that I would do time and time again, and gets a big A+ and 5 stars from me.