Let's put another shrimp on the barby!

Greetings from Hervey Bay, from where I leave tomorrow for a 3day/2 night self drive of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. There's a group of 11 of us, who drive around and camp on the beaches of the island. Luckily, there's no Canadians in my group.
Well, right now I'm sporting a great tan. It's not quite my best (my time in Chile) but it's getting there. I soaked some good rays in Byron bay. The surf wasn't very good when I was there, so I pretty much rested on the beach all day. I met some cool people there. There's 2 guys from England and Wales, who are cool, who I've done some travelling with. We've hung out since Byron in Surfer's Paradise, Brisbane, and Noosa. I've also met some new nationalities, Israeli, Italians and Belgian. The Israelis are nice but they keep to themsleves, while the Belgians were all hair gel, cologne, and burberry. The Italians, were also cool. Not nearly as loud as I thought they might be. Basically, as long as you're not Canadian, I'm fine with you. I had no problems w/ Canadians before, but now I cant stand them. If I see another one roll their eyes when I say I'm from the States, I'm gonna start defacing the flags they have sewn to their bags.
Anyway, other than sit on the beach, I went to a water park in Surfer's paradise that was pretty good, did some walks in the National Park in Noosa, and rode some quality waves, also in Noosa. Ryan, my instructor, was very impressed at how quickly I got up on my board and started carving waves. I also went to a Rugby league game in Brisbane. I only stayed one night there. It's not that good. There's no beach and nothing to do during the daytime.
I did meet an Irish lad and his girlfriend at the hostel last night. I made the mistake of asking him why Ireland didn't qualify for the World Cup. He blamed it on being in the same group as France(although the English guy said he failed to mention that Ireland tied the Swiss and Israelis at home), and then went on an obsenity laced tangent about why a coutry like Australia has no place in the cup. Then he threw in that the US has a first round ticket home. So, I think I'll leave that question out for the next Irish I meet.
Well, I need to go pack for my trip. But before I close off, who has some spare change around? I just checked my bank account and I cringed harder than Dad does when he gets the bill at Le Relais. Apparantly, I've been using the phrase "Ah...I'll do it, I'm only here once" a little too frequently.

Cheers,
James