Fraser Island — i am nicole

Pretty much everyone who travels the Australian east coast does 3 big trips: Fraser Island, the Whitsundays, and the Great Barrier Reef. These are the 3 most breathtaking tours- beautifully and expensively so. With my initial planning, I knew I had to do the last two, but after hearing about Fraser Island, I had to throw it into the mix too. "When in Rome" 100% applies here.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and is home to the 75-mile beach, which is actually a highway on the sand. I dreamed about driving on the sand, but unfortunately cannot drive stick. After stalling the 4WD a few too many times, I got kicked out of the drivers seat and was dubbed the dumb American.

Everyone on the tour was separated into groups of 8. This is the group in your car and quickly becomes your family after working together to make all our meals, camping in tents together, and getting squished into the back seat -you guessed it- together.

The squad: Jennifer, Lovisa, Roxy, Rebecka, Rachel, Nele, and (not pictured) Jess

Our fearless, ridiculous leader: Muzza #trustthemuzz

We left out of Rainbow Beach and caught a ferry over to Fraser. Immediately, we're driving on the sand and blasting tunes. Along the drive we saw a couple dingos, which look like cute little skinny dogs, but are actually territorial wild animals.

The first day, we drove along the sand and through the rainforest up to Lake McKenzie. It's an absolutely beautiful rainwater lake with white sand and bright blue waters. The sand was so fine, we were told to rub it all over our skin to exfoliate and in our hair to soften it...I think that's just another Aussie tall tale to make tourists look like idiots with sandy hair...but we did it anyway.

We always drive in single file, following our lead car, no matter how narrow or bumpy the ride.

The next stop up the island was at the SS Maheno shipwreck. It washed up on the island in 1935 and is nearly buried in sand. It's old and rusty and pretty darn cool.

After, we made our way to our campground to cook dinner and party. That night, we all walked out of the electric fenced-in camp and to the beach with dingo sticks. Yes, that is a big stick to ward off the dingos. We sat on the sand highway and sang campfire songs, but no whistling. That's not allowed because in Aboriginal lore, it'll scare away an owl that lives on the island and protects it from bad spirits.

Home sweet home. Sleeping on sand isn't as soft as you think.

Early next morning (6:30 early), we all get ready and head to Eli Creek. It is a freezing natural spring lazy river. We grabbed tubes and floated in the crystal clear water (any brown in the photos is the sand at the bottom).

Next, we drove up to the Champagne Pools. Waves crash into the rocks and make the water extremely bubbly. Hence, champagne. This is supposedly the only safe spot to swim in the ocean around the island because of all the sharks and jellyfish, but one of the girls was still stung causing a very quick swim.

The waves here were giant, so we obviously had to sit on the edge of the rocks and get that epic shot as the waves crash around us.

Back in the car, we drove up to Indian Head. This is a sacred Aboriginal cliff (because of a horrible mass genocide where women and children were thrown off) and gives you amazing views of the island. The ocean below is usually teaming with marine life like sharks, fish, and manta rays, but unfortunately it was cloudy and too churned up to see anything. We ended up staying late and watched the sunset from the top of the eerily silent, but beautiful cliff.

Indian Head from the cliffs near the Champagne Pools

Usually looking down into the water, people can see tons of marine life. It's all there, just hiding under the bubbles.

The next morning, we drove back to Rainbow Beach and I explored the area with a couple other girls. We swam, climbed sand dunes, and proved that everyone traveling solo has a selfie stick.

Rainbow Beach's sand was full of tons of colors: white, tan, red, and even black from the massive black boulders.

Party on, Fraser.