Tropical Fruits 2018 (plus pics) in Adventures in paradise

(Fair warning, this is a huuuge entry and all over the place lol)

My God, I’ve literally had zero time to write anything. Plus I was in the middle of nowhere over New Years so yeah.

I caught the Byron EasyBus down after work last Sunday. I had to start at 6am to make it on time. Thankfully I got there early and other people had also so the bus left early. I was already worried about not being able to check in to the campsite, since I was arriving after the cut-off time at 7pm. Thankfully I could check in at the camp hub until 9pm, so I knew the bus would arrive just after 7pm and I could do that.
There were a couple of major hotties on the bus too. Given its a Byron bus, that isn’t that surprising. I was initially seated in the back row, but couldn’t perve where I was, so moved to the seat in front when another person moved. I then had a good view of the one I thought was hottest and he fell asleep for a while with his legs propped up and I was struggling not to get up from my seat and rape him then and there.
Anyway, where was I?
They got off the bus at Falls Festival, which made a lot of sense.

The bus continued on to Byron, via Lismore, which was my stop. I realised we were quite close to the destination and I still had time. The driver also stopped off at the transit centre before the uni, so I departed the bus there since I recognised it from last year and knew it was close.
I just walked to the showgrounds from there, about a 20 minute walk, but I only had my bag. I tried to ring Andrew to tell him he didn’t need to pick me up anymore, but no answer.

I arrived at camp JUST after 7pm so missed it by that much. The security guard was really strict too. There were a few cars in front of me whom had also arrived late, full of flaming queen’s lol. Let’s face it, the whole festival is flaming queen’s.

Anyway, checked in okay! Found Peeta’s van, which is where I was crashing. He arrived shortly after. He’d built a bed frame into the back of the van. It can’t have been easy. But, I got to sleep on an actual queen mattress instead of a blow-up, which was nice.

There were three other guys at the site, so two tents alongside the van. Darren, Bruce and Scott. Darren and Bruce were both big bears (if you know your gay terminology, you know what I mean.). Scott was just an average, sorta nerdy-looking guy. Darren was a tough bear but Bruce was a friendly ginger bear. Darren was in his mid to late 40’s and only hooked up with 18-25yo twinks. Claims he does very well also. So that was interesting lol.
I assumed that Peeta was friends with all these guys before camp began, as everyone got along so well, but it turns out Peeta only knew Darren.
He’d only just met Scott and Bruce, as they were set up next to him.
So yeah, typical Peeta, making friends right away.

The night I arrived was the foam party, so me and Peeta were in there for a while. We were the only non-bears in there, so it felt like I was going to get squashed each time be of them dove for the inflatable ball. It was also very slippery in there, so I’m glad I didn’t do a leg in. Some photographer took a photo of me and Peeta in the foam, but I can’t find it on any of the socials anywhere, which sucks. I’m hoping we’ll show up on one of the free gay mags next month or something.

Anyway, the first night was horrible. I’d had a huge day, having been up since 4am to make the bus on time, so was tired as fuck, but I got back to the van and it was locked and I didn’t know where the key was, nor how to get inside OR contact Peeta to ask him. I had no idea where he was at that point.
Because it was his first Fruits, he was all paranoid and had locked everything up.
I was forced to sit in one of the campchairs and the night only got colder. There were a couple of cushions that I had to use the try and keep myself warm. I was convinced that I was going to wake up with hypothermia or a cold. And my mind was running all over the place, of course.
All I wanted to do was go the fuck home. Why was I even here?? Peeta clearly was fine on his own. It was 3am and he still hasn’t come back to the van to sleep. And this was the night before any of the New Year parties had even started!
Fucking sociable little bitch.
In the end, Scott felt sorry for me and offered me to crash with him in his tent, but a) I’d only just met this guy and didn’t have a clue who he was and b) he wasn’t attractive at all, at least to me lol. Yes, apparently I would rather die out in the cold than take up the offer of accommodation with a friendly stranger 🙄 Fuck I am weird.
Anyway, I remember having a bit of a cry. Actually, a lot for a cry. I remembered back to last year and why I didn’t feel the festival was for me. I was hopeless at talking to people, especially strangers. My social anxiety and shyness just killed any chance of interacting with all of these seemingly extraverted people around me.
I hated that I’d dropped $400+ on this again and now I was stuck out in the cold.
In the end, I remember being woken up by Scott rummaging through one of the tubs outside the van and finding the keys, where Peeta had hidden them, and he opened up the van for me and ushered me inside. I don’t remember much else other than putting on my jacket and crashing out. I was so cold. It was probably 3:30am

It was around 8am when I saw Peeta at the van. It gets really hot really early out there, so the back door of the van was open.
Oh I was not a happy chappy at all. Of course the other boys had informed him what had happened (That he’d invited me down to Tropical Fruits to crash with him and that he had left me stranded outside the van most of the night.)
Fucking fantastic. Ergh.
He told me that he’d told me where the keys were, but all I recall is him telling me which key worked in which door! He never told me where he’d stashed the fucking things.
So things were not off to a good start. I still didn’t want to be there and decided that I’d be having much more fun back in Brisbane than I would be here.

It was now December 31st, and I’d previously asked Peeta if he wanted to see a movie with me, since my vouchers that I got given to me at work were expiring that day. And Lismore has a cinema that they were valid at.
I know seeing a movie isn’t something you should do while camping in a showground, but hey, I saw about FIVE of them last year when I had all that car trouble with Vish’s car.
Anyway, Peeta agreed to go and Darren kindly offered to drive us in! So that was lovely, being driven in by the big bear lol. 🐻
We saw Aquaman. A very cool movie!
We went and grabbed some lunch at a hippee vego cafe owned by lesbians afterwards. Peeta is a vegetarian now, even though he’d eaten KFC the previous da on the drive down - “That was the last time.” 🤔
It was okay. Nothing to write home about. I’m sorry but healthy food just drains any form of taste lol.
We caught a cab back to the showground. There’s no way Peeta would walk because he’s a prissy bitch. I would’ve had no issue with it.

Man it’s hard to write all this on my phone but I literally have no time. I’m at the gym writing this and still need to do a proper few sets. I can only write while I cycle. Anyway.

We got our wristbands for the main party when we got back and then went to get ready.
I also ran into Andrew a few times. He was camped bear the party area, of course, whereas we were up in ‘Glitter Grove’, far from the action on the edge of the ground. Last year I was set up in ‘Lesbian Lane’, which is two rows closer to where Andrew was. Camping was sold out this year, so I’m glad I bought my ticket earlier in the week.

Anyway, gotta try to skip ahead. Scott made mention that I would be his midnight kiss, but I was thinking, “like no way that’s happening”. He did ask why I didn’t just crash with him and I answered, “Because I only just met you!”. I mean, I’m sure things would have been fine, but I was so annoyed and things weren’t how Peeta said they would be.

The main party was pretty good. My favourite part was of course the fireworks again. They really go all out! I was by myself when midnight struck. I kept thinking how it was still 11pm back in my home state, since NSW is on daylight savings. There were also a group of 5 young guys standing in front of me to the side. Or rather, one was on his knees, blowing the other four as the fireworks went off.
Lol! Bloody gays. I just thought, “man, that’s a good way to being in the new year!”
Another guy behind yelled, “Settle down boys!” and they just smiled. No-one else cared. It’s not a big deal at Fruits.

There was a sex tent on site. It’s not as good as last year, but does the job. I only went in there like twice. There was a group crowded around watching a top fuck a bunch of guys, so I watched that for a little bit. I wasn’t the least bit horny myself though. It was very strange. Watching a hung guy fuck this guy hard right in front of me, and between that and the main part of the tent, all I could think was that their moans and groans just sounded like a bunch of ‘Walking Dead” extras - “aggghhhhhrgghh!”
Maybe I’m too prissy. Unlike last year where I followed two twinks in there and got one of them to blow me and then took him back to my tent and fucked him.
Who the hell am I now!? A nun??

Anyway, skipping ahead to the pool party. Once again, Peeta didn’t stay at the van again and was nowhere to be seen, so I walked to the pool party.
That was just okay as well. It was very hot and the weather was clear, so it was good in that way. Also great to see all the boys topless, although most of them are back at camp all the time anyway. I saw Andrew before I saw Peeta. Once again, Peeta was chatting to people so I just went for a swim because it was awkward just standing there as they talked. Ergh. My mental-health voices were being fucking mean again, but at least I didn’t cry this time. I could have used the water to hide it if I had.
Anyway, the water was refreshing. I’m glad Andrew was there, as he was there with his arrangement-twink (that’s a whole OTHER story I don’t have time to write about) but he was off doing his own thing so Andrew chatted to me. Andrew thought Peeta was an asshole for leaving me like that on the first night, but I guess he didn’t know. He was just off having fun.
I got sunburned as fuck, again, despite wearing sunscreen. Bravo Matt! You do this every time. Plus I was pasty white as fuck lol. No wonder I never get any attention 😪

Back at camp, there’s night-time orgies and such happening behind the toilet blocks each night. I never joined in or even checked out any of them. The other boys were there every night and I just heard their stories when they came back. Peeta was rarely at the site though, only saw him a few times. I was just happy he was having a good time at his first Fruits.

I since found out that Peeta found himself a ‘Festival Boyfriend’ and had been staying at his tent each night. He invited me to go hang out with them but I only did very briefly while waiting for the shower near them, since the portable showers broke down. Apparently too many guys were douching in there. Yuuuuck! So yeah, there was 24hours with no hot water, but there was this one shower near Pete’s friend’s tent that did have some, so that was nice.
I just couldn’t sit down and join this bunch of strangers, even though I was doing okay with Bruce, Darren and Scott as my neighbours. I guess I didn’t really have a choice there.

Omg I’m so sick of writing! I’ll write more later…

Edit: Well you won’t believe this. There was this cute guy at the gym that I was checking out and he was doing squats (which didn’t help either LOL) and as I was looking at him, I noticed a guy behind him give me a WINK.
I was like, ‘Wait, what? Did I just see that correctly?’
He wasn’t really my type but I finished my arms and I walked right by this guy and went to do my final exercise, I get the notification on Grindr that says, “Hey I think you’re in the same gym as me.”
Dammit, why couldn’t this be the cuter guy I was looking at?
Anyway, this guy wasn’t totally bad, just not the type I’d usually go for (he was young - tick - but had a hell of a lot of facial hair - untick haha), so when he asked if I wanted to meet him in the bathroom, I thought, “Welp, it’s a new year, why the fuck not?”
I wasn’t even horny. I just did it because it was an opportunity that hasn’t happened before. I don’t know how I came, but I managed to. I left right after like a hooker in the night. So yeah, there was that! I went back and finished my exercise after that and went home.
I’m sure I’ll run into the guy again at some point. Which will be interesting. Or not. I dunno.

Anyway, where the hell was I up to? I’m all over the shop today. So yeah, turns out Peeta had an orgy with a bunch of the guys in this group he was hanging out with the entire time. So I think it’s safe to say he’s not madly in love with me anymore LOL. I get back to the van after a shower one day to see Peeta laying on the ground outside the van sleeping (because it’s too hot to sleep inside during the day), with some guy with his arm over him. I thought that was cute. And then when I woke up, Peeta told me he’d woken up to this guy cuddling him, which was cute too!

The recovery party was that night, but yet again, it was another early night for me. It only went until 1am, but I was back in the van by about 11:30pm. I was amazed that I’d actually stuck around because I could have very easily have been on a bus back to Brizzy 36 hours prior. I didn’t hook up with one single person at Tropical Fruits. I’m pretty sure I was the only guy in the entire place that didn’t!

So by Night 3, I already knew not to expect Peeta back in his van with me, which was fine. I hadn’t left much room anyway and used his side as storage. Me and the boys had even packed up everything before Peeta rocked up again. Scotty and Bruce even waited around for 10 minutes after Peeta’s “I’m coming now” text to say goodbye to him, but of course they couldn’t wait around forever, so they left. Everything was packed up.

Still no sign of Peeta, so I noticed one of the cute guys near me was packing up his tent, so I gained some courage and went over to him to ask if he needed some help. A very fit, cute faced Thai guy named Worren. He was from Sydney and even gave me his number for whenever I’m there, which was very kind of him. I asked how often he worked out and he said he goes 7 days a week. Yeah - it shows! I only helped him a little bit when Peeta decided to finally rock up, everything packed away for him.
He’d texted if I wanted to go to Kings (the gay beach) and I said, “Sure”. My social anxiety was screaming at me no, but I ignored it. Of course his group was all going there. Turns out we were going to Lake Ainsworth first, which was a very cute spot not right along the beach. It’s a family place and there were soooo many people swimming in this lake. I’d never seen anything like it before. But it was a warm day so it made sense.

This is where I first met Peeta’s group properly. On our final day there haha. They were all sunbaking (as gays do) with their tunes and food. I somehow fitted in semi-awkwardly. I met Adam, who was the guy with his arms over Peeta at the van, and a bunch of the other guys. There were actually about 12 of us all up I think, so quite a group. Most guys were from Sydney, two were from Melbourne, and then there was me and Peeta from Brisbane, so we had the east-coast covered haha.
I found Adam (Caucasian) and Ben (Chinese) attractive and told Peeta he’d chosen well with Adam! He has a really nice chest i thought. Turns out he’s an engineer, so you know, probs rich too.
A few of us went for a swim in the lake, me included. I was still sunburned as fuck on my back from the pool party the day prior, but meh, my back just had a huge red mark down it lol. Some of them swam to the middle of the lake but the lake was huge and I didn’t feel like drowning that day.

After that we grabbed lunch at a seafood cafe and then went to Kings Beach for the afternoon. Of course Andrew saw me as soon as I got there and called me over lol. His story is quite unbelievable. He met a twink at this beach when he first arrived a week ago and the twink is only 21, Italian, speaks 6 languages and is hot as fuck. I wouldn’t have believed him if I hadn’t met the guy myself a few times over the course of camping at Fruits. He’s a complete scammer too, and knows he’s good looking to get what he wants. He even found out the colour of the camping band and went to a local craft store to replicate it so that he didn’t have to pay the camping fees. He and Andrew had an arrangement (ie. Andrew’s sugar-daddy thing he does with all twinks) that he gets to fuck him whenever he wants, and this twink gets everything for for free in return. The twink is very affectionate with Andrew, treating him like a boyfriend would with cuddles and kisses every morning, but never cums with Andrew, BECAUSE he’s whoring himself out to other guys at Fruits (oh, AND selling drugs) to fund his backpacking trip to Australia. Hilarious! Only Andrew would get himself into a situation like this.

Anyway, it took a while to find the boys at the beach, because Peeta was trying to find a spot to park the van (it’s near impossible) but one of the boys saw me and told me where everyone was. Phew! Peeta turned up a short time later and kinda sat down in front of where I was. I didn’t say much at the beach but some of the boys had a huge D&M conversation, which was a continuation of an earlier conversation at their site at camp that I obviously missed. A few of the guys there were couples and one couple was a Caucasian/Asian mix, with another Asian (Ben) being that Caucasian guy’s ex-boyfriend. Following along? Good lol.
Anyway, so the conversation was about how gay Asians are stereotypically known for being submissive/subservient in the gay community and how the Caucasian guy didn’t agree with that and that’s not why he exclusively dates Asians at all, as he finds many races attractive. It was all very confusing to me as I’d obviously only just come into this argument, but Peeta was giving his two cents (being a Laos boy himself) obviously. It seemed to go on for ages but they came to an agreement and Ben thanked Mark (I think) for helping make him the person he is today haha.
I still wish I knew which 6 of the 12 in the group were part of that orgy haha!
We all went in the ocean for a while. None of us got completely naked though, unfortunately haha. Andrew had taken off by that point. I saw him walk by us and joked with Peeta, “There’s one for ya,” and before I’d even finished talking, he goes, “Fuck off!” hahahaha.
The water was FREEZING to start with but stunning once I was in.
We climbed the rock up to the top and I thought it was to get a group photo, but a bunch of the guys climbed down early, which was a shame. So I got photos with the guys who were still up there, but not on my phone, as mine was dead. So yeah, there’s all these photos floating around but I don’t know how to find them!

After I climbed down from the rock, I could see Peeta and Adam still up there, clearly making out. It was so cute that Peeta found a festival romance. He told me earlier that he could see himself dating Adam, as he’s a really nice guy. I could tell that too just from the short time I was hanging out with him. Peeta is so extroverted that he can bring the fun out of anyone. The fact that he and Darren were good friends surprised me. Their entire friendship was just insulting each other all the time.

Man, I have missed so much in this entry. Back at camp, Peeta and I had a HUUUUGE argument - I think it was on the second night, which was the main party night. Darren had been free-pouring me Canadian Club / ginger ales all night in this huge-ass mug and I’d drank about 5 of those. For him, being a huge hairy bear, that’s a usual night of booze for him. Not for me! I hardly ever drink, and he kept calling me a pussy whenever he’d go to refill my mug and it was still half, or even three quarters still full haha!
Anyway, what happened was combined with all the booze in me, Peeta kept saying some REALLY cut-throat shit to me. And I’m SO annoyed with myself because I can’t even remember what the first two things he said were, but whatever they were was very personal for me and cut me deep. I remember thinking, “Fuck that was harsh” and given that I already didn’t want to be there, and having Peeta insult me like that, I started crying. Then the second insult was thrown at me and I was pretty upset. The first insult was like a jab I could handle but the second I remember being very, very hurtful and I just went completely silent. The reason I don’t remember what it was was because I just tried to block it out. Like, I did not just hear him say that. I know this is SO stupid but I’m racking my brain for what it was now and I can’t think of it because my memory is so terrible :(
But what I DO remember was the third one he threw at me as he walked by. “No wonder I fuck around with other guys.”

No denying that one.

Now, I’m not a jealous person, nor do I give a shit about him fucking other guys. I hadn’t even seen Peeta in 10 months since he fucked off to Cairns and came crawling back once he got a job here. But when he said that, I took it so personally and as a comparison that I completely lost it. I’m that much to deal with that fucking other guys is just easier, apparently. At least that’s somewhat how it came across. I went around the side of the van and burst into tears, yet again, like a complete fucking drama queen. Farah Moan, eat your heart out.

Funnily enough, Peeta followed me. I don’t think there was any hiding it this time.
I was hurt, I was upset, I was fuming. I abused him the best way I could. I yelled at him, “You don’t have to FUCKING insult me like that! Those other boys might be able to handle it, but I fucking can’t okay!? I just fucking can’t”
Peeta tried apologizing but I was fucking livid, especially after that second thing he said. Of course, he wanted me to repeat what he’d insulted me with so that he knew and, stupidly, I couldn’t answer him, because I’d blocked it out of my mind. I must somehow have this coping mechanism where if something is too much for me to handle, I can somehow reverse having heard it in the first place. It’s so strange knowing that he’d insulted me but I couldn’t recite back to him what it was. So I went with the last one -
“”No wonder I fuck around with other guys?” How else is one meant to take that? Huh!?”
Peeta apologized again and told me he meant no harm in whatever he’d said and that he was only joking around. He also told me, now that he knew, that he wouldn’t do it again to me. He told me that he just doesn’t put up with bullshit anymore in his life, as he lost people in 2018, so, “I don’t have time for bullshit.”
And fair enough. It’s a very good point.
I don’t like bullshit either. I’m just a very emotional person.
This is so weird, I’m even tearing up again just writing about it, and I got back home almost 48 hours ago now. If that second thing he said to me somehow comes to me, I’ll write it here but so far, I got nothing. It’s not a fun insult you would throw at a friend, I know that much.
Anyway, I managed to calm down enough to tell him that I just needed to try and calm down a bit and not take things so personally.
I think I need to stay away from Canadian Club. LOL. Especially about 10-12 standard drinks of it.

Still, I managed to make it to all the parties and didn’t lock myself in the van, so there’s that. Bruce offered to blow me at one point but there’s just no way I could have gone there. Lovely, lovely big bear but the idea of it even turned me off so yeah. It probably didn’t help that of course we were talking about dick sizes and mine came up, and of course Peeta confirmed with Bruce that my size was true and not made up like most guys who like to add an inch or two to their profiles.
But yeah, like I said, it went to waste this Fruits. Unlike last year (man I need to find that entry).

Where was I? Okay back to the day. We parted ways after the beach and every guy in the group gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye. It was all very lovely and heartfelt and it kinda changed my view on the stigma Sydney guys always get at Fruits. The Northerm Rivers residents are so hippee and carefree and loving that the Sydney gays tend to come through and think they own the place - ie. arrogant etc. Some of them had those huge noisy hand-fans from Ariana’s “Thank U, Next” music video on the dancefloors at the parties and were opening when right by people’s ears, scaring the shit out of them because of the sound, and I immediately thought, “Yup, Sydney gays.”
But these guys, just lovely. Apparently they all met via the Sydney Dragonboat Racing team. Yes, apparently Sydney has a gay Dragonboat racing club LOL. Who knew? I didn’t even know what dragonboat racing was, let alone there was a club, and a gay club at that. I guess Sydney has way more than my naive mind knows about.
I even got to feel up Ben’s butt as I hugged him (because he made a joke about feeling up his ‘other muscles earlier) and he laughed. I even got a kiss from Adam, which was a surprise, and it just confirmed my thinking he’s a nice guy.
Peeta really did well. And I know he would have met them totally because he would have been looking for a pool to keep cool in. Although he claims he met them at the orgy and somehow Adam and he took a liking to each other. It seems very “Paris 5:59”.

The drive back was nice. That van just flies along the highway. Peeta thinks I’m going deaf though because he has this insane ability to have a conversation whilst the music is blaring at a million decibels along the highway with the wind hurling through both of our windows. So he’s saying shit and I can’t hear shit! He must be inhuman. I get that my dad has hearing aids, but I figured that was from years of driving combine harvesters and tractors his entire life. It’s scary that I might be going deaf also haha. I also realised how sore my scalp was, and noticed that it too had gotten sunburned through my hair, so now I’m paranoid that I’m going bald as well, on top of everything else hahaha. Man, give me a break!
I asked Peeta, “Why did you invite me to Fruits? Was it just a security thing?” and he said, “No, it’s because you’ve been before” - so yeah, in other words, he wanted some security.
I could have easily saved myself $500+ and had New Years in Brizzy, but yeah I wouldn’t even met all those guys that Peeta had befriended either, even if it was only on the final day. I was even on the bus’s website on my phone on that first morning there about to book a ticket, timing it around the end of the movie. But, I stuck it out, somehow.

We dropped off at Darren’s to give him back his camping gear and then Peeta and I went to dinner in Newstead. We split the bill, which is a very friend-thing to do.
Anyone who doesn’t remember, Peeta declared his love for me during Mardi Gras (March last year) and it was very fucking awkward because I’d told him I only wanted friends from the get-go, but I guess when you hang out with someone for that long and that often, feelings can change naturally over time. And because time seems to just fly faster than I ever want it to, and I haven’t seen Peeta in the 10 months prior to these 3 days camping, it was quite a surreal feeling not just paying for it all myself and then him paying for dessert later. Which I suppose is way more of a dating thing and I didn’t even realize. I just liked his company and him making me laugh all the time. And then yeah, he wanted to move things on and it all fell apart. God, I was in tears after that conversation too LOL. What a basketcase!!!
Maybe I should put that on my ‘dating’ profiles - “35, big dick, Emotionally-distant and occasional emotional basketcase… say hi!”

i finally got dropped home and I was so dead to the world. How I got to work the next day, I don’t really know.

Here’s the photos I took but I didn’t get many. I’m hoping those cool ones show up.

Lismore has it’s own rainbow!

The PreP pill

i was so sunburned haha

Yay a selfie I actually half-like lol

Everyone thought my glassses read ‘2009’ because of the eye-shape.

That’s Peeta.

And one with Bruce snuck in

Obligatory pool party pic

Excuse my legs. Managed to get a pic of some of the boys before my phone completely died.