We left Cairns to go to Brisbane and then onto Stanthorpe to go work.
So we had a few extra days and needed something to do , but cheap.
We booked a 2 month unlimited bus that stops anywhere you want from Cairns to Sydney as many times as you want but only going one way which is sweet.
Then we booked a $90 dollar 2 day stay on this beautiful island.
So we took the bus for 10 hrs, got to the town outside the island, where we had to take a ferry to get there.
We got to the island and had to hop on a bus to the hostel. The hostel was nice it was right on the beach and you stayed in these little bungalows.
Well we got settled and walked 15 min to get some groceries.
Then we made dinner and met up with our American friend Kennan we met in Coogee and his friend Chris, so we had somne drinks and hung out with them and their friend Lindsay who was super nice and reminded me of my friend Allie from RUC.
So we were in bed fairly early that night cuz we were tired. Chris had told us however that there was horse riding on this island and it was an amazing experience. So we looked into it and it was 90 dollars for 2 hour ride. So we booked it.
The next morning we laid on the beach for awhile it was sooo hot, and i finally went swimming in the sea, the CORAL SEA to be exact! When i went surfing that didn't count lol.
So the beach was really nice, it was a beautiful view and everything.
So then we went horse back riding at 3pm. We got to the ranch and donned our helmets and some ppl had to wear fanny packs. lol. We were told to wear our bathing suits under our jeans and shirt cuz we were going swimming later. So the ride was good, i rode a horse named Kluey, she was so pretty. We rode through the bush and that was just ok the really good part was when we got to the beach! Oh and riding along I saw a roo in the wild or a wallaby i really can't tell the difference.
So we got to the beach and along the way our horses had chances to trot and canter (little faster than a trot) so that was good. BUT when we got to the beach they were allowed to run like full out and i have never ridden a horse while it was running and mine took off like a bullet. So i was riding a horse that was running along the beach, beautiful day, beautiful view, wind whipping through my hair. It was a magical feeling i can't even describe it and it was amazing, i was just laughing cuz it was so exhilerating and one of my dreams come true!
So then we parked our horses on the beach and stripped down to our bathing suits. We got back onto the horse bareback and we all waded with them into the water, yes we went swimming with out horses!!!!!!
We got to try a few tricks on them too like standing on their backs while were in the water, I tried and succeeded for at least like 30 seconds then fell off but it was amazing. Pics will be up soon on facebook!
So it was an awesome day, awesome experience and now i can tick off one of my dreams in life cuz it has totally come true, actually 2 now b/c i've also now held and got my pic taken with a Koala Bear!!!!
I'm not working yet but hopefully will be by the end of this week with Chelle.
Love you and all and miss ya
Ash
Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
CAIRNS
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile.
We have left Sydney after another week of fun after OzIntro, which included a beatiful coastal walk which you have seen pics of. It was about a 2 hour walk from Coogee to Bondi beach and the scenery was just breathtaking. There was this huge graveyard right on the sea that just went on for miles it was incredible.
So now we are currenlty in the beautiful Sunny city of Cairns up the east coast of Austrlaia. We are staying at this placed called Gilligans which is like a backpackers resort for $25 per night. It's nice each room has a balcony and its own bathroom so its very comfortable.
We have just been out exploring. There actually is not much to do in Cairns but lay and suntan by the pool at the hostel or else the man made lagoon they have created. We can't swim in the actual ocean there b/c there are Crocs in those waters. The lagoon is nice though it has salt water and a few fountains. It's funny though cuz here everyone lays on the grass not the sand (there isn't much sand but its still funny).
So the other night we went on a day trip to a place called Cape Tribulation which is above Cairns about 2 hours driving. This place is where the Coral Reef meets the Daintree rainforest. It was pretty cool, cept unfortunately the whole time we were there it rained :( when it had been really sunny and warm the past few weeks there.
so that day we got on a bus early and we went to Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary which i was super excited about as we got to see roo's and koalas. We had a presentation of 3 animals when we got there a koala, a baby croc (it had its mouth taped shut) and a snake (eww). Then after that if you paid $16 dollars you could get a pic taken with one of thoes 3 animals.... So of course i got my pic taken with a KOALA !!!!!!! He was soooo cute, he smelled pretty bad though but yea i got to hold him and i got my pic taken with him which i am going to post online. I was in love lol. Then b/c we got our pic taken we got a free bag of Kangaroo food. So then we got to walk through this area where there were tons of roo's and wallaby's walking around and you could feed them like you feed deer back home at a petting zoo. They came right up to you and ate and they let you pet them and I was in my glory it was amazing!
After that we went for a hike through the rainforest to this placed called Mossman Gorge which was absoloutley beautiful. There was a waterfall and all these boulders in the water and the water was sooo clear you could see right through to the bottom. The guys went in but it was freezing cold but they had fun, jumping off rocks and trying to swim through the currents lol. AFter that we had a picnic lunch that was provided for. Then we got back on the bus and went to a look out point where we could see the sea from the rainforest it was cool. Then we went on this river cruise where we slowly went around this body of water looking for crocs in the wild. We saw one female sunbathing, she was big. AND apparenlty we saw the 2 most rarest birds in Australia that people come from all over the world to see. The little Kingfisher and then the Grey b ill heron (which was such a beautiful bird). The ride was kind of slow though and we only saw one croc so it was ok.
Then we got dropped off at our accomodation and we were expecting this nice cabin right on the beach but our place was all wood cabins and I saw 4 huge spiders above me in webs as i was walking beneath the trees so i was not a happy camper. There was nothing to do there and the beach was even boring, and it poured the whole time we were there so we were rather disappointed in that. So we had a very early night after supper. Then the next day we had to get up super early cuz we travelled 10 min down the road to go do Jungle Surfing. We put harneesses and helmets on and walked up to the treehouse you start from. So basically its zip lining through the rainforest. It was fun, we didn't go super fast except for at one spot so they guys got really bored but all the girls loved it! So i'll post pics of those too.
Then we went for a pretty long hike in the pouring rain to another hostel and then to a watering hole where we stayed for 5 min. Then walked back and played card games till our bus came back to take us to Cairns.
Hahahah really funny. On our way up to Cape Trib our guide on the bus was telling us that there are these ants with green bums that if you catch one and lick its bum (the green part) it tastes really good like tangy lemon sherbert. so we were all sitting at reception at the crappy place we stayed over night and Dean caught an ant and licked it and tried it and so Bonnie did and then I did later and they were right it was tangy and tasted alot like lemons! lol so that was quite an interesting little thing.
so nothing much more exciting has happened since we have been here. we have been looking for jobs hardcore but there isn't much available right now cuz the sesason it still pretty slow so were here till Thur and then if we don't find anything by then we have to move on to another place where there are more jobs. So its frustrating, were spending all our money on food and accomodation right now which sucks cuz i want money to do fun things that i came here to do :(
So we shall see.
our little group also has already gotten smaller. Bonnie and Amber went back to Sydney early this morning so they are gone there to find work :( I'm really going to miss them they were so much fun and i'm not sure how much longer the guys and us will be together either, but we all need to go where we can get jobs so yea.
Thanks for reading and please leave comments i love hearing from you guys! Sorry its been awhile but there hasn't been much to really tell lately. Just chilling out in the sun during hte day and looking for jobs, once in awhile we go out at night but not too much.
love and miss you all so much !
Ash
We have left Sydney after another week of fun after OzIntro, which included a beatiful coastal walk which you have seen pics of. It was about a 2 hour walk from Coogee to Bondi beach and the scenery was just breathtaking. There was this huge graveyard right on the sea that just went on for miles it was incredible.
So now we are currenlty in the beautiful Sunny city of Cairns up the east coast of Austrlaia. We are staying at this placed called Gilligans which is like a backpackers resort for $25 per night. It's nice each room has a balcony and its own bathroom so its very comfortable.
We have just been out exploring. There actually is not much to do in Cairns but lay and suntan by the pool at the hostel or else the man made lagoon they have created. We can't swim in the actual ocean there b/c there are Crocs in those waters. The lagoon is nice though it has salt water and a few fountains. It's funny though cuz here everyone lays on the grass not the sand (there isn't much sand but its still funny).
So the other night we went on a day trip to a place called Cape Tribulation which is above Cairns about 2 hours driving. This place is where the Coral Reef meets the Daintree rainforest. It was pretty cool, cept unfortunately the whole time we were there it rained :( when it had been really sunny and warm the past few weeks there.
so that day we got on a bus early and we went to Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary which i was super excited about as we got to see roo's and koalas. We had a presentation of 3 animals when we got there a koala, a baby croc (it had its mouth taped shut) and a snake (eww). Then after that if you paid $16 dollars you could get a pic taken with one of thoes 3 animals.... So of course i got my pic taken with a KOALA !!!!!!! He was soooo cute, he smelled pretty bad though but yea i got to hold him and i got my pic taken with him which i am going to post online. I was in love lol. Then b/c we got our pic taken we got a free bag of Kangaroo food. So then we got to walk through this area where there were tons of roo's and wallaby's walking around and you could feed them like you feed deer back home at a petting zoo. They came right up to you and ate and they let you pet them and I was in my glory it was amazing!
After that we went for a hike through the rainforest to this placed called Mossman Gorge which was absoloutley beautiful. There was a waterfall and all these boulders in the water and the water was sooo clear you could see right through to the bottom. The guys went in but it was freezing cold but they had fun, jumping off rocks and trying to swim through the currents lol. AFter that we had a picnic lunch that was provided for. Then we got back on the bus and went to a look out point where we could see the sea from the rainforest it was cool. Then we went on this river cruise where we slowly went around this body of water looking for crocs in the wild. We saw one female sunbathing, she was big. AND apparenlty we saw the 2 most rarest birds in Australia that people come from all over the world to see. The little Kingfisher and then the Grey b ill heron (which was such a beautiful bird). The ride was kind of slow though and we only saw one croc so it was ok.
Then we got dropped off at our accomodation and we were expecting this nice cabin right on the beach but our place was all wood cabins and I saw 4 huge spiders above me in webs as i was walking beneath the trees so i was not a happy camper. There was nothing to do there and the beach was even boring, and it poured the whole time we were there so we were rather disappointed in that. So we had a very early night after supper. Then the next day we had to get up super early cuz we travelled 10 min down the road to go do Jungle Surfing. We put harneesses and helmets on and walked up to the treehouse you start from. So basically its zip lining through the rainforest. It was fun, we didn't go super fast except for at one spot so they guys got really bored but all the girls loved it! So i'll post pics of those too.
Then we went for a pretty long hike in the pouring rain to another hostel and then to a watering hole where we stayed for 5 min. Then walked back and played card games till our bus came back to take us to Cairns.
Hahahah really funny. On our way up to Cape Trib our guide on the bus was telling us that there are these ants with green bums that if you catch one and lick its bum (the green part) it tastes really good like tangy lemon sherbert. so we were all sitting at reception at the crappy place we stayed over night and Dean caught an ant and licked it and tried it and so Bonnie did and then I did later and they were right it was tangy and tasted alot like lemons! lol so that was quite an interesting little thing.
so nothing much more exciting has happened since we have been here. we have been looking for jobs hardcore but there isn't much available right now cuz the sesason it still pretty slow so were here till Thur and then if we don't find anything by then we have to move on to another place where there are more jobs. So its frustrating, were spending all our money on food and accomodation right now which sucks cuz i want money to do fun things that i came here to do :(
So we shall see.
our little group also has already gotten smaller. Bonnie and Amber went back to Sydney early this morning so they are gone there to find work :( I'm really going to miss them they were so much fun and i'm not sure how much longer the guys and us will be together either, but we all need to go where we can get jobs so yea.
Thanks for reading and please leave comments i love hearing from you guys! Sorry its been awhile but there hasn't been much to really tell lately. Just chilling out in the sun during hte day and looking for jobs, once in awhile we go out at night but not too much.
love and miss you all so much !
Ash
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Rest of Oz week!
Day 5:
Today we got up early to go to the Blue Mountains!
Our guide for the day was a man named Smokey who totally looked the part of a travel guide person/bush man lol. He was good though as he told us alot of stuff about Sydney and the places we were driving through and when we got to our hikes he pointed out many different plants and things which was interesting.
We drove past where the Sydney games had been held way back in the day so that was cool.
The first thing we did that day was stop at this park where he kept looking to see if we could see any Kangaroos in the wild. After a few attempts he finally found some so we all filed out of the bus to take a look and there were 2 Roo's just sitting there eating some morning breakfast. They didn't seem bothered at all that we were staring at them and they were soo cute!
I got a bit freaked out about this day as I was sure we would see either some spiders or some snakes so I wasn't looking forward to that part at all.
We stopped at a little cafe before heading onto the blue mountains where I got cinnamon toast and a Chai Latte (mmm home).
Then we went to the blue mountains and it was such a beautiful day for it, sunny and very blue skies so that was a good thing as it had been kind of crappy out the rest of this week.
When we got to the place there was this lookout and you can see in my pics that it just goes on for miles and miles of trees and cliffs and its just gorgeous! We walked alot that day and saw alot of beautiful scenery including a handful of waterfalls! WE also climbed alot of stairs so we were very tired by the end of the day lol.
Smokey (our guide) made us smell tea tree oil leaves, eucalyptus and showed us the plants that are used to make velcro (cool huh?).
We went on 2 different hikes that day and the 2nd one we had to walk down 950 some steps to get to the bottom, and it got pretty steep at times so that was a bit scary but good.
AND to my surprise we did not see one spider or snake the whole time so i was very very relieved about that!
The 2nd hike we went on there is a type of bird that lived there called a liar bird andhe was telling us we might seen one (we didn't of cours) but I guess these birds can mimic other bird sounds spot on and can even mimic cell phones ringing and babies crying! who cool is that?
Also on the 2nd hike we got to this lookout where we saw these 3 rocks just standing on a cliff and of course there was this huge long folk tale story about how they got there in the first place which was interesting. Then he told us all there was a koala in the tree beside us, we all looked up and saw the tiniest koala hanging on a branch, it could of fit in the palm of my hand and was clearly a toy they had placed there as joke, it was cute though lol.
So at the bottom of the 2nd hike we were to take this rail car/cage thing sort of like a roller coaster back up the mountain. I was so freaked out about this as they say its the steepest railway in the world and to my horror i found out we were going up it not down so we were being pulled backwards AND it had no seatbelts. WE got in the thing and i was shaking, the angle of the track was like at a 53 degree angle or something so it was pretty steep and i was practically standing in the car at one point while lying down that's how steep it was so yea that was not fun AT all but the rest of the day was totally awesome!
Another cool thing we did was that Smokey came to these rocks and he poured water on it and it made a paste. He told us it was called Oka or Okra and they used it to paint the walls of the caves back in the day to tell stories and stuff! So we mixed a bunch and used it as war paint on our faces which was fun lol.
Day 6:
Today was a free day cuz we had the pub crawl that night.
WE sat on the beach for a bit writing in our journals and just enjoying the beautiful beach and ocean! Then we met the girls at the office to discuss with Trent what we wanted to do this next coming week and to book our flight to where we were going.
Were all going to Cairns flying out on Saturday morning and when we get there we are going to look for jobs!
We also figured out what activities we wanted to do and roughly how much itwould cost us. This includes jungle surfing in Cape Tribulation (which is like zip lining through the rain forest! ) Scuba diving on the great barrier reef, includes seeing tons of beaches and a 3 day safari self drive trip (the english folk will drive no worries lol) from fraser island and also seeing whitsunday islands which are must do thingsto see on the East Coast!!!!! so we figured all that out and booked our flights.
Then us girls went shopping at this huge mall in Bondi Junction. It had 5 levels of shopping!!! BUT everything was like 50 dollars and they are WAY ahead of us in fashion over here then we are back home lol. So i was like i'm not buying anything for 50 bucks until i came to this store and found a cute black dress for 10 dollars only!!!! so i bought it to wear out to the Sydney tower dinner the next day. When we got back we all got ready to go out, i wore my blue dress.
We got on what they call the party bus lol, which was going to take us to 5 different bars that night where we got free drinks at each bar. BUT there free drinks were only wine and beer and i'm not a huge fan of either so I had a few glasses of wine but def didn't get 5 free drinks that night.
Most of the places were the same type of atmosphere so it was an ok night, but not spectacular! We got home very late though and then def slept in till the next day.
Day 7:
Today it was beautiful out so we went and sat on the beach for quite awhile. We didn't have anything to do until like 7pm. So we just chilled and hung out all day.
Then we all got dressed up a bit fancy to go out for dinner. I wore my new black dress i bought and all us girls got pretty dressed up which was fun.
We took the bus downtown to the Sydney tower where we had our supper that night. It was a beautiful view that's for sure of the city of Sydney all lit up at night, we saw the opera house lit up kinda but mostly buildings were in the way :(
It was a nice place though it was very dimly lit so youcould see the city lights and the whole restaurant part like revolved so you got a complete 360 degree look of the city which was cool. The food there was just ok though, they had a all you can eat buffet but not a great selection. There meat was not that good only the ham, and Yes i did try Kangaroo meat, I'm sad that i did but it's gross anyways it was soo bland and just tasted like nothing so i didn't like it, so no worries. But yea even there roast beef tasted funny so i wasn't really impressed by the dinner at all. It was still a fun night out even though i didn't get to sit at the table with all my group just with Dean and then other girls from our week so it was just an ok night.
Then when we got back we all were hyper so us girls put all our mattresses piled up on the floor and the boys were jumping off the bunks and landing on them and then of course they had to start drop kicking each other onto the mats lol. We also had a 7 man pillow fight it was really fun/funny.
Then we all watched a movie on my laptop and it was a good way to end the week for Ozintro!
WE had to move into a new room so we are right out on the balcony here now and the only thing we don't like is that it has a glass door with no shade or anything so we can't really change or anything in privacy which is annoying but oh well.
These past 2 days we've just hung out on the beach, and in each others rooms just hanging out, having a few drinks and having lots of lots of laughs!
Today i went to a store and bought some things including post cards and a special gift for my brother lol!
WE booked our stay at the hostel for when we get to Cairns on Saturday and then we just hung out watched a movie at the hostel until like 5:30.
Then we walked to this theatre about a 20 min walk cuz they all wanted to go and see the new Terminator movie. I wasn't soo keen on it cuz i hadn't seen the others but i went anyway. The movie theatre was like an actual old theatre so that was kinda cool and the movie was actually pretty good! It was super cold here today and the rumour is that tomm is going to be very nice like 23 so here's hoping.
IF it is nice out tomorrow we are going to doa 2 hour walk to Bondi beach and back to Coogee its called a coastal walk and I hear is absoloutley gorgeous so i'm excited for that and to finally just get some sun. Tomorrow is going to be a lazy dayi feel.
We also have to do up our resumes before we go on Sat but we still have a few days!
So yepp that is my update on life down under!
our week was awesome it was tons of fun and were very excited to move onto warm weather, sunshine and hopefully really soon WORKING!
Love you all and miss you all sooo much
<3
Today we got up early to go to the Blue Mountains!
Our guide for the day was a man named Smokey who totally looked the part of a travel guide person/bush man lol. He was good though as he told us alot of stuff about Sydney and the places we were driving through and when we got to our hikes he pointed out many different plants and things which was interesting.
We drove past where the Sydney games had been held way back in the day so that was cool.
The first thing we did that day was stop at this park where he kept looking to see if we could see any Kangaroos in the wild. After a few attempts he finally found some so we all filed out of the bus to take a look and there were 2 Roo's just sitting there eating some morning breakfast. They didn't seem bothered at all that we were staring at them and they were soo cute!
I got a bit freaked out about this day as I was sure we would see either some spiders or some snakes so I wasn't looking forward to that part at all.
We stopped at a little cafe before heading onto the blue mountains where I got cinnamon toast and a Chai Latte (mmm home).
Then we went to the blue mountains and it was such a beautiful day for it, sunny and very blue skies so that was a good thing as it had been kind of crappy out the rest of this week.
When we got to the place there was this lookout and you can see in my pics that it just goes on for miles and miles of trees and cliffs and its just gorgeous! We walked alot that day and saw alot of beautiful scenery including a handful of waterfalls! WE also climbed alot of stairs so we were very tired by the end of the day lol.
Smokey (our guide) made us smell tea tree oil leaves, eucalyptus and showed us the plants that are used to make velcro (cool huh?).
We went on 2 different hikes that day and the 2nd one we had to walk down 950 some steps to get to the bottom, and it got pretty steep at times so that was a bit scary but good.
AND to my surprise we did not see one spider or snake the whole time so i was very very relieved about that!
The 2nd hike we went on there is a type of bird that lived there called a liar bird andhe was telling us we might seen one (we didn't of cours) but I guess these birds can mimic other bird sounds spot on and can even mimic cell phones ringing and babies crying! who cool is that?
Also on the 2nd hike we got to this lookout where we saw these 3 rocks just standing on a cliff and of course there was this huge long folk tale story about how they got there in the first place which was interesting. Then he told us all there was a koala in the tree beside us, we all looked up and saw the tiniest koala hanging on a branch, it could of fit in the palm of my hand and was clearly a toy they had placed there as joke, it was cute though lol.
So at the bottom of the 2nd hike we were to take this rail car/cage thing sort of like a roller coaster back up the mountain. I was so freaked out about this as they say its the steepest railway in the world and to my horror i found out we were going up it not down so we were being pulled backwards AND it had no seatbelts. WE got in the thing and i was shaking, the angle of the track was like at a 53 degree angle or something so it was pretty steep and i was practically standing in the car at one point while lying down that's how steep it was so yea that was not fun AT all but the rest of the day was totally awesome!
Another cool thing we did was that Smokey came to these rocks and he poured water on it and it made a paste. He told us it was called Oka or Okra and they used it to paint the walls of the caves back in the day to tell stories and stuff! So we mixed a bunch and used it as war paint on our faces which was fun lol.
Day 6:
Today was a free day cuz we had the pub crawl that night.
WE sat on the beach for a bit writing in our journals and just enjoying the beautiful beach and ocean! Then we met the girls at the office to discuss with Trent what we wanted to do this next coming week and to book our flight to where we were going.
Were all going to Cairns flying out on Saturday morning and when we get there we are going to look for jobs!
We also figured out what activities we wanted to do and roughly how much itwould cost us. This includes jungle surfing in Cape Tribulation (which is like zip lining through the rain forest! ) Scuba diving on the great barrier reef, includes seeing tons of beaches and a 3 day safari self drive trip (the english folk will drive no worries lol) from fraser island and also seeing whitsunday islands which are must do thingsto see on the East Coast!!!!! so we figured all that out and booked our flights.
Then us girls went shopping at this huge mall in Bondi Junction. It had 5 levels of shopping!!! BUT everything was like 50 dollars and they are WAY ahead of us in fashion over here then we are back home lol. So i was like i'm not buying anything for 50 bucks until i came to this store and found a cute black dress for 10 dollars only!!!! so i bought it to wear out to the Sydney tower dinner the next day. When we got back we all got ready to go out, i wore my blue dress.
We got on what they call the party bus lol, which was going to take us to 5 different bars that night where we got free drinks at each bar. BUT there free drinks were only wine and beer and i'm not a huge fan of either so I had a few glasses of wine but def didn't get 5 free drinks that night.
Most of the places were the same type of atmosphere so it was an ok night, but not spectacular! We got home very late though and then def slept in till the next day.
Day 7:
Today it was beautiful out so we went and sat on the beach for quite awhile. We didn't have anything to do until like 7pm. So we just chilled and hung out all day.
Then we all got dressed up a bit fancy to go out for dinner. I wore my new black dress i bought and all us girls got pretty dressed up which was fun.
We took the bus downtown to the Sydney tower where we had our supper that night. It was a beautiful view that's for sure of the city of Sydney all lit up at night, we saw the opera house lit up kinda but mostly buildings were in the way :(
It was a nice place though it was very dimly lit so youcould see the city lights and the whole restaurant part like revolved so you got a complete 360 degree look of the city which was cool. The food there was just ok though, they had a all you can eat buffet but not a great selection. There meat was not that good only the ham, and Yes i did try Kangaroo meat, I'm sad that i did but it's gross anyways it was soo bland and just tasted like nothing so i didn't like it, so no worries. But yea even there roast beef tasted funny so i wasn't really impressed by the dinner at all. It was still a fun night out even though i didn't get to sit at the table with all my group just with Dean and then other girls from our week so it was just an ok night.
Then when we got back we all were hyper so us girls put all our mattresses piled up on the floor and the boys were jumping off the bunks and landing on them and then of course they had to start drop kicking each other onto the mats lol. We also had a 7 man pillow fight it was really fun/funny.
Then we all watched a movie on my laptop and it was a good way to end the week for Ozintro!
WE had to move into a new room so we are right out on the balcony here now and the only thing we don't like is that it has a glass door with no shade or anything so we can't really change or anything in privacy which is annoying but oh well.
These past 2 days we've just hung out on the beach, and in each others rooms just hanging out, having a few drinks and having lots of lots of laughs!
Today i went to a store and bought some things including post cards and a special gift for my brother lol!
WE booked our stay at the hostel for when we get to Cairns on Saturday and then we just hung out watched a movie at the hostel until like 5:30.
Then we walked to this theatre about a 20 min walk cuz they all wanted to go and see the new Terminator movie. I wasn't soo keen on it cuz i hadn't seen the others but i went anyway. The movie theatre was like an actual old theatre so that was kinda cool and the movie was actually pretty good! It was super cold here today and the rumour is that tomm is going to be very nice like 23 so here's hoping.
IF it is nice out tomorrow we are going to doa 2 hour walk to Bondi beach and back to Coogee its called a coastal walk and I hear is absoloutley gorgeous so i'm excited for that and to finally just get some sun. Tomorrow is going to be a lazy dayi feel.
We also have to do up our resumes before we go on Sat but we still have a few days!
So yepp that is my update on life down under!
our week was awesome it was tons of fun and were very excited to move onto warm weather, sunshine and hopefully really soon WORKING!
Love you all and miss you all sooo much
<3
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Oz Intro Week!
Hey everyone sorry I haven't been able to update you all yet but here it comes. Im' just going to give a run through of each days events that have happened so far this week!
Day 1:
So today was the day we met everyone in our group and we had been talking to most of them on facebook so it was really nice to finally meet them all!
Everyone is so easy to talk to and we all just seemed to get along pretty well right from the start. We got introduced to our tour guide Oz intro leader for the week named Trent who is a very good looking Australian man.. lol
So we got on this little bus and he took us on a tour through the city of Sydney which was beautiful! It's such a big city like Toronto but like bigger, its awesome! So we ended up at this park where we saw THE OPERA HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pics are on facebook). I had to tell michelle to pinch me cuz i coudln't believe we were actually here in Sydney looking at the opera house lol! It was incredible. We also saw the famous harbour bridge and the beautiful Sydney skyline! We got to see the opera house close up when we walked to it and we went through a really cool botanical garden where we saw fruit bats hanging from trees and to my disgust like 3 huge spiders, which i didn't stick around to see that's for sure :(
Then we got on a jet boat and we took a tour around Sydney Harbour it was a really fast and fun boat ride. He did like spins and stuff and it was just a really great way to see Sydney!
Then we went out for dinner all of us as a group and just got to know each other better same with at the hostel after dinner we just all hung out in the lounge upstairs. Funny thing is that we met this American guy who had been on Oz intro week before and was heading to Cairns the next day but he was so nice and he was like oh people who understand me lol. So we chatted to him and he was from Detroit Michigan and crazily knew what REdeemer was lol.
So that was our first good but tiring night with our whole group!
Day 2:
Tuesday we went to the Oz intro office and had to do all this paper work for stuff so that was kind of boring but then we went to the bank downtown and it was absoloutley huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to got to take a ferry across the harbour again so i've seen lots of the opera house and the bridge now! So the ferry was fun and we took it to darling harbour to this restaurant where i had lamb kebabs and it was really good. Then we all went to the Aquarium and it was friggin awesome! We saw tons of fish and i found Nemo, and Dory and all these other fish. We saw manatees and sharks and starfish and the whole lot! Even some penguins! It was a really fun day!
Then later that night we went out to this backpackers bar called The Gaff it was a really good time out dancing with everyone and a bus took us there and picked us back up and brought us home!
Day 3:
Today we woke up at 8:30 am to get on a bus to travel 2 hours out of Sydney in 2 small vans to go to this beach to go learn to SURF!
When we got there we all got wetsuits and surfboards and was taught how to properly use the surfboard and paddle and everything like that. So then he told us to get in the water, so we went and practiced paddling and catching waves just on our stomachs not standing up yet and it was super fun!
Then he taught us on land how to properly stand on your board so we all went back out and tried it. I was scared to try it at first but i was like NO i'm not going to come all this way and not even try to surf so i caught a wave did what he told us to do and i stook up for like a second on my board and rode the wave then i fell off, lol.... but i got up which was impressive enough with my sense of balance lol! So that was my first experience of the Ocean and it was great, cept for swallowing the salt water when you fell off but yea it was good!
Really fun but tiring day. Then that night we all just sat around and chilled out everyone was super tired so everyone was in bed fairly early!
Day 4:
Today we were going to go to Bondi Beach and do a coastal walk but it was not very nice weather so we went to the Taronga Zoo instead which didn't disappoint me at all!!!!!
We had to take the ferry again over there and when we got there we had to ride these cable cars into the entrance of the zoo and the view was super pretty!
So the first thing we saw was KOALA bears!!!! finally and i could of stood there all day long and watched them they were adorable!!!!!!! <3
So we saw 2 shows while we were at the zoo a bird show which was cool and then a seal show! (seals are soo funny).
We also caught a bit of an elephant show! But yes the zoo was amazing we saw lions and tigers and bears, (OH MY). And much much more including Dingos and Kangaroos and monkeys and animals you find at the zoo lol!
The Kangaroos we got to see up real close as there was this path you could walk through and they were just in there lounging about and I actually got to TOUCH ONE!!!!! Dean gave it some lettuce he found and so it came up close and then i went in and petted its back and it was sooooo soft and soooo cute! ( hopefully if things go well the pics will be on facebook very shortly). so that was awesome that I got to see Koalas and touc h a Kangaroo!!! lol
i prob took way too many pics of those things but oh well! your only in AUs once!!!!!
So then tonight we have a work talk with our leader Trent just about how to go about getting a job and such so that will be boring but its necessary then we are all going out tonight for Fey's Bday so that will be fun!!!!
Everyone in our group is soo nice and Michelle and I have bonded well with these 2 English girls Bonnie and Amber they are both so sweet and we are really enjoying their company and rooming with them!!!!!!
Next on the agenda tommorrow is our trip to Blue Mountain which i am really excited for and then Sat night we have a pub crawl night and then Sunday night they take us up the beautiful Sydney tower to eat a paid for buffet meal where you can try Kangaroo and Crocodile (not sure if i'll be eating those but i should prob at least try them).
So i'm having a blast so far, i'm sorry that these 2 new updates are sooo long to read and i'm sorry it took so long to get them up!!!! We are having a great time but we are missing you guys too and hope everyone is well!
Love you all from Down Under!!!!
Day 1:
So today was the day we met everyone in our group and we had been talking to most of them on facebook so it was really nice to finally meet them all!
Everyone is so easy to talk to and we all just seemed to get along pretty well right from the start. We got introduced to our tour guide Oz intro leader for the week named Trent who is a very good looking Australian man.. lol
So we got on this little bus and he took us on a tour through the city of Sydney which was beautiful! It's such a big city like Toronto but like bigger, its awesome! So we ended up at this park where we saw THE OPERA HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pics are on facebook). I had to tell michelle to pinch me cuz i coudln't believe we were actually here in Sydney looking at the opera house lol! It was incredible. We also saw the famous harbour bridge and the beautiful Sydney skyline! We got to see the opera house close up when we walked to it and we went through a really cool botanical garden where we saw fruit bats hanging from trees and to my disgust like 3 huge spiders, which i didn't stick around to see that's for sure :(
Then we got on a jet boat and we took a tour around Sydney Harbour it was a really fast and fun boat ride. He did like spins and stuff and it was just a really great way to see Sydney!
Then we went out for dinner all of us as a group and just got to know each other better same with at the hostel after dinner we just all hung out in the lounge upstairs. Funny thing is that we met this American guy who had been on Oz intro week before and was heading to Cairns the next day but he was so nice and he was like oh people who understand me lol. So we chatted to him and he was from Detroit Michigan and crazily knew what REdeemer was lol.
So that was our first good but tiring night with our whole group!
Day 2:
Tuesday we went to the Oz intro office and had to do all this paper work for stuff so that was kind of boring but then we went to the bank downtown and it was absoloutley huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to got to take a ferry across the harbour again so i've seen lots of the opera house and the bridge now! So the ferry was fun and we took it to darling harbour to this restaurant where i had lamb kebabs and it was really good. Then we all went to the Aquarium and it was friggin awesome! We saw tons of fish and i found Nemo, and Dory and all these other fish. We saw manatees and sharks and starfish and the whole lot! Even some penguins! It was a really fun day!
Then later that night we went out to this backpackers bar called The Gaff it was a really good time out dancing with everyone and a bus took us there and picked us back up and brought us home!
Day 3:
Today we woke up at 8:30 am to get on a bus to travel 2 hours out of Sydney in 2 small vans to go to this beach to go learn to SURF!
When we got there we all got wetsuits and surfboards and was taught how to properly use the surfboard and paddle and everything like that. So then he told us to get in the water, so we went and practiced paddling and catching waves just on our stomachs not standing up yet and it was super fun!
Then he taught us on land how to properly stand on your board so we all went back out and tried it. I was scared to try it at first but i was like NO i'm not going to come all this way and not even try to surf so i caught a wave did what he told us to do and i stook up for like a second on my board and rode the wave then i fell off, lol.... but i got up which was impressive enough with my sense of balance lol! So that was my first experience of the Ocean and it was great, cept for swallowing the salt water when you fell off but yea it was good!
Really fun but tiring day. Then that night we all just sat around and chilled out everyone was super tired so everyone was in bed fairly early!
Day 4:
Today we were going to go to Bondi Beach and do a coastal walk but it was not very nice weather so we went to the Taronga Zoo instead which didn't disappoint me at all!!!!!
We had to take the ferry again over there and when we got there we had to ride these cable cars into the entrance of the zoo and the view was super pretty!
So the first thing we saw was KOALA bears!!!! finally and i could of stood there all day long and watched them they were adorable!!!!!!! <3
So we saw 2 shows while we were at the zoo a bird show which was cool and then a seal show! (seals are soo funny).
We also caught a bit of an elephant show! But yes the zoo was amazing we saw lions and tigers and bears, (OH MY). And much much more including Dingos and Kangaroos and monkeys and animals you find at the zoo lol!
The Kangaroos we got to see up real close as there was this path you could walk through and they were just in there lounging about and I actually got to TOUCH ONE!!!!! Dean gave it some lettuce he found and so it came up close and then i went in and petted its back and it was sooooo soft and soooo cute! ( hopefully if things go well the pics will be on facebook very shortly). so that was awesome that I got to see Koalas and touc h a Kangaroo!!! lol
i prob took way too many pics of those things but oh well! your only in AUs once!!!!!
So then tonight we have a work talk with our leader Trent just about how to go about getting a job and such so that will be boring but its necessary then we are all going out tonight for Fey's Bday so that will be fun!!!!
Everyone in our group is soo nice and Michelle and I have bonded well with these 2 English girls Bonnie and Amber they are both so sweet and we are really enjoying their company and rooming with them!!!!!!
Next on the agenda tommorrow is our trip to Blue Mountain which i am really excited for and then Sat night we have a pub crawl night and then Sunday night they take us up the beautiful Sydney tower to eat a paid for buffet meal where you can try Kangaroo and Crocodile (not sure if i'll be eating those but i should prob at least try them).
So i'm having a blast so far, i'm sorry that these 2 new updates are sooo long to read and i'm sorry it took so long to get them up!!!! We are having a great time but we are missing you guys too and hope everyone is well!
Love you all from Down Under!!!!
stopover in L.A. and first few days in Sydney
Hey everyone sorry its been awhile we have had a bit of trouble using our laptops but we got it all sorted out now.
Soooooo we had a stopover in LA which was unexpected but was nice. The day we had in LA we went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, it was absoloutley gorgeous and i was sooo excited to finally see an ocean and real palm trees!
So i saw and dipped my feet in the pacific Ocean!
We had food at the Santa Monica Pier and they were the best nachos i have ever had although the cheese was getting pretty hot by the end, lol.
I also like a true tourist bought myself a cute little keychain that is a cali license plate and says my name on it so i could have a token from my short but great time in Los Angeles, California!
Then we walked to the shopping street called 5th St. Promenade and went into a few shops, i didn't buy anything cept this one cute shirt at Forever 21 (also my first time at this store).
Then we walked back to the pier and took some pics, it was really nice beach. WE walked to the end of it where this man dressed in a powder blue vest and pants was disco dancing on the pier it was hilarious yet also a bit creeperish! we just laughed especially when michelle told me to go dance with him, which I of course refused to do!
We also had really good frozen yogurt at this place called Pinkberry.
We then made it all the way back to LAX on the public bus all by ourself had a nice sit down meal in the airport for supper since we had loads of time and then just waited for the plane to leave to SYDNEY!!!
Oh we also had these cinnamon sticks which were delicious called Churro's in LA!
off to Sydney finally!
So i'm going to talk about the flight on this blog too and then post a whole nother one bout Sydney and our week here so far!
K so the flight to Sydney was 14 hours 45 minutes it was pretty long but they gave us pillows and blankets, we got supper and breakfast and a snack! and they showed 4 movies and a few tv shows so we had lots of entertainment. I also read and slept maybe 4 hours total but not well on the plane.
But the plane we were one was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a huuuuuge jumbo jet it had two levels and first class was upstairs!!!!! and the plane seemed to just go on forever and ever when you walked in it. They had 2 aisles down the sides of the plane and 4 seats in the middle then 3 on the sides.... chelle and I had a side seats and unfortunately not the window but it was dark out that whole time anyways!
When we were approaching Australia though we could see a beautiful orange sunset starting above the clouds which i have a pic of on facebook!
We got a beautiful view of the city of Sydney at night when we were descending in the plane.
so we arrive in Sydney and we were grounded in the plane for about an hour while the quarantine people came through making sure everything was ok. In Australia they are very strict about what ppl can bring over and such as they don't want any diseases or pests and stuff brought over!
So then we had to go through the airport customs line which took awhile and we finally finally got out of the airport and found our ride. Michelle and I were sooooooo excited cuz they guy they sent to pick us up was a very cute Australian boy named Louis :)
so he took us to the hostel and we had to climb quite a few flights of stairs but we coudln't check in yet so we just chilled walked around the block of the hostel got some food and went and sat on the beautiful Coogee Beach!
I was eating my bun i got at the bakery when all of a sudden this seagull comes flying out of nowhere takes the half eaten bun right out of my hand and takes off with it, i was shocked and a bit upset about this! Michelle didn't see it at all but when i told her what had happened she pretty much died laughing lol.
The seagulls here are vultures they are evil things, really.
Another thing we noticed right away in Oz was that they drive on the right hand side of the car and the left hand side of the road which is completely opposite to us so driving to the hostel freaked us out as it looked like we were driving straight on into oncoming traffic :S
Everyone is so nice here, Australians are very friendly people and their accents are well amazing!
I just love love it!
So we discovered these birds that come around the hostel right away. I have pics of them on facebook as well. They are called Rainbow Larakeets i believe and they are sooo pretty, so colourful! Well they like sugar so if you have sugar in your hand they will come right up on your hand and eat it and they are such pretty birds so we had a bit of excitement seeing them first like hour we were there.
The people at the hostel were super nice we spent the night just chatting to people and having fun and of course relaxing. We also got to meet Bonnie and Amber that night finally who are in our Oz intro group. They had been travelling for weeks before we left so we hadn't talked to them as much before we went so it was great to finally meet them!
There is a popular drink here cuz its cheap called Goon (boxed wine) the stuff is nasty as heck but we had a glass of it anyways that first night lol.
We also had tons of laughs about how different the Canadians the British people say things! Like for example they call purses bags and then our wallets they call purses so we had fun arguments about that lol.
We stayed up till past midnight that night to beat our jet lag and it really worked the next day we were still tired but we were fine!
Next day we went to the beach but it got cold real quick. They we finally went and got our cells and i will post the # later on in this blog.
We got to go out that night with michelle's friend Brooke and her friend Gea, and they were so nice. We went to HIllsongs church but we went to the city campus the hills campus is the real famous one! But it was amazing it of course wasn't Hillsong United playing but it was just as good! Then Brooke and her friend took us to darling harbour and we had the most amazing view, (pics are on fbook) and the most amazing hot chocolate from the Lindt choc company. Then we had pancakes at this little placed called Pancakes on the rocks!
It's really easy to walk around the block and find food, shopping, groceries, all those types of things so that has been really nice but everything is so friggin expensive here! so we prob aren't going to stay too long maybe only like another week after our Oz intro week is over.
Soooooo we had a stopover in LA which was unexpected but was nice. The day we had in LA we went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, it was absoloutley gorgeous and i was sooo excited to finally see an ocean and real palm trees!
So i saw and dipped my feet in the pacific Ocean!
We had food at the Santa Monica Pier and they were the best nachos i have ever had although the cheese was getting pretty hot by the end, lol.
I also like a true tourist bought myself a cute little keychain that is a cali license plate and says my name on it so i could have a token from my short but great time in Los Angeles, California!
Then we walked to the shopping street called 5th St. Promenade and went into a few shops, i didn't buy anything cept this one cute shirt at Forever 21 (also my first time at this store).
Then we walked back to the pier and took some pics, it was really nice beach. WE walked to the end of it where this man dressed in a powder blue vest and pants was disco dancing on the pier it was hilarious yet also a bit creeperish! we just laughed especially when michelle told me to go dance with him, which I of course refused to do!
We also had really good frozen yogurt at this place called Pinkberry.
We then made it all the way back to LAX on the public bus all by ourself had a nice sit down meal in the airport for supper since we had loads of time and then just waited for the plane to leave to SYDNEY!!!
Oh we also had these cinnamon sticks which were delicious called Churro's in LA!
off to Sydney finally!
So i'm going to talk about the flight on this blog too and then post a whole nother one bout Sydney and our week here so far!
K so the flight to Sydney was 14 hours 45 minutes it was pretty long but they gave us pillows and blankets, we got supper and breakfast and a snack! and they showed 4 movies and a few tv shows so we had lots of entertainment. I also read and slept maybe 4 hours total but not well on the plane.
But the plane we were one was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a huuuuuge jumbo jet it had two levels and first class was upstairs!!!!! and the plane seemed to just go on forever and ever when you walked in it. They had 2 aisles down the sides of the plane and 4 seats in the middle then 3 on the sides.... chelle and I had a side seats and unfortunately not the window but it was dark out that whole time anyways!
When we were approaching Australia though we could see a beautiful orange sunset starting above the clouds which i have a pic of on facebook!
We got a beautiful view of the city of Sydney at night when we were descending in the plane.
so we arrive in Sydney and we were grounded in the plane for about an hour while the quarantine people came through making sure everything was ok. In Australia they are very strict about what ppl can bring over and such as they don't want any diseases or pests and stuff brought over!
So then we had to go through the airport customs line which took awhile and we finally finally got out of the airport and found our ride. Michelle and I were sooooooo excited cuz they guy they sent to pick us up was a very cute Australian boy named Louis :)
so he took us to the hostel and we had to climb quite a few flights of stairs but we coudln't check in yet so we just chilled walked around the block of the hostel got some food and went and sat on the beautiful Coogee Beach!
I was eating my bun i got at the bakery when all of a sudden this seagull comes flying out of nowhere takes the half eaten bun right out of my hand and takes off with it, i was shocked and a bit upset about this! Michelle didn't see it at all but when i told her what had happened she pretty much died laughing lol.
The seagulls here are vultures they are evil things, really.
Another thing we noticed right away in Oz was that they drive on the right hand side of the car and the left hand side of the road which is completely opposite to us so driving to the hostel freaked us out as it looked like we were driving straight on into oncoming traffic :S
Everyone is so nice here, Australians are very friendly people and their accents are well amazing!
I just love love it!
So we discovered these birds that come around the hostel right away. I have pics of them on facebook as well. They are called Rainbow Larakeets i believe and they are sooo pretty, so colourful! Well they like sugar so if you have sugar in your hand they will come right up on your hand and eat it and they are such pretty birds so we had a bit of excitement seeing them first like hour we were there.
The people at the hostel were super nice we spent the night just chatting to people and having fun and of course relaxing. We also got to meet Bonnie and Amber that night finally who are in our Oz intro group. They had been travelling for weeks before we left so we hadn't talked to them as much before we went so it was great to finally meet them!
There is a popular drink here cuz its cheap called Goon (boxed wine) the stuff is nasty as heck but we had a glass of it anyways that first night lol.
We also had tons of laughs about how different the Canadians the British people say things! Like for example they call purses bags and then our wallets they call purses so we had fun arguments about that lol.
We stayed up till past midnight that night to beat our jet lag and it really worked the next day we were still tired but we were fine!
Next day we went to the beach but it got cold real quick. They we finally went and got our cells and i will post the # later on in this blog.
We got to go out that night with michelle's friend Brooke and her friend Gea, and they were so nice. We went to HIllsongs church but we went to the city campus the hills campus is the real famous one! But it was amazing it of course wasn't Hillsong United playing but it was just as good! Then Brooke and her friend took us to darling harbour and we had the most amazing view, (pics are on fbook) and the most amazing hot chocolate from the Lindt choc company. Then we had pancakes at this little placed called Pancakes on the rocks!
It's really easy to walk around the block and find food, shopping, groceries, all those types of things so that has been really nice but everything is so friggin expensive here! so we prob aren't going to stay too long maybe only like another week after our Oz intro week is over.
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