Christmas?

Brett met me in Melbourne a couple days ago, and we'll stay around here until the beginning of January when i head back to Sydney. We were couchsurfing when he first got here but that didnt *quite work out. After the house got broken into and the contents of my backpack were spread out and rifled through, we got a little spooked. Luckily nothing of ours was taken (with the exception of $10 american dollars, which wont get them very far, and some allergy medicine) even though bretts Ipod and sunglasses were sitting in plain sight. Good karma i guess. We returned to the hostel id been living at since i got here and is pretty much home to me now.

As far as christmas goes, we are going to Tasmania, renting a motorhome, and driving across the state in 4 days. Its a pretty small place. We've also decided that, keeping in the spirit of motorhoming, drinking port and playing bridge is essential. It doesnt feel like christmas at all over here. there are decorations all over the hostel, and santas are everywhere doing photos, and carols play in the shops, but its hard to get in the spirit when you walk around in the heat all day. Though its been miserable weather the last couple days. Hilariously though, it snowed in the north of Tasmania yesterday, so we may get a white christmas after all! What are the chances of it snowing in the middle of summer on the hottest continent on earth? only for a couple Canadians i guess..

Those are the plans thus far, my last couple weeks have pretty much been working until Brett got here, and eating a lot. Melbourne is like the delicious capital of Australia. its impossible to say no to anything

Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone, love the snow for me!

phone calls etc...

well i (sort of) have a job now.. working in a clothing store on the weekends and in my hostel during the week. its not too bad, keeps me busy though theres no shortage of things to do in melbourne thats for sure.

Apparently calling my cell phone is quite a process. if you suscessfully get it to ring most of the time some random guy answers, and when you ask for me he puts the phone down for 10 minutes. the average number of times you have to call me and actually reach me is about 3. dont be discouraged. if i dont answer just try again

job hunting.. again!

This time it's in Melbourne...

brett and i spent about a week in brisbane. we tried out couchsurfing for the first time and it was so good! Our host Ben was amazing! he took us to a reggae show, and completly opened his house up to us. heres the site if anyone is interested:

www.couchsurfing.com

brett and i went to the Australia Zoo, which is the Steve Irwin zoo, and it was really good. very expensive to get in (46$) but we got to feed elephants, watch a crocodile show (they move SO much faster than youd think) and watch baby tigers. Pretty sweet. I hung out for a few days after he took off for the east coast, and now im in Melbourne! Job hunting! yet again! I have high hopes though, when i called to book a hostel and i said i was looking for work, the response i got was "oh, good!". theres a few help wanted signs that ive seen just walking around, but if i can avoid working at subway, i will

And now.. a few handy tips for backpacking in australia:

- If you are at a book exchange and you see "The Backpackers Bible" do not trade your well loved trashy novel for it, thinking its a sweet guidebook full of backpacking hints. its not. its actually a bible.

- Do not waste any time looking for the dippers (big or small) they're not here. trust me

- "root around" does not mean the same thing here as it does at home. in fact, it has a very different meaning.. therefore, when you go into a shop and are asked if you need help, do not respond with "no i think ill just root around". what you will basically have said is that you are going to have sex in various places in the store. there will be a very awkward silence. trust me

Brett, burns and Byron Bay!

Im such a lucky backpacker! First i get a visit from my darling mom, then i happen to meet up with one of my friends from high school in Kings Cross, THEN brett arrives! Its like christmas! He got here just under a week ago, and recovered from jet lag amazingly fast which was good cause we had a lot to see. 2 visits to Bondi beach (we were a day late seeing Hugh Jackman) and 2 different sunburns, one aquarium trip, 1 walking tour and a whole lot of wandering we were ready for some mellow hanging out. Enter Byron Bay. this is my 3rd time here, Circus and i came here twice, and i love it just as much the 3rd time. we already have a tour lined up for tomorrow and other than that its the beach for us! or maybe the pool

god. life is full of tough choices

free internet! (and more pictures)

i lucked out with a hostel this time. its really cheap (about $15 a night), free breakfast (which is just toast so i cant eat it, but still!) and free internet!

the last couple days ive mostly just been wandering.. i met up with my friend david who happened to be here for a couple days. I made the supreme mistake of going to get a personality test at the scientology center, thinking it would be hilarious. No, it wasnt. It was rather scary actually. The test itself was alarmingly accurate, and the whole thing is very manipulative. i watched a brainwashing film which was funnier, but still unsettling. i left after about 2 hours feeling fairly violated and not very amused.

i tried to get some work in my hostel to balance out the cost of living, but that doesnt seem to be happening. i offered to clean the gross kitchen but no ones gotten back to me. i have to fight the urge to do it for free

Ive posted quite a lot of pictures in the last little while, so here they are:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54790&l=5438f&id=661120474 (everything before alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59952&l=101b3&id=661120474 (life in alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68340&l=4d240&id=661120474 (pictures from moms visit)

Mom left about an hour ago for the airport, and its hard to believe its been 2 weeks already! Amazing!

We rented a car, whom we lovingly named Harvey and drove down to Margret river, which is the wine region (or one of them) in westeran australia (wa). It rained almost the entire time we were in WA, but we had a fab time anyways. Our first full day in margret river we hopped on a wine tour. altogether we tested about 60 wines at 6 different wineries, though mom was very sensible and passed on some. I didnt.. and as a result fell down some stairs and sprained my toe. Always the picture of grace.. after all the wineries we went to the chocolate factory and the cheese factory, and by the end of the day we were much poorer in money, but WAY richer in deliciousness. The next day we went to 3 of the main cave tours, which were amazing, but by the end of the day our legs were screaming from climbing so many stairs..

eventaully we made our way to the south coast to a town called Walpole. They have a tree top walk, which is about 40m above the ground and its beautiful! the trees are called "giant tingle trees" and they are indeed huge. most of them have been hollowed out from fires, and some of the trucks are big enough for a car to drive through. the rain stopped for a bit, so we had a nice view..

after a frustrating visit to rockingham (aka suckingham) we got back to perth and spent the night at our cousins. the next morning we ere off just north of perth to Yanchep, which is really small, but they had AMAZING beaches. so beautiful! the weather was sunny, but it was super windy, so we didnt really enjoy them as much as we could have. theres also a national park with koalas and another chocolate store! we only stayed for a night and before we knew it we were flying back to sydney!

now im sort of at a standstill.. brett comes down on the 10th which is a nice excuse not to do anything for a while, because im not really sure where to go! in any event, ill post pictures as soon as i can..

mom! perth!

picking up mom from the airport was somewhat of an adventure.. i didnt bother to get her flight information or anything. all i knew was she was coming in from north america "around 6am". thinking to myself on the way to the airport "how many flights could possibly be coming from north america at this time of day"?

well.. quite a lot...

14 to be exact. after 35 minutes of running back and forth between 2 gates i finally called Brett and got her flight number, and eventually we found each other. We stayed in Sydney for the night and the next day we jumped on the Indian Pacific railway to perth! Its a 3 1/2 day journey from coast to coast (hence the name), and we were lucky enough to have a sleeper car. Its pretty expensive, but sitting in a seat with no bed or shower for 3 days did not appeal to either of us. Our room was somewhat different than we expected. It was quite small, and the bathroom was *just big enough for me to have a shower in. The toilet and sink both folded down from the wall, thats a whole different story there.. The scenery was amazing, but after a while we realized that mostly old people take senic railways, and there wasnt much to do besides eat and read. Now normally im fine with this but by the 2nd day i was starting to get a bit antsy. It was really amazing though, and we're both glad we went... but we'll probably never go again

We had a car rental set up, and mom was (understandably) nervous about driving on the opposite side. Since im too young and "misplaced" my licence several months ago, i was the navigator. After a couple minor incidences (mom turning into the wrong lane, hitting the curb, me getting us lost a couple times) she was totally rocking the bizzaro driving and my sense of direction has improved. We're at my cousins house right now, he's in the National Police, and is away 4 months at a time so we dont get to see him, but his wife Deb and their daughter Taylor have made us completly at home, and perth is a really beautiful place. I wish i could stay on the west coast longer but its really expensive to get over here, so not many backpackers venture this way.

Tomorrow we're off to Margaret River, which is the wine region. Theres all sort of nature walks and caves to be explored.. and of course the wineries!

Coober Pedy, Adelaide, Sydney. whew

Well it's been a busy couple of days.. i left Alice at 7 on tuesday morning for Coober Pedy. We got in around 6pm which gave us just enough time to take a tour of an underground home and for me to rush out and take as many pictures as i could. its a pretty crazy place. The lady giving the tour said that 50% of the population lives underground. No one is really sure what the population is. According to the tax office, its 100. The post office says 4000... Im fairly enraptured with the whole lifestyle. getting and underground home dug costs about 70 000$, and take about 3 days. Housing is SO expensive here, so thats as much a bargin as youll ever find. The tempurature is an almost constant 24C, even when its 50+ outside. theres no need for heating or air conditioning. the only downside is the dust, and the its musty smelling. Im sold. Opal mining is illegal in the town, so the people who have underground homes do a lot of "renovating" and if they just happen to find opal in the process its theirs to keep! Apparently theres a house in town with 21 bedrooms..

Wednesday we left Coober Pedy at 6am. our first stop was a giant salt lake, called Lake Hart. its about 120km, and from far away it looks a bit like snow... then we went for a walk on it, and its about half an inch layer of salt on top of the lake bottom. If anyones ever seen the movie "Nothing", thats sort of what it reminded me of. There was an old dock with pillars still stuck in the ground.. kind of eerie actually.. We got into Adelaide at dinner time, which was perfect, because the hostel i stayed at just happens to have free BBQ night on wednesdays!

This morning i was up just before 5 (yes.. AM) to catch my flight to sydney, and now here i am.. impatiently waiting for my room to be cleaned so i can have a nap. Tomorrow morning im picking mom up from the airport and then we're off to perth the next day! Im so excited, i cant even sit still.

(just in case anyone was keeping track, thats 4 days in a row ill have been up before 6am)

Productivity is WAY up

I am sad to report that i am working my shift at global gossip! truely a sad day for me. ill have to actually start paying for internet again! blasphemy! one of my friends threw me a going away party last night, which was awesome. she even made me lasagne!

despite my sadness over leaving im really excited to be on the road again. I leave Alice on tuesday and take a bus to Coober Pedy, which is where opal was first discovered. it can get as hot as 50C through the summer, so most of the houses and hostels are underground! Im completly excited, even though im only there overnight. the next morning i take a bus to Adelaide, which is in South Australia and from there i fly to Sydney to meet mom! This is a pretty runaround way of getting to sydney, considering theres an airport in alice, but believe it or not all this was cheaper and ive been itching for a good road trip for a while now. Mom and i take the Indian Pacific railway to perth, which is a 3 day journey through the desert and im SO psyched for it. its like the ultimate australian experience. its also quite expensive, so thank god for moms!

in other news ive found a new way to amuse myself at work, and its called google earth. ive been really busy visiting the eiffel tower, the vatican. i had some trouble with the great wall of china though.. ive also been creepily looking at peoples houses, so next time your in your yard look up and wave!

Gadzooks!

Just when i thought i was starting to adjust to the weather...


Weather for Alice Springs NT
Add to iGoogle
39°C
ClearWind: W at 27 km/hHumidity: 4%
Sun39°C 22°C
Mon38°C 21°C
Tue37°C 21°C
Wed31°C 16°C

i mean this is just WAY too hot. my store has 2 air conditioners, but they might as well be off as far as i can tell. Gaz (my co worker) and i actually put a floor fan in the drinks cooler today, until the fridge started overheating (oops!). Last night, at around 930, it was still 30C. I had to drink a lot of beer to cool off, let me tell you

my job is going really well. with the exception of a few creeps, its one of the most painless customer service jobs ive had. the free internet is a nice perk as well...

work time!

I'm officially employed! I was really excited about it at first, my bank account will be a little healthier, ill have something to do all day instead of wandering aimlessly around Alice Springs. Then i started my job, and realized that i now have to get up and.. well.. work! Its been a bit of a chock to my system. Luckily its an internet cafe, so i get to talk to backpackers all day and go on facebook, so im slowly easing back into the real world..

Alice Springs and beyond!

Ive sort of settled in Alice Springs for a while. I found a job at Global Gossip which is an internet cafe. I went in for my first day on friday and it seems pretty good. All the people are really nice, and i caught on pretty quickly. I didnt have to go in until monday (tomorrow) so i took full advantage of that i booked a 3 day tour to Uluru, kata Tjua and Kings Canyon.

Uluru and Kata Tjua are both in the same National park, which is owned by the Aboriginals. They're basically HUGE rocks in the middle of the desert, and you can do hikes, go on a story tour and watch the sunride/set. My tour did pretty much everything we possibly could in 3 days...

Day 1: Leave the hostel at 6am, drive 5.5 hours to Uluru and do the base walk. Uluru is one rock (albeit a very large one) and the walk is 9.4km. It was the middle of the afternoon when we got there, so it was pretty hot, but so amazing! Our guide told us stories about different formations, colours and coves in the rock. Some of the places are sacred, and if yorue caught taking pictures, its a 5000$ fine. yikes! anyways, it was really good, and not once did i think "ok.. im just walking in a big circle around a rock..." We then watched the sun set over the rock and ate dinner.

Day 2: Up at 5am to watch the sunrise over the rock, and then off the Kata Tjua for a 7.4km hike. Kata Tjua (or the Olgas) are 36 huge rock formations, and are a little more interesting to look at, but much more challenging to hike on. It took about 4 houts to do the "valley of the winds" walk, but it was so nice.

Day 3: Up at 530am, and off to Kings Canyon. This was by far the best hike. About 5.5km but the most difficult. the forst part is almost completly vertical, and 7 people in the last 5 years have died doing this hike! i walked very slowly. We walked for 4 hours along the top of the entire canyon and it was just incredible. Luckily we got there early (like730am) so it wasnt hot at all.. actually in some parts it was a little chilly!

we camped both nights under the stars, one night in a site, and the other in the middle of the desert. The stars are pretty amazing the the outback, its hard to want to sleep with them above you!

Alice Springs.. and it wasnt easy!

It was somewhat of an ordeal to get here.

My last day in Darwin was spent at Litchfield National Park. I spent the whole day in and out of various waterfalls and rockpools. It was so beautiful and i was fairly reluctant to leave. It was a long day though, so by the time i got back to my hostel (about 7pm) i was totally ready for bed, and being that i left at 715 the next morning for Katherine, i figured sleep was in my best interest. Alas, it was not meant to be. When i got home some of the girls in my room were going out for dinner. I said i was just going to bed, but they guilted me with the whole "its your last night we'll never see you again" backpacker seech. Its hard to say no to. So, off we went, intending ONLY to stay at the pub for dinner and nothing else. Of course we ended up staying until almost 1am. To my credit though, i didnt drink anything but water, which was robably the smartest thing i ever did. It was quiz night, which mostly consisted of us doing embarassing things to try and win drinks (we didnt win, but were sufficiantly embarassed). So we get home, i set my alarm for 6am, and fall asleep. Sometime around 7am i actually wake up, realize i have all of 15 minutes to pack and make my way across town to catch my bus. Panicpanicpanic, and the fastest cab ride ever and i make it. As im sitting, waiting for the bus, quite roud of myself for managing to make it on time, i realize that i forgot my food bag. Not a big deal, i can always buy more food. But no. If only it were that simple. I realize, in a horrifying moment of clarity that i have left my beloved Swiss army knife in the food bag. I cry the whole way to katherine (rememeber im functioning on very little sleep) and promptly call the hostel in Darwin. They found it and will mail it to me asap.

Well im feeling a lot better at this point, until someone at the hostel tells me that because katherine is so small, sometimes the mail "just doesnt show up". fantastic. Having exhausted all the culture of the town in one afternoon (woolworths and the library), i send my days laying by the pool and slowly making my way through the enormous pile of outdated trashy magazines in the tv room. Finally, it arrives after 5 days of waiting and i am on the soonest bus to Alice Springs.

whew. I also managed to squeze in a trip to the Katherine Gorge, which was really beautiful, but WAY overpriced.

Im off today to find a job, which im told wont be hard. In fact the girl at my hostel said id have one by the end of the day "if youre not picky". waht that means remains to be seen...

More Darwin!

Well not much has changed, its still really hot, though im adjusting slowly. I now wear my bathing suit instead of any real clothing. it seems to be the norm here anways. Im taking a day trip to Litchfield National park on monday, and passing on kakadu altogether. while its apparently really pretty ive also heard its incredibly overrated and a little too expensive for my blood.

last night i sat by the water and watched the sunset, then went to see West, an australian film at the deckchair cinema. it was so cool, being outside, watching a movie and seeing all the stars at the same time

tuesday morning i leave for Katherine, which is a small town a couple hours south of here, and then im thinking about taking a bus to Broome, which is in Western Australia, and is about a 25 hour bus journey, but is suppossed to be incredible.

also, technical genius that i am, here is a link for all you non facebookers to see my pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44406&l=23426&id=661120474

Darwin!

holy crap its SO hot here... Darwin is australias most northern city, which, in the backwards land of oz, obviously means that its the hottest city as well.. its still technically winter here and its about 35C here everyday. i cant even imagine what the summer weather is like. darwin itself isnt terribly big, only about 70 000 people. there's a lot of markets and aboriginal art though, which ive recently developed a fondness for. luckily the hostel im staying at has a pool, so i spend a lot of time in and around said pool. and the rooms are air conditioned. cant really ask for much else. most people come to darwin as a jump off point for Kakadu national park, and Litchfeild national park. im going to try and do both, but we'll see.. im told that Kakadu requires at least a couple days to see everything, which if you dont have your own 4x4 can be pretty expensive. luckily litchfeild is much smaller so that shouldnt be a problem!

my last days with my cousins were really great, the weather was fabulous, and i spent a lot of time outside with blade, collecting sticks and planting leaves.

Im currently staying at my cousins place just outside of Gympie (most unfortunate name ever) which is on the east coast a couple hours north of brisbane. ill probably be here for another week or so. its really nice to sleep in a real bed, in a room by myself, using a bathroom that only 3 other people use(first bathtub ive seen in 3 months!), eat real food, and not have to go through the typical backpacker question and answer sessions: how long are you travelling for? where have you been? where are you going? where are you from? wheres saskatchewan? etc etc...

there are 2 little ones running around here, so my days are spent poking at bugs and mud with Blade, or bouncing and find new and non swallowable things to give Naree to suck on. its been raining a CRAZY amount here the last couple days, one of 2 bridges into town was completly underwater (stay tuned for pictures). but finally today it was nice and sunny and i even had to wear sunscreen! yes!

its been really nice staying with family and seeing friendly faces again. and also to see the Naree who is only 6 months old and id never met before. she has the most pinchable cheecks, but puts up somewhat of a fight so i have to catch her off guard..

Pictures!

Honestly, I SWEAR! pictures are actually up on my facebook now. really. go check. ill wait here....

Sydney- so far so good!

Well it's been 4 days since Circus left me, and i think im doing pretty good. I took a walking tour of The Rocks, which is the oldest part of sydney. its really beautiful, lots of the original buildings from the 1840's are still intact and some of the house frames still have furnature in them! The streets are really narrow, so in order to pack as much business as possible into a small space the front doors sometimes lead down hallways from the street to the back where there's a pub, or restaurant. my favorite part of all this though is that these businesses are numbered 79 1/2, or 411 1/2. Very Harry Potter. i spent pretty much an entire day down there, there are lots of little alleyways and streets to get lost in (i didnt though!)

saturday and sunday i drowned myself in markets, but managed to keep my spending under control. It started raining on satuday night and hasnt stopped since. it absolutly poured all day yesterday and some of the rooms in my hostel flooded and people had to change rooms. i didnt really believe this until i went to the bathroom and saw the entire hallway was being rained on. i immediatly ran to my room and covered my valubles (camera) in my rain jacket. Then, we're all settling down to a movie and the fire alarm goes off. naturally no one moves, which is the smartest instinct of all, until someones comes into the room and tells us all we have to evacuate. nothing was actually on fire, the rain collapsed part of the ceiling or something.

Downsides to fire alarm going off:
-standing in the street in the rain with no shoes

Upsides to fire alarm going off:
-australia firemen

Rainrainrain

Well its official, Im on my own! Cirucs left me about an hour ago, and after a tearful airport sendoff, im left to fend for myself. Luckily shes been training me to tell time by the sun (because i have no watch) and to read a map (because i have no sense of direction). im embarassed to say i got lost on the journey from central station to the hostel (a 5 minute walk when you know where youre going)

In any event, its raining and gross here so i think a day wallowing in my own self pity is on the agenda, then i have to drown my feelings in a box of wine, and then ill be ok!

my plan, as it stands now, is to hang out here for about another week, then im heading up north to see my cousin Kristen and i totally excited about that. After helping them move ill probably be going up to Darwin, or somewhere else way up north where its hopefully warm and sunny. I actually had to wear a touque the other day! Can you believe that!

Edit:

i have failed in my mission to upload pictures.

progress coming soon. promise

PICTURES!!

Can you believe it?! i got off my lazy bum and actually accomplished something! Pictures are officially posted on my facebook profile. If you havent got facebook you have 3 options:

1. Make a facebopok profile
2. Makes friends with someone who has one
3. Wait until i get home (christmas)

It'll be worth it to see them TRUST ME

Not for the faint hearted

Just in case anyone was feeeling like looking at something really gross this:



http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/huntsman_spiders.htm



is the spider that was on the tent the other night. imagine if you will this thing sitting in the dirt. IMPOSSIBLE to see. and they bite. awesome



also jsut for intrests sake, there is an antidote for the funnelweb spider (most poisonous spider in the world and resides only in sydney) so if i get bit theres still hope for me

spiders!

We left Cairns for Brisbane just under a week ago. While we were waiting for our airport shuttle Circus discovered a large nest of spiders in her backpack. Not even joking. there were hundreds and hundreds of them crawling out of the backing. We were completly horrified and proceeded to scream, whack and drown them in a frenzy of bugspray. It was quite a sight.

We are now currently in Byron Bay (again) where we've set up the tent and plan to live the hippie life until tuesday.. We played trivia night again, but lost horribly this time so we just got drunk instead!

Last night, we 're laying in bed and all of a sudden i see a very large shadow crawling on the outside (thankfully not the inside) of the tent. it was completly demonic looking and i swear i heard screetching violens playing. I got out to tkae a picture of it and lo and behold, it was the size of a small dog. ok not quite but it was massive and horrible.

Ive had enough spider experiences for one trip thanks..

Cairns!

We finally made it to Cairns! The end of our east coast journey! We've been looking forward to coming here, mostly because it's hot and sunny all the time. Though we've recently run into a string of really hot weather (and subsequently sunburns) so that's been nice. We only just got here last night, so we went for our free meal at the pub and watched the International Goldfish races. Canada lost, FYI. This morning we wandered around town, i managed to recognize the hotel i stayed at when we were all here 10 years ago (what are the chances that id remember?) and go shopping.

The last couple days have been spent with the arduous task of moving past our lost pictures. Ice cream was a large factor in this process. We spent a couple days on Magnetic Island, which is a 15 minute ferry ride from Townsville. It was so amazing. I wish we could have spent more time there. The whole island is a national park, and basically a giant koala sanctuary. There are different walks to take around the island, and you can see shipwrecks, koalas, and all sorts of beautiful scenery. There are like 10 different bays, and they all have beaches, so i rented snorkel equipment on our last day, and spent like an hour in the water. Ill have to just buy a snorkel, ive spent so much money renting them!

After Cairns we are flying to Brisbane and then back to Sydney becasue circus is LEAVING me! i literally have no idea what ill do once she leaves. You'll all see my face on the news "Canadian Backpacker Gets Lost; Blames Friend"

No seriously. its gone

so if anyone who reads this happens to be in Townsville right now and finds my camera in the Queensland Museum, could you let me know?

yeah thanks

Whitsunday Islands!

We have just nicely gotten back from our 3 day cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, which i will now lovingly refer to as Booze Fest '07. Our first day was spent on the boat (catamaran) getting to know one another. There were about 50 people on our boat so we had a lot of people to meet. We got to the island where we would be living for 2 days, had dinner and happy hour. Our capitan, Skippy Van Goonbag (not his real name) was more then generous. After a round of drinking games, we headed to bed early. Wake up call was 6 am and i sure didnt want to be seasick.

The next day we headed out to Whitehaven Island, one of the most photographed places in Australia. Its the picture perfet whitesand island. Even though it was overcast and not the nicest day the island is SO beautiful. The water is the clearest blue/green ive ever seen. Circus and i ventured over to a little stream at one point, which wasa big mistake. As it turns out thats the stream where all the crabs live! And not just little sand crabs. Gigantic blue, very fast moving crabs. Have you ever been charged at by a heard of crabs? I have never screamed so hard in my life.

Today (our last) we boated out to part of the great barrier reef and snorkelled for the morning. It was raining a lot which made it freezing but there were a lot of fish out so that was pretty cool. After lunch we started for home. It was SO windy the waves were completly insane. We stood at the very front of the boat and when the boat hit a big wave the whole front end would shoot like 15 feet in the air. It was so fun! except when that giant wave covered me head to toe.

So we're back in Airlie Beach for tonight then onto Townsville. From there we head to magnetic island and then Carins! Its hard to beliee we've almost made it to the top!

Airlie Beach

In 2 days we head off to a cruise on the Whitsunday Islands. We pretty excited about it. I thought id be all prepared and upload all my pictures to a memory card first. My guess was i had around 400 pictures at the most. Turns out i ahve more like 1400. yikes. needless to say this trip is well documented!

Great Barrier Reef

I was up at an ungodly hour this morning. i didnt even know there was a 630am in australia! It was worth it though, becasue i went on a catamaran tour to Lady Musgrave island, which is a national park/island about and hour and a half from 1770. Its completly surrounded by the great barrier reef, so for 4 hours i layed with me face in the water, poking fish and taking pictures with my new underwater camera (side note, i now have 5 cameras... excessive?) i wasnt sure if i would be able to do it, i have this fear of sticking my face into the water and breathing... its sure a strange feeling! I got up to it eventually and it was SO cool. I found a piece of coral where all the sea turtles go to get cleaned by strange underwater creatures, i found Nemo, and a piece of coral cut me! Its so easy to get carried away though, Id get into such a daze floating there that id all of a sudden be VERY far away from the boat! Im completly waterlogged now, but it was so great

1770/Agnes Water

With some level of difficulty (like the midnight bus that dropped us off in the middle of the highway.. thank god for shuttle buses!) we have arrived in Agnes Water/The town of 1770, so named becasue it was the first place Capitan Cook arrived in Queensland. in 1770 apparently.. the whole town has a population of about 80 people so its really cozy. We're in a hostel for the first time in i dont even know how long, so Im pretty happy about my new situation involving walls and electricity...

Prior to this we were in Rainbow Beach, which was really beautiful. Lots of coloured sands and dunes to run down (or up if iw as feeling REALLY motivated)

We spent 4 or 5 days in Hervey Bay, which was a little too long for our liking but we didnt really have a choice! It was really nice just to relax and lay around...

In a couple hours i am embarking on a sunset kayak tour and tomorrow im going on a great barrier reef snorkelling tour, which im pretty excited about.

Surfing!

We are now in Noosa, the "Hamptons" of Australia. It's pretty fancy, everything is REALLY expensive, but the beach is really nice and the weatherhas been beautiful! i Even sort of have a tan!

Circus signed me up for surfing lessons yesterday, i was slightly apprehensive so it took a little convincing. She sat on the beach and took pictures of me as i fell repeatedly. But eventaully i got up! It was pretty exciting acytually, but im really sore today, and have a saltwater/surfboard rash on my legs. ouch.

We're onto rainbow Beach tomorrow, camping right on the beach. im pretty excited about it. i imagine there will be a LOT of laying on said beach.

paraside? really?

We are currently in Surfers Paradise. I use the word "paradise" VERY loosely. Our luck here so far, not so great. The beach is really nice, but its been rainy and not beach weather at all. Last night some guy broke into our room and stole Circus' MP3 player and another girls camera and wallet. The really frustrating part is that we saw him come out of our room and didnt realize until the next morning that he wasn't staying in there, and probably laughed to himself the whole way home. So we all go to the police station, fill out a form, the police come to "asses the crime scene" and by that i mean stand in our room and tell us to be more careful. One officer actually told me he's "not surprised" that our room was broken into. So we decided a little shopping would make us feel better. after i got yelled at by a bus driver, we finally managed to find a mall and buy something. whew!

We leave for Brisbane tomorrow and are determined NOT to get robbed.

Byron Bay!

It's been a while since Ive been near a computer.. Byron Bay is pretty amazing, we're staying at the Arts Factory Lodge, which is almost a city in itself. It has its own movie theatre, recording studio, restaurants, and wild turkeys! The turkeys are interesting, but they sort of lose their appeal when youre walking back to the tent after dark and they fall out of trees right in front of you. We're also meant to enjoy "natures soundtrack" which so far has consisted of what sounds like a rabid monkey fight every morning at around 630...

We've gone to the beach a couple times, and the sun is nice but it gets pretty windy this time of year so the sand sort of gets in everything. Its worth it though. We went to the bar last night for trivia night and we won! I couldnt believe it! there were 5 of us and the pot was about 200$ and circus and i got a free day trip to Nimbin, a small, very colourful town just outside Byron. It was certainly and eventful night!

Our days are certainly packed though.. get up around 11.. lay around.. wander into town around 1.. lay on the beach... wander back... have a drink.. lay around... may go to the pool. yeah. its rough.

Sydney!

We've been here for a couple days now. Circus' cousin and her boyfriend have taken us in a shown us a really good time. we're off to Byron Bay on Sunday, which is hippie central, we're obviously pretty excited about that. the weather in sydney hasnt been great its raining a lot and there are floods everywhere so we're hoping byron bay will give us a little sunshine. we'l also be camping a lot in the next while so that should be an aventure!

Farewell New Zealand!

We leave for Sydney tomorrow morning, and Circus' cousin is taking us in for a couple days. Our last day in Rotorua was spent at a thermal wonderland. The colours are amazing. its just a park of rocking, geysers and very smelly steam. It poured rain all day but it was still really cool

Unfortunatly it seems that im deathly allergic to Rotorua and am crrently covered in hives. hopefully they will dissapear the further away from thermal-land we get.

wish us luck in the land of oz!

Rotorua!

Our last couple days in New Zealand before we head off to Australia! I think we've chosen well.. Rotorua is FULL of thermal activity. which means 2 things:

1) the entire city STINKS of rotten eggs, becasue of all the sulpherous gas

2) there are thermal spas everywhere, and lots of boiling mud ponds

Needless to say our entire morning today was spent in a 108 degree thermal pool. SO nice. we're off to a "Thermal Wonderland" tomorrow with exploding gysers and all that fun stuff. then back to Auckland for a night, then to Australia!

We left Queenstown a couple days ago, where we went to a kiwi habitat (it was all i could do to keep circus from trying to steal one) and "luged" down a mountain in a 3 wheeler cart! So fun. Then, the morning we left it snowed. Im not even kidding. we were happy to leave..

Wellington

Well, our climbing of the volcano didnt go *quite as we'd planned.. as it turns out hiking for 3 days is a lot harder than we thought! we didnt leave the visitors center until almost 3, and the first park of our hike was really beautiful! we saw Mt Doom from lord of the rings (i got a play by play from circus, my live in commentary) and the landscape was really amazing. then after about 2 hours we were starting to get a little panicked.. we couldn't see out hut and we hadto make it there before dark. by around 5, it was dark and the hut was but a small speck in the distance. finally we made it. ive never been so exhausted and cold in my entire life. ever. there were some parts of the track that were completly vertical! there was no path, just run off from water! we zipped our sleeping bags together, slept for 14 hours and left early the next morning.

since we were in the middle of no where, we had to spend the night in this small small town called National Park (or as i now refer to it, Craptown). the only plus was that the hostel had a hot tub and heating pads in the bed. our bodies still havent forgiven us

Currently we are in Wellington, the capital of new zealand. we have set up camp in the backyard of a hostel but its so ridiculously windy today that the tent frightens us. so we've set up shop in the tv room with a deck of uno cards

we leave for the south island tomorrow, and im doing my best to talk circus into snowboarding on a glaicier! she was quick to remind me how our last very amibitious ourdoor adventure turned out...

and, shocker, ive been bitten by a mysterious new zealand bug. on my ankle. its very swollen and itchy. theres also a new one on the top of my hand. i brought lots of allergy medicine though!

Climbing a Volcano.. Wish Us Luck!

We are currently sitting in a hostel in National Park village, where a very nice man has offered to give us a ride to tongarino park, where we'll be living in the mountains and volcanos for 3 days. i imagine many things will bite me, and it will certainly be a learning experience

LAX

Well, we've made it this far! Unfortunatly we're only about 1/3 the way through what circus and i now lovingly refer to as "the longest day of our lives". In any event we're getting pertty excited, and as soon as out 7 hour layover is over, we'll be even more excited!