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..