Byron Bay!

Hello!!!

I am never to sure how to start these entries, but figure a simple hello works best. :)
This past weekend I went on another trip! This means that the last four weekends I have spent out of Gold Coast. This next weekend is a long weekend, however we have decided to stay here and work on all our upcoming homework so when we start traveling again in May we won't be stressed about it!


Let me give you a little history on Byron Bay. It is a really small town where everyone walks around barefoot, it reminded me a lot of Lake Tahoe without the big hotels and casinos. Besides it's beauty the big thing it is known for is it is the most easterly point in Australia. There isn't much else to tell you about history otherwise I would go on!



Anyhow, let me tell you about my weekend in Byron Bay! It was definitely a last minute decision, we booked everything on Thursday and left Friday morning. I am going to break this down to days and hopefully it will make this entry a little more organized then the past couple entries about traveling.


Friday April 24th-
Friday Morning I woke up at around seven (after staying up until 3:00 AM to finish the Third Twilight book) and finished packing for my weekend. In true Chelsea Fashion I packed late, and also packed way to much. Packing is a skill I don't think I will ever acquire. After packing Beth and I went to catch the city bus into Surfers Paradise to catch the bus we would actually be taking into Byron Bay. We got there around 9:30 AM and our bus left at 10:00, so we went into to surfers to find breakfast. We didn't do anything fancy we just went into the grocery store and got some muffins and water to take on the bus with us. After going to the grocery store we met up with Sam who was also going with us. All three of us met at our orientation in Sydney.

The drive to Byron was nice and short. It was only an hour long, which is another thing that attracted us to going into Byron for the weekend. We got to the hostel a couple hours to early for check in, so we all changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. It was a short walk from the hostel which I enjoyed!



The beach wasn't really crowded, but then again none of the beaches here get crowded like they do back home since the population is so spread out. We all just relaxed in the sun listening to our Ipods for a while before it was time to head back to our hostel.


We stayed in the Arts Factory Hostel which has some pretty interesting places to stay. We stayed in the lakeside cabin which was an all girls cabin that had a wrap around deck and was right by a lake. However it was really random that there were turkeys walking around outside of our cabin. You could hear them jumping into the trees all the time and then when you went outside there were at least ten you could see. The other types of hostels were a giant tepee you could sleep in, a double Decker bus, and tents.

That night we kept it casual and went to see Gran Tarino in the cinema that the hostel had. It was a really good movie, but a lot different then expected. The movie theater that they had was really cool though. You walked in and it was a hallway with a black light and stars and planets were painted on the walls. After that hallway you turned and then there was the theater. Instead of a traditional cinema layout this one had love seats that you could sit on, that were Zebra print. It was very interesting thats for sure!

After watching our movie we all headed back to our cabin and went to bed. :)

Saturday April 25th-

The next day we went to Nimbin because everyone said it was a good place for a day visit. So we booked a tour for $20 and then headed up there at around 10:30 in the morning. On the way we saw a waterfall and drove through an extremely curvy forest! Then we got to Nimbon which has a population of 400 people. It was where all the hippies went back in the 70's and it is still just a bunch of hippies. It revolved around weed though..there were shops like "Happy Herb High" or "Bringabong" (instead of billabong) and when you walked down the street within one minute we got offered weed 8 times (no worries I didn't buy anything!). It was definitly an interesting place thats for sure! We were there long enough to walk through town (which you could walk through town in under 2 mintes) and then we had lunch and got back on the bus. It was kidna sad though because there were families eating lunch with seven year olds sitting right next to people we were selling drugs. The kids didn't seem to even notice what was going on around them however when people were offering "cookies" the kids kept asking for them..which I am sure these are not the type of cookies they were looking for!

That night we were all exhausted and didn't really want to do anything but we forced ourselves to go out because people said we had to visit Cheaky Monkeys and we knew people would ask us about it when we got back and didn't wanna feel like losers and saying no lol. Cheaky Monkeys is a bar in town and so around 830 (yeah really early!!!) we went out. We got there and it was ladies night so we got free champagne, we each had one glass and then we decided we wanted to go back to our hostel and go to bed haha. We were a bunch of lazy bums that night thats for sure!!!

Sunday April 26th-

This is the morning we checked out of our hostel and also left Byron Bay. After checking out we went to the grocery store to buy stuff for a picnic on the beach! We went to the store and got yogurt, bananas, pretzels, and stuff to make pb & j with. We stopped and had breakfast (yogurt and bananas with Peanut butter toast..well bread since we didn't have a toaster lol) and then we went to walk up to the lighthouse which is the most easterly point of Australia. It was about a 2 mile hike and so we didn't think it would be bad except for the fact we took a wrong turn somewhere and took the longest way possible going up and down huge hills along the way!!! Finally we get to the lighthouse and we are all sweating so much because of how humid it was (we were literally walking through a forest to get to the lighthouse) we went up enjoyed the view and hung out for a while.



Then we went back down to go to the beach..which was just one hill going down...not the 4 or 5 we took getting there! If we would have stuck to the road and not taken a wrong turn the walk would have been SO easy but instead we ended up going for an unexpected hike lol. After that we got to the beach and went in the water because we were so hot! Then we dried off and had our pb & j sandwiches hung out for a bit and then went into town to wait for our bus to pick us up. We got Baskin Robins and I tried New Zealands national ice cream "Hokey Pokey" which I didn't care much for but hey at least I tried it right?? Almost immediately after eating our ice cream we hoped on the bus and headed back home!

So that was my weekend in Byron Bay! I do have pictures but they aren't on my computer yet, but keep looking at Picasa for any updates.

Love & Miss you all!!


P.s. This post was a LOT longer then I expected it to be, sorry about that!

New Zealand!!!

Hello Hello Hello!!! I have just had the best 9 days of my life!!! It was absolutely gorgeous and I packed it full of adventure!!! The best part is I never went over my budget that I set for myself :) I will try my best to describe the week but everything sort of runs together in my head sometimes! I will have pictures up on picasa within the next few days, as for now here is everything that I did!

The first night we arrived in Auckland and the first thing we were told was that if we take a cab it would be about $40 to our hostel, so we decided to do that. Turns our that you had to have a coupon thing and we ended up paying $90 for one cab fair lol. It was honestly ridiculous. We have a very bad habit of getting bad taxi service..as you can tell from past stories and this one! Anyways, we got to our hostel around 7 p.m. on Friday and then just wandered the streets which were completely dead due to it being good Friday. We got pizza and that was about it for that day.


The next morning bright and early we met up with the Stray bus we were traveling with! This day we drove from Auckland to Hahei to Cathedral Cove. We stopped at a beach along the way where due to the earth being thinner there you could literally dig down into the sand and create a hot tub, and the water would be hot. So hot it was steaming! It was very interesting that is for sure. However, it was only a small part of the beach that was like that and so we didn't stay to long. We checked into our hostel and then all of us decided we wanted to see Cathedral Cove. So then Metro (the driver for stray) drove us all down there and told us we would walk home and that dinner would be at 7 O'clock. So then we find out it is a 45 minute walk to cathedral cove and none of us are wearing the correct clothing. We decided to go anyways and I am happy we did because it was absolutely gorgeous!!!
we stayed there for about a half hour and then had to walk about the hour we had walked PLUS the walk from where we got dropped off back to our hostel..all together it was about a 2 hour walk up and down hills lol. The rest of that night all we did was have a barbeque and get to meet everyone on the bus. It was really fun!

We went from Hahei to Raglan which was the day you had an option to take surfing lessons but only 5 people decided to actually do it. Instead we all just went to the beach and hung out for about 3 hours. The sand was like black (naturally) and really weird but at the same time gorgeous. After the beach we went back to our hostel and got ready to go out for dinner. We called a Taxi and then 7 of us went to dinner.
However since it was Easter weekend there weren't really any taxi services running and the one we called had driven an hour form the next town over because they didn't understand where we were going. So the cab driver drops us off really mad and tried charging us 150 for a 20 minute cab fair. We gave her 60 total and got out of the cab, we refused to pay that much ahah. So we went to dinner and then we were completely stranded in town and if we were to walk home it would have taken about 4 hours.... all seven of us ended up getting a ride home from the restaurants cleaning lady haha in the courtesy van that wasn't suppose to be running that day!!! Sad but true!!!

This was also April 11th, the day Rhianna got married and I was thinking about her all day long! CONGRATS RHIANNA! I wish I could have been there!!!!!!!!

Then from Raglan we drove to Waitomo. This day was really interesting! We went caving underground to look at glowwarms! It included abseiling three times (twice under a waterfall) climbing up 30 foot latters, rock climbing (actual rock climbing not the fake easy kind!!) and basically squeezing your body through holes where you couldn't even get your two feet through hahah!! The very first thing we did was climb down a hole that was 40 meters long by abseiling..and you couldn't see anything because it was so dark! When you turned off your light it was completely dark and all you could see where the glowwarms glowing. It was pretty cool!! We did that for about 4 hours in total...the wetsuits were sssooo hard to get on and off lol I was very surprised any of us could move in them!!

After that we just drove from Waitumo to Maketu and had a cultural night. We learned a couple dances and songs and then just played games all night. Then at the end of the night about 40 of us slept in one giant room haha it was really fun but you can't really describe it and make it sound as fun as it actually was!

The next morning we stopped in Rotorua for lunch and then visited more geothermic areas where the ground was literally bowling from how hot the mud was. It was crazy and smelt like rotten eggs!!! From Rotorua we went to Taupo. and in Taupo we went sskkyyddiivvinnnnggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D We went from the highest point possible, 15,000 feet!! It was amazing!! I was the first one to jump out of the plane too. I absolutely loved it and didn't get nervous at all! The ride up there I was right next to do the door which was completely see through and it was the most relaxing thing I have ever done! I think it is because of how much I love heights that I just enjoyed the entire thing and didn't get nervous once!

I surprisingly only screamed twice on it! When we went out of the plane I screamed, I wasn't even necessarily scared just felt like a reasonable time to be screaming so my body naturally did it haha and then the second time I screamed was when the parachute opened because it pulled us back up really fast and surprised me!

I forgot to tell you what we did before skydiving! We went zorbing! Which is you literally get inside of a gaint ball that has some water in it and get pushed down a hill. It was created in New Zealand so I figured I had to do it while I was there.

The next day we went to Tongariro National Park bright and early, we left at 6:50 in the morning!!! We woke up after only getting 3 hours of sleep because we went out the night before. The hike was literally a 7 hours long and I only went for about an hour into it, turned around and walked very slowly by myself back which took 3 hours..so 4 hours in total. I REALLY regret not doing the entire thing but found out it was super hard, they literally hiked a mountain RANGE. I was to dehydrated for it so it was better that I turned back just wish I hadn't. OH and I have never seen lord of the rings but if you have this was a part of what we were hiking. Mount Doom or something like that

Then that night we just stayed in a really nice hostel and relaxed which was nice!!! The next day we went to Wellington (which was another place Lord of the rings was filmed..Hobbitown was filmed there but I didn't actually go and visit because we got there to late). So we spent the day in the wellington museum which had 6 floors of exhibits and was the nicest museum I had been to! After the museum we went back to the hostel and got ready. We all went out to the bar that night because it was our last night with everyone!! It was a really fun night! Sadly, the next morning we had a 13 hour drive back to Auckland and I spent the last two days in Auckland.

I didn't care to much for Auckland honestly. It was a big city, but just wasn't my favorite place out of the entire trip!

So there you have it my week in a nutshell. :)

Can't wait to talk to you all so we can talk about everything I missed in my nine days away! I love you all & will have pictures up on Picasa within the week!

Fall Break!

Hello Hello! It is 3:02 AM and I am still packing for New Zealand! My shuttle will be here to pick me up at 9:45 (..so in about 6 hours or so) and I thought I would post a blog about what I am doing in case anyone has an emergency and needs to get a hold of me. I am not taking my computer, and my cell phone doesn't work in New Zealand. I will try to get onto my email at an internet cafe every few days to check for any important updates, but if it is an emergency here is any information I have.

Flight to Auckland,New Zealand Friday April 10th 1:00 PM- 6:00 PM
Flight Number NZ938 (Flying with Air New Zealand)

Flight to Gold Coast Australia April 19th 10:30 AM-12:00 PM.
Flight number NZ937 (Flying with Air New Zealand)

Traveling with Stray Travel while in New Zealand from April 11th-April 17th.

I am with IFSA-Butler this semester and they also have an emergency contact number:

24 hour EMERGENCY Pager: (02)88150625
(Freedial: 1800 676 911, yes it is one number short)
Christi Hoover (My Adviser) can be reached during business hours at:
0402 423 998


(Country code for Australia +61)

Alright that should be all the information needed in case of an emergency!

I will be back in Australia on the 19th and will have a blog update up a few days after I get home!

Love & Miss everyone!

A weekend in the country!

This weekend Butler (which is is the program I am in for studying abroad) organized two different trips for Butler Students. The first type was an adventure weekend, where you went camping, and rock climbing, basically just did all the stuff I love. The second one was a country weekend where you went and stayed with a farmer and his family for the entire weekend. Originally I signed up for the Adventure weekend because it is more my type, then after a while I switched over to the country weekend. I figured it would be more of a unique opportunity then camping would.

The weekend started on Friday around noon. There were seven of us going, and we met at the university. After meeting at Griffith our bus driver Eric drove to Brisbane to pick up the other students of the University of Queensland which was only about an hour away. After picking them up we drove for another two hours to Towoomba to meet our host family.

Roy and Judy were the two people in the host family where we stayed. They were probably in their seventies and had been married for a very VERY long time. Their farm was 5,000 Acres and was literally in the middle of no where. It was a nice break from the city life that is for sure. They had everything from Wild Kangaroos, Koala's, Llama's, Horses, Ducks, Cows, basically everything you would think they had on a farm they did.

Friday night when we got in they made us a very good dinner. It had rice, chicken and homemade pudding. That night we didn't do much since we got in a little late. We had dinner, got to know everyone and then played games for a few hours.Saturday morning we went on a tour of the farm. It was pretty cool to see a bunch of Roo's running around in the wild! After that we went to Bonya Mountains and had lunch and went for a hike. The hike was pretty but we didn't get to do the long hike because Judy and Rigght (pronounced as "Rit"). We were only there for about an hour, which seems silly because it took an hour and a half each way to drive there.

On the way back we found out that Rigght was actually 91 and we were a wee bit scared to be driving with her after that. We did make it home in one peace, after getting kidnapped and going through a tour of her entire house...which none of us had asked for!! She was a nice old lady, but went off on tangents all the time and if you didn't listen to her she would yell over everybody until everyone was listening to her storys!

Saturday we had some wonderful mashed potatoes, salad and corned beef. After dinner we had homemade ice cream and I absolutely loved it! After ice cream we had a movie night. We watched Groundhogs day and some other movie that I can not recall the name of right now.

Then that brings us to today!! We had all said we would leave by 9:30 (so that we would actually be gone by ten which is when we truly wanted to leave). It would have worked out just fine except for Judy took forever!!! All of the teenagers were ready by 9:30, and we didn't leave until 10:45 because we were waiting on her. We went into the town and saw some cute bead shops, scrap booking, and fudge shops. Nothing all that amazing but it did help pass the time that we needed. So after that we went and met back with our bus driver and came home! Nice Simple weekend :)