So right now I am sitting in my room with the fan off, in my warmest pajama bottoms and a zip up hoodie on! It is extremely rainy and my thoughts about Australia's weather being bipolar still stand! Past couple of days we have had so much rainfall that a natural disaster has been declared and there is flooding all over Queensland. Luckily the flooding isn't really to close to me but it is all over the news at night. A few days ago it was just a downpour all day long, today it was blue skies and tonight we ran to the car to get out of the rain. Needless to say I am not use to any sort of weather and so I am not very fond of all of this rain. I much prefer when the weather behaves itself and doesn't close down beaches, and flood places.
Anyhow, it has been a while since I have updated you and there are plenty of things for me to tell you about so prepare yourself for a long post!
This weekend we stayed in Gold Coast and are learning we get a bit bored when we aren't traveling and do not have set places to go. So tonight we decided to go bowling. Man, do I need to practice that! We played two games and I came in second place both times. However, I never even made it past 100. :(
Last weekend Beth and I flew to Cairnes! We met up with Kirstine and Emily who are the two British girls we met when we were traveling in New Zealand last month. I was really excited that we were able to meet up with those girls one more time before they flew home to England.
We left on Thursday out of Brisbane. However to get to that airport we had to first take a train for an hour and half and we arrived in the airport pretty early. We waited around for our flight and were extremely surprised when we got on the flight that not one single time did we have to show proof of who we were. Not one single time did we have to show a photo ID or anything. That would never happen at home with security as tight as ours!
We arrived in Cairnes at around midnight and took a shuttle to our hostel. We stayed at the Cairnes all girls hostel and absolutely loved it. Dawn left our key in a keylock on the gate since we were getting in after the reception had closed. We just paid for our hostel the morning after and it worked out really nicely for us. We ended up getting a room with just Beth and I for only $24 a night which is an AMAZING deal because usually we will pay that much for a dorm style room. It was nice to not have to worry about anyone else being in our room except for the two of us.
The next morning we slept in until 11 because we were just so darn tired (we didn't go to bed until 3 after arriving to our hostel and settling in). We wanted to go to the rain forest that day and so we went up to Dawn and asked her if there were any tours for that day. Turns out there were but they had left at 6:45 AM. Even if we had known about that we probably would not have woken up early enough to make it. So we did not get to see the rain forest after all. :(
Instead we went down to the lagoon and hung out at the park for a couple hours. It was relaxing and it felt great to just have a relaxing day. The night before we left for Cairnes I pulled an all nighter to get two assignments turned in and doing nothing is exactly what I wanted to do then.
Saturday we woke up early and went on our tour to the Great Barrier Reef. We went on a really nice boat and it was an all day event. I thought the boat ride out to the reed was going to be a couple hours but it didn't seem long at all!
Once we got there we got separated into groups to go diving. It was Kirstine, Emily, Beth and I in our own group with a dive instructor. They went over everything with us and I got really excited for going diving. However, when it came time to do it I became a real wuss. They had us doing all of these under water tests where you had to show that you knew how to get water out of your goggles under water, and what to do if you breathing piece came out. Well I kept panicking because it just felt way to unnatural. I kept shooting up to the surface and when you have a negative buoyancy it is really hard to stay on the surface which freaked me out even more.
Beth was freaking out just as much as I was, which I was happy for because I felt like I was being ridiculous. I seriously thought they were not going to let me actually go diving. However after several times of me shooting up to the surface (which I later found out is really really bad for you) they got me to calm down enough to where we could go diving.
I had not mastered how to breathe through just my mouth and so I had to hold my nose the entire time I was swimming. Since I didn't know how to get the water out of my goggle there was water where the nose piece was and every time I would attempt to breathe through my nose I would get water up my nose. I am sure the instructor was laughing at me and I felt really weird holding my breathe underwater knowing I could breathe and also because I never normally hold my nose.
The dive lasted for about twenty minutes and I was more scared during it then I was when I went sky diving.
After we went diving we all went snorkeling. We didn't go snorkeling for to long until we got on the boat for lunch. Once we got on the boat we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming off of the side of our boat. It was really cool to see, and best of all we didn't have to pay for a tour to see it. We were lucky to see that!
After lunch there was a second dive that we decided to go on. This time we did not have to do the testing that they had us do the first time. Not doing this testing made me feel so much better and I was a little more brave this time around. I finally figured out how to get the water out of my goggles (4/7 times I was successful, the other 3 ended up with more water in my mask) and I was also able to swim without having to hold my breathe.
This made the second dive WAY more enjoyable for me! When we were down there we saw a sea turtle, a shark, and a clown fish (AKA Nemo!). Sadly even though we had an underwater camera the girl who had it at the time didn't capture any of these items! :( I really wish I had gotten a picture of it but all well, at least I saw it in real life! The second dive lasted for about 40 minutes and I was extremely happy I decided to do a second dive.
That took up most of our day and after it ended we got back to Cairnes around 4:00 PM. We all decided to go to the grocery store and pick up some biscuits (which are what they call cookies) and some other lollies (which is what they call sweets). We hung out at our hostel eating biscuits and lollies and then went out for dinner and drinks after that.
We had a really fun night and parted ways at the end of the night! I was really sad to say goodbye to Emily and Kirstine but know that if I ever travel to London I have a place to stay with either of them and also my own personal tour guide. :)
The next morning we headed back to Gold Coast! We left our hostel at 7:30 AM and didn't get back to our Apartments until about 3:00 PM. We had to take a Bus, Plane, Train and another Bus in order to get home.
So that was my last weekend! I really enjoyed going to Cairnes and seeing it since that is where I originally had planned to study abroad. In some ways I think I would have really enjoyed if I had studied there, but Cairnes also had its down sides. It was just nice to put that curiosity away.
This week I also booked a flight to the Whitsundays in June which is probably the last flight I have to purchase while I am here! My time is almost up and I can't believe I have already been here several months and only really have ONE month left! My how time flies!
I am flying to Melbourne next week and booked my tours for that yesterday! We are going to Phillips Island and The Great Ocean Road. I am pretty sure that will be the next place I right about in my blog.
For now I am headed to bed, wishing for better weather for tomorrow.
I love you & miss you all! I will see you all very shortly. :)
BTW my picassa has been uploaded with my pictures from Cairnes! Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/ChelseaTaylor77
xoxo
Chels
Friday, May 22, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Fraser Island
Before I start typing about my weekend let me just say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!! I hope all of the moms I know had a wonderful day with their families! Sorry I couldn't be there to spend today with you mom, I love you and I have an I.O.U. for when I get home!
Now I will continue on to talk about this past weekend. Let me just say Fraser Island was absolutely GORGEOUS and so far has been my favorite place that I have been to in Australia! I will upload pictures to Picasa as soon as I can so that you guys can see just how wonderful this place was! We only made it a weekend trip but we packed a lot into just a few days!
It was Kat, Carolyn, Beth and me going on this weekend trip! We left on Friday night after Kat got after work and got on the road at around 8 P.M. which actually worked out so that we avoided any traffic jams! Originally I thought the drive to Hervey Bay (which is where we would stay that night) was only 3ish hours, but it ended up being about 5 hours which still isn't that far of a drive. We got to our hostel at around 1:00 AM and were all ready to go to bed. We checked into our hostel and it was us four girls and then two guys as well who were from New Zealand and San Diego. The guys were really cool and I was surprised to hear that neither of them had met many Americans while being here. I am slowly learning where I chose to study abroad so did basically every other American lol. I like traveling because I get to meet so many people from around the world and there are usually plenty of interesting conversations to be held.
The next morning we were up at around 7:00 AM and I was exhausted because I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 3:45 (which is the last time I looked at the clock). We got picked up by a shuttle bus and then headed down to hop onto the catamaran to go to Fraser Island. It was only about a forty minute ride until we got to the island and as soon as you stepped onto the dock you realized just how pretty of a place you were going to spend your weekend. I really wish I could get pictures to capture just how pretty all of these places are but I can never get them to capture all of its beauty!
When we got off of the catamaran we dropped off our bags to be taken to the resort and then met our tour guide Peter, who was absolutely hilarious the entire trip! When we got on our big four wheel drive bus we continued on to drive through the forest. Somewhere along the line I found out that Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and that is basically just another bragging right it has. :)
We drove for a little and then hiked through the forest for about ten minutes until we got to Basin Lake, which was a really pretty fresh water lake on the Island. There is a story that the entire Island is a god who wanted to be part of the earth, and all of the lakes are here eyes so that she can still see into the clouds where the rest of the gods are.
After Basin Lake we took a thirty minute hike through the forest, where it started to rain! I kept laughing to myself at how I was walking through a rain forest, through the rain! After our little hike we ended up at Central Station and had lunch. Central Station is where the rail road use to be, but no longer is. Lunch consisted of really good ham and pineapple sandwiches along with some pasta salad.
After lunch we went on another small hike through the forest along Wanggoolba Creek where the water was so clear you couldn't even tell the creek had water in it!!! We only hiked for about fifteen minutes to meet Peter at the bus and then drive to Lake McKenzie.
It is really hard to chose my favorite place on Fraser Island but this is definitely towards the top of the list. I have never seen sand so white, and water SO clear. Not to mention that it was surrounded by a rain forest just made the scenery stunning. It started to rain a bit and to add to the beauty a really big rainbow started to show in the sky! Normally I would have asked for blue sky and white clouds but the rainbow stretching across the island seemed to be just as good! The sand at lake McKenzie is so fine that you can clean your jewelry and exfoliate your skin with it. I took a couple pictures with my underwater camera so we will see how they turn out, I still have to take 15 pictures before I can develop it.
After Lake McKenzie we headed back to the resort and checked in. We attempted to go and watch the sunset but instead of going right which was the correct way, we turned left and got onto the wrong track. So after that we took a shuttle back to the dingo bar and had dinner. From dinner we went back to reception and went swimming. The pool was heated so it was a perfect way to end the day. After a bit we all moved into the hot tub and just relaxed, had girl conversations and stared at the stars and full moon! After the hot tub we went back and took showers at our cabins. We then went down to the Dingo Bar and had a drink that was called "Bootylicious" and it basically tasted like cherry 7-up. We were there for a bit but then still made it back and were in bed by midnight.
On Sunday we woke up at around 7:00 AM again and headed down to breakfast. After breakfast we were on the bus for a pretty drive on a 75 mile long beach while we headed towards the Maheno Shipwreck. The ship had been there since 1935 when the Japanese lost it during a storm. They had taken out the propellers to make it easier to transfer but then ship got disconnected from the ship that was towing it and since it didn't have propellers there was no way to keep it on track and it ended up landed on Fraser Island. During the second war Australia had tested a bomb on it, but since it wasn't a direct hit the ship isn't totally ruined. (Although it is very deteriorated).
After the Maheno Shipwreck we stopped and looked at the Colored Sands which honestly there isn't much to say about that. We then continued onto the Sand Dunes which were just really really fun! On the walk towards the sand dunes we passed a really large spider that was just hanging in between two trees but sadly I couldn't capture a good picture of it for everyone to see.
After hiking up one giant sand hill with your feet sinking every step you took we then continued to jump off the sides of the sand dunes! You literally could not see what was below until you went up to the very edge. When you would go to jump you wouldn't be able to see what you were going to land in (but obviously it was going to be sand) and so it just felt like you were jumping off of a cliff!! When you landed you ended up stuck in sand that went all the way up to your knees haha.
We stuck around there jumping around for a bit before we headed over to some really pretty champagne pools. Champagne Pools are where the rocks and sand have gone a little further out into the ocean and make a little pool filled with ocean water. Then when you sit in the pool you get a view of a bunch of waves crashing in front of you and then they would continue to toss you around in the champagne pool. We hung around there for a bit before heading back to the bus.
On our way to Indian Head we saw a wild Dingo! He was just wondering around the beach and we all got off of the bus to take pictures of him while he just sat there looking at us, wondering why we were all taking pictures of him haha.
When we got to Indian Head we had a ten minute hike up to gorgeous lookout spot on the Island! We were basically at the edge of a cliff sitting and standing on rocks looking at our surroundings. In one look you could see the ocean, forest, and sand dunes all at once. Simply Gorgeous.
Since we had missed the sunset the night before Peter drove a little bit faster on the forest roads then normal so we could make it to the beach and watch the sunset over the water. We can't do this where I live because I live on the east coast so the sun only rises over the water. However, since we were staying on the west side of the Island we could watch it here! We made it just in the right amount of time!
After sunset we went and hung out in the pool and hot tub once again. We couldn't pass up the opportunity knowing we had to leave soon! After the hot tub we went and had dinner for about 45 minutes before the bus picked us up to take us to catch the 8:00 PM catamaran. We got back to our car at around 9:00 PM and headed back on the road!
We got back to our apartments at about 2:00 AM and then all headed to bed!
All in All this weekend was an absolute blast and one of my favorites so far! Pictures will be up soon, but it may be a few days as I have a couple homework assignments I need to start working on.
I love and Miss you all!!!
Chels <3
P.s. Sorry it is so long I obviously do not know how to make a short post!
Now I will continue on to talk about this past weekend. Let me just say Fraser Island was absolutely GORGEOUS and so far has been my favorite place that I have been to in Australia! I will upload pictures to Picasa as soon as I can so that you guys can see just how wonderful this place was! We only made it a weekend trip but we packed a lot into just a few days!
It was Kat, Carolyn, Beth and me going on this weekend trip! We left on Friday night after Kat got after work and got on the road at around 8 P.M. which actually worked out so that we avoided any traffic jams! Originally I thought the drive to Hervey Bay (which is where we would stay that night) was only 3ish hours, but it ended up being about 5 hours which still isn't that far of a drive. We got to our hostel at around 1:00 AM and were all ready to go to bed. We checked into our hostel and it was us four girls and then two guys as well who were from New Zealand and San Diego. The guys were really cool and I was surprised to hear that neither of them had met many Americans while being here. I am slowly learning where I chose to study abroad so did basically every other American lol. I like traveling because I get to meet so many people from around the world and there are usually plenty of interesting conversations to be held.
The next morning we were up at around 7:00 AM and I was exhausted because I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 3:45 (which is the last time I looked at the clock). We got picked up by a shuttle bus and then headed down to hop onto the catamaran to go to Fraser Island. It was only about a forty minute ride until we got to the island and as soon as you stepped onto the dock you realized just how pretty of a place you were going to spend your weekend. I really wish I could get pictures to capture just how pretty all of these places are but I can never get them to capture all of its beauty!
When we got off of the catamaran we dropped off our bags to be taken to the resort and then met our tour guide Peter, who was absolutely hilarious the entire trip! When we got on our big four wheel drive bus we continued on to drive through the forest. Somewhere along the line I found out that Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and that is basically just another bragging right it has. :)
We drove for a little and then hiked through the forest for about ten minutes until we got to Basin Lake, which was a really pretty fresh water lake on the Island. There is a story that the entire Island is a god who wanted to be part of the earth, and all of the lakes are here eyes so that she can still see into the clouds where the rest of the gods are.
After Basin Lake we took a thirty minute hike through the forest, where it started to rain! I kept laughing to myself at how I was walking through a rain forest, through the rain! After our little hike we ended up at Central Station and had lunch. Central Station is where the rail road use to be, but no longer is. Lunch consisted of really good ham and pineapple sandwiches along with some pasta salad.
After lunch we went on another small hike through the forest along Wanggoolba Creek where the water was so clear you couldn't even tell the creek had water in it!!! We only hiked for about fifteen minutes to meet Peter at the bus and then drive to Lake McKenzie.
It is really hard to chose my favorite place on Fraser Island but this is definitely towards the top of the list. I have never seen sand so white, and water SO clear. Not to mention that it was surrounded by a rain forest just made the scenery stunning. It started to rain a bit and to add to the beauty a really big rainbow started to show in the sky! Normally I would have asked for blue sky and white clouds but the rainbow stretching across the island seemed to be just as good! The sand at lake McKenzie is so fine that you can clean your jewelry and exfoliate your skin with it. I took a couple pictures with my underwater camera so we will see how they turn out, I still have to take 15 pictures before I can develop it.
After Lake McKenzie we headed back to the resort and checked in. We attempted to go and watch the sunset but instead of going right which was the correct way, we turned left and got onto the wrong track. So after that we took a shuttle back to the dingo bar and had dinner. From dinner we went back to reception and went swimming. The pool was heated so it was a perfect way to end the day. After a bit we all moved into the hot tub and just relaxed, had girl conversations and stared at the stars and full moon! After the hot tub we went back and took showers at our cabins. We then went down to the Dingo Bar and had a drink that was called "Bootylicious" and it basically tasted like cherry 7-up. We were there for a bit but then still made it back and were in bed by midnight.
On Sunday we woke up at around 7:00 AM again and headed down to breakfast. After breakfast we were on the bus for a pretty drive on a 75 mile long beach while we headed towards the Maheno Shipwreck. The ship had been there since 1935 when the Japanese lost it during a storm. They had taken out the propellers to make it easier to transfer but then ship got disconnected from the ship that was towing it and since it didn't have propellers there was no way to keep it on track and it ended up landed on Fraser Island. During the second war Australia had tested a bomb on it, but since it wasn't a direct hit the ship isn't totally ruined. (Although it is very deteriorated).
After the Maheno Shipwreck we stopped and looked at the Colored Sands which honestly there isn't much to say about that. We then continued onto the Sand Dunes which were just really really fun! On the walk towards the sand dunes we passed a really large spider that was just hanging in between two trees but sadly I couldn't capture a good picture of it for everyone to see.
After hiking up one giant sand hill with your feet sinking every step you took we then continued to jump off the sides of the sand dunes! You literally could not see what was below until you went up to the very edge. When you would go to jump you wouldn't be able to see what you were going to land in (but obviously it was going to be sand) and so it just felt like you were jumping off of a cliff!! When you landed you ended up stuck in sand that went all the way up to your knees haha.
We stuck around there jumping around for a bit before we headed over to some really pretty champagne pools. Champagne Pools are where the rocks and sand have gone a little further out into the ocean and make a little pool filled with ocean water. Then when you sit in the pool you get a view of a bunch of waves crashing in front of you and then they would continue to toss you around in the champagne pool. We hung around there for a bit before heading back to the bus.
On our way to Indian Head we saw a wild Dingo! He was just wondering around the beach and we all got off of the bus to take pictures of him while he just sat there looking at us, wondering why we were all taking pictures of him haha.
When we got to Indian Head we had a ten minute hike up to gorgeous lookout spot on the Island! We were basically at the edge of a cliff sitting and standing on rocks looking at our surroundings. In one look you could see the ocean, forest, and sand dunes all at once. Simply Gorgeous.
Since we had missed the sunset the night before Peter drove a little bit faster on the forest roads then normal so we could make it to the beach and watch the sunset over the water. We can't do this where I live because I live on the east coast so the sun only rises over the water. However, since we were staying on the west side of the Island we could watch it here! We made it just in the right amount of time!
After sunset we went and hung out in the pool and hot tub once again. We couldn't pass up the opportunity knowing we had to leave soon! After the hot tub we went and had dinner for about 45 minutes before the bus picked us up to take us to catch the 8:00 PM catamaran. We got back to our car at around 9:00 PM and headed back on the road!
We got back to our apartments at about 2:00 AM and then all headed to bed!
All in All this weekend was an absolute blast and one of my favorites so far! Pictures will be up soon, but it may be a few days as I have a couple homework assignments I need to start working on.
I love and Miss you all!!!
Chels <3
P.s. Sorry it is so long I obviously do not know how to make a short post!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Skydiving Video!
Ok!!! So after several failed attempts of uploading my skydiving video I believe I have now found a way for you to see it. The quality isn't the best because I couldn't figure out how to save the original to my computer. So instead I took my digital camera and recorded the video while it played on my laptop. However, it works good enough for you to be able to see it! This is me jumping 15,000 feet in Taupo, New Zealand!!!! :D :D
Sunday, April 26, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
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 :)
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