A Little Bit of Bowen

Queenstown....serenity!

2009-01-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

Queenstown was by far our favorite place to visit and if New Zealand wasn't so far away I think I would have to own a house or condo or something there! haha, in my dreams! Anyway, it was beautiful, we really enjoyed our time spent there! Also on our last day here we went on a jet boat ride up and down skippers canyon! It was a BLAST!!! Our jet boat did some sweet 360s! Woo Hoo!!!

The next day we left New Zealand and headed for home. It was a fun vacation and a fun time away for school but I am glad to be home and with my family again!

Lord of the Rings!!!

2009-01-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, isn't Queenstown beautiful? We loved it there, and wished we would have spent more time exploring! On our second day in Queenstown we went on a Lord of the Rings safari!! It was amazing, and so much fun! Our guide (who I think was half insane) took us all around to show us the sights of where Lord of the Rings was filmed! It was really neat to see all the sights and hear the behind scenes of what really took place there. We also went off roading in the Land Rover, up the river and everything! It was so much fun and we laughed our heads off the whole time!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

2009-01-12T15:15:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were suppose to be a lot different than they turned out... First of all we left our hotel in Roturua and went to their little airport, stood in line and waited to get checked in. We were the second ones in line and then we hear an announcement that says our flight has been cancelled. AH!!!! So we sit at the airport and wait because there are no other flights that they can get us on so basically they say sorry and they shut down and leave because we were suppose to be the last flight out of there. We sat at the airport from 11am to 6pm. It was awful and yes of course it was Christams Eve! So my mom and dad were on the phone forever trying to figure out what to do and where we need to go to get to Queenstown. Luckily, (sort of, lucky would have been catching the right plane haha) we get a flight from Auckland to Queenstown...our ONLY option. So my dad and I went to rent us a van to drive the 3 hours back up to Auckland. Good thing that NONE of the rental car places had anything bigger than a hatch back corolla. So we had to rent two of them and drove to Auckland. They were almost the size of mini coopers! Upon arrival to Auckland we then found a hotel near the airport and stayed there. Man, was it a dive!! haha So we spent Christmas Eve in Auckland....The next morning we flew to Queenstown which was incredible! Christmas was pretty uneventful as well since everything was closed and we missed our tour because of our cancelled flight! I was bummed that we missed the tour but I was just so glad to be with my family and to be safe together!

Maori Tribal Dinner Show...Chief DEX!!

2009-01-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

On our last night in Roturua we attended the Maori Tribal Dinner!! It was AWESOME!!! We had so much fun and laughed so hard as Dex was our chief!!! My dad elected him to be the chief for our bus. The best part about it was that in the Maori culture chiefs greet eachother by touching foreheads and then noses two times! It was the funniest thing to watch Dex touch noses with all these random people...the hardest part was then neither Dex or us could laugh because the ritual is sacred...sometimes I just couldn't help it! Great food and great fun!

Agrodome and Rainbow Springs

2009-01-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

After the Hot Springs we went to the Agrodome and to Rainbow Springs! Rainbow Springs was kind of lame...the coolest part was the huge rainbow trout fish. Dex, my Dad and I were all wishing we had our fly rods!!! Mine has some serious lack of use... The Agrodome was very interesting. They showed us all these sheep and where they come from. Also, we witnessed the shearing of a sheep, Meg hated it! Afterwards we went up and pet the sheep and the sheep dogs!

Roturua Hot Springs!

2009-01-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

We made our way from Auckland to Roturua! We stopped at these caves and then took an underground boat ride to see all the glow worms! If you are in to Harry Potter it reminded Dex and I of the 6th book when Harry goes with Dumbledore into that cave with the Black Lake! haha. There aren't any pictures of this event because we weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave. The next day we were in Roturua and our first stop was at these hot springs and mud pots. They were really cool, and I made friends with the kitty we found.

Sydney to Auckland!

2009-01-11T22:38:00.001-08:00

What can I say...Dex and I take attractive pictures! HAHA! We were bored waiting for our plane from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand to take off so we started taking pictures! We were only in Auckland for a day and then we made our way to Roturua! Oh and don't be too grossed out...its just barely chewed up bubble gum balls in our mouths! SICK!!

Featherdale Wildlife Park!!

2009-01-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

The last part of our bus tour was spent at the Featherdale Wildlife Park! We wished we could have spent more time there because it was so fun! My family loved all the animals and it was fun to watch them and they way they reacted to the different animals! There was one koala that was so entertaining. He kept trying to jump up to us to get out, and then he started being mean to the other koalas because he was mad! We laughed a lot at him and shot some funny videos! Oh and above is Dex with his new 'good friend' Wayne! He was so funny, we laughed until we cried because of all the funny things he would say. He came back on the bus and sat on Dex's lap and told him all about the crocodiles and everything at the park! He was really hard to understand and that's part of what made him so funny!

Blue Mountains!

2009-01-11T22:16:00.001-08:00

While in Sydney we took a bus tour to the Blue Mountains. We were able to see the Three Sisters and other cool rock formations. Also, we went on this train ride that was pretty much straight down! It took us into the rainforests of the Blue Mountains! It was fun and probably Meg's favorite part of the day...she only wished the train was a longer ride!

Sydney Opera House....Amazing!!

2009-01-11T22:07:00.001-08:00

My favorite part about Sydney was definitely the Sydney Opera House! I loved it!!! We were lucky enough to go to the Opera House Christmas show! They sang many traditional carols with humorous narrative. It was so much fun and we enjoyed every minute of it. I only wish that I was the one up there singing! haha! We had a wonderful night!

SYDNEY!!!

2009-01-11T21:56:00.001-08:00

After 8 hours of driving we are in Sydney! It is everything I thought it would be and so much more! I love the opera house and all the neat bridges over the harbor. Our 2nd day there we were on a 9 hour bus tour.....umm not recommended! Hence the picture of Dex and I asleep. However, we did get to see all the sights, suburbs and everything inbetween as far as Sydney goes! As always we had heaps of fun and laughed a lot!!

Coff's Harbor

2009-01-11T21:42:00.001-08:00

On our way to Sydney we stopped half way at Coff's Harbor. Coff's Harbor had the funnest beach we went to while in Australia!!!! We stayed there only one night and had a blast! Right outside our hotel was the beach so we just walked out the back doors and were there. Being so excited for the beach we all surpassed the warning sign! We body surfed the waves for about 2 hours before we went to the pool and layed out. On our way back to the pool my dad reads aloud the sign that says DANGER, swimming prohibited, strong undertow, deadly waves....ect. haha! Funny now because no one was swept out to sea or drowned! We probably should have been smarter and realized that there wasn't one one other person swimming besides us! Needless to say it was one of the best days! Oh and we stopped to get lunch at the 'Big Banana'! Good times there!

Gold Coast and Byron Bay!

2009-01-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

My family made it to Gold Coast, Australia....FINALLY!!! Woo Hoo!! Words don't even describe how excited I was to see them all! Their first night here we went to dinner in Surfer's Paradise with my Bishop and his wife! I was so happy that they got to meet the wonderful people that have been taking care of me for the past 4 months! The next day we got up and I took them on a quick tour of the city, my campus, and the 'hang out' spots! After that we went shopping at Robina Town Centre and then started our trek towards Sydney! Our first stop along the way was Byron Bay! We had a lot of fun together just relaxing and playing together!! Oh and our van was probably the most stressful part of the trip, trying to fit 6 people and 9 pieces of luggage was quite a task, but after a few swear words, a lot of laughs, and some logical thinking we managed to fit us all!!

Lauren's last night.... :(

2008-12-12T07:26:00.001-08:00

Tonight was Lauren's last night with us. She leaves tomorrow at 7 AM, and is the first one to go, sad day. We have all been so excited to see our families and to get back home that we haven't really been thinking about saying good-bye to each other. However, tonight we went to the MLC and rented out this room that has a projector and we watched The Grinch and played Wii sport! It was so much fun, and we laughed the whole time! I had forgotten how much I enjoy The Grinch and the Wii! I can't wait to get home and play it! Tonight was definitely one of those bittersweet moments.

Movie Night!

2008-12-08T06:33:00.001-08:00

Tonight we decided to take a break from studying....(not that we were doing that much of it!) and go see the movie Australia! It was a great movie, quite the tear jerker though, but we all enjoyed it. It was really neat to see it while still in Australia! It is our tradition that if there is ever a shopping cart in the hallways or one on the boardwalk we take it and take turns pushing each other, we just happened to have a camera this time! It's always a good time for lots of laughs!

Finally on our way back!

2008-12-05T21:04:00.001-08:00

Well, I never thought I would say that I was excited to be at the airport but Fiji made me feel differently! We had a lot fun and there were some interesting times but I was sick of everything stinking, gross food, being concerned for my safety and the safety of my things, sick bugs, gross bathrooms, and irritating touchy people!!! I am glad that I have experienced Fiji, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon unless I am a multi billionaire and I am staying on a private island for $5,000 a night! Is it sad that the best part about Fiji was that it was beautiful and that I came back to Australia with a good tan? haha!

Castaway island!!

2008-12-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Fiji was spent on the Seaspray Sailboat! It was actually pretty fun! However, there were some draw backs....one being we didn't want to swim in the water because it looked like there was pooh all over! AH! Also, when getting on to the sailboat I stepped out and lost my balance and racked my shin on the metal step ladder and bruised my other shin catching myself! Trust me to be the one that falls! It hurt so bad I thought I broke my leg! haha! Anyway... we sailed to a village and watched a Kava ceremony and then walked around and looked at all the jewelery. The best part about the trip was the free cold diet coke! haha Just kidding but really I don't know if I would have survived this trip without it! The best part actually was going to the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway! It was really neat and we enjoyed our time there just laying out! There were so many crabs on the beach! It was crazy because I had never actually seen a 'wild' crab before! And yes we pretended that we were pirates again!!!

What is Fiji without another dance party?!

2008-12-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

So when we finished our activities we pretty much had the greatest dance party!! Shockingly, they had some normal music!! We were pretty excited about that!! Brett and I were doing our Soulja Boy dance and then we did the 'Beat it" dance!! It was so much fun!! After we were done dancing we went for a midnight swim in the pool!! It was actually a really fun way to spend our last night in Fiji!!

South Sea Island!

2008-12-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

South Sea Island was our last night in Fiji!! WOO HOO!!! We had a lot of fun here though!! The same Aussie guys from Sunrise were here as well, so it was nice to see familiar faces! The dorms also weren't as scary either, I think I actually managed 5 hours of sleep that night! That's good for me! We got there had dinner and then we had some activities. One of these was called statue dance. Basically, you have a partner and you dance and when the music stops you freeze and if you move you and your partner are out!! I WON!!! So I took my diet coke instead of a beer. Yikes! No one could believe that I didn't drink....! My partner was a girl I didn't know, her name was Ashley.

Boat transfers...good times!

2008-12-05T20:14:00.001-08:00

I had to include these pictures because they were so funny!!!! From each island we got on the same boat and we were either sleeping or jamming to our Ipods!! We had lots of weird looks, but really I didn't care...we were having a good time!!! Oh and don't worry that my headband made me look like Joe Dirt!! Haha

Korovou

2008-12-05T19:53:00.001-08:00

We stayed at Korovou for two nights. It was pretty fun and very relaxing! We layed out every second the sun was out!!! I loved it! Korovou had beautiful sunsets!! The food was alright.....kind of goi! Upon arrival we went and layed out in the chairs and read our books. I was sitting there trying to cool down with my ipod blasted and trying to stop thinking about being stolen from and how gross our dorms and bathrooms were. Don't worry my solitude didn't last long. First off the flies were awful! We couldn't get them to stop landing on us. So I am laying there and I feel something fall on my cheek so I brush it off and don't think anything about it because I am almost asleep. Then I feel something scuttling in my hair so I brush it off, it lands on my shoulder, I look down and pretty much had a heartattack. Sitting on my shoulder is one of the grossest spiders I have ever seen. I jump out of my chair, everything goes flying and I am shaking it scared me so bad. AH!!! I HATE SPIDERS!!! Ew, I still get goosebumps thinking about it! Anyway, that next day we layed out from 8:30 that morning until dinner at 7!! haha good times! They play some half decent music by the pool and while laying out we did the macarena! haha! Also, the islanders are obsessed by this STUPID song called 'Wana Taki Taki' Oh my gosh it was awful!!!! Not only did they play it at least once an hour, each time it played they would hit repeat and it would go for at least 6 repeats! I was ready to pull my hair out because my ipod just wouldn't go loud enough! AH! So our showers were very scary! I had to add this picture because it just shows what it was like. Everything was outside, there were two showers and as you can see there is NO door on one of them! GOOD!!! Our last night here we also did more Bula dancing! It was fun and we had a good time! Also, I was ready to leave here when the time came!!!

Last day at Sunrise...thank goodness!!

2008-12-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

After our fiasco with our money we were sent on a hike to the Blue Lagoon on the other side of the island. First of all it was about noon so it was bloody hot. They said it would be easy but we made about three wrong turns because there were forks in the trail and no signs! After about 45 min. we made it! Once on top of the island it was really beautiful!! We were so hot and sweaty that we went swimming before we left. We got a group picture and a picture with Queen and we were out of there! I couldn't have been more excited to leave!! haha! Oh and when we got to the Lagoon I realized that my tank was on inside out! haha who does that?!?!

Just the beginning of troubles......

2008-12-05T19:31:00.001-08:00

So.....Fiji really isn't all that it is cracked up to be!! Or maybe we shouldn't be such trusting people. So the night we did the Bula dancing we also did the Kava ceremony with the isalnders. (so gross!) Anyway, that night we layed out on the lay out chairs and star gazed! It was so beautiful! We counted at least 30 falling stars, and you could see all of the milky way! We decided to go back to our room at about 1:30 in the morning because we were so tired but when we got there our door was open and the door to the other side was unlocked. I have never been so scared in my life. We came to realize that there were people on the other side holding and banging on the door! We ran out of our room like bats out of hell screaming. We had Queen come check out our room and when he got there all the doors were open so he checked everything out and assured us that all was well. That was the longest night of my life. We all were in the same bed scared to death. I don't think we actually slept until the sun started to rise. The next morning we went up to the pink house to buy water and I realized that I was missing money. We went down to the breakfast table and figured out that I had $50 FJ and $50 AUD missing. I was not a happy camper. We told the hosts but really what were they going to do about it? So that was awful and definitely put a damper on our spirits. I was just glad that money was all that was taken.

Bula Dancing!

2008-12-05T19:20:00.001-08:00

Wow, what a fun night we had! The hosts at Sunrise decided to entertain us on our last night with some Bula dancing. We learned the Bula dance and the sunshine dance! Then Katie and I were trying to learn how to shake our hips properly for the Bula dance, we were awesome! haha!!! I was definitely on the struggle train with my skirt because it kept falling off my hips, I couldn't get the stupid thing tight enough!!

This is a random kitty that was in Lou's tea house! I had to include it even though it didn't fit in! I thought my cats ate weird things, but chocolate cake is not a normal kitty diet! I actually fed him quite a bit of mine because I felt sorry for him. :(

Sawa-I-lau Caves

2008-12-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

This had to be one of my favorite days in Fiji! Joe's water taxi came and picked us up, and we made a 40 minute boat ride to the caves! They were amazing!!! This is just the one cave that we could get a picture in because the other one you had to swim through an underwater tunnel!! That was a little creepy! It was also pretty dark in there, so I was a little nervous! Our guide came through with a flash light, and the caves were so amazing!! I have never seen anything like it! We had so much fun here!

BULA!!

2008-12-05T18:55:00.001-08:00

We were up at about 6:30 am to catch our bus at 7:00! The bus was bright yellow and purple and was window-less! haha it was quite the ride. Once we arrived at Port Denarau we got checked in and loaded the boat! We were so excited to start our trip around the Yasawa islands! Our first stop was Sunrise Lagoon Resort! It was five hours away....so pretty much Kerry and I took nap! The scenery was beautiful! Oh and everyone yells BULA at you instead of hello!! I guess it means good health! Haha

FIJI!!!

2008-12-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

Our first night in Fiji was pretty good! We had a hectic time getting there, but hey thats how travelling goes! Our hotel was pretty nice, probably because we were expecting the worst! haha! Our room was really hot so we decided to go out and play pool! It was Kerrys first time playing, and she did pretty well! Katie was a great teacher, but we were exhausted by the time we were done and ready for bed!

The Final Product!!

2008-11-27T06:49:00.001-08:00

After about 6 hours of work and despite the fact we were messing around half the time our gingerbread house turned out pretty good!!! We had Christmas music playing in the background and ate candy for Thanksgiving dinner, who could ask for more?! Haha!!!

Who does this?

2008-11-27T06:29:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving Day we decided to make the gingerbread house that my mom sent us (THANKS MUM!!!). It was quite the process since we had to keep waiting for the pieces to dry, but that's okay because we kept ourselves pretty entertained! :) Kerry and I made Katie buy all the Twilight books because we are obsessed with them, so she has been spending all her nights reading instead of sleeping...hence the reason she is asleep!!! When the base of the house finally dried, or so we thought we decided to put the roof on.......guess we weren't patient enough! Kerry and I had to sit and hold it to make sure it didn't fall apart!! During this strenuous process Katie thought it would be funny to get out the vampire teeth! Guess we were all in the vampire mood while we made our gingerbread house...but honestly who isn't always thinking about Edward Cullen?

Dinner with the Buntens

2008-11-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight we met Lauren's family Steve, Kim, and Johnny!!! They were great! We had so much fun with them! They took us to dinner at Trawlers, which is a seafood restaurant that is shaped like a boat. The food was pretty good, and I even tried the Barramundi, not too bad! It was so good to be with family even though it wasn't my family haha (close enough though)! It was so fun to meet them and spend the evening out! After dinner we all piled into their rental car....probably the best part of the whole night. At least the funniest minus the lady that fell in the restaurant and then her husband that tripped in the same spot his wife did!! HAHA! Three in the front and four in the back!!! Good times! We pretty much laughed the whole time! Thanks again for dinner Steve and Kim!!

Lawn Bowling anyone?

2008-11-21T01:18:00.001-08:00

For Kerry, Katie, and Kristin's Australian sport class we went bowling Aussie style!!! Besides us and the rest of the class there wasn't anyone under the age of 65. It was so much fun! None of us were very good (well except for Kristin!) but we each had at least one good bowl, so I had to take a picture of mine which actually hit the white ball! It was very exciting. Between each game we did cart-wheels and such down the lane! Fun times at Mermaid beach bowls club!

Randomness in Whitsunday...

2008-11-18T21:06:00.001-08:00

S0 together we had a bunch of random pictures that really didn't have headings but definitely needed to be included! For the remainder of our trip we spent everyday sailing and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef! It was so much fun! Both nights we slept on the deck of the sailboat and that was pretty much awesome! So to explain the pictures...I had to include the picture of me diving off the front of the sailboat because one: it was awesome, and two: I got stung by a jellyfish!!!!! It just felt like a needle but it sure scared me! The sunsets on Whitsunday were amazing and so beautiful! The picture of me pointing to the island is because I was convinced that we were in Jurassic park. For the duration of our stay here there were many shrieks coming from this particular island and I told everyone that it was the velociraptors!! haha! Last but not least, I sunburned my lip! Curse me for saying "I've never burned my lips before." HA! My lip was HUGE! So we decided to document it. To say the least it was pretty gross and very unattractive. Oh and the picture of me standing at the front of the boat, well we all pretended we were pirates! Good times at the Whitsunday Islands!!!

Betty's Beach!

2008-11-18T20:58:00.001-08:00

After we were done at the look out we hiked down to Betty's beach, which is part of Whitehaven beach. It was awesome! The sand is 98% silicone, hence how white it is. We spent a few hours just walking around and taking in the beauty around us. While walking around we came across these crazy looking sting rays! They weren't even afraid of us. We were wading in the water and they would come right next to our feet and swim by! It was crazy!! So much fun on Betty's beach!!!

The one and only Whitehaven Beach!!

2008-11-18T20:51:00.001-08:00

Oh my gosh!! This was amazing! We hiked up to this place called hill inlet so we could look out over the whole beach, I couldn't believe how beautiful this look out was! It was incredible!

Kayaking in Turtle Bay

2008-11-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Our first stop was at Turtle bay! We were so excited to get in the water because we were so hot and sticky from laying out on the deck all day (tough life I know)!! So we put on these super attractive Stinger suits because it was Jelly season, so the Jellyfish are abundant in these waters. After swimming we decided to go kayaking! I had never done it before, and now that I have I want a kayak of my own. It was so much fun and we got to see these huge sea turtles up close to our kayaks. Lauren and I actually had one come up for air right in between us!! They are such amazing creatures, I wish I could have had my camera with me, but I didn't trust myself enough to not tip over! haha!

Beautiful Whitsunday Islands!

2008-11-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

Wow! The Whitsunday Islands were absolutely breathtaking!!! We had such beautiful warm weather and for once NO RAIN! Basically, we were on a sailboat called Enid for 3 days. It was wonderful. We had so much fun, and saw so many neat things! What a relaxing weekend!

Phillip Island!

2008-11-09T17:15:00.001-08:00

When we arrived to Phillip Island we stopped at a beach and pretty much just froze! We went to an island were there are seals but we couldn't see them because the other isalnd was so far away. After that we went to eat Pizza on the beach and the seagulls were terrible!!! They sat around us the whole time trying to eat our pizza. They actually stole pizza from a lot of us sitting there! haha! After that we went back to the penguin parade! It was about 8:30 before the penguins started emerging out of the ocean! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen! I was sad that we weren't allowed to take pictures of them because they were so cute and little. Their names are the little penguins. Every night they come out of the ocean from hunting and back to their nests. As we walked back up to the gift shop once it was over you could see them all over, they were close enough to touch! I really wanted to take one back with me! I loved them!! We didn't get back to out hotel until about 11:45, so we were exhausted.

Let's just say not all Australian zoos are great...

2008-11-09T17:02:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we went on another all day tour called 'Penguin Parade'!! We were so excited to get to see they penguins. We were picked up and then drove for about 2 hours. We arrived at this zoo type place where we ate lunch. The food was awful, but the only good news was that we found Mountain Dew there!!! There were so many random animals at the zoo including kangaroos (white ones), wombats, alpacha, goats, birds, a crocodile, and peacocks just to name a few. It was really odd and kind of gross. Needless to say we were ready to continue on our way to the penguins!!

London Bridge

2008-11-09T16:56:00.001-08:00

This was really cool! The wind here was blowing so hard and we were freezing because the rain was pelting our faces. BRRR! Anyway, the London Bridge was actully all connected at one point and you could actually walk out to the point. On January 15, 1990 the middle caved in and fell. It left two people stranded on the other side and it took police officials 3 hours before they could get the helicopters to rescue them!

12 Apostles!

2008-11-09T16:47:00.001-08:00

These were arguably my favorite part of the tour! I was so excited to see them in real life, they were so majestic! What is so neat about them is that there are only 9 left standing because the others have fallen. In fact, the one that you can see that looks like a pile of rubble fell only 3 years ago. In hundreds of years to come they will no longer be standing.

Loving on the birds....and wild koalas

2008-11-09T16:34:00.001-08:00

We made a stop down this road where there were some wild Koalas! They were so funny, and the wind was blowing so hard and this one Koala was just swaying back and forth and it wasn't even bothering him!! We laughed! After those we walked down a little ways to feed the birds! They were so funny and just hung out with us! I really liked the birds up until we were on our way to Lorne and I realized that one had pooped in my hair. After that I decided that I would be fine without a bird! HAHA!!

1st stop Bells Beach

2008-11-09T16:25:00.000-08:00

Bells beach was our first stop along the way. It was awesome! Bells is a little surf town that is home to the most famous australian surf competion in the world! Surf brands like Ripcurl and Billabong were started here! There was one crazy person out surfing, but the surf wasn't that great because the weather was so bad.

Great Ocean Road in Melbourne!

2008-11-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

On Friday we spent the whole day on a tour of the Great Ocean Road! It was awesome minus that it was freezing! We still had so much fun and saw so many amazing things! These are just some of the highlights of the Great Ocean Road. We did a rainforest walk and the trees were huge, and you could stand in them! I kept feeling like I was in Jurassic Park and that some raptor was going to come out of nowhere to eat me! HAHA!

Along the Great Ocean Road there are many small beach towns and lighthouses. It was really neat to see such fun surf towns and all the beachouses of many differnet colors.

Airport Security?

2008-11-09T16:04:00.001-08:00

On Thursday night we caught a cab and headed for the airport in Coolangatta! Upon arrival to the airport which had a total of 3 gates.....we checked in. The lady checked us in and never asked for any form of ID or anything and then handed us our boarding passes. Weird right? It gets better. We walk over to security where Lauren made it through with her water bottle and me with my pocket knife (I forgot it was in my bag). Also, we didn't have to show any ID or a boarding pass, and then when we went through the gate to board the plane we never showed ID. AH!!!! I could have been anyone, it was a pretty creepy! Then to top it all off instead of boarding the plane through a teminal we walked outside and climbed the stairs to the plane both when we left and arrived to Melbourne. I'm not sure how I feel about Australian security.....

Whitewater World and back to Dreamworld

2008-11-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Today was such a fun and relaxing day! We went to Whitewater World which is hooked to Dreamworld, so we were able to go from park to park. We rode all the waterslides, and The Green Room was the best ride by far! After riding the rides we layed out for a while working on our tan! (which is finally coming along!) After we got hot, we decided to walk over to Dreamworld and ride all the water rides that we hadn't rode the day before! It was so much fun! The log ride was super fun and we were glad we waited to ride it because we were soaked! We also got to ride one of our favorite rides again The Claw!

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN.......80's style!!!!!! After Dreamworld we came back to our aparment building and had a dance party!! It was a blast! After dancing Michael Jackson's Thriller and shakin it to some techno Australian rubbish for a few hours I was tired, so Katie and Kerry thought it would be a good idea to dog pile me! Overall, we had a great day and night, but really what can go wrong when you're dressed in up in 80's clothing!?

Halloween in Dreamworld...

2008-10-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is probably the first time that I have been ready for Halloween at 8:00 AM. For Halloween we went to a theme park called Dreamworld, home to the world's highest drop ride! It was awesome! Since Australia doesn't celebrate Halloween, we sure recieved some funny looks, but it made things even more fun! The rides were exciting and the lines weren't too bad either. It was really funny because they had a world called Wiggles world, and no one knew who they were but thanks to Meg I knew exactly who they were. Everyone thought I was crazy while we walked through and I could sing every word to all the wiggles songs! Fruit salad....yummy yummy!! Haha

Girls Night Out

2008-10-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Kerry's sister Steph arrived here today!!! We have been so excited to have her come, so tonight we went out to dinner! We walked down the road a little ways to CBD. It was so good to finally meet her, because Kerry has always told us so much about her! Dinner was fun and the food was pretty good and the service.......(well lets just say Aussies don't work for a tip!) After dinner we came back to my room to watch Van Helsing (thanks mom!) to get us into the Halloween spirit!!!

Currumbin!!!

2008-10-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day at the zoo! We had so much fun and saw some really neat animals! One of the coolest parts of the day was holding a baby croc! Its skin was really weird and he was actually pretty heavy. We were also able to see things like Porcupines, Tasmanian Devils, Dingoes, Koalas, Wombats, and lots of neat birds like the Pelican above. We did a behind the scenes tour where we were able to hold birds, hand feed dingoes, and hold a python. They also showed us the operation table for the animals and where they prepare the food! It was really interesting and informative. At the end of the day we went back to the front of the zoo to feed the Lorikeets! It was the funniest thing we did. The birds came out of nowhere and were attacking our plates of nectar and honey! We had birds all over us, I felt like the dove lady in Home Alone!! Lucky for me I didn't even get pooped on!!

I want a Kangaroo!

2008-10-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

The Kangaroos are probably my favorite thing about the zoos in Australia! They are so fun to play with. This time there were lots of little Joeys (baby kangaroos) running around! They were so funny, but as soon as you got too close they ran and jumped in their mom's pouch! We spent a lot of time with the kangaroos, the only bad part about it was all the creepy Emus and all the Roo pooh everywhere!!

All about the characters!

2008-10-24T06:29:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun finding lots of the characters and getting our pictures with them! It's a good thing they had the Main Street parade, because there were some characters we didn't get to get our picture with. I was bummed that we couldn't find the Scooby-Doo crew! Luckily, I got a great picture of both Scooby and Fred!!! The announcer of the Parade was Austin Powers! haha! We were laughing so hard because he looked and sounded just like him! He rode around on this 4-wheeler, that I am pretty sure he couldn't drive! Overall, we had a blast today and got to live our childhood memories again with some of our favorite cartoon characters!

We love BATMAN!!!

2008-10-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

Pretty much we were loving on Batman! I mean who doesn't love Christian Bale as Batman? (we at least pretended it was him!!) We found him right after we arrived and we were pretty excited! It was us and all these little kids in line to get our picture with him. I'm Pretty sure I felt like I was 5, but hey I like it that way!

Movie World....Hollywood on the Gold Coast!

2008-10-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

What a fun day at Movie World we had! We left this morning at about 9:00 and headed North towards Brisbane. It took us about 45 minutes to arrive. We had an absolute blast here! We all decided to wear our Batman shirts that we had previously purchased in Surfer's Paradise, everyone was calling us the Batgirls! One of our first rides was the superman ride! We thought we would be funny and do the Superman pose for our picture! The Scooby-Doo roller coaster had to be one of the favorites! While waiting to get off the ride, we decided to take some fun pictures!!

This is a picture for Dex of me at the HARRY POTTER store!! I was so excited when I saw it, but sadly all the stuff in there was super expensive and I didn't feel like buying an $85 wand! HAHA! Also, this is me with the Lethal Weapon car! (I need a life!) After we rode a lot of the rides we decided to go to the Shrek 4D show, hence the really cute glasses! It was really funny, and it made us all jump and laugh at eachother!

Draculas!

2008-10-23T05:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to a dinner show at Dracula's! We decided to get all dressed up, and really who can resist crazy make-up with fun eyelashes?! The show was pretty good, and the food was alright, but we had fun anyway! All the performers and waitors were dressed all crazy with face paint and the whole nine yards. They all thought that we were canadian! Weird eh? To get to our seats we took at little ghost ride through a haunted house, it was too short but fun! (That's probably the closest thing I'll get to a haunted house this year considering Aussies don't celebrate Halloween!)

One last thought.....Dingoes!!!

2008-10-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Dingoes were really cool! I wish we could have seen more of them! Fraser Island has the only pure bred dingoes in the world!! This post is for my mom, because right before we left she called to tell me to watch out for the dingoes because they attack humans!! But luckily no fatalities!

Last stop...Rainbow Beach!!

2008-10-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Rainbow beach has 72 different colors of sand! It was really cool and we had a lot of fun! We were only there for a little bit, but it was definitely worth it!! The picture of me with the shoe is something I found and so I was being the statue of liberty! It was a great way to end out trip!!

Lake Birrabeen!

2008-10-13T07:42:00.001-07:00

What a fun Lake!! On the way there it was crazy! Steve was our new driver and he was cookin! We were flying all over the car! It was like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland but better because we had AC/DC blaring! haha Katie and I swam for at least an hour in the lake, which was full of tea tree oil! It was so warm and nice! The white sand was wonderful and it polished up my sterling silver bracelet!! Im on the far left in the handstand picture! We had a great time here for our last day!

Hi Mum and Dad!!!

2008-10-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!! And probably miss you even more!!! XOXO

Lake Wabby!

2008-10-13T07:28:00.001-07:00

We hiked through the rainforest and then over these sand dunes to get to Lake Wabby! It was really pretty and though we didn't get in the water was about 83 degrees! I did some cartwheels in the sand and all the Asian got out their cameras to take pictures! haha!! We laughed! Then I skied down the steep hill and after tried to ski up but....I fell!! haha! Good laughs here!

Maheno Shipwreck!!

2008-10-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is the one and only Maheno Shipwreck! It was amazing! The ship was being towed by 6 japanese men when a cyclone came so they had to cut the rope, and the ship has been on Fraser Island ever since. When the ship first landed on Fraser it was at least triple the size it is now. Most of it was lost during WWII because it was used as target practise. Also, the bottom of the ship is covered by sand. We got bored after a while and started doing cartwheels (well at least I did)! We laughed pretty hard! Seriously who does that?!?!

Lake Allom.....more snakes!

2008-10-13T07:03:00.001-07:00

This is where we had our pit stop for lunch. Lake Allom is another freshwater lake that had loads of snapping turtles. It was cool, but considering we have those in the states........ not so much. Anyway, while we were eating lunch one of the guides found a Python asleep on the ground. Linda (the guide) and I sat and watched it sleep for a minute and then she let me touch it. It really freaked me out though because we were in the wild! It was weird! This was the second snake we saw that day. The first one pictured above is a very deadly snake that I spotted on the side of the road! Creepy!!

Indian Head!!

2008-10-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

This is Indian Head, and it was awesome!! It is named Indian Head because when Captain Cook first came to Fraser Island he saw this rock and on top was an Aborigine. He thought it was an indian hence the name. We saw some pretty neat things up hear including whales, sting rays, and sea turtles. The Humpback Whales were amazing, they were probably my favorite part of the trip! It was wicked cool and very steep! It made me nervous to watch people lean so far off the edge.

Eli Creek and Fraser Island Beaches

2008-10-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

First of all driving on the beach was crazy! It was so much fun though, our little land cruiser could handle anything! We saw some really cool things like the sting ray and the jelly fish washed up on the beach. Even though it was a little stormy the weather made really neat pictures. Eli Creek is one of the many freshwater creeks that flows from Fraser Island into the ocean. It mostly consists of rainwater and at the head of the creek the water is drinkable. It was fun to wade in, but we layed out while the little sun that we had was out instead of swimming. Oh and the picture of me holding what looks like a small breast implant (thats what our guide told us it was) is acutally part of a jellyfish!

Getting rained on in the Rainforest!

2008-10-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

After taking us to our resort where we got settled in for a minute we then went on a cruise into the Rainforests of Fraser Island. We went for a walk throught the rainforest where we got soaked! Good thing I had my waterproof jacket on though! Our hike ended up at Central Station. Long ago this rainforest used to be a logging community. This is one of our guides picking up some of the train wheels left behind. He thought he was pretty great, but we all just thought he needed deodorant!!!

On our way to Fraser Island......

2008-10-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

With a hectic start we are finally on our way to Fraser Island! We were in Surfer's Paradise at 6 am to catch our ride to Brisbane, from there we rode to Fraser, which is about a 5-6 hour drive. We spent lots of time in this wonderful orange land cruiser! We stopped at rainbow beach for some lunch before we caught the ferry. Hamburgers in Rainbow beach are definitely NOT recommended! Haha

Bondstock Concert.....

2008-10-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to the Bondstock Concert thinking it was going to be pretty cool......we left in an hour. But during the hour we had a dance festival together. After drinks were being spilled and ice was being thrown everywhere we decided to leave. So not exactly what we were looking for but we made it fun for the amount of time we were there!!

Ah, the beach....need I say more?

2008-10-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

Today was another fabulous day at the beach! We found this remote beach and it was beautiful there! The city off in the distance is Surfer's Paradise, which is closer to where I live. It was really nice weather today minus the wind. Trying to spread out my towell was a struggle, but I managed! Hence the picture. We had a great day and got lots of great sun, it felt wonderful!

Mario Kart and Dance Parties!!!

2008-10-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

What a night! Everyone wanted to get dressed up and go out tonight, but I really didn't feel like it so I stayed in my sweats and went to Lauren's. However, they ended up coming over all dressed up and played Mario Kart! We had boys come challenge us, but thanks to my brothers and all the practise I have been given I was able to dominate them all!!! Ha

After we went back to Katie's room and had a dance party there instead! What a random Thursday night! And yes I know my sweats don't match, I look like a bruise!

Volunteering...who doesn't love it?

2008-09-27T16:35:00.001-07:00

This weekend 6 others and myself volunteered all weekend. On Friday we went to Numinbah Valley and planted trees. It was pretty cool minus all the spiders, snakes, and plants that are trying to kill you! That night we were visited by some very curious possums! They were so funny and ate everything we gave them. Then on Saturday we walked along the beach for 2 hours picking up rubbish. I mean who doesn't love a farmer's tan? After, we met up with another community volunteer group. We planted plants and picked weeds behind the dunes of the beach. It was pretty fun and beautiful weather to be outside!

Byron Bay Lighthouse!

2008-09-21T04:24:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!! This lighthouse was unbelievable! It was so pretty, and when we were at the top walking around the views on every side were awesome!! The picture of me with the sign is really as far East as you can go in Australia on the mainland! It was pretty sweet!!! The lighthouse was definitely worth our 30 min. uphill pedal!

Bike ride views!

2008-09-21T04:16:00.001-07:00

This is some of the beautiful scenery we saw on our ride! The ocean was on our left hand side the whole way. It was amazing! A storm was rolling in so we were trying to hurry, but on the way back we got caught right in the middle and got soaked! Actually, I didn't mind much it was pretty refreshing! On one of the trails this lizard was just chillin right next to us! I touched its tail trying to get it to move, probably not the smartest idea! Haha!

Bike riding anyone?

2008-09-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Bond, we stopped at the mojosurf shop in Byron Bay. The dog is pepper, she is the mojosurf shop dog!! She was so cute, I played with her for awhile but it made me miss my own animals. :( Then we rented bikes and rode up to the Byron Bay lighthouse! It was a good 30 min. ride!! It was a lot of fun!! Pictured above is Dan (one of the surf instructors), and the girls are Lauren, Kristin, Melissa, me, and Kerry.

SURFING!!!

2008-09-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

I love surfing!!!!!!!! It was so much fun to learn! I stood up a lot, and rode quite a few waves but it was some serious work!! One of my instructors told me I was ripping! ( at the time I wasn't sure if he was making fun of me or if he was serious, but turns out he was serious!) haha!! I am really tired today, but it was definitely worth it! I hope we get to go again soon!

MOJOSURF!!

2008-09-21T03:17:00.000-07:00

These are a few of the random pictures from the weekend. I decided that wetsuits are just not that attractive, but after a fun day filled with surfing in them we thought we needed some pictures of us! HAHA! Saturday night was 'Fancy Dress' night, so they took us to a salvation army store where we got weird clothes (hence my Rocky boxer shorts!) Our Mojosurf bus was awesome and quite comfortable!! Dad, the bus even had michelin tires on it! We loved our surf instructors they were awesome!

Spot X!!

2008-09-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

This is beautiful Spot X where we learned how to surf! It was a blast! Up top is Kerry and I on our bunk beds, (yep mine didn't have a railing but luckily I didn't fall off!) The little blue cabin named Byron Bay is where we stayed! It was a lot of fun and at night while falling asleep you could hear the waves crashing into the shore!

Surfer's Paradise!!

2008-09-12T18:53:00.001-07:00

We played in Surfer's Paradise all day!! It was a lot of fun, and there were many fun places to shop and eat! The beach was beautiful but we didn't go out in the water because its just not warm enough yet. In the picture with the really tall building, its the tallest residence building in the entire world! Later that night we ate at The Hard Rock Cafe! It was delicious, finally some food that wasn't Goi!! We got some fun drinks so we could keep the cups, (mom, they were almost as cool as the many spaghetti factory glasses we have, but not quite! haha)

Campus or Resort?

2008-09-12T18:46:00.002-07:00

Here are a few pictures of my campus here at Bond and this last picture is where I live on the fourth floor lakeside! Hopefully, I can upload some more pictures of the whole campus in the day time! It is Beautiful! Oh and the picture of me, is on the stepping stones across one of the fountains!

I love the Beach!

2008-09-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

Today was the perfect beach day! Hot sun, light breeze, and ocean waves in the background! I had a wonderful day at the beach and have a good feeling that most of my time is going to be spent here! Kerry (pictured above) and I spent the day laying out and fighting the waves! Does life get much better? A perfect weekend before school starts!

Great Barrier Reef!!

2008-08-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

Today was amazing! I left the hostel this morning with the other students and we made our way down to the boat. We loaded the boat and set off for a wonderful day on the Reef! It was about an hour long boat ride, I rode on the front and the sea spray was awesome! Yes, my eyes are closed in that picture! Anyway, when we got to the first spot on the Reef I was able to go scuba diving! It was definitly one of the coolest things I have ever done! Words don't even describe how beautiful the reef was! I couldn't believe all the different types of fish down there, and yes Meg I saw NEMO and CRUSH!!!! and Mom and Dex guess what?!?!?! NO SHARKS!!! After that we were given free time to lay out and snorkel. Snorkling was a blast! We were able to dive down and pick up these bright blue starfish! At the second spot they took us to snorkle, the tide had gone down and created a little island! We got to snorkle out there and lay out for a couple of hours! I felt a little like Captain Jack Sparrow as I layed on this baren island and watched the boat float away! hahaha! It was a wonderful and relaxing day! Pretty much next to perfect!

Snakes anyone?

2008-08-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm not sure if I was scared or excited? Alright, I'm not going to lie I was scared out of my pants! And it wasn't until after I held it that the long haird pony tail man showed me his swollen hand from where the snake bit him 3 days ago......yeah great!! I think the snake is a good look though! haha

Hardly big Reptiles!

2008-08-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

So the big croc is Jack! He is a mean crocodile and a huge one at that. They have tried to have him mate but he has killed the last 12 females that they have put with him. Also, we were warned not to lean to far over the rail as he could jump out of the water and take off one of our heads! AH!! The lizards were wicked cool and could also be seen in the wild.

Having fun with the Kangaroos!

2008-08-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

As you can see I was loving the Kangaroos! However, the big ones kind of made me nervous, I was waiting for one to jump up and kick me! HAHA! The girls are some of my friends that I have met that are going to school with me at Bond!

Koalas! Who doesn't love them?!

2008-08-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Koalas were one of the best parts about Rainforestation! I know, I am really holding a Koala! Crazy eh? I thought so! However, though Koalas are cute, this one was so stinky! Even after I was done holding him, my clothes still stunk like him! Haha!! He was pretty snuggly and kept smelling my neck, kind of weird. In the third picture hidden in the mothers pouch is a baby koala! I wish we could have held him!

Rainforestation!

2008-08-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful place! At about 7:15 this morning I took a bus ride from the hostel and headed up to the rainforests of Cairns! It took about 45 min. to get there and honestly the bus ride was great considering the amazing scenery! I was so excited to get there and see all the wildlife! This is the entrance of the park and Emilie and I outside of the gift shop!

Enjoying the day at Rainforestation!

2008-08-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of the day we took a ride in a duck boat! That was fun since it went on land and water! We also were entertained by the aboriginese! They put on a show for us and taught us how to throw a boomerang, a spear, and how to play the didgeridoo! No one was very successful at it though.

Cairns!!!!!!

2008-08-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

After 3 plane rides and 18 hours later I have finally reached my temporary destination of Cairns, QLD!!!! I am staying here all weekend and playing everyday! Cairns was definitly a great way to start out my trip! My first day here I am traveling to the rainforest, here I will be introduced to some of the wildife of Australia and the Aboriginese! The second day will be full of the Great Barrier Reef!!!