Sydney-where Sharkbait and his friends live

First things first. The weekend before I went to Sydney I went to Gold Coast to hangout with a girlfriend for the weekend. Friday night we went to the Blues Festival that was going on. Her Aunt and Uncle's friends usually rent an apartment for this weekend at the Aria hotel. Their original place had water damage so the place upgraded them to the penthouse for the weekend! It was 2 stories, over a dozen bedrooms and a lap pool inside! We hungout upstairs for a bit then headed down to the Blues Festival. We walked around for a few hours, got dinner, listened to some good music then headed back to her place. The next day we walked around her neighborhood a bit then headed over to the Carrara Markets. This is like a farmer's market but bigger. Kind of like the one I described from Melbourne. They had cheap clothes, food, souvenirs, etc. I went back to Brisbane later that day and it was back to school. That was the last week of classes before finals.

I went on my last major trip this past weekend to Sydney for 2 and a half days. It was a bit colder than Brisbane, but mostly sunny so that was nice. The first day I got there I walked around a bit in the local parks, one was a tribute to King George the something and the other was Hyde Park which has this huge fountain in it with lots of ancient Greek figures. One man was wrestling with a bull and then there were random turtles spitting water in the fountain. I then headed over to the Sydney Tower. I went up to where there were 20-30 different restaurants. I had so many options for once! They had sushi, Chinese, American, sandwiches, salads, etc. I ended up getting a spring roll and some chicken which was perfect. I then went up and as you can see in the pictures could see all of Sydney! From 250 meters up I would hope I could see everything...10 meters is 30 feet, for those who want to do the math. I then went down and walked around on Market St. which is like Queen St. in Brisbane, it's just a road with no cars and lots of shops on each side. I walked through some shops, but didn't see much that appealed to my interests. After walking around for a bit and being a little tired I hopped onto the city sightseeing bus, which is a double-decker bus like you would see in the UK, with the top part open. It was a hop on hop off service that went around the entirety of Sydney. If you stayed on it from start to finish it was an hour and a half commentated tour. But I obviously had to look around.
So what did I see first. I think my first stop was the bridge and opera house. Both are magnificent up close! Apparently there were lots of discrepancies about the opera house, but it eventually got built. I then walked over to the Circular Quay which is what the terminal/harbor is called. There were a bunch of shops and obviously tour boats just waiting to launch. Across the way was the Overseas passenger terminal where the large cruise ships (that can fit under the bridge) pull up and unload there passengers. Fun fact! The QEII among other boats, I'm assuming, that can't fit under the bridge have to obviously unload elsewhere. They unload in Darling harbor/the Rocks. Which is the area/harbor just next door. After that I hopped back on the bus and we went past Parliament, the Botanical Gardens, Central Station, a bunch of museums, the fish market, a casino, etc. We basically went past everything. Another fun fact. Australia decided to build an aquatics center after the Olympic swimmer/medalist Ian Thorpe. It cost $40 million! Now don't you think that money could have gone to better use?
After a long day of walking, I went back to my hostel for some food and drinks. I had chicken parmigiana on top of fries instead of spaghetti, apparently that's how they do it here. But it was delicious to say the least. I stayed up for a bit to watch a rugby game and then went to bed early because I was beat.
The next day my friends arrived and we yet again walked around the entire city. We went to the opera house and bridge first of course. Then we walked from the Circular Quay to Darling Harbor to the Rocks and back again, past the opera house to the botanical gardens. It's just getting to be fall here so there were some trees with their leaves changing colors and such. It reminded me of home. Next on our list was the Sydney observatory. It wasn't too fascinating but there was a cool telescope inside. Next we walked back down to the Rocks/Circular Quay and walked by the Aquarium which had a legoland inside. But on the outside there was a lego statue of legoman and a horse and then King Triton! Obviously I got a picture with him. There was also a few cool statues and one from the Sydney Olympics. By this point we were all pretty tired so we hopped on a bus and took it back to the hostel. We sat down by the bar and I again had chicken parmigiana because it was so good the night before. We watched a bit of another rugby game then passed out early again. The next day I had to leave for the airport and my friends went off to Bondi beach.
It was a great trip! Although it was the last time I will be on a plane until I am on my way back to the States.

Melbourne- the cold city of beauty

So I haven't blogged in weeks and that's probably because I haven't done anything exciting! All I've been doing is visiting the relatives in Gold Coast, which is an adventure in itself of course, and doing school work, sadly. But on a more exciting note this past weekend I went to Melbourne!! Where do I start? I got on a 9:00 flight and got in to Melbourne around 11:30. I then went to my friend, Jack's place. It was freezing, I slept on the ground, and he SNORED!! So lets start out by saying I was on little sleep that weekend. Friday morning we got up and went to the Queen Victoria Markets. They reminded me of the Lancaster farmer's markets. They had meat/seafood/whatever needed to be kept refrigerated in one area, fruit in another then the clothing/other shops in another. It was so nice! I bought a few souvenirs. We then hopped on the cable cars (or the Trams as they call them) and headed into the City. We walked all along the river which took us past Federation Square, kind of like Times Square except it's an actual square with no stores around it, they just hold events there. We also saw some great artwork, it looked like a 3 legged giraffe with 2 heads, and some graffiti down Hosier Lane. That night we went to a footy (AFL) game: Geelong vs. Collingwood. It's kind of like rugby but you can dribble and kick the ball. That was a cold game! Let me preface with Melbourne and New Zealand were about the same temperature, which isn't cold for the States, but for Brisbane it was freezing! It was probably 50 degrees and rainy. Anyways after the game we walked back to Jack's place to warm up and then I fell asleep because I was so tired!
The next day, Sam and Brianna, the girls from Brisbane who I went with, and then Travis- a guy we met in New Zealand and his friend drove us on the Great Ocean Road. We started out at about 9 AM and just drove. We stopped at Bells Beach, the 1 lonely apostle, and then the 12 apostles. For those who don't know the 12 apostles aren't the religious kind. There are between 6-8, depending on whose counting, big rock looking things just standing in the ocean. What has happened over the years is the ocean has eroded away the land that was in the middle and has left standing chunks of earth in the ocean. Who knows why they are called the 12 apostles, but they just are. We also saw a double rainbow here! It was so pretty!! Pictures are of course on facebook. After that we drove back, which took about 3 hours. When we got back we all met up with the rest of the Contiki-the group I met in New Zealand, and we went out. We first went to Crown, which is a casino and it's huge! I wish we had gotten there earlier because we could have walked around for hours! There was a movie theater, bowling alley, obviously games and bars. We ate a very late dinner there and then headed off to Retro. Retro is a bar that only plays music pre-2000. So they had Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, etc. and also a lot of Australian oldies which obviously most of us didn't know.
Sunday we got up late, went to the markets yet again and then hopped on a free tram that took us around the City. We didn't take it all the way around but we did see Parliament, a synagogue, and the wharf. That night for dinner we met up with more Contiki people and all ate dinner at World Bar. It was a great dinner! After that I just went back to Jack's and we watched some Australian news until I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up at 5 AM to catch a 7:30 AM plane to get back to Brisbane, and I am still catching up on my sleep!
Soon I will be going to Sydney and then it will be time to come home :( I will be happy to go home to see family and friends, but I will be sad to leave all of my memories and friends here in Australia!!

New Zealand: part 2

So let me start from where I left off. Skydiving and river boarding were on Easter Sunday, which meant places couldn't sell alcohol unless it was with your meal. But somehow Barnaby convinced the hotel bar to stay open for us, hmm I wonder why and we just hungout downstairs for the night. The next day was another free day in Queenstown so a few of us walked around and bought gifts for some people back at home. That night we went to the best pizza place in town, Winnie's where we had buffalo chicken on top of our pizza. That was a new experience. Next we went to Cowboys, which is where all of those hick looking pictures are from on facebook. They had deer heads, bull head, etc. hanging on the wall; the bar stools were saddles; the bar taps were revolvers; and they even had a mechanical bull to ride! We stayed there for a bit then we had the option to go to an ice bar or to another club where we would all end up. I ended up at the club cause I didn't want to pay for 30 minutes at an ice bar. The next day we had to leave the beautiful Queenstown! It was so sad.
We then headed to Fox Glaciers where you could go on a glacier climb. I just hungout in the small little town with a small group until everyone got back. We then headed to our hotel in Franz Josef for the night. We stayed at the Rainforest hotel where there were supposedly hot springs that we could get into. In reality there were just 3 different hot tubs. They were 36, 38, and 40 degrees Celsius. The 36 degree one felt more like a warm pool and the 40 degree one was an actual hot tub. But they actually looked like pools, they were big and there was a little boardwalk in between them and going around them. There were also trees growing around them so it was very peaceful. We stayed in their for a little bit then headed off to dinner at the hotel. After dinner the bar had a rock, paper, scissors competition. That was entertaining to watch.
The next day we headed out to Christchurch, our last full day. On our way we stopped in Hokitika, which was another little town that had a Jade factory. It had Maori and Pounamu. I guess those are types of jade? I wasn't really paying attention. We then were off to some rock formation. These rocks were scenes in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Narnia. We couldn't climb on them but there are some nice pictures of them on facebook. Our final stop was Christchurch. Those of us who were leaving the group the next day were still able to eat dinner with everyone and hangout with them. Then Sam, Sara, and I headed to our hostel down the road.
The next morning we walked into the city to look at the destruction from the Earthquake. There was some broken and/or fallen buildings outside the city center, but most of it was in the middle because the epicenter was in there. We probably walked 2-3 miles there and back. As we were walking we had to find the main road that led in because everything else was fenced off with the military there. The New Zealand military had been sent in to help control what was going on. We finally found a road and headed towards the center. During our walk we found 2 demolitions going on, one was of an office building, the other was of the cathedral that most people have seen on the news. What was a bit eerie was there was a statue of Mary outside one of the windows of the cathedral that had been left undisturbed. We then walked back to our hostel and headed to the airport. And that was our trip to New Zealand. Everyone was sad to leave, but it was the best trip ever!

Trying for Results: New Zealand part 1

Oh my! That pretty much sums up my experiences in New Zealand. I will try to recap everything from the past week and if I forget something, well you probably won't even notice. So lets start from Wednesday night when we got there. To start they are 2 hours ahead of where I am in Australia so we got there at 12:00 AM. By the time we checked into our little hostel and hit the pillow it was probably 1:30-2:00. We woke up early the next morning to make the short walk to the Bealey Hotel where we were to meet up with our tour group. It was quite a brisk walk because it was a little chillier than we had expected. Probably between 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. When we got to the hotel we checked in with our tour guide, Barnaby, yes that is his real name I looked at his drivers license, and ate breakfast with the rest of the group. The first day we traveled from Christchurch to Lake Ohau. On our way we stopped in Geraldine, which is a little town that is home to the Guiness Book of World Record's largest jersey aka a really big sweater. After that we headed to another little town on Lake Tekapo. The pictures were gorgeous! There was also a little church up on a hill that would have fit about 20 people max. for a service. We then headed to Lake Ohau lodge where we spent the night hanging out and getting to know each other a little better.
The next morning we had a "refreshing start" of 6:40. While we were on the bus we were able to see the sunrise over the mountains, which ended up being totally worth the early start. We were headed to Milford Sound on the West Coast, for a night/day on a boat. On the way we picked up a few new people and stopped at what we thought was the field where the "Hills are Alive" song was sung in Sound of Music. Well we were told to stay on the bus while Barnaby and James, our bus driver went out of the bus. The bus proceeded to play the Sound of Music song and they donned on their blonde wigs and frolicked through the field for about 2 minutes. Later they told us that this was not indeed the field where this scene was filmed, but that it was an entertaining place to stop. We then stopped at Mrs. Jones' fruit stand where there were so many different types of dried, fresh, and chocolate covered fruits! And they were so cheap, everyone got at least a few fruits to take a long with us as snacks for the rest of our trip. By this time it had started to rain which made everything cold and damp, obviously. But we were told that this was the best part of the trip because while we went through the mountains we would see waterfalls. Well leave it to Barnaby to be right, as we were travelling down a windy road through the mountains there were hundreds of little and big waterfalls. We found ourselves at the launch site of our boat. It was like an old fashion boat but obviously with a motor attached. We sailed to a little inlet that night where we had the option of going kayaking or going in a motorboat around the area. A bunch of us chose to go kayaking in the rain. Everyone got soaked and was freezing but there were nice hot showers waiting when we got back to the boat. That night we spent the night on the boat with 4 to a cabin in bunk beds. The next morning we sailed out to open water where it got really rocky and wavey. On our way back in, the skipper thought it would be a good idea to take a group picture in front of the open water. Little did we know that he was going to drive us straight into the waterfall. Luckily there weren't too many cameras to take the pictures so we were able to run inside before getting completely drenched from the waterfall.
Later that day we went to back up through the mountains to a cute little olden town named Arrowtown. It used to be a big gold mining, until all the gold was found and taken away. But I got a pretty Paua shell necklace from a jeweler there. Next we traveled to the Kawara Bridge bungy site where a few people decided to go bungy jumping. The Kawara bungy was the world's first commercial bungy jump. And no I did not go bungy jumping. After that excursion we ended up in Queenstown. We stayed at the Aspen Hotel for the next 3 days. The first full day we were there, I went skydiving in the morning and riverboarding in the afternoon. Skydiving was one of the best experiences of the trip! I jumped from 12,000 feet with an extremely attractive man strapped to my back, or was it I was strapped to his front. Oh well anyways, I was the last one on the plane, which meant that I was the first to jump out of the plane. The feeling is surreal. We were freefalling at 210 km/hr for 45 seconds. Then he pulled his shoot and we glided down the rest of the way. The view was amazing! There are some great pictures on facebook of us freefalling and at least 1 picture where my tongue is out. haha Later that afternoon I walked around Queenstown a bit while I waited to go riverboarding. Riverboarding is just what it sounds like, you basically are boogie boarding on rapids. The water was 10 degrees Celsius which ruffly translates to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We had to wear so many layers in order to keep warm: a wetsuit, a wetsuit jacket, a life jacket, booties, and a helmet. We started up at the Roaring Meg rapids and traveled about 5 km down stream. After that we played around a bit on an old gold mining slide, swing and a jetski. Pictures are on facebook. It was so nice to get back to the hotel afterwards and take a long hot shower! I finally could feel all 10 toes after being in the shower for about 30 minutes.

Heaps of fun in the sun!

Well I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would update everyone on what's been going on. As far as school is concerned, I've had 2 papers due and I have a midterm in 2 weeks...and that's about all that's been going on for that. Now on to the fun stuff. 2 weekends a go I went to Tangalooma resort, which is on Moreton Island, about 2 hours North of Brisbane. We had to be there by 7:00 for a 7:30 launch so we had to get up early. But taking this boat rather than the 10:30 one was definitely worth it. Once we got onto the island, Molly and I went parasailing, which was a blast! Pictures are on facebook. I don't remember how high up we went but you could see part of the reef from up top. No dolphins or anything cool like that but it was like being on a huge swing, it was so relaxing. Then we laid out for a bit, got a little sandy, then it was time for my massage! Ahh I've been needing a massage since before I left the States. Well it was only 45 minutes long, but it was totally worth it! The first thing the lady told me was that her specialty was deep tissue and I almost died! My favorite!! Well once the 45 minutes of heaven were up it felt like I had been massaged and exfoliated, thanks to the sand. Definitely ranks up there with the best massages I have ever gotten. After that Molly and I ate lunch and then walked down the beach to see the ship wrecks. I believe there are 4 different ships that separately were wrecked on the beach, either in a storm or because of mechanical malfunction. It looked pretty suspicious that all four of them were so close together but who knows what happened in the olden days. Once we got back from the walk we just laid out until 4, when it was time to leave. While we were waiting on the dock we saw this big fish jumping out of the water for no reason. Then it happened again but a little farther down the way. Then I realized that there was a school of fish just out in front of the big fish that were swimming FOR THEIR LIVES! But what was funnier was a seagull was flying after the bigger fish trying to get that fish for dinner. Food chain live in person.
Then a whole week went by and it was time for Byron Bay! For those who don't know Byron Bay is about 2 hours past Surfer's Paradise/Gold Coast. Karissa and I went down Friday mid-morning and met up with a few others later on that night. For the rest of Friday we just walked around, looked in the stores and then went to get dinner. That night we went out to the infamous Cheeky Monkeys, Rails, and Woody's. What a night! The next day we got up and went down to the beach and just laid out. The water was so warm and clear! Then at 2:00 we went for our sea kayaking adventure. And boy was it an adventure. To get out to the smoother water you have to get past the breaking point of the waves. We were the second ones to go out in our kayak. The first girls that went out flipped their kayak because they hit a wave sideways, but then they got past the waves and were fine of course. Then it was our turn. With me in the back and Karissa in the front me paddled out to where the breaking waves were and we didn't flip or fall in the water! We just got a bunch of waves dumped on us. But we made it. Finally the instructor and the other guy came out and just as they got past the breaking waves, they flipped their boat...for no apparent reason. We then paddled for the next 3 hours over part of the reef and huge waves! They weren't crashing on us but it was so rocky everyone was a little dizzy by the end of it. Well we didn't see anything! Not a dolphin, sea turtle, or fish! So we paddled back into shore and ate some cookies that the tour guide brought with him. But since we didn't see anything, we get to go back and kayak again for free! So hopefully we'll get to see them! After that the tour guide asked us if we could help him with the kayaks since there were only 2 guides there. So of course we said yes. But our kayak was so heavy we had to ask for help. When the guide tried to lift it he said it was heavy too so he turned it over to let some of the water out...no joke it took 5 minutes to dump all of the water out of the kayak. No wonder it was so hard to paddle!! So after our kayak was finished with its business I cared it the 25 meters to the walkway and then pushed it the rest of the way until we hit the sidewalk. Then Karissa helped me carry just a few more meters to the trailer. After that we got a drive back from one of the guides and we just relaxed and looked in the little weekend markets that they have until dinner. The market had some really cool vendors. One of them had candles that were deliciously scent, which I thought about getting but they were overpriced and what not. Another guy made jewelry out of coins. There was also a guy playing some music on his guitar and other instruments. Once we walked around we came back to listen to him a little more and there was the cutest little girl in a pink too-too stomping her foot and swaying around to the music. Once we was finished she clapped and just looked at him cause I guess she wanted some more music! After dinner we were both so exhausted I went back to the hostel and just fell right to sleep. Today we woke up, went down to the beach for a bit. Then we got on the bus to come home and we both passed out.
So that's what has been going on for the past 2 weeks. The only other thing I can think about is I booked my Easter Break trip to New Zealand for 7 days! I will update you on all of that break once it happens but until then hope everyone in the States is enjoying the winter :)

Surfing, family visit, all of the above

So I feel like I have posted in a while...it's probably because I haven't had enough time in the day to actually sit down and think about what I want to write. Well I have finally found a few extra minutes and here it goes. 2 weekends ago I went on my Mojosurfing adventure down past Byron Bay into New South Wales to Spot X. It took us a good 5-7 hours to get down there in our big pink and black party bus! It literally looked like it was a celebrity's bus, it was that decorated. Well when we first got on the bus we were greeted by Pepper...the guy who was driving us's puppy. She was the sweetest thing ever and very well trained! He let her off the bus and she didn't even run into traffic or go attack people haha. She just roamed around for a bit then got back on the bus. So once we picked everyone up from Brisbane and the Gold Coast we headed off to Spot X. When we got their our rooming situation was to put it nicely kinda dirty. We had 4 bunk beds and a toilet/shower the size of my pinky finger. But we dealt with it. That weekend we got 3 surfing lessons, 1 one hour and 2 two hour ones. We had our own private beach basically when we went out surfing too! So it was a group of about 30 of us out in the ocean with 2-3 mojosurf people who would help us if we needed them to. Anyways photos of me surfing will be up on facebook soon, we couldn't take any pictures with our own cameras cause of course they want to make money off of it, so I have to purchase them off of the website. But other pictures from the weekend are up. Saturday night we had a garbage bag party. So basically everyone gets 1 garbage bag and they have to make an outfit out of it. That was a fun night cause we had a runway show to see who had the best outfit. Pictures are of course up online already.
Anyways we came back Sunday afternoon/night and I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 9 PM, everyone was exhausted. The week wasn't too exciting, just classes as usual. On Friday though a few friends and I booked our Spring Break trip to New Zealand. I know, weird to think we haven't gone on spring break yet, but ya we haven't. Here is the link to the Contiki tour which we are taking: http://contiki.com.au/tours/92-scenic-southern-clockwise/itinerary. It sounds like it will be a fun week!! So after that week I will have about 4 days to just hangout in Brisbane or go down to see the family in Gold Coast or maybe go to Sydney! We'll see what I end up working out.
This past weekend, I went to go see Barb and Helen in Gold Coast. And I met the rest of the family as well. But lets start from the beginning. I got there Friday night and we had brisket and potatoes, carrots, and string beans for dinner. It was delicious!! Finally a meal that I don't have to cook and had lots of veggies in it. Saturday I woke up nice and early, 8:30 because of the lovely birds that were making noises outside my window...15 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off! Oh well, some of them made nice whistling noises, while one cockatoo was either sick or just learning how to make his noise...it kinda sounded like the penguin in Happy Feet that can't sing, he can only dance. But anyways I got up and went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with Helen's sister's grandkids. So there were 4 of us: Me, Nicholas-5, Curtis-8, and Ivy-10. We walked around the entire sanctuary, which took us about 2 and a half hours and then went back to Barb and Helen's house for a nice swim and late lunch. We of course had everyone's favorite ribs and chicken wings, but Jane- the kids mom- made delicious potato bake with white and sweet potatoes and some bacon on the bottom. So that's when I met the rest of the family. Helen's sister Barbara Mary, Jane and her husband Garry with their 3 kids, and Emma, Jane's sister/another daughter of Barbara Mary. There were so many people! haha but once they all left Barb, Helen and I just crashed. Sunday we just relaxed and I hung around the pool doing some work. Nicholas and his dad came back in the late morning to put a tree in their front yard. Nicholas was Garry's helper. I think it was a Magnolia tree, but it's little right now so it just looks like a tree with leaves to me. I obviously had to leave them yesterday to come back here and finish my work/get ready for the week.
I think that's it. OH random fact, I was reading in one of my articles for a class about the development of transportation- like railroad to steam ships to big diesel ships. Anyways my question was has anyone ever come up with a ship that uses salt water to power the engine? I know that the salt would probably build up and that might be an issue but I'm sure someone has come up with it before. It would just use the salt water from the ocean to power the engine and it wouldn't be as destructive to the environment as diesel gas.
If I forgot anything I apologize, I will update it in the next post.

St. Patty's Day

I have come to the conclusion that I will probably only be posting once a week from now on and it will be on the weekends cause that is the only time of the week that I have enough time to sit down and think about what I have been doing with my life. Where to begin. Last Sunday I went to the grand final soccer game between Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariner. We ended up leaving at about the 80 minute mark because we wanted to miss the crowd and it was still tied at 0-0. We waited for the bus for a while, took our time getting back to the apartment and when we got back we saw that Brisbane had won in overtime 4-2. Yay Brisbane!
Nothing too adventurous happened this past week, up until yesterday. Yesterday was St. Patty's day here in Australia. And you could definitely tell the who was an international student and who wasn't from the way that they dressed. Most of us wore green of course, but most of the Aussies didn't wear green! It was so weird cause in the States everyone wears green and if you don't you'll get pinched. But anyways we went out last night to a few different pubs/bars which were fun and I won a green St. Patrick's day hat at one of the bars.
Tonight we leave for our Mojosurf weekend. We're going to Byron Bay, I think and spending tonight through Sunday afternoon there learning how to surf and just hanging out. It should be a ball! I will def update everyone when I get back. Yeah I know this was a short post, but it was an uneventful week, what can I say?