Shari's South Pacific Adventure

hi for now

2008-08-13T20:30:00.002-06:00

I am alive and well and on the last two days of my journey. : ( and : )
Hopefully I will get all caught up in the next two days or once I get home.

see you soon!!!

Aitutaki, Cook Island

2008-07-27T20:41:00.006-06:00

So sorry I cannot share pictures of you at this time.. hopefully soon!

WOW WOW WOW! Everyone must experience the island of Aitutaki at least once in their lives. It truly truly truly is a piece of heaven on Earth!

There is not a lot to do in Aitutaki, but take in its views from above and on a lagoon tour, snorkelling and boating, but it is definitely a place to see..

Now some of my plans went to crap because of an injury, but I will lead us there first.

Arriving in Aitutaki was amazing. The flight over the lagoon shows the shallow clear waters in its full beauty. The weather was warmer than Rarotonga, but we had a bit of wind. I stayed at Ranginui's Retreat in my own little bungalow with a bed, kitchen, couch and bathroom (with lovely warm water!). I was about 30 feet from the water and had amazing views from the front porch! LOVELY!!! AND I got to drive around for the week on a very cool yellow scooter! SO fun.. I think I need to get one now!

It was so relaxing there I finished 4 books, if you can believe that! Well I had a lot of time to lay around.

I started my visit with an Island tour with a very cute Cook Islander, named Nakitai. We cruised around the little island in his yellow jeep to the high points (some 220m) and got some amazing views of the lagoon (as well as a chance to watch the clouds rolling in!) It was a great way to get acquainted with the island. There are no dogs on Aitutaki and there are two stories.. one that a dog attacked and killed the chiefs daughter so he had them killed and banned and the other is that there was a leprosy outbreak and the belief was that it was caused by the dogs, so they were banned! Your choice.. hard to get a straight answer out of a 'Cookie', they tell you what you want to hear!

In the afternoon (after an amazing downpour of rain and clearing to a beautiful day) I headed off to be pampered at a fancy spa. My therapist (or whatever they are called these days) was a nice young girl from Zimbabwe. I had an amazing scrub and massage and then got my lashed tinted. While the lashed were dying, she started a bikini wax... and well.... dumped the entire wax jug (or container or whatever it was I could not see) on me!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? I screamed, she was in shock and didn't know what to do, but after what felt like forever finally started putting cold water on the burn... for about an hour before I could stop freaking out and get in the shower to keep it cool...

So needless to say, my lovely relaxing time in Aitutaki was marred (and I am sure to be scarred for a long while, if not forever)...

So therefore I got to read books while keeping ice on the burn. I went to the doctor after a couple of days and of course it was infected so I got some meds for that.

BUT I did go on a lagoon cruise, so so so spectacular. Clear waters, giant clams, lots of fishes and amazing beaches! I also went to three island nights where you get a big buffet meal and a display of traditional dances. One of them I snuck into to watch the fire show (just like the locals do! just the show - no meal) I cruised around on the scooter a bit, but that upset the burn and was uncomfortable, so that was not too often.

I missed out on a dive or two, kayaking in the lagoon and getting out for a snorkel as much as I wanted, so that was disappointing.. but Aitutaki will still be one of my fondest memories for this holiday, that is for sure!

So I don't know what I did to upset the 'gods', but I almost never got out of Tonga, and ATM stole $400 from me (and the bank cannot help me!) and then I got this nasty burn! I hope that is it. Off to French Polynesia next! 3 more weeks til i get back to Canada. I hope you are all doing well. See ya soon!

photos from Tonga 1

2008-07-27T20:40:00.003-06:00

here are some whale photos from Tonga.. swimming with them was pretty wicked...

The Island of Rarotonga, Cook islands

2008-07-19T00:36:00.004-06:00

there will be no photos attached at this time..

All right, so here I am in this beautiful place and the weather is just not cooperating.. cloudy and the occasional showers, what's that... but in the last few days we have had sun and I have gotten of my lazy butt and done some sight seeing and activities..

But to start, our Cook islands history lesson! There are 15 islands in the Cooks and fall into two distinct groups scattered over some two million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean - an area the size of western Europe. Rarotonga is part of the southern group, which also includes Aitutaki (where i go tomorrow!) There are a number of unpopulated Islands in both the northern and southern groups.

The Cooks is a unique Polynesian country with an independent government (in free association with New Zealand - whatever that means) ahh it means.. that the Cook Islanders carry new Zealand passports and New Zealand takes on many of the responsibilities of Foreign Affairs (including defence).

The resident population is estimated to be around 13,000 but declining. Visitor numbers are close to 80,000 annually, (not including day trippers from cruise ships). Tourism is the most important money earner for the Cooks. the most common language is Rarotongan Maori, but everyone speaks English as well.

The name , Cook islands, was first used in the early 1830's by a Russian cartographer -- over 50 years after Captain James Cook's death. Cook had explored much of the group but only stepped ashore on Palmerston island and didn't see Rarotonga (the largest island and center of government and commerce). The name initially applied only to the Southern group of islands which until then were separate island entities. After annexation by New Zealand in 1901 the name, Cook Islands, was extended to include the islands in the northern group.

Enough of that.. the island is spectacularly beautiful and surrounded by an amazing coral reef which goes out about 100 meters (maybe) and drops off 4000 meters. This creates some amazing drastic color changes.... so beautiful!!! The weather has been off, cloudy with the occasional showers and very strong winds, but has finally cleared up, though still windy.

After taking 2 days to recover the killer flight from Tonga, I ventured out and went to a Cook Island Church service. It was colorful and lots of singing and the best part was the free luncheon afterwards! Good donuts and buns, and fruits!! yummy That afternoon I went with a couple of gals to the Fruits of Rarotonga beach and went for a snorkel. The coral isn't as colorful as other places, but it is there and with coral comes all different kinds of fish, so that was cool to see.

A couple of days were raining so I read and finished another book and started another one. I also moved from the dorm on the beach side to a single room in the hillside which gave me access to a tv (with one channel- the news) and a DVD player. So the rainy days passes with reading and watching movies.

Finally I got off my butt and went on an Island tour on the back roads with a jeep. They took us up the hills and had some amazing views from all around the island. We got a coconut presentation and at the end were served a traditional meal of chicken, rooster (very tasty), spinach, taro, kasava (like a yam/ potato), a cooked banana thing and a raw fish in coconut milk mixture called something I cannot remember...

The next day I went for a two tank dive and saw some new fish and neatly shaped coral and the sand bottom of the reef. I saw the neatest black and white puffer fish and got pretty close to a jelly fish. It was a good day to be under water as the winds were still pretty strong. After the dive I went to have lunch at another resort (VERY nice place, because I had met a gent on one of my plane trips who knew the over. so I went to say hi)..

On my last full day in Raro, i went on a cross island walk with a 68-year old gent up to the "needle" 400 meters up and a tough climb. But it was a great day to climb and be sheltered from the wind. the view from the top was amazing. We had a great lunch and some very good pau pau (papaya). AND my knees held out until the last five minutes, so all was good!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am off to meet friends at the weekend market (which goes from 6 Am to 1 PM). I won't quite arrive that early though, but will get a good look around until I have to get back and get bags for my flight to Aitutaki. the plan is to get some cheap, yet beautiful black pearls there... no room for much else!

Aitutaki is supposed to be thee nicest place in the South Pacific and closer to the equator so warmer and sunnier! I am soo looking forward to it. I have a self contained beach bungalow on the beach and free kayak and scooter usage. So it should be fun! Internet, I am told, is $20/ hour so likely it will be awhile before you hear from me again!

Ohh yeah, I don't think i mentioned the free roaming chickens and pigs in Tonga, of which there were tons, and here in Raro, there are not so many pigs but roosters EVERYWHERE and they crow all day long. no rhyme nor reason!

Still loving the get-away, and still meeting all kinds of people, but also looking forward to getting away from ants and decent fitting clothes!

love y'all!

Shari

the Cook Islands

2008-07-16T21:25:00.001-06:00

Hi all..
I am here.. Finished updating the Tonga blog.. will work on the Cooks... Hope all is well..
I get back to Canada in one month! WOW!

S.

Last Days in Fiji

2008-07-10T21:08:00.002-06:00

so to my surprise Brandy showed up at the hotel and stayed a couple of nights before working out her ticket home. She was still complaining of a headache and yucky ears, but was definitely moving better. Got an e-mail from her the other day and she still doesn't remember what happened but is feeling better/

While she was around we ate, looked in all the shops, and hung out. After she left I finally went on a pearl farm tour and learned a whole lot about the world of cultivating pearls. Pretty interesting stuff. Black pearls are made from black oysters, but they range in colors from pearl to yellow gold, to chocolate and black and pretty much any color in between! They get manipulated to create the different colors. And of course there are a thousand different shapes and sizes. Fiji is a little slow in getting in to the pearl business, but they say their pearls are better than in the Cooks or Tahiti!

I flew back to Nadi for a night then caught a flight to Tonga... !

Sorry but there will not be any photos right now... not able and too costly for the time it takes.. I will when I can.

Tonga- the good, the bad, and the ugly

2008-07-10T20:17:00.007-06:00

Top 14 photos

1. whale watching (more photos on additional page)

2. whale watching

3. tonga bouy

4. drag queens

5. drag queens

6. drag queens

7. Hike to Vava'au lookout

8. pigs wander around like dogs

9. chickens wander around like dogs and they are everywhere

10. a lovely massage with a lovely view

11. burial plots (family members are buried on peoples property. there are no grave yards per se)

12. the Ha'amonga Trilithon (the Tonga Stonhenge)

13. swamp pigs - fishing for their supper

14. Cook's landing spot on Nuku'alofa (so they say!)

Bottom five photos..
Sorry Shortage of photo upload capabilities... so this is what you get for now!
1. the only multi branched coconut palm in the world (according to Toni)
2. of course, a flat tire on the tour!
3. For every two houses there is a church (Mormon's are a huge presence here) and a convenience store. People just open one in their front porches basically!
4. petrified proof of underwater life a million years ago, the ocean floor pushed up and is now the land the Tonga people walk on everyday.
5. blowholes on Tongatapau

so the land of Tonga has been naughty and nice to me, but I am here and have lived to tell so that is a good thing! Seriously this stretch of the trip has played on my patience in many ways, but it is all an experience, right?!?

Tonga is a small Kingdom in the South Pacific, 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Tonga was made famous by the Mutiny on the Bounty, has never been colonized by a Western power, and is not a major tourism destination. It consists of 170 islands of which only 40 are inhabited and are divided into three mail groups: Tongatapu (where the capital Nuku'alofa is), Ha'apai, and Vava'u.

Nuku'alofa is home to the Royal Palace, the royal tombs, and his majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. There are some spectacular blowholes here and the trails and roads show remnants of the bottom of the ocean with petrified shells and animals on the ground as you walk. I arrived in Nuku'alofa and stayed at a B&B - Winnie's Guest House- for a couple of days with a nice family. Luckily I got on to am Island tour on the Sunday, as EVERYTHING closes for church, except for tour operator stuff. So off I went on Toni's tours and had to decide whether what he was saying was the truth or made for tourist ears! We went all over the island, which isn't too hard as it is only 18 miles long by nine miles wide. Of Course we visited where they say Captain Cook landed, though it isn't likely for various reasons that it was that very spot he came to shore. We also stopped by Abel Tasman's landing spot (also not likely the real spot), a Stonehenge kind of contraption created by no one knows and is linked to the longest and shortest days of the year (the Ha'amonga Trilithon), a very cool bridge made naturally from the land, some terraced tombs (burying bodies on top of each other!), and some very cool natural blow holes on the beach.

On Monday, I arrived nice and early to the domestic airport for a 6:30 AM flight, that didn't exist. Then when the staff showed up at 6:45 AM, my name was no where to be found in their "booking system" (a nice piece of paper.) AND sadly I wasn't the only one! There were 7 of us who had booked in New Zealand and didn't exist in Tonga Air and the flights were full for the day, as well. So we waited patiently in the "airport", which some described as a bomb shelter, for 4 hours and finally got word we could get on the 10:15 AM flight. So after a lovely one-hour flight we arrived on the island of Vava'u.

The weather being what it is has been cloudy and a little drizzly at moments, so I have spent my time wandering around the one main street, climbing the "mountain" and luckily, due to a stuffed nose, going and swimming with the South Pacific Humpback Whales! yup AMAZING, and a couple of people have sent me pics so you can experience it as well! SOOOOO COOOOOL! Vava'u sure has a presence of overseas imports of men and women who come for a visit and end up staying. The Palau (sp?) (white people) have sure taken over much of the business from the Tongan people, but the Tongans seem all right with it (and hopefully Tonga Air doesn't go bankrupt until at least tomorrow after I get back to the mainland! NOTE: I did make it out, though had to wait 4 hours later than my original departure time)

I have spent my time eating in different venues and trying not to think about the missing dogs and cats, just eating what I have ordered, as I believe it to be. Neat little tourist pubs and restaurants: the Lobster house (that had no lobster), the Bounty Bar (once owned by a Canadian), the Dancing Rooster (with a Swiss Chef), Tonga Bob's (with the Drag queen night), the little Crow' s Nest Cafe (where I really do not want to think about where the hamburger came from) and the Cafe Tropicana (with the over priced meals! but very tasty!) I did have a pretty good massage, overlooking the bay one day - she forgot and showed up an hour late and charged $20 more than I thought, but seriously here is a different time zone with it's own time limits! The flights are a great example.

So the highlight of this journey was definitely the whales! I had planned on going for a dive, but had a troublesome cough and a bit of a stuff nose, so when she said they were heading out in 2 minutes for a whale swim and had one spot, I jumped on board! Amazingly only 20 minutes after everyone was on the boat and we were heading out to the west coast of the island we saw out first two South Pacific Humpback whales... lazing in the water and hanging out. Then they started playing around and splashing, diving down and rolling over. We watched them for about a half hour and then headed off to a bay to find some more. Shortly after arriving in the bay it was impossibly not to hear the whale singing! AMAZING! so we quickly got our gear on and four of us got in the water and listened to him sing away for 15 minutes or so before he surfaced and swam away. Then we waited a bit until he returned and the other four got their chance.

After he swam away we watched a few others around and found a group of three playing in the warm water- rolling over, resting and lazing about - so the first four of us got in again and had the AMAZING opportunity to swim with 3 whales at one time. With the 30 meter visibility, it was like they were only 10 feet away and loving that we were there! so spectacular! And after a cool lunch, the whales came through and jumped out of the water for us. If you have never seen a whale breech out of the water, it is an experience to see this huge thing fling itself out of the water. Very cool!

Then I had issues getting out of Vava'u, so by the time I landed back on Tongatapau, instead of 12-hours to relax before heading back to the airport I had 5.. so I repacked, had a bite to eat, and watched the telly until my taxi showed up. The flight took me to Auckland, New Zealand at 3:00 AM arriving at 5:30 AM, and my connecting flight to Rarotonga, Cook Islands at 9:00 AM left on time (with me on the manifest!)

I am in the Cooks now and will do my best to get updated ASAP, but I can't upload photos and Internet isn't always available, but I''ll do my best to get you caught up to Rarotonga, before I go to Aitutaki.

AND to recap Tonga:

THE GOOD: swimming with humpback whales, the views of the Bay of Refuge

THE BAD: the flight systems, everything closed on Sundays,

THEY UGLY: the drag queens at Tonga Bob's!

It was close.... but it wasn't me..

2008-06-29T23:56:00.008-06:00

1. view from the window in my hotel room at the Savusavu Hot Springs Hotel

2. the hot springs- the gentleman is cooking Taro root- which takes about an hour in the bubbling water

3. so is this safe?? looks like the logs are holding up the second floor!

4. from my window I can see the rain coming and going each day- pretty neat.

5. the pool I try to swim in each day- when it is not raining and there is a bit of sun

6. start of the natural rock water slide

7. middle of the natural rock water slide

8. The Garden Island Resort staff cultural show

9. The Garden Island Resort staff cultural show

10. back to traveling on small planes

11. The good bye song at Mantaray Island - the staff was amazing there- so nice.

12. Then Band Boys played each night

13. Kava- a local drink- tastes like mud and you mouth and lips go numb.. lots of fun!

14. the cross marks the spot where the last missionary was eaten by the Fijians!

15. the international dateline- one foot in today and one in tomorrow

16. basket making 101

17. my poorly made basket, that the guy literally called "crap" and made me a new one the next day!!

18. view from the top of a coconut palm - I didn't climb it though!

19. the main bure from outside- pretty stable huh!

20. the main bure where the meals were held ( and good meals they were! Only two with cilantro and I tried everything!)

21. sunrise

22. the nicest sunset ever

23. somehow the males dancer photos turned out better than the ladies!

24. dragged on to the dance floor... uggg..

25. Soso villagers doing a show

26. first sunset at Mantaray Island Resort - the Yasawa Islands

27. went on a village visit... some live better than others!

28. my double bed- finally

29. Bure #7 - 2 nights!

30. my view from the hammock at Mantaray

So I had a close call, but I am fine and after 3 days of sleep don't feel so stressed... but I'll get to that later..

So since the last posting I haven't done a whole lot. I have really gotten into the relaxing in the sun bit, so nothing too exciting to report. I headed to the Northern Islands of Fiji after the Yasawas and Mantaray Island Resort, to the Island of Taveuni and the Garden Island Resort for 6 nights. This resort was soley focused on the amazing 15-20 different dive sights in the Somosomo Straight's Rainbow Reef. So I did dive two of the sights. Amazing 60 foot coral walls full of fish and colorful coral at the White Wall and I did a drift dive at the spot they call Pot Luck. I finally think I am getting the hang of diving and appreciating what it is all about.

On the fourth day I ventured out of the hotel with one of my dorm mates and toured a catholic mission where the last act of, recorded, cannibalism occurred in Fiji, then to the international dateline that runs through the town, and to Waitovala and natural rock waterslide. That was fun!

In the afternoon Brandy and I joined 5 others for a hike to a waterfall to spend the rest of the day, but it was a slippery walk and on one path we had to climb over a sketchy spot along an embankment to see a cave, then go back over it to get to the path with the waterfall. I got over, then one of the other ladies and as I climbed the next path toward the waterfall I looked back and someone had fallen. Brandy had slipped down the 15-25 foot embankment to the rocks in the river below and was unconscious and bleeding from her head. The guide had also fallen with her and likely saved her life by keeping her upright. After what felt like forever (2+ hours, in and out of consciousness, vomiting) help arrived and they carried her out and after a bumpy ride to the hospital and another long wait she had x-rays and has a small fracture to her skull.

Luckily for her a group at the resort had become friendly with us and one of them was a doctor, who likely saved her life, by encouraging the Fijian hospital to take certain steps. Another of the group had some good insight of the steps to take and the resort manager had a lot of pull as well. She spent 24 hours in the hospital (F$150), then they got her out of there to spend her time in the much more comfortable hotel room (away from the Yellow fever outbreak at the hospital as well!). So for 3 days I spent at her side helping out as much as I could and trying to make her as comfortable as I could.

My plane was scheduled to depart of Friday, so I left her in the hands of the others and flew off to the town of Savusavu on the island of Vanua Levu. I was exhausted, so literally slept for 2 1/2 days, then ventured out to tour the hot springs (which they cook in , not swim in!) and the one main road of town, that took about an hour! Then it has been raining, so I got to sleep again. I have a few more days, so I will see what there is to do, not too much I hear, but I will see. Brandy was scheduled to arrive here as well so I think I will hunt her down tomorrow.

I hope all is well. Missing ya, but will be back soon. 6 1/2 more weeks or so..

Bula! from Fiji

2008-06-20T17:23:00.002-06:00

Hi crew!

Just a quick note to say I made it to Fiji and started with my first week on Mantray Island (though in 6 days, never got to see any manta rays.. : ( ) When I landed it was raining and the word was that was going to continue for 5 days, but after a dreary day 2, it cleared up and the sun is hot hot hot! The Island was so beautiful with the least amount of amenities possible. An eco- resort of sorts with compost toilets and cold showers. Not much to pass the day but snorkelling in the crystal clear waters above coral reefs and laying in the sun or reading in a hammock. Though I did go for a dive in the Garden of Eden, which was good, and some kayaking.. but it was a welcomed relaxed time compared to the previous 3 1/2 months of moving every other day!

I am off to the Northern Islands of Fiji now Taveuni and Savusavu for 6 nights each, so will try to get messages out, but not too sure what they offer there!

I will try to get photos updated when I can..

Take care all.. oh and good news, the Court Workers will not be losing their positions!!! I can really relax now!!

ttfn

East Coast of the North Island

2008-06-08T03:26:00.007-06:00

1. Mount Maunganui
2. me at the top - looking over the pacific I think
3. another view from the top.. an amazing beach
4. ahhh another thermal pool. This will be missed.
5. Craig O'Brien and Chris Hanna - my Gisborne hosts
6. Shaun, Malcolm, me, Steve, Wendy and Margaret
7. a $2500 brass fire hat.. thank god those are out of service. heavy!
8. the Whakatane training balcony
9. the AIX massage bed - imagine water shooting out of the shower heads!!
10. a wine tasting trick for clarity.
11. Chris's big pig! 250 kilos or something..
12. me on the farm, watching the eye/heading dogs work is truly amazing!
13. Gisborne's NX$1.3 million new toy
14. the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club - New Zealand's version of the Fort Smith Legion
15. Art Deco- building art work
16. Art Deco- man hole covers
17. Art Deco- the town paper
18. Art Deco- another style
19. Art Deco- the old fire hall
20. back yard at the Napier jail - people would scale up the side wall and go out for the evening for a meal, movie, a drink or a "special meeting"
21. the hanging yard - now used for laundry, but for people back in the day
22. brick designed by a prisoner
23. brick designed by a prisoner
24. the quarry where the rocks were got to build the walls. The water fall is fake, man made

So on June 1st I flew to Napier and was transported to another time and place. Napier was rocked by an earthquake in 1931 measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, knocking over buildings and causing the gas lines in the pharmacies to spark and eventually burn down much of the down town core. The earthquake actually raised the land 3 meters or so and created more land for Napier to expand. When they looked at rebuilding they looked at what was modern for that time and Art Deco was strong, so that is how they rebuilt much of their buildings, though there were still some other types as well. The Art deco took into account the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb, the Mayan world and included their styles in the art work and also included lots of styles defining speed, women in power, new beginnings and the Maori style. It was very cool there and going on a tour was a good way to get the inside scoop! They have a HUGE weekend where everyone dresses up and drives 1930-1940s styles of clothing and cars. I guess it is a huge event, so big, they will have one in the off season as well! The Hawke's Bay Museum had a decent display about the earthquake and its effect on the town and the people. NZ still experiences earth quakes everyday, just not to that scale lately.. the last big one was in the late 90's I think..

I toured the Napier Prison that was used until the late 1990's, though looks like it should have been closed down much sooner. It is a backpackers place now and the owner gives the tours, telling all the haunting stories and such on the way around. It was a decent size, but in looking at it, I am not sure how it hosted the number of people he said did time there. People we actually hung in the back court yard and they sold seats for people to watch.. reality is always better than the movies, isn't it?? As well when the prison was being built the prisoners were marched to the quarry and created the stone blocks that built the walls. Some prisoners made fancy designs on the blocks, most did not.I am currently on a hunt for a book one of the prisoners wrote with all the inside stories!

I went on a great wine tour to 4 different wineries and think I actually learned something! By the last winery I could actually taste the pepper in the red wine, though the sweet whites are still my favorite. Our guide was a great host and at one place we had an amazing feed with calamari, smoked venison and beef, fennel (tastes like black licorice), cheese and crackers and roasted garlic!! yummy!

My next journey brought me North along the coast to Gisborne and to another of Julie's brother's (and his girlfriend's) homes. The weather wasn't grand, but I did make it out to wander down to the museum and around town, to the fire hall (AMAZING) and out to the Cosmopolitan Club (much like the Legion at home with the same kind of regulars for their club nights on Tuesdays and Fridays!) The weather cleared on my last day and Craig tried his hardest to convert me to a farmer, by taking me out and having me ride along while he and the dogs did some cattle shifting. Pretty neat to see the dogs at work! On the way back to town we stopped at the longest pier in the Southern Hemisphere - 660 meters, but it is not used now and has been basically falling apart since it was built in the early 1900's! He also took me to the Maere (?sp) where they filmed Whale Rider.. so now I have to watch that!

I spent a relaxing couple of days in Whakatane, with friend's of Julie's (the Rawsons) and we had a lovely supper with Julie's daughter Shaun and other family friends, the Wilsons. I tried to get a tour to White Island a semi-active volcano, but the weather didn't cooperate. Another thing to put on the list for when I return. Malcolm is the deputy chief of the department here, so he took me for a tour of the hall.. they have a great upper training room and secured a beautiful deck by getting funding for an upper ladder rescue training situations..

I spent a night in Rotorua just to try out the AIX massage at the QEII spa (the one Dixie and had the mud baths at a month or so ago). What an experience.. a full body massage while jets of thermal water were pulsing down on me.. truly relaxing! well worth the trip.

I've made it to Tauranga for one last stay with Julie's friend Eunice and her son Lance. The weather finally cleared up and I climbed a mountain.. well what they call Mount Maunganui.. but it is only 827 feet or so high.. It was still a good walk. And after a relax in the thermal hot springs at the base was a beautiful way to finish and treat my achy knees.!!

I have three more sleep in the Land of the Long White Cloud (so called for the cloud always present above the Southern Alps), and don't know how the Internet will work (or cost) in the Islands, but I will continue to give updates as best I can, but assume there will be some sun and some sand and likely some sun burn and I also assume a few drinks.. though I need to save enough money to eat.. I will need three jobs to pay for these last two months of this journey!!

the East Coast of the South Island

2008-06-08T02:06:00.010-06:00

1. hector dolphins

2. hector dolphins

3. rugby - scrum (after an off side or penalty or something)

4. rugby - field goal kick (for 3 points after getting 5 for a try or a penalty of some sort)

5. rugby - a line-up (after the ball goes out of bounds)

6. Christchurch Cathedral (Anglican- as that was who the settlers were from the UK, though some were Irish)

7. haggland- transportation in the Antarctic

8. Crusaders rally

9. old building in Christchurch

10. Captain Cook in Victoria ark

11. Moeraki Rocks (mini devil's marbles, but formed differently)

12. Little blue penguins in their nest

13. Little blue penguin in its nest

14. Ian, Kate and Jessica O'Brien family ( my Oamaru stay)

15. penguin crossing sign - notice anything weird?

16. old fire truck in the Dunedin Museum

17. Baldwin Street- steepest street in the World

18. mutton roast and all the fixings

19. NZ sea lions

20. this guy was charging toward me- scary cause they can move 20 km/hr!

21. penguins coming out of the water after swimming 50 km for food all day

22. penguins climbing the hill to nest for the night

23. look closely- the rocks are covered with NZ fur seals

24. old building Dunedin

25. YHA Dunedin - Stafford Gables

26. notice anything funny???

27. baby albatross

28. yellow-eye penguin

All right I know it has been awhile and you probably think I am stuck on Stewart Island, but I am far away and back on the North Island, enjoying the laziness of working my way back to Auckland..

So I left us leaving Stewart Island where I headed to Invercargill for one night (and watched Indiana Jones) and then off again on the bus to Dunedin, college capital of New Zealand and one the capital or largest city or something like that... there are a ton of old Victorian and Edwardian homes , but mostly it thrives as a college town. The day I arrived I went for a walking tour of the town and a tour of the Olveston House. A classic stately home with 35-rooms built between 1904 and 1906by a well traveled and prosperous importer. It was bequeathed to the city in 1966 and has been carefully maintained in its original state. Lots of neat old stuff in there. That evening, if you can believe this, I paid $10 to have a soak in a tub!! Ahh the relaxation!! Loved it!

The next day I found some scrapbooking stuff, so Natalie get ready to help me do this when I get home.. the afternoon and evening was spent on Elm Wildlife tours hunting down baby albatrosses, yellow-eyed penguins, NZ fur seals and NZ sea lions... It was a great day and we got a little to close to the sea lions than I liked, but not close enough to the penguins and fur seals. Dunedin hosts a few museums, of which I went to a couple and according the the Guinness book of world records, the World's Steepest Street... I think San Fran has a street or two that would compete.

Off I went to Oamaru and stayed with Julie (my renter) 's brother, Ian and sister-in-law,Kate, They were great host for a couple of nights. They have a lovely "lifestyle" farm and Kate took me hunting for the Little Blue penguin. She cooked a lovely mutton roast supper with Kumera (yams), potatoes, pumpkin, mint peas, and gravy with a lovely ice cream desert one night ans steak the next.. so tasty!!! Kate also took me to the Moeraki Boulders and Katiki point (dragging her daughter Jessica!) to where we saw seals and yellow eyed penguins and with her keen eye two nests with the little Blue Penguin cowering inside. I got a couple great photos!! I had a nice relaxing time at the house... ahhhh...

I caught the morning bus to Christchurch, where I seemed to spend the majority of my visit trying to arrange the details for my trip to the Islands. hank god I found a patient lady! I did a little walk around the main part of town and found myself in Cathedral Square in the huge Anglican Church attending an Evensong service. The entire half hour service was sung by the men's choir. It was rather a neat experience in an amazing setting.

I spent a morning in the Antarctic Center which is a very cool place to see if you ever think you may have an inkling to spend some time on Antarctica. There are a few different exhibits that actually let you feel what it is like to be there, including a cold room, full of snow in which a blizzard happens once every hour and you can add in added wind chill on a machine if you so desired. Part of the tour included a ride on the Hagggland truck. A large vehicle used to travel over the ice, at 45 degree angles over 1.6 meter crevasses and into water 4 feet deep!! Here they also have a blue penguins colony of saved penguins.

The afternoon I went on a walk of New Zealand's first officially organized ans designed city, which included bringing over 4 ships of settlers. Amazing old historic buildings. Stone on the outside and beautiful wood on the outside. When we got back to the square there was a rally for the big rugby game with horses and a live band and photos with the cup. How exciting!

I headed out to Akaroa for a day trip and a boat ride to view the worlds smallest and near extinct hector dolphin. Akaroa is the only French settlement in all of NZ. The french we going to settle this whole coast but the efforts were thwarted by the swift British, but in the end they were "allowed" to settle on this peninsula and decided to stay. The boat ride was great, we saw 3-4 pods of dolphins and some white flippered penguins (though from afar). This would be a nice get-away from the city town, but I on;y had about an hour and a half to walk around before and after the bus arrival and departure.

We got back to town at 6:00 and I had enough time to grab a bite and cab my way down to the stadium to the Super 14 Rugby Final/ Championship Game.. I have to tell you I knew nothing about the game going in and thanks the the gentleman on my left and a young Maori girl on the right I have it all under wraps now.. It doesn't make a lot of sense to watch after seeing football and soccer games, but when put into perspective it actually isn't too bad a game. It went pretty smoothly with two 40 minute halves and very few referee whistles and neat line-ups and lifting each other, scrums, trys, and goal kicks. The home team won (beating Australia) for their 7th title, their coach is now off to Coach the Australian National rugby team- the Wallabys (opposite to the NZ All Blacks) and two other members going off to bigger and better things.. the crowd was reminiscent of a football game drinking the beer and dressed with a dozen layers to keep warm. It was a fun night!

then off I flew to the North Island and on my way to Auckland.

The South of the South Island

2008-05-26T01:47:00.010-06:00

1. Weka

2. flying albatross (wingspan can be as much as 3 meters and they are about 1.5 meters head to tail!)

3. more albatross

4. sunset at Stewart Island

5. kiwi bird (come on it is there, you just have to see it!!)

6. albatross (they love the free fish!

7. fishing

8. the cod supper I caught and cooked!

9. aurora australis (the Southern lights- well a photo of a photo. I guess the best time to see them is during their spring)

10. tuatara ( he is a 100 years old!)

11. church (old building in Invecargill). I love churches.. the windows and such.

12. old phone on Stewart Island!

13. most southern golf course in NZ (6 holes, $5 green fee!)

14. homer tunnel (build by men returning from war to earn their EI, rather than being given it for free!)

15. NZ fur seal in Milford Sound

16. neat rocks carved out by water

17. erased a perty picture of the drive to Milford Sound

18. kea - bird will eat anything

19. Te Aneau

20. mirror lakes

21. Mitre peak Milford Sound

22. Waterfall Milford Sound

23. para sail shute

24. Queenstown

25. LOTR site

26. LOTR site

27. flotation chamber

So where was I? Ahhh Larry and Dixie deserted me in Queenstown (JK), as they headed off to Christchurch to catch their flight. All is well. I am back to hostel life and moving every couple of days, but I have sure seen some interesting things in the last while.

My first adventure was going para sailing. I thought it was going to be as scary as jumping out of a plane, but not at all. It was fun and relaxing the whole time. I have a DVD with some photos, but am having issues getting them downloaded to this page, so you will have to check them out another time. I also went up the Queenstown gondola and caught up on my journal and enjoyed the views for the afternoon, which turned into the evening and even had more fantastic night views of the city. This place is made for anyone who wants to do ANYTHING!!

I went for a bus ride out of town to Arrowtown for the morning and checked out this old gold mining town, basically supported by immigrant Chinese miners. The area of town they live in still has the buildings they made standing. Their "houses" were like 5 feet by 5 feet. that included their kitchen and bedroom. A cool thing about this place was it was used for filming parts of Lord of the Rings, so I went to check out those places.

When I returned to the city, I had my greatest adventure yet! I had a flotation massage! The weirdest thing ever. One showers to clear off any lotions etc, then one climbs into the chamber and lays back and you float. The water is about 30 inches deep and (I am sure the lady said) with 30 kilos of salt... so you just float. The weirdest thing... then I had a great hour long massage to finish it off. My kind of adventure!

My next journey was to Te Aneau and Milford Sound. Not much to do in Te Aneau, as it is the start of the treks in the area, so I went walking around the "village" for 4 hours, checking the local birds and loving the view. I also took in a movie make about the "sounds" in New Zealand by a local helicopter pilot. It was pretty neat.

Milford Sound was a pretty neat place. Though misnamed by Mr. Cook, as it is actually a fiord carved by passing glaciers and not water erosion, or whatever this difference is.. It was an in between day, from what I am told, as it was a pleasant but cloudy day, and the best days are on sunny days or on rainy days. When the sun shines everything sparkles and when it rains the waterfalls pour down the water off the sheer rock cliffs. It was a nice way to spend a clam 2 hours on the water (less the 10 minutes when we went on to the Tasman sea and almost flipped over! NOT)

Off I went to Invecargill and my stepping stone to Stewart Island. I went to the South land museum there and little did I know that not only are there the two main islands of NZ, and little Stewart Island, but NZ possesses 4 or 5 other Islands that they refer to as the subarctic islands. These islands were manned for many years for fear that they would be taken over by another country, but as well were stocked with supplies because so many ships were wrecked hitting the islands and people would be marooned for up to 2 years before they were saved! Here to is house the near extinct Tuatara. It is a prickly lizard related to the dinosaurs. the museum is involved in breeding them and trying to get their numbers increased in the world. They can live to be over 100 years old and are incredibly slow twitchers! They move slower than anything you can imagine, like hmmm.. me on the ice! JK.. Invecargill also has some amazing old buildings, so I did a historical walk through town in the rain! I also got to meet up with a guy I met in the hostel in Queenstown. We had some drinks in an Irish pub and I had an amazing shrimp supper.

Off I went to Stewart Island the most southern island in New Zealand. A weird little place with a ton of character. Stewart Island is about 2 times the size of Singapore , but only has 380 residents and only 2% of the island is inhabited. 85% of the island is a national park and 17% is owned by the Maori, but not used so much. The island's power was run off generators until 1989, they got a single line phone system in the early 1990"s and then a sewer system in about 1992! They still collect rainwater on their roofs to use for drinking and home use! It really is a throw back to the days of yore. I stayed with a funky NZ couple in a B&B, which was relaxing. There are a ton of great walks here but it was cold and I was lazy so I didn't do any long ones. (That is one thing I will do when I return to NZ, some of their famous tracks)

So on my quest to see animals in their natural habitat, I went on an evening outing to search for kiwis. It was a neat experience and we had a great guide, named Philip, who was quite knowledge able. We got to see 4 kiwi birds in different areas and different genders too. My photos are crap though because we couldn't use our flash as it would scare them away, so I am hoping on of the other people on the walk got a great photo, otherwise I will just have to remember on a postcard! The next day I ended up on a fishing boat, fishing for cod! I actually caught a few, and after the ride got to take the fish home! I also went for a quick one hour hike on Ulva island, which has had all predators removed from it to allow for the native NZ birds (most of which do not fly) to grow and prosper. I had a weird experience when I wand knelt down taking a photo of a saddleback bird and a Weka walked right passed my knee..Scared the bejesus out of me!

Stewart Island was neat place. I shall return one day! Then I left the bottom of New Zealand and headed back towards the North. I hope it means warmer weather as it has been cold and rainy... not what I dreamed about for my holiday.. BUT is is so beautiful here and only 3 more weeks until I hit the islands!

I hope all is well at home and you are all healthy, wealthy and wise!!

New Zealand- The South Island with Larry and Dixie

2008-05-20T01:24:00.005-06:00

1. the Walter peak property- yours for only $50 million NZ$
2. Scottish highland Sheep
3. up close an personal with a red deer
4. view from the window of the parlour at the Walter Peak property (we had a tasty afternoon tea there!)
5. view from the boat on the way beck to Queenstown
6. puzzle world entry.. the clock has been running backwards since January 1, 2000! going back in time!
7. the maze
8. mountain view from our campsite
9. the Cinema Paradiso
10. Lake Wanaka
11. Dixie driving! (Larry had had enough and she fiercely took over!! JK she did great!)
12. our ferry across the Cook strait
13. the pancake rocks (or so i think.. could be the blow holes.. it was dark, but still perty!)
14. view from the passenger seat
15. views from the passenger seat

It really is hard to believe that the South Island could be nicer than the North Island, but with the Southern Alps dominating the West coast it really is beautiful.

So we crossed over tot he South Island on the 10th of May and headed to Blenheim. Dixie and I toured the stores in this sleepy town while Larry went to an airplane museum. Then we started making our way to Wanaka with a sty over in Greymouth. On the way we attempted to check out the Punakaiki Blowholes and Pancake rocks, but it was late and dark, so we only had a dim view of what looked like it would have been spectacular!

The next day we headed to Franz Joseph Glacier (and I already did a blog on that). Which was sooooo nice. I had a lot of fun crawling in and out of the ice caves and climbing on the ice with the crampons.. maybe next time I'll do a full fledged ice hike!?!?

We arrived in Wanaka early in the afternoon and started the tour at Puzzle world. A neat little place (which deja vu tells me I have been before!). We stated with the outdoor maze that uses two stories to complete. One has to find for different colored forts (one in each corner) and the find the exit... It took us a little while, but we all made it out, some a little easier than me! When we arrived in Wanaka, WOW, what a beautiful place! the water was huge and peaceful with mountains rising from the shores and the sky was a clear blue with the sun getting ready to set... so neat!

That evening I went to the neatest movie theater ever. The Cinema Paradiso is much like any other theater, until you walk in the actual theater. There are no cinema seats, but couches and lounge chairs to relax in. There is even an old car if you want to feel like you are at a drive-in! Then half way through the movie, they have an intermission and I had theee best ginger and white chocolate cookie ever, then brought mu tea with me to finish watching the movie. (It was "into the Wild", if that matters).

While Larry went on a flight in a tiger moth plane and airplane and toy museums, Dixie and I had facials and toured the shops of Wanaka. A very neat little tourist town that everyone should pass through at least once! And off we headed to Queenstown.

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand and there really is anything you want to do to get you adrenaline going... but I decided that really I like my life and don't feel I have to test it, so massages and pampering my bones is much more my style (and the money lasts a little longer!) But before I came to this grand decision I did go on a jetboat ride on the Shotover River and a couple of other rivers, where the water was only about 6 inches or so deep in some spots. Pretty neat thing to do. Then the three of us went on an old steamboat, the TSS Earnshaw, to Walter Peak farm. It was a nice relaxing thing to do and the farm was on a landlocked piece of property (only accessible by boat) and oh so BEAUTIFUL... and for sale for only $50 million dollars (so about $40 million CDN!)

The next morning I had my interview for probation services and Larry and Dixie went up the gondola and luged, then Larry finally got to fly, though as a parasailer. he loved it though (and I did it a couple of days later.) That afternoon they dropped me at the YHA and headed off to Christchurch to catch their plane to the Cook Islands.

It was a very quick 2 and a half weeks and having a camper van was fun and a great way to see the country, only if we had months and months to do it would it have been better!

Franz Joseph Glacier

2008-05-12T02:30:00.004-06:00

So I skipped a few days, but I'll get back to them. I am tired and just wanted to post what we did today!
Today we did a heli-hike to the middle of the Franz Joseph Glacier. After a phenomenal 10 minute helicopter tour to the drop off, we walked around for 2 hours, crawling through caves and over the glacier. It was so cool!
Anyway I am tired and will write again another day!

Shari

New Zealand - The North Island with Larry and Dixie

2008-05-12T01:35:00.008-06:00

photos:
1. curtain features of the underwater caves
2. stalagmites
3. glo-worms
4. ferry to cross the Cook Strait
5. lamb supper
6. Terawera volcano
7. Redwood tree
8. luging in Rotorua
9. driving
10. sheep from around the world at the Agrodome
11. animals on the farm
12. "swooping"
13. after the "swooping"
14. Larry after his bungy
15. Thermal spa
16. Lake Rotorua
17. in from of a bubbling mud pool
18. steam escaping from the road vents
19. Auckland
20. Maori tribe member during a huka with a battling tribe at the induction of a Maori receiving the Victoria Cross
21. Huka
22. Larry- our fearless driver
23. Larry and Dix in front of the second largest (or oldest) Kauri tree in New Zealand

So I have to tell you.. driving around New Zealand in a camper van (or vehicle of some sort) is an amazing experience. One really doesn't have to do a whole lot, but take in the view.. and as Dixie said "the view is worth the money!".

I met Larry and Dixie on May 2nd and Larry has been a driving machine since then. We headed North on the North Island to Paihia to where the infamous Treaty of Waitangi was signed by all the Maori tribes and since then they have been living in cooperation with the European settlers and it is seen so much more here than in Australia.

Larry and Dixie only have 17 days in NZ, so we are really picking and choosing where to go and what to see and do. Unfortunately there will be much we miss, but so far everywhere we have gone has been amazing! We opted out of spending any time on the 90 mile beach and head around to the far side of the North Island and head to Rotorua.

There are thermal hot springs all over because New Zealand is built on volcanoes, some which are not so dormant! We have gone to a few places and luckily many of our places we are camping each night have a pool to soak in. The weather has cleared up, finally and it makes everything so much greener and lovely!

Rotorua is really and odd place! Literally built on a volcano it has steam rising through the road grates and there are pools of mud bubbling throughout the town! Dixie and I treated ourselves to a mud bath and massage.. Nice to relax! Here to we met up with Dinesh who is over working as a doctor, and it sounds like he wants to stay. We also spent a day at the Agrodome. A strange combination of farming and animals and adrenaline rush type of activities, but a neat way to spend the day. After a sheep show, milking cows, and feeding lambs, we went off on a tractor for a tour of the farm, then off to some adrenaline pumping events for Larry! Larry and I "Swooped" - set in sleeping bag type apparatus, pulled back until you are 43 meters in the air and dropped like a swing, back and forth!!, Larry "bungeed", and Dixie and I "sweebed"- in oval shaped objects, peddling at 100 km/hr, and racing the clock for 3 laps. Lots of fun!! Dinesh was a great host. He bought us a welcome lunch, invited us for breakfast and toured us out to see the volcano ( Tarawera) that shaped the Rotorua area for what it is today. We also took a walk through and incredible redwood forest. Then the three of us went on a gondola ride and cruised on some luges in the hills for about an hour.

Then we made our way to Waitomo and the glo worm caves. We had a very cool 2 hour tour of some natural underground caves, with stalagmites and stalictites, and then glo worms, so neat! Our guide Angus has been a part of the whole set up for the last 20 years. He was great.

Our stay in Taupo was short. The weather was cracky, so we cancelled a jet boat tour and headed out to Wellington to catch the ferry to the South Island. The morning before the ferry left we went for a tour of the Te Papa Museum, the National Museum of New Zealand. It is amazing and our guide was, again, great. I wish we had a full day to spend there, another time I guess. The ferry was delayed due to rough weather the night before, so our 2 PM departure left at 4:30, but the 3 hour ride passed quickly because we watched a movie in the cinema!

We arrived safely and without incident to the South Island and on to new adventures!

This holiday has been amazing, but applying for jobs in the middle of it, does not seam right at all, I must say. oh well, I guess that is an adventure unto itself!!

New Zealand...

2008-05-04T02:27:00.002-06:00

Hey all
Just a quick post at this $8/hr Internet place... We are here and loving the green spaces. Amazing stuff... though it has rained almost every minute since arriving, it cleared up long enough to go to the Maori Treaty Grounds in Waitangi, then to see the largest Kauri gum tree and possibly the oldest but the sign said different.. We, well Larry has driven, a 500 km or so making a loop from Auckland to the Northern part around Pahia and around back through Auckland to Rotorua...
I will pt on pictures when I can..
Tomorrow we rock the adventure world!!!

Shari

Melbourne to Sydney--- the Last Australian post : (

2008-04-28T05:16:00.004-06:00

Photos:

1. a real live wombat in the wild... he was pretty freaked out by our group, but posed for photos for about 5 minutes!

2. I love this photo of the kangaroo

3. rainbow after the rain

4. yup real live snow in Australia! In the Snowy Mountain area (where the movie as about and filmed near by!)

5. coat of arms- chosen because neither animal can walk backwards- so it is all about the progress of moving forward. their Parliament and senate works and looks much like ours.

6. an Australian road sign.. they think we have wacky animal signs, but there's are plain nutty sometimes!

7. me at Pillar look out in Wilson's Promontory national Park (like NFLD)

8. rocks on the south end of squeaky beach

9. squeaky beach

10. a close encounter with the very poisonous red back spider... too close for me, see a little shaky too!

So this is it. I have made it back to Sydney and have two sleeps until I fly over and start a new adventure in NZ (New Zealand that is!)

This last stretch was quite relaxing compared to the rest of my journeys and our hostels are a lot nicer, but having a stuffy head cold wasn't too pleasant to travel with... I have a dream it will clear by tomorrow, so I do not fly this way.. that too would be no fun!

So we started this trip to Wilson's Promontory national Park and a hike to an area that reminded me of NFLD. So pretty with the rocks and views. We walked along a beach called Squeaky Beach-because it actually squeaks when you walk on the sand. This is caused by the rounded grains of quartz rubbing against each other. Then we stopped at an old airstrip created during the WWII to prepare for the German invasion which did not happen. It is now home to thousands of kangaroos, emu, wombats, and other creatures. That evening we had fish and chips and went to bed.. pretty lazy day.

The next day we went down some bumpy back roads and to some odd places, like Seldom Seen (really that is the name of the town). Some strange folks live here and have a kangaroo (not sure of what it was made from) on the lawn wearing a bikini with a beer can in its pouch riding a bicycle.. weird stuff.. then to a town (if you can call it that) called Suggen Buggen to look at an old school house.. then on the Kosciuszko National Park and to the highest mountain in Australia (Mt. Kosciuszko at 2200 meters high) and into a snow storm.. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? It was nutty, but fun to see. We didn't do the scheduled 3 hour hike because of it and got to go to the hotel early and go for a swim and sauna, so really it worked out well!!!

Day three was a day on the bus and a short stop for a tour of the Parliament and Senate in the capital of Canberra. (YUP that is the capital, created because Sydney and Melbourne were fighting over who should be the capital.. Seriously!) And after a 1 1/2 hour tour and a lunch in town, we drove the last 200 km or so back to Sydney.

I have two sleeps and I am on the plane to New Zealand for brand new adventures and to meet up with Larry and Dixie. Yippee..

I have loved all the parts of Australia I saw and only wish I had more time in a few places and felt better along the way as well. I will be back to watch a sporting game of some sort in Melbourne, back to Adelaide to see what I missed, Tasmania and the West Coast to see and possibly up to see Litchfeild national Park which i didn't have time to see. So My visit to Australia is not over yet!

Chat to you all next from New Zealand!

Adelaide to Melbourne

2008-04-24T23:44:00.008-06:00

Photos:
1. Rod Laver Arena - the Australian open (though i didn't get the whole tour because they were setting up for a concert)
2. old Melbourne Jail
3. old Melbourne jail
4. 12 Apostles at sunset
5. 12 Apostles
6. me on the Otway Fly Tree Top walk
7. ancient ferns
8. the Melbourne Olympic Complex with the Rod Laver Arena
9. Bay Of Islands
10. bay of martyrs
11. London Bridge
12. Lord Ard gorge
13. 12 Apostles
14. Mackenzie Falls (nice black rocks- lava)
15.16. 17. 18. hike to the Pinnacle- Wonderland Range
19. 20. 21. 22. 23. - Hollow Mountain- Grampians National Park

.
Well, my day in Adelaide was catching up on things, and searching for a place to put my photos on DVD, without success.. I am starting to feel yucky art this point so i took the one day I had here to get some things done and rest.

The three day journey from Adelaide to Melbourne was pretty cool. This are turning green again and getting into more hills and mountains and of course on to the Great Ocean Road (on the list of places to see before you die- FYI)

Our day started with a 5 hour drive to have lunch in Horsham and into Grampians National park. Here we did a 1.5 hour hike into the Hollow mountains which may as well have been rock climbing without the ropes.. challenging again and again a great view from the top. We went to Mackenzie Falls and actually saw water flowing, even though it is the start of the dry season and the are in a drought here. We spent the night in a nice little place in Hall's gap.

We started day 2 with a 4.2 km hike in the Wonderland Range of the Grampians Park. The 2 hour hike took us to a spot called the Pinnacles that had an amazing lookout at the top. Here my knees started to give away, so I will try to take it easy on the down hills for awhile. After lunch we hit the official start to the Great ocean Road on the section referred to as the shipwreck coast. Here the shores are against sheer rock cliffs. We stopped at the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Martyrs for a photo stop. on to London Bridge, an island caused by the ocean bashing away at the sandstone and causing the earth to crash into the ocean. Lord Ard Gorge was where the ship of the same name crashed and killed all on board but two people who miraculously survived. The Twelve Apostles were amazing (though there are now only 8). Standing out of the water perilously awaiting their eventual demise into the waters that beat them daily...... we were here fro sunset. nice.

On the final stretch to Melbourne, we started the day at the Otway Fly tree top Walk. Like the zip line in Cape Tribulation, except that this one had 5 different platforms all attached and you walked to each one. They went from the ground to 47 meters above the ground! Another great view of the rainforest below. The next stretch of the Ocean Road is know as the Surfers coast. here the shores flow onto the beaches and back to seeing people swimming and surfing. That has been awhile! We stopped and checked out some sleeping koalas and some outlet stores for Rip Curl, Quicksilver, Billabong, and Roxy.. all Australian created clothing lines.

I am officially sick and have missed much of Melbourne, though did make it out yesterday to the Rod Laver Arena for a tour of where the Australian Open Tennis Tourney is held each year and to the the old Melbourne gaol... but I was so stuffy I sped through it without reading alot.. mostly what i got from there was that a lot of people were hanged there.

I finally got to have some garlic spaghetti for supper though with hopes it will scare away my cold.. I'll try more garlic tonight...

that is all for now... one more post from Sydney in a few days then off to New Zealand!

Alice Springs to Adelaide

2008-04-24T22:27:00.008-06:00

1. 2. 3. Mount Ohlssen-Bagge
4. Emu, camel, kangaroo
5. biking down the bumpiest road ever...
6. Coober Pedy- discarded sand piles after taking out the opals
7. our hostel- underground
8. actual home underground
9. a hilltop view of Coober Pedy, note the stacks in the front, these are so people have clean air to breath (air stacks!)
10. the view from the bus window- for days....
11.12.13. Kata Tjuta
14. me in my swag outside!
15. -20. Uluru and its different angles.. no two views are the same...
21. sign of where were were heading
22.23.24. King's Canyon
25. King's Canyon (Priscilla's Gap, from Priscilla of the Desert!)

Moving on! So joining another tour with different people, I am off on a 6 day journey from Alice Springs to Adelaide via King's Canyon, Uluru, and Kata Tjuta. Very Pretty sites.

Our early departure this morning had us on the bus for 6 hours before our lunch stop at King's Canyon. Here we did a 2 1/2 hour hike over some loose rocks and a little rough terrain, but the resulting views were spectacular! Many refer to King's Canyon as Australia's Grand Canyon. It really was beautiful. The top of the rocks are 270 meters above the canyon floor and the views of sheer rock cliffs were magnificent. Hidden in the canyon is a permanent water hole they refer to as the Garden of Eden ( an oasis in the desert!). There are amazing eucalyptus (or gum) trees in Australia and so far they can be found everywhere.. I wonder if I could get one to grow in my yard? I tripped on the top and popped my ankle, so I had to take it slow and be thankful i wasn't near the edge when it happened.. I recovered, so all is well now.

Back on the bus for another 4 hours we stopped and had a great view of a tabletop formation on Mount Connor, like the plateau top in Gros Mourne national Park in NFLD! There are also plenty of old salt lake beds here, dried up and looking like the Salt Plains at home. Our last stop for drinks was at a cattle station which supposedly is 100 million acres large. They round p their cattle in an quiet an unobtrusive way. they can turn on and off the waterholes and herd the cattle that way by forcing them to move in the direction of the pick-up spots. kind of neat!

Supposedly they're are 7 million camels roaming the wilds of the outback, but I never saw any. They were brought over by the Afghanistan workers when building the rail line and when it was done, they were to be destroyed but the workers let them go free and now they are taking over more and more space.

Early the next morning we rose to watch sunrise at Uluru(Ayer's Rock)... what a spectacular sight.. it really is a spectacular piece of rock that got better as more light shone on it. We did the 9.5 km walk around the base and saw many of the nooks and crannies up close, though many of the really cool parts were sacred and could not be photographed (without repercussions that is). As well the Aboriginals do not want it to be climbed anymore, but it was to windy to do so anyway (and people have dies, so i am not sure I would have). The Uluru rises 348 meters from the desert floor and again they think that 2/3 of it is actually below the surface. (one aboriginal guy I sat with at a bus stop think that this is actually Noah's Arc.. but who knows he'd had a bottle of wine or two!)

Then again even before lunch we did a 5.4 km hike in Kata Tjuta (the Olga's). In this area are 36 separate domes in a cluster. The highest one rises 200 meters above Uluru's highest point! It was a pretty neat trek between the rocks and then seeing a "garden" in the middle of it all. Very pretty! That night we watched sun set over the two rock formations from our campsite (well a short walk away), and slept outside in a swag.. it was a little chilly on the face but actually cozy.

Off we headed to Coober Pedy! On the way we crossed over the border from the Northern territory to South Australia and into the arid climate of the "real" outback!. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town. 95% of the world's opals come from Coober Pedy and 80% of those come from Coober Pedy! the darker the opal the harder to find and therefore the more expensive. It gets so hot here (50+ degrees) that 75% of the population actually live underground and work underground where the temperature stays a constant 22-25 degrees. Andrea, Kerstin, Kayla Wez, and I went noodling for opals, but didn't find any, darn.. Coober Pedy is supposedly the closest place on earth to what the moon surface would look like and many movies were made her, including Mad Max and Pitch Black.

Our final three day stretch to Adelaide had us on the bus for long hours, separated with hikes, and stops for food and pee breaks. We did a hike at Wilpena Pound (which looks like a huge crater hit it, but was formed by the moving of the tectonic plates, again!) to the Ohlssen-Bagge mountain. It was a tough hike, but well worth the view at the top. The hostels on this stretch have been very nice and haven't seen many bugs! yippee! We had camel sausage, ground emu and kangaroo streak for supper one night. All were pretty tasty. We stopped and saw some more Rock are paintings, but they weren't as nice as the ones in Kakadu. And our final stop was for more wine tasting in the Clare Valley.

Darwin to Alice Springs

2008-04-24T21:08:00.004-06:00

K... these photos are not in a good order, but still give you an idea!
1. and 2. and 3. the Devils Marbles- very cool, huge boulders sit precariously on one another appearing to be ready to fall, but sitting solid. they go on for miles and miles.
4. mango wines- sparkling, sweet and a port.
5. Tropic of Capricorn
6. helicopter
7. Katherine Gorge
8 . sunset from the helicopter above Katherine Gorge
9. Katherine Hot Springs- a good old 30 degree "bath"!
10. Daly Waters Pub- the oldest in the Northern Territory
11. Charlie- Crocodile Dundee's Water Buffalo
12. Mataranka hot Springs- very warm splash!
13. me atop Katherine Gorge
14. walking through the boulders on the way down from Katherine's Gorge

All right.. the next adventure... Darwin to Alice Springs, the middle of the Outback.. the middle of no where!

Now to understand the distance we had to sit on the bus and see nothing for for hours is very hard to explain, but much worse than the journey from Smith to Edmonton.. We would drive for 2 hours and then have a snack. then drive for 3 hours and have lunch then drive for 3 hours and do a walk or something, then drive for 3 hours to our destination... we start each day about 5 AM and arrive at our destination by 6 PM or so.. and literally not much to see out the windows, but red dirt and the occasional tree! and we are still in a semi arid zone!

So out if Darwin and heading south towards Adelaide.. fun fun fun.. Our first stop was at Adelaide River (we had lunch here with the other trip as well!) and found Charlie! He was the ox/ water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee the one put to sleep with Dundee's hand.. he is dead now and they stuffed him and put him up on the bar in the pub, to have him immortalized for life! We headed off for a swim at Edith Falls and also had lunch there. A rambunctious group of army cadets were there and gave us a quick lesson in back yard cricket. We headed off to Katherine Gorge and hiked up the side of the cliffs for a great view, then a few of us went on a helicopter tour of the 13 gorges at sunset. It was pretty cool. And I loved being n the helicopter (my new calling?!?!) The ants here love me and want to travel with me..yup, they packed up and moved into my bag... hopefully they won't stay long.

The next day we are headed to Tennent Creek.. I just read a book about the disappearance of Peter Falconio that happened in this area so that is cool. We stopped for a hike and a swim to Mataranka hot Springs to start the day, stopped for lunch and a drink at the oldest Pub in the Northern territory, Daly Waters. It is also the first international airport in Australia! we spent a lot of time on the bus today.. btw- the bus is packed and very uncomfortable and the air conditioning is making me sick! We are sleeping in permanent campsites on this trip and tonight slept in a swag inside the tent. A swag is a canvas bag with a mattress built in. You put your sleeping bag inside and zip up the sides and flip over the top and you are covered from the cold and the elements.

The final day had us heading deep into the outback and to the neatest thing ever, to the Devils Marbles. These are huge pieces of circular rocks that have been pushed through millions of years ago with volcanic rocks and heating and cooling and pushing of the tectonic plates and the ice age and such. They are precariously balanced granite boulders. Some of them are even hollow! It is a spectacular site that goes on for miles. We stopped in the UFO capital of Australia, Wycliffe Well. Their store is cluttered with newspaper clippings of UFO sightings! We stopped in on a mango farm and tasted different mango wines and ice cream. the ice cream was delightful, but the wine not so good! Our final stop on the tour was at the Tropic of Capricorn... not sure what that means at this point in the world.. I need to find a map of the world..

We Are traveling on the Stuart Highway.. so names for the explorer who was the first to navigate Australia from the South to the North. It took John McDouall Stuart three attempts to get through having to deal with the Aboriginals, the weather, no water and lack of food. He finally made it through in 1863, and went a little nutty and died a few years later.. I think living or going through the Outback can drive anyone nutty!

Darwin and Kakadu National Park

2008-04-24T20:04:00.005-06:00

All right it has been a while, but I will give you the details as to my disappearance finally today... I am actually in Melbourne, but will do a few different updates to get us all on track.

Photos:
1. waterfall in the park.. there were a few, but getting into dry season many did not flow much more water than this.
2. me and a termite mound. (none to be seen thank god) these are known to get 15 feet high and much like an iceberg 2/3 is below the surface!
3. Old Town Hall in Darwin.. hit with bombs during the war, rebuilt and hit by Cyclone Tracy, town hall never recovered
4. crocodile jumping.. they make the crocs work for their food and entertain us by getting them to jump out of the water! and they would still have 1/3 to 2/3 of their body in the water.. very big fellas!
5. Rock art paintings dating back 20,000 odd years.. pretty basic ways of communicating... though you have to have the inside scoop as to its entire meanings.. there are three types of rock art... lessons, information and x-ray??? not too sure at this moment..
6. Me atop the Ubirr mountain (?) this was a spectacular site for looking out over miles and miles.. it was one major highlight from Kakadu.
7 . and a spider pic.. up here they are big and plenty.. yuck....

So, upon arrival in Darwin I was melting. Even at 1:00 in the morning it was hot and muggy. So when I hit the path the following day I truly was sweating off the pounds, literally. Dripping sweat in places you never want to feel it.. but I pursued and went for a walk of the town. Darwin was hit pretty hard by the Japanese at the beginning of the war and you can still see some of it. The government wasted millions of dollars building underground oil storage tunnels (which were never used) after theirs were bombed. After walking around the town core for 3 hours I headed to an old jail, which was interesting as it still had the gallows where they hung people ( a very big thing in Australia at it hay day). I enjoy touring jails to see how things were then.

And to get out of the heat I swam in the hostel pool while I did laundry. A nice luxury.

The Trip to Kakadu National Park was a thrill. It was a spectacularly green place and had some pretty interesting sites. The Australians screwed up in trying to grow their own rice (to avoid importing it) in that where they built the Humpty Doo Rice Project there were over 400 species of birds and plants. etc.. and after the first planting the birds ate all the seeds, so the rive would never grow. The area has now been turned into a conservation site.

We went on the Spectacular Crocodile Jumping Cruise, in which the drivers tease the crocs by dangling meat on a rope and having them jump out of the water for our pleasure.. it was pretty neat to see how quickly they can get out of the water and how high they can jump! After that we hiked into the Ubirr area and saw ancient Aboriginal Rock art paintings. Pretty cool. and then a climb to the top had amazingly spectacular views! We hiked into a couple of different fresh water water falls and had crocodile free swims... though at on time there may have been crocs in there!

I had a great group to travel with on this trip, which always makes it fun. Justin, our guide does not own a TV and is passionate about books regarding the history of the Aboriginal people and the Darwin area. So he was an enthusiastic guide full of all the info you ever wanted to know.... AND he was a keen didgeridoo player as well!!!

I hope this makes sense.. on to the next trek!

quick update..

2008-04-19T04:08:00.002-06:00

Hi all,

I am alive and well. I was really out in the middle of nowhere for the last 10 days or so, but have finally come back to the real world in Adelaide. I will do an update with photos tomorrow, promise.

Shari

the Great Barrier Reef from above!

2008-04-06T20:37:00.004-06:00

So after I cancelled my scuba dive and was feeling somewhat better, the girls in my room were talking about a flight they took that day over the Reef. It sounded so wonderful I called the company and booked a seat on the 3 PM flight. I was meeting Betina and Sanne at the lagoon (a swimming pool created because you cannot swim in the water here) for some sun and convinced them to join me, so off we went for a flight.

Daintree Air was a great tour. For $199 for a 1 hour flight we went over the southern part of the reef up to the Daintree River we had crossed with the crocodiles a few days before. It was a spectacular flight with 6 of us on the little plane.

The pictures don't show the view well, but it is embedded in my mind forever.. a great choice I think to see it from above rather than below.

I hope you enjoy the photos..

Carins and Cape Tribulation

2008-04-06T19:52:00.005-06:00

1. the Great barrier Reef from the Rum Runner

2. my master diver for my dive on the reef

3. tree kangaroo

4. jungle surfing

5. Jungle surfing

6. Mossman Gorge

7. little croc!

8. amethystine python

9. me atop the rainforest in my jungle surfing gear

10. Cape Tribulation (with mangroves in the fore ground)

So Cairns is a tourist town, built as a stepping stone for the Great Barrier Reef and other out posts. Not much to do here but eat expensive food and go on tours... so that is what I did. On April 3rd I headed out of Cains to Cape Tribulation via Daintree National Park. Our first stop was at Mossman Gorge for a short interpretive walk and a swim in the river (for some). Our guide pointed out some interesting plants, like the stinging plant that when touched or brushed against makes you feel like molten metal is running through your blood with pain lasting up to 3 months and the only relief is to pour boiling water on it! Thankfully most have been removed from the park. Another leaf is oh so pretty until you touch it and it wilts while its edges become sharp pokey objects!

We drove past Batt Bay where Steve Irwin found his fateful death at the hand of a manta ray. Pretty spot though!

As we wound our way through dry lands, wet lands and rain forests the scenery changed and the more freaky insects and snakes were to be found. No lie, that the average size of spiders I saw was like 2 1/2 to 3 inches big.. SCARY.. and I saw the largest snail ever.. stepped over a snake without knowing (thank god)..

A stop at the Rain forest habitat Wildlife Sanctuary was gross.. full of birds and bats that I am not so fond of. A pelican actually ran out of the water after me and I ran away screaming.. To be honest I didn't spend much time in there, but had to see the tree kangaroo for my own eyes.. yup there he was sitting in a tree... a kangaroo.. seems odd..

We had some beautiful views of the old rainforest in the world. Quite spectacular. We stopped at a fruit picking place and tried some natural ice cream interesting flavors. (Just so you all know, I have been eating well and even trying new things. I still avoid mushrooms and onions and green peppers as much as possible, but I am eating! I'll get to more in a minute)

Before we got to our final destination in the Rainforest we went on the Daintree River on a little passenger boat. I was thinking ho humm another wait to get somewhere, but it turned out to be an interpretive tour about the crocs and wildlife in the area! We saw 5 crocodiles (ranging from small ladies to huge fat males). The guide said we were lucky but it seems as though the crocs have decided that the wet season is over and have settled into their dry winter spots where they will stay for 3-6 months.. one of the crocs was protecting her babies. It was neat to see them in the wild. There are 7 crocs per km in this river and as you go further north it gets to 14-20 per km! No more ocean swimming for me! And to top it off we saw a amethystine python about 40 feet up in a tree... I think it was a big on because we were a fair distance away and could still see it.

We arrived at our Rainforest get-away and had a swim in the pool, avoided the spiders and other insects and had supper. I just ordered a pasta dish (Very tasty) but the Danes I was staying with ordered the kangaroo and crocodile dish and let me taste! the kangaroo was very tender and cooked pretty rare. It tasted fairly sweet actually. The crocodile was smoked and tasted just like smoked fish and was rather chewy. Interesting.. not up to tasting squid yet...

The next day was rather lazy, but started with a Jungle Surfing trip on cables in a harness over the rainforest. It was definitely a unique way to see the rain forest from above. The rest of the day I went for a walk, a swim in the pool, and just generally was trying to feel better. (had a fever and gas issues that would not pass, but better now).

On my final day in the rainforest I went out to the Great Barrier Reef in the Rum Runner. There I did a dive (that didn't go so well) and I lost an underwater camera which sucks, but oh well. It was a beautiful day and I also got to snorkel, which was AMAZING... so much better than the dive... so many colors and fishes and sting rays and eels, and all that stuff.. wicked..

After those relaxing couple of days we came back to Cairns. I was scheduled to go on a boat for 2 more dives on the Sunday, but I just couldn't do it. I felt like crap and being on another boat for 8 hours would not have been enjoyable, so I cancelled and went on another tour... see next blog..

The Captain Cook lesson for today... After Captain Cook mistakenly found New Zealand and it wasn't the great Island continent they were looking for, he and his crew were happy to be heading home back to family and friends. BUT on the way they bumped in to the reef and found what they were originally looking for. Cape Tribulation was so named because his boat the Endeavour crashed into the reef here.. his men and he were tired and sicka nd just wanted to get home, so names in the area reflect their mood at that time.. Mount Sorrow, Shipwreck Bay, Black Rock, Stuck Island, Cape Trial etc... So the boys had to wait awhile before they got to head home!

Extreme Shari???

2008-04-01T20:07:00.006-06:00

1. feeding a grey kangaroo

2. holding a water python

3. holding a baby croc

4. holding a lizard (very prickly)

5. a big croc

6.- 10. jumping out of the plane

11.-13 rafting the Tully River

So I believe that when I last left you, I was having a relaxing time and enjoying the quiet calm tour life, getting comfortable with having my feet on the ground and looking forward to getting to Cairns (or Cans as they say here)... well life changed dramatically after that... I don't know who I am anymore!! JK

I arrived at Mission Beach and had a relaxing time with some girls from the bus. We had a great meal at the hostel pub and had an early evening. I have started to read a book about the disappearance and abduction of a British couple back in 2005 which happened around Alice Springs... where I will be in a couple of weeks! Maybe not the best choice??

So I awoke the next day and headed off for some extreme rafting... unfortunately there were not enough people for the extreme rafting, so we just rafted, though in the end because there were only 6 boats we were invited to do all the extreme rafting stuff. The Tully River rapids ranged from Class 1 to Class 4 and was it ever fun. I laughed all day! By the end of it our crew had the paddling and moving around the boat down to a tee. I jumped off a 4 meter (12 foot) boulder into the water and swam through a class 2 rapid... not to scary for the Fort Smith kayakers, but SCARY for me! One of the guys (from SK!) had a waterproof camera and I asked him to send me some photos of the journey in the raft. It was a great day, but I wish the clouds wound have dispersed and let the sun through..

Then if that wasn't enough, I decided to let the weather be the decision maker for me hurtling myself toward the ground at 220km/hr... and as luck would have it the clouds cleared and it was a great day to jump (of course it got cloudy and rainy again about 2 hours after - btw). We had an early pick up (7:30 AM) and by 9:30 I was sitting in a plane at 14000 feet hooked up to a complete stranger, assuming he was knowledgeable enough to save my life as I would fall to a potential death below.... But I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as we fell off (literally) out of the plane and into a free fall for 60 seconds (about 8000 feet or so). My eyes were close for about 30 seconds then Paul tapped my shoulder, I opened my eyes and arms and "flew" for another 30 seconds or so (stomach in my throat by now) and he pulled the parachute just as we went into a cloud. That was a neat experience... then we broke through the clouds and what a view (though I remember I was screaming the whole time!). I could see Dunk Island and the great Barrier reef and just a great view of the country. He made us spin a few times and stall then free fall a bit which of course did not let my stomach settle, and then with a lifting of the legs and running on the beach I was done... CRAZY! Yup that is what I am. I have officially decided!

For those who may not believe that I actually went through with it I have added some photos and you can drop by and watch the DVD anytime!

In the afternoon I caught a bus to Cairns with a stop at a crocodile farm on the way. Here we watched the breeder feed the crocs and gators, while we fed kangaroos and held water pythons, lizards and baby crocodiles... and I even did that!! Really what has come over me?

Tomorrow I am off to Cape Tribulation and the rain forest, so I will be out of touch for 3-4 days.. I will update when I come back.

Thanks for the e-mails all.. Missing ya!

PS- happy 9th birthday Chelsea.

Magnetic Island

2008-03-30T01:41:00.004-06:00

1. View from Base hostel room
2. base hostel room (squeezed in 4 bunks!)
3. the look out at the Forts walk
4. my koala
5. the gunnery in the Forts walk

So today's lesson is again about Captain Cook and how even when he was being brilliant sometimes he was way off the mark! JK..
I had the day off in Airlie after returning from sailing, so I wandered around and walked off the headache from the cheap free wine the night before and found myself buying a personalized didgeridoo and getting a lesson. Just the noise one wants to hear with a headache... all is well now.
Island was named by the I arrived in Magnetic Island via Townsville and a ferry ride for a quick 20 hours or so. Magnetic Island was so named by Captain Cook because as he was sailing by his compass and navigation tools were freaking out. He believed that there was some magnetic field on the island and ergo "Magnetic Island". Later it was discovered he had faulty equipment (just what you want sailing the seas) and there is nothing magnetic on the Island. We stayed at the Base X hostel home to the world famous "full moon parties", though missed it by a day... and was told this one was a bust anyway..
I headed off for a hike to the area known as the Forts Walk- so called because it was built during WWII (?) when there was a threat of the Japanese invading Australia. Their first attack spot would have been Magnetic Island. Though the guns are gone, the remnants of the gunnery's (2) , the lookout, the weapons storage spaces and the fake rocks (for covering foliage or something) is still very visible. Great 360 degree views, but unfortunately it was rather cloudy (and still is today).
very exciting thing though, that during my walk I got to see a koala in the wild! It was even awake (they sleep more than I like to! 18-20 hours a day!) he was having a meal and sitting perched on a branch, but didn't want to look at my camera. Very neat to see. If I had more time I would have done a few other island walks. It is a pretty place.
So that was a quiet evening, after drinks during happy hour.. Everyone is starting to head into Cairns already to catch their flights home, but I am in Mission Beach and rafting tomorrow and also preparing myself for jumping out of a plane... perhaps... (I think I'll do it Dix, if the weather clears.. then if I love it I can always do it again...)
Later guys...

the Whitsundays

2008-03-27T20:06:00.004-06:00

WOW WOW WOW... sailing for 3 days, relaxing and spending the days snorkeling and swimming, it was a good relaxing time with some great people.
The Whitsundays were named by Captain Cook (though he was only a lieutenant then) because he arrived 7 weeks after Easter and so that is Whitsunday or something. The Islands are Islands that are still connected to the continent of Australia but because of the moving tectonic places and volcanic activity the 74 Islands appear separate and apart from the mainland.
They stick out like green rolling mountains and have beautiful soft silica (?) sand. And of course there are coral reefs surrounding them. Loggerhead and green turtles swimming around, magnificent.
The Derwent Hunter is a Tall Ship, so we got to sail about the ocean rather than motoring around, which was so nice, just to hear the waves on the boat without the roar of the motor (though that was rather quiet when it was used).
We went snorkeling (wearing lovely stinger suits, to avoid stingray bites) at Cateran bay on Border Island, swam and snorkeled at Whitehaven beach, did a 15 minute walk up Tongue Island and saw the most spectacular view of Whitehaven Beach and the "swirly"sands as the guide told us... and then more snorkeling on Black Island (the clearest water I snorkeled in yet). The fish and coral were amazing there.
We had a great crew (young but talented). Rick was the Skipper, Logan the deckhand and Will the cook. We ate very well all day long. The weather was fantastic, though it got windy on the second night but stopped very quickly. The sun shone throughout the day in beautiful fashion.
Being in the middle of no where is indescribable what the sky looked like... literally billions of stars, the Milky Way (not the chocolate bar), the Southern Cross, Orion on his side, and sooooo much more. I have bought a book about the stars down here.. phenomenal really!

I don't know what can top this last week, but tomorrow I head up towards cairns, with a couple of stops.. don't worry I'll keep you updated!

Love y'all

Kroombit Cattle Station

2008-03-27T19:52:00.004-06:00

So, off we went to the Kroombit Cattle Station for the night... I sure love farms and ranching and stuff.. NOT! But I survived. It was a quick evening of fun and games.. People went on a horse ride to gather the sheep for the rodeo. We wrangled a goat and "branded"one, shot at clay pigeons and learned to crack whips. We were fed ranch style food cooked over the open fire, just like the real cowboys...

The photos show our sleeping accommodations, me getting ready to wrangle and brand the goat, shooting at clay pigeons (got 2 out of 5) and me cracking the whip.. wasn't so hot (the guy says- I guess I can work with your technique!)

The night went quickly, anyway, so on to the next stop... The Whitsundays...

Fraser Island....

2008-03-27T02:28:00.006-06:00

Fraser Island photos....

1. the red rocks created from too much rust stuff (what is that called again) and creating these amazing red cliffs.. these are a part of the Cathedrals.

2. a dingo.. look like the mutts in town, but not too nice

3. Lake Wabby - an inland lake being taken over by the blowing sands- funnily called sand blows!

4. after a hike to swim in Lake Wabby we walked across the sand which felt like a desert) to get to the other beach

5. a stick bug- it has beautiful wings that it splays when it it scared

6. this is the only official sand beach highway in the world - 75 miles long on the east side of Fraser Island. Cars cruise along at 100 km/hr!

7. got to jump on a plane for 15-minutes to tour part of the 15,000 hectare (i think) island

8. a view of 75 mile beach from the air

9. the Maheno (?) shipwreck. Stuck on the beach fading away... been there since the 1930's

10. little old me on the Indian Head cliffs.. beautiful views from here! (I slipped and cut open my toe though.. all is well now)

11. Basin Lake.. Looks dark and creep, but the water was warm and clear- You could swim in the ocean because of the undertoes and sharks and things, so the inland lakes is where all the swimming takes place

12. walking through the rain forest. amazingly huge trees up to 3 metres in diameter. Logging was a major industry on the island for a while.

13. me at Lake Mackenzie.. the largest inland lake on the Island... HUGE.. white soft sand, clear warm waters..

14. part of the Fraser Island crew.. Loads of fun.. lots of great people...

15. another sand blow... taking over part of the island the sand is...

I have more, but this is a good representation...

Okay, I realize that it has been awhile since the updates (good to know people are following along..) But I have been out in the middle of no where basically for the last week.. I'll start with the Fraser Island trip..

Fraser Island is a sand Island, that is green as green can be with the whitest softest sand and the clearest pure water one has ever seen. I will try to get a load of photos as they are so much better than I can describe. I did buy a book though that is a great resource for why it exists and what exists on it...

Ultimately over the last 20,000 years (or so) the sand have been flowing up the coast from Sydney and settling behind some volcanic rocks. Then the waters underneath have been pushing up through the layers of sand and creating pure spring water, flowing as clear as ever, is some places it looks like the streams are dry beds the water is so clear. then there are rain forests on the island, created by the incredibly high trees blocking the sun from the lower trees and creating the rain forest.

The weather had its good and bad moments, but there was only one shower where we almost didn't make it back on the bus.

really spectacular it all is... borrow my book when I get home.

We had a great group and an fantastic guide... he loves his job and went above and beyond for us.. we stayed at a hostel type place and sat on the deck and had a couple of drinks each night. then got together for supper upon the return back to Hervey Bay (where the hostel was crappy)..

I'll do more later... off to meet the boat crew... miss y'all..

PS.. the OZexperience bus has been great.. right on schedule (you know me and schedules), great recommendations, and a great way of meeting people from one place to the next.. a girl from Noosa is on the computer behind me and there were four girls from the bus on the boat, all is good!

Photos from Noosa

2008-03-27T02:12:00.002-06:00

That was a quick upload! So I can probably catch up on photos!

I realized I don't have too many grans photos of Noosa, but trust me it is pretty and like a big town.. The beach is beautiful (of course) and just comfy... the first photo is of the beach and the second is from a hike I took... (have I even told you about that?) through the ocean views, rain forest and eucalyptus trees...
The third photo is of the hostel I stayed at.. Like an old country plantation house with shutter windows and wrap around outer decks.. very nice..
Then me in front of the Australian Zoo sign and an up close and personal picture of a koala. they are sooooo soft, I got to touch one... there weer a ton of kangaroos lazing around all day as well!

Noosa

2008-03-19T02:42:00.002-06:00

Well really if I was a billionaire I would buy my beach property here in Noosa.. It is a quaint little place with a beautiful beach and lots to do. A little on the pricey side, but the whole East coast has been that way.

I arrived at noonish and after checking in went for a walk in the Noosa National Park. I walked 4 different paths following the coast, the rain forest, the Eucalyptus trees and a pine forest that reminded me of home. I walked through the town after and fell in love with an artists work. Again if I was a billionaire!

The hostel had a welcoming free drink in the evening, so I went (of course free drinks!) and ended up chatting with a few English folks (they are everywhere)! We stayed and had a few drinks for the rest of the evening.

On Tuesday I went to the Australian zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter. It was pretty cool. much like any other zoo but a ton of crocs, koalas and other Australian animals (including about 20 poisonous snakes...) there was a show and some feedings and you got to pet koalas and kangaroos. They were all about..

I was relaxed in Noosa for sure.. Had a rain storm this morning but it passed.

Nothing to grand to report.. off 4x4 ing tomorrow for a couple of days.. that should be fun... I could have camped on the sand island (Fraser Island), but opted for the resort! Then I am looking to the 2 nights on a tall ship early next week (man I really don;t even know what day it is anymore!

take care..
s.

again I tried photos, but didn't work will try later..

photos from Brisbane

2008-03-19T02:15:00.003-06:00

So this is a sample from Brisbane... a lovely city. Lots of green spaces and old buildings... a nice place to spend a few days.

the photos are of the old Treasury building which is now the Casino in Brisbane.

the city photo is from the Southbank Parklands (which was where the Expo 88 was held)

the belt buckle had BHP on it so I thought that was neat. It was in the Queensland Museum in the mining section.

The fire "cycle" was an original response vehicle before vehicles were invented. They hauled the water and the hoses on the 4 bikes.

the last photo is the Citycat ferry, that I got a free ride on from the hop on hop off bus.

Byron Bay photos

2008-03-18T01:31:00.002-06:00

Man that took forever.. so these photos are from Byron Bay..

A beautiful beach shot. I seem to be getting a lot of those.. then the most easterly point of the Main land of Australia.. the Julien Rocks where I went snorkeling with the turtles. And the lighthouse that I biked up to.

will try some more..

Brisbane

2008-03-16T02:48:00.003-06:00

So I love Brisbane... beats Sydney for sure.. I'd say it is up there in my top 10 places... yup..

So, yesterday I did the hop-on hop-off bus tour for 3 hours and wow, really this is a beautiful place. Settled in the early 1820's as a penal colony, it has grown into the 3rd largest city in Australia.. It is incredibly spread out, but accessible through the train and bus system. Mount Coot-Tha has a spectacular view of the city. There are river ways that run through it that sparkle in the sun.

They have a cemetery here that is huge and of course dates back to the 1800's. The interesting thing about it was that people were buried divided by race, religion, and class as well as their status at the time they dies.. segregation even in death.. AND further, if you were Asian and had a plot that someone else wanted, you were dug up and moved and the new people got your space!! Crazy!

There is a Casino here. Held were the Treasury office used to be in a huge stone building.. no I did not go in.... money is way too precious!

This is a great area for doing almost any kind of activity you want. Today I checked out three different museums (including and Andy Warhol exhibit- he is weird) and the South bank parklands. After they hosted Expo '88 they converted the ground and now it is a bustling place of little markets and on weekends music, buskers, and tents of sellers of all kinds of goods.. It was an enjoyable way to spend the day..

As part of the bus tour I got to ride on the Brisbane River on the CityCats ferry. That was a nice way to end the day...

Jodie and John were great hosts, giving me a bed and meals... and I got to do my stinky laundry! Yippee!! We shall meet again along the line somewhere!

Tomorrow is an early morning, so I am off to get supper and breakfast for tomorrow.. I am off to Noosa, home of Steve Irwin.. I'll be checking out his zoo in a couple of days.

I will upload some more pictures, if the damn computer will let me, at the next stop..

later,
s.

moving on up.. (the east coast, that is)

2008-03-14T06:02:00.002-06:00

Hi all,

Just a quick update for today.

Last night I went and watched the "Bucket List", I thought that it would be funny funny funny, but it was funny, sad , sad.. still good though.

Today I woke up and checked out of the hostel and borrowed a bike to ride up to the Byron Bay Lighthouse. It was about 2 KM and mostly up hill but WOW what a sight when you got to the top. I will get some photos on later.

Then I cruised down the hill and sat on the beach and read for a bit, the headed back to the hostel to wait for the bus.

After a short bus ride (3 hours) I am in Brisbane and staying at a friends place with her family. I met Jodie when I went through Ireland about 5 years ago. We kept in touch with the occasional e-mail and updates and now I am here. We were just trying to figure out what to do in Brisbane for a couple of days. She doesn't think there is anything to do (she is a Sydney gal) but there is always something to do. She lives about 20 minutes from the city, so I will wake up and figure something out tomorrow..

I hope everyone is doing well... miss ya...

swimming with turtles/ Blue Mountain additions

2008-03-13T02:53:00.002-06:00

So swimming with the turtles wasn't as grand as I thought it was going to be.. the waves were rather large and I am still (5 hours later) feeling like I am floating up and down in the water... My stomach couldn't handle it after 40 minutes and I fed the fishes some of my ingested food.. hope they like me for it!

So I did see a turtle (well maybe two but they both looked alike) one was at the bottom, so 4-5 meters away and the other was only about 3-4 meters away, but in some of the crashing waves, so I didn't get a great pic.. (Yup, I bought an underwater camera). I guess it is the same turtle as Nemo's friend in "finding Nemo". I also could say I swam with a shark! A leopard shark.. and he was much closer than the turtle got... a little scary, but they don't bother humans if humans don't bother them... and they may not even have teeth... hmmmm...

I will get the underwater photos on another day. I still had 10 shots left I will use at the Great Barrier reef in a couple of weeks...

That is about all I did all day.. Waited to go, went, felt crappy, had a shower and a nap.. and now I type.. I think I will catch a movie in a bit... went out for a bit last night an realized I am 15 years older than many of the girls I am traveling with... seriously I am old.. I have been seriously thinking this may be the last back packer tour I do, but we shall see when it is all done.

So to give some updates for the blue mountains: on the way there we stopped at a kangaroo sanctuary. That is where the Kangaroo pictures came from. there are 8/10 most poisonous spiders in Australia and our guide was nice enough to tell us ALL about them.. scary, they have vipers and stuff. their webs are hard core, like thick pieces of string and they build them one after another so if someone runs or bikes through one likely he will run through 4 or 5 and then they attack! They create these little holes to hide out in during the day and come out at night or when they are bothered.. I was really freaked out.

The Blue Mountains are called the Blue Mountains because of the haze that is created by the gas release by the Eucalyptus plants.. there is a haze in the photos and they are not clouds! There is also wild lemon, sandalwood and another kind of tea tree oil plants. We got to smell them and the more they are rubbed into the hands the stronger the scent. Pretty neat.

Ohh yes, the Blue Mountains are not 250 metres as I previously stated... they are closer to 1100 metres and I read somewhere they are more defined as rolling hills than actual Mountains.. either way they were very pretty.

that was that I think...

So tomorrow I head off to Brisbane and spend 3 nights with a girl I met when I went through Ireland a few years ago. She is married and has a 2 year old, so it should be a relaxing time.

I hope you are all doing well and miss me terribly! JK. Miss y'all and thanks for the updates from home. I feel like I have already been gone for months!

Blue Mountain photos

2008-03-12T04:07:00.002-06:00

Let's try this again...

There are a couple of Pictures of the Three Sisters Rock Formation, a kangaroo, me in the Blue Mountains and the "steepest railway in the world"! It was very steep and rather scary!

I'll post more later!

Byron Bay

2008-03-12T03:43:00.003-06:00

Well, I sure missed a few things in the Blue Mountain update, but I don't have my journal on me to correct and add to it at this point, so I will do that a little later.

Today I am sitting in Byron Bay. It is a touristy hippie town full of people and shops and right on the water.. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are rumoured to be around because there is a big concert next week... but a quick update for the last couple of days..

So I guess it was only yesterday, but it sure feels like some time ago, early in the morning I set out on the OZexperience but out of Sydney. After a nine hour bus ride, we arrived at the Mojo Surf camp. A nice little spot on the beach with an enthusiastic staff. We didn't arrive there until 5 PM or so, so I walked along the beach for a bit and the booked a couple of tours for later on in my journey.. ( I am probably spending more than I should, but really, when will i make it back this way..?!) One booking was 2 nights on a tall ship... isn't that the coolest!!

The in the evening they fed us dinner and held a beach party.. much like the bush parties of years ago, with drinks, people and fire, though they didn't have any music , so it wasn't too rockin'.. as well there was an early wake up for breakie and to surf... I know that sounds exciting, but I sat out the surfing.. sad sad sad, but I have tried it before and it hurts my back, and I didn't really want to be hurting so early into my trip.. I did enjoy watching the others splash around in the water though!

The bus has 22 people on and I'd say 90% of them are from England and have been very nice to me and great at including me into their invites... They are all in the their early 20's so I have some issues trying to keep up with their energies though! I shall go drink some wine with them after I finish the update today.

So we arrived in Byron Bay at about 2:30 and settled into the hostel (run by a bunch of Canadians!) Then I went down to the beach with a couple of gals and laid in the sun and read a book (already finished one, thanks Rick.)

Tomorrow I have booked a snorkel with turtles and was told they saw sharks last week, so I am looking forward to that!

Anyway, I am here fore two nights and then head to Brisbane, to meet up with a gal I met when i went through Europe a few years ago... she is kindly letting me stay with her, so I can save a few dollars! yah!

Take care all.. til next time..

PS.. the first two pictures are the beach at Surf Camp and a then the last one is a kangaroo! (obviously!)...

PSS.. the sky here is AMAZING.. I fell in love looking at it last night.. WOW.. I swear I saw the Milky Way and a bazillion stars.... beautiful!

Blue Mountains

2008-03-10T03:20:00.003-06:00

Hi crew,

So today was another early day.. Headed out to the Blue Mountains and did a 3 hour and a 1 1/2 hour hike.. now these we not slow gradual inclines and declines.. they were steeeeep.. my knees really love that .. not. There were 901 steps on the second decent and it felt like just as many in the first one (though there wasn't).. and then we took a trolley train up the "steepest train incline in the world"! I bet it was 45 degrees steep or even more!

So the Mountains are not like the Rockies, they are green and full of trees.. there is a rain forest there and lots of waterfalls, but because of the season they are not free flowing, mostly sprays of water. It really was beautiful and if you take out the hikes, very relaxing! A person could spend days there rock climbing, going caverning, horseback riding.. a ton of things.. a good vacation spot.

So the highlight was the views, really all over.. But the Three Sisters was pretty cool and there is an Aboriginal story as to how they were formed. In a nutshell an Aboriginal man was told by his wife to care for the three girls for the day. He wanted to hunt, so he had they go to the ledge of the mountain to play while he went into the valley to hunt. He was a witch doctor with his magical kangaroo bone... so he left the girls to play while he hunted in the valley. The girls were fooling around and accidentally threw a rock over the edge that hit a Yeti like animal... the Yeti got upset and decided they were good prey to eat, so he started climbing the mountain to get them. the father saw this and tried and tried and tried to freeze to Yeti with his witch craft, but it wasn't working, so in a last effort he turned his three daughters into stone... then the Yeti went after him, because the girls were not edible anymore... After a chance and in a last chance effort to save his life he turned himself into a bird. The Yeti left him alone when he escaped through a small hole. When the father went back to find his magic bone to turn everyone back to human, it was gone. Now he searched the valley floor looking for it...

something like that anyway.. I forget the name of the bird..

We had a very good guide, but it was a tiring day.. so I must go pack for I depart Sydney at 6:30 tomorrow morning.. again... ugg...

I will likely be out of touch for a few days, so will write when i can..

Later..

I got some photos on the facebook page.. but will keep trying here on another day, today was unsuccessful as well.. I'll get it eventually..

photos?

2008-03-09T03:22:00.001-06:00

I'll just try to do photos here now..

nope not working.. I'll try later..

Scuba Scuba Scuba

2008-03-09T01:23:00.003-07:00

So, I survived! There were really a couple of times I thought I was going to breath in and swallow all the ocean water and die, but I had a fantastic instructor and he was very good to let me live! Really, breathing underwater is not natural except for fish and babies, so it was rather an experience I am not too sure I love yet... but they say it gets better and more exciting with each dive.

So some highlights for you.: There originally were three instructors with two students each, but even before we started one instructor hurt his back, so we split into two groups of three.. there was an American (who has been living here for a few months and plans on staying) and four Aussies, all having their own reasons for taking the course. It was an enjoyable group and I did LOVE the small class sizes.. We say a couple of groups with 16 students to one instructor.. and to be honest, if that was my group I don't think I would have come back on the second day... seriously scary.. you know when you are scared to start with and having to just sit and wait for your turn to learn and fell comfortable.

So the first day, we were in the pool for like 3 1/2 hours learning the basics and getting used to the equipment and stuff.. then after lunch we did our first Open Water Dive. It was at Bare Island (which they tell me is where Impossible II was filmed, so I have to believe them.. ) It was interesting and I was thankful we didn't have to do any skill work at that point as I was sooooooo concentrating on breathing under water and getting over that feeling.. It was not a positive pressure situation, so there were moments you didn't have air being forced at you... still getting used to that! So we saw a huge Blue Groper (like seriously 2 1/2 feet big!!), a baby shark, and tons of other fishes and under water things... but seriously I was just trying to breath, so it wasn't too enjoyable. But again, I survived. I think we went like 8 metres deep for 40 minutes.

So today we went out to Cronulla and dove in Oak Park, where they call "the steps"... We did three dives there. All to different depths (8-10 metres) for about 45 minutes each dive. I got to see a sting ray, pretty darn close and another Blue Groper followed us for most of the day.. We had skills to do with each dive and I really concentrated on breathing with my mouth and not my nose and got a lot more comfortable with each dive. I feel much more prepared though to take on the under water world.

As I was swimming with the fishes, it dawned on me that I was also swimming with their feces.. lovely, I say!

So at the end of the day we all passed and got lovely certificates and I will get a fancy certification card to carry around! ( I tired for 20 minutes to upload some photos.. didn't work..)

That was the last two days in a nut shell. Tomorrow I am off to the Blue Mountains and with aching calves and a very tired head I will do a three hour hike in what promises to be some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Carl (my instructor) promises my head will not explode (going from 10 meters below sea level to 250 meters plus above sea level)! That is a good thing!

Thanks for keeping in touch.. til next time....

checking in

2008-03-08T01:27:00.002-07:00

Hey all
Just checking in to say I survived Day one of scuba... I'll post a couple of pictures and write a good entry tomorrow.. Tonight I am tooooo bushed...
BTW- it was a beautiful shiny 25 degree day!

Day 2 - Sydney

2008-03-07T02:57:00.001-07:00

Today was a rather non-interesting day, but still was enjoyable.. I jumped on a hop on hop off City bus at about 11:00 AM and hopped off at the Maritime museum at 11:20 AM... then toured around there looking at the history of Sydney and Australia and for different ships- a destroyer, a submarine, a replica of the Endeavor (Captain Cook's ship) and a tall ship.. each were neat in their own way... the only issue is that this took me until 3:30 PM and I missed the opportunity to tour the Sydney Opera house... on my next way through I guess. I am actually going to see if I can catch a show there.. that would be neat!

So after I hopped back on the bus I cruised around touring the rest of the City and down to Bondi beach until 7:00 PM.. then I grabbed a bite to eat and am now studying for my scuba course tomorrow.. wish me luck!

the weather threatened rain all day, so it was rather muggy, but it stayed away until I was eating, so that was good.. now it seems to have stopped, but it is still windy...

Thanks Claudette and Rick for your comments! I obviously wasn't paying attention before, but see it now.. and funny enough I just about packed exactly what you said.. It is actually my toiletry bag that weighs more than my clothes! BTW- is climbing the Harbour Bridge worth the 150 odd dollars? I could do that when I come back through, if it is..

K people, don't worry about me if you don't hear for the next couple of days.. I have to get up at the ungodly hour of 6 AM (who says that is even allowed on holidays????) to do this scuba course and then a tour to the Blue Mountains on Monday... after that I finally leave Sydney (which really is like any other city with sirens and beggars and tall buildings and such.. I even got to see a guy get arrested and have heard about a hundred different kinds of sirens). I look forward to getting out of here and seeing what else is out there....

Yes Claudette I will be in Brisbane for 3 days. I too have a friend there.. I should call her to see if she will be around.. hmmm...

Take care all. I hope the weather warms for you soon...

OH yeah, Dix, you may love it here... Thai restaurants EVERYWHERE, and BTW- I don't think I have been served by an Australian yet!

I'll try to post a few pics, but it wasn't doing so well on facebook...

I have arrived!

2008-03-06T02:05:00.003-07:00

So after an incredibly long day and uncomfortable flight I have made it to Sydney and am enjoying the 28 degree weather and the thrill of wearing shorts. (Thank god I fake and baked, I really don't stick out too much, at least I don't think so!)

So the 4th was a long day. Flew on the same plane as Kirt McLean to Los Angeles! After 3 hours I finally got up the nerve to ask him for his autograph, and he was soooo nice. I think if I wasn't scooting off to San Francisco for lunch he was going to invite me to golf with he and his buddies!! (I can dream!)

The San Fran detour went without a hitch and I even got to leave an hour earlier, but then spent 20 minutes looking for Ed, but It was a lovey lunch with he and his gal and a quick tour of the area (driving past Robin Williams house, who Ed says is just an ordinary guy if you see him in the neighbourhood). SF is as pretty as I remember, though way too much traffic.

The flight to Sydney left late and therefore we arrived late. I waited VERY patiently to see if I could get a window seat and it paid off, thanks God as my original seat was plumb in the middle of the plane, yuck... then I almost had a spare seat next to me which would have been a dream, but some stupid kid HAD to sit by his stupid buddy!

I watched Juno and I am Legend on the plane and did get some rest so that was good.

After arriving in Sydney, there was a conspiracy to not let us leave for hours and make us stand and haul our luggage into long line ups to wait only to be freed just before they start searching my bag (Which was done somewhere along the line, because my Winnie the Pooh lock is gone and my zippers were open... sad ) Anyway after an hour and a half and a $30 cab ride I made it to the hostel, where I was told I couldn't check in until 1:00... so I went and organized my Bus tour (some changes to the itinerary I had from suggestions from the Aussie guy helping me out).. so It is a little different, but I am basically still hitting spots I want to...

I should really touch base with Nigel and Carlene... but right now my brain is numb... and I am seriously thinking about going to the observatory... wouldn't that be neat to see the upside down sky up close and personal!

I spent the day walking down and around the Harbour/ Circular Quay.. then went up to the Sydney Tower for a 360 look of the city and area.... wow... much like the CN tower... and i had major de ja vu so i guess I am where I am supposed to be...

So now I have to run, so I don't have to pay another $2 and there is a band or something at the hostel, so I should check that out and try to be social!

Thank you everyone for your support. I will do my best t keep you up dated!

Goodbye Canada

2008-03-03T13:21:00.003-07:00

So this will be my last post from Canada... Leave bright and early tomorrow morning... a long day ahead of me then... 3 hours to LA, then to San Francisco for lunch, then back to LA for the 14.5 hour flight to Sydney! Getting excited.... yup I am!

Got a reminder from the PADI scuba company that my course starts in 4 days, so I hope to God that I don't catch a cold in the next few days. Can't do scuba with a cold... equalization and all.. fingers crossed.

Had a mani and a pedi yesterday to prepare for the nakedness of my feet.. they are now good to go....

That is it for now. catch you all on the other side!

Shari

WOW! really WOW!!

2008-02-27T22:38:00.003-07:00

Here I sit in Yellowknife.. less than one week to departure... and really.. am I ready to go?? I'll find out tomorrow when I repack (again!) for the like 5th time and see what I really need to survive with... need to do some scanning of docs and making sure I have all the paperwork good to go...

Only 2 days left of work and from the sounds of it I really may not have a job to come back to, but should find that out by Friday! Either way I will really be enjoying myself!

So I bought a new camera.. Hope this one survives the journey and thanks to tips from Jason, I will be trying to get somewhat creative... we shall see..

so that is all for now... just wanted to touch base... will do another update from Vancouver in a few days and then when I can from there...

If you want to e-mail me you can register and comment on this site, you can message me through facebook or send a message to me at olsenshari@hotmail.com..

Catch all next time!

Shari

READY to go!!

2008-02-04T22:13:00.001-07:00

So I think I am good to go.. I have my tickets booked, I am working through my scuba course, my OXexperience ticket is booked, I have my Aussie VISA, the first two night accomodation are taken care of and BY GOLLY all I can think of is the weather there HAS to be warmer than this!

Funny, I have been tanning and people think I have already gone on my trip! But I have just been spending too much time in the tanning bed.

Now I need to get the house straightened up and get packed, then repacked and repacked again! I am a terrible collecter of uselesss things and feel the need to bring too many "just in case" items. HAVE to stop that....

I am having a send off party on the 15th of February if you want to join me! Martinis anyone!

I look forward to getting tips left and right from people and guidance on where to go and what to avoid.. I guess you have to sign up to leave a message which may be a pain in the butt, but it may not be that tough either.. you can always 'facebook' me!

So 19 more sleeps until I leave Smith and one month until I leave from Vancouver... I really never thought this day would come.. (oh yeah, I have decided to 'jet' over to San Francisco for lunch with my Dad's cousin's husband during my 12-hour wait in LA! Isn't that cool??)

All right, catch ya later... I hope it warms up for us all..

weather

2008-01-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

-35 degrees is for the penguins and polar bears... I cannot wait to hit +20 degrees long before you all!!! That is what it is in Australia today! Wahoo! even if it is raining, it still beats this cold!

39 days for the Fort Smith departure and 48 until I depart Vancouver!

Getting ready to book the Oz experience bus and a scuba diving course... how exciting is that!

what???

2008-01-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

So extrme flooding, out of control fires, cyclones.. what am I getting myself into! Oh well, by the time I get to Australia the God's will smile and all will be great.. right!

45 days til I depart Smith and 54 days until I leave the country.... getting closer everyday!!

the itinerary.. want to join me?

2007-12-31T16:49:00.000-07:00

So here is my travel schedule if anyone wishes to join me along the way!

March 4 - Vancouver to Sydney, Australia
April 30 - Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand
June 13 - Auckland to Nadi, Fiji
July 5 - Nadi to Nuku Alofa, Tonga
July 12 - Nuku Alofa to Rarotonga, Cook Islands
July 29 - Rarotonga to Papeete, Tahiti (French Polynisia)
August 15 - home to Vancouver

then off to Calgary and home by the 30th of August! Now doesn't that sound exciting!!!

I am looking at doing some booking here in January, for side trips and stuff, but for now I plan on landing in each place and then seeing what they want to do for me! I feel a lot of spas in my future!

thanks for following with me... only 65 days until I leave the country (and 56 days until I leave Fort Smith)

s.

62 days to go!

2007-12-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

well here is trial number one. Checking to see if I can link this to facebook so it is accessible easily for all to follow.. including me! Please forgive me for spelling mistakes.. I will be on holidays you know!

62 days until I leave Smith and 72 days until I leave the country! Yippee... I will work on posting my schedule when I figure out more options..