Fiji

Alright everyone so this is extremely late but I am going to post it anyway so you know what I got up to in the Fijian islands then I amgoing to post about the first week of Europe. I flew intoNadi on the 19^thof April late in the evening. We caught acomplementary cab ride to our hostel. The ride was a bit scary as the Fijian peoples seem to drive with a lot of enthusiasm and assertive skills. The hostel that we stayed at called the Blue Water Lodge was very nice and I would recommend it as a friendly clean and welcoming place though it rests a bit out of town though there is a shuttle. The day after we arrived in Nadi we headed into Deneau port where the ferries run out to the over 300 islands. Though the actual accommodation at Beachcomber island is reasonable the ferry to the island is whopping $88 FJ each way, make sure to have that in your budget. The island itself is great. Food is included in your stay and extras aren’t that expensive either. There are many activities available for all ages including scuba diving, snorkeling, paragliding, jet skiing, swimming, walking, tanning andjust hanging around in a hammock. I spent three wonderful days here meeting people from England, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and many other places from around the world. I went tanning, snorkeling, play beach volleyball. The sunrises and sun sets were absolutely amazing and I enjoyed getting up and going for a swim as the water turned to gold around me. After Beachcomer island I went to the Weston in the Denarau area. It was a beautiful room and a beautiful area to finish of the south pacific though food was extremely costly. We did learn about how to open coconuts demonstrated below and how to scale a coconut tree as well!! We explored the area a bit but basically just took it easy.

After the five peaceful and beautiful days I flew home for a great week with my close friends and family. Thank you so much Peter and Steph for letting me stay with you it was wonderful and thank you to my family for sharing such a wonderful evening with me as well.

The last of Australia

I arrived in Coff's Harbour on April 5th. Coff's Harbour was nice. It is a small town with a few attractions but some really nice people. Some of the things that I did were jump of the Jetty, go to the big banana, walk the Habitat walk and check out to Mutton Island. I enjoyed the 3 hour walk around the habitat walk. Most of the trail was in good conditions,but due to rains the Habitat walk was flooded and some of the trail was underconstruction so I recommend checking out the status of the trail before walking all the wayaround. The big banana was fun! It had delicious frozen bananas with chocolate and nuts or sprinkles and banana ice creamand ofcourse many banana merchandise.The sky walk through the banana fields were short due to construction and weather was no longer fully open. Lastly the pier was lots of fun. It is a long pier that I jumped off it twice.I jumped when it was just a bit after high tide so the jump isn't as big as it can be but it was long enough that I registered that I was falling for an extra long time! It is a good good place to go to relax and escape from the big cities. The YHA there was good and had organized events that brought people together. After the small town of Coff's Harbour I headed for Newcastle.

It was a wonderful place filled with lots of shopping, interesting architecture. Some of the things that I did was explore the lighthouse

which was not much to see as it was under construction, but it was a nice walk out to the

point. The YHA here was awesome it was a converted gentleman's club and it looked like one inside and out. From Newcastle I went on a tour of the Hunter Valley. The next day I left for Sydney again.

The YHA harbour was so wonderful last time that I stayed there again but using the epack this time is was almost half of the price. Then we stayed in the YHA Railway

where our dorm was actually an old rail cart. It was pretty awesome and great way to finish off Australia.

After being in Sydney for a week last time we were there and seeing most of the things we

wanted to see. We booked a trip to the blue

mountains.We went with the Happy Coach which was decent. We had a range of people from the middle aged to the young from all over the world. The driver was late but friendly and talked a fair bit about our surroundings. It was also the cheapest tour we could find so that was a plus too. Once getting out to the blue mountains it was beautiful.

The tour took us into the Blue Mountains national park and saw our last kangaroos and walked through spider laden grass. We headed to the Jamison Valley look out and saw the famous Three sisters rock formation and hear the story of their creation where a father turned his three daughters into stone to save them from death. I walked the Furber steps down and along the valley and saw waterfalls rain forests and old mining areas. On the way back up the Valley I took the steepest railroad in the world! It was a wonderful day and the last one I had in Sydney Australia.

I enjoyed my stay in Oz it was fun and filled with lots of different kinds of weather. If you are interested in surfing and taking it easy Australia is the place for you. If I think of New Zealand in comparison with Australia then I would say I loved NZ because of the wonderful and friendly people there, the beautiful scenery and great places to explore.

Brisbane to Byron Bay

Hello friends and family!

(I don't know why but the pictures are not matching up to the words I am sorry I will try and fix it soon but here is the post anyway)

I can't believe how time is moving. In ten days I will be in Fiji then home in six days after that!

After Hervey Bay we left for Brisbane to meet up with a friend we met in Ayers Rock. The first night we were there I went to Wicked. It was absolutely amazing. For those who don't know the play is the story behind the Wizard of Oz. I cried so much it was fantastic!
The next day we headed off on our Brisbane adventure with Tom. We went to GOMA, the Gallery of Modern Arts. This place was wonderful it had exhibits on lego (below), on youtube, on convenience stores, on cardboard, recycled bags, and all kinds of modern materials; it even had a slide in the entrance way!

To the right is a picture of ribbons that lined the walls that had wishes people have written. You take one that you think fits you the best then place a wish of your own in it's place, the artist will choose which wishes he wants to print on more ribbons that will be placed there. It was very interesting to see all the different kinds of wishes that were on the walls.

We also went to another contemporary arts museum called the Power House, this was a building that was once used as a port for coal imports.


I also went to the the Roma Street Parklands, a beautiful garden full of local and imported plants that was also full of animals. We had a wonderful guide who took us around for free and was well worth doing.

Later that day I got to see a rugby game with the Reds VS the Cheetahs. It was a very intense game where the play only stops for three reasons, and one of them is not if someone gets hurt! Below is one play in action!

I then bussed up to the top of a mountain to see the whole city from above. The city is huge though I found that the city didn't have a ton of things to keep you busy so we left after four nights.

After we left Brisbane we headed to Surfer's Paradise. It is like a beachy Los Vegas where surfers meet city slickers.




We stayed there a total of three nights to give us time to see two amusement parks, Dream World and White Water World. I have never been to an amusement park like this before and I was blown away. I went on all of the rides and had an amazing time. The ride below is called the Claw, it swings you back and forth while also spinning you around. It was the worst one for me but I rode it three times!!!! it was great.

Along the way I got in trouble for stealing a horse, but it was okay because I got a way in an Oldsmobile car!

<------ This is the Tower of Terror and the Giant Drop. We rode both. The Tower of Terror took you up about 20 stories backwards then shot you back down again all in about 10 seconds. It was a lot of fun! The Giant Drop was scarier as you go up 33 stories hang around for 90 seconds then plummet for less than 5 seconds. It was unsettling and was experienced only once.

There was also some amazing animals there, everything from snakes to white tigers. Below is a large crocodile chilling out in his home, can you spot the female in the picture?

<--- This is the world's tallest residential building in the world. It is found in Surfer's paradise and is quite the landmark building. It holds only 56

residents so I can only imagine the prices for living there.



We stayed at Surfer's Paradise Backpackers Resort. It was an okay place to rest your head

and get to know some people. I played volley ball every night there and chilled out with some great people including some people from Victoria! The staff were very casual so if you are looking for a little more well run place than I would look into another hostel but for the three nights we stayed it was good.

I headed to Currumbin after Surfer's Paradise. It is a small place about 20 minutes south of Surfer's Paradise and 20 minutes north of Coolengatta. I stayed with a good friend from home. He was very hospitable and took me out Paddle boarding on the river, walking along the beach, a bike ride to Coolengatta (my calf's were tight for quite a while), and cooked me some amazing meals to boot! I like the quite place, it was friendly, had the beach and wasn't far from all of the amenities and two great little cities. Coolengatta is also a town that boarders New South Wales and Queensland, which I straddled so that I could be in two places at once!!

After a wonderful two days there I was off to Byron bay. This place reminded me of Saltspring Island, with the clash of tourists and naturalists. It was a great place to check out the beach, go to markets and shop in the small town.

One of the days we were there we hiked up to the lighthouse that is famous there for being on the most Easterly point of Australia. Below you can see the view from the light house and the lighthouse itself. A beautiful building that looks like a small castle built to withstand the ages.

Byron Bay has been wonderful, relaxing and fun. Unfortunately the rain did find me so I wasn't able to enjoy the sun and beaches as much as I could have.


Today I head to Coff's Harbour. Then off to Newcastle before heading back to Sydney and the Blue mountains.

As the trip comes to a close I am enjoying each day as much as possible since the days seem to pass by so quickly at times. I don't know when I will blog next, perhaps in Sydney before I head to Fiji.

I hope everyone at home is well and is enjoying the warming of the weather!

Fraser Island

Hello Again!!

Alright so I know that it has been a quite a few posts in the last little while but now we are almost up to date. From Airley beach we took an overnight bus with Greyhound to Hervey bay. It was an exhausting night and thankfully we only have one more trip like this in the future. Hervey bay is one of the gateways to Fraser Island. We stayed two days there and then caught this freight like ferry across the ocean to begin our adventure on the largest sand island in the world.

We met our tour guide, Kirsty, and the other 12 people on our bus. We headed off right away on the off road (well on a road but it sure felt like an off road experience) tour of the island. We got to walk through some of the forest areas, which altered significantly as you walked, from bush type areas, to rain forests to deserts. It was amazing.

(Picture of the giant tree)

We got to hug one of the biggest trees on the island, it took seven of us to link arms around it. After that we headed to Mackenzie lake where the sand, much like Whithaven but not quite as good, will exfoliate your skin. The Cool Dingo experience that we were on was great because we could spend lots of time in one place. So at Lake Mackenzie we hung out for a couple of hours swimming, exfoliating, playing in the water. Afterwards we had tea and cookies. The cookies were sooooo good. Devon and I on the first day over did it with over half a dozen cookies eaten by the afternoon. I might have been channelling the cookie monster...

This is our group, or most of them however we lost more than half of them on the third day because they were only on a two day trip.

(picture of the group)

On our second day we got to see how there were dessert zones around the island in the midst of so much forest. It turns out the winds blow the day up from the beach then the foliage tries to take the area back over and then this is repeated over and over again in a contsant struggle for the land. Below is a picture of this, with me being blown away by the knowledge....

Later that night we headed back to the Kingfisher resort where we were staying and play jumbo jenga. It was awesome, we beat the old record of 31 levels by two!! In the end it was as tall as I am!!!

The next day we drove on the 75 mile beach. up to the Champagne Pools. these are pools that are like giant tidal pools where the ocean washes in. Below is a picture of me in it. It is very neat as you are swimming with the fishes while waves crash around you!

<----- Here is a picture of the beach that we drove on it is pristine sand with beautiful waves. you can see that point out in the distance it is called Indian head, and from there it is a beautiful view of the ocean all the way until South Africa!!!! Below is a picture of me at the top!

We also got to see the ship wreak that is along the beach called the Mahalo. It was wreaked there in 1935.

(picture of the ship)

The tide was high so the waves were crashing upon it, which was a very impressive view.

Here is me in the driver seat of the truck that drove us around. As you can see it was very large and ready for the rough and tumble roads we encountered! The road conditions below are an example of what we drove through!!!!!

All around the island, especially on the beaches, there were tons of butterflies. Below is a picture of one that took a rest on the sand.

On our third day we visited two lakes one was Lake Wabby. This lake was green and had a desert on one side and a forest on the other. It was also filled with catfish. I really enjoyed this place as the water was a perfect temperature for swimming. The other lake we visited was lake Birabeen. It was a yellow lake due to the trees that were on the edge of the lake. It is supposed to heal wounds and injuries when you swim in it, maybe that is why my cut on corral didn't get infected.... :) This lake is seen below, I loved how it was yellow then green then blue then green then blue in this picture, it was very peaceful.

We left the island and all of it's beauty behind and headed out for Brisbane the next day. That is where I am now and we have been able to visit some friends that we met along the Australian road. I will tell you all about it in my next blog.

I am super excited about the coming weeks as we finish up our trip of Australia and Fiji, not only because we still have lots of fun things to see and do, but so I can see Victoria again with my friends and family! See you all sooner than I think :)

Magnetic Island and Whitsundays

So to continue the story of my travels. Devon and I had to fly out of the wet weather of Cairns to Townsville where were hopped a ferry to Magnetic Island and a crazy bus ride to our hostel. Finally arriving and the YHA Bungalow Bay hostel we were greeted by many nocturnal animals including Possums, insects, Wallabies by the pack, and snakes.

This particular snake is a tree snake and greeted us at the window from our bungalow. It was a noisy sleep with all of the wildlife about us but it was a very unique experience. This YHA is actually built upon a wildlife sanctuary which is the reason we encountered so many living things.

Going to the washroom was the insect exhibit where there were all different kinds of moths and bugs, here is a particular specimen that was very interesting, it appears to look like a autumn leaf but upon closer inspection I found out it was living.

There were many like this and made the trip to the washroom and whole new experience.

Our Hostel was particularly interesting because instead of the usual one building we were put into bungalows, hut like structures, that were all individually built around the property. The place kind of reminded me of summer camp.

You can see one of the bungalows at the end of this pathway.

I really enjoyed this place as it was very interesting, however due to the rain we weren't able to explore it very much and many of the animals weren't around. It had a good atmosphere and a friendly staff, I recommend the place if you are an animal lover.



After a couple nights there with no end of the rain in sight we decided to head off early to Airley Beach to start our Whitsunday adventures. We stayed at the YHA Airley beach before we left for our tour of the islands. This hostel had a good kitchen, en suites and a pool. It is a good place for all ages and a clean place to rest your head. We booked our Whitsunday islands tour and our Fraser Island tour through Peter Pans where we got a discount and cheep Internet!

We left the next day for our tour. We chose Tongarra as our boat which was a catamaran with two crew and seventeen passengers. The weather slowly cleared up throughout our trip. The boat didn't have enough beds indoors for us to sleep so we generally slept on the deck, however the first night was a rainy one so it wasn't the best night sleep for me as the tarp did drip and the sides (where I slept) was particularly wet. The second night was gorgeous and was a fantastic night (so check the weather forecast).

We went to many places in the Whitsunday islands and I won't go into it all but we had a blast. I have photographed our itinerary on a map so you can kind of see where we went.

Along the way we snorkeled twice seeing many fish and a turtle. It was great I really enjoyed it. The fish at one place were so thick they would touch you and there was one species of fish that was as big as my torso.

Below is a picture of our boat anchored out off the Whithaven beach.

At Whithaven beach we put on our stinger suits (suits that prevent jelly fish from stinging you and potentially really hurting you). These were to be worn everywhere in the Whitsundays and along the beaches they had seperated areas with nets to protect swimmers from jellys. Below you can see me in my stinger suit on the beach of Whitheaven. The rain was so bad while were were there it stung to have it hit your face directly. We enjoyed the high silica sand though (it can even exfoliate you) and saw sting rays and lemon sharks! It was great.

Here is a pic of Whitsunday beach from the look out spot. It is a beach that is over 7 km long with the most pure silica sand found on earth. It is like walking in silk.

We got the sails up a couple times and watched the sun set over the islands. I enjoyed the experience as we all got along well and the crew were very fun and friendly. It was a great boat for people ages 18 to early 30s.

I was excited to take the helm one morning too!!

In the end we had a great time and headed back to Airley Beach for another relaxing day and a over night trip to Hervey Bay (one of the main ports to Fraser Island). After we got back we decided to try a different hostel, we headed to Magnums. This place had a good atmosphere and free wireless Internet that we took shameless advantage of. The place offered a private room for $25 that also had it's own fridge too. The two downsides were that the dorm rooms didn't have lockers and the kitchen was small and had only hot plates that were slow to heat up. It was good for the couple of nights we stayed there.

As we work our way down the coast I am amazed that we are coming home for Easter within the month! I am excited to see my family and the bulk department at Thrifty Foods! Our Australian adventure is slowing coming to a close. I am sad but also looking forward to our tour of Western Europe that follows our visit home.

The next blog will be about our off road adventures on the biggest sand island in the world, Fraser Island, stay tuned!!!!