Eternity will never be enough for me

One Tree Hill

View from Summit of Rangatoto
Secluded beach
End of lava caves!


Yesterday the Coast to Coast trip was a bust. Met up with Rhondo and Nico around 1pm and we made our way to the start of the walk with the map i had printed off at the library. We started off alright, but then the map had all these unmarked streets, it was very confusing. We got offtrack at the second turn. How embarrassing. An old lady set us back on track and we made it to the first stop...Albert Park. It was pretty cool. But then we got completely lost again. We decided to scrap the walk, it was 16km anyway and frankly I am way too unfit for that these days. We walked back to the strating point to find a bus to take us to One Tree Hill, which was the one attraction that drew me to do the walk in the first place. Obviously, because I love the show One Tree Hill (will be referred to as OTH from now on), and miss watching it with Katie! And I miss you too, Katie! And everyone else. Bases covered.
So, after walking back to the bus station we found out the bus stop we had to go to was back where we had just walked from. Awesome. And you can't get bus transfer tickets so we had to walk to the bus stop. Lame. At this point we had been wandering around for 2 hours. We got on the bus and our driver was literally the biggest douche bag ever. I asked him if it was the bus that goes to OTH and he was like 'Well I go past it". So I asked him if he stopped in front of it and he repeated "I go past it". Okay then... we got on and hoped for the best. Nico got up after 30 minutes and asked if the stop was coming up and he replied 'We'll get there whenever we get there'. Right then. So she asked if he could let us know when we got there and he replied with a jolly 'if I can remember, then maybe'. About 10 minutes later we passed a giant sign that read OTH, so Rhonda quickly hit the stop button and we passed the stop about 2 minutes later. The driver definitely could have stopped in time. Instead we went to the next stop. And I've noticed that here in New Zealand bus stops are quite far apart. But, since we weren't doing the Coast to Coast walk it was ok to walk an extra 15 minutes. We also noticed a PacnSave, which is the cheapest grocery store ever. Its like Costco but you don't need a membership and not really in bulk, so I guess its nothing like Costco, but its cheap. Loved it.
OTH was a nice little walk up the volcano, did I mention OTH is a volcano. Its also covered in grass and sheep (obviously) and has a monument on top. Interesting place for a monument. Its a statue of a guy who put in his will that he wanted a statue of himself there to show his deep respect for the Maori people. So then why is it of himself? I didn't get it. Awesome views of Auckland and wicked park to play in at the bottom! It had a flying fox and various other dangerous looking contraptions. Well fun.
Went back to the YHA with Rhondo and Nico afterward and it was sad to have to say goodbye again, but it was great to see some friendly faces!
Last night supper was fish and chips. It wasn't very exciting, but it was free. I ate with a group of Swedish boys who assured me that New Zealand is amazing, they are just finishing up their trip and it was nice to get some suggestions of where to go and what I have to see. I pretty much watched TV and chilled out in the evening. Again I couldn't sleep because the trucks were so loud and the bar downstairs was insanely loud as well. Got a new room-mate at 2am. Lovely.
This morning I got up early-ish to get the ferry to Rangatoto island. Its the youngest and largest volcano in the Auckland area. It also is known for having heaps of flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world (that is straight out of the brochure, you are so welcome). I walked to the summit via Wilson's track, which I didn't realize was a pretty tough track (steep and covered in lava rock which slips out from under your feet all the time). I shared the track with about 1000 spider webs too. It was really dark from all the rainforesty bits, but it was cool. The summit was amazing, you could even see the crater at the top, but trees were growing in it. I also walked the lava caves, which made me feel a bit claustrophobic, but they were really interesting. Axe murderers delight, i'm sure. Young girl walking alone in a dark cave, but I survived. Yay! I walked to the Mackenzie lighthouse and visited a gorgeous beach that was empty except for me. Most people take the little train-bus around but I decided to walk it. So everywhere I went I was much after everyone else. The maps said it would take me about 4 hours to do the walks I wanted to do and I finished them in 2 and a half. I did a historic beach walk, a Kidney Fern walk and a few others that I forget the names of. It was a long day and I had to wait 2 hours for the next ferry, but I'm really glad I did the walks, it was so good to finally get some exercise!
Tomorrow I am off to Wellington to see/live with Josh and Katie! I can't wait to have a place to live for a while. I also need to sort out my tax number and open a bank account, which apparently takes 10 days. That's fine, its not like I am poor and desperately need a job...
LOVE!

Thats what you get for waking up in Vegas

Unfortunately my post yesterday was mega-rushed because I only had 15 minutes of interweb left. So I left out some good moments.
For example, in the airport I was checking my bags when I noticed a sign that read aerosol cans not permitted on planes. Risk of 500,000$ fine. i remembered I had bug spray in my bag and freaked out and proceeded to run onto the belt that was taking my bag away and told the guy that I though I had bug spray in an aerosol can. He looked at me as if i were a crazy person and said as long as it had a top on it, it was fine. Sheepishly, I got off the luggage belt and went to check in.
The girl I am currently sharing a room with is the weirdest person ever. I forget if I said I got upgraded to a female dorm because the budget dorm was full. Anyway so i paid only 19$ and got a 27$ room. sweet as. I went down to renew yesterday and the guy tried to charge me 27$ and i was like no way, so he went down to 20$. i was pretty excited about that. anyway, this girl is the only other person in the room and her bag is locked up like she's left it on the curb, when there are 3 locked doors to get into our dorm. I'm talking chains everywhere, like 4 locks. Wild. She's also the cheapest person I've ever met. she got up at 630 to take an early ferry because it was 15$ instead of 25$. and that's just the beginning, in Byron Bay she arrived by bus at midnight and decided it was no use to get a hostel, she would just sleep on the beach! an 18 yr old girl! alone! a guy took pity on her and let her sleep on his couch in a house full of 8 boys. sounds like a terrible idea to me... she volunteered on a whitsundays boat so she could go for free, but had to clean for like 5 hours a day. yuck. she also has been living off of a box of cereal for the past week. she always takes everything off of the free food shelves in hostels. she is just insane. she always knows where to get free internet (no free mcdonald's internet here...lame!) anyway, she has made me feel like the least thrifty person ever.
Last night I got a free upgrade dinner and it was so good. I met this french guy who told me new zealand is awful and that i should leave straight away. cool, thanks buddy. the girls in my apartment (there are 5 dorms) are really lovely.
I'm meeting up with Robyn and Nicole today to do the coast to coast walk, involving climbing the One Tree Hill volcano! awesome.
Love!

Waiting on the world to change

ooooooooooh wow. I am finally in new Zealand! My last few days in St Kilda were good. went to the queen vic markets and bought some nifty giftys for my familia. Yes I left it until the last day! That night I met up with Gill from village cafe (and we played bball together at nepean), we just went to apartment 29 and it was good, pretty chill and 3$ beers, you can't go wrong!
The next day I got a chance to finish my kite boarding lesson. My instructor was this french guy named Vincent. He was so mean! At first he was really encouraging and was saying he'd never seen a girl pick up kiteboarding so fast and that i was really good and stuff. then i kept crashing the kite when i was body-dragging and he just got really frustrated iwth me and was saying i dont understand what you are doing wrong, you were so good before. but the thing with body dragging is that you can't see what you are doing at all because you are being dragged through the water face first. Anyway he pissed me off and so luckily i was able to switch instructors. I was with Timo and he was lovely. Just really nice and patient. Unfortunately the wind died down after my second lesson so i couldnt finish my certification. That was sad. But I can do it at some point in New Zealand. And to be honest i like wakeboarding a lot better, and kite boarding is a massively expensive sport!
Our last night, Rocko and I decided to get some passion pop and go out in st kilda. We finally met some Aussie's who took us to a party for some girl's 21st birthday, random, but fun! then we went to a bottle shop/bar and met some more aussie's. One guy bought me a drink and about 10 minutes later i felt the whole room was spinning and i felt just awful, I had never felt anything like it before. and we really hadn't had a lot to drink, it was only 11pm! So I freaked out and ran back to my hostel which was around the corner. I lay down and woke up at 930am. I was so ill, I was sick like every few minutes. I had to pack my bags and go to the airport. it was just awful. Rocko came with me on the tram and I was just bawling and being sick into a bag the whole time. It was ridiculous. I then went to the airport, checked in, was sick some more and fell asleep at the gate until I needed to check in. I swear I must have been drugged, I will never let anyone buy me a drink again!
I arrived in New Zealand last night late, and now I am staying at a pretty cool hostel.
Love!

Ima buy you a drank (for Rachy-roo)

The Great Ocean Road was amazing. We rented a Hyundai Getz, possible the world's smallest car. Our last night before we left we hung out with these 2 guys in CoffeePalace, they had just come back from GOR and gave us some tips on what to do. We went to Cone Heads for chips and gravy, sooo good. Unfortunately there was a mouse in our room and it was running around all night with something that was rolling around (a malteser i think) and it kept running into walls. it was fairly disconcerting and i was paranoid that it was going to eat through my bag or chew the wires of my electronics. So needless to say i didnt sleep well. Got pancakes for free for brekky again though, which made me really happy. the car rental place was a 10 min walk from our hostel, which we found quickly. Can't believe we wlaked for 3 hrs the day before trying to find it...
Anyway we got lost as we were leaving the city, obviously, but managed to get on track quick enough. The coast was gorgeous! We drove to 12 apostles straight away. soo amazing! The weather was a bit crap, but no fog. We also saw the Gibson steps, Loch Arch, London Bridge and heaps of amazing look-outs. You could honestly stop every 5 minutes and see something amazing. We lived off of PB and J on bread the whole time. I'm almost sick of it. but not quite. we stopped at port campbell to get coffees and shop a bit. I had the best chai latte of my life. It was made with the tea bag, not syrup. loved it. we also got scones with cream and jam. fresh out of the oven. It was nice to feel like a real person again and not just a backpacker. We drove all the way to Karrambool the first day (about 6 hr drive with all the twisting and turning of the coastal road). There was no where good to park in Karrambool, so we drove back to the Bay of Islands and just parked at a random lookout that was surrounded by trees. We were both a bit scared because its obviously illegal to just park and sleep in the car, and there could be crazy murderers in the trees...so neither of us slept very well. but we woke up to an amazing view! we head out around 9am and stopped for pictures at a fair few lookouts. Got some amazing shots. My favorite by far was the grotto. We actually saw it the night before and it was about 7pm, so the sun was starting to go down and no one was about. It had stairs down to the water and you could get really close to the rocks and the waves were just crashing around everywhere, it was amazing to see how powerful the ocean is and yet be so close to it.
We stopped again in port cambell, this time at a cute little bakery to use the toilets and get coffees, I got my flat white that I have come to accustomed to (why don't we have it in Canada, its basically a latte with no foam...glorious).
Then we drove on to Apollo bay, we stopped at a random beach where there were about 1000 surfers to ogle for a bit. We realized the car had an aux cord in the glove compartment so we listened to Rocko's iPod, which was nice because the radio was really unreliable in the more hilly areas. We stopped for lunch in Apollo bay and bought some chocolate bars too. Just for variety...haha
At 3pm we were so tired we stopped at a beach in Lorne and slept for 2 hours. It was awesome. We were just so exhausted from all the driving and lack of sleep. we drove all the way to Lara, which is about 50km from Melbourne. We had no idea where to park, no where seemed appropriate. We drove about an hour out of the way to try and find a random spot and then settled at a train station in Lara that advertised 350 parking spots from the highway. woot. we had some PB and J and then fell asleep in a shaded corner and hoped we wouldnt get in trouble. i woke up about 1000 times in the night, even though our seats reclined all the way back it just wasn't very comfy and i had no sleeping bag and it goes down to about 12 degrees at night which is just freezing. left around 7am (no drama!) and caught the rush hour traffic into melbourne. we returned the car on time and went to our fave bakery in st kilda, called 'the bakery' and got a chocolate croissant and latte. awesome. we went to peter pan's to sort our lives out and find a hostel. There was one called Jackson's around the corner and there was space. Its so dodgy! But i liek it. the old man who owned it was such a legend. he chucked pillows up the stairs to us since we couldnt find any in our rooms. it was glorious to shower finally. the showers were all singles which was nice. but, our room stinks really badly of sweat and crap. there was a couple sharing a double bed and the guy was full-on naked. i will never get used to mixed dorms! can be so awkard.
went down to the beach with a pizza bun for lunch. had a swim and then went to do some kiteboarding. i learned to set up the kite, then flew teh kite for about 2 seconds before it crashed to the ground and i fell with the force and twisted my ankle. i am so annoyed with myself. it really hurts. The wind died after that, so i will ice my foot tonight and hopefully finish my lesson tomorrow. im hoping it will be an awesome wind tomorrow.
last 2 nights in Aus, so sad!
Love!

if you ain't got no money take your broke broke home

Last night was horrific. Had a lovely afternoon at Kings Park, got an iced lolly and relaxed on the grass. Actually slept in the grass in the park rather than at a random round-about. Nice.
Had a super fancy dinner of microwave stew that I forgot about. It may or may not have made me decide to become a veg-o again... Rank as.
The girls drove us to the airport (thank you!!) where there was free internet. Really good way to pass the time before check-in. There were little kids running around with iPhones chattering about free wireless. I can't imagine having an iPhone at that age, much less knowing how to use one.
I slept really well on the plane, but the woman beside me kept gagging because of the massive turbulence. I flew Tiger Airways, which is a budget airline that has a really bad reputation, kind-of like Ryan Air. They cancel flights and don' refund your money and stuff. But I had no issues. Apparently there is even a TV show about how bad it is. For take-off, I'm pretty sure it was the pilot's first flight and that the plane was approxmately one thousand years old. something was broken and rattling about. I felt so safe. Take-off was insanely shaky and the wheels didnt go up at the right time so the plane sort of kept bumping the ground. There was turbulence for most of the flight (I was told) and loads of people vommed, but I was great. Best sleep ever.
Got to Melbourne around 330am and we tried to sleep, but there was techno music blaring. really...why? it was so irritating. No one needs that at 330am. Also, heaps of business people were about and staring at Rocko and I. Come on, now, people sleep at the airport all the time... I bought an ice cream from Makker's and it was the biggest one ever, loved it.
We left for St Kilda around 7am and got there with no dramas. We found a cool hostel called Coffeepalace. We got there just in time for free crepe brekky and then watched tv for a while. I tooka walk on the beach and got to talking with some kite surfers. Ended up booking a certification course for this thursday and friday. I'm excited!
Just woke up from a little nap and am going to explore st kilda, there are penguins on the pier apparently, and some cool cafes. I definitely need coffee.
Just found out the Grand Prix races are this weekend so all the hostels are fully booked. Interesting... I might be homeless after Great Ocean Road. Grand Prix is on the day after I leave too, so I can't even go. Lame as. The kite surfers offered me a room in their house but I'm not too sure if thats a good idea. We'll see how desperate I get.
Love!

Chillin even if I'm in a goose down coat

Its my last day in Perth, leaving to go to Melbourne tonight. Should be good, except that our flight arrives in Melbourne at 330am, so another night will be spent sleeping in an airport. Fun.

Yesterday was another lovely day, perfect weather as per usual. Walked downtown from uni and then to Northbridge (aka Chinatown, or downtown China as some call it). We found Peter Pan's travel agency where we get 1/2 hr of free internet so we stayed there for awhile and Rocko was writing a crazy long email so I went for a walk by myself to find a grocery store. I found Coles, which was a weird one because it was under an apartment building. I just saw the Coles signage from like 3 blocks away because it was written on the top of the building. Luckily it wasn't just an advert! I definitely feared for my life on my walk because there were broken down buildings everywhere and homeless shelters and just sketch people everywhere. But it was ok, I just made myself look like a retarded person and did lunges as I walked so no on would bother me.

Rocko and I met up with Alice, Chelsea and Fran so that Alice could get her tragus pierced and Chelsea could get her belly button pierced. It went down uneventfully, except a huge group of aboriginal girls came in and tried to pretend one of them was the mother of the other so they could get piercings (you have to be over 16) and it got heated because it was obvious no one had any identification .

After that, we walked to Harbour Street Mall, which was an outlet mall. We got there at 3ish and didn't realize it closed at 5. I found a really nice jumpsuit at Just Jeans, but I literally have no room in my bag. It takes me like 8 hours to pack everything in my tiny bag. Such a mistake to get a small bag, I regret it every single time I move. However, it is a really cute bag... and its carry-on size. sigh. So I can't buy anymore. Plus I will need winter clothes for New Zealand, as I have only beachy clothes right now. Fantastic (pronounced fintistic). I also found really cute dresses, but resisted.

After shopping we went to Subiaco and ate at this awesome burger place called Jus Burger. It reminded me a lot of the Works, maybe a bit more upscale and they had roo burgers. We got onion rings to start and I had a burger with bacon, avocado, blue cheese and balsamic onions. My burger arrived with no avocado so I asked for some and they upgraded my burger to a meal with fries, chutney and coleslaw. It was so good, but I have been full ever since. Best. Dietitian. Ever.

We meant to get off the train after one stop to visit Alice and Fran's uni friends, but we were all so tired we missed it. Watched wedding crashers last night and we decided we would all wake up at 7 to go to the gym and do Body Pump. However, I woke up at 7 and no one else did. I waited for a bit and went back to bed. Slept in until 1030! Defintely a personal best. I had already put away my bed so I just slept on the floor, I must have been really tired! Fran got us muffins from the caf and we had iced coffees. So good! I will be very sad to leave tonight.

Now, Rocko and I are going to walk to King's Park and probably sleep at a random round-about 5 minutes from the park like we did last time...

Love!

Conflicted, inhale, now addicted, to this place

The night before last we just chilled out and watched New Moon. I love Jacob, he is amazing. Unfortunately, the books are way way better than the movies...but i still enjoy the movies. also watched some of stepbrothers...such a ridiculous movie.
Yesterday was such a good day!
Walked downtown to try and return my iPod and they actually took it back! Yay! But they didn't take the case since it was open already, so i now have a 15$ useless case, but oh well. im so happy they let me return the iPod.
Then, we got the train to freemantle (or Freo, as the locals call it). Its a lot like the Glebe. Really old-school buildings though, like european looking. As the train pulled up the town looked awful, just all horrible old buildings with broken windows and graffiti everywhere. But past that bit the town was so cute. We went to the fruit market and tourist market. i actually feared for my life a bit because there were sketch looking people everywhere. hand on the zipper of my purse at all times...hate carrying cash around, but i have to when i have no credit card. i got the best plum of my life at the market, and some other fruit i haven't tried yet.
Then, Rocko and I went to a cute little Lolly shop and got some honeycomb, natch. Tried it without chocolate coating this time. so much better! I love honeycomb with all my heart.
Went to a famous coffee place called Gina's. I had a really nice flat white coffee and Rocko had a mocha latte. We walked around some more and did some shopping. I got shoes, a sweater, heaps of jewelery for cheap at Diva and some other stuff. definitely spent almost all the iPod money...oops!
Lastly, we went to Little Creatures microbrewery. It was such a nice place. its a fully functional brewery and you can see the men working at the machines while you eat and drink. so cool. i got a pale ale and rocko got their cider and we split a huge bucket of frites with garlic aioli and tomato sauce. the fries were so good, they were crispy and still had potato skin on them. Fantastic. After that we walked around the pier and then got groceries from Cole's.
We took the train back to Perth and then walked back to Uni. The girls were keen to go out but we were so tired. A bunch of their friends came in for a room party, but the Resident Adviser (RA) kicked them out after an hour or so, which i was a bit grateful for... we watched Take the lead once they left. I love watching movies. I feel so normal when we are here, I love it. I don't feel like a scruffy backpacker! although this man at Gina's was like oh are you girls backpacking, which annoyed me, because we were dressed nicely and had purses...but then i realized i was wearing stained red trainers (from the west coast dirt), and also having a ridiculous tan makes you an obvious traveler, since aussies are all so pasty.
Leaving for Melbourne tomorrow, should be good. Can't wait to rent a car for Great Ocean road and camp on the beach. We ended up missing out on Margaret River since there were no cars anywhere...so annoying, but what can you do?
Love!

i cant stay away

It seems to have been quite a while since my last post, so I will try my hardest to remember everything that I've done since March 12th...
The second day in Perth I bussed into town with Rocko to get some groceries (Our tour didn't provide our food for that day, and numerous other meals, even though our travel agent assured me they would...) and go on the internet. That evening we wwatched sunset on cable beach and then went out to a really nice microbrewerie called Matso's. I tried Chilli beer (really delish until Missy said it tasted like bile, cheers for that). I also had mango beer (amazing) and coffee beer. Both were really good. Took a cab home for an early night since our bus was to leave at 6am the next morning.
Got up at 10 to 6 and went outside for the bus, we had to drive 1000 km to karijini national park. Just Rocko, Karen, myself and the driver. Fun fun. It actually wasn't too bad. I slept heaps, listening to some good music that our driver put on and finished 2 amazing books. One was by an Aussie author, from Tasmania, and the book was called Rouseabout, so good. The other was The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, courtesy of Meg. It was a really good book, I actually was full-on laughing out loud. If Dad had been driving he probably would have yelled at me for laughing too much. (Miss you Rach!) The day went by quickly and we arrived in Karijini around 730pm. Long, long day. We pinched food off teh tour making their way to Broome. Exmouth snapper in curry. So tasty. We went to sleep under teh stars since the tents were all full. As we were getting our swags out I spotted a giant huntsman spider in a swag and Rocko freaked right out.
The group played blind kareoke, where you have iPod earphones in and sing along while also wearing a blindfold. it was so hilarious. 2 foreign guys sang spice girls, classic.
Woke up early the next day and drove from 8am to about 6pm. Another long day that went by insanely fast. Really missed my iPod though. That night we stayed at a sheep shearing station. Lovely. It was alright, pretty rugged, but quaint. There was a couple there on their honeymoon, going up to Karijini to hike and all that. We had a nice dinner of Chinese BBQ chicken and went to sleep early. There was a cool lightening storm going on. Rocko and I were going to stay in the driver's room since it had a double bed and wasn't a dorm, but we saw a giant huntsman spider and when i went to kill it, it got under my bed. Also, the room was full of creepy bugs. So we switched to the dorms and as soon as we shut the light out the wind started howling and banging doors open and then we could hear footsteps outside our room. I called out to Karen to see if she was up and wlaking around but she was in bed too. We also could hear footsteps outside the buidling. I was convinced we were going to be killed by an ax murdered. I happened to flip to a passage in the Bible that said don't fear men as they can only harm your body, but fear God for he can harm your soul and send you to hell for eternity. I felt a bit better after that, but definitely didn't have a sound sleep. Awoke the next morning to find out that the couple hadn't been able to sleep and were walking around outside all night. Good to know!
Our last day of driving went by quickly, and Rocko and I taught ourselves how to french braid! Very exciting, I know. Our driver was kind enough to take us all the way back to UWA, even though he didn't have to, and gave us all the leftover food we wanted! So nice. We got to uni around 6pm, caught up with Fran and Alice and then went to bed around midnight. Such a good sleep. The next day Rocko and I went into town and I got a brand new iPod nano, 8gigs, with video and fm radio. bright pink, natch. I like it a lot. We also went to Scarborough beach for a nap. When we got back to uni we got all ready for the big st patty's day party. We had to wear hideous Trinity polo shirts to get into the party, since it was for Trinity College only. We went to a house party first and Alice drew awful clover leaves on our faces and tattoos on our arms. The tattoos were the same as an irish guy we met on the east coast. sooo funny. the house party was good, but we didn't stay too long. Moved on to the Tav for the Trinity party. Got in with no dramas. Left the party just after midnight and walked back to college. one of the girl's friends was back as well and kept trying to chat to rocko as she was curled up in her sleeping bag, it was too funny.
This morning I got to skype with lots of people, it was great. Walked into town with Rocko and looked into renting a car to go to Margaret River, but it was going to cost so much and there were no economy cars available, so we have decided to just kick it here a while longer. I'm a bit gutted since there is a major surf comp going on in Marg, but I just can't justify another 200$. There was a little contest going on for a shake company where they blend up some food item with ice cream and you have to guess what it is, and 3 ppl go on stage and whoever guesses first wins a shake of their choice. Obviously I got really into it, and the other 2 girls didn't. And I won! It was a fruit pastal shake. I don't even know what that is, but we had a sheet with about 40 flavours and I picked the right one first. I went in to get my free shake and picked honeycomb. It wasn't really as good as I had hoped, but it was free! Yay!
When we got back to college today I unpacked my iPod and started to set it up. Just for a laugh I tried to turn on my ipod and guess what...it works again. Arg. So typical. I called the store to see if I could return it and they said if its opened its mine. Kind-of sucks, but what can you do.
Anyway there is a house party tonight, so I'm going to need a nice long nap first.
Love!

I miss you, I'm coming back home to the west coast

I am currently in Broome, and I have never been so hot in my life. I literally think I am dying. We aren't even allowed in the ocean because its stinger season. Its just like being in Cairns again! But without the glorious lagoon!
So this west coast trip has been fantastic! it started out a bit rough as we had to get up at 5am to get downtown to perth, and there was a mix up and the bus was late so we didnt end up leaving until 930am. Kind of annoying, but all the people on our tour bus were super friendly, and the manager promised to get our tour guide to buy us some booze when we got to our first destination. No worries! we spent the whole day driving to a hostel and then we made delish chicken satay. Woke up bright and early at 430am to get started. Awful! We spent another day mostly driving and got to Denham pretty late. Its the most westerly part of Australia! So now I have been to the most southern, eastern and western part of Oz, as well as the highest point. and apparently the most northern point is in accessible. I've done well! Next morning we got up at 6am (sleep-in, haha) and went to Monkey Mia where we fed dolphins and chilled out on the beach all morning. It was glorious. The dolphins came really close to us when we were swimming, it was quite cool. Then we drove to Coral Bay, which was a really nice town, but so small no one got cell phone reception! The next day we spent snorkelling and chilling on the beach again. I also learned how to sandboard, its not too hard, similar to wakecoarding because you have to lean back, but also like skateboarding because there are no bindings. Anyway, the only bad part is running up the dunes on burning hot sand. And the dune was really steep too! On my 3rd attempt, the guide decided to massively wax my board and I bailed really hard, you have to buckle your knees and make sure not too put your hands out, or you can easily break your wrist. I fell properly and didnt break anything, and Gerbert caught it on video, it looks so funny! I was absolutely covered in sand. we also swam in a shark nursery (where its illegal to swim..oops!) and watched a school of fish get attacked by a shark, really cool to watch! That night we drove to Exmouth and stayed at a lovely caravan park. haha, on the way we played a quiz game and split up the bus into 2 teams and losers had to do dishes and make dinner. Needless to say my team was ahead by about 15 points when the host decided to make the final question worth 10 points AND the winning question. And our team lost. So annoying! But it was a really fun game, and i lost my voice from shouting out "Moo" which was our team's buzzer and the other team's was "baa". Hilarious. Big thanks to Becky for her vast knowledge of Celeb info, which helped me answer heaps of questions!
The next morning we went to a beautiful gorge to take photos and then snorkelled at Turquoise bay. I have never truly enjoyed snorkelling until that day. The reef was literally about 5 steps from the shore. I saw so many fish up close and I finally full-on swam with a shark! I was really scared at first because i had gone off alone to a far part of the reef and I knew the shark wasn't a harmless reef shark because i had seen those before. so when i saw this massive shark I actually squealed underwater, definitely sounded like a tool. The shark stopped swimming and it was a really fat, long shark with a massive dorsal fin. So I just stayed still and then it started to swim away so i followed it for a bit and then thought this could turn out really badly so I swam in the opposite direction. Saw an octopus, angel fish, moray eel, brain coral, lettuce coral, sea cukes, and much, much more! Normally I end up choking on water when it splashes over the snorkel, but the water was so calm I had no dramas! Oh, turns out the shark was a lemon shark and they rarely attack, so it was all good.
that evening we went out to the beach with the rose goon our driver bought for us and played beach volleyball, silly games and the like. I left early because I was tired and luckily one of the boys wanted to leave too so I didnt have to walk home alone. Meg did walk home alone and got lost and hitchhiked with some random people who took her to a party and she didnt get back to the caravan park until 430am! Crazy girl. So Mom, I am not the craziest backpacker, you should be glad I am not hitch-hiking to random parties! haha.
The next day we had a long bus ride to Karijini National Park, population 6, 15000 square kilometers. Huge. we camped out in swags (weird mattress-type contraptions that you slide you sleeping bag into, and do not protect you from bugs or rain). The flies were out of control. They fly directly into your eyes, nose, ears and mouth because the place is so dry they go to moisture. I had bought a fly net at a rest stop earlier and i must say its the best 5$ ive ever spent. Once they are off your face you just feel so calm and they are still swarming you, but you just dont hate your life and can actually have a converstaion. I wish I had gotten a full body one for fraser island. We spent 3 nights in Karijini and visited amazing gorges everyday. They were so beautiful, the oldest visible rocks in the world, apparently. One afternoon we went to a little gorge where you could swim quite far down and our guide left us after a girl fell and dislocated her knee. She was from Paris and spoke decent english but when she was in shock she couldnt speak english anymore, so luckily I could translate for her. So our guide took her back up teh insanely steep rocks we had just climbed down, while the rest of us swam. it started to rain a little bit when we were at the far end of the gorge and we heard someone yelling from the top, we thought it was someone from our group so we headed back to the rock climb to get out. took our sweet time though. Found out after that rain can cause flash floods in gorges, yikes! That morning another of the french girls had ran into a tree and cut her forehead open and it was bleeding wildly. its scary when this type of thing happens because the hospitals are like 3 hrs away and all we have it basic first aid. luckily there were 3 nurses on our trip so both girls are ok now.
The day we left karijini my ipod died, it just won;t turn on. I am so gutted, that ipod has been so key for keeping my sane on our ridiculously long bus trips. So I am really sad. I tried charging it and everything, but it wont turn on. I have been saying for ages that I need a new one, due to the now awkward engraving on it, but I was hoping it would last a bit longer, its only 3 and a bit years old! Stupid Apple and their crap technology that doesn't last....
Anyway, we camped out again at a cattle station the next night and one of the boys in our group professed his love for me. I shot him down nicely and went to sleep under the stars with the girls. It was lovely, but I spotted a scorpion right before I lay down, which really freaked me out. So I didn't sleep very well that night. Next day we drove to Cable Beach. Its gorgeous here in Broome, but just too hot. Our lame tour didnt book us a room with air con (even though I paid 2100$ for it!!), so we upgraded and then realized they only turn it on from 6pm to 6am. But its better than nothing. I took a shower at the hostel but literally couldnt get dry because i was sweating constantly. Filthy. Our group went to the beach for drinks and then out to a little bar. It was nice. I left early because I was so tired and on my walk home I got really lost. That was an adventure, especially because Broome is known for being quite dangerous at night. But I made it home a few hours later, safe and sound!
This afternoon I plan to stay in the pool all day long and drink my orange crush. love it. My life is so tough! Taking the bus back to Perth tomorrow. Its a 3 day drive. We have already driven 4700km in 10 days and now we are driving 3000 km back in 3 days. should be great. especially without an ipod (and no where to buy one here in tiny Broome).
Love!

Don't tell me to mind the gap

The pictures above are from Penguin Island. The lower one is scarborough beach, just amazing! Loads of people were kitesurfing. I tried to bodysurf, but the waves were massive and so was the undertow and so I decided to not drown and just sunbathed. I just finished packing for the west coast tour. I realized i don't have very much hiking gear with me. Basically I will have to hike in sundresses. Oh well, should be interesting! I love being in a uni rez again, people just rock up to eachother's rooms. I miss it. I also feel really old, everyone else is like 20.
I have to get up at 530 am and take a bus at 6. gross. I also forget the name of the place we are meeting the tour. hopefully i will remember by the morning. I also accidentally threw out the new deodorant I bought. I will be really smelly on this trp. Sorry!

these are the words you wish you wrote down, this is the way you wish your voice sounds

Yesterday was so chilled out. Alice, Rocko and I got up early-ish and took 2 busses and a train down to Rockingham. We got lunch at a little cafe, I had a scone with clotted cream and jam. Clotted cream sounds filthy but its really quite good. We took a ferry over to Penguin Island and went straight to the beach for a swim. The water was freezing cold, it was amazing! I think it was 37 degrees yesterday, so hot. Next we took a glass-bottom boat on a 45 minute tour of the islands. we saw sea lions on seal island, they were so cute! because its mating season there were only a few around. the ones who are either too unfit, too old or just couldn't be bothered to go out to the mating place. we also saw a sea eagle and heaps of pelicans and dolphins, even some tiny baby dolphins, so cute! Glass bottom boats are abit crap though, I must say. There was so much algae built up you couldnt see much under the boat. I think it was plastic as well. But I guess plastic bottom boat doesn't sound as cool.
We went to a penguin feeding, they were the tiniest penguins ever. They are actually called little penguins because they are the smallest in the world. we saw one in the wild whilst on the island, but for the most part penguins are super nocturnal and hide themselves really well during the day.
We got home around 6 and Alice got us awesome sandwiched from the caf. Then we got all ready and went to a birthday party for a friend of theirs. These Canadian girls walked in and were whispering to each other 'does anyone know who the eff those two girls are', meaning Rocko and I. So after that we felt pretty weird about being there and left. Everyone else went to the Deen. I'm glad I slept early though, definitely needed. I feel so jet lagged still, even though the time difference is only 3 hours, I think its because I pretty much lost a night of sleep when we were in the airport. Also, we just realized for our flight back to Melbourne, we will arrive in Melbourne at 2am, so looks like we will be sleeping the airport again. Guess thats what travelling is all about!!
Tomorrow we have to be downtown Perth by 645 am to start our tour, its going to be brutal getting up at like 5am to get our stuff together and go to the bus.
Today we are going to Scarborough beach and then Freemantle, should be good!