Sydney

Well last I wrote I was off looking for houses. After looking at a lot of different places I found a place in Bondi (Eastern Suburb) with a girl from New Mexico and one from Canada. Tonight is the last night in the hostel! Besides that not too much has been going on. I have been out a couple times with some people that I randomly know and spent most days either on interviews or applying for jobs. Hopefully something will turn up soon! I keep hoping someone will just walk up to my on the street and give me a great job; however, don't quite think that is going to happen! Tomorrow I have 2 more interviews, although most of these interviews don't really count because most of with temp agencies and they still have to place you. The last couple days have been BEAUTIFUL! I am currently sitting in the Botanical Gardens overlooking the Sydney Harbour-- sunny mid 70s! I spent the morning on a walk/jog across the Harbour Bridge and at the Rocks market where there are a bunch of vendors set up. There is always something interesting going on. Saturday I found a vintage clothing market with live music in a cute part of town so spent some time wandering around there!

This and that...

Gosh a lot has been happening since I wrote last! I arrived Wednesday in Airlie Beach, checked into my 17 bed hostel room and then off to the travel agent to figure out my plans. Waiting till the last minute did pay off because I was able to get the standby rates. I booked a 2 day/2 night sail around the Whitsunday islands thatleft Thursday afternoon. About 2 we all met at a cafe and boarded the boat. It could not have been better! The boat normally holds 28 but it was only about half full because this season has been really slow. It was perfect though because we were all able to spread out. Out of the 13 people on board there was only one group of three girls which came together everyone else was traveling alone. We had good representation from all over the world. Out of 13 there was people from Brazil, Pacedonia, Holland, Ireland, Germany, France, America, Spain and Australia. It was nice to have someone cook for us too! The food was wonderful and we had fresh fruit and snacks every mid morning, afternoon, and evening! I think I probably gained 10 pounds! We got to help in sailing by raising the sails using the grinders which is quite a workout and ended up snorkeling on 3 different islands in the Whitsundays. Once we got to the lookout on Whitehaven beach it started raining though! Thank goodness that only lasted about 5 minutes and it turned out to be a beautiful day on the beach! We played a soccer game for an hour or so... talk about hard to run on sand! Everything has worked out wonderfully. Got to be good friends with one of the girls on the boat from Ireland who has lived in Sydney for the last 5 months and she will be back there for 3 weeks. She is going to help me get settled, introduce me to all of her friends, help me find a place to live so that was comforting! Saturday night went to dinner and out with all of the people still in town from the boat and Sunday caught the Greyhound to a small town called Mackay. Once I arrived at Mackay I went to check in at the one hostel. WELL, the lady says she wrote to tell me that my reservation was denied because they were full; however, she did not! Not exactly the place that I pictured springing for my first private room. The lady at Geckos said the motel is "just up the way" a common Aussie term. I should have known when I set off that DOES NOT mean it is close at all. I walked about 15 blocks with my heavy bag because it is about as easy to hail a taxi in Columbus as it is in Mackay. I eventually made it and I ended up staying in a lovely little retirement community of Sun Palm Plaza :/. I decided to make the most of it and spent the night in my large bed relaxing and watching tv excited about a good night's sleep. Long about 5 am the loudest storm known to man comes through. In 3 hours they received 5 inches of rain and we lost power. I ended up taking a taxi to the airport the next day not quite as well rested as I would have hoped. Once I arrived at the check in counter the lady tells me how Jet star is a point to point service so once I arrive in Brisbane for my lay over I am going to need to go to baggage claim, get my bag, and go back through the check in process. The only upside to this is it gave me something to do in my 5 hour lay over due to the next flight being pushed back due to inclement weather. The only good news was that we were one of the few flights that didn't get cancelled. Everything headed north was cancelled for the night. With all of that being said though, Airlie Beach was amazing and worth the hassel of getting there and getting out. Long about 10 last night I arrived and checked into my hostel in Sydney. The people in my room are very nice which is always a relief. This morning I awoke early excited to be back in the city. I went up to the office immediately to retrive my battery charger for my computer which has prevented me from having my laptop for the last 3 or so weeks. I got on the elevator and clicked floor 17... from my memory of the last time I was there. I should have known that my memory isn't good! I got off on the wrong floor. Knowing I was only 1 floor off I decided not to be lazy and take the stairs. I go down a flight of stairs and went to open the door.... the doors lock from the inside. Then, using my common sense decided surely the bottom floor has access to the street so I proceed down 17 fights of stairs to arrive at the last... locked door... with an alarm and a fine for opening it. I then began calling everyone who I know their number off the top of my head or was in my Aussie phone book. Thanks a lot you guys for NOT answering. I finally reached Brian awaking him from a nap. Bet he didn't expect to hear from me in Australia! Nonetheless he looked up the office number and I asked the girl from California who works the front desk to come let me in! Mind you, this is after I had to go BACK up 18 flights of stairs. What a great way to start the day! Once in the office though I was excited to find out while we were away a lot of really nice people are in town and living in Sydney for a while. Actually a good bit are American or Canadian. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I looked at some places to live. First one... well to say the least not liveable. Second was very nice! However, I always said I would like to go to China... I think if I lived there a trip to China would not be in order because the whole entire community is Chinese. I am going tomorrow out to Bondi Beach to look at a house with two girls-- one from America, one from Canada. Keep your fingers crossed! I am about ready to ditch the backpack and hostel living! Well that is all for now!

Magnetic Island

Well, Anne and I survived the kayaking excursion to Dunk Island and back. We showed up at 8:00 in the morning after a late night for a day of kayaking. Once we arrived at the location the other couple who was going with us pulled up. Out they pulled their kayaking gloves, own snorkeling equipment-- the whole bit. Off we set... We kayaked a total of 11km she said. I cannot explain to you the pain I am currently in! We went further than just the tip of the island that you can see from Mission Beach because around the back side the beach is more remote and that is where she wanted to go. We have lots of pictures; however, they are on the hostels waterproof camera so I will have to wait for Anne to put them up. Monday morning I set off for Magnetic Island. I arrived here and met up with about 5 or 6 people that had left Mission Beach a couple days before. This is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen! Last night however was a bit of the tent repeat. I went to sleep in a pleasant temperature bungalow but awoke at 9:15 to extreme heat! I do not know how people would stay in any of these places other than in winter. Since it was too hot to sleep in I put on my swimsuit shorts and tshirt and headed off for a little hike. As I walked up to the start of the hike that I chose there were about 3 couples in their late 60s so I went ahead of them. I finally reached the top of the mountain about 5 km and 2 hours later. The view was worth the wait though! It was amazing!! I sure hope noone coule see me on this hike because I by far looked like one of the most spastic people ever. Every rustle in the leaves made me walk that much faster and it did not help that within 5 minutes of starting to walk I spotted a spider the size of my hand. I reached the end of the trail and decided I was going to spend the afternoon on the other side of the island however once I reached the end all I saw was a dead end road. After debating for a bit I turned around to head back to the climb I just completed. Just about that time I saw the couples that I had started right in front of and they thank goodness knew the way to the town. They asked me to join them and talked with them for a while. They were from Denmark but had actually been to Mississippi before. I then went on my way and checked out a few of the bay areas. I am now exhausted back at the hostel about to try to figure out my plan for tomorrow. I have a bus booked to the Whitsundays now I just have to work on a couple more of the small details like where I am going to stay and how long!

Finding Nemo

I have now been in Mission Beach for about a full week and Anne has gotten settled into her new job. On pretty days the place is amazing-beautiful beach and outdoor activites. We have had a few rainy days which turns into a movie day. I absolutely love all of the people I have met at this place. This is by far one of the friendliest places we have been. Lets see.... when did I write last... a couple of days ago Anne and I walked to "town." About an hour and a half walk in which you must cross a small river. We got there to find about 6 cafes and that is about it. I took a picture of the town however in the last day my computer charger has started sparking and will not work. Therefore, until I get a new charger that is being mailed from the US there will be no photos. Two days ago got all new roomates. It was kind of funny because it is 8 people all w

ho started out traveling with people but for various reasons-- mostly because one friend found work somewhere and another didn't-- have all continued to travel alone. I went to the Great Barrier Reef yesterday with one of these girls, Sarah. She is from England and this was her third day to travel alone. The reef was AMAZING! Words cannot describe how cool it is. I rented a digital camera and snapped away. The driver picked us up from our hostel at about 8 in the morning and took us to the loadi

ng dock. After getting a f

ew more loads of people we set out. It was a rainy day when we got picked u

p but tu

rned out the be one of the prettiest days yet! This worked out well for Anne too because yesterday for "work" she had to skydive. Well after about an hour and a half boat ride out to the reef we started snorkeling. I never thought I would want to dive however looking around here really made me want to and perhaps in the Whitsundays I will give it a try! We anchored in a small lagoon with the reef surrounding us. I was looking in the water right when we

arrived and said "hey Sarah look at that big fish." Then she replies "OH MY GOSH thats a bloody shark!" Sure enough, it was. The reef sharks do not hurt you however and I was surprised that it did not bother me that bad. It was only 4 or 5 feet long, not like jaws! We were in the water for about 3 hours in all. We had to wear wetsuits to keep warm because the water was a bit chilly. After a full day out there we headed back. We actually spotted several humpback whales on the ride back! By far one of my favorite days since I have been here! Last night at the hostel we had trivia night.... I put Americans to shame. I think everyone got better schooling on geography then I did. Today is another pretty day and I am about to go back to the hostel to go paddle bording for the afternoon. Our activities director aka Anne planned this so whenever I want to hang out with her I have to attend hostel activities--should be fun though! I just booked a bus ticket and am going to be traveling south. Anne is going to be staying behind :(. Sad, however I am sure we will meet up soon enough! Her job is too good to pass up however there is nothing else for me to do here! Well I suppose that is all for now!

Mission Beach

Day two now at Mission Beach. Its a gorgeous beach as everywhere has been! We have been getting spoiled with all of the beautiful views. Not to much has been going on. This town is SUPER small. Got up yesterday and got dressed up to pursue the job hunt. It went a bit differently than expected because when asking the people nearby the only options is a dishwasher at the restaurant across the street for a couple hours a week. All of the pretty resorts that we were counting on are at least 5 miles away with virtually no transportation to reach them. According to the man at the front desk if its a low tide it wouldn't be that bad of a walk on the beach-- you only have to cross one small creek! Well I am fairly adventurous but walking 5 miles over a creek dressed up in high heats is not that appealing. Not sure exactly what is going to happen from here. Anne did start her job today and it is a dream job! She gets to plan all of the events of the hostel, has air conditioned accommodations which I am jealous of! gets to live for free, and every tour is paid for. One of the tours she "HAS" to go on is a 3 day trip around the Whitsunday islands. Today was kind of a yucky day. It has been raining all day and Anne had to work so I have been reading and that is about it. That is the downfall with there only being a beach... it is that or nothing! So sorry for no good stories-- nothing interesting happening. There are lots of great people staying and working here though so that is always nice! Well I am off to be social!

Not a happy camper....

Port Douglas 4 mile Beach

It turns out that Cairns is not all it is made out to be so we kept on going. We booked a rental car for 3 days and took off on a road trip north. First stop was Port Douglas and all of the beaches in between the two locations. I loveeeed this town. It reminds me a lot of Newport Beach/OC where we go on fam vacations a lot. It was a very resort tourist town. We got there on a Wednesday afternoon and headed straight for 4 mile beach. It was so pretty! Mountains as far as you can see. We decided we were feeling adventurous so we camped out for three days. Well, at least as much camping out as we were up for. There were tents; however, we had access to a bathroom and there were beds in it. After checking in we headed down to the Yacht Club. Apparently on Wednesday afternoon if you go down to the club around 4:30 for happy hour members take you out on their sail boats. I suppose this is a way to get business to the bar. We headed down there and of course our luck out of nowhere it gets really windy and rains; therefore no one got to go out on the boats :(. We ended up enjoying the pretty marine with some glasses of wine before retiring really early to our tent. We both fell asleep at about 7 and woke up at about 10 pm wide awake. We decided it was as good of time and any to do laundry so we trek out around the bush to start a load of laundry. Out of nowhere headed straight as us is this little creature that looks something like an oversized hamster like the size of a small cat. We saw one in the zoo and was saying how cute the little fellow was. Not so cute when he is coming out around your tent headed at you. Needless to say after a little shrieking and running I was a little skidish around the tent from then on. Actually the tent was one of the best night’s sleep I got… until about 9 am when it turns into a sauna! Apparently we get the morning sun and it goes from upper 60s to about 95 degrees in there in no time. Not cool (no pun intended). Thursday we headed north to Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest. First stop along the way was a Crocodile Spotting boat ride on the Daintree River. I must say, although I am terrified of crocs I was a bit disappointed when we only got to see one guy the whole time. At one point on our croc spotting adventure, ole tour guide states to look in the bush to the right of us because there are always big crocs around there. Getting us real close for a good look…. We get stuck. He tells us there is no need to panic; however, the look on his face says something completely different. We get to move from side to side on the boat to shift the weight. He then proceeds to tell us that it’s going to be ok in his 10 years of giving these tours this did happen once before and the guests had to wade to shore. Now I don’t know WHAT this kid was thinking because he is going to have to get out and push the boat before I get in the water after he just told us this location is where all the large crocodiles hang out. No worries though, after moving from the front of the boat then to the middle we eventually got unstuck. On we went after the River cruise to several different hiking trails throughout the rainforest. One of the walks was known to have the large Cassowary birds all around it. These are actually the deadiest birds because of their large claws. Good news is that we got to see one in the zoo and not on our hike. Anne however did have her pepper spray on hand just in case. I told her I thought it might be frowned upon to pepper spray an endangered species, but we never encountered anything so we were good to go. Next we headed up to Cape Tribulation and hiked a bit where the beach, Great Barrier Reef, and rain forest all comes together. We played on the beach for a while here and Anne and I made a new friend. Literally, we made a new friend—her name is Sandy and she is pictured down at the bottom. After playing in huts, with coconuts, climbing palm trees, etc we decided to get back on the road to head back down to Port Douglas before dust. We decided to make dinner Aussie style on the Barbie outside the tent. We have actually learned how to budget very well. The best way is to buy the discounted food that expires that same day—still tastes good and ½ the price! After cooking out we headed out for the night seeing as though there is not too much to do sitting in a tent especially because we have now spent three weeks together and it’s not like there is any catching up to be done. Saturday morning we awoke similar to the day before BURNING alive. We put on our swimsuits and headed across the street to sleep the day away on the beach. Half of the time I just spent looking at the beautiful scenery. The pictures don’t do it justice. The mountains extend as far as you can see. Decided dinner turned out so good last night that we would do the same again tonight. Then off to attempt to get ready for the night. I am pretty certain that we were the only 2 people or EVER in the campground that we were staying that had to take turns teasing each other’s hair with the aerosol hairspray in the tent because there was no mirror therefore couldn’t see to do anything yourself. Then off we went out for the night to see some Cane Toad races. If you ever have the opportunity to watch one of these please do—VERY entertaining. Toads are put in the middle of the table and “whips” (birthday horns) are used to make them jump. The goal is to get your toad to jump off the table the fastest, catch it, run over and put it in the bucket on the other side of the bar. I guess we look like new kids to the toad races because the announcer made us “VIP” for the night and got to sit on the stage, get free drinks, and mentioned our name about 30 times throughout the night. Anne got to be the writer on stage and keep track of the contestants. I feel as though we jinxed ourselves for the last night in the tent. Before bed we were saying how much we liked it and went to sleep. I woke up at 6 in the morning to a downpour. I thought to myself how relaxing then I realized it sounded more like a waterfall. I popped out of the bed to see our flooded tent and water pouring into it. I headed out in the bush in the pouring down rain to try and re tie the front part to prevent water from leaking. We finally got it stopped for a couple more hours of sleep. I was drenched, my clothes were all soaking wet, the majority of the stuff on the floor was wet and I was NOT a happy camper to say the least. This morning we woke up, headed in the rental car back to Cairns to get on a greyhound and head to Mission Beach. Anne got a job here for the next three months as an activities coordinator. We arrived an hour late because apparently the greyhound people do not know how to stay on a schedule. I dropped off my stuff in my room. Anne and I are in different places now because she is with the staff and I am with 6 other people. I was not thrilled however to find the room feels like an OVEN and there is no air conditioning so this should be interesting. I went to the front desk to ask where town was because I love wandering around cities and they said the grocery store was the city center and it closes at 5 and was not opened on Sunday. I am thinking this is serious small town! Especially because there is no cell phone service and our broadband internet will not work here! Oh well! Instead I put on the tennis shoes and went for a run on the beach which was probably much needed anyway! Looking forward to tomorrow to get to go exploring. Pictures are as follows: 1. Port Douglas 2. Between Cairns and Port Douglas on a lookout 3. Our tent 4. Sandy 5. Cape Tribulation 6. Daintree Rainforest 7. Cane Toad Races