Phase 1: Initial Attraction
Phase 2: Man Courts Woman
Phase 3: Man Sweeps Woman Off Of Her Feet
Phase 4: Man Tries To Prove Who's The Boss
Phase 5: Man Comes To His Senses
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Fraser Island
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
3 Days and 2 Nights on an Island Made of Sand
After both my Australian and US birthdays passed, we found ourselves in Hervey Bay, the staging point for adventure tours to Fraser Island, a beautiful island made entirely of sand.
Kelly and I joined seven other people (from Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia) and two guides in two land cruisers and rode a barge over to the island. Just driving along the paths of sand and the beach was a enjoyable experience and a sight to see!
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Kelly and I joined seven other people (from Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia) and two guides in two land cruisers and rode a barge over to the island. Just driving along the paths of sand and the beach was a enjoyable experience and a sight to see!
We even went through lots of water!
Yep, that's water splashing up over our hood!
We also ventured on foot through rain forest
and across dunes and sand blows
to picturesque lakes
and fantastic beaches
We saw turtles
birds
and dingos
We jumped from trees
played games
explored tide pools
climbed to lookouts
dug up and cooked pippies
and visited the wreck of Maheno
After 3 days and 2 nights with the same group, we came back with great memories and new friends. Of course the trip would not have been complete without a good old game of homemade Twister with our new pals.
Next Stop: 3 nights in the Whitsunday Islands on a sailboat named "Spank Me"!
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Fraser Island
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
No News Is Good News
I apologize for my lack of blogging this past week but we have been laying low and taking it easy. The weather has not been very cooperative with us which has put a damper on the amount of activities we have been able to do.
After leaving Byron Bay we headed to Surfer's Paradise for 4 days. We stayed in an awesome hostel and met some really fun people that we spent a lot of time with. Nelly played nightly games of Volleyball with them and we hung out at the bar with some of the people who worked there. Surfer's Paradise reminded me of a wannabe Vegas. I told Nelly that one morning and literally right after I said that we walked around a corner and saw a sign that said "Vegas Paradise".
This entire trip I have been amazed at the lack of sky rise hotels clogging the shorelines, nothing at all like Hawaii. Surfer's Paradise had them and I found out why; most of the resorts are owned by the Japanese, much like Hawaii, and they build the really big and elaborate places.
We spent an afternoon at the beach there but the surf was so rough that we could not go in.
The following day we bought a pass to Dream World and White Water World. If Disneyland or Great America are Nieman Marcus, then Dream World Walmart. We did get to hold a koala and see kangaroos and tigers which was really special. In the afternoon we headed to the water park where we spent the day on the slides.
The next day you better believe we found a bar at 10:00 am to watch the opening day Giant's game. Luckily the game was on early because I don't think if we had been there when it was crowded the locals would have sat through 3 hours of baseball!
After leaving Surfer's Paradise we spent 24 hours in Brisbane. We walked around the city for a couple of hours and then went to the movies that night to see Lincoln Lawyer (go see it, it was entertaining!). I took this picture to prove that we actually went to Brisbane and am going to assume that the river is not normally this brown. Kyle?
From Brisbane we headed to Rainbow Beach for 2 nights which is a sleepy beach town that is literally two blocks long. We attempted to lay out at the beach which was comparable to being inside of a sandblaster because it was so windy, so we played in the waves and then spent the afternoon on the grass above the beach. While we were in Rainbow Beach we celebrated Nelly's 31st (and my brother, Zack's, 22nd a continent away). It was rather uneventful compared to the epic weekend of his 30th, however it was still a great day. He has actually been celebrating his birthday for two days now, April 4th and April 5th, which is the 4th in the states.
Nelly does not like cake but devours pavlova, so I arranged for him to have some after dinner. I'm surprised he didn't bite my hand off when I went in for a scoop!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
After leaving Byron Bay we headed to Surfer's Paradise for 4 days. We stayed in an awesome hostel and met some really fun people that we spent a lot of time with. Nelly played nightly games of Volleyball with them and we hung out at the bar with some of the people who worked there. Surfer's Paradise reminded me of a wannabe Vegas. I told Nelly that one morning and literally right after I said that we walked around a corner and saw a sign that said "Vegas Paradise".
This entire trip I have been amazed at the lack of sky rise hotels clogging the shorelines, nothing at all like Hawaii. Surfer's Paradise had them and I found out why; most of the resorts are owned by the Japanese, much like Hawaii, and they build the really big and elaborate places.
We spent an afternoon at the beach there but the surf was so rough that we could not go in.
But it did wash up some pretty neat sea creatures!
The following day we bought a pass to Dream World and White Water World. If Disneyland or Great America are Nieman Marcus, then Dream World Walmart. We did get to hold a koala and see kangaroos and tigers which was really special. In the afternoon we headed to the water park where we spent the day on the slides.
Kangaroos are really weird creatures. From the way they move to the joeys in their pockets, everything seems so unreal!
The next day you better believe we found a bar at 10:00 am to watch the opening day Giant's game. Luckily the game was on early because I don't think if we had been there when it was crowded the locals would have sat through 3 hours of baseball!
After leaving Surfer's Paradise we spent 24 hours in Brisbane. We walked around the city for a couple of hours and then went to the movies that night to see Lincoln Lawyer (go see it, it was entertaining!). I took this picture to prove that we actually went to Brisbane and am going to assume that the river is not normally this brown. Kyle?
From Brisbane we headed to Rainbow Beach for 2 nights which is a sleepy beach town that is literally two blocks long. We attempted to lay out at the beach which was comparable to being inside of a sandblaster because it was so windy, so we played in the waves and then spent the afternoon on the grass above the beach. While we were in Rainbow Beach we celebrated Nelly's 31st (and my brother, Zack's, 22nd a continent away). It was rather uneventful compared to the epic weekend of his 30th, however it was still a great day. He has actually been celebrating his birthday for two days now, April 4th and April 5th, which is the 4th in the states.
Nelly does not like cake but devours pavlova, so I arranged for him to have some after dinner. I'm surprised he didn't bite my hand off when I went in for a scoop!!
We head to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, for 3 days. Pray for us that the rain stops!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Surfer's Paradise, Rainbow Beach
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Change of Plans
The beauty of the way we are traveling is that we can change our plans as we see fit. Leaving SFO with a one way ticket to New Zealand as our only purchase, we have had the freedom to make decisions as we go. Our first major change occurred this week when we scrapped our original plan of renting an RV and driving up the east coast of Australia to take the OZ Experience bus. We bought a 30 day pass that will drive us up the coast and drop us in the places we want to go. We can stay as long or as little as we like in each place and by doing so we will save a couple thousand dollars by not doing the RV (not to mention our sanity!).
So...Monday morning we hopped on our bus at 6:15am for our 13 hour drive up to Byron Bay. We arrived in town that night and were pretty wiped out from the drive, so we cooked dinner at our hostel and hung out with the people there. The next morning we woke up and took a walk to the lighthouse. Along the way we saw more dolphins playing in the surf along with a bunch of surfers.
We attempted to spend the day at the beach but it rained. We spent about an hour playing in the waves in the rain but then the surf got a bit rough so we headed back and spent the rest of the day with the folks at the hostel. This morning we woke and headed to Surfer's Paradise in an attempt to chase the sun. No such luck yet though.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
So...Monday morning we hopped on our bus at 6:15am for our 13 hour drive up to Byron Bay. We arrived in town that night and were pretty wiped out from the drive, so we cooked dinner at our hostel and hung out with the people there. The next morning we woke up and took a walk to the lighthouse. Along the way we saw more dolphins playing in the surf along with a bunch of surfers.
Along the path we came to the eastern most point in Australia.
We have been unlucky with the weather and this morning was no exception. It started raining while we were on our way to the lighthouse, which was ok because we arrived to see this...
We attempted to spend the day at the beach but it rained. We spent about an hour playing in the waves in the rain but then the surf got a bit rough so we headed back and spent the rest of the day with the folks at the hostel. This morning we woke and headed to Surfer's Paradise in an attempt to chase the sun. No such luck yet though.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Byron Bay
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sydney: Days 1-4
Day 1:
We arrived Monday night in Sydney to pouring rain and here we thought we were leaving that all behind in New Zealand!
We hopped in a cab to Becky's apartment on Bondi Beach (she's a friend from SF that has been living here for about 3 years). We were greeted with a familiar face, a bottle of wine and Thai food. It could not have been any better.
Day 2:
Nelly and I hopped on the bus to downtown Sydney and did some exploring. We found a free 2.5 hour walking tour of the city that took us to all of the highlights. It was a great tour because it did not just explain the history or the obvious, but also some quirky things, like what Australians nickname their money (a yellow $50 bill is called a pineapple and the red $20 bill is called a lobster). We ended the tour in the Botanic Gardens which has a really bad fruit bat problem right now. Those suckers are huge and I will let Nelly explain his encounter with them.
After our trip around the city we met up with Becky when she got off of work for drink and Trivia Tuesday. We won the prize for 3rd to last place. Apparently you need to know a lot about Australian sport, music and candy to do well. We had a great time though with Becky and some of her friends.
Day 3:
I woke up to this. Becky lives right on Bondi Beach (consistently named one of the top 10 beaches in the world) and the views from her place are amazing.
We then headed back downtown to meet Becky for lunch and then to have a closer look at some of the sights we had seen during the previous day's tour.
And finished the night with our first encounter with a kangaroo...on a pizza at the Australian Hotel. It was actually really good...tasted just like steak.
Day 4:
We spent the day yesterday at the beach. It started with a 2.5 hour hike along the coast to all of the neighboring beaches.
We arrived Monday night in Sydney to pouring rain and here we thought we were leaving that all behind in New Zealand!
We hopped in a cab to Becky's apartment on Bondi Beach (she's a friend from SF that has been living here for about 3 years). We were greeted with a familiar face, a bottle of wine and Thai food. It could not have been any better.
Day 2:
Nelly and I hopped on the bus to downtown Sydney and did some exploring. We found a free 2.5 hour walking tour of the city that took us to all of the highlights. It was a great tour because it did not just explain the history or the obvious, but also some quirky things, like what Australians nickname their money (a yellow $50 bill is called a pineapple and the red $20 bill is called a lobster). We ended the tour in the Botanic Gardens which has a really bad fruit bat problem right now. Those suckers are huge and I will let Nelly explain his encounter with them.
After our trip around the city we met up with Becky when she got off of work for drink and Trivia Tuesday. We won the prize for 3rd to last place. Apparently you need to know a lot about Australian sport, music and candy to do well. We had a great time though with Becky and some of her friends.
Apparently we stayed out past Nelly's bed time.
Day 3:
I woke up to this. Becky lives right on Bondi Beach (consistently named one of the top 10 beaches in the world) and the views from her place are amazing.
We then headed back downtown to meet Becky for lunch and then to have a closer look at some of the sights we had seen during the previous day's tour.
We then met Becky for a drink at the Opera House and watched the sunset.
And finished the night with our first encounter with a kangaroo...on a pizza at the Australian Hotel. It was actually really good...tasted just like steak.
Day 4:
We spent the day yesterday at the beach. It started with a 2.5 hour hike along the coast to all of the neighboring beaches.
Check out this rugby pitch!
We then just spent the day reading and relaxing at Bondi.
Bondi graffiti.
This is from the roof of Becky's building. Notice the lack of sky rise hotels!
To say the least, we are loving Australia!
Location:Sydney
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)