Australia Living in Australia tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-10-02:/blog/?domain=JodieBland 2007-09-28T22:08:33Z jdbland1 img/travel-blog-feed.png Cairns tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-09-28:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=42&entryid=51875 2007-09-28T22:08:33Z 2007-09-28T22:08:33Z We left for Cairns on a Monday. The plane we were on had to stop at a small airport on the way and pick up an engineer because one of the planes had broken down. Why they didn't have an engineer up at that airport, we will never know. So a 2 hour flight turned into a 3 hour flight. We finally got there, took a taxi to our hostel and checked in. The hostel was a nice one, it ... We left for Cairns on a Monday. The plane we were on had to stop at a small airport on the way and pick up an engineer because one of the planes had broken down. Why they didn't have an engineer up at that airport, we will never know. So a 2 hour flight turned into a 3 hour flight.
We finally got there, took a taxi to our hostel and checked in. The hostel was a nice one, it had a beautiful pool, a bar downstairs and pretty much anything else you could ask for in a hostel. WE got up to our room and wow it smelled so bad. The airconditioner was leaking or something so it smelled like mildew. There was no way to get rid of the smell, if you turned the air off you would melt. Cairns is very hot and humid. So we had to suck it up and get used to the smell. We put our bags outside so our clothes wouldn't smell. We met a Canadian guy in our room and he told us of a good place to eat.
It was rainy outside so we had to walk fast down the streets so we wouldn't get soaked. We found our way to the woolshed. The woolshed is a bar/restaurant. It was great. The dinners were only $10 and you get a free drink. The food was fantastic and you got so much food! We ended up eating there 4 times. It was cold and rainy so we decided we would go see a movie. We saw The Last King of Scotland. It was a good movie. We decided to turn in and wake up early to go find out what there is to do in Cairns.
The next morning we woke up and went downstairs. There was a booking center at the bottom of the hostel, so we made all our arrangements there. We booked a gondola ride up to Kuranda and a scuba dive trip for Friday. We decided to go ahead and do the Kuranda trip that same day. We had about 20 minutes before it was time to leave. We went back upstairs got dressed and headed out.
A bus came and picked us up and brought us to the place where the gondola starts.
Kuranda is a small village town in the middle of the rainforest at the top of the country just outside of Cairns. There are a few ways to get there. you can go through the roads by car, up the gondola, or by train. While we were there, the train was out of service because they had a few mud slides that wiped out the train tracks.
The gondola was a 7 kilometer ride up above the rainforest. We hopped on and it takes you straight up above the trees. It was beautiful scenery and the higher it goes, you can see the coast and the beach. It was a little overcast so some parts were hard to see.
There were a few stops along the way that you can stop at and see the rainforest. So we decided to get out and see what it was all about. Well to our big suprise it was a bunch of trees. There was a little pathway and you walk along to see all the different trees. Some of the trees were absolutely massive! Bigger than many redwoods up in northern california. Of course the rainforest had to hold up to it's name, as soon as we got off the gondola it started to pour down rain. I guess the giant box of umbrellas for people to use wasn't obvious enough for us, that it rains a lot up there. So we hurried back into the gondola.
On the way to the second stop we saw a huge waterfall, so we decided to go ahead and get off on the second stop. It wasn't raining too bad at that point, so we walked down to get beautiful views of the giant waterfall cascading down the mountainside. The water fall was pretty much all there was to see so we decided to get on our way to the city.
We finally arrived in Kuranda about 45 minutes later.
Kuranda is a very small village with one street, and all there is to do there is shop. They also have a small wildlife park, and a butterfly sanctuary, but the village is pretty much just known for shopping. So we did.
I bought a few souveniers, and tasted some mango wine. It was great. I bought some to take home but with customs at the airport, i'm a little nervous they wont make it back with me. There is a man there that is famous for homemade ice cream. He sells it out of a truck and has all sorts of different flavors. I tried the macadamia nut flavor. It was great! Glad we decided to try it. It was time to meet the bus driver to take us back into Cairns. We spent about 2 hours in the two and then headed back to Cairns in a coach. The drive was scenic and didn't take too long.
During the day I had decided I was going to go ahead and skydive. So as soon as we got back I walked back down to the booking center and booked a trip to sky dive. We also decided we would go to an aborignal show and dinner, and rent a car for the day to drive up to Point Douglas.
The aboriginal show was that night so we ran upstairs to clean up and came back down to meet another bus to come take us to the show. When you're in such a touristy place, they arrange everything to come to you. It's great. you pay for it, but it's so nice.
So the bus came and picked us up, and we were the first ones, so we had about 10 other stops before we got there. There were people from all over the world on the bus with us. There was a cruise from New Zealand that was stopped, so a few of the guests came to the show.
We got to the show and they gave us a sticker for our table number, and two wood sticks, that were later used to bang together.
We waited around for a few minutes then went into a room were everyone circled up. A creature came out in the dark, that was supposed to be a spirit or something and talked about the culture of the aboriginal people. A blow up dancing spirit came out next to counter the other spirit. Finally, some of the men came out and began to dance and bang the sticks. They took us through a few rituals, including the fire making ritual that they do. In the end they created fire and everyone blew on it to make it big. Then they took the fire outside and we followed. The guy made a fire spear and through it across a field to light up a torch on the other side. It was great fun.
We then continued our walk into the dining area were they had a full buffet waiting for us. It was an all you can eat basically everyday food buffet. They had chicken, lasagna, and a bunch of meats that I'm not sure about because I didn't go over there. There were potatoes, veggies, and just about every side dish you could imagine.
For dessert we had chocolate mousse, some cookie creation, carrot cake, cheese cake, and a few others. I went for the chocolate mousse. It was wonderful.
As we concluded dinner they went on stage and did a few more aboriginal dances for us. When the night concluded we got a picture with one of the dancers, and learned how to play the Digireedoo...Well we tried real hard to learn the didgireedoo. It is hard work.You are supposed to breath out of your nose and breath in your mouth while making a motor boat sound with your mouth. Ya it was as complicated as it sounds. The guy had a good laugh at us trying to play it. They're culture doesn't allow women to play the didgireedoo, but since it's a tourist attraction, and a lot of the aboriginal culture and beliefs have been thrown out the window, we got to try and play.
The night came to an end and we loaded back on to the coach and headed back to the hostel. I decided to head to bed because tomorrow was going to be a big day for me.
I woke up in the morning and got dressed and ready to jump out of a plane. How do you get ready for that?? I did my best. I headed downstairs for my ride to pick me up. There were already two other people in the van and we were headed south of cairns about an hour to do our sky dive. Cairns looked pretty cloudy and overcast, so it was good we were getting out of it.
There were three of us doing the jump that day. The other two were a couple form Holland, and they were here in Australia for three weeks. They were great fun, which was great because it was an hour drive. We talked the jump mostly. One of the instructors sat back with us and we pretty much all talked the whole way there. The other two were doing a 10,000 ft jump into the park. I was supposed to do a 14,000 ft jump on the beach. However, I didn't get to do the beach because it was too cloudy and it was too risky to miss the beach and land into the water. I appreciated him being safe, so I too jumped in the park.
The instructor that was riding with us was named Adam, he has done over 12,000 jumps. He has lived and skydived all over the world. It was exciting to hear some of his stories.
We finally arrived at the place we were going to load up at. They work out of a house in the middle of nowhere. The plane is literally parked right outside of the house. It was a nice comfortable little set up. The couple went first because they were jumping from the park and they were going from 10,000 ft. So they took off and I waited a while for the plane to come back. I suited up in some hot little pants and hung out around the house for about 20 minutes. One of the guys in the house had recently just lived in Lodi. He just moved back. He enjoyed living in Lodi even though there is not much there.
It was finally my time to go and I was jumping with the instructor that rode down with us. I was excited because he seemed like a lot of fun and I was pretty confident he knew what he was doing. He was pretty much running the whole show.
We jumped in the van and drove to the take off site. As we were there waiting for the plane to come back down, I could see the people before me coming down. I thought wow that's going to be me next.
We were ready to go and we hopped in the plane. This plane looked like it was ready to crash at any minute. It looked like it had a weight capacity of about 5 lbs. As we were on our way up, all I could think was I would rather jump than stay in this thing!
Other than the death defying ride up through the clouds the view was amazing. There were big white billowy clouds all around us. It was such an amazing to feeling to think that I would be outside with them in just a short time. It's always been my dream to just fall through the clouds, and this was the moment it was going to happen.
While watching out the window at all sites, I narrowed in on one thing in particular. Tall buildings, beautiful rolling mountains, big white clouds, no... Inside the airplane with me was this little orange worm looking thing. It was about the size of a fingernail clipping but nonetheless I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. What if it starts coming towards me, what I would I do? I can't go anywhere, I can't move. Here I am about to jump 14,000 feet which could potentially lead to death, and all I can think about is, gee I hope this worm doesn't get any closer to me. Ya I had my prorities straight!!
So we get to the right heighth and the instructor starts to get prepared. Phew, I escaped the plane before the deadly worm caught me!
He latches himself to me and tightens up so tight we were pretty much one person. I'm on my knees in front of the door and he opens it. Well it's not just a nice casual honey I'm home, open. It's a holy crap is the door still attached kind of open.
At this moment the whole thing just got real. So I proceed to sit on the edge of the plane as he says. This was the most exhilirating part of the whole experience I think. I had the anticipation of jumping, the scariness of being outside of the plane, and because of the way I was sitting I could not feel him behind me.
He pushed out of the plane and we began to fall. It was a different feeling of falling than I have ever experienced. I expected to leave my stomach up in the plane, but suprisingly it was right there with me the whole time. There really are no words to describe the feeling you have when you leave the plane. There is no fear, only excitement and awe. We began to fall through a cloud and it was just amazing. All I could see around me was white, and the mist hit my face so it was cool and refreshing. It was pretty cold up there. At the height I jumped from, there was a bout a 60 second drop. Well those 60 seconds lasted about 5 minutes, because I had plenty of time to take it all in.
This is the only point I got a little scared because all you see is whilte, and all I could think about is what the heck is going to be underneath this cloud. how close to the ground are we going to be?
We came out of the cloud and it was beautiful. There were mountains on one side, the beach on the other. I could see along the coast for miles. The little town that sat amongst thousands of acres of green land. It was picture perfect!
Then the parachute came out and we hung in the air for about 5 minutes before finally coming down for a smooth landing. He said pick your feet up and then he landed and that was that. We drove back into town. I met up with Meribeth, we had lunch, and made beaded necklaces like nothing happened.

Continued into the next post, my scuba diving experience...

Cairns remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Grand Final tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-03-26:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=41&entryid=51803 2007-03-26T23:44:35Z 2007-03-26T23:44:35Z I know I haven't talked much about softball. It was because we werent very good. But the people we met were amazing. We had an end of the year dinner with the whole club. It was great to spend a night with everyone, especiallly since our departure date is getting closer. We had a nice dinner and gave out awards. We then sang karaoke afterwards and that was good fun. Meribeth and I sang I got friends in low places. ... I know I haven't talked much about softball. It was because we werent very good. But the people we met were amazing. We had an end of the year dinner with the whole club. It was great to spend a night with everyone, especiallly since our departure date is getting closer. We had a nice dinner and gave out awards. We then sang karaoke afterwards and that was good fun. Meribeth and I sang I got friends in low places. Lets just say it wasn't enjoyed by very many. haha. Meribeth has a shocking singing voice. lol. We had great fun though.
The weekend after was the grand final. That is what we would call a Championship game. We had 4 teams playing, 14a, 16a, 16b, and A3. The 16a, 16b, and A3 teams all won the games. It was a great day for Springwood. WE helped coach the A3 team all year so we had a good time being involved. It was a nice day and a great way to end the year with everyone.
Afterwards we had a party to celebrate. Just the A3 team. It was at a house that was absoutely amazing. The house was 3 stories, they had a pool table, air hockey, pin ball machines, 4 t.v.s hooked up to games like playstation. Then they had a like a theater room with 4 recliner chairs and a playstation 2 hooked up in there. Their kids are all over 30 and they have no grandkids. Then downstairs they had a pool and another deck. It was absolutely beautful. So we had a great time playing with all the toys. It was a good time.

Grand Final remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Adrenalin park tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-03-26:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=40&entryid=51799 2007-03-26T23:34:54Z 2007-03-26T23:34:54Z The week after Whitsundays, Meribeth and I were pretty warn out needed to take some time off. So we just hung around the house for the week. One day we decided to go south about 20 minutes to Surfers Paradise. At Surfers Paradise they have a place called the adrenalin park. The Adrenalin park is about 5 scary rides that you can do. They have bungy jumping, the vomitron, the sling shot, and the swing of terror or something ... The week after Whitsundays, Meribeth and I were pretty warn out needed to take some time off. So we just hung around the house for the week.
One day we decided to go south about 20 minutes to Surfers Paradise. At Surfers Paradise they have a place called the adrenalin park. The Adrenalin park is about 5 scary rides that you can do. They have bungy jumping, the vomitron, the sling shot, and the swing of terror or something like that. Meribeth and I decided to start on the swing. They put you in a harness and attach you to some hooks. Then they slowly lift you up off the ground about 10 stories high. The guy running it was a real comedian, and he kept telling us how unsafe it was. When we left to go up he said good luck and if you die I'll give you your money back. haha...funny. So we made our way up to the top of the apparatus. About half way up Mr. comedian dropped us down a little bit to scare us. I thought he actually did drop us so it scared me a little bit. Well we finally got all the way to the top and there is this little draw string you have to pull when you're up there that disconnects you. We decided I would be the one to pull it when we got up there. So the guy counted to 1 and I pulled the string and we went well swinging. We plummeted towards the earth super fast and then started swinging right back up. It was an amazing feeling. You fell like you're flying. It was great. Not as good as bungy jumping but good.
Next we were on our way to the sling shot. This one you sit in it and he lowers you into the ground and then lets you go and you go flying through the air, again about 10 stories high. So we jump in. The worker goes into the same routine as the last guy. He said he was suprised anyone is coming today after the big accident they had yesterday. just trying to scare us. He said do you want me to count to 5 or 3. We were in the process of answering when he let go and we went flying up. It was really cool, you shoot up really fast and then bounce and twirl in the air for a while. The views are beautiful. We got a DVD of the ride because our faces were classic when he let us go. We were shocked and you could see it in our faces. haha.
There was one more ride there that we well I wanted to go on. I wish my sister was there because it took me some persuading to get someone to go with me and i know Julie would have jumped right on with me. Brewster finally decided to go with me. This one you jump in the seats and there is 2 pairs of seats on each end. It basically just spins you around backwards and forwards. The views at the top were spectacular. you could see the coast on one side and a river on the other. It was beautiful. The ride was fun but not as good as the others. Meribeth didn't want to go on it because she said it wouldn't make her feel good.
We got 3 free shirts along with the rides. It was really fun.
After that we decided to get some lunch and we went to a cowboy type place. It was great. We had a fun little day, just Meribeth, me, Louie, and Brewster.

Adrenalin park remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Darwin tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-03-03:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=30&entryid=44108 2007-03-04T07:25:16Z 2007-03-04T07:25:16Z Our trip to Darwin was an unforgettable one. We started out on a Sunday night around 9 o'clock and made our way to the Brisbane airport. We hopped on a flight and got to Darwin at about 1:30 a.m. We decided that it would be too much hassle to try and check into a hostel for only a few hours before we left for our tour. We picked up our bags and headed back up to the gates to find ... Our trip to Darwin was an unforgettable one.
We started out on a Sunday night around 9 o'clock and made our way to the Brisbane airport. We hopped on a flight and got to Darwin at about 1:30 a.m. We decided that it would be too much hassle to try and check into a hostel for only a few hours before we left for our tour. We picked up our bags and headed back up to the gates to find a place to sleep. The airport was full of night time travellers for a few hours and then it suddenly emptied and all that we heard were the garbage cans opening and closing for the janitors to change the liners. We fell asleep in a corner until it was time to meet the shuttle. That is when I realized my shoes were no longer with us. I must have left them in the security check point because our bags had to be hand searched for aerosel (sp?) cans. So here I was going on a hiking and camping trip with no shoes!
With nothing to do about it we headed down to the shuttle to make our way into the city. To our dissappointment the shuttles were not longer there because they only hung around when flights came in. Since it makes way more sense for all flights to come in at 1:30 a.m. and not 7 a.m., there were not shuttles. WE took a taxi in.
We were a few minutes early so we hung around the hostel until the tour guide came to pick us up. Well at 7:45 we realized the tour guide was about 30 minutes late so I turned my phone on and I had a phone call. It was the office and apparently tehre was miscommunication and they were looking for us at the wrong hostel. Things were not going too well at this point...
There were three people from Demark also waiting for the same tour so it wasn't too bad.
I told the tour guide I had no shoes and he seemed to think that I would be able to do everthing with flip flops. We all piled in to the 4wd and headed off to Kakadu National park.
On the way to the park we did a crocodile cruise where we jump on a small boat and feed crocodiles buffalo meat so they jump out of the water for us. On our way to the cruise our drive made a sharp stop and u-0turn. He saw a cukabara on the side of the road and decided to pick it up to get it some help. A cukaboro is a very loud bird here that sounds like a monkey. It has a large beak and it's quite cute. WE all took pictures before he turned it in. On the way to the cruise we also saw a buffalo and a few wallabys bouncing around. The whole group got to hold a water python before we started. I sucked it up and had it around my shoulders for a few minutes. Once it turned it's head towards me I was done.
It was time for the cruise. We walked down this little ramp to the 20 ft boat and began our journey on the crocodile infested water. There was an unbelievable amounts of flys. Even with our group soaked in bug repellent the bugs seemed to be unharmed by the wall of poison around us.
The lady in front tied buffalo meat to a long sticka nd held it about the water. She then hit the water with the stick a few times to grab the crocodiles attention. Sure enough two eyes began to swim towards us causing a small wave behind him. The only way we could tell that a huge monster was appoaching us. She hit the water with the meat and the crocodile jumped out of the water exposing his whole body to the air. This process was repeated several times.
The driver of the boat was an eerie man and he kept warning us that crocodiles are going to become a huge problem. He said that there are so many now and tehy are in every body of water in the northern territory of Australia. They usually don't attack things bigger then them but there is now an overwhelming amount that are over 3 meters long. That is 12 feet for you metric system beginners.
The driver banked the boat and the meat keeper held the meat out on land to make the croc go out of the water. THis particular one was about 3 meters long but all you can see his teeth when his wide open mouth attacked the buffalo meat only a few inches away from the boat. It was a scary thing to watch but so exciting at the same time.
On our way back the driver noticed a white tailed eagle and the women held up some meat. The eagle swooped down and grabbed the meat in a matter of seconds. IT was so beautiful to watch the bird fly down with it's massive wing span. It was just unbelievable.
After our tour we loaded back up in to the 4 wd and took off for Kakadu. By now it started to really rain hard but we decided that we would go on the hikes anyways. He took us up the rocks to see caves that were left by the aboriginals. It was a pretty place but we were absolutely soaked as the sky opened above us and the whole ocean poured down on us. We decided we were already wet so we might as well continue our hikes. We hiked up some rocks and some people went swimming in a water hole. It was a prety site. It was pretty hard to walk up slippery walks with only flip flops on but I made it work. It was absolutely beautiful.
AFter that we headed for camp to have dinner and get settled for the night. It was pouring down rain so we go tall settled in the "waterproof" camp. It was a huge tent with a dinner area and somewhat of a kitchen and about 8 small tents for 2 people each to sleep in. We all changed out of our soaking wet clothes and helped prepare dinner. We ate kangaroo, veggies, and mash potatoes. After dinner our guide taught us the Didgiree Doo. The Didgiree Doo is an instrument that the Aboriginals used to make music. It is basically a hollowed out piece of wood that you blow into. It was fun to learn and a lot harderd than we thought.
Our guide (his name is Steve) then went outside and did some fire spinning. He spun around fire on two strings around his head. It was pretty cool to watch but then he got so into it he didn't pay attention to anything else.
The bathrooms were far away so we all loaded up in the truck so we could make a toilet run. There was a swimming pool there as well so we decided to go for a swim.
As we were swimming there was lightining everywhere and it started pouring on us. It was really fun though. We told jokes and swam around. I think I probably had the best jokes. haha
It was getting late so we headed back to camp. We all changed out of our swimsuits and headed to bed.
It poured all night long. I mean really all night long. If you walked out of the campsite for 1/2 a second you would have been soaked. Everything around the site flooded outside. I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and there was no where to go. So I panicked for a few minutes. then I woke up Meribeth asking her what I should do. I said it's raining and there might be snakes outside, what should I do. She said bring your towel. lol. She rolled over and went back to bed. So I was on my own. I grabbed a towel and my cell phone. I put the towel on my head and opened my cell phone so I could get as much light as I could and I made a run for it.
Really it's probably one of the funniest things somebody could have watched. I'm getting absolutely soaked like I just jumped into a pool. My big dry towel turned into a damp hankerchief over my head. My little cell phone light gave me about 1 inch of visibility so I'm running through the bushes with my little light trying to scare away the snakes. I decided on a spot then realized earlier that the guide said if you go right in front of the campsite the water will carry it in. So I'm on the run again almost in tears because I am so scared of the snakes. What snake in their right mind is just going to be hanging out in the pouring rain right near our campsite I have no idea. But this logic doesn't run through your head at times like this. So I finally found a spot and then ran back into the camp site. I hung my towel up to dry and then I just went to bed. I was so frustrated and overwhelmed of the experience I didn't even want to find dry clothes. haha it's pretty funny to think about now.
So we woke up in the morning and it was still pouring down rain. Lightning hit about 10 meters from our site. That was pretty scary because people up there get hit by lighting quite frequently. So we pakced up and headed for the truck.
The plan for today was to do a hike but since it was raining so hard we detoured towards a cultural center to watch a video on Kakadu and learn about the Aboriginals. It was pretty cool to learn about the area. We saw a video about crocodiles and how they pretty much live in the same area, when it's wet or dry. When it's dry they bury themselves in the mud until it gets wet again. So they could be anywhere, not just in rivers or streams.
After the cultural center, the rain slowed down so we were able to continue with our walks. The idea was to go to a waterfall and then climb up some rocks to get a beautiful veiw of the area.
Well the hike turned into water wading for about 2 kilometers. The water eventually got up to our waist and I was starting to freak out. We had just watched a video about how crocdiles could be anywhere and here we were walking through waist high water. If there was one around we had no hope!
We made it out and up to dry land where we decided to have lunch. Apparently this little trickle of a waterfall had turned into a monstrous downpour of water because of all the rain we had. The water just took over the land causing huge ponds of water up to about 4 feet deep.
I thought to myself phew that is way too much for us to cross over we're not going any deeper. My thought was interrupted by Steve saying well we should all link arms so we can get through this. What!?!
It took everything in me not to cry. It was either stay here by myself for hours or suck it up and walk through this possibly crocodile infested, and god knows what else, water and go the rest of the way with everyone. So we linked arms and headed into the unknown.
The water was about 4 feet deep. There were tons of branches and rocks underneath the water because this is usually dry and just land here. So we had to jump over rocks and walk slowly in case there was an unexpected drop or the water got stronger and we were picked up and carried away.
All of us made it across and thank god we were going higher and up rock so we didn't have to go through water anymore. We climbed these huge rocks up to a rock cave where Aboriginals have made painted hundreds of years ago. I had to stop here because I didn't have shoes to walk with and it was too dangerous with flip flops. So I had to sit with another girl while everyone else ventured to the top.
Finally they headed down and we all preceded back to the dreaded swamp we had to cross over.
We went back over and I thought okay the worst is over. Well we get to a crossing point and he decides we're going to look at another waterfall. The water is travelling pretty fast from this direction and I was not excited about this! We walk a little ways and there is a huge sign saying Be ware crocodiles infest this area! Oh no there is no way I'm going and by this time there are 3 other people that decide it's not a good idea either. Well for some reason they change their minds and it's time to go into the water. My eyes are teared up again and I'm becoming quite the cry baby. I j ust have this vision that I am always going to be the one that gets eaten. The water is getting stronger and stronger here and quite deep. Finally we get to one stop and the guide finally decideds it is too dangerous to continues. The water is running too fast and there are too many rocks and branches to fight through to get there. so we turn around and go back. I hit a rock and fell into the water pretty hard. I still have the scar to remember it by.
We finally make our way out of the water and hit dry land. We are all soaked and eaten alive by insects so the truck could not have come any sooner.
We had to now head to another camp because the camp we stayed in the night before was flooded. The ride was about 3 or 4 hours so it was not too exciting for us. But we survived and talked amongst ourselves throughout the ride. We got to the new camp and once again made dinner. This one had an enclosed area for dining and then it had a seperate bunk room that was air conditioned for us to sleep.
We made dinner and then went straight to the rooms to clean up and go to bed.
In the toilets in the bathroom there were green frogs in the bowl of the toilets. There were 3 toilets and all of the bathrooms had frogs except for one. so the line was a mile long waiting for that toilet. The last thing anyone wanted was for the frog to try and escape while someone was using the toilet. So we all waited...
There were spiders, mosquitos, and biting flies everywhere! Insect repellent was not gaurd against these suckers either. I looked like I had chicken pox by the time I left the place.
So we went to bed. As were in bed we saw lightning strikes all over the place. Meribeth and I wanted to go out and see it so we took off outside to watch the lightning. it wasn't raining so we were okay. The lightning was beautiful.
while we were out there we met a guy from another group. He was Canadian and he was in the military for them. he was just out travelling for a while before he had to go to Afghanistan. We chatted with him for a while and then turned in for the night.
the next morning we again woke up bright and early, packed up our gear and headed over for breakfast. For breakfast we had cereal and toast. today we planned on going to see some more waterfalls and go for a swim.
We hiked about 3 kilometers to a giant waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful. it reminded me a lot of Yosemite. The guide jumped right in but decided the water was pretty strong and everyone should take it easy.
Another group came up and everyone just jumped right in. So our group got a little more gutsy and jumped in. there wasn't really a chance for crocodiles because the water was really deep and we were pretty high up. Crocs don't like to climb rocks so I guess we were okay. We swam for a while, took pictures, and laid around. then is was time to go to another waterfall.
We walked about 3 kilometers to the next waterfall. This waterfall was beautiful. it was 3 pools that poured into each other. We all jumped right into this water. We swam directly under the waterfall and took tons of pictures. A couple people thought it was funny to go under water and grab our feet. I did not find that too funny...
We ate some lunch by the side and then ventured up to the very top of the waterfall. It was a little hike straight up through the rocks. Once at the top we had a beautiful view of the water fall all the way down and the whole area surrounding them.
We went for a swim up there and the water was very deep. I started getting nervous of how deep it was and not being able to see the bottom. The guide then went down to the area where the water went off the rocks and straight down. He swam across and me and another girl followed hiim. As I jumped in the water started trying to carry me down the cliff! What a great idea this was. Well it scared me so much that I decided to get out and go around the other side so I dind't have to cross the water again. I went up and jumped in the water at the top and jumped out of the water and scared the people half to death at the top. It was pretty fun.
We made our way back down to the bottom, gathered our things and headed off. We had another long trip ahead of us. We were all talking and having a great time. Our guide had got a little cranky so we stayed clear of him for a few minutes until he got over it. We stopped off to see the Charlie the buffalo from Indiana jones. We all unlaoded and started walking around this place trying to find where a buffalo would be. It looked like we had stopped at a bar/rest stop so we werne't sure why they would have a buffalo there. Well we went inside the bar and there was the buffalo. Big and stuffed in the corner! Steve hadn't informed us that we were coming to see a stuffed buffalo. so that was a pretty funny surprise.
We loaded up on drinks and snacks and started to make our way back to Darwin. We stopped again at an Aboriginal store and bought some CD's that were made with the didgiree doo. It was pretty good music. So we each bought a cd and then copied them for each other. We saw a pig and bird that had more personality than most people. It was great entertainment to watch the bird dance and talk. It was a Gala which is a parrot but with pink and white colors. It is beautiful.
Well we finally made it back to Darwin and got dropped off at the hostel. STeve told us we had vouchers for a free dinner at one of the bars. So we all made arrangements to meet up in an hour and a half.
It turned out we made a reservation at the wrong hostel. So we had to walk down the street to the right one. The lady was not very nice and the hostel was a bit dodgy. We already paid so we just settled for it and went to our rooms.
We ended up in the same room as another girl that was on our trip. So we got cleaned up and headed to dinner. Everyone showed up except for the older lady. We got a free dinner which ended up to be lasagna and chips. It was pretty good. The manager of the bar threw some pitchers of beeer on the table for us and we just hung out for a while and enjoyed each others company. The manager also gave us some raffle tickets. The winner got a 50 dollar beer tab. There were three winners and Meribeth had one of the winning tickets. The three people had to chug down a glass of gingerale and whoever did it the fastest one the tab. Meribeth killed the other two and we got the beer tab.
As we were hanging out a guy walked over to me and he really did not know how to approach someone because he stood behind me and said where are you from. I was like what? I wasnt sure he was even talking to me. He probably should have started out with a hi or something. So he sat down and we ended up talking for a lot of the night.
He decided it was time to kiss but I didn't really agree with that so he lost interest and walked away. I ended up hanging out the rest of the night with his friends. haha. They were great and they taught me alot about the area and about the crocodiles. They go wakeboarding and stuff all the time. I said what about the crocs. They said well nobody has ever been taken yet. haha that's not good enough for me.
During the night it was black light night so everyone could go get body paint on and they would light up under the lights. Meribeth got start all over her legs and another one of our friends got some stuff all over her arms and chest above her tank top. I didn't quite make it over there.
Meribeth ended up drinking a little too much and one of the bouncers started screaming at us that she had to leave. I took her into the bathroom and the bouncer followed us and said she had to leave. Me and another girl grabbed her and started taking her out. Then our giganitc Denmark friend (like 6'5 ish and about 300 lbs) swooped her up and took her out of the bar. Finally she was able to walk by herself and we slowly made our way back to the hostel.
It was a pretty crazy night to end an incredible trip. We met some of the coolest people on our trip and we are still friends with them. We are meeting two of them tomorrow and we met up with two others about a week ago. It is so great to take trips like these and meet such incredible people.
The next day we took a walk around Darwin and saw the sights. Darwin was at the front line of WWII. It was pretty cool to read a little bit about that. I had no idea Australia was that involved. There are aboriginals all around the city asking for money. It's really sad to watch. they have no jobs and they just beg for money. We all met up together and had one final dinner before Meribeth and I headed off to catch a plane.
When we got on the plane I met th emost talkative airplane passenger on the whole plane. The plane ride was about 3 hours and it was at 1 am in the morning. All I wanted to do was sleep. Lucky for me the guy next to me can't sleep on planes so he had lots to talk about. haha. He actually ended up being a really cool guy and I enjoyed talking with him. he works at the mines around Australia and gets to travel every couple of months to a new one. He was a very interestin guy and if anyone was going to keep me up all night on the plane I'm glad it was someone that was fun to talk to.
We finally arrived at about 5 in the morning. We had to wait a few hours for a ride. We came home and pretty much went straight to bed.
It was a great trip. My favorite thing so far in Australia. not Counting New Zealand.

Darwin remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Whitsundays tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-03-03:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=39&entryid=48002 2007-03-26T23:19:44Z 2007-03-04T05:16:23Z We left for the airport Sunday morning. We were meeting Meribeth's sister Jamie lee at the airport so we could jump on the plane and head right to Airlie beach. The plain ride was about an hour and a half. Once we got there we just jumped right out of the plane. There was no walkway to the airport. Really there was no airport...We walked out of the plane and the runway was so windy it almost knocked me off ... We left for the airport Sunday morning. We were meeting Meribeth's sister Jamie lee at the airport so we could jump on the plane and head right to Airlie beach. The plain ride was about an hour and a half.
Once we got there we just jumped right out of the plane. There was no walkway to the airport. Really there was no airport...We walked out of the plane and the runway was so windy it almost knocked me off my feet! We walked into the airport (and I use the term loosely). There were two little check in stands, a tiny little cafe stand and a waiting room for people to wait for their planes in. We walked through the airport and wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out where the heck we pick up our luggage. I overhead someone say the luggage outside so we ventured out to the side of the building. Over on the side of the builiding a guy pulled up with a trailer and swarms of people invaded the trailer trying to find their luggage.
After we picked up our luggage we loaded a bus and headed into the town of Airlie beach which was about 20 minutes from the airport.
We checked into our room and walked around to check out the rest of the place. Airlie beach was a cute little beach town fillied with little stores and bars. There were people walking around all over the streets in board shorts and tank tops. The town is considered a party town so even at 5 in the afternoon the bars were pretty full. We walked out by the beach, there was a lagoon for swimming next to the beach because you can't swim in the water around there. There are too many jelly fish in the water and some types are lethal so people stay out.
We headed over to one of the bars and grabbed some dinner. After dinner we headed back to the hostel and read, watched t.v. and pretty much went right to bed.
The next morning we woke up got dressed and headed out on the street. Went to the grocery store and bought some breakfast. Then we walked out to the beach to eat our breakfast and enjoy the views. The area was absolutely beautiful. We had to go pretty quick because we had to go pick up our tickets for the boat. So we went to the guy we booked our tickets through and then we made our way over to the check in place. We picked up our snorkelling gear and information for the boat. We had a meeting at 1:15 to prepare us for the boat. It was only about 11 so we walked around a bit to kill some time.
At 1:15 we headed over to the bar that the meeting was being held. We were some of the first people there so we sat around and watched all the others make their way up. About the first 50 people were girls, so this was not looking like a very exciting trip. A large group of about 12 people showed up and they were all very loud! We were trying to decide if they were American or Canadian, and to our suprise they were all Canadian. We didn't know Canadians had it in them to be such big partiers. Later more guys showed up but the majority of the group was girls.
After the meeting we headed down to the wharf. We had to pick up our stinger suits to wear in the water. Out in Whitsundays there are deadly jelly fish that can kill you instantly. There are others that can sting you and they are so painful that you need morphine or the highest medications that can be administered to make you comfortable. So I said great let me jump right in!
While we were waiting for the boat we also had to get some alcohol for the trip. Apparently, we were on the party boat where everyone drinks all day and parties all night. So in order to fit in we bought some beer. I didn't want to be left out mom, so I had to do it...
We checked in and headed to the boat. There were 67 people total on our boat. So wow was this boat going to be big! ya, not so much. It felt like we were trying to fit a sleeping bag into one of those little bags they come with. You know that they're supposed to fit but it just isn't happening when you try and put it in. Well there were so many people loading onto this boat and it did not look big enough to carry that many.
Everybody loaded on the boat, and it took a few minutes because the three tons of alcohol that everyone brought had to be loaded into the eskies. I think we brought enough alcohol that if we sunk you could drink the ocean and get drunk. So we were ready for a good time. Somehow we all managed to fit and so we got on our way.
There was a crew of 4 people on the boat to sail it, feed us, and keep us in control. I picked a spot up on the top of the boat so I would have plenty of room to lay out and relax.
After a very explicit speech about what can go down the toilets on the boat, we set sail. Well sort of. the boat was a catamaran and didn't really need the sail at the time. It was about a 2 hour boat ride until we got to the island we were staying on.
It was a beautiful ride and the weather was pretty nice. There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays and it's on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
We arrived on the island about 5:00 which was the start of Happy Hour. So we had a short speech on the island and then we headed off to Happy Hour. We didn't even set our bags off into the rooms. Meribeth, Jamie Lee, and I ordered a pitcher and we sat for a while. We started to realize people were dissappearing. A lot of people went to their rooms to put their stuff up and change their clothes. We decided to stay and so did a few other groups. There were about 15 people left so I got out my cards and asked a group of guys if they wanted to play drinking games with us.
So we headed over to their table and the night began. We played drinking games, broke for dinner, and played more drinking games. The boat crew got everyone together and we played drinking games as a whole group. My team won! There were 5 guys that we were hanging out with and 3 girls. We continued to drink all night and had a great time. I'm not sure what time I rolled into bed but it wasn't to much before it was time to wake up...
So we had to get up about 7 am and make our way down to the bar area for breakfast. It was a pretty good breakfast, cereal, toast, ham, eggs, and an assortment of juices. We got our breakfast and made our way to the table. There were very colorful birds hanging out around the tables. If something was left on the table they would come through like an army and take over the table.I wasn't drinking my juice so one of the birds thought that was an invitation for him to have it. He started drinking out of my juice and a thousand of birds swarmed me and my table, knocking over the drinks and eating the leftover food. I decided breakfast was over.
We all loaded the boat and we headed out for a 3 hour ride to Whitehaven beach. It was a very rocky boat ride because they are expecting some rough weather out there, and we were getting the very beginning of it. 67 hangover and rough water made for a very interesting ride. A few people lost their breakfast over the edge of the boat. We made it safely to the beach but because it took so long we didn't have too long at the beach. Which was okay because there was not a whole lot to do anyways. We were already laying out on the boat. It was a very entertaining few minutes for everyone when people started putting on their stinger suits. They are not made for fashion let me tell you. Especially for some of the chunkier girls. I didn't put mine on right away because I was more scared of jelly fish than the suit so I took a boat over to the beach.
We hung out on the beach for a little while. The conditions were too rough for snorkelling so we just hung out for a while and then headed back to the boat. I decided to swim back to the boat which ended up being pretty cool. We saw giant sea turtles, and some pretty cool looking fish on the way back to the boat.
After that we headed back to the island for another 3 hour ride back. It kind of seemed silly to me to go all that way for a small little beach. I guess I did sign up for a sailing trip though...
So we headed back to the island and I needed a shower very badly from sitting out all day and being in the water. So we all took showers and then headed back to the bar for happy hour. The boys were already there waiting for us to start some drinking games. so we did it all over again. We danced a little and shut down the bar.
The next morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast. We loaded the boat and headed to an island for some snorkelling. It was pretty fun to snorkel, we saw some really colorful fish. The coral at the bottom was beautiful when the sun shone down on it. We had noodles to lay down on when we didn't want to swim. It was fun. We got back on the boat and headed towards inland.
We turned in all our equipment and headed back to check in the hostel. There were two guys in the hostel when we got there. Meribeth's bed was dirty so she asked for some new sheets. A woman came in all angry and upset. She cleaned the bed but she was not happy about it and she let Meribeth know that. We took showers and Meribeth and her sister went out while I took a nap. We tried to go out but it just didn't happen. So we ended up going to bed pretty early.
The next morning we woke up got some food and headed to a bead shop to make some bracelets. We had 10 minutes before our bus got there so we had to run over to the stop to get on it. we made it just in time. We took the 20 minute ride back to the airport. Our plane was delayed almost an hour so I picked up a magazine and we waited...and waited. Finally the plane came and we walked out to load up. The plane ride was easy.
We hopped off grabbed our luggage and Meribeth rented a car for her and her sister.
We had a good time. it was not what I expected it to be but it was fun. We definitely were on the party boat.

Whitsundays remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand day 8 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-22:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=38&entryid=45942 2007-02-22T23:49:01Z 2007-02-22T23:49:01Z We woke up Monday morning and headed straight away to Milford sound. The drive is about 4 hours but there are some beautiful sights along the way. Our first stop was to the mirror lakes. The lakes are just small little ponds really that run parallel with the road. You walk down on a wooden walkway along the water. It doesn't really look like any big deal and then you look down. When you look down at the water ... We woke up Monday morning and headed straight away to Milford sound. The drive is about 4 hours but there are some beautiful sights along the way.
Our first stop was to the mirror lakes. The lakes are just small little ponds really that run parallel with the road. You walk down on a wooden walkway along the water. It doesn't really look like any big deal and then you look down. When you look down at the water you have to give it a second glance because you are not quite sure if it's really water or another set of mountains on the ground. The lakes are a a spitting image of the mountains, clouds, and trees that lay behind it. We took a lot of pictures, and the only reason you can tell it is water and not just an upside down pictures is because of the slight movement of the water. The pictures is crystal clear. it's beautiful. The water is also clear straight down to the bottom. you can see fish, rocks, and everything else that was in that water. It is also home to eels, but because they are nocturnal, we didn't get a chance t see any.
While we are at the mirror lakes a bus load of people arrived as well. Well the roads are very windy and slow so we did not want to get stuck behind a bus. So we took off for the car and headed on our way.
There were a few more sights along the way but we were running late so we decided to skip a few. The whole drive up is breathtaking. We drive through a whole string of mountains. Many of them still had snow on the tops of them.
As you drive up you have to go through a tunnel that is ridiculously long. It is a one way tunnel and it is called the Homer tunnel. The tunnel is 1270 meters long! So at both ends there is a stop light. When the light is green you can go. When it is red the people from the other side are going. The light takes about 5 minutes to change. Just outside the tunnel there are tons of small waterfalls flowing off the mountains and a few medium size ones. The mountains are towering, so the waterfalls are very long. There is ice at the top of the mountains and it falls to the ground. There was a very large cave of ice below the mountain that had recently broken off. Just underneath the cave was a river. We didn't go down to it because again we were short on time and really ice was noting exciting anymore after 6 hours of tramping around on a glacier.
It was finally our turn to go through the tunnel. There are no lights in the tunnel and it sure is creepy! Water drips down into it and it is just straight through a mountain. We were literally driving through the mountain. The tunnel was built on a slope because otherwise you would drive straight into another mountain or something like that.
The tunnel was built in 1935 to give work to the locals during the depression. It was stopped a few time for harsh weather conditions and the world war 2 and finally finished in 1954. The scary thing is the lights only run in the summer because it is too dangerous to stop and wait for the light outside of the tunnel due to avalanches. I haven't quite figured out how you know a car is coming from the other side?? Pretty scary if you ask me.
So we made our way through the seemingly neverending tunnel (I wonder how many people try and hold their breath through that tunnel) and another 15 minutes to Milford sound. I think we probably got behind three of the worst drivers I've ever seen in my life on the way to Milford. the drivers rode their brakes the whole way! It's a wonder any of them have brake pads left.
We arrived and parked in the car park, then walked about 400 meters to the wharf. We got our tickets to the boat and waited for it to board.
Just a little information about Milford sound. It is not actually a sound at all but a Fiord. A fiord is a valley caused by glaciers. When the glaciers recede these valleys are formed. Sounds are formed by flooding. It was created 6 million years ago. Milford sound is 16 Kilometers long and leads straight into the ocean. 16 kilometers is about 10 miles long. The average depth is 330 meters deep which is about 1082 feet. It rains 182 days out of the year and has an annual rainfall of 7 meters which is about 22 feet. It is the wettest place in New Zealand and one of the wettest places in the world. When it rains, the moutains are so straight up and down that the whole mountain just gets covered with water and it looks like one massive waterfall! They get some pretty crazy weather.
Our guide told us that they have about 5 earthquakes a day, but they don't have big ones very often and you can't feel the small ones. We also heard that the glacier is waiting for a large earthquake because it is right on the fault line and it's way over do. New Zealand soundsl ike its one big earthquake disaster waiting to happen.
The mountains along side of the water can be up to 1 mile high straight up. Trees can't grow in the moutains because they are solid rock, so they find cracks to bury their roots in. They get too heavy and fall off taking every tree below them with it. It's like a domino effect all the way down the mountain. Don't ask me how trees find cracks, not like they can walk around and say hey this is a good spot I'll plant here. He never quite explained that to me...
Okay so back to the trip. We loaded the boat and Meribeth and I sat in the very front so we could see everything. The guide came up to us and warned us that the anchor was on that side of the boat so it might cause a little spray and get us wet. We were like oh okay a little spray, no problem, we can handle it. Well as the boat took off we got a little spray in the face and it was so windy you could barely keep your eyes open, so we moved behind the inside cabiin so it would block the wind from us. Just as we got up this tsunami of a wave hit our seats and soaked the whole side of the boat we were sititng on. Talk about timing! The guide said aren't you glad you weren't sitting there now. I said well you said a little spray would hit us, you didn't say the whole ocean would try and jump in the boat. He apoligized and said he is used to living in water all year round so a little spray to him might be a little more water to other people. Ya, just a little... haha
So we made our way to some new seats that we were sure to stay dry because it was freezing. The view was just spectacular. I can honestly say the most beautiful and amazing thing I have ever seen. The pictures I have taken do it no justice. The water is a teal blue, huge waterfalls cascade down the sides of the mountains, and the moutnains are so talll you practically have to lay down on your back to see the tops. The shocking thing is your eyes can't even take it all in, the moutnains are higher than they even appear to your eyes. There was a water fall coming off the moutain that is three times the size of niagra falls and it wasn't even covering the whole mountain.
Clouds sat on the water and drifted in and out. At one point you couldn't see a thing because the clouds took over the sound. Once we came out of the cloud the water was once again visible and the giant mountains took over! The only place there was not a mountain was where the water led out into the ocean.
Sitting on some rocks was a group of seals sunbathing. There must have been about 15 of them laying on a rock so peacefully. Their coats must really keep them warm! As we were leaving the rock with all the seals on them, our captain called out that we had dolphins riding the bow line of our boat. Everyone in the boat (which there was about 15-20 of us) sprinted to the front of the boat to catch of a view of the bottlenose dolphin.
They were directly underneath the front of the boat. There were probably about 5 of them. they swim in the bow line of the boats because they don't have to do as much work. The water being pushed from the boat helps them swim. They never stop swimming from the day they are born to the day they die. They just shut off half their brain at a time or something like that. The dolphins weaved through the water so gracefully, every couple of seconds they made a jump out of the water. I blindly took pictures of the water hoping I would catch one jump out at just the right time. I did get a few. Over to the left of the boat the dolphins were swimming in sync with each other. There were about 2 of them, one was a baby, and they jumped in and out of the water staying in line with the boat. It was beautiful. the little baby not quite making it out as far as the mom. It just made my day! The guide said about 1 in every 4 groups gets to see dolphins. so it was our lucky day!!
The dolphins left us and it was very cold so I decided to go sit inside and watch the views from the window. There was a large building over on the side of the sound and I thought what the heck is out here?? I wonder what they use that for. As we got closer I realized, we had turned around, and that was the wharf we started out at. These boats are sneaky with their turns. I had no idea!
So we were back, we took a few more pictures and then headed off to the car. It was about a 2 hour drive back to the nearest town. we decided to check out the restaraunt to see if we wanted to eat there. It was pretty pricey so we decided on waiting until we got to town.
We got to Te Anau, which is known for the starting point for long hikes. The Milford track is one of the most famous. I'm not sure how long it is or where it goes, but I imagine it makes it's way to the Milford sound and it takes like a week or something like that.
Once we got there we checked into a hostel and found somewhere to eat. We chose and Italian place. Meribeth got some pasta and i got some apricot chicken thing. I thought I was getting pasta but it was a pizza. haha well at least I'm trying new things. It was wonderful too. It was chicken and some vegetables and it had an apricot type sauce on it. Mmmm it was good.
We were pretty tired so we went back to the hostel and checked out internet. Meribeth went down to the lake to write in her journal. I went to look for her and couldn't find her, so I went and looked for her in her room but no sign. I was walking out when I saw a newspaper. I decided to sit and read it for a little while.
At that time a couple of guys walked in, a few minutes later they started talking to me. They were a little bit older and they were getting ready for a 4 day long fishing trip up in the moutains. There plan was to have a helicopter drop them in to a certain part of the river and then they would fish for 4 days and come back out. The funny part to me was they don't even keep the fish. They fish and then throw them back. They were going to fish for trout which I guess gets huge here.
Meribeth came back and sat down with us. We ended up talking for about 4 hours. It was 1:30 when I finally went back to my room. Meribeth and I had to have seperate rooms because she didn't have any available together. There were 3 guys in my room, but they were all gone by the time I woke up in the morning. My guess is they were there for the hikes.
The next morning we woke up, took showers, and got ready to head to the next town. I was walking out to the car when I saw the guys from lsat night. It was about 10 in the morning so I figured that something was wrong if they haven't left yet. I know fishers like to get started early. Apparently, the helicopter service isn't allowed to take fisherman up the moutains. For some reason it's okay to take hunters, but not fisherman. So that was kind of weird. They found a guy that would take them in a boat, but they weren't sure how long it took or any of the details so they had to work it all out. They were determined to make it work. It would have cost them about $1300 to take a helicopter, so maybe the boat was better for them anyways.
We decided to leave Te Anau and head straight to Dunedin. There was nt much to do in Te Anau except for the long hikes, and we were still sad from leaving Queenstown so we weren't in the mood to go search for something to do.

New Zealand day 8 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand day 7 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-20:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=37&entryid=45824 2007-02-20T10:47:30Z 2007-02-20T10:47:30Z Saturday night was a long night, but we woke up bright and early getting ready to jump off a bridge. We got dressed and headed into town where the bus was going to pick us up. There were about 18 people at the office all ready to go bungy jumping. The guy picked us up in the bus and we headed about 25 minutes out of town to the bungy jumping bridge. The bridge is very old and only used ... Saturday night was a long night, but we woke up bright and early getting ready to jump off a bridge. We got dressed and headed into town where the bus was going to pick us up.
There were about 18 people at the office all ready to go bungy jumping. The guy picked us up in the bus and we headed about 25 minutes out of town to the bungy jumping bridge.
The bridge is very old and only used for bungy jumping. It was the very first spot for bungy jumping in the world. It is 43 meters high which is about 140 feet high or something like that. I am so nervous at this point. My hands were shaking and I just had a huge pit in my stomach.
We got to the site and they take your weight and you have to sign a waiver saying it's not their fault if you die. you're the stupid idiot jumping off a bridge. lol. Actually a few people in Queensland said it was one of the safest things you can do out of all the activities.
So after that we headed to the bridge. We all lined up ready to go and watched the people in front of us go. Meribeth got to the front. they suited her up and she just jumped.
It was my turn next. You go down to a small platform and two guys help suit you up. They give you a harness around your waist, and then they lay a towel out to put around your feet. You think oh my god would if my feet slip out of this towel. Outside of the towel they put some bungy cord type things around your feet. One of them connects to the harness around your waist. I told the guy I was really scared and he said okay well my job is to get you off the bridge. So I stood up and he helped me to the edge. It was so scary thinking I actually have to jump off the bridge with a river flowing beneath me.
so I walked to the very edge with my toes slightly hanging off. Then he says look at the camera and wave to the spectators. by the time I had tears in my eyes because i was so scared. The guys says to me of course you're scared. It's not natural to jump off a bridge. he says he's going backwarsd from 5 and then I jump. Okay 5-4-3-2-1...No jump. The guy looks down and says where have you gone? haha It was really cute in his new zealand accent. I started to laugh so it made me alittle less nervous. I get ready again and this time I stared out across the river instead of down. He counts again and I just jumped! It was the craziest feeling I've ever experienced. You just free fall down in the air. Just as I was about to touch the water the bungy pulled me back up and I bounced a few times. It was an amazing feeling. After that you feel so stupid for taking so long to do it. I loved it! After you stop bouncing they lower you down and two guys in a boat drift over to you and disconnect you. You then walk up a large walkway to the top where a veiwing area is. The funny thing is that they have t.v.s so everyone can hear what the guy at the top is telling people before they jump. so Meribeth got to hear it all and she said she was a little nervous I wasn't going to do it. A guy a few people back from me backed out, so that was sad because you don't get a refund.
We ended up getting a free dvd because we went for the 9:00 a.m. tour. Apparently, nobody books the morning times so they needed an incentive. I think everyone is usually too hung over to go that early. they also give you a free t shirt and you see at least two people a day wearing these shirts.
So it was over pretty quick and we were back on the bus at 11 a.m. So we went back to the hostel and took another nap. When we woke up we decided we wanted to do a little hike. Two of the American guys we had been hanging out with decided to go with us. so we went out to a small town called Glenorchy. It had about 4 buildings total in the whole town and I think about 40 people live there. On our way out we decided to stop at a viewpoint of the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! Unbelievable really.
We got back in teh car and I realized I had left my camera case on the top of the roof. Goodbye camera case! I was pretty sad but I let it go. So we get to Glenorchy and we realize wow we really really need gas. It was on empty and the light was already on. Apparently, those 40 people that live in the town don't need gas after 6 because the gas station was closed. We decided to go down to the lake and skip some rocks and then we went for alittle hike.
We went back into town and had some food and beer at a local bar/cafe. It was pretty good. It was so quiet and peaceful and the townspeople were really nice.
After that it was time to make the drive back into Queenstown. It was about a 35 minute drive so we were really pushing it with the gas. On our way back I told everyone to keep an eye out for my camera case just in case. They all laughed at me and made fun of me for thinking we would find it.
The guy in the back seat and I were looking out the window when this little black square thing was on the side of the road. I screamed for Meribeth to pull over and I ran out. Sure enough it was my camera case. It was in great shape, not ran over or anything. I was so happy!
So we got back into town on fumes and pulled up to the closest gas station (petrol station they call them here). We decided to get some wine and go sit in the hot tub at the hostel for a while.
We got the wine got our swim suits and went and hung out in the spa. The stars are absolutely amazing here and you can see the milky way and just about every star ever created in the sky. I really wish I can explain the beauty of new zealand but there really are no words for it.
So we talked about America and New Zealand and everything in between.
After we got out we talked for a while more and then headed to bed. The next day we were leaving Queenstown and heading to Milford sound. We were really sad to leave Queenstown. We had made some great friends, did so many great things, and absolutely loved the scenery. I fell in love with Queenstown!

New Zealand day 7 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand day 6 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-19:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=36&entryid=45630 2007-02-19T08:42:03Z 2007-02-19T08:42:03Z Today we woke up at about 7 a.m. because we had to go into town and check in for our river surfing group. We checked in and a bus came and picked us up. We drove out of town for about 40 minutes. It was a very scenic route with the river flowing almost the whole way and all the mountains cascading along the road. We passed the bridge that we were bungee jumping off. It was pretty high so ... Today we woke up at about 7 a.m. because we had to go into town and check in for our river surfing group. We checked in and a bus came and picked us up. We drove out of town for about 40 minutes. It was a very scenic route with the river flowing almost the whole way and all the mountains cascading along the road. We passed the bridge that we were bungee jumping off. It was pretty high so that got us a little nervous.
We finally ended up at a little mock gold mining city, where they run tours at. The river surfing group stores their gear there. So we walked back to the very back and got suited up with wet suits, boots, flippers, helmets, and boogie boards.
My boogie board was a blue piece of styrofome! It was not the most comforting thing, to jump in a river that is about 15 degrees celcius and the only thing I have to hold on to is a boogie board. So I'm really nervous by this time. We headed up to the bus and went up the river about 7 kilometers. We all unloaded and the first thing we had to do was jump in the water to get our bodies used to it. This river is the water that comes from the mountains when the snow melts. So even with wet suits on it still feels like you're sitting in a bucket of ice. Sure enough you do get used to it and we were ready to move on to the lesson.
For about 20 minutes they show you how to turn and what parts of the river to stay on. The guide in the front has hand motions and he tells you which way to go and we all have to stay behind him so he can tell us what to do. Easy enough...
So we try a few moves in the water (very slow moving water) so we can get a feel for how it works. You have to point the board in certain directions and kick like there is no tomorrow. It was actually pretty physical stuff.
So everyone did fine in the practice so we were ready to go down the river. There were 3 guides, one to take pictures, one to lead the group, and the other to stay behind and help the stragglers. I was determined not to be a straggler. The guide in the front said anyone that is nervous come to the front. I'm not sure if I've ever moved that fast in the water before to get in the front. Maybe when I saw the jelly fish but it's a close race.
So I was right behind the guide and we were ready to go. It was smooth sailing for about 2 seconds and then bang! The water comes over the top of you and pushed you every which way. You're supposed to turn and go with the water, but it's pretty scary when you have really no control of where you're going or what you're doing. They forgot to mention to that you can't see the arm motions the guide is doing, when your face is underwater. haha so it was an interesting start.
I was no longer in the front but drifting toward the center of the group. There were about 10 of us and since we had no control of where we went, we were all crashing into each other. I pretty much piggy backed my way down half the river. Lets just say we all became very special friends in the river that day. haha.
So anyways, we pass the first set of rapids and I think hmm this is pretty fun, I'm doing okay. Kicking is getting pretty tiring because I just tried to kick my way out of everything instead of turning and flowing with the water, but it was good stuff. Then he says okay everyone line up we're going through maneater.
This rapid was incredible. It was a small drop and then we were all just lost from there. All I could do was hold on to my board for dear life. I hit the rapid and my board flew up in the air, and I was right on top of it because I was not about to let go. It flipped me backwards so I was under the board. Then it drags you under water, spins, you around, and all of the sudden you are out of the rapid.
That was pretty intense, it was hard to come out of that and go right back to trying to turn and stay on your board. So yep I became a straggler. The guide in the back had to pull me out of a whirl pool because I started to spin towards the middle of it. Then he went down a little ways with me. There was an area where there were huge rocks sticking out of the water. This is phenomenal to me because the river was about 8 meters deep so about 25 feet deep. So we get going and I'm kicking like a mad woman and just not going anywhere, so the guide pushed me away from the rocks.
It went okay. I made it. We went through a few more rapids and then the water was calm. So we floated on our boards for about 20 minutes. It was beautiful and relaxing. You didn't have to do any work because the river just carried you. We just rested on our boards. It was great because I was getting a massive cramp in my calf from kicking and the water being so cold.
One of the guides went and got a jet ski, and one by one he towed us around the river on a large styrofome looking thing. It was really fun. He gave everyone about a 10 minute turn. The river is fun because there's waves and bumps and twists. It was great.
After everyone got a turn we came to a point where we could go rock jumping. We had life jackets on and helmets so it was pretty safe. The rocks were 5 meters up, 12 meters up, 17 meters, and 23 meters up. There are about 2.3 feet in a meter I think? Something like that. So we all did the 12 meter rock jump. Meribeth went first. I was supposed to go next but I wanted to see a few more people do it. It was my turn and I got to the rock and said okay someone else go then I'll go. So another guy went then I got back out to the ledge.
It is a crazy feeling thinking you are going to jump off a rock. It was about 40 feet up. So I got to the ledge, and I think my stomach left way before the rest of my body. I figured if I can't do 12 meters there is no way I can do 43 meters bungee jumping. So I sucked it up and jumped. Wow what an incredible feeling! there was about a 2 second hang time in the air which really feels about 2 minutes. It is so amazing. I must not have kept my feet all the way straight though because the back of one of my legs and my butt felt like I just got whipped with a belt. It stung pretty bad, but a minor consequence from teh amazing feeling it was to jump off the rock. I went back up and did the 5 meter one but that just wasn't the same.
so next we moved on to the water slide. They have a large water slide that you get on your board and slide down into the water and skid across. I demonstrated how to go backwards so I laid down on my boogie board backwards. It was pretty fun. then the guide with the jet ski comes and drags you into shore where there is a ladder waiting for you.
Next we moved on to the rope swing. This is about 30-40 feet about the water and you jump on this little buoy and swing across the river. I didn't really get the whole swing across the river memo because I got on and jumped off the platform with the swing and as soon as the swing got close to the water I fell in. haha. The guide at the top said what was that?! So I had to have another turn. this time I swung all the way across and let go when I was pretty high in the air. hitting the water felt like someone just punched me in the ribs. I had to gasp for air a few times and it took a minute or so to catch my breath. I didn't really like the swing after that...
After that we unloaded all the gear and headed back for home. We got a cd with all the pictures that were taken.
When we got back to the hostel it was time for a nap. We slept for an hour or so and then decided to go for a drive. We drove to a little town called arrowtown but it was pretty much all closed up.
We went to a bottle shop and bought a bottle of wine becaus New Zealand is supposed to have great wine. then we got some cheese and crackers and headed towards the middle of Queenstown. We drank wine and ate cheese and crackers on the lawn overlooking a lake surrounded my mountains. It was absolutely beautiful.
We headed back to the hostel met up with some people we met and went out on the town. We went to a few bars and mostly hung out with other Americans. We tried a few New Zealand beers and hung out at a few different bars.
It was a great time. Meribeth and I fell in love with Queenstown. The next day it was time to jump off a bridge!

New Zealand day 6 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand day 5 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-16:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=35&entryid=45208 2007-02-17T04:45:56Z 2007-02-17T04:45:56Z We woke up bright and early and ready to hit the road. We checked out of the hostel and started towards Queenstown. It was about a 5 hour drive. We stopped a few times for gas and toilets. Gas is ridiculous expensive here. To fill up a tank of a station wagon it costs about $70. It is just crazy. The ride was beautiful. There were neverending lakes and moutains for miles. Some of the mountains still had snow on ... We woke up bright and early and ready to hit the road. We checked out of the hostel and started towards Queenstown. It was about a 5 hour drive. We stopped a few times for gas and toilets. Gas is ridiculous expensive here. To fill up a tank of a station wagon it costs about $70. It is just crazy.
The ride was beautiful. There were neverending lakes and moutains for miles. Some of the mountains still had snow on them. A lot of the mountains on the way down were a lot drier down this way. WE think it is because it gets so much snow but we're not sure. Still beautiful nonetheless.
Once we got to Queenstown we checked into our hostel and right away we booked river surfing, bungee jumping, and a cruise through milford sounds. Queenstown is right on a lake with mountains surrounding it from every direction. Some mountains are green, some are dry, and some have snow on it, depending on which direction you look. It is absolutely amazing. Kind of reminds me of Lake Tahoe. The water of the lake is crystal clear blue. I've never seen anything like it.
We took a walk around town and made our way up to the gondola. The gondola is super high. I can't even tell you how high it goes up, I will have to find out and write it later. Once you're up there you can see for miles and miles, well until you can't see passed the mountains. It is so beautiful. you can see the lake with boats zipping around, and a small area of houses, and more mountains of course. It's too beautiful to explain. I will have to post pictures when I get to my computer.
There was a wedding reception going on at the time. I couldn't imagine getting married up there. MAn those people must be rich!
At the very top of the gondola there is a paved luge that you can ride down. So you take another chair lift up another 800 meters, and you ride these little 3 wheeler cars down to the gondola. It was great fun! Took a minute to get used to but you can go as fast or as slow as you want and the course weaves around the mountain so it takes a little while to go down. The view was spectacular as you are going down as well. We learned later that more people get hurt doing this little luge, than they do river surfing, sky diving, bungee jumping, and everything else this little town has to offer. We had to laugh about that one because it's like go carts. some people do stupid things I guess.
So after that we walked around for literally 45 minutes, trying to find a restaraunt we were happy eating at. We just couldn't decided. WE decided on a pizza place and at some amzing pizza. We also tried a NEw Zealand beer called Tui which was not too exciting.
We came back to the hostel got dressed to go out and made our way down to the buffalo bar where we could get free beer with our hostel key card. We went with a bunch of people from the hostel and it was a lot of fun. After about 2 beers we were ready to go though because we had to be up super early. We headed back to the hostel and met two Australians that are from about 20 minutes south of Brisbane. So we ended up talking with them for about 1 hour and a half. They were great fun but we were ready for bed. So we headed back. We had to get ready for river surfing so we ended up going to bed about 2:30. REady to get up about 7 am. Fun times!

New Zealand day 5 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand- Day 4 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-16:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=34&entryid=45200 2007-02-17T04:32:41Z 2007-02-17T04:32:41Z Well I figured I better keep up with this before I forget everything. I've been doing so much! Thursday we went up the San Josef Glacier. We got up early headed down to the shop and waited for the group to get ready. Just a little background information. The Glacier is a huge block of ice that is 11 kilometers long, which I guess is about 8 miles long. 4 kilometers is visible from the bottom and the rest is ... Well I figured I better keep up with this before I forget everything. I've been doing so much!

Thursday we went up the San Josef Glacier. We got up early headed down to the shop and waited for the group to get ready.
Just a little background information. The Glacier is a huge block of ice that is 11 kilometers long, which I guess is about 8 miles long. 4 kilometers is visible from the bottom and the rest is spread amongst the back behind the mountains. Some guy with the last name Haast named the glacier Franz Josef because it reminded him of Franz Josef (sorry I forget waht country he was from) and his long white beard. The glacier moves about 3 to 4 meters a day, so one track that someone used earlier in the day might not be the same when the next group goes through.
So back to my day... It was a nice sunny day so they let us have the choice whether or not we wanted to have over pants that were somewhat waterproof. Meribeth and I opted to have the pants because all I had on were running tights. We also geared up with boots, large rain jackets, gloves, beanies, and ice spikes to go on the bottom of our feet. Once we were all geared up we headed up to the glacier. It was about a 10 minute ride.
WE signed up for a full day which ended up being about 6 hours on the ice and we ended up walking around 16 kilomters which I think would be equivalent to about 9 or 10 miles. So it was a long tiring hike.
First we had to walk about 50 minutes through the valley to get up the glacier, then you stop and put on your ice spikes so you can walk on the ice and not slip all over the place.
We made our way up to the start of the glacier and started our climb. First there are large steps and hand ropes to make it up the first part because it is rather steep. Supposedly, it is the steepest glacier in the world that is used commericially. So we walked up the large stairs and took lots of pictures. The glacier looked like huge mounds of snow that ended in a point. I just wanted to run and jump on the mounds, but in acutality they were large pieces of white and sometimes black dirt. The rocks and debris fall down from the mountains surrounding it.
I forgot at the beginning of the glacier there is this large ice cave at the very bottom. Makes you think you are walking on a hollow glaicer that you can fall through any minute. We were reassured that rock sometimes goes higher so it's not all like that but there are parts where it's ice and then air at the bottom. Pretty scary to think about. The cave had mounds and mounds of ice that had broken off at the bottom of the cave. Our tour guide said they weren't there yesterday, so that's how fast the glacier ice falls off the bottom.
So anyways, we were up passed the stairs and we began our hike into the top where there are no stairs, and the tour guide had to take a huge ice pick and form small stairs for us. Most of the time only one foot fit on the stairs and we had to go up one foot at a time trying to step up. It was necessary to use your hands because you had to lift yourselves up sometimes.
I am so thankful that I got those pants over the top of my pants because I was freezing cold. AS we got to the top it got really really cold, as you can imagine sitting on miles of ice. AT one point the guide said the ice below us was about 400 meters deep.
On the glacier they get an annual rain drop of about 7 meters. That is 21 feet of rain in one year. Towards the back of the glaicer they get something like 80 meters of rain and snow a year. So it's pretty crazy, and that is how it stays a huge block of ice.
Up at the top we had to go through little tunnels and sometimes ditches that we could barely fit in. I'm not sure how people much bigger than me fit through because I felt like a size 10 foot fitting into a size 4 shoe. It was just crazy. Luckily you slide through ice so you can jiggle yourself through. We had to take our backpacks off and go one foot at a time through some of these ditches.
Some of the places we went were just inches away from huge holes that you couldn't even see where they went. The top layer of the ice was melting as well so there were small waterfalls everywhere.
We zig zagged back and forth back and forth. So it fet like we were lost and never going to come down.
I was more than ready to come down after a while because it is tiring and you are freezing cold. At one point I slipped and fell, and let me tell you...ice hurts! I have a huge bruise on my shin that matched the bruise I got from kakadu the week before.
It was cold, and the bad part of the trip is you had to stop sooooo many times so the guide could make out a new path for us to go through. There was one group ahead of us so we kind of used theres but we had to stop so much so she could make a path for us.
Otherwise it was amazing. Truly beautiful. some parts were sky blue, some parts were pure white, and others were dirty from all the debris falling from the mountains. Everyday is a life threatening situation around here let me tell you. One slip and you could fall to the ground, rocks could suddenly fall and collapse on you. It's just amazing that more accidents don't happen around here.
On our way off the glacier another large mass of ice fell from the cave and you could feel the rumble and shake as it fell off and hit the ground. It was so scary I almost made a new shade of yellow ice on the glacier. haha j/k but it was a pretty scary feeling.
We finally made our way down and we took of the ice spikes and headed back to the bus.
We turned all our gear in. Meribeth and I had to check into a new hostel and so we headed there showered, cooked some food in the kitchen at the hostel, used the internet and pretty much went to bed. It was exhausting! Next morning we headed to Queenstown.

New Zealand- Day 4 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Day 3 New Zealand tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-14:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=33&entryid=44791 2007-02-15T06:55:28Z 2007-02-15T06:55:28Z Today we woke up bright and early to go caving. We got dressed and left our favorite hostel so far on the trip. We met up with the tour guide took care of paperwork and then we had to get dressed. Apparently it is freezing cold in the caves so we got wet suits, wet suit jackets, socks, rubber sock things, another pair of socks to go over those, and gum boots. Gum boots are these little rubbery boots you ... Today we woke up bright and early to go caving. We got dressed and left our favorite hostel so far on the trip. We met up with the tour guide took care of paperwork and then we had to get dressed. Apparently it is freezing cold in the caves so we got wet suits, wet suit jackets, socks, rubber sock things, another pair of socks to go over those, and gum boots. Gum boots are these little rubbery boots you wear, I guess you can think of them as fishing boots. We also had a helmet with a light on the top of it so we could see in the cave. As you can imagine we were looking pretty hot!
The cave was about a 10 minute drive out of town and a 30-40 minute hike through the bush. We loaded into a mini bus and headed out. There were 4 Australian people who were coupled up and an asian couple. Then there was the two of us. It was Valentines day and I don't think that they celebrate it here but everybody was coupled up so it made Meribeth and me think of it even more.
We walked through the bush, over some bridges, through the mud, and down to the cave. We turned on our lights and headed in. It was pretty cool. We just walked straight through the water. You couldn't really see where you were stepping so you had to trust you weren't going to fall down a big hole.
Now before we did this a girl from home had told us that a flood came into the cave and all the people drowned. So that was intersting to know that as we were walking through this cave. haha.
So we had to make our way through the cave up and over rocks. It was quite a good hike. There was a small waterfall that went straight down into a small hole formed by the rocks. The water was quite deep at this section so we had to tuck ourselves into a ball and basically fall straight down the waterfall. don't let me fool you the waterfall was about 4 feet high but the water was really deep underneath and that was completely unexpected since the rest of teh cave is only about ankle to thigh deep. So I was shocked when I fell down the waterfall and got completely dunked underwater. The water was ice cold as well. It is after all water that is underground. It was shocking when the water came over my face. It was so much fun though!
After that we grabbed some inner tubes and floated down a very narrow river path through the pitch black cave with our lights off. It was an amzing experience. Tehre were small glow worms and the top of the cave that gave off the only light in the whole place.
The glow worms live there and they turn their light on when they're hungary so insects are attracted to them. They release a small fishing wire type substance that the insects get stuck to, and that's how they survive. They're very tiny and they look like a children's lite bright.
We got off the tubes and headed down as far as we could go before the cave was completely filled up with water. Then we sat and had al ittle break with a candy bar and some hot chocolate.
We headed back and repeated the process until we got about 3/4 of the way out of the cave. We then went through a place that was called the "love tunnel." The love tunnel was a different way through the cave that was very tight. We had to crawl through on our hands and knees pretty much the whole way and wiggle our way through a small hole on the other side. I couldn't imagine anyone too big trying to fit through this cave.
We made our way back out of the cave and up to what they called their natural hydroslide. Which is basically a natural waterslide. It was a long smooth (ish) rock that had water runnign down it. Meribeth went first and had a pretty decent ride. You have to do everything exactly right or you could really hurt yourself.
The next person went down and she turned sideways and all over the place. That kind of turned people off. The next guy went and he went completely sideways, his helmet flew off as he landed in the puddle at the bottom. Everyone went running after him! He looked like he was going to kill himself. I went running half way down the hill before I realized I really do want to try it. So it's my turn and I sit down on the mat and give myself a push. I let go of the mat and slid off of it going sideways down the hill. I'm really suprised I didn't kill myself. But it was a blast and I'm glad I went back up and did it.
We got back in this military looking truck and headed back to the office. There they gave us a glass of wine and we got to sit in the spa, while they showed us a slide show of the pictures they took. It was great fun. We then had a shower at there facilities and headed on our way to Franz Josef.
We stopped at a small town for a second and then headed off again. Well apparently, I was headed out al ittle too fast and I went around a corner and falied to stay in my lane. Word of advice, don't do it in front of police! Yep, I got pulled over and got a ticket in a different country. Not too many people can say that! The cop only gave me a ticket for failing to stay in my lane. BEcause I was only going 114 kph in a 100kph zone. That is really only like 8 miles over the speed limit if you do the math. So ya lucky me. haha. Oh well you live and learn. It's not going to spoil my trip. I know mom...I'll be more careful.
AFter that we went out to a look out space that turned out not to be a lookout point just an old harbor or something. So we headed to shanty town.
Shanty town is a little town that has been here for a long long time. They used to gold mine in Shantytown. So we got to gold mine in the little wooden, well I don't really know what to call them. We got to gold pan I should say. It was a fun little experience. We went through a little mock town of what it was like in the olden days. They had a fire house with a manual hose and a little firetruck they used back in the early 1800's. It was really cool. I have picture. I got a lot because I figured Jason would be interested.
It was a fun little experience but we had to get back on the road. So we headed to Franz Josef. Franz Josef is the glacier. We had a glacier hike scheduled for the morning. We called the hostel we were supposed to stay in because we were lost.
Well it turns out that I organized accomodation in a completely different town. I felt really awful because it was this really nice old man, and it was pretty obvious they didn't get many customers. He was probably thrilled that I called and needed two beds. So I felt really awful that we had to tell him we weren't going to make it.
The second problem was every hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, and hostel were fully booked! We looked everywhere. Finally I walked into a place and gave him the big puppy dog eyes and told him we couldn't find anywhere and I had booked in the wrong city. He called a friend from another place and they hooked us up with a double bed private room at a backpackers. Apparently they saved it as an emergency room but the girl was ready to go home and wanted to give it away before she left. So we were saved. We hung out made some dinner, watched some t.v., and went to sleep.
Tomorrow we are going on a full day glacier hike. What an amazing experience!

Day 3 New Zealand remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Day 2 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-13:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=32&entryid=44473 2007-02-13T10:01:09Z 2007-02-13T10:01:09Z We woke up at 8 and were out of the hostel by 9. We decided to get an early start to Hamner Springs. We heard there were thermal pools so we couldnt' wait to jump in them. Especially in the freezing cold weather. So we drove off into the mountains once again. The sad part was the way we had to go was the 2 hour scenic route we decided to take the day before. So once again we saw ... We woke up at 8 and were out of the hostel by 9. We decided to get an early start to Hamner Springs. We heard there were thermal pools so we couldnt' wait to jump in them. Especially in the freezing cold weather. So we drove off into the mountains once again. The sad part was the way we had to go was the 2 hour scenic route we decided to take the day before. So once again we saw the deer and the hills, which pretty makes up all of New Zealand. It just wouldnt be a rode in New Zealand if it didn't turn every couple of meters.
WE arrived in Hamner springs and saw the Thermal pool entrance. we were so excited and we walked up and it was just man made pools that a bunch of old people were floating in. It was not at all what we imagined. We imagined small little pools in the mountains that were made by nature. Instead we found man made pools with a few rocks placed around them to look like nature. We decided it was not worth $12 or our time to sit in a small heated pool. So we decided to go to a 30 minute climb to the top of Conical hill. The hike was straight up hit so it was quite a work out. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. you could see for miles and miles. There were small houses below that outlined very small countrylike towns. It overlooked 3 or 4 small towns which looked like about 500 people lived in each. In the background in all directions was hills and mountains. Beautiful green trees where everywhere in all different shades of green. It was absolutely stunning. WE stayed up there for a while to take it all in before we hiked back down.
WE decided to stop in the library to use the internet to book the next two days.
It was time to hit the next destination. We were off to Greymouth. Greymouth was another 3 1/2 miles across the country east to west. We arrived and found our hostel that we had booked earlier that day. It was a great hostel with cute litte rooms. The theme was somewhat myan or aboriginal. It had masks and Myan looking designs all around. There was a spa, free bikes, kayaks, a bbq, and a fire pit. It was an awesome backpackers. The best I have stayed in yet.
On our little tour around the hostel we saw the kayaks and immediately ran to our room changed and hopped in the kayak. We rode down a little river in the back of the hostel. Another girl was getting in at the same time so we rode with her a little bit.
We went for about an hour then it was time to head of to see the pancake rocks.
The pancake rocks were about a 40 minute drive. We made our way out there to see these rocks that were stacked like pancakes. We arrived and took the walk down to the rocks on the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. The sun was setting and it made the sky an amazing orange that coated the sky right about the water and the rocks. It was truely picture perfect, and I have the pictures to prove it.
We hung out by the pancake rocks for a while. Hight tide was at 8:30 and sunset was at 8:45. So we wanted to see both. The rocks looked like giant pancakes stacked on top of each other. They were everywhere. There were caves underneath in some places. In one place the top of a cave caved in and it formed what they call the blow hole. At high tide the water comes up through the hole and spouts out. unfortunately it didn't do that while we were watchign so we missed out. It was quite impressive nonetheless.
As were there we met two people from America that were doing a mission across New Zealand to I guess spread the word about Jesus. For a few minutes she tried to convince me to read the bible and wanted me to go the hostel with her so she could give me a travel bible.
A little bit after that we started talking about New Zealand and places they have been and all that kind of stuff. It was nice to hear from other Americans.
After that we headed back to the hostel and something jumped out in the middle of the road. It was a possum. not the ugly ones we have, but a cute and innocent one just walking across the street. And I ran right into it!! There was nothing I could do, I tried to swerve but these roads are so narrow I would have driven straight off the side. Oh it was the saddest thing I've ever done. What a horrible feeling too as it made a clunk a few times as we ran over it. Oh it was just so sad.
We are back at the hostel safely now. Just hanging out in the lounge and writing on the internet. Tomorrow we are going caving with intertubes and glow worms. I will write about it when I get a chance. Thursday we are doing a full day glacier walk and Friday we are in queenstown! We are thinking of bungee jumping. So that's it for now and I will keep you posted on my travels. For now I'm signing out and freezing in New Zealand. =)

Day 2 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> New Zealand -Day 1 tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-13:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=31&entryid=44470 2007-02-13T09:41:08Z 2007-02-13T09:41:08Z We left for the airport about 3:00 only to turn around to get Meribeth's passport. The two of us are one forgetful duo! We went through the check in line at Pacific blue airlines and the guy joked with us that we couldn't get through. haha funny... Anyways, the flight was quick and again Meribeth forgot her flight paperwork and our rental car paperwork at the airport so we had to convince customs she was on the same flight as ... We left for the airport about 3:00 only to turn around to get Meribeth's passport. The two of us are one forgetful duo! We went through the check in line at Pacific blue airlines and the guy joked with us that we couldn't get through. haha funny... Anyways, the flight was quick and again Meribeth forgot her flight paperwork and our rental car paperwork at the airport so we had to convince customs she was on the same flight as me. We made it through okay and got to the hostel.
The hostel was just a basic hostel so we went to bed for a good start.
Day 1-

We woke up about 9:00 ready to get our rental car at 10. We were in Christchurch and it was a very quaint small town with a small cathedral in the center of town. it was under construction so it was not too cute at the moment. The weather was absolutely freezing! I ran next store to a souveneir shop to purchase a beanie and some gloves. Good purchase! We waited and the car didn't come. So we decided we probably told them 11. Meanwhile Meribeth went to try and track down what company we used so we could give them a call. We couldn't figure it out so we waited and waited. Finally at about 12:30 we found the right company and it turns out our hostel told the company we weren't staying there, so the rental company never came! Talk about annoying. So we were finally on our way. I drove first and we decided to stop at a beach on the way called Amberely beach.
The beach was ugly black filled with rocks. It was freezing cold so we decided to only stay for a minute.
We jumped back in the car and thought it would be a lot of fun to take a scenic route. Well what a mistake that was. For one it's New Zealand, every route is scenic whether it tries to be or not. SEcond, it took us 2 hours out of the way!!
It was nice though with rolling hills covered in every different shade or green you can imagine covered with white specs which as you drive closer turn into sheep. People told us there were sheep here but wow! There are sheep on the road, behind fences, getting sheered, just absolutely everywhere. We also saw a huge farm full of deer which was cool and unusual. WE decided that NEw Zealand was more like California then Australia.
We finally got to Kaikoura and it was just one street. We had dinner at a cute little bar and grill. I had a great vegetable stir fry. After dinner we found a hostel to stay in that was just a building with some rooms thrown in it. We were tired so we pretty much went straight to bed. The next day we were heading to Hamner springs. So until then...

New Zealand -Day 1 remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> The last couple of weeks tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-02-03:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=29&entryid=42578 2007-02-03T23:21:07Z 2007-02-03T23:21:07Z Its' been a while since I have written anything. It's been pretty crazy over here. A lot has been happening. Thursday January 25th we started softball again. So I was at practice and a few people said oh it's going to rain. I was in the middle of a pitching lesson and we saw some dark clouds forming. The clouds looked like there was a huge fire with black smoke filling the sky. About 2 minutes later it started raining ... Its' been a while since I have written anything. It's been pretty crazy over here. A lot has been happening.
Thursday January 25th we started softball again. So I was at practice and a few people said oh it's going to rain. I was in the middle of a pitching lesson and we saw some dark clouds forming. The clouds looked like there was a huge fire with black smoke filling the sky. About 2 minutes later it started raining on us. When I say raining I mean God took the biggest bucket he could find and dumped it straight over our heads. I had to run about 15 feet to get to a cover and I was soaked by the time I got there. The storm lasted for about 45 minutes and there was nothing we could do but wait it out. It was way too hard to start to drive in. the whole place around us turned into one giant river. Water was gushing out everywhere. I have never seen a storm so hard in my life.
so we ended softball early obviously and I jumped in the car with our friend Tek. The next day was Australia day so she was going to take Meribeth and I with her to the damn for some jet skiing. Australia day is like our 4th of July.
We woke up early in the morning and headed up to the damn. they are in such a big drought here that the damn is only 20% full.
Now I really don't understand how in the world this place is in a drought because it rains almost every day here. It rains harder than I have ever seen in my life. If you dug a whole it would be a swimming pool in an hour. So somebody screwed up horribly when designing their water systems here. now they're talking about people drinking recycled sewage water. Man I hope that doesn't go into effect until April 2nd.
Anyways, so we get up to the damn and unload some stuff and put the jet ski in the water. Tek has two little kids, Tiana whose 7 and Corey whose 2 1/2. We rode on a thing called a ski bob which is like banana shaped and you straddle the thing, and personally I think the point of it is to see whose knees break first but that's just me. We did some wakeboarding and I actually got up a few times so that was a lot of fun. I got so excited that I was up out of the water that I would forget you still had to stay up.
We had a great time enojoying the water and the heat.
After the damn we went straight over to a bbq at our friend Grunters house. We ate some good food and just hung out with a lot of the friends we made. It was nice but nothing too crazy.
Other than that we have been doing a few things here and there. We moved out of our apartment. That went smoothly. Our landlord was really nice and friendly. Man we have a lot of stuff though. it will be interesting to see how we can get it all home.
We also stopped working. It's a wierd feeling not having a job anymore. But it's so nice too. I'm not sure how I'm going to go back and be a real person again after this trip.
Last week we went to Wet and Wild which is a water slide park. It was really fun. The water slides are pretty much exactly the same as ours but the park was a little bigger than ours I think.
We played our first softball game after the break yesterday and we lost 5-3. There is no hope of going to play-offs so we only have 3 games left.
This trip has gone by so fast I can't believe it. Tonight we leave for Darwin. IT's kind of crazy because we heard their might be a cyclone coming their way. I'm really excited though for all the experiences we have even if it's in the middle of a cyclone.

The last couple of weeks remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Moreton Island tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-18:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=28&entryid=39046 2007-01-19T01:31:17Z 2007-01-19T01:31:17Z Monica, Debbie, and Rose were on their way up to Brisbane to spend a few days up here. There are three major islands that are right of the coast of Brisbane. They are Fraiser Island, Moreton Island, and Stradbroke Island. I decided to book a day tour to Moreton Island. Monica, Debbie, and Rose showed up and I showed them around the house. Then we decided to go find them a hotel. We looked around and I thought that the ... Monica, Debbie, and Rose were on their way up to Brisbane to spend a few days up here. There are three major islands that are right of the coast of Brisbane. They are Fraiser Island, Moreton Island, and Stradbroke Island. I decided to book a day tour to Moreton Island.
Monica, Debbie, and Rose showed up and I showed them around the house. Then we decided to go find them a hotel. We looked around and I thought that the Story bridge hotel would be a good one because it's right on the river and it was a cute little place. Well come to find out, it is not really a hotel, just a pub. However, the guy at the pub recommended a place around the corner. The place was absolutely beautiful and Debbie and Rose got a great price on the place. It overlooked the whole city, bridge, botanical gardens, and everything. It was up on the 11th floor and it was just amazing.
monica stayed at my house with me and Debbie and Rose met us at 6:30 in the morning at my house. From my house we walked to the train and made our way to the transit center where we were going to get picked up by our tour guide.
We found Gate 15 and sat down to wait for the tour guide. he was a few minutes late but he finally found us. There was the 4 of us, one couple from New Zealand, one girl from Sweden, and one girl from Germany. Our guide picked us all up in a 4 wd car and we all piled into the back like it was a police van. the seats faced each other on the sides of the suv so you can pile in as many people as you can. There were 8 of us in the back.
We now had to go find 2 others that were joining us and they were being picked up at their hostel.
Our driver was a 21 year old kid and he usually did trips to a different island that left at a different port. So naturally we got totally lost. WE drove around the city for about 45 minutes bouncing around and running into each other in the back of this 4wd car. It was a pretty interesting ride.
We finally found the couple we were supposed to pick up. WE were on our way! Until we got lost again... We drove around for about 20 minutes trying to find the port. The boss that worked for the company we did the trip with went down to the port to convince the ferry to wait for us. So everybody on the ferry had to wait for our one car to make it. We drove in and drove right on the ferry and it took off right away. The guys working the ferry weren't too excited to be waiting for us.
So we unloaded out of the car and headed up to the ferry. It was going to be about an hour and a half ferry ride. The ferry was very comfortable. There was a snack bar in the center of it with very comfortable seating all the way around. There was outdoor seating as well. We went outside to the see the view. The surrounding areas were pretty ugly. It was bare with some oil rig looking contraptions and other construction equipment. So we watched the water and we looked down and there were thousands of huge blue dots in the water. They were jellyfish. They were everywhere just floating along with the current. Giant neon blue bodies bobbing through the water. It was amazing. it reminded me of the jellyfish in Finding Nemo.
We got to the island and by now we were running late because we held up the ferry. So we got going right away and dove along the beach to the main highway of the island. The main highway of the island is a sand road that is used so much that erosion has caused a pathway between the trees and shrubbery. The only way to drive on that island is with a 4wd vehicle. Most of these roads are one way paths and cars are driving from both directions. We almost hit head on with two or three cars. It's pretty scary. Even if your driver stops, it doesn't guarantee the other driver will. We managed to make it through and our first stop was up to the sand dunes for some sand tobagganing. We grabbed some sled looking things and made our way up to the top of the dune. The tourguide made us wear these awful hats while we went down the hill in case we fell off and hit our head. To be honest the helmet would have done nothing because it was this small soft thing, and it was really soft sand we were falling on. But it was a funny picture anyway.
It was really fun sledding down the sand dune, and you move pretty fast. After we finished we had to walk the board back up so someone else could go. What hike that was! If I walked up that hill 2 times everyday I would easily lose 20lbs. It was so hard. I felt like I just finised a marathon by the time I got up to the top. I had to rest 2 or 3 times. It was really hot walking up and the dune was pretty much straight up. IT was tough. Monica and Debbie also went down, Rose decided she didn't want to do it and she just took pictures.
Once we were finished we loaded up the car and headed out again. It was a fun drive. It was a very bumpy road so it was a pretty exciting drive. The drive was long and we were headed up to the light house which was the highest point on the island. It was the main land of the island and the only part of the island that wasn't sand. We finally got there and the views were beautiful. There were miles of beach below that you could see. Up over the cliff you were supposed to be able to see dolphins, turtles, or maybe even whales, but we did not see any of that. I think the day was too overcast to be able to see them. monica swears she saw something in the water but I'm not really sure. We only stayed a few minutes there and then we headed down to the beach for some lunch.
It was a beautiful beach and we just drove right onto the beach. There were a lot of people around eating lunch and enjoying the beach. The tour provided lunch so we ate chicken sandwhiches. Turkey is rarely ever used. After that we walked over to some rocks and I gave Monica my camera for her to take pictures of me. I walked over and stood on the rocks, and Monica yelled look out and a small wave of water came over half the rock so I quickly made my way over to the far side of the rocks and was posing for another picture and a huge wave came over the top of the rocks, so I ran for dear life so I didn't get soaked by the wave. Monica got a picture of me fleeing the rocks which was not quite the picture I was hoping for. oh well...
We left quickly so we could make our way over to the blue lagoon. The blue lagoon is a freshwater lake in the center of the island. There were tea oils or something like that in the water which makes it good for your skin. We were all sweaty from sitting like sardines in the back of the 4wd. So we couldn't wait to jump in. The water was so refreshing and the surroundings of the lake were beautiful. Apparently, there were no animals or anything in the water but I still didn't feel that safe in it. The ground was mushy and there were plants on the ground so it was not a nice feeling between the toes!
We swam for about a half an hour and then it was time to get back to the ferry. We left a few minutes early because we wanted to be sure we werent the people the ferry had to wait for on the way back.
We sat in line to board the ferry for about 10 minutes and I'm not even sure how but we were the second to last car on the ferry so it was a very tight squeeze. The ferry ride on the way back was very relaxing and much needed because we were pretty exhausted after running around all day.
We got back and the tourguide managed to find everything on the first try on the way back. We made our way to Debbie's hotel and ordered take out and sat and watched the few. We hung out for a while and ended up turning in pretty early because we were all exhausted. It was a great trip.

Moreton Island remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Short but sweet tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-05:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=27&entryid=37732 2007-01-06T00:23:05Z 2007-01-06T00:23:05Z This is just a short one but I had to share something that happened the other day. So I have gotten pretty lazy here in Australia. Honestly, it's bad, I have a hard time getting up in the morning and I can't for the live of me, get myself to run everyday. So I've turned over a new leaf. I am waking up at least by 8 everyday no matter what. I am making myself run everyday. We have beautiful ... This is just a short one but I had to share something that happened the other day.
So I have gotten pretty lazy here in Australia. Honestly, it's bad, I have a hard time getting up in the morning and I can't for the live of me, get myself to run everyday. So I've turned over a new leaf. I am waking up at least by 8 everyday no matter what. I am making myself run everyday.
We have beautiful areas to run around here so there are no excuses. I want to run another marathon when I get home so I need to start running again. I'm shooting for the San Jose half marathon in April and the San Fransisco women's marathon in October.
Anyhow, I went for a run down by the river the other day. It had just poured down rain that morning, so there were lots of creatures out and about. There must have been about 20 lizards hanging out on the side of the path that day. These are pretty big lizards. They are about the size of iguanas you see in cages and pet stores over there.
Well I first saw one and I'm not sure why but it scared the hell out of me. I swerved over and screamed. haha. I don't even know why, they are just normal to see now. So I kept running and a few feet later a lizard ran straight into me. I think I must have kicked it because it ran right between my feet. These are pretty big suckers too. I couldn't believe it. I hope it's okay because I had to have kicked it. Poor guy!
I continue my run down by the river, which is just an absolutely amazing view, I can't even describe it. As I'm running I see these guys painted from head to toe in what looks like war paint. They have red sheets on the lower half of their bodies just to cover up and that's pretty much it. They were making a fire in the middle of the park! That can't be legal . They must have been aborginals, and it looked like they were making lunch in the park. haha there you go dad. I should have married one huh?
Anyways, the river is amazing. you run right along the river, and there are botanical gardens on the other side. People are running, biking, and rollerblading all over the place. There are bridges going across. There are all kinds of boats and ferries going through the middle. I am going to take my video camera down tehre soon so I will have video. I can definitely see how people fall in love with this place!

Short but sweet remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Would you like cream and marshmellow? tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-05:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=23&entryid=37354 2007-01-06T00:12:04Z 2007-01-06T00:12:04Z In order to be here for 6 months I had to have some type of job. So after walking around with resumes to every store and restaraunt I could find, I landed a job at Tanja's cafe in Garden City. Garden City is a huge shopping mall, and in an outside courtyard there are some cafes, bars, and a movie theatre. I am a waitress there and I work about 20-25 hours a week. I have to wear all black ... In order to be here for 6 months I had to have some type of job. So after walking around with resumes to every store and restaraunt I could find, I landed a job at Tanja's cafe in Garden City. Garden City is a huge shopping mall, and in an outside courtyard there are some cafes, bars, and a movie theatre.
I am a waitress there and I work about 20-25 hours a week. I have to wear all black and little apron that goes from my waist to somewhere below my knees. The restaraunt serves all kinds of typical Australian/American food. They serve lots of seafood and typical things such as steaks, burgers, ,pastas, and gourmet pizzas. The place dodesn't look that great from the outside but man the food is good. To be honest I haven't found too many restaraunts where I like the food better.
A couple owns the place and they pretty much work 24 hours a day. They are an asian couple and they have lived everywhere. She is from China and he is from Singapore. He has travelled all over the world being a chef. They have lived in Sydney, New York, China, and I think maybe a few other places. That got to be too hard for them so about 2 years ago they bought this place called Tanja's.
The place is pretty well ran. It is always clean and well taken care of. there have been no horror stories of people spitting in food or dropping it on the floor and picking it back up. Even if the cake falls over on top of the cream next to it on the same plate they clean it up and usually replace the cake. So it's a nice clean place to eat.
The only annoying thing about it is you always always have to be doiing somthing. Sometimes when tehre is not one person in the restaraunt, there is just nothing to do. I can't tell you how many times I have swept around the outside tables. The people are awesome to work with. We have a few chefs. Julian, he is awesome, always nice and talkative. He was working my first night and he was so helpful when I kept making mistakes. Then there's Jason the owner. Damien-he is a 17 year old kid that is doing an apprenticeship with the place. That is what they do here when a kid gets out of school they can do apprenticeships with businesses. Sounds like it's as good as going to school. He is funny and keeps me entertained while we're working. He loves to give high fives. There are two new chefs Gary and um I can't remember the other guys name. Gary is fun, he is entertaining and always making jokes. The other guy doesn't talk much, I'm not sure how well he knows english. He is a super quick chef though. I can't believe how fast he gets food out.
We have a few people that are behind the bar making drinks. Monique-she is 19 and pretty much second in charge under the owners. She runs the place very well and does a great job. She's awesome to work with and someone I would definitely be friends with. There's Kate-she is 26 and going to school. She got back from travelling through England and Europe for a few years. She is finishing up school and working there. She is great. She's fun to work with and she understands that we're only tehre to make some extra cash and not there for a career. Meribeth, Monique, Kate and I have a great time when we work together. There's LB- he is leaving in a few days to go to another job. he is fun and very random. he will just start talking about something and you're like what? Where did that come from. He's great though. There are a lot more people we work with but those are just some favorites that I have. The rest are pretty much just waitresses and somewhat new.
A lot of people just come in and order coffee and geez is coffee complicated. There are Flat Whites, lattes, Iced Coffees, caramal lattes, Cappucinos, machiattos, and the list goes on. I just love the orders that are skinny decaff flat white in a mug. Give me a break people, just order water. there is no fat and no caffiene in that, have a glass of milk.
People are so nice and for the most part patient here. There have been times when the whole restaraunt is full and there have only been like 2 waitresses and people are polite and understanding. It's really nice.
I would have to say the most popular thing people order here is a bowl of chips (french fries) or potato wedges.
They have all kinds of drinks that I have never heard of so at first it was a little tough because people would say do you have such and such? and I would have to say I have never heard of that before. haha.
Of course I have an accent here, and I wonder how many tables wait until I leave the table and then guess where I'm from. Sadly, most people guess Canada. I don't think too many Americans come over here and work, because it's so hard to get a visa. There is a girl from Sweden that works there, a girl from New Zealand, there was about 3 guys from Canada, and then us Americans.
I have even had a few people guess that I was from Ireland? Ireland?! What? Now there's two accents I wouldn't mix up. Everyone asks where I'm from and what part. I never know whether to just say California or United Stats. Obviously people know where California is. Hello, they so watch the OC on t.v. Haha I actually had a girl say that to me. I guess we just have to thank L.A. and Hollywood for putting us on the international maps.
Mostly the older people just love to talk about California and what I'm doing here and what I've seen. I just love it. I could sit down and talk all day with these people.
Probably the nicest thing I'll remember is a guy around my age eating with his family. I think I messed up there order or brought it out late or something and he really didn't look that happy. Oh actually I think I might have just said something really stupid. I do'nt remember. Anyway, so he was leaving and I was all the way on the other side of the restaraunt and he made his way through the tables to come up to me. I couldn't figure out why he was coming over and he comes up and says I really hope you have a great stay over here. I was shocked, for some guy to go way out of his way to say that. It was really nice.
Everyone just loves the accent and loves to talk about it. Sometimes I am a little self concious though, because I'll say a word that they say completely different than us. Or sometimes I'll walk away and I can hear the table laughing and I always wonder if they're laughing at the way I talk. haha. so FYI don't start laughing right after your waitress leaves. Even if it's nothing about her they think it is. lol.
some pet peeves I now have about a restaraunt.
1. If the table is dirty, find another one. don't make the waitress that is very busy come wipe off that one freaking table you want when tehre are 20 others open and clean right around it.
2. If the waitress asks you if you want to start out with drinks or take a second to look at the menu...If you need a second tell her. Don't make her stand there for 10 minutes while you decide.
3. If there are 4 of you at the table, just because you have decided doesn't mean the other three have. Make sure everyone has decided before you tell the waitress you're ready to order.
4. The menu is there for a reason, look through it, pick what you want, then talk. Trust me you will have plenty of time to talk after you pick your food.
5. Read the menu! If it says breakfast stops at 11, then it really does stop at 11. No I won't go ask the chef if he can make an omelette at 3 in the afternoon when breakfast stops at 11.
Okay I guess that's enough for now.
Restaraunts here are a lot different than restaraunts in the states. Most of them are not table service. You come in order your food and then get a number. Some restaraunts bring out your food, and others you wait for your number to be called and you go up and get the food. I went to dinner with a friend and the waitress brought out our food and he said can I get some tomato sauce please and she said oh there some up at the front by the register. She wouldn't even bring him some tomato sauce. That is kind of annoying to me. I'm trying to figure out whether, Australia is lazy, for not making their employees serve the food, or Americans are lazy for not wanting to get the food themselves. I look at it as if I wanted to get the food myself I would have ate at home. So bring me my food! haha.
Our restaraunt is table service and we will bring the customers tomato sauce. They are in good hands. =)

Would you like cream and marshmellow? remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Cricket tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-05:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=26&entryid=37721 2007-01-05T23:40:03Z 2007-01-05T23:40:03Z Last night I went to a cricket game down at the Gabba. The Gabba is their stadium for cricket and AFL (Australian Football league). It is about a mile from my house so we walked down to watch the game. It was Meribeth, me, Luke, and Lukes brother in law, which I forgot his name. Luke is one of our cop friends we met through Brewster. He pre-ordered tickets so we walked down to go pick them up. Well I ... Last night I went to a cricket game down at the Gabba. The Gabba is their stadium for cricket and AFL (Australian Football league). It is about a mile from my house so we walked down to watch the game. It was Meribeth, me, Luke, and Lukes brother in law, which I forgot his name. Luke is one of our cop friends we met through Brewster. He pre-ordered tickets so we walked down to go pick them up. Well I guess they didn't expect so many people to show up so they just opened the gates and let everyone in for free! So we felt pretty stupid being the ones that bought tickets. Could you imagine in America, the stadium say oh tehre's too many people here we'll just let them all in for free. haha crazy world over here.
Anyway, the game we went to was called a 20/20 game. Which means 20 turnovers. It gets kind of tricky but I'll do my best to explain. A turnover is 6 pitches. So when a bowler pitches six pitches then the turnover is over. There are two hitters one on each side and they take turns hitting. There are 2 innings, and an inning counts as one team batting. So in baseball terms one of their innings = half of a baseball inning. They either get 20 turnovers or 11 outs. It's pretty hard to get an out so usually the turnovers come first. The score of the game was 174 to 143. Queensland won. There are a lot more rules but I only learned them last night so I won't be able to explain them very well.
It was pretty fun to watch. A lot more exciting then I thought it would be. They have cricket games that are 20/20 games that last about 3 hours, 50/50 games which last like 8 hours, and then they have test matches that last 5 days! The games that last 5 days are like watching paint dry! It's awful.
All in all it was a fun time, there were lots of people and the 20/20 games are pretty fast paced.

Cricket remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Happy New Year! tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-04:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=25&entryid=37597 2007-01-05T07:11:58Z 2007-01-05T07:11:58Z Most of you know what Meribeth and I spent New Years in Sydney this year. We headed down there at 6 in the morning on December 3oth. Our friend Brewster was kind enough (as always) to take us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning so we could jump on a plane. The airport in Australia is super easy. They barely check you at all. I had change and all kinds of stuff in my pocket and I went ... Most of you know what Meribeth and I spent New Years in Sydney this year.
We headed down there at 6 in the morning on December 3oth. Our friend Brewster was kind enough (as always) to take us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning so we could jump on a plane. The airport in Australia is super easy. They barely check you at all. I had change and all kinds of stuff in my pocket and I went right through the metal detector. I think they might be just for show. But hey they don't carry guns like they think every person in America does so maybe fake metal detectors is all they need. Anybody can go up to the gate like the good ol' days and wait for their family members to get off the plane.
We arrived in Sydney at the domestic terminal and we had to make are way over to the international terminal to meet up with Debbie, Monica, and Rose. We decided the train would be the easiest way. by train I mean an underground BART type transportation. The train turned out to be $5.00 to go from terminal to terminal. What a rip off!! We couldnt believe it but hey what can you do?
Once we got to the international terminal we had to wait about an hour for them to get off their plane. We sat by the exit and decided to people watch. What a crazy mix of people you get in an international airport where people from all over the world are coming in to celebrate New Years. We decided to play pick the American and we called out when we saw one. And oh can you tell who is American. Haha! They are usually the ones that are all dressed up for the flight and have 3 bags each. There were tons of Asians everywhere, and a lot of people from Europe but we couldn't quite figure out who was from what country in Europe.
We finally met up with them and headed to the hotel. Rose and Debbie were worried about having a few extra people in the hotel so Meribeth and I decided to go to the 3rd floor and just wait for them. We got into the elevator and picked floor 3 and nothing happened. Well apparently you need a key to use the elevator. We couldn't get out and we couldn't go anywhere, so we had to sit and wait until someone used the elevator. We got to about the 10th floor and all we could do was get out. Now what? Well we got back in the elevator and waited for someone else to use the elevator. We got to floor 12 and a cleaning lady was there. We just stayed in the elevator and she didn't get in. So we waited agian. She pressed the button and the door opened again to the cleaning lady. We looked al ittle suspicious and we felt pretty stupid so we just said hi. She said where are you trying to go. She swiped her card and we were finally on our way to the 3rd floor. We got out and weren't quite sure where to go. A lady with a clip board was walking around so we got a little nervous. Guess they are pretty strict on only certain people being in the hallways, so we hid in a corner. We decided well lets try the elevator and get to the ground floor. We were waiting for the elevator and Monica popped out. Turns out the shuttle driver took us to the wrong hotel. Well that was a fun little elevator ride...
Debbie, Monica, and Rose took a taxi to the right one and Meribeth and I walked becausee we weren't going to fit in the taxi and we could use the walk.
Once we got to the hotel we settled into the room and walked down to the harbour. We decided to have a few drinks down at the Opera bar which is the bar right below the opera house. WE sat in the sun and talked to surrounding tourists. We met two girls from San Fransisco that were sitting right next to us so we talked with them for a while.
After that we went to the hotel to get cleaned up and we headed out to dinner. WE got lucky and ended up at a nice Italian restaraunt overlooking the harbour. It was beautiful. We were very lucky to get a reservation in and I think they messed up and gave us someone elses. The dinner was great! Monica, Meribeth and I decided to walk around for a little bit after that but Monica was exhausted from the flight and she kept getting mad that everyone was commenting on her horrible tan lines that she received earlier that day. One bouncer form a bar said wow you got burnt! Another bouncer said something else a few minutes later. I found it hilarious, but she did not... So we decided to turn in at about 11 p.m.
New Years Eve came around and Debbie and Rose got an early start out. Us girls decided to sleep a little longer and get ready later.
We finally decided to get up and get going around 10 and we got up and started drinking beer. We got dressed and ready and then Debbie and Rose came back and said we would be okay as long as we got to the harbour by about 3 p.m. So we kept drinking in the room.
We left the room at about noon and we headed next door to a little japanese restaraunt. Monica and I shared a chicken teriyaki (sp?) meal. We had to wait a ridiculously long time to get our meal and Rose got her meal like 10 minutes after we got there. She was almost finished with her meal before we got ours so she was pretty upset.
After lunch we walked down to the harbour to see what was going on. There were already thousands of people picking their spots and laying out their blankets for the long haul. Nobody was drinking, there were families out and man what a bunch of boring people. We were getting alittle worried because people were looking at us like we were nuts because we were having fun. We weren't drunk or anything, just excited to be there and nobody else was. Rose had bought us all horns to blow so we kept blowing the horns like crazy. Okay, so I could see how that could get a little annoying, but it's New Years Eve!
We decided to go to another bar and have a few more drinks. We went to a bar called the Oyster bar and had some drinks and some chips (french fries). Meribeth decided it was getting cold and she wanted to put some pants on so her and I went back to the room to put some pants on.
While we were there we decided to get out the camera and have a little photo shoot in the hotel. haha we got some funny pictures. We decided to walk back to where they were and start planning where we were going to be. Meribeth and I decided to take a little detour before we got back and we walked over to a different part of the harbour. Everyone was drinking outside and having a great time! We even got in a few horn fights with some of the other people around. Meribeth and I lost because we went up against like 10 people at a time. Man, I loved those horns.
Anyways, we stopped for some ice cream and headed back to the bar. We convinced them that the place we found was definitely the place to be. So we all headed over and picked a spot. It ended up being one of the best spots we could have found.
There were people everywhere! People were already pretty much standing shoulder to shoulder at around 4 p.m.
Meribeth, Mnonica, and I decided we would walk around for a bit and Debbie and Rose held our spot. We walked 15 feet and ran into 3 guys from New Zealand that were travelling around Australia in a Camper van for a year. We talked to them for awhile and then decided to walk around some more. We met people from everywhere. We returned to our spot and talked to the people around us. I mostly talked to a guy from Chicago that was there travelling. His next destination was Bangkok. We met three German guys that were working two hours west of Brisbane. I forgot what they were doing, but they were fun! We hung out with them for most of the night along with the New Zealand guys from earlier in the night.
The toilet lines were three miles long so it took us like 20 minutes to go to the bathroom.I think Meribeth cut the line a few times, and a couple of times we went to the guys bathroom, because everyone knows they have shorter lines.
From here the night gets a little fuzzy. We spent most of the night drinking in our spot, with the German guys, the New Zealand guys, and the guy from Chicago. The first set of fireworks came on at 9:00 and I can't really remember the particulars about those ones. We took picures, drank, and talked to the boys. Then at midnight the big fireworks came on.
The fireworks were coming from everywhere. They were over the opera house, over the bridge, over the buildings on the other side. There were about 5 different areas the fireworks were being shot off from. The bridge would light up with fireworks and then they would shoot fireworks to go up over the top of the bridge. It was absolutely amazing! Best fire work show I will probabably ever seen in my life and I probably missed a lot of it. Beer will do that to you. After the fireworks we talked to the New Zealand boys a little more and then I decided to walk away. I walked straight down over a 3ft wall and I soooo did not make the landing. There I was a million people clearing out of the harbour on a 4 ft wide sidewalk and I fall right in the middle of it. Then to "not draw attention" I just stay there and sit down for a minute. I remember really thinking that if I just sit down and play it off people will think I did it on purpose. haha what stupid thoughts go through your head when you're drinking.
Anyway, one of the German guys came to my rescue and helped me up. I decided it was time to lay down and have a little rest on the wall that I just fell off from.
After my rest we went to walk around the streets. Apparently, that is what the rest of the million people that were there did too because the streets were filled. The whole city was just one massive party. We walked over to a bunch of guys that were jumping around singing and chanting. I believe they were chanting the England national anthem or something. They were all English guys. One guy explained to me that they were all from Engalnd over here watching the Ashes match and they came down for New Years. I proceeded to tell them that they should stop doing what they are doing because England lost. haha good idea! The guy I was talking to didn't really appreciate that but he told me that England still has pride and they will still shout their anthem in the middle of the street on New years eve in Australia. Alright man whatever floats your boat.
At this point we are wandering the streets with the German guys, but I raced off to find a bathroom and we lost them. One of the New Zealand guys that Meribeth was hanging out with managed to keep up so it was Monica, Meribeth, um I think his name was James, and me. We were walking the streets altogether, and me thinking they were behind me keeps walking. Well they either stopped or weren't walking as fast because a couple minutes later I was all by myself.
And let me tell you I met every person on the street when I was walking by myself. Everyone wants to talk to the random American lost on the streets at 2 in the morning. Haha I know mom, not that smart, but it's over now so I can tell you.
I caught up with the girls and we sat on a curb and talked to a few more people before turning in.
The next morning we weren't feeling our best so it took us a few hours to get ready to go again. We finally got out of the room about noon and we took a ferry over to Manly beach. We did a little shopping, ate lunch, sat by the beach, and then headed back. It was time for Meribeth and I to head back and go to the airport.
We made it back to Brisbane in one peice, with the weekend of our lives now over.
It was so amazing and worth every penny!

Happy New Year! remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Our house tag:travellerspoint.com,2007-01-03:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=22&entryid=36370 2007-01-03T09:53:56Z 2007-01-03T09:53:56Z I never really explained where I lived. Meribeth and I live in a suburb called Wolloongabba or something like that. It is just outside the actual city of Brisbane. Walking distance actually. We live in an old yellow house that is up on wooden stilts. There are a case of stairs in the front yard to get into the house. Once you walk up the stairs there is a covered patio with a outdoor table and chairs. It is nice ... I never really explained where I lived.
Meribeth and I live in a suburb called Wolloongabba or something like that. It is just outside the actual city of Brisbane. Walking distance actually.
We live in an old yellow house that is up on wooden stilts. There are a case of stairs in the front yard to get into the house. Once you walk up the stairs there is a covered patio with a outdoor table and chairs. It is nice because you can sit out there when it rains and watch the rain.
When you walk into the front door you walk into the living area, or as they call it, the lounge. On the right is the room of our German roommate Chris. He is here from Germany studying Business Management. He is 24 and actually knows English very well. He is a nice guy and we enjoy talking to him. Meribeth has a hard time understanding his accent but I am getting better at it.
Right next to his room is Meribeth's It is a small square room with cabinets made to be a closet.
The living area is just a couch (that is kind of smelly) and a t.v. and it is connected to the dining area where there is a kitchen table.
My room is on the side and it used to be a veranda outside. For some reason I just have a thing for outside rooms. It is made into a room with walls and everything but it used to be outside It's a large enough room though so it is okay.
The kitchen is old and rusty but it works. There are tons of dishes and food space for us so that is nice.
The backyard is huge and goes far back, but there are lots of trees and grass which can only mean more bugs, so we don't venture out there. Under the house is where our washer is and we hang our clothe s up under there.
So that is our house and we enjoy it and we have one more month left in it.

Our house remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Christmas tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-12-27:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=21&entryid=36365 2006-12-27T22:55:13Z 2006-12-27T22:55:13Z Christmas in Australia is pretty much the same as Christmas in America. Decorations are put up all over the city and stores. There is a giant Christmas tree in the center of town. People rush out to the stores to go Christmas shopping. Santa Claus still comes to all the kids houses. So Christmas Eve we woke up and headed over to our friend Kimmie's for a Christmas Eve BBQ. It was about 10 in the morning and we all ... Christmas in Australia is pretty much the same as Christmas in America. Decorations are put up all over the city and stores. There is a giant Christmas tree in the center of town. People rush out to the stores to go Christmas shopping. Santa Claus still comes to all the kids houses.
So Christmas Eve we woke up and headed over to our friend Kimmie's for a Christmas Eve BBQ. It was about 10 in the morning and we all hung out outside in the nice warm weather on her patio. There was lamb, chicken, salads, potatoes, bread, and of course entrees (which is appetizers for us.) It was bright and sunny and everyone was in shorts and t shirts, which is a little different for us. We had a great time just visiting with everyone and of course we had our daily talk show about America for a while. People love to hear about it.
Some people went swimming and the rest of us just ate and talked. There were no presents involved and really everyone was jsut friends.
The Australians don't seem to be all about presents like we are. It seems like Christmas is very formal where we are compared to over here. We all dress nice, show up at a certain time, follow routines, and sit down altogether for a nice dinner.
Over here on the other hand, nobody cares about presents, people wear whatever they want to wear, eat whenever they want to eat, and even show up whenever they want. It feels more like 4th of July or Memorial day over here rather than Christmas.
After the bbq Meribeth and I went to work at about 3. We were a little anxious because we still had a little bit of shoppinig to do and the mall was going to close before we got off work. Well about 3:45 we still hadn't had a single customer, our boss said lets go home. So we closed up shop and Meribeth and I ran around the mall in record time to get a few last presents. On Christmas Eve here the malls close really early so people can get home to their families.
Our friends Louie and Brewster picked us up and took us back to their place so we could be there for Christmas morning. WE hung out for a little while, ate dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed.
The next morning we were woken up by an 8 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. Right ages, wrong kids. I imagined what Jayden and Brandon would have been doing while we were there. So the little girls sat down and began to open their sacks of presents that Santa had left them.
In this particular family, Santa actually leaves to sacks full of presents. They don't do stockings really because nobody has chiimney's here so the tradition never really took off. Nobody really could even tell me how Santa claus gets in the house. some joked that he squeezed in through the air conditioner cracks, others just said that he uses the front door.
Well after they opened a few presents everyone said well lets take a break and eat breakfast. I couldn't help but laugh because in all my 24 years I have never heard of any kids just taking a break in between presents and eating breakfast.
So we sat down for a huge breakfast. I made tipitas. We had pancakes, and raisin bread, croissants with chocolate in them (Which were absolutely amazing), and a few more things I cant remember now. IT was a very filling and fattening breakfast as all Christmas meals should be.
We all got up from breakfast and cleared the table. WE ate outside on their new deck in the sun. A few of them went and took showers, we watched t.v. a bit, then they decided they should probably open the rest of the presents.
They got me a Queensland police key chain that my name was engraved on, an Australian hat, and a bundeburg rum bikini. Bundeburg rum is made here and pretty much the only type of rum they sale. so itw as really cute.
After all that we headed over to Louie's sisters house for more food and swimming.
We got there and met everyone, and sat down to visit for a little while. They all opened a couple of presents, and then we snacked on chocolate candies and these entrees that we soo good. It was chocolate and peanut butter mixed and poured over thes Asian noodles. Sounds gross but wow so good! About an hour later we ate again. We had turkey, ham, salad, potatoes, bread, and again I can't remember what else.
Meribeth and I decided to go swimming and we played in the pool for about 3 hours. It was a nice sunny day and perfect for swimming. WE got out of the pool had a few more snacks, hung out for a little while longer and then headed home.
On our way home it started to rain, then it poured, and it hasn't stopped raining since. I said aw this is what it would be like at home right now. so we got a little of our Christmas weather too!
It was amazing to see the lack of presents there was here. Nobody celebrates Christmas for presents. Except for the kids, everyone just gets a few things, and a lot of them are small sentimental gifts. It's hard to explain but it was really different to watch. Christmas here is very casual and informal. It's just like having a bbq in the backyard and inviting some family and friends over. They really just love spending time together. Everybody welcomed us and made us feel so comfortable being at these places. It was really nice. Friends hang out as much as family.
Oh one thing that is totally different from the states is they hav Boxing day. Boxing day is a National holiday here and it the day after Christmas. It is their huge shopping day. The sales are huge on this day. Instead of celebrating Christmas Eve they celebrate on Boxing day. Some celebrate on all three days.
So that is Christmas in Australia. At least with the people I celebrated with. Christmas is Christmas, but there are a few differences here and there.

Here is an Australian Version of Jingle bells for you

Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust,
esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side,
singing Christmas songs,
It's Summer time and I am in
my singlet, shorts and thongs

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine's getting hot;
we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard,
he is welcome too.
All the family's there,
sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way,
by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon,
Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce,
are swimming in their clothes.
The time comes 'round to go,
we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through,
before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deck the Sheds

Deck the sheds with bits of wattle, fa la la la la la la la la

Whack some gum leaves in a bottle, fa la la la la la la la la

All the shops are open sundies, fa la la la la la la la la

Buy your Dad some sox and undies, fa la la la la la la la la

Deck the sheds with bits of gumtree, fa la la la la la la la la

Hang some deco's off the plum tree, fa la la la la la la la la

Plant some kisses on the missus, fa la la la la la la la la

Have a ripper Aussie Christmas, fa la la la la la la la la

Say g'day to friends and relies, fa la la la la la la la la

Wave them off with bulging bellies, fa la la la la la la la la

Kids and babies youngies oldies, fa la la la la la la la la

May your fridge be full of coldies, fa la la la la la la la la

Chop the wood and stoke the barbie, fa la la la la la la la la

Ring the folks in Abudabe, fa la la la la la la la la

Pop the stuffing in the turkey, fa la la la la la la la la

Little Mary's feeling ercky, fa la la la la la la la la

Rally rally round the table, fa la la la la la la la la

Fill your belly while your able, fa la la la la la la la la

Joyce and Joany, Dave and Daryl, fa la la la la la la la la

Sing an Aussie Christmas Carol, fa la la la la la la la la

Let us BBQ

Australians let us Barbeque
For Christmas time is here
We've Christmas pud and t-bone steaks
And slabs of ginger beer

We've gone and got the relies round
And we'll all have a ball
So let's kick back and have ourselves
A Yuletide free-for-all

Our forebears came from distant shores
To set this party up
So we could dine with paper plate
and polystyrene cup

On patterned plastic table cloth
We'll eat our Christmas pies
If our forebears could see us now
They'd not believe their eyes

Across this land in summer sun
In backyards small and great
We'll raise our voice in one accord
With "Merry Christmas Mate!'

In outback heat and city street
And all points in between
Come join with us and celebrate
This Aussie Christmas scene!

With sausages and coleslaw too
Then let us Barbeque.

Christmas remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Australia Slang tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-12-27:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=20&entryid=36315 2006-12-27T09:44:56Z 2006-12-27T09:44:56Z Here are some words that are commonly used out here. ta = thank you drop your gear or take of your gear (I forget) = get naked give it a go = try it heaps = a lot togs or bathers = bathing suit icing sugar = powdered sugar jelly = jello aluminum is pronounced al-u-min-e-um jaguar is pronounced jag-u-r nissan is pronounced niss-an instead of nees-an adidas is pronounced a-did-as instead of ad-eed-as Kiwi- New Zealander Yank-American Pom- A person from England cheers= thank you skoal = pound your drink toilet = ... Here are some words that are commonly used out here.

ta = thank you
drop your gear or take of your gear (I forget) = get naked
give it a go = try it
heaps = a lot
togs or bathers = bathing suit
icing sugar = powdered sugar
jelly = jello
aluminum is pronounced al-u-min-e-um
jaguar is pronounced jag-u-r
nissan is pronounced niss-an instead of nees-an
adidas is pronounced a-did-as instead of ad-eed-as
Kiwi- New Zealander
Yank-American
Pom- A person from England
cheers= thank you
skoal = pound your drink
toilet = bathroom
Arvo= afternoon
how you goin= how are you doing?
mate = friend (yes they say it all the time! I don't think they use friend here at all)
no worries = no problem
When you say thank you they say that's alright
stubby = bottle of beer
bottle shop = liguor store
Brekkie = breakfast
they always say have instead of take ex I need to have a shower or I need to have a sleep rather than I need to take a shower or go to sleep
Chewie = gum
Postie= mailman
firey= fireman
copper= cop
swag = sleeping bag
torch = flashlight
Fair dinkum = I have no clue but they say it sometimes and it never makes any sense
good on ya- good for you
icy pole or ice block = popsicle
beer coms in light, mid strenght and heavy and it describes amount of alcohol not the amount of calories, they don't have low calorie beers
root = sex
shagged = tired
Stuffed = tried or mistake, ex I'm stuffed or I stuffed that up
muck- mess up or mess around
Prezzie- Present
Sheila- woman
sunnies = sunglasses
whinge = complain whine
wanker = whiner
reckon is very popular
Bloke = man (used all the time)
afternoon tea = dinner
spit the dummy = got angry
grog = alcohol
crook= not feeling well
dear or exie= expensive

okay that's enough for now I'm getting bored with it.

Australia Slang remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Noosa-this is a very long one! tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-12-20:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=19&entryid=35507 2006-12-20T15:01:46Z 2006-12-20T15:01:46Z Last week I went on a trip up the coast to a place called Noosa. It was one of the best couple of days I have had here. Meribeth and I had met a couple of guys at the Police Departments Christmas party that we had gone to. We ended up hanging out with one of them again and he invited us to go up and hang out in Noosa with him for a couple of days. It just so ... Last week I went on a trip up the coast to a place called Noosa. It was one of the best couple of days I have had here.
Meribeth and I had met a couple of guys at the Police Departments Christmas party that we had gone to. We ended up hanging out with one of them again and he invited us to go up and hang out in Noosa with him for a couple of days. It just so happened that I had Tuesday night off, all day Wednesday, and Thursday day off. Meribeth had to work so she was not able to go. At first I was a little hesitant because I did not know this guy very well and I wasn't sure what we would be doing. After contemplating for a few minutes I figured what the hell, I'm always up for an adventure. (don't worry mom I make responsible decisions). So I packed my bag and waited for him to pick me up. Keeping in mind that I had no idea what we were actually going to be doing, I was pretty proud of myself for only having one small bag with me.
Luke showed up and I apologized for the messy room, and we headed down to his car and he apologized for his crappy car. So things worked out. He proceeded to tell me how nice his motorcycle was so he had no money left for his car. Good thing I'm not a superficial California girl, huh? Haha I really didn't care about the car but the lack of air conditioning made for a very hot hour and a half drive.
I was a little concerned about the car ride up there because he seemed to be a shy guy and although I for the most part have broken out of my shell, I can tend to be quiet in uncomfortable situations. It worked out though and we had a good conversation all the way up. Our conversation was mostly about the differences between the states (by the states I mean California) and Australia. Australians tend to believe that we have crazy people running around with guns at all times of the day and we run around scared for our lives. We talked quite a bit about that. for some reason the story about me being robbed at gunpoint at Togo's when I was 16 didn't really helped out my arguement...oh well.
We finally arrived and what a suprise, his friend is also a cop. They met at the police academy a few years back. This guy's name was Al (short for Allen) and he lived in Police dorms. I have never heard of cops having dorms before but they were actually small dorm like rooms with one communal area. They were right across the street from a police station and a fire station. Judging by the amount of activity around the stations, it's fair to say not much happens around there.
We went inside the dorms and luckily there was a spare room for us to stay in. Luke being the nice Australian boy that he is, let me have the bed and he slept on the air matress on the floor. We dropped off our stuff and hung out for a little while. I then had the pleasure of meeting one of the roommates. It wasn't too hard to tell that he wasn't a big fan of Americans. For the whole two days I was there, he turned everything anything said into an insult against Americans. I thought I was just looking into things a little too much until Luke said something later on. so needless to say I stopped talking to that guy!
Noosa is a small beach town pretty much within a National Park. Al told me that they sometimes have Pythons hanging out around the bottom of the house. I told him I might be a little afraid if I see a bug or animal. I guess I should have told him that I'm more than a little afraid, because I leaned over to look for a snake and right next to me these two little eyes were staring up at me. I jumped a mile and yelled what is that?!? Al walked over and said oh it's a tree frog. I tried to tell myself, oh just a frog that's okay. Then he grabbed the frog and started coming towards me, so once again the olympic runner in me came alive and I began to haul ass into the house making sure the screen closed behind me. Haha he couldn't believe that I was so afraid of a frog. As I'm running passed this baby tree frog I almost stepped on a big gigantic one. The frog was as scared as I was and he tried to jump away. Well I built up the courage to go back outside and Al actually got me to touch one of the frogs. So I can scratch running from frogs off my list because they seem to be okay.
Shortly after that we decided it was time to head out. The American hater gave us a ride into town so we could have a few drinks without worrying about driving. We sat down outside and ate dinner overlooking the beach. it was absolutley beautiful. The waves were crashing onto the beach and it sounded so peaceful and relaxing, it made for great atmosphere. I guess the beautiful sound of waves and water was no comparison to screeching voices and off key singers because we decided to relocate inside so we could hear karaoke.
We make our way inside and add a few more drinks to the table. The boys asked if I wanted some wine or a spritzer. Once I stopped laughing I told them they need to find new girls to hang out with and I ordered myself a rum and coke. Al and I sat down and shy quiet Luke came to the table holding the book of karaoke songs. He carried that book like a little boy opening a present on Christmas morning. You would have thought he was a rockstar or something...well until you heard him sing. Haha j/k Luke if you ever read this. Al and Luke went up and sang three songs (after a few shots) and I was the photographer who got it all on tape. We had a great time and laughed the night away. Since it was a Tuesday night the place closed at midnight so we headed off. As we were walking Al convinced me that all Australians hug gum trees out of respect for the koala bears and that if I wanted to visit and be with the locals I had to hug one as well. So Luke took a picture of me hugging a gum tree and Al is in the background laughing and pointing at me. Stupid American! Makes for a great picture though.
We headed to another bar only to have the lights turned on and last call yelled out. It was time to go home.
We hung out for a little while longer on the patio at the dorms and they showed me the southern cross in the sky. It is a constellation that can only be seen on the southern hemisphere.
The next morning we woke up and Al made us omelets. There was all kinds of stuff in that thing. I really am learning to eat new things here.
Shortly after breakfast we headed out to the river to jet ski. We had to stop and get an intertube so three people could all go out at one time. Al knew a guy that had a personal boat launch so we headed out to this house along the river to launch the jet ski.
The boys got the gas, picked out the intertube, hitched the jet ski to the car, and a few other things to get the jet ski going. I on the other hand watched it all. I was absolutely useless. So I took it upon myself to blow up the intertube. There were two peices to the intertube and a foot pump to blow it up. I felt very useful after that because I had to pump the damn thing up three times. How was I supposed to know the stars had to be lined up a certain way so that it all fit correctly? It gave the boys some time to play on the jet ski before we took it out with the intertube. The owner of the house came out to watch us head out. Something was said about sharks and the man said the biggest one he's heard about out here was about 7 feet long. After I realized I was the only one laughing I realized it wasn't a joke and thought twice about getting in the water.
They actually have bull sharks in their rivers everywhere. I still can't believe I went in. And yet even after hearing about the sharks I had this reoccuring image of going knee boarding in Mt. Shasta with Judy, and Jason had to jump in and get me because a fish touched my toe.
We launched the jet ski and I got in the intertube without barely getting into the water. We get out into the water and then the jet ski takes off, and... I didn't. The intertube had gotten lose and I Was floating in the middle of the river. Of course I'm floating there by myself right after I hear the shark story, so I refuse to get out of the intertube and swim to the jet ski. Luke had to jump off the ski and come rescue the intertube. I'm sure he appreciated that. We hooked up again...Well Luke hooked up again and we were on our way. We had a great time. I got used to being in the water, when I fell off the tube, as long as they rushed back to get me so it wasn't too bad. We all took turns and they let me drive a little bit and I rode on the back and got dumped off a few times. It took them quite a while to realized I wasn't some wussy little girl that they needed to drive 10 mph so I didn't get scared. Guess I didn't really prove that when I refused to get out of the intertube though...
After a few hours a friend of Al's came to join in the fun. Al took his friend on a ride and Luke and I hung out on the deck. I took the time to lay out and get a tan. Then the boys came and picked up Luke and I laid out and talked to mom on the phone. There were tons of blue and purple crabs hanging out on the rocks, so I decided I would film them with my camera. I was laying over the deck with my body half off trying to film these crabs under the rocks. I actually got a few good shots, but I couldn't help but think, give a tourist a camera and they'll stay busy for hours. Wow, do I have some pretty pointless pictures.
After about an hour they came back and had this great idea that all 4 of us should go out. By doing so, 2 people had to go on the 1 person intertube at one time. Al and his friend decided they would try first. I jokingly suggested to Luke that they should ride one on top of each other. Imagine my suprise when the first guy jumped on the tube and the second one jumped right on top of him. Again Australians obviously are not scared of looking gay. Dad, if I knew what sex was, this was looking pretty close. But hey they sure had a lot of fun.
After a little while they decided they had enough and I had to go on the tube. This was not too exciting to me but I did it anyways. It was actually much easier to hold on and there was a little more room than what it looked like. I rode with Al's friend at one time and he was about 6'2 and 180 so when he flew off I had no chance of staying on. His head came up and he head butted me right in the side of the head. Suprisingly, we both came up conscious and that was enough for us.
We headed back up and socialized with the owner of the house for a while. Of course the topic of conversation was about California. Shortly after, we thanked the guy and pakced up.
We headed for home because later that night we had a big trivia night ahead of us.
We got home and we were absolutely starving because we had not eaten all day. Al tried to talk me into liking vegemite. I told him it was awful and he said I just haven't committed to it so he made me a toasted cheese and vegemite sandwich. After trying it I actually hated it more than I did the first time. I tried it though, and I was proud of myself for giving it a chance, but wow that stuff shouldn't be legal to give people. It is just awful. It tastes like dirt. I'll be sure to bring some to try though so everyone can share in the run for water feeling you get when you bite into it.
Anyhow, we got ready to go in about 3 minutes which meant I had to go with wet hair and no make up. I'm not a very high maintenance girl but that was really not a fun way to go out. And believe me trivia night is a happening place to be on a Wednesday night. I really can't think of a better place to meet a guy than trivia night. Most of them can even get the senior citizen discount too!
So we head out to another restaraunt where Al's trivia group meets. Apparently, they have these clubs that sponsor trivia night. There is a man with a microphone and he yells out questions. Some of the questions you answer right away and some you have to write down and they pick a winner at the end.
We got there before anyone on his team got there so we sat down and ate dinner while people arrived. When I first sat down I thought it was just his table that was involved in trivia night. I was shocked when I realized the whole restaurant was there for trivia. That night happened to be their Christmas party and every table had a different theme. These crazy Australians, they sure know how to party. haha There were tables everywhere full of people with different themed costumes all ready to answer the most useless questions ever.
It began and the first question was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and I turn around to say who in the world would know that, when the girl at our table shouted out the answer. She shut me up real quick. I decided not to give my input for a while. One of the questions happened to be about America and the whole table just stared at me all at once. Talk about pressure, these triva folks are just crazy. Somebody else even got the answer before me. Back to being useless for me! Luke and I managed to get a few prizes even though we didn't answer a single question.
We decided we were too tired to stay for drinks and we headed back to Al's house. We woke up in the morning and headed back home. so that was it. Back to Brisbane with a few more Australian memories and a very long journal entry topic.

Noosa-this is a very long one! remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-12-13:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=18&entryid=34649 2006-12-14T06:36:02Z 2006-12-14T06:36:02Z There are two parts to the coast here on the East Coast of Australia. Up north past Brisbane is the Sunshine coast and South of Brisbane is the Gold coast. The sunshine coast is very quiet and calm. There are beautiful beaches that aren't real crowded and quiet little beach towns. It kind of reminds me of Monterey and Carmel. The gold coast is the opposite. It is where the party towns are. The Gold coast is filled with kids ... There are two parts to the coast here on the East Coast of Australia. Up north past Brisbane is the Sunshine coast and South of Brisbane is the Gold coast. The sunshine coast is very quiet and calm. There are beautiful beaches that aren't real crowded and quiet little beach towns. It kind of reminds me of Monterey and Carmel.
The gold coast is the opposite. It is where the party towns are. The Gold coast is filled with kids and there are tons of people everywhere. It reminds me more of San Diego. the beaches are still beautiful and you can find beaches in places that aren't populated, but if you want to go and have fun and be with a lot of people, the gold coast is where you want to be.
We have toured both since we have had a car to borrow. Our first trip was up the Sunshine coast.
We drove up through the glasshouse mountains, which I'm still not really sure what they are, becuase they just look like huge rocks to me, like Half dome but not as pretty as half dome. But we still took the tourist route and went through it. the drive along the Sunshine coast is beautiful. There are trees everywhere and it's so quiet and peaceful. We went up to a small beach town which I will never be able to pronounce because they have the craziest names. It was something like mooloolaba. something crazy...Anyways, we went to a Mexican food place which was pretty nice considering they don't have Mexican's here. We continued up to Noosa and drove around the beaches. It was beautiful. didn't really see much wildlife other than birds but it was still a pretty drive.
The beaches in the Sunshine coast have more jellyfish and other animals you don't want to be in contact with then the gold coast.
A few days ago Meribeth and I did a drive down the Gold Coast to Nimbin. Nimbin is about a 2 hour drive. So we headed off towards Byron Bay first which is a small beach town where tons of backpackers go and stay. It is beautiful and a lot of fun. We stopped off there looked around and got directions to nimbin. As we were driving to Nimbin we stopped off at a small secluded beach and looked around to take pictures. Meribeth had here bathing suit on so she walked through the water to take pictures. She saw something neon blue and bent over to pick it up thinking it was trash and it was a giant blue jellyfish.
It was her turn to run for her life. She screamed and ran so I started to run too because if she's afraid then I'm definitely going to be afraid. So she keeps running and I am yelling what is it what is it. So she yells that it was a big jellyfish and so we start to wonder of course, is it the one that can kill us. so we head back over on the rocks this time and take pictures of it. It was really cool. it was huge and almost glowing in the water. We took a ton of pictures and then a few of the sand crabs while we were at it.
After that we took off toward Nimbin, missed our turn of course, so we had to go the round about way. We finally got to Nimbin, a little late so a lot of it was closed. Nimbin is this crazy small hippy town in the middle of nowhere. It is notorious for marijuana. you can smell it as you walk, they have a hemp bar, which is where you can just go smoke in a bar. All the buildings are painted and there are signs posted everywhere of protesting and things like that. Of course there are a few signs about how much they hate Bush. That can be expected. We walked throught the Nimbin museum,which was just crazy. haha it was definitely a good experience. the place is crazier than humboldt. I can't imagine living in the 60's.
so we decided to go home and man did we go the wrong way again. We ended up on this small road, that was barely paved and there were wooden bridges going over creeks. There was not another person in site. So it took us al ittle longer to get home, we saw peacock, a dead kangaroo on the side of the road, and tons of birds of course. but nothing else too exciting. The jelly fish was definitely the highlight of the day.

Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Culture tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-12-13:/blog/?domain=JodieBland&thisblog_entryid=17&entryid=34646 2006-12-14T06:10:42Z 2006-12-14T06:10:42Z the culture here is different from the U.S. There's not really a way to describe it, but I'm going to try. Meribeth and I have been noticing that as a culture here, well the younger culture anyways, it is more feminized here than in the states. It is very European. We were out at a bar/club one night hanging out watching people dance. Guys are so much different over here. There were a bunch of guys out on the dance ... the culture here is different from the U.S. There's not really a way to describe it, but I'm going to try.

Meribeth and I have been noticing that as a culture here, well the younger culture anyways, it is more feminized here than in the states. It is very European.
We were out at a bar/club one night hanging out watching people dance. Guys are so much different over here. There were a bunch of guys out on the dance floor dancing and doing all these weird girly moves. There were barely and girls on the dance floor, guys were dancing around together in groups. I have never seen anything like it in the states. not the way these guys were dancing anyways. Guys here just aren't afraid to look gay I guess.
Their haircuts are absolutely ridiculous here. not all, but some. guys have fo hawks, which are little mohawks down the middle of their hair. Guys in America do it too, but they look so much more feminie here than they do in the states. Some even have a like a blond fo hawk down the middle and then brown hair everywhere else, or the other way around. Some guys hae little tails. It just looks ridiculous. I don't know if it just because I am accustomed to normal haircuts or what but I hate it.
So in my opinion guys are a little bit more feminine here than in America. Not all, there are some stereotypical Australians, that only drink beer and eat kangaroos. most of the guys i have met and actually associate with have been in the middle, like Americans. But there are quite a few guys with girly haircuts and funny clothes.
The girls here are pretty typical I guess, but it doesnt' seem like very many of them are into sports. One guy I work with started laughing and he came over to me and said that group of girls is talking about going to a cricket game. I was like ya what's so funny. he was shocked that a bunch of girls were into sports. It's funny.
The typical person here is not into politics or anythign at all like that. Most of them don't even realize they have troops in Iraq or anywhere else. but I gues you can say a lot of Americans are like that as well.
Well I had a ton of things to say, but of course when I go to write I can't think of any, so I'll leave it at that.

Culture remains copyright of the author jdbland1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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