So I'm home and am now able to post pictures for those of you following the blog.
Pictures are here!
Feel free to comment or email me
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Likely my last post from overseas
So tomorrow I fly out of Auckland to LAX. I will arrive in LAX 7 hours before I took off so that is always fun.
Today I did a free tour of the city went to the sky tower, the tallest volcano in the area, the harbor bridge (under it to the bungee platform to see some jumpers, frankly didn't seem like such a big deal, especially after skydiving but I didn't feel like spending any more money to attempt to get my adrenaline flowing as skydiving didn't, zorbing did a little but it certainly wasn't scary.) and some other stuff. Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw kiwi's. They are a lot bigger than I expected. I was thinking they were small little flightless birds but they have a body about the size of a regulation volleyball. Saw other stuff at the zoo. They periodically parade animals through the zoo for exercise so I got to see the elephants coming down the walkways and boars and stuff like that which was neat.
As per zorbing, I don't think I posted about it yet. I have pictures, but if you didn't click on the link in the previous post, then its basically rolling down a hill in a human sized hamster ball. I did three rolls down the hill. I opted for the ones filled with nice warm water (not all the way but enough to get you completely soaked). I did two zig zag courses and one straight.
I must say I'm going to miss the food... I only have two candy bars left that I want to try: malteasers and milky bar. They are the equivalent of whoppers and white chocolate respectively. Candy here (and everywhere else is so much better than back home).
Anyways, little low on battery and I got some other stuff to be taking care of. Will talk later and start posting pictures when I get back. I'll likely find a site where I can post high quality pictures and provide a link here. If anyone has any questions about anything I might have left out feel free to ask...
In any event, I land in LAX in 13 hours and take off from Auckland in 20, sweet as.
(Sweet as is a kiwi expression)
Today I did a free tour of the city went to the sky tower, the tallest volcano in the area, the harbor bridge (under it to the bungee platform to see some jumpers, frankly didn't seem like such a big deal, especially after skydiving but I didn't feel like spending any more money to attempt to get my adrenaline flowing as skydiving didn't, zorbing did a little but it certainly wasn't scary.) and some other stuff. Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw kiwi's. They are a lot bigger than I expected. I was thinking they were small little flightless birds but they have a body about the size of a regulation volleyball. Saw other stuff at the zoo. They periodically parade animals through the zoo for exercise so I got to see the elephants coming down the walkways and boars and stuff like that which was neat.
As per zorbing, I don't think I posted about it yet. I have pictures, but if you didn't click on the link in the previous post, then its basically rolling down a hill in a human sized hamster ball. I did three rolls down the hill. I opted for the ones filled with nice warm water (not all the way but enough to get you completely soaked). I did two zig zag courses and one straight.
I must say I'm going to miss the food... I only have two candy bars left that I want to try: malteasers and milky bar. They are the equivalent of whoppers and white chocolate respectively. Candy here (and everywhere else is so much better than back home).
Anyways, little low on battery and I got some other stuff to be taking care of. Will talk later and start posting pictures when I get back. I'll likely find a site where I can post high quality pictures and provide a link here. If anyone has any questions about anything I might have left out feel free to ask...
In any event, I land in LAX in 13 hours and take off from Auckland in 20, sweet as.
(Sweet as is a kiwi expression)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Home Stretch
So I'm in Auckland today. It's raining so I don't quite feel up to my normal walking tour of the city plus I decided to sleep in today which was the first time in a month which was nice. Tomorrow I'm off to Rotorua to go zorbing. I will have some free time there so will be able to walk around there for a bit, maybe go to the mud baths. The hostel operates a free tour of the city which I signed up to do on Tuesday. The tour goes up the sky tower (the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere at 394 meters or so, just under a quarter mile), goes to Mt. Eden (an active volcano), over the Harbor Bridge, and other places.The hostel also has free dinner and since I booked it with a certain backpackers travel place I get a free super-size which is good.
Last night I caved and bought a hamburger as I'd been craving one for sometime. The only reason I did it is because I saw the place as I was walking from the bus station and you could just tell that it was an iconic place. Great food, great prices, great portions. It was called the White Lady and has only closed once since it's opening in the 40's due to Auckland losing power. It was open again by the next morning after the museum brought a generator over to help them out.
Wellington was a fun city. I wish I had more time to spend here but I guess I'll just have to come back. Saw lots of cool Lord of the Ring filming sites and on the train ride up to Auckland I saw Mt. Doom. Not sure which one it was as they were all snow covered making it a lot less Doom-y. ("...represented by Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu, both active volcanoes in New Zealand." courtesy of Wiki) In any event, the train ride was a little interesting as the train was late and then had electrical problems. The solution, put everyone on a bus and then send a train south from Auckland to intercept us. We got on the train right around Mount Doom and took it the rest of the way and had a short power outage just outside of Auckland. I missed my free dinner last night which wasn't so bad as I went to the White Lady.
I might go to the Auckland zoo and get my picture taken with a Cheetah as I've always wanted to do that. They are very big on animal encounters here, and I would be remiss if I came all the way out here and didn't see a kiwi (bird). I bought a kilogram of kiwis (fruit) which cost $1 NZ so that equates to 2.2 lbs of fruit for $0.63 which is pretty tough to beat. The third type of kiwi is a person from New Zealand. Apparently the kiwi farms got hit by a hail storm which ruined lots of crops so kiwi's might be more expensive soon.
Last night I caved and bought a hamburger as I'd been craving one for sometime. The only reason I did it is because I saw the place as I was walking from the bus station and you could just tell that it was an iconic place. Great food, great prices, great portions. It was called the White Lady and has only closed once since it's opening in the 40's due to Auckland losing power. It was open again by the next morning after the museum brought a generator over to help them out.
Wellington was a fun city. I wish I had more time to spend here but I guess I'll just have to come back. Saw lots of cool Lord of the Ring filming sites and on the train ride up to Auckland I saw Mt. Doom. Not sure which one it was as they were all snow covered making it a lot less Doom-y. ("...represented by Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu, both active volcanoes in New Zealand." courtesy of Wiki) In any event, the train ride was a little interesting as the train was late and then had electrical problems. The solution, put everyone on a bus and then send a train south from Auckland to intercept us. We got on the train right around Mount Doom and took it the rest of the way and had a short power outage just outside of Auckland. I missed my free dinner last night which wasn't so bad as I went to the White Lady.
I might go to the Auckland zoo and get my picture taken with a Cheetah as I've always wanted to do that. They are very big on animal encounters here, and I would be remiss if I came all the way out here and didn't see a kiwi (bird). I bought a kilogram of kiwis (fruit) which cost $1 NZ so that equates to 2.2 lbs of fruit for $0.63 which is pretty tough to beat. The third type of kiwi is a person from New Zealand. Apparently the kiwi farms got hit by a hail storm which ruined lots of crops so kiwi's might be more expensive soon.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
almost forgot
The beach is called Manly beach, there is also Bondi Beach, Manly beach is more a town I don't know about bondi beach, but there wasn't much to do in Manly in the way of tourism in the winter so I didn't stay long.
Additionally, the computers here are pretty nice...
Additionally, the computers here are pretty nice...
Not on my computer
So I'm not on my computer right now, but hey the internet is fast here at the Nomad's Hostel in Wellington. Tomorrow I have a full day tour of Middle Earth. I spent the last two days bussing and training and ferrying my way here from Queenstown, with a 1 night stopover in Christchurch. I had fish and chips for $5 NZ in Christchurch with is approximately $3 US. I almost couldn't finish it it was so much food. Additionally, the chips were the best fries I've ever had in my life. Perfectly salted, piping hot and huge. They were like regular fast food fries tripled in cross sectional area.
Anyways, New Zealand is amazing. The entire country is a picture. I still like Queenstown the best so far, but I took teh train up the pacific coast and saw black sand beaches. I don't have much time left on my charge for this (thanks Susie by the way if you're reading this as I'm using your card) Wellington is a nice city, clean industrious. I had to walk a few miles with my bags to get to the hostel. In any event, most of the towns we past through had populations of around 2 or 3 thousand. NZ itself only has 4.1 million and significantly more sheep. They also have deer farms. I had a really good Vennison meat pie in Tikapo (a bus stop layover). In any event, will post more when I get a chance... Laters
Anyways, New Zealand is amazing. The entire country is a picture. I still like Queenstown the best so far, but I took teh train up the pacific coast and saw black sand beaches. I don't have much time left on my charge for this (thanks Susie by the way if you're reading this as I'm using your card) Wellington is a nice city, clean industrious. I had to walk a few miles with my bags to get to the hostel. In any event, most of the towns we past through had populations of around 2 or 3 thousand. NZ itself only has 4.1 million and significantly more sheep. They also have deer farms. I had a really good Vennison meat pie in Tikapo (a bus stop layover). In any event, will post more when I get a chance... Laters
Monday, July 6, 2009
Milford Sound
No pictures for now as I can't afford to wait for the upload anymore, but if you Google Milford Sound, that pretty much sums up my day. That and some amazing food.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
In Just 3 Days
Here, I will attempt to list everything I did in the past 3 days in Sydney
I went to:
-Kings Cross
-Observatory
-Tour of the Opera house. The opera house is really cool, learned a lot of things about it. Initially it was supposed to be 3 years and 7 million dollars and ended up being 15 years and 130 million dollars. The architect who died last year, never returned to Australia to see it finished. His design was chosen by the designer of the St. Louis Arch who, in doing so, broke the competition rules as it was a world wide competition for the design. There's lots of other cool stuff but nothing really worth noting in the blog.
-Show at the Opera House (Carmina Burrana, also included Pines of Rome by Respighi and a song by Shostakovich which I didn't know initially but was very delighted to find out as I really like the Pines of Rome. The Shostakovich piece was very much in his style with trills on the violins and flutes.)
-Blue Mountains where I climbed two waterfalls
-Olympic Park
-Harbor Bridge
-Top of a pylon of the bridge (290 ft above water for $9.50 AUD vs. $180 AUD to go to the 400 ft top of the bridge)
-Darling Harbor
-Sydney Aquarium
-Cockle Bay Wharf
-Manly Beach
-Botanical Gardens
-Wooloomooloo (spelling?)
-Went out to lots of shops and stuff
-Hyde Park
-St Mary's Cathedral
-St Andrews Cathedral (Organ Playing as added bonus)
-Darrel Lea Chocolates (Australia's oldest Chocolate makers) I got something called Rocklea road along with a sampler box. The rocklea road came in several varieties, I chose the espresso one. Essentially, it was coffee infused marshmallows covered in milk chocolate with coarse pieces of nuts and coffee beans. Was pretty good to say the least.
-Worlds Largest (IMAX) theater. Saw Transformers 2 which was pretty decently entertaining though some parts I could have done without. But seeing it on that screen was downright amazing. It felt like everything was real size. The actors took up about 2 meters and the robots took up about 8 stories so it all worked out pretty well.
-Harry's famous meat pies cafe on wheels (The actual name is some combination of those words) I can now join the ranks with thousands of others including Blink 182, Jason Biggs of American Pie, and Colonel Sanders to name a few. Pretty good meat pies.
That's all I can think that I did right now but there may have been more. With the exception of taking the ferry to and from Manly Beach, I walked everywhere a distance of probably about 40 or 50 miles in the end.
Right now:
I'm sitting in a place called Patagonia in Queenstown, New Zealand. It's a really good chocolate shop with free wireless and not too far from the hostel. Queenstown itself is absolutely beautiful. I'm staying at a hostel right on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains on all sides. Could definitely live here if it weren't for the lack of a need of aerospace engineers in the area. I've been sliding down the thermometer as in Cairns, Australia it was in the 30's and in Sydney it was in the low 20's/ teens. In Christchurch (where I had my layover) it was 8 degrees and here it's 4 degrees. I'm supposed to see Milford Sound tomorrow but I might have to do some serious rescheduling due to weather. This would involve me pushing the rest of my trip around and probably a dozen phone calls. Anyways, the flight into Queenstown was amazing. It was a pretty short flight, I fell asleep for a good part of it but it was shorter than 2 hours. In any event, we descended through the clouds and were immediately surrounded by snowy mountains and beautiful mirror lakes and flew around and winded down and around and like that we were in Queenstown. It was the smallest commercial plane I've ever been on, an ATR-72 which seets 68 people and is powered by two turbo propellers. I switched to the small plane in Christchurch where I was flown into from Sydney on a Boeing 777 operated by the United Arab Emirates airline. I have to say, that was by far the nicest airline I've ever been on. Extremely comfortable seats and on a two and a half hour flight all amentities provided. Amenities like, steamed cloth at the beginning of the flight, breakast which included: scrambled eggs with chives, steamed mushrooms, tomato ragout, some really nice vanilla mousse cake, bread, orange juice, tea/coffee, crackers and cheese (from Cracker Barrel in the states oddly enough...). The seats all had touch screen tv's with about 50 arcade style games, 100 movies or so and about 60,000 songs from all over the world along with several episodes each of about 30 tv shows. US airlines suck. Even the really short New Zealand flight on the tiny plane had tea and cookies and candies right before landing. I hardly ever get anything other than maybe a free glass of water on the planes these days. Another thing I thought was weird was that there was no security for the domestic Air New Zealand flights. I got my bags from the international gate and went through customs, checked in and simply walked to my gate no questions asked. This was good as I would have been a little pressed for time if I had to go through security.
In anyevent, my battery is getting low so I'm going to head back soon.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tired at Mcdonalds
They call McDonalds Maca's here for whatever reason. In any event, it's one of the only places to get free wifi in Sydney, so here I am.
First off, before I forget, a bit more on the reef:
So at the third site there was a snorkel tour which I was with for a bit but it was just too crowded and everyone was kicking everyone because people couldn't figure out how to tread water with flippers on so everyone swam in circles. Whatever, I got annoyed and left. Upon leaving I saw a shark. In my infinite wisdom I decided I needed a picture of it. It was little far away for a picture when I first saw it. So I started chasing it, I almost got close enough for the picture, but who'd have guessed sharks are better swimmers than people. Sorry to say, no picture of the shark.
All in all the boat ride was fairly smooth, a little choppy at times but that is to be expected. They had plenty of white paper bags with (and I quote) "All the instructions you'll need on the inside of the bag in the event of sea sickness"
In any event, I went on some trails and finished booking everything but zorbing in New Zealand. Tomorrow I should be going to the aquarium and the imax and some other stores around darling harbor and what not. So far I've had a rough ride getting into Sydney. The landing was a little turbulent but eased up once we were on final. I actually like the turbulence so that was cool. The pilot totally scrubbed the landing, bounced a couple times and came in a little fast but whatever, it seems that the pilots on US airlines are generally better. I had called the hostel earlier today to verify that I could get picked up at the airport for free as I'm staying 4 nights. I discussed time and everything with them. They said to just call back when I landed and they would send the shuttle. So I land, I get my bags, I call, shuttle stopped running about 20 minutes after I made the phone call in Cairns. Go figure. So now I have to find my own transit there. All the desks to buy shuttle bus tickets are empty with signs saying go to this location which eventually lead to a location that didn't exist anymore, only its four anchoring points on the floor remained. Suffice to say I was getting pretty agitated at this point. The airport, and the streets too, are filled with people that have no sense for the people walking around them. I've never seen it so bad as it is here. I knew that I'd need an atm so I asked a person where the closed atm was and where the buses were. She told me to check the tables for the bus so I explained that they were empty, she responded with I don't know then. She then directed me to an atm that was within line of site but out of order rather than directing me to the one that was just hidden behind the wall right next to their counter that was working. I ended up finding the buss for flight crews and one of them showed me where I could get the bus to the city. So I'm here and was able to get a partial refund for the shuttle bus ticket at the hostel. The hostel is called Maze and for good reason. Almost impossible to find your way through there. Also completely without stairs which is always fun. In cairns I got tired of cramming everything into one rolly bag so I took two which made the stairs all the more fun. The room was like a sauna when I walked in as they were using a space heater. Was pretty interesting coming from Cairns where it was around 30C today to here where it is currently 14C and then I'll be off to New Zealand where it will be quite a bit colder.
Anyways, I need to drink more as I'm pretty dehydrated from doing some hiking in the intense winter heat in Cairns this morning. I'm probably going to go get a drink and go to bed now so that I can wake up early....
Interesting thought:
Vista Ultimate SP1: 344 mb
Monthly internet allowance at SCU: 250 mb
Vista= you're screwed
My computer is in sore need of updates...
Checking In
So I'm sitting in Peterpan's travel right now in Cairns. I'm about to book my Milford Sound Trip and hostels in New Zealand. Tonight I fly to Sydney and tomorrow I will be seeing Transformers 2 on the largest movie screen in the world. ALso, I should be seeing a show in the opera house, Carmina Buranna by Carl Orf so that should be pretty exciting. I've finally broken into a rhythm of travel so as to make things easier when traveling from point to point.
Yesterday I went snorkeling on the reef all day. There's one more thing completed from the bucket list. Swimming with sea turtles is pretty fun and diving with a snorkel is awkward. Got slightly burnt despite spf 50 sun block. I guess I forgot to reapply. (On a side note, you cannot get higher than spf30 here) All in all, the underwater camera I rented yielded some cool pictures and videos. Will post them when I get a chance. Since my flight leaves at 7, I'll just be walking some trails in Cairns today. Thus far from what I've seen its not a very picturesque city, but full of lots of fun tourist shops and back alleys and the like but I've been told the trails I'll be going on today are pretty magnificent.
New Zealand I fear may be too cold for what I've packed so this might get interesting.
Anyways, thats all for now, will post next time I have internet, whenever that is....
Yesterday I went snorkeling on the reef all day. There's one more thing completed from the bucket list. Swimming with sea turtles is pretty fun and diving with a snorkel is awkward. Got slightly burnt despite spf 50 sun block. I guess I forgot to reapply. (On a side note, you cannot get higher than spf30 here) All in all, the underwater camera I rented yielded some cool pictures and videos. Will post them when I get a chance. Since my flight leaves at 7, I'll just be walking some trails in Cairns today. Thus far from what I've seen its not a very picturesque city, but full of lots of fun tourist shops and back alleys and the like but I've been told the trails I'll be going on today are pretty magnificent.
New Zealand I fear may be too cold for what I've packed so this might get interesting.
Anyways, thats all for now, will post next time I have internet, whenever that is....
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Moving on....
Last night was our last night in Byron so we all went out to dinner at a nice place and got dressed up (or at least as dressed as backpackers get). The place was pretty decent, I took pictures of the food so I can get them uploaded later. I had Waygu Steak which wasn't quite as good as I expected, but still pretty darn good, especially since it's been a while since I've had red meat. In any event, prior to dinner, the uni paid for us to have lunch at a place called Earth and Sea Pizza. I split a Cruel Sea pizza with someone else which had prawns, mussels, clams, and black olives on it. It was actually pretty good. The others got a regular style pizza, a vegetarian pizza, and another one with feta cheese on it though I can't remember what else.
We left Byron Bay today and went to Brisbane where everyone said there goodbyes and caught flights (except for me). I'm in Brisbane for today and then off on a 32 hour train ride to Cairns tomorrow so I'll likely be out of touch for a while unless they have internet on the train (and an outlet) but I'm not getting my hopes up. Was able to get on the internet here via a backpacker travel place. Probably just going to walk around the city and take in the sites today. Might rent a bike as I hear there is some great biking in Brisbane.
There's quite a bit of construction going on in Brisbane, but everything is cheaper than Byron, except for the accomodation, but granted this place is considerably nicer than the last. No ants, no cockroaches, no giant rats. Not that that bothered me a whole lot about the other place, but its still nice to have a cleaner place.
Anyways thats all I got for now. Will post again when I get to Cairns hopefully.
We left Byron Bay today and went to Brisbane where everyone said there goodbyes and caught flights (except for me). I'm in Brisbane for today and then off on a 32 hour train ride to Cairns tomorrow so I'll likely be out of touch for a while unless they have internet on the train (and an outlet) but I'm not getting my hopes up. Was able to get on the internet here via a backpacker travel place. Probably just going to walk around the city and take in the sites today. Might rent a bike as I hear there is some great biking in Brisbane.
There's quite a bit of construction going on in Brisbane, but everything is cheaper than Byron, except for the accomodation, but granted this place is considerably nicer than the last. No ants, no cockroaches, no giant rats. Not that that bothered me a whole lot about the other place, but its still nice to have a cleaner place.
Anyways thats all I got for now. Will post again when I get to Cairns hopefully.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Minyon Falls and Rocky Creek Dam
This picture is upstream of the main waterfall of Minyon Falls, which is a 100 meter drop.
This is a picture of the stream at Minyon falls.
This is a picture of a Noisy Minor bird that we saw at Rocky Creek Dam during the barbecue.
This is a picture of us all standing in the river upstream of Minyon Falls
This is a picture of Minyon Falls (as you may have guessed)
Today we got to visit Rocky Creek Dam and Minyon Falls (as mentioned in the title). When European settlers first arrived they planted a lot of foreign plants to make the place feel more like home and to help conquer the harsh flora in the area. In the area where the falls and dam are in they have been weeding out the foreign plants and replacing them with indigenous ones. As we went through the trails Noah pointed out various species of plants and what not including one that has tiny little spines all over and feels like fire upon contact with it. Other than that we had a barbecue lunch in which I had Kangaroo. Tastes pretty good. It's a red meat kind of similar to beef. Would definitely have more. I posted some pictures of the area as I'm at the uni right now and have somewhat decent bandwidth though there is a cap on total amount of data transfer I can do.
Winding down to the end of the class now and looking at things I'll be doing in Sydney and the like. I'll probably be seeing Transformers on the largest movie screen in the world.
From the imax site:
The IMAX Theatre Sydney in Darling Harbour is home to the world's largest cinema screen at 29.42m high by 35.73m wide (96.52ft high by 117.22ft wide) – covering an area of more than 1,015 square metres (10,925.37 square feet). They just don't come any bigger!
...Up to eight storeys high, they are ten times larger than a tradtional cinema screen and fills the whole field of human vision.
The pancake breakfast today was quite good with whip cream and mixed berry topping (straw, ras, and blue I think)
CORRECTION: I previously sited my ostrich encounter in Currumbin, it was an emu I was later corrected. They had both there I just mistook one for the other.
Additionally, when we visited Protester Falls, there was a tree that had fallen down going over the creek sometime ago. I of coursed traversed the log rather than the bridge. After making it across, Noah said he'd been daring students for years to cross the log but that no one ever had.
In any event, thats all I got for now, will post more later....
Monday, June 22, 2009
I feel like a million bucks!
Well, maybe $30, more on that later.
So today we woke up at 7:30 and went to Lismore (where the Southern Cross University campus is located). We woke up early so that we could partake in a pancake breakfast as part of the orientation for the new students as they are just starting their spring semester. (Universities are called uni's here and semesters are called mesties) In any event, turns out the pancake breakfast is on Wednesday, so they gave us some breakfast vouchers and we ate at the plaza, I had quiche and green tea which was pretty good.
We then went to class and talked about indigenous tourism which was fairly interesting. Then we got kind of side tracked and started talking about Noah's (Noah being our instructor) house as he has a house made of rammed earth and a composting toilet and solar power and other such eco friendly appliances. Though seemingly hardcore, he doesn't hesitate to indulge in things like having a computer or a fridge and the like. He also has a farm in which he raises animals and stuff for food and recreation.
Additionally, we got grades back today for our two papers. Due to some technical difficulties, I only received one of my grades and I got a Distinction on it which is the second highest you can get I guess so thats good. The class transfers as pass/fail so I'm not too worried.
After class we went to the pizza luncheon for the new students. Which had some decent bbq meat pizza and some decent veggie pizza. Afterwards the girls decided they all wanted to go back to campus and sleep. I decided I wanted to stay and participate in more orientation activities and meet some new students. So they went back and at that time the students were in a lecture about culture shock in the like as they were catering international students mostly today. So I went to the on campus koala hospital as they have wild koalas on campus (which I found one) and they treat them for diseases like conjunctivitis and others that I can't spell. If they can't treat it they send them up to Steve Irwin's hospital. I got a whole tour of the rather small facility but it was very informative and I was grateful for the tour. I then went back and participated in a soccer match. We did a warm up game and then a competitive game. I sustained one injury as I got a little competitive for the ball while on defense and a guy named Dallas (who is from Queensland and is of Fiji heritage.... how does one make Fiji and adjective? ) and I trapped the ball as he was going with it and his knee went into my thigh. I have a bit of a limp at the moment and I anticipate a good bruise but nothing to worry about. All in all pretty fun. At the end of the game 3 people were awarded prizes, myself being one of them. So this was where I got my $30 + a pen and pad of paper + sticky notes all neatly packaged in a Chinese food take away box (as it is not take out here). SO after the game I was going to go back to my stuff and hang out there for a bit ( I left my stuff locked with a person I knew that worked here) but decided to go hang out with the people I played soccer with. Hung out in one of their dorms for a little bit then we all met up again and went to dinner. I should be meeting them again on Wednesday for breakfast.
I then got a ride back from one of the drivers at the uni and had a fun talk with him. I can't recall his name at the moment but I want to say Mike. He was a student there and about to finish his last year of school so that he can become a teacher. After getting back I more or less dropped my stuff off and went out with everyone else to dinner. I just got a milkshake (which was really just incredibly finely chopped ice (Blendtech anyone?) and milk and chocolate syrup, not bad but not the same) as they didn't have any drinks at dinner at the uni, just sausages (or hot dogs as they call them back home) and really got veggie patties. After that I came back here and decided to post on here, take a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow we're going to Rocky Creek Dam and Minyon falls so that should be exciting minus the bruise I'll have on my leg.
If someone could do me a favor and look up what happens when you check disposable cameras on a plane (as I presume the one I bought for skydiving has film) and post it as a comment that'd be great.
Current Song
ZZ Top - Sleeping Bag
PS
Sorry again for calling so early
So today we woke up at 7:30 and went to Lismore (where the Southern Cross University campus is located). We woke up early so that we could partake in a pancake breakfast as part of the orientation for the new students as they are just starting their spring semester. (Universities are called uni's here and semesters are called mesties) In any event, turns out the pancake breakfast is on Wednesday, so they gave us some breakfast vouchers and we ate at the plaza, I had quiche and green tea which was pretty good.
We then went to class and talked about indigenous tourism which was fairly interesting. Then we got kind of side tracked and started talking about Noah's (Noah being our instructor) house as he has a house made of rammed earth and a composting toilet and solar power and other such eco friendly appliances. Though seemingly hardcore, he doesn't hesitate to indulge in things like having a computer or a fridge and the like. He also has a farm in which he raises animals and stuff for food and recreation.
Additionally, we got grades back today for our two papers. Due to some technical difficulties, I only received one of my grades and I got a Distinction on it which is the second highest you can get I guess so thats good. The class transfers as pass/fail so I'm not too worried.
After class we went to the pizza luncheon for the new students. Which had some decent bbq meat pizza and some decent veggie pizza. Afterwards the girls decided they all wanted to go back to campus and sleep. I decided I wanted to stay and participate in more orientation activities and meet some new students. So they went back and at that time the students were in a lecture about culture shock in the like as they were catering international students mostly today. So I went to the on campus koala hospital as they have wild koalas on campus (which I found one) and they treat them for diseases like conjunctivitis and others that I can't spell. If they can't treat it they send them up to Steve Irwin's hospital. I got a whole tour of the rather small facility but it was very informative and I was grateful for the tour. I then went back and participated in a soccer match. We did a warm up game and then a competitive game. I sustained one injury as I got a little competitive for the ball while on defense and a guy named Dallas (who is from Queensland and is of Fiji heritage.... how does one make Fiji and adjective? ) and I trapped the ball as he was going with it and his knee went into my thigh. I have a bit of a limp at the moment and I anticipate a good bruise but nothing to worry about. All in all pretty fun. At the end of the game 3 people were awarded prizes, myself being one of them. So this was where I got my $30 + a pen and pad of paper + sticky notes all neatly packaged in a Chinese food take away box (as it is not take out here). SO after the game I was going to go back to my stuff and hang out there for a bit ( I left my stuff locked with a person I knew that worked here) but decided to go hang out with the people I played soccer with. Hung out in one of their dorms for a little bit then we all met up again and went to dinner. I should be meeting them again on Wednesday for breakfast.
I then got a ride back from one of the drivers at the uni and had a fun talk with him. I can't recall his name at the moment but I want to say Mike. He was a student there and about to finish his last year of school so that he can become a teacher. After getting back I more or less dropped my stuff off and went out with everyone else to dinner. I just got a milkshake (which was really just incredibly finely chopped ice (Blendtech anyone?) and milk and chocolate syrup, not bad but not the same) as they didn't have any drinks at dinner at the uni, just sausages (or hot dogs as they call them back home) and really got veggie patties. After that I came back here and decided to post on here, take a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow we're going to Rocky Creek Dam and Minyon falls so that should be exciting minus the bruise I'll have on my leg.
If someone could do me a favor and look up what happens when you check disposable cameras on a plane (as I presume the one I bought for skydiving has film) and post it as a comment that'd be great.
Current Song
ZZ Top - Sleeping Bag
PS
Sorry again for calling so early
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Random Musings
First off, it's the same day here as back home right now so I can legitimately say Happy Father's Day Dad. Also, happy birthday Sivan.
So today was pretty uneventful. Got to sleep in which was nice and my shoes are dry for a change. Didn't really do too much today. I booked some hostels so that I have a place to stay up until July 5th and took care of some financial stuff. I'm going to clean my room and go to bed early as we are getting picked up at 7:30 tomorrow to go to Lismore. They are going to involve us in some of the orientation week activities for the new students at Southern Cross so that we can get more of an exposure to the Australian way of life as in the hostels, especially in Byron, its mostly all people visiting Australia. Tomorrow we're supposed to participate in soccer. I anticipate crushing defeat if they do locals vs. us.
In any event, I figured I'd post some random observations about Australia, though some of them may be location specific as I haven't traveled too much yet.
Every outlet has its own power switch located at the outlet. There are light switches as well, but for your plugin appliances, you can leave them plugged in and turn off the outlet so that you aren't wasting power. This seems like a pretty easy way to save money and I'm surprised that they aren't more common in the states (I haven't personally seen it ever).
All the toilets have two flush modes, 1 for solid waste and the other for liquid. Yet another easy way to save money. (For anyone who was curious, I haven't noticed which way the toilets spin yet due to the way the variable flushing system works)
They make astounding use of the traffic circle. Everyone seems to be able to traverse them without too much confusion. Traffic flows much more smoothly. There are traffic lights, but in Byron there are none (at least in central Byron). I'm definitely a fan.
Alfa Romeo's are cool. 'nough said.
At least in Byron, most everyone is in decent physical shape.
There's a lot of public restrooms, many of which work on a key system.
In New Zealand the water fountains also had an alcohol based soap dispenser with them. (or at least that's what I thought it was)
English really is the predominant language. I was impressed at how many foreign people speak it. One of my room mates speaks a Germanic language, it might be sure, I think he's from Holland, but he might be from Germany. In any event, when I woke up today he was reading an English Dictionary (with conversions to what I presume was his native language) Dad said, that his professor once said you'd master a language if you can complete a crossword puzzle in that language. I think being able to learn a language in another language would demonstrate equal mastery of a language. Would be like me going to Italy and learning to speak Russian.
Anyways, this week we will also be going to Rocky Creek Dam, and I'm hoping Minion Falls (I think that's what they are called), but we'll see.
That's all I can think of but I might add to the post later...
So today was pretty uneventful. Got to sleep in which was nice and my shoes are dry for a change. Didn't really do too much today. I booked some hostels so that I have a place to stay up until July 5th and took care of some financial stuff. I'm going to clean my room and go to bed early as we are getting picked up at 7:30 tomorrow to go to Lismore. They are going to involve us in some of the orientation week activities for the new students at Southern Cross so that we can get more of an exposure to the Australian way of life as in the hostels, especially in Byron, its mostly all people visiting Australia. Tomorrow we're supposed to participate in soccer. I anticipate crushing defeat if they do locals vs. us.
In any event, I figured I'd post some random observations about Australia, though some of them may be location specific as I haven't traveled too much yet.
Every outlet has its own power switch located at the outlet. There are light switches as well, but for your plugin appliances, you can leave them plugged in and turn off the outlet so that you aren't wasting power. This seems like a pretty easy way to save money and I'm surprised that they aren't more common in the states (I haven't personally seen it ever).
All the toilets have two flush modes, 1 for solid waste and the other for liquid. Yet another easy way to save money. (For anyone who was curious, I haven't noticed which way the toilets spin yet due to the way the variable flushing system works)
They make astounding use of the traffic circle. Everyone seems to be able to traverse them without too much confusion. Traffic flows much more smoothly. There are traffic lights, but in Byron there are none (at least in central Byron). I'm definitely a fan.
Alfa Romeo's are cool. 'nough said.
At least in Byron, most everyone is in decent physical shape.
There's a lot of public restrooms, many of which work on a key system.
In New Zealand the water fountains also had an alcohol based soap dispenser with them. (or at least that's what I thought it was)
English really is the predominant language. I was impressed at how many foreign people speak it. One of my room mates speaks a Germanic language, it might be sure, I think he's from Holland, but he might be from Germany. In any event, when I woke up today he was reading an English Dictionary (with conversions to what I presume was his native language) Dad said, that his professor once said you'd master a language if you can complete a crossword puzzle in that language. I think being able to learn a language in another language would demonstrate equal mastery of a language. Would be like me going to Italy and learning to speak Russian.
Anyways, this week we will also be going to Rocky Creek Dam, and I'm hoping Minion Falls (I think that's what they are called), but we'll see.
That's all I can think of but I might add to the post later...
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Checking in so to speak
So yesterday was an interesting day. We went to Nimbin which is located in the rain forest. It is a one street town founded by hippies and populated by, you guessed it, hippies. 70's style hippies. There is a very large drug problem in the town comparable to Amsterdam (I'd imagine). It's very green and colorful, as always I have pictures I can upload later. We went through a museum and spoke with some locals which was interesting. We then went down into the valley where things got a bit tropical and we could see the cedars there that the locals initially set up camp to protect (and succeeded, this marked the first successful resistance to big logging companies). We hiked for a bit and reached Protester falls (named after the protesters I presume). A bunch of us decided to go for a swim underneath the waterfall as the locals used to do. (Leech infested waters are fun, none got on me though, so no need to worry Mom). Unfortnuately there was just so much moisture in the air there that most of the pictures are really fuzzy. I'll see what I can do about touching them up and post later. (When I get back and post all the pictures I'll send a bulk email and let everyone know they are up if they care to look)
Today, we went surfing which was fun. We were all able to stand up by the end. Had a few good wipe outs too. At the end we got to surf in some moderately heavy rain which yielded some nice waves. We waited for the waves to crash before we started riding them. After that we attempted to have a BBQ but were thwarted by more rain even though it was off an on. We then improvised and had grilled food indoors which was fun. Then we went to Lismore to see the Lantern Parade which was cool. I asked some locals about it afterwards as I walked into some shops and it is supposed to promote entertainment in Lismore because other than the Lantern Parade, Lismore doesn't off much else during the year. Still, it was a good parade, lots of fire and fireworks and some live theater. I went into a music store and talked to the owner for a while who was very nice an enthusiastic and we shared our opinions on artists and manufacturesrs and recording artists and the like. Never have I seen a small scale private music store with such a wide variety. We then came back to Lismore. We will not be climbing Mount Warning tomorrow as it is supposed to be rainy. As a result we have the day free which isn't too bad. Maybe I'll write my last assignment and finalize a few of my bookings at hostels.
Hard to believe it's the last week of class already...
Update:
I think I forgot to mention that the water we went swimming in was quite cold, on the order of 5 degrees C (41 degrees F for anyone to lazy to do the math, it actually works out exact which is nice). Also, as we got to the main waterfall, there was (as one might expect) a river that we followed with other smaller waterfalls. One of which I climbed which was fun.
Today, we went surfing which was fun. We were all able to stand up by the end. Had a few good wipe outs too. At the end we got to surf in some moderately heavy rain which yielded some nice waves. We waited for the waves to crash before we started riding them. After that we attempted to have a BBQ but were thwarted by more rain even though it was off an on. We then improvised and had grilled food indoors which was fun. Then we went to Lismore to see the Lantern Parade which was cool. I asked some locals about it afterwards as I walked into some shops and it is supposed to promote entertainment in Lismore because other than the Lantern Parade, Lismore doesn't off much else during the year. Still, it was a good parade, lots of fire and fireworks and some live theater. I went into a music store and talked to the owner for a while who was very nice an enthusiastic and we shared our opinions on artists and manufacturesrs and recording artists and the like. Never have I seen a small scale private music store with such a wide variety. We then came back to Lismore. We will not be climbing Mount Warning tomorrow as it is supposed to be rainy. As a result we have the day free which isn't too bad. Maybe I'll write my last assignment and finalize a few of my bookings at hostels.
Hard to believe it's the last week of class already...
Update:
I think I forgot to mention that the water we went swimming in was quite cold, on the order of 5 degrees C (41 degrees F for anyone to lazy to do the math, it actually works out exact which is nice). Also, as we got to the main waterfall, there was (as one might expect) a river that we followed with other smaller waterfalls. One of which I climbed which was fun.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Just another day
Today we had class early so that we could have some free time today. Unfortunately it was raining today. Luckily though, the rain cleared up and two guys I met at the hostel wanted to go to the lighthouse and I had wanted to go back. So we did. Unluckily it poured on us once we got there. Though before the rain started we got some cool pictures, though we did get soaked on the walk back. I'm working on the finishing touches of a paper now which is taking forever as I'm waiting for a site to load so I can do my works cited page. In any event we're going to Nimbin tomorrow which should be interesting.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Change....
So a bunch of us were concerned about getting our money's worth out of the program or at least getting some of the things that were promised in the program that hadn't been delivered. So an email was sent and within 48 hours they had sent someone down to come talk to us and they were very cooperative. It's nice to see that they do have a vested interest and are willing to make adjustments on the fly to ensure the program goes smoothly.
They explained that this was the first time they've done the program with Australearn (the organizing host for all of us) and that was the reason why things were a little askew from initially stated. Some things that we were told included: an outback weekend, a surfing lesson, and lunches. So the outback weekend got cancelled initially as it was supposed to be quite cold. Upon reevaluating again we democratically opted for a second option which has us surfing in the morning followed by going to the lantern parade in Lismore. The following day (as it was going to be a camping trip) we will be picked up early and driven out to Mt. Warning to see the sun rise and get an eco-tour of the slopes to keep it all relevant to the class. This will all be happening this weekend preceded by a trip to Nimbin on Friday which we will evaluate the planning there. It is supposed to be a pretty interesting place as it is part of the rain forest and a very laid back, hippie/backpacker kind of town and backpacker towns are a much different kind of place. Additionally they are going to be providing us meals.
A personal issue that I had was that we were told we could not leave on the 26th so I booked all my post-class travel accordingly. Now it seems that we're supposed to leave on the 26th. Other people are in similar situations but they didn't have anything set in stone yet short of they knew where they were going. In any event, I spoke with them and they are going to get me another night accommodation so that's nice.
In any event today was just another day of class and we talked more about eco-tourism and its impacts and indicators and its types. We also went through a survey to evaluate our own positions on a lot of issues that pertained to eco-tourism. It was interesting to see the variety in the answers. Certainly the way you're raised has a big part in that but it also seems to have a relation to where you're geographically located.
So today marks the half way point of the class, which is kinda weird as it seems like we just started. Still I look forward to the rest of class and my travels after. I'm off to bed now as we have class early tomorrow.
PS
I got some cool pictures of the sunset today as a storm was coming in so that'll be cool to post later. Unfortunately I found quick sand on the beach. I was just walking along the beach on dry sand and I took one step and my entire leg just sunk in (which was quite unfortunate as I had sneakers on at the time, I hope they can finish drying soon). It wasn't hard to get out of like in the movies, but it was very surprising to suddenly be knee deep in sand (literally). We then went to a place called Fish Heads for dinner which is actually a pretty nice place. I had a seafood pasta which had prawns, mussels, bugs and good pasta. For dessert I had some Madagascan vanilla tea and a white chocolate pannacotta (spelling?) which was sort of like creme bule but without caramelized sugar on top. On a side note, all sugar is of the raw unprocessed variety here.
PPS
For clarification, bugs are like langostinos. Additionally, all seafood here is ridiculously fresh.
They explained that this was the first time they've done the program with Australearn (the organizing host for all of us) and that was the reason why things were a little askew from initially stated. Some things that we were told included: an outback weekend, a surfing lesson, and lunches. So the outback weekend got cancelled initially as it was supposed to be quite cold. Upon reevaluating again we democratically opted for a second option which has us surfing in the morning followed by going to the lantern parade in Lismore. The following day (as it was going to be a camping trip) we will be picked up early and driven out to Mt. Warning to see the sun rise and get an eco-tour of the slopes to keep it all relevant to the class. This will all be happening this weekend preceded by a trip to Nimbin on Friday which we will evaluate the planning there. It is supposed to be a pretty interesting place as it is part of the rain forest and a very laid back, hippie/backpacker kind of town and backpacker towns are a much different kind of place. Additionally they are going to be providing us meals.
A personal issue that I had was that we were told we could not leave on the 26th so I booked all my post-class travel accordingly. Now it seems that we're supposed to leave on the 26th. Other people are in similar situations but they didn't have anything set in stone yet short of they knew where they were going. In any event, I spoke with them and they are going to get me another night accommodation so that's nice.
In any event today was just another day of class and we talked more about eco-tourism and its impacts and indicators and its types. We also went through a survey to evaluate our own positions on a lot of issues that pertained to eco-tourism. It was interesting to see the variety in the answers. Certainly the way you're raised has a big part in that but it also seems to have a relation to where you're geographically located.
So today marks the half way point of the class, which is kinda weird as it seems like we just started. Still I look forward to the rest of class and my travels after. I'm off to bed now as we have class early tomorrow.
PS
I got some cool pictures of the sunset today as a storm was coming in so that'll be cool to post later. Unfortunately I found quick sand on the beach. I was just walking along the beach on dry sand and I took one step and my entire leg just sunk in (which was quite unfortunate as I had sneakers on at the time, I hope they can finish drying soon). It wasn't hard to get out of like in the movies, but it was very surprising to suddenly be knee deep in sand (literally). We then went to a place called Fish Heads for dinner which is actually a pretty nice place. I had a seafood pasta which had prawns, mussels, bugs and good pasta. For dessert I had some Madagascan vanilla tea and a white chocolate pannacotta (spelling?) which was sort of like creme bule but without caramelized sugar on top. On a side note, all sugar is of the raw unprocessed variety here.
PPS
For clarification, bugs are like langostinos. Additionally, all seafood here is ridiculously fresh.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Up and Coming
Today was just another day of class not too exciting. Afterwards we went and threw around the frisbee at the beach for a bit. Apparently my diving into the water after it was humorous. After the beach, I came back and cooked some dinner. When it got dark enough I went out and took some pictures of the stars. Some of them came out iffy as it was a little windy on the beach there was some one making sand sculptures on the beach so I got some pictures of that. Other than that met someone from Belgium today who was pretty cool. I'm about to go to bed so I'll post tomorrow. Friday we're going to Nimbin. Saturday we're going to Lismore to see the lantern parade and Sunday we're going to climb Mount Warning.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Recap
So its been a while since I've been able to get on the internet. Anyways.....
Friday:
I jumped out of a plane from 14000 feet. It is supposedly the highest public sky dive in the world. Other places claim 15k feet (15k ft above sea level) but its really 14k ft above ground level. Anyways, it was pretty cool. Strangely I didn't really get an adrenaline rush or anything like that from it. The entire time I was calm we hit the altitude, the hatch opened and I stuck my legs out and down I went. Was pretty relaxing to be honest. Would love to do it again but don't want to gear my money towards that. Still, pretty cool, glad I did it. Check one off the bucket list.
After jumping out of the plane I just took the rest of the day easy, read for class a little, took a nap, ran on the beach and then went to Jerry's for dinner. Jerry is an older woman in the class who is here with her kids and stays in an apartment.
Saturday:
Woke up early and got in the van to go north with a final destination of the Gold Coast. We stopped at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Got some pretty cool pictures there which I will post later when I have internet speeds in excess of 1.4 kb/sec. We got to hang out with kangaroos and koalas. Kangaroos are very soft and friendly. Koalas sleep a lot, weigh more than you think they would and aren't quite as soft as you'd expect, but still cool. We went to a bird show and I got some great shots of the birds there so you'll all get to see them later. They had a wedge tailed eagle (about the same size as an American Bald) and it flew from the back straight up to the front and I had an aisle seat so it flew straight at me and I just kinda held ground taking pictures the whole time which resulted in me getting hit in the head by its wing but some cool pictures so I'm satisfied.
Also, I was attempting to get a closeup picture of an ostrich which they had walking freely along the paths and apparently it didn't like the camera when I pulled it out and (without using flash) I took a few pictures from a distance and they all came out blurry because it decided to come straight at me. I decided to just stand my ground and it literally came right up and stood up tall right in front of me, which as it turns out, this one was about as tall as I am, at least enough to go eye to eye with me. Its body was in contact with mine and I was just looking at it dead in the eye and it just stared at me straight back. It started sniffing me and prodding me with its beak and kind of pushing me and I just stood my ground the whole time. I was a little curios as to whether it was going to take my presence as a threat and decide to get aggressive. I never realized how big ostriches are and I have to say it wouldn't have been an easy fight, though I can't say that the thought of being able to come back from Australia and being able to say that I got in a fight with an ostrich doesn't amuse me. Anyways, after about 3 minutes of me standing there with it and everyone on the trail staring at me in total shock, someone made a noise which distracted it enough for me to step to the side at which point I had to go catch up to the rest of the group which was already pretty far ahead as I had stayed back to get some pictures. It was kind of cool to get that close, they have really weird ears. They are more or less just holes in their skull behind the eyes. Don't really seem like they'd be that effective.
In any event, I'll upload these pictures now just because I think they're really cool:
alright they didn't go where I wanted them to but be sure to click on them to see it full size and full detail (thanks Chris)
Sunday:
Today we went to the beach at Surfer's Paradise (just south of Gold Coast) and walked along it for a bit, did a nature hike, and did a little shopping. Then we all headed back to Byron which brings me to right about now.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Day 3
Sorry for the lack of creativity in post names but I just don't have it in me now. In any event today we got to sleep in a little bit. I'm still jetlagged but less so than when I got here but it works to my advantage because it wakes me up in time to go for a run in the morning on the beach.
I have some cool plans for the weekend, they are taking us up to the Gold Coast and letting us loose so that will be cool. Today we went and met some local farmers and developers trying to provide ecnomical and sustainable solutions to food production while taking a look at aspects it affects of tourism. As I learn more I should be baloe to post more detailed information (which I happen to think Alicia would be interested in if someone cares to invite her to the group as I don't have her email address).
After meeting with the local people in Ballina, we went to the light house of Byron Bay and met with Nigel Stewart who has a mixed blood heritage but with Aboriginy relatives. He is working hard to go back to his roots and spoke to us about how the English came in and changed everything. He then went on to tell us abot the Aboriginy culture and told us some old stories and that the light house was built ontop of an ancient cermonial ground. As an added bonus he played the digeridoo for us and that was pretty cool. He taught us some Aboriginy words but I can't remember them nor could I spell them. After that we walked about 2 mintues to the eastern most point in Australia and saw some whales. I climbed on the rocks a bit with some other people to get a better view. Pictures will be posted eventually when I find some decent internet that I can use my computer with.
I was handed an African restaurant menu today which I will probably end up going to with some people on Friday or something. Other than that I've really started limiting my going out for food and have some corn flakes and pasta and stuff to cook back at the hostel.
I'll add more to this post later as I think of more stuff to write, this is just kind of off the cuff.
I have some cool plans for the weekend, they are taking us up to the Gold Coast and letting us loose so that will be cool. Today we went and met some local farmers and developers trying to provide ecnomical and sustainable solutions to food production while taking a look at aspects it affects of tourism. As I learn more I should be baloe to post more detailed information (which I happen to think Alicia would be interested in if someone cares to invite her to the group as I don't have her email address).
After meeting with the local people in Ballina, we went to the light house of Byron Bay and met with Nigel Stewart who has a mixed blood heritage but with Aboriginy relatives. He is working hard to go back to his roots and spoke to us about how the English came in and changed everything. He then went on to tell us abot the Aboriginy culture and told us some old stories and that the light house was built ontop of an ancient cermonial ground. As an added bonus he played the digeridoo for us and that was pretty cool. He taught us some Aboriginy words but I can't remember them nor could I spell them. After that we walked about 2 mintues to the eastern most point in Australia and saw some whales. I climbed on the rocks a bit with some other people to get a better view. Pictures will be posted eventually when I find some decent internet that I can use my computer with.
I was handed an African restaurant menu today which I will probably end up going to with some people on Friday or something. Other than that I've really started limiting my going out for food and have some corn flakes and pasta and stuff to cook back at the hostel.
I'll add more to this post later as I think of more stuff to write, this is just kind of off the cuff.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Day 2
Today was the first day of class just some basic orientation and intro to the course matter, they gave us lunch there and I went for a run along the beach after we got back. We have a paper due Monday (500-1000 words) so the class is really laid back no exams and we're going on a field trip tomorrow. I'll post more later but I'm kind of tired now.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Day 1
So today we all woke up early as a result of jet lag and going to bed early. We went to a place called Twisted Sista for Breakfast and for $5.50 AUD I got a homemade bannana bread toast (picture to follow) and then on the side I also got a "rainforest" tea which was of the red variety and quite good. For lunch we just got small things I got a scroll which is pretty much like a cinnamon bun only it was filled with other stuff. They had a chedar cheese filled one and (the one I got) a sundried tomato and olive filled one, that was $3.30. We then went to the Woolsworth and got some food to just eat in the hostel. Things are pretty comprably priced but most of the big name brands of the stuff that we were looking for were non existent.
In any event after that we decided to just relax on the beach for a bit. I ran for about two miles along the surf and then we had a catch of the frisbee and waded in the water a little bit. The beach is pretty nice. Though we've been warned that it is uncharacteristically warm, the water was nice and clear with nice sand. Dolphins were pretty consistently about in the distance and occassionally came close to shore. I unfortunately cannot upload my pictures at the moment I'm sitting at an internet cafe because it actually has faster internet but consequently I have to use their computer and the camera is set to take pictures in a special format that prevents me from doing anything right now. I assumed that there would be wireless and that I could just convert and upload on my computer but alas that is not the case.
I've kind of been dubbed the photographer as a result of Chris's camera. In addition to that we will be starting a photobucket group where we will all upload photos so rest assured there's bound to be some pictures of me. For class tomorrow we have to be ready for an 8am bus. Apparently we're still one person short as her flight got delayed leaving and she wasn't able to make the flight in LA so she'll be getting here momentarily so we're all about to head back to the hostel to meet her. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the sun set tonight so maybe I'll upload a few pictures though it takes about 10-20 minutes to upload pictures back at the hostel.
So first off, Dad would love it here there is an incredible variety of restaurants in the area. Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Sushi conveyor, Chinese, Japanese, American, Australian, cafe's, coffee stands, ice cream, organic doughnuts, etc etc etc. In any event, we went to a Thai place tonight, I got a mixed entre which was a small dish and some spring rolls on the side and we kind of all shared and it came to $6 a head so that was pretty good. We ate outside because it was a nice night. We then went for gelato as a way of celebrating the start of work tomorrow which means no more going out for food. The gelato I got was a mix of Italian cookies and cream and chocolate sorbet. The chocolate sorbet was the best chocolate cold treat I've ever had. Very intense chocolate flavor with the perfect consistency throughout, the color was nearly black.
Anyways we're about to go to bed for an early class tomorrow. Some one here likes to run daily and wanted someone to run with so I volunteered so I'll probably be doing that.
One last note before I go to bed:
While access to iit mail has been restored accessing it via the internet is not going to happen. It's like they have dial up feeding into a router. It's taken over 40 minutes so far to load my email account and it's still not done yet. I'm going to need to find a good free internet cafe other than I guess you'll just have to send me messages via the blog or im or skype. If you want to see anything on the blog let me know and I'll see what I can do. That's all for now...
In any event after that we decided to just relax on the beach for a bit. I ran for about two miles along the surf and then we had a catch of the frisbee and waded in the water a little bit. The beach is pretty nice. Though we've been warned that it is uncharacteristically warm, the water was nice and clear with nice sand. Dolphins were pretty consistently about in the distance and occassionally came close to shore. I unfortunately cannot upload my pictures at the moment I'm sitting at an internet cafe because it actually has faster internet but consequently I have to use their computer and the camera is set to take pictures in a special format that prevents me from doing anything right now. I assumed that there would be wireless and that I could just convert and upload on my computer but alas that is not the case.
I've kind of been dubbed the photographer as a result of Chris's camera. In addition to that we will be starting a photobucket group where we will all upload photos so rest assured there's bound to be some pictures of me. For class tomorrow we have to be ready for an 8am bus. Apparently we're still one person short as her flight got delayed leaving and she wasn't able to make the flight in LA so she'll be getting here momentarily so we're all about to head back to the hostel to meet her. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the sun set tonight so maybe I'll upload a few pictures though it takes about 10-20 minutes to upload pictures back at the hostel.
So first off, Dad would love it here there is an incredible variety of restaurants in the area. Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Sushi conveyor, Chinese, Japanese, American, Australian, cafe's, coffee stands, ice cream, organic doughnuts, etc etc etc. In any event, we went to a Thai place tonight, I got a mixed entre which was a small dish and some spring rolls on the side and we kind of all shared and it came to $6 a head so that was pretty good. We ate outside because it was a nice night. We then went for gelato as a way of celebrating the start of work tomorrow which means no more going out for food. The gelato I got was a mix of Italian cookies and cream and chocolate sorbet. The chocolate sorbet was the best chocolate cold treat I've ever had. Very intense chocolate flavor with the perfect consistency throughout, the color was nearly black.
Anyways we're about to go to bed for an early class tomorrow. Some one here likes to run daily and wanted someone to run with so I volunteered so I'll probably be doing that.
One last note before I go to bed:
While access to iit mail has been restored accessing it via the internet is not going to happen. It's like they have dial up feeding into a router. It's taken over 40 minutes so far to load my email account and it's still not done yet. I'm going to need to find a good free internet cafe other than I guess you'll just have to send me messages via the blog or im or skype. If you want to see anything on the blog let me know and I'll see what I can do. That's all for now...
Sunday, June 7, 2009
At long last....
The Airport in Balina (pronounced: ba {a as in apple} linna) is about the size of South Jersey Regional, the plane just kinda pulled up to this shack smaller than the plane it self and airport securtiy, baggage claim and check in were all there (some snack machines too but I didn't see any bathrooms). Was pretty impressed at how fast things went there for how low staffed it was. Bagge was doen by one guy fuel by another and of course they had the platoon of TSA agents walking around. (on the topic of Airport I dislike Sydney for charging 5.50 AUD to change terminals as you can't walk and must take shuttle or train (both the same price) other than that Sydney was pretty nice, free luggage carts which i didn't use/need)
Anyways, I'm at the hostel in Byron Bay. The hostel is.... well it's a hostel. Some things are better than I expected some things aren't quite as good but nothing I can't deal with. Going to be staying in quite a bit of them so no use complaining. I have met up with the other people in the class. We have tonight and tomorrow to explore than class starts tuesday. It's completely dark by 6pm.
The area is quite nice lots of macamadamia nut trees and brids I've never heard of. Lots of hills and cows and sheep. (There were infact cows grazing directly next to the runway, they didn't seem bothered by the intrusion though) . The shopping here in byron bay seems to be varied from upper middle to low class to no class along with food from all corners of the world. Should be pretty interesting exploring around tomorrow.
I'm about to go out with some people walking around the town I'll post some pictures and whatnot of sunrise in New Zealand and me waiting in LAX later.
Bright and Early
So I'm in the Auckland Airport (which is very nice exceptfor the lack of free wifi) at a computer terminal. The sun is just starting to rise and I still have an hour before boarding my flight to Sydney. The long flight wasn't too bad. I slept for a lot of it and watched a movie called Australia starring Hugh Jackman, though there was something wrong with mine such that it kept skipping though no one elses was. Food was surprisingly decent on the plane including tea and cadbury hot cocoa breaks in between meals which I mostly slept through. I didn't stand up the entire flight but was able to stretch my legs and kick my shoes off as I had only had one carry on bag stored above me. I got to go upstairs in the 747 after the flight and it wasn't such a big deal. Certainly not worth the $8k they were asking to upgrade to first class. In any event I'm going to let other people use the kiosk now, I'll add pictures of the sunrise to the post later.
PS
IIT systems are down through tomorrow (my tomorrow) so I will not be able to access them for another 2 days.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Waiting......
The A380 just pulled in, its big...really big
Friday, June 5, 2009
Embarkation
12 hours till take off
This is my initial itinerary:
6/5 Depart Oregon
6/7 Arrive in Byron Bay
6/27 Byron Bay to Brisbane
6/28 Brisbane, AU to Cairns, AU
6/30 Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef
7/1 Cairns, AU to Sydney, AU
7/5 Sydney, AU to Queenstown, NZ
7/6 Tour of Milford Sound
7/7 Queenstown, NZ to Christchurch, NZ
7/8 Christchurch, NZ to Wellington, NZ
7/9 Tour of Middle Earth
7/10 Wellington, NZ to Auckland, NZ
7/11 Zorbing in Rotorua, NZ
7/15 Fly home
There will be other things done while in the class and in Sydney and stuff
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