AUSTRALIA - Townsville, Queensland

Monday, May 31, 2010

Steve visits Australia

My eleven days with Steve was so much fun and it was really comforting to have a little piece of home in a place still so stra

nge to me. I was so excited to be able to share this experience with someone and create more awesome memories with him. It was really nice to have good tasting food for a week too! (haha)

After he rested up for a couple days, we went to Reef HQ, an aquarium famous for having the world's largest living coral reef system, located in Townsville. It was so cool to see the diff

erent kinds of creatures that I didn't see when I went scuba diving and that he has never seen. The next day was really

nice, so after some lunch we laid by the hotel pool overlooking the harbor and the city...it was gorgeous.

Our second adventure together was a Saturday night out on the town with my girl friends to celebrate what my 21st should have been like and it was FUN! That morning we got massages, spent some time shopping for his family's souvineers and laid by the pool reading some books before getting ready

for the night. We hung-out in Steve's apartment/hotel room for a little while then hit town, pub hopping and it ended up being a perfect night of fun. All the girls met and loved Steve, and he loved being around them, which made me even happier. We spent the day Sunday watching movies, eating junk and recovering from the exhausting dance filled night before ... I love those kind of days :)

Monday w

e celebrated out 6 month anniversary together. Steve rented a boat for us to tour Magnetic Island (seeing all of the bays ... some of which you can only see from the ocean) snorkeling (my favorite thing to do here) and fish

ing (his favorite thing to do). The weather was kind of cloudy and crappy, but we still made the best of our day together. It was Steve's first time snorkeling and he was a good sport about it. Although, Queensland is out of stinger season, there are potential jellyfish that can still harm you, so

we had to wear really obnoxious stinger suits that looked like fish-net stockings hahaha! The visibility was not so great and Magnetic Island because it is an inner reef f

lat, so we got out of the water after about 20 minutes. The tour guide fed us some yummy gourmet sandwiches and showed us all of the beautiful bays. He is from Maggie Island, so he knew all of the best places to show us. He was like our personal photographer and every so often found a good spot and told us he would take our picture (very nice). We reached a great fishing area mid afternoon so we started fishing, hoping to catch something worth while. I was the first to catch a fish, but it was a little baby and nothing good to keep. After a couple hours and a couple more spots, our tour guide caught a huge fish and let me reel it in :)! We got to watch the sunset as we headed back to the harbor and then had a very nice dinner to top off the day.

Our last excursion was to Billabong Sanctuary, which is a lot like the Rainforestation I went to when I first arrive in Cairns. Steve got to see koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, snakes, etc. and don't let him lie ... he liked it! They had quite the varie

ty of animals, so we were able to spend a great afternoon walking through the sanctuary and taking as many pictures as we could... The next few days were full of buying souvenirs for Steve's family, studying and making our time together the best. And it was. It was hard to say good-bye ... again, but I was so thankful that I could share part of this experience with him.

I only have 10 days before I come home! ... good food, Dunkin', driving, my own bed! .... boy am I ready for that!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

FIJI (Fun In Jungle Island)

Oh my god! Fiji was so amazing! My friend Jenna and I stayed on the mainland island, in a city called Nadi, which was EXTREMELY different from anywhere else I have ever been, but really very interesting. Fijians speak there own language, which sounds like a whole mess of languages mumbled together. Here is a quick lesson:
please: kerekere
cheers!: bula!

I love you: au domoni iko
...weird, right?

Luckily we realized that the US dollar exchange was great and better than AUS dollars (we got almost double the Fiji dollars for our US dollars) and everything there was super cheap. I loved this trip because we

ll we were in Fiji, but we were there for five days with no previous plans and bookings, like in Byron Bay and Gold Coast ... there was no rush, no fuss and for the amount of things we saw, nothing felt too overwhelming.
Upon arrival we were greeted by everyone saying "Bula" (boo-lah), which is the equivalent of saying Aloha in Hawaii, meaning cheers, hello, how are you, etc. The first n

ight we stayed in, contacted Mom, Dad and Steve and explored the resort, which was beautiful and very tropical looking. The resort

staff were so friendly and helpful, as were most of the Fijians. We woke up the next morning and decided to explore the town market. We had the resorts taxi service take us to a restaurant with traditional Fijian food. Both of us had fish, cooked in coconut milk and green onions and spices, with a large side of cassava (a vegetable that has the texture of a potato, but a really different taste) and a small, spoonful size of homemade coleslaw...of course a bottle of Fiji water to drink. It was DELICIOUS! And because it was so cheap we didn't feel so guilty eating outside the resort. After lunch, we walked around town to their market and stu

mbled upon so Fijian men that invited us to our first kava ceremony. Kava is the root of a vegetable, dried out, ground and pounded into a power, and mixed with Fiji water. It is a huge part of their culture and ceremonially welcoming to people. It tastes like dirt and water, but it definitely tingles your tongue a little on the way down. Fijians drin

k kava to get a non-narcotic, natural "body high", free of anxiety and stress when enough is consumed... no wonder they are so friendly. That day we found some really great handmade crafts and bought some kava to hopefully bring home

for everyone to try!
After the market we walked down to the Temple, although most Fijians are now christian. It is a tourist attraction in Nadi because of its beautiful architecture and color that stands out in the bland, dirty, run-down town. We didn't have the chance to go inside, but even looking from the outside you can tell it was sacred and an appreciated part of the Fijian culture. On the way back to the resort we stopped into a travel agency and planned our day tour to the Mamanuca Islands, the typical Fiji tourists think of. That night we were so full from lunch we stayed in at the resort and ate a small dinner and went to bed fairly early so we could hit the beach the next morning.

The town beach (right) was nothing like the tourist beaches (above & below) you see in pictures, but much more beautiful than Rhode Island beaches for sure! It was unbearably hot so we didn't stay very long ... we did get a nice looking tan though. We saw the typical tourist beaches the next morning on our way out to the Mamanuca Islands. It was incredible

and

unbelievable. To be perfectly honest the pictures don't do it much justice. For the most part Jenna and I sat on this beautiful sail boat eating and drinking all we wanted and in complete awe of the crystal clear water and white sand on the beaches. We got off on the island where the movie Castaway was filmed where we got to snorkel and explore before lunch. The water was like a bath, but still cooler than the sun! Jenna and I took the liberty to have a silly photoshoot like two little girls playing dress up. We tried cracking open a coconut and failed miserably due to our lack of education on how to peel the out husk THEN crack it open ... it was amusing to watch though! The boat crew cooked the most delicious BBQ ... grill

ed fish, chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, regular salad, bread rolls, I can't even remember the rest. While we ate lunch we were on our way to another small island to visit a Fijian village.

When we arrived on the island the villagers were inside their run-down homes sleeping, trying to keep cool in the heat. They are the happiest people, but live with NOTHING! Their homes are made of cement bricks and roofed with scraps of metal. Inside their homes are blankets laid on the floor, maybe a chair or two, a stove for cooking and refrigerator if they are lucky. It is very sad, but humbling to see how they could live with the bare minimum, and be so happy and friendly.

Our final adventure on the day cruise was swimming around a sand bar in the middle of the ocean. This was so incredible! Once a day the tide is so low that one sandbar in the midd

le of the islands is exposed about 10 feet above the sea level. It was so amazing to see the corals, shells and plant-life that surrounds these islands and swim in the middle of the ocean! It was absolute paradise that ended with a beautiful sunset.

Our last two days were spent sitting by t

he pool, drinking frozen beverages and soaking up all the relaxation possible! The last day we were there we went to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, a

garden of various species of orchids and other plants. From a far the top of the mountain looks like a giant sleeping with a HUGE belly. Under his belly is where this beautiful garden is. Jenna and I walked around amazed at the colors, shapes and types of flowers and plants there were. We just kept saying "oh my god look at this one!", "no

... look at that!". I kept thinking how Mom, Nana and Auntie Pat would love to see this garden and smell, touch and talk about all the various plants :) ... so I took lots of pictures!

I was such an amazing vacation, I can only hope I will make it back one day when I'm not poor haha!

I miss everyone so much and will be home in 3 weeks!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Byron Bay & Gold Coast for my 21st!

Our four day tightly scheduled trip was quickly headed to a bad start when our flight out of Townsville to Brisbane was delayed. Our delay caused us to miss our bus that would have taken us straight to Byron Bay, so instead we took a train to Gold Coast, hung out for a couple hours, then jumped on a late bus to Byron Bay, New South Wales, that ended up arriving at 1am. Not a fun travel day!

We woke up the next morning and headed to the beach for a couple hours before kayaking with dolphins. Our instructor was the epitome of an Australian "surfer dude" and absolutely hilarious. As we battled the 4 foot waves and got smashed in the face a few times before we hit the calm water. We were lucky enough to be out on the water for about 2 hours, wher

e I obviously got a great tan and a nice full-body work out ... and we saw the biggest group of dolphins our instructor has seen in a while ... LUCKY us. Must have been some birthday weekend luck. My instructor told us to each take turns standing up on the kayak to be the "lookout" for dolphins... I was the first to stand up, got way to excited and flipped right over into the water HA! The dolphins were very "playful" with each other. a.k.a. they were being naughty with each other and we watched every moment of it. That night we went out to Cheeky Monkey's and we had so much fun! The whole town is very oriented to clubbing and people our age, so I wasn't surprised that the bar was bizarrely set up without a dance f

loor and only provided long and wide metal tables for everyone to dance on. It was different, but ... efficient. The hangover really helped the next morning when I had to wake up to SKYDIVE!

Skydiving was insane, incredible, terrifying, ridiculous, unbelievable, thrilling, amazing, heart pumping and I would absolutely do it again! I had such a body high all day and just looked up at the sky in disbelief!

After skydiving we had to catch a 3 hour bus ride, north, to Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast, QLD. This city is so oriented to surfer chicks/dudes with a mix of serious business people that like to party at night. There were so many sections of shops, restaurants and strips of clubs to choose from. On my birthday, we got some delicious breakfast at a waffle house then headed to the gorgeous beach. The beach was packed and the weather was beautiful. After the beach we headed to the liquor store, grabbed a sandwich and headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready to go out. Luckily, on our way back we got stopped by some promoters of a pub crawl ... why lucky you ask? The promoters were desperate to even out the girl to guy ratio for this pub crawl, so desperate that what cost everyone else $60, cost us $15. Free entry, pizza and a free drink at every bar ... YES PLEASE!

Waking up the next morning at 5:30am with a hangover was not so fun, but all in all a weekend that started out quite terrible, ended amazing! I saw so many beautiful sights and made some great memories with an awesome group of girls!

(Uploads won't work tonight, but I will try again this week!)