She's Back!

With photos! They're going up in a weird order, but I'll get it sorted out eventually. Somehow. Between lectures, assignments, exams, activities... Bundaberg and Hervey Bay/Fraser Island are up, with captions for about half the photos so far. The quality isn't so great, but my free photo hosting account will overflow otherwise. I'm more than happy to share my high quality originals with anyone who'd like to see them though.

Holidays

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: corn on pizza. a burger with the works = everything from beetroot to pineapple is on it.

Alright, I now need a holiday from my holiday from my holiday. Allow me to explain. I was so worn out by the crazy backpacking schedule that I arrived home desperately in need of a chance to recover from my holiday. A holiday from my holiday if you will. Well despite three full weeks off before returning to school, I still haven't accomplished half of what I wanted to accomplish.

I'm pretty much used to the weather here, although I'm still bundling up a bit more than most people. But more drastic than the change in weather is the change in my level of physical activity. I was up and outside all day, everyday in Australia. I was active. Here, I'm spending a disturbing amount of time indoors on a couch. And as exhausting as bushwalks and tours were, being lazy is even more exhausting.

I need a holiday from my holiday from my holiday.

And maybe a way to post pictures and write updates while hiking outdoors...

Merry Christmas

Have a wonderful holiday.

The blog will back (with pictures) after all the Christmas gatherings have been exhausted.

Jet Lagged

I was planning to write an entry but I can't keep my eyes open. I'm shocked I lasted this long. But just because I'm no longer down under doesn't mean there won't be tons of stuff about Oz posted here! Might have to wait until after Christmas for the bulk of it though.

Also, I'd love to see as many people as possible before Christmas, and I rather hope that people want to see me, but I simply won't be able to or up to getting around on my own in such a short time frame. But anyone who's able and wants to drop by sometime, I'm going to be available on Thursday. Just give me a call first since I do have a lunch date and a hair appointment that will remove me from the house for a short while.

NB: The blog is now on Canadian EST.

Oh yeah

It's friggin' freezing here. (thanks Jack)

Gryphon Girl In Canada

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: "Passengers looking for their didgeridoos please head to the desk"

I'm back. I don't entirely comprehend what that means. I've been up since 7:00am December 20th Sydney time, with nothing but a lot of food and a few random hours of sleep, mostly on my Qantas flight, to sustain me. That and the adrenalin or whatever it's been rushing through me during the journey. I now need to adjust my clock to accept the fact that it is actually just past 11:30pm on December 20th. While half asleep on the plane, I figured out (rather unreliably) that December 20th will have lasted nearly 40 hours for me. That International Date Line works miracles. I'm currently on Lianne's computer in her residence at Laurier. The poor girl had an exam when my flight was scheduled to arrive.

It felt so undescribably good to get off the plane and have people there waiting for me. I've been travelling so long without that. I cried. Only because Ching did.

I need to get home to bed. MY bed.

Yay free internet!

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: You can't stay dry. If you're not in the ocean or a rock pool in the middle of a rainforest, and it's not pouring rain, then it's so incredibly hot that you're literally dripping with sweat.

We got up Monday morning and hopped a bus to Mt Coot-tha lookout for an incredible view of the city of Brisbane. There was a path to the JC Slaughter Falls, and we decided to attempt tackling it and still make it back in time for the next bus. Didn't happen. It was downhill on the way there and we were melting. The falls were a bit of a disappointment after the impressive rainforest falls we're used to seeing. Since we were going to miss the bus anyway, we decided to do the Aboriginal Art Walk, just off the trail we were on. It was a mixture of older and new rock paintings and arrangements, with little info signs at each one. Quite nice. We took our time getting back to the lookout, and once we reached the Summit, it was straight to the toilets to get the coldest possible water from the taps and drench ourselves in it. Then straight to the gift shop for air conditioning. We ate lunch at a table overlooking the city then took the bus back down the hill to the city.

The main item for the afternoon was the Castlemain-Perkins XXXX Brewery tour. That's Fourex, from how the monks used to mark the quality of beer. One X if it was inferior, four if it was better made. Now, I've seen Fourex everywhere we've been in Queensland. It's QLD's beer. The couple of times I've actually had the opportunity to try it, I didn't bother. Probably should have, since it's probably the best economical beer I've had here. Anyone (*cough* James) who wants more detail, ask me later. And on the tour, it was especially economical, since we got 4 free samples (285-325mL each)! The tour was very exciting. Very high-tech. The rotating platform for the seats in the room on the history of Fourex made my day. I'd been wondering how we were all going to see the bit behind us.

We left the brewery with a rather positive outlook on things, and used the walking tour in the Lonely PlaneT guide to clear our heads. It was dark for the last half of the tour, which made for terrible photo opportunities, but wonderfully lit buildings and decorations.

Tuesday we went to Lamington National Park with Rob's Rainforest Tours. And here I insert my free word-of-mouth advertising: If you are ever in Brisbane, DO NOT miss these tours. It was more like having an older, really knowledgable friend pick you up and take you the rainforest than it was like a guided tour. I don't think many tour guides actually stop to crouch down and open up the trapdoors of the trapdoor spider burrows. Even I would never have thought to look for them. We actually spend several hours down in the rainforest, on the walking track and at the falls. We had our lunch at an amazing waterfall in the middle of the forest, with a rockpool where we went swimming. It was FREEZING but sooo much fun. There were only 6 of us on the tour, which made it even better. On the way back there was a suspended walk through the rainforest canopy and we go to climb a tree from up there (to a platform, and using ladders with safety cages around them)! We stopped for ice cream in a little town on the way back to Brisbane. It was one of the best days on the trip, I'd say.

Last night we took the bus into Byron Bay. Saw View From the Top. Today we had Dolphin Kayaking booked, but due to bad communication at the company, we couldn't go because of some school group. We found this out 10 minutes before the scheduled time. There were at least 3 other companies we could have booked with if we'd had enough notice. But at least it was an absolutely beautiful day for the beach, and Byron has an absolutely beautiful beach.

We have an all night bus ride into Newcastle tonight. Myall Lakes didn't work out. So (cross your fingers) we're going to go canoeing at the Wetlands Centre in Newcastle, spend some time in Maitland (only because I really can't miss it, can it?), and then Friday we're doing a Hunter Valley wine tour. Saturday morning when we're concious, we'll take the CityRail train into Sydney, where we're staying in Triona's room for free since she's still travelling. Triona is staying another semester, and moved into one of the rooms in Vikki's old house. Heidi is staying another couple of months and has moved into Vikki's old room. So when I start saying I'm at Vikki's with Heidi, that's what I mean.

I'm going to be home so soon. And despite all the things I still want to see and do, and how much fun I'm having, and I how much I love it here, I really am looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday James!

I know this is posting for me as the 13th, but Scotland and Canada are a bit behind my times.

(also, just realised I never adjusted my Blogger time to compensate for the lack of daylight savings in QLD)

From Brisbane

Wait a minute, what? I'm going to be home in a week? I have less than 7 days of travelling left?

I need to go back to Fraser Island and really see it. We had time for a day trip only, so a day trip is what we did and it was wonderful but not enough. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Sand from all the way at the bottom of the east coast is carried by long shore transport and ends up on Fraser Island. When the tour guide started talking about it I had to suppress a shudder because of the number of time my coastal geomorphology prof mentioned that piece of info. The highlight of the day on Fraser was swimming in Lake Birrabeen. The sand there is 98% pure silica, and it's freshwater. Few things are as entertaining as an entire tour group in the lake rubbing wet sand all over themselves, even in their hair. It's a wonderful exfoliant. It felt so good to swim in freshwater too. Very clear freshwater. The ocean has it's positives, but this lake was a welcome relief.

We took the bus to Noosa Friday morning and at 1:30pm we were picked up for our surfing lesson. That's right folks, Christa can now surf. And by surf she means that she can she can take a gigantic foam board out into the waves, catch a wave, and make it to shore standing up. If nobody is the way. My muscles are still sore from this experience.

Saturday was the Australia Zoo. That would be the one owned by none other than Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. It was a very nice zoo, but nothing super special about it except maybe those annoying "CRIKEY"'s on all the info signs. And the 5000 seat Crocoseum.

We arrived in Brisbane early this afternoon and ended up spending much more time than intended at the Queensland Art Gallery. This was due mostly to the fact that we enthusiastically created multiple new animals by tracing parts from a lit up wall. This would have been embarassing at our age, but there were many real full grown adults doing the same thing, and they didn't have kids beside them.

I'm going to be kicked off the internet in about 2 minutes. Gotta go!

Condensed speed update

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: I'd hug a tree, but there might be nasty ants, spiders or snakes on it.

As requested, a more detailed map than the one I posted earlier. Use the zoom and centre functions to see the east coast in detail. (click to centre)

From Airlie Beach, we went to Mackay. Not much to do there except use it as a base to get to Eungella NP. With rainforest above 600m elevation, it's definately worth the drive out. We spent the day on the relatively cool (due to elevation) rainforest tracks, and then went to Broken River for platypus spotting. The platypus is one of the funniest creatures ever made, and is normally too shy to be spotted in nature. But at the Broken River viewing deck, the wild platypus are more used to people and are more easily seen. And thanks to my Lonely Planet Watching Wildlife guide, we also went down to the pool nearer the ranger station and had own private viewing of a platypus that lives there.

From Mackay, we took the overnight bus to Bundaberg. And we got stuck on a bus with the uncomfortable style of seats. We didn't sleep very well. The main (pretty much only) attractions in Bundaberg are the Bundaberg Rum Distillery tours and the nesting turtles at Mon Repos. The distillery tour was quite well done and very interesting. The two free drinks at the end didn't hurt either.

Triona and Antonia have been travelling north, and our paths crossed in Bundy. They were staying with a friend of Triona's mother. Jane was kind enough to take me and Ching with them to see the turtles, something that would have cost us a fortune in transportation otherwise. And we got to spend the evening with Triona and Antonia. It was good to see them again. I am still too busy marvelling at the miracle that is nesting sea turtles to properly describe it while paying for internet, but when I pull out the photos you won't be able to shut me up.

We're now in Hervey Bay, with a trip to Fraser Island booked for tomorrow. After that, it's off to Noosa for surf lessons and Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo (F,St), then Brisbane (including a tour to Lamington NP) (Sn,M,T), skip the tacky Gold Coast, on to Byron Bay to climb a mountain and kayak or something (W), Myall Lakes NP if transport allows (Th), otherwise straight to Newcastle for a tour of the Hunter Valley wineries (F), and then back to Sydney (St) to pack for the flight home. There you go Mom, that's my itinerary so you know where I'll be!