We have arrived in Byron Bay. It is beautiful and busy with tourists. We got here last night. We drove everywhere trying to find a campervan park that a lady had recommended for us. After no luck we just went to Broken Head Holiday Park. While walking around today we found the recommended one! Stink! Anyways, only 15 minutes on here so time is short. I have been taking picture after picture of cool signs for Byron. lol.
Pictures will hopefully come soon. When I can get my computer up and running...get ready for an overload. Tomorrow we are driving to Brisbine with maybe a couple stops on the way. Surfer's Paradise and Tweed Heads. Only a short stop though.
Take care!
Holly
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Coff's Harbour
This will be a short blog since I have about 5 minutes to write. Then our time is up. We made it to Coff's Harbour safely with a few little detours on the way. Getting out of the city was easier than we had thought. Driving is also easier than we had thought. We stressed over nothing.
The first day we arrived in Newcastle. It was beautiful there. We had breakfast in a cute little sidewalk cafe, with a cute cook! hahaha. We then toured the main strip before heading out to the beach to jump through the waves and hang out on the beach. No sunburns this time! Woo! We then drove to Port Macquarrie. We slept in a beach parking lot, toured around the main streets and wharf and then headed off to Coff's Harbour, where we are now. It is beautiful here and we are excited to get lots in before we head off to Byron Bay!
Time is up!
Steph and Holly!
The first day we arrived in Newcastle. It was beautiful there. We had breakfast in a cute little sidewalk cafe, with a cute cook! hahaha. We then toured the main strip before heading out to the beach to jump through the waves and hang out on the beach. No sunburns this time! Woo! We then drove to Port Macquarrie. We slept in a beach parking lot, toured around the main streets and wharf and then headed off to Coff's Harbour, where we are now. It is beautiful here and we are excited to get lots in before we head off to Byron Bay!
Time is up!
Steph and Holly!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Australia Day!
Yesterday was Australia Day, Stephanie and I were more patriotic than our fellow Australian friends. haha. We went out and got shirts and I had a bathing suit. We started off the morning by going to Narrabeen Beach to the festival they were having. We stopped for coffee on the way home (there are coffee shops on every corner it feels like...good coffee shops....real coffee shops). I had an affogato which they have a lot of here and it is sooooo good. It's a shot of esspresso over ice cream. YUM.
We then headed over to Manly Dam for the afternoon to hang out with Steve's friends. We went for a nice little swim and had a barbecue. We didn't stay there too long. We continued on to Manly where we walked through the corso and stopped at another coffee shop. This time Steve introduced us to some super yummy Belgian waffles with ice cream (or chocolate).
Now it had started to rain. But we were still determined to head into the city and watch the fireworks. After stopping at a couple lookout points we decided it was too cloudy and we would have to take a ferry into the harbour and walk from there. By the time we got off the ferry it was pouring rain so we all stopped in a shop and bought ponchos, purple ones. At first people would look and laugh but as we got further along in our walk we would get stopped by people asking us where they could get one. We finally made it to Cockle Bay (which is part of Darling Harbour) and found a spot on the bridge to watch the fireworks. They were really good! It got a little cloudy at times but still way better than any Regina fireworks I have seen. I think they even beat the Winnipeg ones I once watched. After the fireworks we were starving. We walked back to the ferry in the rain (I had to walk both ways bare feet because it was too slippery in my flip flops!). We drove to Steve's house where we went in for some lasagna (this was at about 11:30pm) His parents were up and more than excited to meet some Canadians. His dad loved our accents. It was pretty funny. He could have stayed up talking to us all night if he wanted to. Of course, Kristin worked today so we had to get back for her sake!!! Poor girl...she usually goes to bed at like 9.
Anyways, yesterday was pretty fun. Today Stephanie and I are going into the city to see The Rocks and the Sydney Aquarium. We will then go and pick up our Camper van and attempt to drive it back here. Tomorrow we will start heading up North. I do not know what our internet access will be like. But, a blog will come as soon as we can.
We then headed over to Manly Dam for the afternoon to hang out with Steve's friends. We went for a nice little swim and had a barbecue. We didn't stay there too long. We continued on to Manly where we walked through the corso and stopped at another coffee shop. This time Steve introduced us to some super yummy Belgian waffles with ice cream (or chocolate).
Now it had started to rain. But we were still determined to head into the city and watch the fireworks. After stopping at a couple lookout points we decided it was too cloudy and we would have to take a ferry into the harbour and walk from there. By the time we got off the ferry it was pouring rain so we all stopped in a shop and bought ponchos, purple ones. At first people would look and laugh but as we got further along in our walk we would get stopped by people asking us where they could get one. We finally made it to Cockle Bay (which is part of Darling Harbour) and found a spot on the bridge to watch the fireworks. They were really good! It got a little cloudy at times but still way better than any Regina fireworks I have seen. I think they even beat the Winnipeg ones I once watched. After the fireworks we were starving. We walked back to the ferry in the rain (I had to walk both ways bare feet because it was too slippery in my flip flops!). We drove to Steve's house where we went in for some lasagna (this was at about 11:30pm) His parents were up and more than excited to meet some Canadians. His dad loved our accents. It was pretty funny. He could have stayed up talking to us all night if he wanted to. Of course, Kristin worked today so we had to get back for her sake!!! Poor girl...she usually goes to bed at like 9.
Anyways, yesterday was pretty fun. Today Stephanie and I are going into the city to see The Rocks and the Sydney Aquarium. We will then go and pick up our Camper van and attempt to drive it back here. Tomorrow we will start heading up North. I do not know what our internet access will be like. But, a blog will come as soon as we can.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
15000 Steps
I cannot believe it has only been a week. It feels like it has been so long because we have done so much! Today was a much cooler day than it has been for the past few weeks. It was nice weather for the day we had today.
Steph and I went into the city in the morning to check out the Hillsong Church. We took a bus to a place in Sydney (Railway Square) where there was a free shuttle bus to the church. It was pretty cool. I even recognized some of the people from when I took them to the Laundromat when they stopped in Regina for a bit last Spring. After the service Stephanie and I walked about half an hour back to the Railway Square, in a pretty "dodgy" area of town (sketchy looking). We probably did the walk in less than half an hour. We didn't think any buses would be coming back to take people back to the Square. We were wrong, half way down the street a shuttle bus came to pick people up. Oh well.
We got to the Square and met up with Tami, a friend from Canada who is also here for a little while. After lunch we decided that we really wanted to check out the Queen Victoria Building (a beautiful building that has been turned into a super expensive shopping mall). We ended up coming out of a different building than we had came in and started walking down a street which we assumed was the same way to where we were headed before. After awhile of walking we decided to pull out our little handy dandy photocopied map and realized that we were going sideways. Luckily we caught it in time to back track and get to the Wynyard Station in time to catch a bus back to Narrabeen. We took the Collaroy Plateau bus. Collaroy is the suburb right next to Narrabeen. In fact, Kristin lives basically right next to Collaroy. We assumed Plateau meant the MAIN bus station in Collaroy. After another rude bus driver we got on to a bus ride full of honking and quick stops. This bus driver was rude, mean and a crazy driver. We had almost made it to Collaroy and then we started going into residential areas off the main street. We assumed it was just a bus that had more stops than the other ones. We then saw that Collaroy Plateau was a totally different place (the mountain above Collaroy). We decided we would get off the bus when the last girl did and pretend that we knew what we were doing. We started following the girl and realized we had no idea where we were going. We saw another bus driver taking a break before he went on a different bus route so I decided that we should go ask him for directions. I went up to him and asked him how to get to Collaroy (and thank god for our Canadian accents) he told us that it was about a 20-30 minute walk downhill from where we were. He then asked me what our bus driver said when we asked him. I giggled a bit (haha) and told him that we were scared of our bus driver and did not ask him because he was mean. He laughed and said, "well, if it is who I think it is, judging by the way he drove off, I would have to agree with you." That made us feel a tad bit better about the whole thing. He started to explain to us how to walk to Collaroy and then changed his mind and offered to drive us as far as he could on his route and then drop us off (where there would be a 10 minute walk down a steep hill). We were pretty excited and more than happy to take him up on his offer. This was our first good experience with a bus driver!
The title? Well my cell phone has a pedometer on it and we definitely racked up a who 15000 steps with all the walking that we did today! When we finally got home we had good laughs with Kristin who had been wondering where the heck we were. We ordered some Thai food and watched Into the Wild. Another great movie.
Tomorrow is Australia Day! Stephanie and I have bought some sweet Australian clothing for the occasion! We are looking forward to celebrating it!
Take care.
Steph and I went into the city in the morning to check out the Hillsong Church. We took a bus to a place in Sydney (Railway Square) where there was a free shuttle bus to the church. It was pretty cool. I even recognized some of the people from when I took them to the Laundromat when they stopped in Regina for a bit last Spring. After the service Stephanie and I walked about half an hour back to the Railway Square, in a pretty "dodgy" area of town (sketchy looking). We probably did the walk in less than half an hour. We didn't think any buses would be coming back to take people back to the Square. We were wrong, half way down the street a shuttle bus came to pick people up. Oh well.
We got to the Square and met up with Tami, a friend from Canada who is also here for a little while. After lunch we decided that we really wanted to check out the Queen Victoria Building (a beautiful building that has been turned into a super expensive shopping mall). We ended up coming out of a different building than we had came in and started walking down a street which we assumed was the same way to where we were headed before. After awhile of walking we decided to pull out our little handy dandy photocopied map and realized that we were going sideways. Luckily we caught it in time to back track and get to the Wynyard Station in time to catch a bus back to Narrabeen. We took the Collaroy Plateau bus. Collaroy is the suburb right next to Narrabeen. In fact, Kristin lives basically right next to Collaroy. We assumed Plateau meant the MAIN bus station in Collaroy. After another rude bus driver we got on to a bus ride full of honking and quick stops. This bus driver was rude, mean and a crazy driver. We had almost made it to Collaroy and then we started going into residential areas off the main street. We assumed it was just a bus that had more stops than the other ones. We then saw that Collaroy Plateau was a totally different place (the mountain above Collaroy). We decided we would get off the bus when the last girl did and pretend that we knew what we were doing. We started following the girl and realized we had no idea where we were going. We saw another bus driver taking a break before he went on a different bus route so I decided that we should go ask him for directions. I went up to him and asked him how to get to Collaroy (and thank god for our Canadian accents) he told us that it was about a 20-30 minute walk downhill from where we were. He then asked me what our bus driver said when we asked him. I giggled a bit (haha) and told him that we were scared of our bus driver and did not ask him because he was mean. He laughed and said, "well, if it is who I think it is, judging by the way he drove off, I would have to agree with you." That made us feel a tad bit better about the whole thing. He started to explain to us how to walk to Collaroy and then changed his mind and offered to drive us as far as he could on his route and then drop us off (where there would be a 10 minute walk down a steep hill). We were pretty excited and more than happy to take him up on his offer. This was our first good experience with a bus driver!
The title? Well my cell phone has a pedometer on it and we definitely racked up a who 15000 steps with all the walking that we did today! When we finally got home we had good laughs with Kristin who had been wondering where the heck we were. We ordered some Thai food and watched Into the Wild. Another great movie.
Tomorrow is Australia Day! Stephanie and I have bought some sweet Australian clothing for the occasion! We are looking forward to celebrating it!
Take care.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
30 Degrees @ 7:00 AM
The past few days have been quite hot ones but today tops them all! Jo came home around 9:00 this morning ready to go for a dip in the water. She had told us that at 7:00 it had already been 30 degrees. What made it so hot was the wind. There was a hot breeze. Stephanie and I were trying to find an opposite of windchill to explain the hot breeze but could not think of any. It ended up getting into the early 40s. We ended up trying to spend a lot of time in air conditioned places, which is hard to come by in these suburbs. Everything here is outdoors or have no air conditioning. We ended up going to a movie theatre (watched Seven Pounds, good movie) and then we hung out at a small local mall. By this time it had started to cool down so we got ready to go to her mom's. What a night it was at her mom's. I do believe I embarrassed myself many times. They were also very curious to hear about the winter weather that we have in Canada. But all in all we had a pretty good time. Stephanie and I even went with Kristin's step-dad, Dave, Possum Hunting. Apparently possums are every where and it is very rare to not see them at night time. But for some reason we could not find any. We walked up and down the street with a flashlight looking all over for them. Stephanie and I assumed they could smell Canadians and were scared away. We came back to the house unsuccessful. As we were saying our good byes later on in the night we heard something scurrying in the bushes. We got the flashlight and sure enough there was a cute little possum (with a gross long tail).
Now we are back in the apartment, it is a lot cooler tonight. Which will be nicer for sleeping! I think tomorrow we are heading to the city. Stephanie and Kristin have already gone to bed!
Holly
Now we are back in the apartment, it is a lot cooler tonight. Which will be nicer for sleeping! I think tomorrow we are heading to the city. Stephanie and Kristin have already gone to bed!
Holly
Friday, January 23, 2009
Trip to the City
So we didn't have time to blog yesterday, although we also didn't do much yesterday. The day before we had gone into the city for the day.
Little story. Right before we took off to Australia, Stephanie and her dad ran into the clerk of the Legislative Assembly in Regina and he had offered to email the clerk in Sydney to ask if he could give us a tour of the Parliament Building. Russell Grove, the clerk here in Sydney, emailed him back saying he would be more than willing to do that for us. So on Thursday we met up with him. He is a very nice and sociable man. First, he took us into the legislative assembly's chamber where he just got to know us. THEN, he let us sit in the speaker's chair where he had a fellow worker come and take pictures of us to send back to the clerk in Regina. How cool?! Then he kept taking us through areas of the building that said NO PUBLIC ENTRY. I felt pretty special! It was so cool. There was so much that we got to see. It was a really neat experience and we learned so much about the history of the government in Australia. They start session in March and so he gave me a card and told me if I would like to come watch I could just call him up and let him know I am coming (apparently they are much more rude to each other here than our legislative assembly. Would be interesting to see...lol) (Stephanie would also like you to know that she watched me type this part so she was actually a part of this blog. hahaha)
Next, we headed off to the Botanica Gardens, it is very huge and full of beautiful trees and flowers. We came up to the Harbour and had a wonderful view of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked a long side the harbour (with many rests because it was so hot!) and eventually made it inside the beautiful Opera House. We decided to take a tour since it looks like we will not be getting tickets to the show we wanted to see. We learned all about the history of the making of the building and got to go inside every theatre except the second biggest one. The theatres are not really that big. But they are meant to be more personal and intimate. The tour was totally cool.
Finally, we decided to walk to the wharf where we would catch the ferry back to Manly and meet Kristin for supper. We only got to see a quarter of what we wanted to see. We will be going back to the city on Tuesday when we have to go pick up our van. We may go and tour more then. Manly has a beautiful restaurant with live music. The food was also yummy. Steve, Kristin's boyfriend also came for a visit. He is a pretty cool guy! I got to see some really big cochroaches...Sick! We also looked at the stars. Are their constellations different than ours?!
Yesterday, we tried to wake up early enough to see the sunrise. We caught just the end of it. We woke up at 6 and then RAN to the beach. We watched it then started walking along the beach to Long Reef. It was about an hour walk on sand. Definitely, a work out I will be trying to do when I get back here. We went to a look out point where we could see almost all the heads of the Northern Beaches. Of course pictures do not do justice at all. We walked back down the road and stop at a little cafe for breakfast and then had a little morning swim. In the afternoon, Stephanie and I went to Manly to return her bathing suit and get a new one ( her bathing suit was falling apart.) Then we headed of the the Warringgah Mall, which they said was nothing special. It was huge. Definitely bigger than all of Regina's Malls combined. It was pretty overwhelming. We also spent the day riding buses. All of the bus drivers were quite rude. Made the trip more interesting. Our first bus driver started driving away before we even paid so here we are falling all over the place trying to hold on to our change to give to him.
Last night, we went over to Kristin's friend's house, Alicia. She cooked dinner for about 6 of us. It was delicious!!
Today is going to be a super hot day! I don't know what we have planned for the day but I know we will be going to her mom's for supper.
That's all for now.
Holly and Steph.
Oh, p.s. in the previous blog when I said they were funnel web, they weren't. They are called Red Backs. But they are still just as deadly as the funnel webs.
Little story. Right before we took off to Australia, Stephanie and her dad ran into the clerk of the Legislative Assembly in Regina and he had offered to email the clerk in Sydney to ask if he could give us a tour of the Parliament Building. Russell Grove, the clerk here in Sydney, emailed him back saying he would be more than willing to do that for us. So on Thursday we met up with him. He is a very nice and sociable man. First, he took us into the legislative assembly's chamber where he just got to know us. THEN, he let us sit in the speaker's chair where he had a fellow worker come and take pictures of us to send back to the clerk in Regina. How cool?! Then he kept taking us through areas of the building that said NO PUBLIC ENTRY. I felt pretty special! It was so cool. There was so much that we got to see. It was a really neat experience and we learned so much about the history of the government in Australia. They start session in March and so he gave me a card and told me if I would like to come watch I could just call him up and let him know I am coming (apparently they are much more rude to each other here than our legislative assembly. Would be interesting to see...lol) (Stephanie would also like you to know that she watched me type this part so she was actually a part of this blog. hahaha)
Next, we headed off to the Botanica Gardens, it is very huge and full of beautiful trees and flowers. We came up to the Harbour and had a wonderful view of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked a long side the harbour (with many rests because it was so hot!) and eventually made it inside the beautiful Opera House. We decided to take a tour since it looks like we will not be getting tickets to the show we wanted to see. We learned all about the history of the making of the building and got to go inside every theatre except the second biggest one. The theatres are not really that big. But they are meant to be more personal and intimate. The tour was totally cool.
Finally, we decided to walk to the wharf where we would catch the ferry back to Manly and meet Kristin for supper. We only got to see a quarter of what we wanted to see. We will be going back to the city on Tuesday when we have to go pick up our van. We may go and tour more then. Manly has a beautiful restaurant with live music. The food was also yummy. Steve, Kristin's boyfriend also came for a visit. He is a pretty cool guy! I got to see some really big cochroaches...Sick! We also looked at the stars. Are their constellations different than ours?!
Yesterday, we tried to wake up early enough to see the sunrise. We caught just the end of it. We woke up at 6 and then RAN to the beach. We watched it then started walking along the beach to Long Reef. It was about an hour walk on sand. Definitely, a work out I will be trying to do when I get back here. We went to a look out point where we could see almost all the heads of the Northern Beaches. Of course pictures do not do justice at all. We walked back down the road and stop at a little cafe for breakfast and then had a little morning swim. In the afternoon, Stephanie and I went to Manly to return her bathing suit and get a new one ( her bathing suit was falling apart.) Then we headed of the the Warringgah Mall, which they said was nothing special. It was huge. Definitely bigger than all of Regina's Malls combined. It was pretty overwhelming. We also spent the day riding buses. All of the bus drivers were quite rude. Made the trip more interesting. Our first bus driver started driving away before we even paid so here we are falling all over the place trying to hold on to our change to give to him.
Last night, we went over to Kristin's friend's house, Alicia. She cooked dinner for about 6 of us. It was delicious!!
Today is going to be a super hot day! I don't know what we have planned for the day but I know we will be going to her mom's for supper.
That's all for now.
Holly and Steph.
Oh, p.s. in the previous blog when I said they were funnel web, they weren't. They are called Red Backs. But they are still just as deadly as the funnel webs.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Ferry and Basin
Today I am not nearly as sore and my face is peeling! Kristin and Jo both have to go to the school and prep their classrooms for school to start next week. Their new school year starts next Tuesday.
Yesterday we went along all the beaches and stopped at a bunch of them. I believe we have seen almost all of the northern beaches. They are all so beautiful. We took a ferry to a Basin yesterday (across from Palm Beach) and hung out there for the day. It was beautiful. We brought a lunch and just sat under the shade for a bit. Funny story, so we were laying there and I was tired of getting this little pinches from ants so I had sat up. I looked over to my right and there was this HUGE lizard thing crawling towards a lady that was laying on her towel. I made a huge eek kind of noise to try and get Kristin and Steph's attention they got up and looked. We watched it get closer and closer to the lady and had no idea what to do. Slowly, it turned and started to make its way towards us. It got so close that we actually had to get up off of our towels. It crawled all over our towels, saw that there was no food and continued on to another group of people. Meanwhile, another one has come out and is also looking for food. It was pretty cool but they were so gross looking with slithery tongues like a snake and lonnng tails. One silly little girl tried to pet one and it swooshed her away with its tail. It more scared her than hurt her. We decided to move to a different part of the beach. Steph and I waded in the water for a bit. There were a ton of oyster camps (oysters all over rocks) nearby but I thought if we were careful we could do a timer shot of us. Well, when I came running over to Steph she was scared to get wet so she backed up right into a rock covered in oysters and she cut the bottom of the foot and the back of her heal. We got a pretty funny picture of it though.
While we were at the Basin we also got to see Wallabies, they are so cute, minature kangaroos. I got some good pictures and videos of them. The one let me get pretty close to it. I kept making sure with Kristin that it was okay and that it was not going to attack me. There were a couple times where it looked at me and I felt like it was saying..."take your picture and leave me be." haha We headed back shortly after and had a wonderful refreshing thunderstorm....
(oh did I mention that before we took off for the Basin we sprayed all the funnel web spiders in the garage.....if you don't know about funnel web spiders...google them. Craig definitely knows about them ;))
Now, Steph and I are off to the Sydney!
Holly and Steph
Yesterday we went along all the beaches and stopped at a bunch of them. I believe we have seen almost all of the northern beaches. They are all so beautiful. We took a ferry to a Basin yesterday (across from Palm Beach) and hung out there for the day. It was beautiful. We brought a lunch and just sat under the shade for a bit. Funny story, so we were laying there and I was tired of getting this little pinches from ants so I had sat up. I looked over to my right and there was this HUGE lizard thing crawling towards a lady that was laying on her towel. I made a huge eek kind of noise to try and get Kristin and Steph's attention they got up and looked. We watched it get closer and closer to the lady and had no idea what to do. Slowly, it turned and started to make its way towards us. It got so close that we actually had to get up off of our towels. It crawled all over our towels, saw that there was no food and continued on to another group of people. Meanwhile, another one has come out and is also looking for food. It was pretty cool but they were so gross looking with slithery tongues like a snake and lonnng tails. One silly little girl tried to pet one and it swooshed her away with its tail. It more scared her than hurt her. We decided to move to a different part of the beach. Steph and I waded in the water for a bit. There were a ton of oyster camps (oysters all over rocks) nearby but I thought if we were careful we could do a timer shot of us. Well, when I came running over to Steph she was scared to get wet so she backed up right into a rock covered in oysters and she cut the bottom of the foot and the back of her heal. We got a pretty funny picture of it though.
While we were at the Basin we also got to see Wallabies, they are so cute, minature kangaroos. I got some good pictures and videos of them. The one let me get pretty close to it. I kept making sure with Kristin that it was okay and that it was not going to attack me. There were a couple times where it looked at me and I felt like it was saying..."take your picture and leave me be." haha We headed back shortly after and had a wonderful refreshing thunderstorm....
(oh did I mention that before we took off for the Basin we sprayed all the funnel web spiders in the garage.....if you don't know about funnel web spiders...google them. Craig definitely knows about them ;))
Now, Steph and I are off to the Sydney!
Holly and Steph
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Manly Beach
It is 8:15 am and Kristin is out mountain biking with her mom. She is training for some competitions she has entered. Our burns do not hurt as much today but are still red.
Yesterday we ended up not going to Central Coast because Renae's son got a stomach bug, Kristin called it something funny but we cannot remember the name. It's not pleasant and its contagious so we ended up not getting together. We went to Manly Beach instead. Now, Kristin has lived in the Northern Beaches her whole life and tells us that Manly Beach is beautiful but its not the most beautiful beach. She also tells us it has become super touristy making it not as wonderful as the other beaches that she will show us. She thought she should take us there anyways because then we could say we have been to Manly Beach. There are a lot of nice stores at Manly Beach. Steph and I did a little spending, okay maybe a lot of spending. I bought a really cool looking didgeridoo. It's beautiful and I even got the lady to write out the meaning of all the pictures on it (we got it from an aboriginal art store so its real). Steve, Kristin's boyfriend, also has a didgeridoo so we are going to jam together this weekend. haha
We also over to Shelly Beach which is just a walk down the beach. There is lots of snorkeling and beautiful houses over there. Stephanie and I have figured out how to talk Australian...Now we just need to practice sounding like one. We were bugging Kristin last night because whenever there is a "er" at the end of the word they say "ah". So I told her I am going to have problems teaching her students because I will say and "er" as in sup"er". Whereas, she says to her students "er" as in sup"ah". I think we make more sense. They sound cooler, though. haha
Stephanie and I may have an opportunity to watch a concert in the Sydney Opera House next Tuesday. It does mean that we have to get up at 5 in order to stand in line for tickets in the city at 6. There is no guarantee that we will get the tickets though. We will see. Fingers crossed. Anyways, time to shower and get ready for the day!
I hear there is nice weather in Canada right now. Enjoy!
Holly and Steph!
Yesterday we ended up not going to Central Coast because Renae's son got a stomach bug, Kristin called it something funny but we cannot remember the name. It's not pleasant and its contagious so we ended up not getting together. We went to Manly Beach instead. Now, Kristin has lived in the Northern Beaches her whole life and tells us that Manly Beach is beautiful but its not the most beautiful beach. She also tells us it has become super touristy making it not as wonderful as the other beaches that she will show us. She thought she should take us there anyways because then we could say we have been to Manly Beach. There are a lot of nice stores at Manly Beach. Steph and I did a little spending, okay maybe a lot of spending. I bought a really cool looking didgeridoo. It's beautiful and I even got the lady to write out the meaning of all the pictures on it (we got it from an aboriginal art store so its real). Steve, Kristin's boyfriend, also has a didgeridoo so we are going to jam together this weekend. haha
We also over to Shelly Beach which is just a walk down the beach. There is lots of snorkeling and beautiful houses over there. Stephanie and I have figured out how to talk Australian...Now we just need to practice sounding like one. We were bugging Kristin last night because whenever there is a "er" at the end of the word they say "ah". So I told her I am going to have problems teaching her students because I will say and "er" as in sup"er". Whereas, she says to her students "er" as in sup"ah". I think we make more sense. They sound cooler, though. haha
Stephanie and I may have an opportunity to watch a concert in the Sydney Opera House next Tuesday. It does mean that we have to get up at 5 in order to stand in line for tickets in the city at 6. There is no guarantee that we will get the tickets though. We will see. Fingers crossed. Anyways, time to shower and get ready for the day!
I hear there is nice weather in Canada right now. Enjoy!
Holly and Steph!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Pictures!
Here are some of the pictures! Hopefully you can ALL see them. There are not a lot because her computer only lets us upload 5 at a time and it takes like 20 minutes. So I started uploading all and then just put main ones up!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61067&l=6f122&id=507288525
Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61067&l=6f122&id=507288525
Enjoy!
Blue Mountains....Breathtaking!
It is 7:30 am and I am wide awake. Who knew I could be a morning person!?! Stephanie and I are still pretty sore from our burns. We have almost gone through a bottle of aloe vera. Parts of my burn are starting to tan though.
Yesterday we went to the Blue Mountains. On the way there we stopped in this cute little town called Leura and walked up and down main street looking at the cute little shops. We also experienced the "flower pot scones". It was very delicious. The blue mountains are not actually blue so I asked Kristin why they got their name. They get their name because there is a bluish haze over them that you can see in the distance. Apparently this is from all the eucalyptus trees. It was so beautiful there. I tried to take tons of pictures but they just do not do justice at all. I also sucked up my fear of heights and went on a skyway. It is this little train on wires that goes from one mountain to the other and you can see out the bottom and down the sides. It was freaky at first but I loved it!!
One thing that I found pretty neat here (that I absolutely wish we could do in Canada! haha) is that people walk around bare feet here all the time. Stephanie and I went into the grocery store with Jo and Kristin the other day and there were two guys walking out with bare feet and beers in their hand?!?!?!? Then as we walked around more it looked like every second person had bare feet. (Erin, from work, would be so disgusted at that..."health regulations" as she told me! :))
Last night at supper we started talking about deadly animals in Canada vs. Australia. Seems to be similar; leave them alone and they will leave you alone. They then told us about the Funnel Web that only lives in Australia. The white bummed ones live INDOORS and the black ones with a red dot live outside. Then Kristin continued by telling us there were some in her GARAGE!!!! These are very poisonous spiders. The most deadliest spiders in the world. hahaha. I love it. Maybe I say that until I come close to one. haha.
Today we are heading off to Central Coast to visit another girl that came to Regina that Kristin and I got to know over the semester that they were here. Her name is Renee and she has a little boy named Zach who is 1 and a half. I am excited to see her. We will be taking a ferry out to Central Coast and then going for about an hour walk to Pearl Beach. I am sure there will be lots of pictures taken. Feel free to google Pearl Beach and Central Coast to see it all.
Time to shower and get ready for today.
Kristin in actually out biking and Jo has gone to Sydney with her boyfriend for the day!
Feel free to leave comments and what not!
Holly and Steph
Yesterday we went to the Blue Mountains. On the way there we stopped in this cute little town called Leura and walked up and down main street looking at the cute little shops. We also experienced the "flower pot scones". It was very delicious. The blue mountains are not actually blue so I asked Kristin why they got their name. They get their name because there is a bluish haze over them that you can see in the distance. Apparently this is from all the eucalyptus trees. It was so beautiful there. I tried to take tons of pictures but they just do not do justice at all. I also sucked up my fear of heights and went on a skyway. It is this little train on wires that goes from one mountain to the other and you can see out the bottom and down the sides. It was freaky at first but I loved it!!
One thing that I found pretty neat here (that I absolutely wish we could do in Canada! haha) is that people walk around bare feet here all the time. Stephanie and I went into the grocery store with Jo and Kristin the other day and there were two guys walking out with bare feet and beers in their hand?!?!?!? Then as we walked around more it looked like every second person had bare feet. (Erin, from work, would be so disgusted at that..."health regulations" as she told me! :))
Last night at supper we started talking about deadly animals in Canada vs. Australia. Seems to be similar; leave them alone and they will leave you alone. They then told us about the Funnel Web that only lives in Australia. The white bummed ones live INDOORS and the black ones with a red dot live outside. Then Kristin continued by telling us there were some in her GARAGE!!!! These are very poisonous spiders. The most deadliest spiders in the world. hahaha. I love it. Maybe I say that until I come close to one. haha.
Today we are heading off to Central Coast to visit another girl that came to Regina that Kristin and I got to know over the semester that they were here. Her name is Renee and she has a little boy named Zach who is 1 and a half. I am excited to see her. We will be taking a ferry out to Central Coast and then going for about an hour walk to Pearl Beach. I am sure there will be lots of pictures taken. Feel free to google Pearl Beach and Central Coast to see it all.
Time to shower and get ready for today.
Kristin in actually out biking and Jo has gone to Sydney with her boyfriend for the day!
Feel free to leave comments and what not!
Holly and Steph
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Kristin and Jo
I forgot!
Some of you are probably wondering who is this random Kristin girl that has picked them up from the airport. Kristin is a girl that I had met while in school in Canada. She had come from Australia to take a semester there. Her and I became pretty good friends and I always promised her I would save up money to come visit her (and Australia). So 3 years later I have finally made it out here. It has been wonderful seeing her and catching up with her. She is a wonderful friend for tourists. She is so helpful and goes out of her way a lot for us. MUCH APPRECIATED! She also has a room mate...(flat mate, here) her name is Jo. She has also been wonderful. She will be joining us on some of our trips. The two girls are so easy going, we are having a blast with them! We also met Kristin's parents, they have invited us over for supper on Saturday. They have a beautiful house that almost over looks the ocean.
Well just thought I would let you know that we are in GOOD HANDS.
Some of you are probably wondering who is this random Kristin girl that has picked them up from the airport. Kristin is a girl that I had met while in school in Canada. She had come from Australia to take a semester there. Her and I became pretty good friends and I always promised her I would save up money to come visit her (and Australia). So 3 years later I have finally made it out here. It has been wonderful seeing her and catching up with her. She is a wonderful friend for tourists. She is so helpful and goes out of her way a lot for us. MUCH APPRECIATED! She also has a room mate...(flat mate, here) her name is Jo. She has also been wonderful. She will be joining us on some of our trips. The two girls are so easy going, we are having a blast with them! We also met Kristin's parents, they have invited us over for supper on Saturday. They have a beautiful house that almost over looks the ocean.
Well just thought I would let you know that we are in GOOD HANDS.
We Made It!
After a very interesting trip here, we have finally made it!
We will tell you about our trip so far. It started going through the security in Regina. They saw something that looked suspicious in Stephanie's bag so they pulled it over to check (it was just a pack of gum) the lady to a swab of the bag and "found a hit". Apparently the make up in her bag had very minute traces of explosives in it. So Stephanie had to be hand checked. I waited with one of the security guards who thought this was such a great experience for us. While this was going on everyone at our gate was boarding, had boarded and they were now waiting for the two girls that were left so they could leave. We ended up making it on the plane perfectly fine but what a great first experience of the trip.
While on the plane to Vancouver I kept hearing a baby cry but had no idea where it was coming from. Finally near the end of the flight I turned to look to see where it was coming from. When I looked I saw Betty holding a baby. Betty is a lady that works at the Regina Inn. She serves the food in the Down Under Diner for all the employees at work. She told me that she was on her way to Hong Kong. What a small world.
We found it pretty neat that we left Regina at 10:00 am and arrived in Vancouver at 10:25. It definitely didn't feel like 25 minutes though. hahaha. We then waited in the Vancouver Airport until our flight at 6:45 pm. It was a pretty long wait but we found things to keep us busy. This time at security I got pulled aside for a random hand check. Woo! We went to the gate early to try to get seats together since this was a 14 hour flight (we had booked our flights 3 months ago with a travel agent and not one of our flights had us sitting together). We got seats together but when we had got to our seats people were already sitting there and we had the same tickets as us. So us and our non- Aussie accents had to walk around and find a flight attendant to help us. They were all wonderful and treated us very well. I love Air New Zealand. We got our seats and we watched movies and slept. The girl next to us was from New York on her way to New Zealand for a practicum for her schooling (she is going to a vet). This flight did not feel like 14 hours at all. It was wonderful.
We arrived in New Zealand an hour early so we did not have to rush to our next flight. When we passed through security this time there was no hand checks, so I said to Stephanie, "Third times a charm." Not even two seconds after I said that a lady hiding behind a wall pulled Steph to the side for a random hand check. LOL. A bus drove us out to our plane. We did not sit together but that was okay. It was a short trip. I watched The Kite Runner the whole time. Stephanie tried to sleep. We realized once we hit Australia that we never got to experience January 17, 2009. Pretty weird. We have no alibis for January 17, 2009. lol.
When we arrived in Australia there were TONS of people and we had to go and Declare stuff (I had trail mix, Stephanie has been to the farm in the past 30 days.) I didn't have to go through Quarantine like Stephanie did but I still had to go in a line. A LONG LINE. I got to the end of it and security came up to me, looked at my trail mix and stamped my card and I was free to go through the exit (with no line up!) Right away Kristin found me and Stephanie came out shortly after. Kristin drove us out to her place where we currently are for the week. It is called Narrabeen. It is a suburb of Sydney. It is beautiful and not busy at all. The first thing we did when we got here was shower and WALK to the OCEAN!!!! Narrabeen beach. We went into the beautiful, blue, salty water and jumped in and under the waves for quite some time. We went to dry off at the beach and tanned for NOT LONG AT ALL. When we got back to the apartment we started to get pretty red. Now we are really red. Unfortunately, I was on my stomach so I have a hard time sitting down. We also have lots of random patches of white, from where we didn't miss the sunscreen?!!? We bought some SPF 30 Australian sunscreen yesterday. We also went for a walk around the beach and saw beautiful houses, beautiful rock formations and wonderful scenery around the beach and ocean. We went here with Kristin and her roommate Jo. Soon there will be pictures so you can see.
Today the four of us are off to the Blue Mountains. http://www.bluemts.com.au/
It is so great having an Australian friends here. They are trying to take us to the non-touristy places.
Anyways, this is pretty long. Write more later!
Holly (and Steph)
We will tell you about our trip so far. It started going through the security in Regina. They saw something that looked suspicious in Stephanie's bag so they pulled it over to check (it was just a pack of gum) the lady to a swab of the bag and "found a hit". Apparently the make up in her bag had very minute traces of explosives in it. So Stephanie had to be hand checked. I waited with one of the security guards who thought this was such a great experience for us. While this was going on everyone at our gate was boarding, had boarded and they were now waiting for the two girls that were left so they could leave. We ended up making it on the plane perfectly fine but what a great first experience of the trip.
While on the plane to Vancouver I kept hearing a baby cry but had no idea where it was coming from. Finally near the end of the flight I turned to look to see where it was coming from. When I looked I saw Betty holding a baby. Betty is a lady that works at the Regina Inn. She serves the food in the Down Under Diner for all the employees at work. She told me that she was on her way to Hong Kong. What a small world.
We found it pretty neat that we left Regina at 10:00 am and arrived in Vancouver at 10:25. It definitely didn't feel like 25 minutes though. hahaha. We then waited in the Vancouver Airport until our flight at 6:45 pm. It was a pretty long wait but we found things to keep us busy. This time at security I got pulled aside for a random hand check. Woo! We went to the gate early to try to get seats together since this was a 14 hour flight (we had booked our flights 3 months ago with a travel agent and not one of our flights had us sitting together). We got seats together but when we had got to our seats people were already sitting there and we had the same tickets as us. So us and our non- Aussie accents had to walk around and find a flight attendant to help us. They were all wonderful and treated us very well. I love Air New Zealand. We got our seats and we watched movies and slept. The girl next to us was from New York on her way to New Zealand for a practicum for her schooling (she is going to a vet). This flight did not feel like 14 hours at all. It was wonderful.
We arrived in New Zealand an hour early so we did not have to rush to our next flight. When we passed through security this time there was no hand checks, so I said to Stephanie, "Third times a charm." Not even two seconds after I said that a lady hiding behind a wall pulled Steph to the side for a random hand check. LOL. A bus drove us out to our plane. We did not sit together but that was okay. It was a short trip. I watched The Kite Runner the whole time. Stephanie tried to sleep. We realized once we hit Australia that we never got to experience January 17, 2009. Pretty weird. We have no alibis for January 17, 2009. lol.
When we arrived in Australia there were TONS of people and we had to go and Declare stuff (I had trail mix, Stephanie has been to the farm in the past 30 days.) I didn't have to go through Quarantine like Stephanie did but I still had to go in a line. A LONG LINE. I got to the end of it and security came up to me, looked at my trail mix and stamped my card and I was free to go through the exit (with no line up!) Right away Kristin found me and Stephanie came out shortly after. Kristin drove us out to her place where we currently are for the week. It is called Narrabeen. It is a suburb of Sydney. It is beautiful and not busy at all. The first thing we did when we got here was shower and WALK to the OCEAN!!!! Narrabeen beach. We went into the beautiful, blue, salty water and jumped in and under the waves for quite some time. We went to dry off at the beach and tanned for NOT LONG AT ALL. When we got back to the apartment we started to get pretty red. Now we are really red. Unfortunately, I was on my stomach so I have a hard time sitting down. We also have lots of random patches of white, from where we didn't miss the sunscreen?!!? We bought some SPF 30 Australian sunscreen yesterday. We also went for a walk around the beach and saw beautiful houses, beautiful rock formations and wonderful scenery around the beach and ocean. We went here with Kristin and her roommate Jo. Soon there will be pictures so you can see.
Today the four of us are off to the Blue Mountains. http://www.bluemts.com.au/
It is so great having an Australian friends here. They are trying to take us to the non-touristy places.
Anyways, this is pretty long. Write more later!
Holly (and Steph)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
ToOmOrRoWw!
I cannot believe that is already tomorrow that we leave and sure enough, here is the procrastinator, Holly, leaving everything until the last minute. I even bought some luggage this morning. I am sure that because I will not be able to sleep tonight I will have plenty of time for packing. A little stressor I have is that we will not be getting our money until tomorrow morning before my flight! Yikes! Hopefully that will all work out.
I have no idea what is in store for us for the past few days. Flights, layovers, a huge time change...Hopefully it will all be okay. I was told that to avoid jet lag you should stay up until midnight of that day and you should be okay. Sounds like a great plan except that Stephanie and I are scheduled to get to Australia at 8:30 in the AM! Sick...Wish us luck...haha.
Today and yesterday I had to wear my boots there was just too much snow. I lasted so long wearing flip flops and ballet flats. So after today I am SO ready to be wearing flip flops, bathing suits and summer dresses. I honestly think I was made for the climate of Australia (maybe you will hear a change in opinion once I get there...haha). Anyways, I thought I would just post a short blog since it seems like the right thing to do the night before. Obviously, as you can tell, my thoughts are everywhere!!!
We leave in just a short period of time! I cannot wait!! EEEEK!!
I have no idea what is in store for us for the past few days. Flights, layovers, a huge time change...Hopefully it will all be okay. I was told that to avoid jet lag you should stay up until midnight of that day and you should be okay. Sounds like a great plan except that Stephanie and I are scheduled to get to Australia at 8:30 in the AM! Sick...Wish us luck...haha.
Today and yesterday I had to wear my boots there was just too much snow. I lasted so long wearing flip flops and ballet flats. So after today I am SO ready to be wearing flip flops, bathing suits and summer dresses. I honestly think I was made for the climate of Australia (maybe you will hear a change in opinion once I get there...haha). Anyways, I thought I would just post a short blog since it seems like the right thing to do the night before. Obviously, as you can tell, my thoughts are everywhere!!!
We leave in just a short period of time! I cannot wait!! EEEEK!!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
One Week To GO!!!!
So it's not exactly one week yet. There is still 15 minutes. Pretty close though. Stephanie and I got together and planned a little more. How exciting it is to plan and see what we will be doing. Yesterday I went and got some medical insurance. I found out I will be gone for 106 days. We also picked up a weird looking adapter converter so we can plug in all of our Canadian appliances. Tonight Stephanie booked a GPS for us and I booked our 3 day trip to the Whitsundays Islands.
Here is a website of what the boat looks like! http://avatarwhitsundayssailing.homestead.com/AvatarWhitsundaysPhotoReview.html It is called the Avatar.
So if you google 'Avatar Whitsundays' I am sure you will find more beautiful pictures.
Here is a website with time zones... You will be able to check on the time of Australia and get to know what time it is here when we are over there.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Tata for now!
Here is a website of what the boat looks like! http://avatarwhitsundayssailing.homestead.com/AvatarWhitsundaysPhotoReview.html It is called the Avatar.
So if you google 'Avatar Whitsundays' I am sure you will find more beautiful pictures.
Here is a website with time zones... You will be able to check on the time of Australia and get to know what time it is here when we are over there.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Tata for now!
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