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
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