Part 2 Queensland trip

So after the great couple of days in Byron Bay we were off to Surfer’s Paradise. When we got there we checked in then hit the town for sightseeing. It was a much bigger town than Bryon Bay, it was actually a city. The ocean was all along the side and across the street were all of these skyscrapers. It was neat to see a city set up like this. We head to the beach and saw some massive waves and some brave souls manning the waves. Like all great tourist we took about 100 pictures while admiring the sheer size of the ocean. We then went shopping!!! I ended up branching off an shopping by myself because I was ready for some hardcore shopping. I ended up buying a couple dresses and a new bathing suit to try out on this amazing coastal trip. That night I met my other hostel mates and found out the other 4 people in the room were American!!! It was refreshing to met some Americans traveling because I believe I had really come across tons of other ethnicity but hardly ever any Americans. They were students at the University of Melbourne for a semester coming from DC, Chicago and Cali. Dean and I played cards games with them, making him the minority once, one Canadian with all the Americas!

The next day the group split up. 4 of the girls went to a mountain to hike were the other 4 of us went to DreamWorld which Is one of the Australian Amusement parks. However this one was special because not only did it have rides but it also had an Australian Animal section. This was the most wonderful thing possible because wait for it….I actually got to FEED KANGAROOS and HOLD A KOALA!!!!! When we first walked into the area I got to see my very first kangaroos however it wasn’t quite what I expected to see. Instead of hopping around there were two kangaroos stuck together and the bigger obviously male one just giving it to the poor little girl kangaroo. All the people walking by just stopped and their jaws drop. They expected to see kangaroos just not a show! After we walked to a little farther we got to see emus, exotic birds, and more importantly koalas hanging out in trees. Then I saw them a whole herd of kangaroos just hanging out in the open. We were able to just walk up to them and feed them. They would hope over and eat right out of the palms of your hands. It was absolutely the coolest thing ever. They were so sweet and cute. Then we went to were you could hold a koala and get your picture with it (my picture is currently on someone else's computer). They brought out Patrick and we each took a turn cuddling with him. It was so neat.
Then the four of us took to riding all the rides we could. We went on the small ones in nickelodeon land like the SpongeBob flyer and the Rugrats Reptar Coaster.
We rode bumper cars but I jumped in on the wrong side and put my seatbelt on just to realize the steering wheel was on the other side…I forgot about the left hand driving. It was fun I bumped everyone and dominated hee hee. Then the bigger rides were to be ridden. We did the wave, the claw and the buckle all which like to swing you in ways you don’t think a physically possible while making you go upside down, it was awesome! We did apparently the biggest rollercoaster in Australia and then finally The Big Drop. This one scared Dean to death. He was shaking in his boots. It was quite funny since the whole day they were making fun of me of how loud I scream on the rides. But I do it just for fun. Oh then of course we had to go on the log ride to get completely drenched before we got back into the van. It was a great day for sure. The other girls picked us up and told us about their hike. They said it was fun but they all got leaches on them and it turned out since it was misty and fogging on the mountain they couldn’t really see how amazing the view was. So I think I made the best choice to go to dreamworld.

First Leg of the Coastal Road Trip

Day 1 Wednesday night we were all pumped. Nicole met me at Flinder’s street station and we walk to Budget rentals to pick up our van to go all the way up the coast. When we picked it up we realized that the van is quite cute and maroon but not as big as we thought it would be for an 8 seater. Nicole drives it home ON THE LEFT SIDE of the road. It freaked me out the whole way home because the city is has very narrow streets with trams, taxi and cyclist at all sides all swerving in and out around you while trying to figure out what is all opposite about driving on the wrong side of the road. After Dean shoving all 8 of our luggage pieces into the back of the van to the point it couldn’t get any further, we all jumped in for our all night drive…..so we thought.
The first part of the drive is very comical with all of us talking away with the hype of getting to a much warmer and tropical area especially about the part of not working for 3 weeks. We blast the music and sing along! Some of us take little naps along the way while Nicole is driving through the winding roads. At one point she nearly swears of the road with Dean yelling TURN which wakes me up screaming and therefore wakes everyone else up in the car. We all have a big laugh and then Nicole realizes we are on low fuel. We look and the nearest town isn’t for about 20 km. we figured though we should be able to get there no problem so we hoped. We were in the middle of nowhere. We are almost to the town when we are all discussing the possibility of having to push the car into town and then we finally make it in as Lindsay suggests that there is a possibility that the gas station won’t even be open. We pull up to the first gas station (or petrol station as they call it) to realize she was right and unfortunately none of the petrol stations in the town are open. This tells you what a small town we are in, when we stop at the police station to ask what our best bet is he tells us that the man that owns the gas station across the street does afterhours petrol but he thinks he is still in the hospital. We leave the police station and since it is dark and no one is around Nicole forgets to drive on the left side of the road and we are all yelling LEFT while the car is going in circles because she is trying to get on the correct side. It became a pretty crazy and memorable night. When we got to the petrol station to see if there was an afterhours number posted we only found that there was not one.
We ended up having to spend the night cramped in the car trying to get sleep until someone comes to open up the open up the station. Dean and Caitlin walked to the motel, since we were out of gas, to see how much a room will be. The motel office was even closed! So here we were 7 of us all leaning from side to side trying to get as comfortable as possible to sleep. I had the worst sleep of my life because I of course was the lucky one to be in the middle seat. I woke up every few minutes just to find out that no one is there. In the middle of the night I have to go to the restroom so I had to crawl over Dean to get out of the car and go to the public restrooms just a little down the way. I walk alone in this ghost town just on the other side of the parking lot praying the whole time that someone thing like the crazies movie doesn’t start happening while I am out of the car. Luckily God protects and nothing happened and nothing happened all night long. We woke up at 5am and thought we saw a man in the store of the gas station. We called him shadow man and asked shadow man to come out and open the station. Oddly enough there was no shadow man but he finally showed up in his car a few minutes later but he did not open the gas station. Amy goes to the door and knocks over and over. He finally comes out but doesn’t open the door and only mouths that they do not open until 6. We couldn’t believe it that we finally had someone there after waiting 5 hours and he refuses to the open. About 5:30 after we are just sitting there waiting he actually turns on the lights and the pumps. We get gas and are on our way just with a 6 hour delay. About 5 hours more and we are at Sydney.
It was a beautiful day in Sydney. We drove into the city and saw all the beautiful parks and huge skyscrapers. We drove right along the harbor and up to the opera house. It is just breathtaking in person. The harbor’s glow brought such life to the opera house. We took pictures and walked around like real tourist. We then got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Bryon Bay. We stopped to get a quick bite to eat then I drove for the very first time in my life on the LEFT side of the road. The surprisingly drove quite well even round the well known round-abouts of Australia. The only problem I had was I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal because they are on the opposite sides as well. We got into Byron Bay around 1:30 in the morning and crashed out in our hostel beds. We were all so happy to have a bed to sleep in that we just crashed out.
The next day was our first official day at the beach. We went down to Byron bay beach to truly enjoy the view, the sun and the waves. The beach was gorgeous with rock cliffs and a lookout point. We took all the touristy type pictures, bought beach towels with Australia written on them and then sun bathed for a bit. Caitlin, Lindsay and I then braved the waves. The water was still a bit cold but amazing. The current however was very strong. It almost knocked me down just standing there. We body surfed the waves onto the beach. It was so much fun and an absolutely perfect day.
That night we got dressed and were ready to see what Byron bay nightlife looked liked. We went downstairs to drink a bit and mingle. We met some Germans, one of which I decided to arm wrestle. I won of course except for not. This chick was one tough girl. We were then off to the Cheeky Monkey (cheeky means sneaky or naughty). We had dinner there and I finally had fish and chips down under. It was really yummy since we are next to the coast n all. The nightlife of cheeky money was quite cheeky. We danced and had a blast. I met some really nice people throughout the night.
The next day I tried my hand on surfing for the first time. The hostel we were staying at had surfboards for us to borrow for free, so instead of getting a real lesson I just threw myself into it. Caitlin walked through the cute, quant hippie town with surfboards under our arms. I felt quite cool. On the beach we went out in the water with our boards and I attempted to surf. I was unsuccessful but it was fun. I was able to surf in on the board laying down on it though just not upright. I then took a nice peaceful rest on the beach.
That night we went out again and had a fun but short night since I was so dehydrated from the daytime. The next morning I got one of the bikes and took a ride our town and got breakfast before we headed out to surfer’s paradise. I absolutely loved this small beach town and was sad to leave it but so excited to move up the coast to see all the other amazing sites. (so many great pictures to come soon and to be added!)

Two weeks of a bit of Eating, Pamering and Partying

So I woke up realizing that I did not want to work… So I didn’t!!!! Caitlin to no surprise had the same feeling once she realized that I wasn’t going in for work. We decided that today could be a tourist/spa/write postcards at a café day hee hee. It’s funny how you are so tired and never want to get out of bed when you have to go to work but all a sudden we had the biggest burst of energy when we decided not to go to work. I must say it was a little rush using the liberty and benefits of casual teaching, where I don’t have to work if I don’t want to!
We got all dolled up and went out for the day. We stopped at the post office first because I had gotten a notice that I had a package. I was thrilled because my mom and niece had told me a week or so ago that they had sent off a gift to me. When I picked it up it was the perfect gift, a cute leather jacket that I had seen before I left and had wanted. Since it is winter here the gift is quite fitting plus it looks great on me… according to Caitlin of course because I am not smug enough to come out and boost about how good I look.
After putting on my great jacket (or jumper, which is what Australians call jackets here), we were off to the city. We stopped at a souvenir shop first and got 10 postcards each. We then went to Southbank, the cute modern area on the otherside of the river. We went to a darling café to get a cup a coffee and write our postcards to our most dear family members and close friends. It was such a beautiful day that we sat outside while enjoying our coffee and getting writer’s cramp. Afterwards we went to a great shopping area to find a spa. We found one but wasn’t too impressed so we went down St. Kilda Rd. We stopped at the most delightful restaurant. The ambiance was incredible, small and classy without being pretentious. We had an amazing lunch with a glass of wine. The staff there is super friendly and super attentive. We ended up both getting the lunch box special. It had a little bit of everything, white bean soup, beat salad, sausage roll and the best part, a praline éclair. It was delicious and we were on cloud nine. We then went home to look up the spa we had seen over the weekend. We found it and called to make appointments. They couldn’t get us in then but they were able to for the next day.
A little while later the other flatmates came home and we got ready for our big Friday night on the town. The first part of the night consisted of us having multiple guests over to start the night off. It was fun to have our little Australian home as a meeting place for our now expanding crew. We had the usually, the flatmates (Caitlin, Amy, Dean and me), Sam, and our new friends Danni and Nicole. We were all delved into wonderful conversation and lots of laughs. Danni is an actual Australian, so it was cool to have her over. Nicole had only been in Australia for a day and was mentioning she wasn’t thrilled with the location of the place she was living at. We mentioned we had a pull out couch that she could sleep on if she needed. She was overjoyed to hear that and said she would love to split rent 5 ways with us if we are serious because she loved us and our place. We instantly accepted and that is how we now have a 5th roommate. The rest of the evening went very well with some very funny mishaps along the way. It was a great night with some great stories for the recovery breakfast the next day.
After breakfast Caitlin and I were off for our spa appointment. We went to St. Kilda Beach where the spa was directly located. We were first escorted to the changing room where we got into our comfy robes and sleepers. We entered the relaxation room that had hot tea and water, comfortable lounge chairs and a view of the ocean. After a nice relaxing time in the area we were swept off into our massage room. The massage was literally the best massage I have ever had!!! I was so completely relax that when it was finished and we were back in the relaxation room I was like butter on the chair. After a bit we finally got up and went down to the pool and hot tub area. The weekend before we had seen for ourselves a few people actually swimming in the freezing cold ocean water then going back into this building. It turns out that they were running back into the hot tub and indoor pool. So like all responsible and sane minded people we decided to try it out ourselves. We left the hot tub to dare the winter air to find out it felt quite nice. I suppose the hot tub had brought our temperature up enough that the breeze was refreshing. Then we stuck our toes in and then yes, yes we did dunk our whole bodies in the cold ocean water. It actually wasn’t too bad but it definitely was still cold. However standing on the beach still felt good after. We finally went back in to enjoy the hot tub some more and of course some time in the steam room. By the time we left we were praising this place and in love with our wonderful day. We were so happy we decided to walk back because it was so nice out.
That night I had my first movie experience here in Melbourne with the girls. We went to the cinema down the road from our house. It turned out to be quite nice. It had curtains over the big screen and they opened when the previews started. The food was actually decently priced instead of ridiculous although the tickets would have been crazy expensive if it wasn’t for the backpackers discount. The popcorn was good but this cinema didn’t butter it. We watched Salt which we all loved all the plot twist and action. It was a perfect way to end a great day.
The next week Jamie moved to town. Jamie is my Kiwi friend that I met at the hostel over a month ago. He moved here for his new lawyer job. I invited him over for dinner with my roommates and I. Dinner ended up being delicious of course because I cooked! Later on that week Jamie and I went to the Rooftop bar in downtown Melbourne. It was awesome. The view of the city was just amazing and they had nice heat lamps to keep us nice and warm. We then went for a walk around the city with our take away coffees because it was such a nice night out.
Friday night was teacher’s drink night once again and this time we were determined to get there early enough to actually meet some of the other teachers. So we did. We got there at 6:30 and I stayed till 1:30am. So needless to say a good night. I met some teachers from our agency and some of the wonderful office workers who call me every day for my placements. Jamie also showed up to mingle with all of us. Dean met a girl he fancied and spent most of the night talking to her. The girls headed over to our friend Danni’s place across the street but I decided to stay and dance. It was a great bar in a nice area. The dance floor was packed and played great songs.


Saturday was a fun filled night that started off at Sam and Jamie’s hostel. We then headed downtown to the Red Bar to once again dance the night away. It was fun but while leaving we all got split up a bit. Caitlin and Dean thought we were leaving and went downstairs but the rest of us didn’t know it so they took a cab. Sam, Nicole (our newest roommate), Amy and I were ready to leave a bit later but had a hard time finding Jamie. We eventually left but poor Sam had heels on so I walked slowly with her.
Nicole and Amy didn’t realize and ended up going all the way to Flinder’s station by the time they figured it out we were way behind. They ended up getting a taxi from there and going home. Sam and I got to Swanston street in just enough time to get a little food before the bus got there to take us home. As we were getting on the bus I saw Jamie and shouted at him to get on the bus as well since it was goes past his hostel. We all got home safe just in many different ways that night. Sunday was a nice quiet day at home which was just what was needed. Upcoming this week is Amy and Sam’s bday on Wednesday and our last weekend home until our trip. So much excitement in the air!