Our Aussie Adventure

The End!

2008-02-19T20:28:42Z

Ta da!!! This is my final entry, just to let you all know that we survived the gauntlet marathon that was getting back home! We are super stoked to be here again! Sorry I didn't write anything right away, but I've been kind of busy, what with sleeping off the jet lag and all!

This was such a monumental adventure for us... and definately the most enormous Learning Experience I have ever bestowed upon myself. We enjoyed every second of it! Our luck with airports and travelling went down kicking and screaming to the very end, though!

While standing in line at the Los Angeles customs our flight to Calgary took off. It was unfortunate... eventually we got the airlines to figure something else out for us, and they got us home by re-routing through Vancouver. Therefore, we were a lot later getting into Calgary than we had anticipated, but such is life. We had to essentially sprint through the Vancouver airport in order to make our flight, but we did! Unfortunately, our bags didn't decide to make the plane. They got delivered the next day though, and all is well

But yes! The moral of that story is I'm back! Woo Hoo! I want to thank every single one of you for following up with my adventures across the ocean! It meant a lot to know how much support I had! This concludes my Australia and New Zealand travel blog. Thanks so much for reading it! You will all most definately find out about the next adventure, whenever it happens!

PS... "mild" Calgary weather is like nothing most Aussies have ever seen ever. It was a shock to my system... It's not really snowing and -50, but my first few days back sure felt like it!

~Steph

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Everything Must Come to a Close...

2008-02-12T02:14:21Z

Wow. I am absolutely overwhelmed at the moment! We're back in Auckland after a whirlwind voyage around the North Island of New Zealand... and it's almost time to go home! I can't believe it... the thought seems completely unreal! We had a pretty major adventure getting around the island, and I'll give you the condensed version, otherwise you'd be here all day!

We left Rotorua early in the morning. Upon departure we learned that the horrid eggy smell was sulfur in the air from all the bubbling mud pits of doom. Here is a photo of one of them:

We also got to check out the really touristy geyser explosion:

And this is a random scenic stop:

Anyways. We had it in our heads that we were travelling down to Wellington, however it didn't quite work out that way! The Magic Bus works on a slightly more structured schedule than we had initially thought, and we wound up getting into the town of Taupo later that day. Fortunately, there was no problem booking us into rooms for the night, or rearranging the other rooms and outings we had booked to fit our initial schedule. Taupo was alright... not a very big city, and there wasn't too much going on!

The next day we got into Wellington... which was one of the major highlights of the trip! We got to go on a Lord of the Rings movie tour, visitng tons of sites and filming locations! It was great fun!!! Here's a photo of us during the tour:

And here is where they filmed the scenes in Rivendale, for those of you who know what that means:

I won't post too many photos from that trip, because Kay posted all the good ones on her blog. I demand that you go and check them out! It will be well worth your time!!!!!

After leaving Wellington, we headed north again, to many different cities, with names I have trouble pronouncing. The easier ones included Napier and Mount Maunganui (or something like that...) arriving in Auckland today! It was an absolutely amazing little trip, and I really loved riding on the Magic Bus. The way our schedule worked out, we overlapped exactly with one driver pretty much the whole way, so we chatted a lot on the long drives! We had so much fun in New Zealand, and one day I'd love to come back with more time and money and check out all of it!

And there you have it! Tomorrow evening we will make our way to the Auckland International Airport and begin our long journey home! I cannot believe it. I've been away from home for four whole months... and I'm definately ready to head back again! When I sit back and think about everything that has happened... it blows my mind. This was an amazing adventure, and I'm kind of sad that it's coming to a close. There are times it feels like I haven't seen Canada in years, and other times when it feels like we only just left! Mostly, we are just so, so happy to be coming home, I can't even begin to describe it to you.

I will see you all very, very soon! I love you!!!!!!!

Ps: I'm coming back from my lone!

~Steph

Everything Must Come to a Close... remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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And the Countdown Begins!

2008-02-06T06:02:22Z

It is rather incredible to think that I will be heading home in a week! This time next Wednesday, we'll be (hopefully...) through security at the Auckland airport and waiting for our flight to board! Though I won't dwell too much on that just yet. First, I'll report our New Zealand adventures to date!!!

We hung around in Auckland for five nights (which was longer than intended but I had trouble booking us into a hostel in Rotorua) and mostly just explored the city and hung out around the hostel. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the roof is totally the coolest place to hang out. Also, it offers a pretty good view of the city! Here's a few pictures of us on a roof in Auckland:

And here is Kay reading in our dorm room. She doesn't like this picture, and ideally she won't kill me for posting it, haha!!

At the cheery hour of 7:30 in the morning, our bus came to pick us up. As opposed to taking the Greyhound through Australia, taking Magic Bus through New Zealand is much more tourist-y. The bus driver is also a tour guide who points out stuff along the way, and stops at fun places to take pictures! Before we had even left Auckland, he took us up to the top of Mt. Eden, which was actually a pretty small, dead volcano. The sky was super pretty, and there was a fantastic view out over the city!

(See? Super sweet clouds in the morning!!!)

And that one is just a portion of all the houses in Auckland. I think there's something like 1.4 million people in Auckland, out of around 5 million in the whole country. Apparently everybody loves Auckland!!!

En route to Rotorua, we stopped at a tiny little town called Waitomo. It was around noon, and it had started to heat up again! The clouds disappeared... see?

And finally one more of me... with some trees. This, I believe, is also during our stop over in Waitomo:

And there you have it! Tomorrow we're leaving Rotorua (which, just so you know, smells like rotten eggs everywhere in the city...) and going down to Wellington. In Wellington we are going on a super-not-nerdy-in-the-slightest Lord of the Rings movie tour. It should prove to be very fun, and I'm totally excited! After two nights in Wellington we head North again to a city called Taupo. Then back to Auckland! Chances are very good I'll post once more during that time, but I'm letting you know the whole plan anyways! That's all I've got for now, though... I'll see you all real soon!!!

~Steph

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New Zealand!!!

2008-02-02T03:08:31Z

So it's official! We've left one awesome country and are now attempting to conquer a second! Hurrah! We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 7pm two days ago. We are staying here until the 5th of February, when we're taking a bus out to a city called Rotorua. We'll stay there for two nights, then head on to Wellington. After two nights there we spend another two in a place called Taupo.

Then, it's back to Auckland for two more nights and then we're flying home! We've got it ironed out alright, I think! We've already secured rooms in Rotorua and Wellington, and today I'll be booking us onto the buses to get us there. It's a pretty fast little trip through the North Island... if we had more time we'd for sure be taking a ferry to the South Island as well!

Thus far, New Zealand seems pretty cool. The scenery is very different from Australia. There's a lot more mountains and trees and the like... and I can't help but to see it as Lord of the Rings-esque. Part of me wishes we could stay longer and go poke around in places like Hobbiton and Mt. Doom!!! Alas, the LOTR geek in me will have to wait till the next time we're on this side of the world.

I have a couple of photos I can show you, nothing too exciting I'm afraid. This is Kay and I waiting for our plane in the Melbourne airport (gee guess what... it was raining...):

And here is our plane (and kay's elbow):

You should be impressed with these photos. Very totally impressed. I took them blindly. This is because I apparently carry a curse with me, in that I cannot carry a digital device for more than three months without somehow managing to smash the LCD screen.

(This is the part where my parents laugh at the funny joke instead of being mad at me HA ha ha................)

ANYways... that's about it. I'll keep you posted on our quick trip through New Zealand, and I'll see most of you in a little under two weeks! Huzzah!

~Steph

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Tomorrow... we fly!

2008-01-30T07:20:37Z

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for us to bid farewell to this absolutely astounding country! We have done so many amazing things, and learned more than we ever thought possible... so although we're probably not coming back to Australia for a long time, we won't soon forget it!

I'm writing today from Melbourne, still. We stayed here for a little over a week, and it was good fun! The hostel is grand, though I am royally fed up with sleeping in a 12 bed dorm room. It only takes a couple bad room mates to destroy your perfectly normal sleeping patterns, and we seem to be constantly stuck with about 9 bad room mates. So yes. I may have been cranky this week. I cannot remember. I blame lack-of-sleep-induced-amnesia. (...I wonder if there actually is such a thing...)

I haven't done anything huge and adventurous this week, so I'll show you a few photos I've got from around the hostel. The first one is the mess in which I am currently living:

And then these next ones are of us on the roof... (the roof is where cool kids hang out, haha):

And finally a panoramic view of the city. Or it would be panoramic if I had a panoramic camera:

And yes! That's all I've got, really. Tomorrow at noon we're flying out of Melbourne and landing in Aukland, New Zealand. As is the norm when I go somewhere new, I haven't the foggiest idea what my internet situation will be. I can't imagine New Zealand will have any less internet that Australia, so I imagine you'll be hearing from me again within the next couple of days. Until then, have a good one!

~Steph

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The next phase...

2008-01-25T03:06:37Z

Hello!!!! It's me again! I've got another bit of an update for you! Right now we're in Melbourne. We arrived a few days ago, and we're staying here until January 31. On the 31st, we're flying out to Aukland, New Zealand! Cool! We like Melbourne, it's a very intereting city. It's got things we've never seen before, like Trams. The C-Train system is pretty much all trams! They drive on the street like the cars! It's practically blowing our minds, hahaha.

I know I've probably been dropping hints about the impeding doom of my bank account, and therefore I have news that may interest you! Cailan and I have had a very good chat about our options, and we've decided to come home earlier than we had initially planned to. Our plane arrives in Calgary on February 13. We're actually very, very happy to be coming home. As interesting as another whole month in New Zealand would have been, it's not a very logical descision. We're still going to spend long enough there to see most of the things we want to, and then we'll be heading back to Home Sweet Home!

Please don't think that we're cutting ourselves short or anything. We want very much to be home in February instead of March. Backpacking is an adventure and a half, and we've loved every second of it, but it's time. We are ready to get back to the normality of life in Calgary. It will be very pleasant to not have to pay people for absolutely everything. Did you know an average load of laundry knocks us back $6-$8? And having a private bedroom is going to be heaven. Right now we're in a dorm shared by 12 people. It can get kind of crazy sometimes!!!

And yes! That's all the news I have for now. I've just mailed another disc of photos home, so I don't have any new ones to post on here at the moment. If you haven't already, remember that Cailan has a blog too, and she posts loads of her own photos as well. Check it out!! http://cailan.proboards100.com

Talk to you soon!

~Steph

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Of Sydney and Canberra...

2008-01-20T01:56:42Z

Howdy!! It is I, again, but I bet you're not bored of me yet! Ahahaha... anyways. We are in Canberra! We arrived yesterday from Sydney, and it actually only took about three hours to drive here. It looked a lot farther on the map! The good news is I have a USB port, and therefore you get photos! Huzzah! The bad news is the meanies are charging me $8 an hour to use the internet. Poo. They only do it because they know we have no other internet cafe to go to... Ah well. Where shall I start?

Scooting back a couple of days, to Sydney! Aside from the couple scorching hot hours when we were labouring with heavy backpacks, trying to find our way to the hostel, it rained. And rained and rained and rained. Our second day in the city, it was kind of spitting rain, not too heavy, but enough that we really didn't want to risk going into the city to see the sights. So we went to the Sydney Aquarium instead! Very cool... here's a little fishy fishy:

It was still raining when we left the aquarium, so we went to a cafe for dinner, and then right back to our hostel to chill out before bed! The next morning we woke up, and much to our chagrin, it was raining harder. Since it was our last day in Sydney, we couldn't just sit out on the touristy stuff! So once again we braved the transit system, and found our way down to the harbor. Here is Cailan, right before we set out on our wet adventure:

Here's a shot from the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, before we had been out in the rain for too long...

And here we are, after about a ten or fifteen minute walk, on the steps of the Opera House, cheerfully accepting the fact that we will never be dry again in our lives:

And yes! That was our adventure in Sydney! The next day we found our way back to the Greyhound Station (in the rain) and hopped a bus out here to Canberra. This is the capital city of Australia, though I don't think most people know that. It's very pretty here, lots of trees! Unfortunately, that's about it's only saving grace, hahaha! We can elect to go to the War Memorials, or, if we feel like a real adventure, the Bicycle Museum. Wow... it's not that there's not a lot to do I suppose, it's just that... yeah, there's not a lot to do. We probably should have picked up on this hint when we were the only backpackers on the Greyhound out here. That never, ever happens. The bus is always at least half full with other backpackers.

Ah well, it's a learning experience! One of many! We're going to head out in the next couple of days, probably to Melbourne, but perhaps we'll pick one more spot to stop along the way. The fun part about backpacking is how free you are to decide stuff! One or two days in advance is plenty! I suppose that's all I have to say for now, I'll update you again soon!!!!

~Steph

Of Sydney and Canberra... remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sydney!!

2008-01-18T02:19:57Z

Hello everybody!!!! It's me again, checking in from Sydney! This is possibly one the most interesting and overwhelming cities I've ever seen. I'm enjoying it! We left Port Maquarie at a painful 5 am to catch the bus out here. As the bus rides go, this one was pretty uneventful. It was 7 hours long, but since we were essentially comatose for most of it, it didn't seem nearly so bad! Pulling into Sydney was pretty much amazing, and it was the total cliche... pulls up over a hilltop and the city comes into view, complete with the Opera House sitting on the sparkling harbor looking out over the bridge. Yeah... pretty sweet!

When we arrived into the Sydney transit centre, we unloaded our stuff and stood there looking dazed for a little while. We gave the hostel a ring, and they cheerfully informed us that even though they had advertised free pick-ups, it was just easier for everybody if we hopped the train from platform 24 to King's Cross Station and walked the rest of the way. Um... great. We did manage to find the right terminal, purchase appropriate tickets, and get lodged in the turnstiles because of our backpacks. And let me tell you... wandering around Sydney in 30 degree heat with 12 kilos on your back is hot and sweaty work! But we were victorious, and here we are!!!

This internet cafe is the best yet... mostly because they are only charging us $1 per hour. That rocks so much! Unfortunately, there's no USB port, so photos of our Sydney adventures will have to wait. Tomorrow we head out to Canberra. Maybe I'll be able to post photos then. We shall see!

Anyways... that's about all I have for now! I know some of you have asked for my next possible mailing address, but honestly I'm not even sure what that will be. Right now we're staying a max of three days at random places, of which we tend to decide two or three days before we get there. If we settle longer somewhere I'll let you know! I'll talk again soon, I'm sure! I've got more good pictures to show you!

~Steph

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Some Photos for You!

2008-01-15T01:10:03Z

Howdy folks! I'm back again! I've not got too much more to say today... we're in Port Macquarie at the moment, and tomorrow we head out for Sydney! After that I believe we're going to Australia's capital, Canberra. I will keep you posted. Mostly today I just popped in to show you some photos! Yay! First off, this is a shot from Byron Bay. The lighthouse way in the distance marks the most Easternly point in all of Australia. We were standing on the edge of the map!!!

And this is an entirely innocent shot of the beach and sand and water.....

And then, just because I was having fun with my camera, a photo of me:

You will probably notice all the rain clouds. It has been raining a LOT. I can't believe how much rain there is! We have definately seen more rain these last few weeks than sun, but oh well! Guess who managed a sunburn anyways??? (I'll give you a hint... she's got red hair and no tan to speak of...)

This next photo is us walking along the beach at Coff's Harbor:

Also from Coff's Harbor:

And yeah! That's about it. I'll keep you all posted as we keep on making our way towards Melbourne! I think I will leave you with a photo I took of the best sign in the world. It was posted on the toaster in the kitchen of our current hostel. I am not joking.

Later folks!!!

~Steph

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Checking In!

2008-01-12T03:43:03Z

Hello everybody! This is going to be really short and sweet today. Right now I'm in a little city called Coff's Harbor. We've just come down from Byron Bay, which was a lovely little place! Coff's Harbor is great fun, we're right on the beach! The hostel is not exactly the best one we've seen yet, but you can't win them all!

I do have photos, but they'll have to wait... I don't have very long on this computer. I'm honestly impressed we found internet at all! It took us half an hour to get to, but here we are!

In two days we're back on a bus, going to our next stop in Port Macquarie. After two nights there we're off to Sydney! That's one that everybody knows, I think! I promise that my next update will be in Sydney at the latest! I'll post pictures and everything... I just wanted to give you a bit of a status update! Ciao!

~Steph

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Bye Bye Brisbane... again...

2008-01-08T03:32:02Z

So! Here we are folks! This won't be a particularly long entry today, just a quick note to update everybody! Tomorrow at 1:15 pm Kay and I are catching a Greyhound out of Brisbane! Wow! I actually can't believe we're going! It really seems like no time at all has passed (although I think that really too much time has gone by, hehehe...). We're going down to Byron Bay for two nights, and after that we're going to Coff's Harbour. We're making our way down to Melbourne over the course of about a week and a half. It's a pretty fast paced trip, but we need to make up some time. We had intended to leave Brisbane by the 3rd of January, but the hostels were still all fully booked due to New Years celebrations and whatnot.

Ideally, we'll be finding work in Melbourne, or one of the towns along the way. I think our experiences in Brisbane have, if nothing else, helped us figure out the proper way to go about finding work down here. Cross your fingers for us! If all goes well, we'll be settling into Melbourne for around the same amount of time as we were here in Brisbane. This would mean coming home a little later than originally planned, but don't worry just yet. If there's no work to be had we'll be coming home early and broke! Ha!

We're going to be very sad to leave Brisbane! We settled in here very nicely... we're comfortable with the city and the hostel, and especially the people! We met some of the most amazing friends during our stay in Brisbane, and we're going to miss every single one of them dearly. If all goes well, we can hook up again somewhere down the line... perhaps there's a reunion to be had in Melbourne! We shall see, folks!

That's all for now, I guess. Just like the first half of our trip, I'll update you guys as often as I can find a computer! I feel like this merits a bit of a sing-song or something! *On the road again...*

~Steph

Bye Bye Brisbane... again... remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Happy New Years!!!!!!

2008-01-03T03:40:06Z

Hey everybody! It's been a little while since I popped in here, sorry about that! We've been super busy! On Christmas Eve we hooked up with a group of some amazing people, and haven't really parted ways with them since! We've been running off our feet doing fun things, and we've had some pretty good laughs in the process! We're a pretty international group, and it's highly amusing. There's Kay and I, the two Canadians, three Irish boys, a German girl, a Dutch girl, some French girls, and occasionally other boys, from Germany and America. It's good fun! Having international friends is so, so cool... we swap heaps of stories about life back home, compare travel notes, and just enjoy each other's company!

It's a very handy system to have! On New Years Eve, there were around twelve of us. Trying to keep everyone together on our trip down to the river to see fireworks was a job indeed! We were frequently pulling roll calls... Someone at the front would stop and count, "Team Canada? Team Ireland? Team France? Team Germany?" and we'd stick up our hands respectively. However, I am getting ahead of myself!

Shortly after Christmas, we gathered our group together to have a party down on the beach. We bought some cheap beer, and planted ourselves down at about 8:30. The boys brought a guitar, and we had a little sing-song pow-wow! We stayed up late into the evening, just enjoying each other's company. Here's a photo of us gathered around each other:

The day after this party, we decided to have a barbeque! There's free cooking areas down at the same beach, so we went grocery shopping, bought a ton of food, and made our way to the beach! Once we got there, we realized we didn't bring any cutlery. Oops! One of the Irish boys dashed across the street and by methods unknown to us came back with enough cutlery for everybody, and then some. Kay, Chris (a German girl) and I started cooking up the burgers and onions and everything, and it was so very, very good. After everybody inhaled their first round of burgers, the boys took their turn to cook!

We took our time eating those burgers... it was delightful. We haven't had good food like that in ages, and everybody was super happy! Here's another photo of me, with a French girl, a German girl, and an Irish boy dancing in the background!

And finally, on more shot I took of the group eating:

The next day was New Years Eve. We had SO MUCH FUN. We hung around our dorm room for ages, having a bit of a party. Another boy had moved in, and he brought a guitar! So out came our boy's guitar and we had a very fun singing party. Eventually we made our way down to the river for a pretty intense fireworks show! It was magical! Everyone started counting down, and as soon as it was midnight the fireworks exploded! Everyone cheered, and hugged and kissed everyone else, and then we settled in to watch the show. It was so great! Cailan took most of the photos that evening, so be sure to keep half an eye on her blog for them to surface!

After the fireworks we eventually made our way to an Irish pub where there was drinking and dancing and a very good time indeed! I've never done that much stuff on New Years before, and I had a great time! I am so happy that we met these people... it's been the coolest experience ever! We've had the best time in Brisbane! However, it's getting very close to the time when we must admit defeat and move on again. There are a few options floating around, and none of which we're 100% sure about yet. I promise I'll keep you posted when I figure this stuff out myself. Happy New Year everybody! Hope you all had just as much fun as I did! I'll come chat again soon!

~Steph

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Our Fun Christmas

2007-12-27T04:29:48Z

Merry Christmas everybody!!!!!!! I hope you all had a super great day, I know we certainly did! Where should I even start? Christmas Eve was super fun! Everyone was in very high spirits, and people were running around the hostel in a very cheery fashion. We met a big group of people on Christmas Eve. There were several Germans, one girl from our dorm room along with three other German boys. There was also several Irish people, so we had a group of about ten of us all together. We stayed up late into the night, so when midnight rolled around everybody got to say Merry Christmas to everybody else! I don't think anyone in the hostel was sleeping! We got hugs and kisses from everybody we knew, and it was one of my most fun Christmas Eve's to date!

Then, on Christmas, we woke up at around 9:00 in the morning, and the Christmas music had already started. We hung around in our room for a while, showered and whatnot, and then at 10:00 they served us a free pancake and champagne breakfast! It was absolutely divine. The champagne helped us to get over our Christmas Eve Hangovers!! Hair of the dog and all that... We immediately met up with our friends again, and ate our breakfast together.

Anyways! After eating, we went back to our room, to open the awesome parcels our familys sent ^-^! We were thrilled! All our friends were very impressed with our Canadian chocolate. Mine is already gone! Here are a few pictures:

(Please note the awesome Calgary Flames Santa hat! Thanks Kay's mommy!!!!!!)

After opening our gifts we headed back outside to sit with our friends again. Here's a few photos of us with people:

At 1:00 in the afternoon, they served up this enormous, free Christmas buffet. It was great... we hadn't left the tables since breakfast, so we didn't have too far to go! We ate turkey, and tons of vegetables, potatoes, gravy, and everything else you can imagine! It was really the best meal I've had in a long, long time. Everybody ate so much, and we were all very happy! The food we make for ourselves is yummy, but it is nothing compared to a home cooked meal like this one! I was full for the rest of the day!

After lounging around for a while, being full and happy, we went out for a walk with some friends. We wandered down to the parks, and then into the beach area! I've got a photo of Christmas on the Beach! I couldn't help myself, sorry!!!

We stayed out for a while, and then headed back to the hostel. We hung out with our friends for the rest of the day and well into the evening. Everyone was in such a good mood! For most of us, it was our first Christmas away from home, so we banded together and made it a fantastic day anyways! Here's one more photo, from later in the evening, after we had met up with even more friends:

And that pretty much sums up our Christmas! It was a fantastic couple of days, and I really hope every single one of you had just as much fun as we did! This has been the experience of a lifetime for us! We were a little apprehensive at first about what Christmas away from home would be like, and it definately surpassed our expectations! I think that's just about everything I have to report... Oh! I got my package from Ohio!!! Thank you so much!! It was a very pleasant surprise ^-^!!

I love you all, Merry Christmas! I'll report back soon with our plans for the future. The only hint you get is that we're not staying in Brisbane much longer. Perhaps there is work to be had in Melbourne...

~Steph

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It's Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T04:30:38Z

Yay! It's almost Christmas time! Can you believe it? It seems that the holidays have snuck up so quickly! I can't even fathom where all the time has gone! Wow... more than two months away from home, and now it's Christmas too! This is a great adventure, and I think we're going to have a very interesting Christmas. It is a little hard, being our first one away from home, but given the lack of snow... the fact that it's Christmas still hasn't really sunk in!!! Last night, we went out for a walk to the south bank of Brisbane river. We had intended to go see what kind of decorations they had up in the city. We were quite pleasantly surprised with a Christmas Fireworks Spectacular!

They shot off a ton of fireworks from a boat in the middle of the river, in time with a bunch of Christmas carols and other songs. It was really well done! Afterwards, we wandered around a bit, and found Santa! He was sitting in a sleigh being pulled by kangaroos. Six White Boomers!! It took a lot of effort not to go sit on his lap. Instead I took a picture:

When we'd finished there, we crossed the bridge into the city. All the ferrys and ships on the river had Christmas lights on! I took a picture of them all lit up. And it was a pretty great view of the city lights too... I haven't seen Brisbane at night before!

That's mostly all that's going on! Tomorrow we get pancakes and champagne for breakfast, and a truly spectacular feast for lunch! I'll be taking loads of photos of the fun stuff that's going on, and I'll probably be posting another blog entry very soon after Christmas. In case I don't talk to any of you before then though, Merry Christmas!!! Love you all!! Here are a few parting photos...

~Steph

It's Christmas Eve! remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hooray for Backpacking!

2007-12-19T02:10:55Z

Howdy folks! I think the Christmas Countdown is officially on!!! Everywhere is decorated and jolly. I'm enjoying the Christmas music, but then... I just enjoy music! I have to forcibly stop myself from singing along to the music everywhere I go. And it's not just the Christmas carols! Australia has somewhat of a different taste in music than what we hear in Calgary. I must say that I rather enjoy it. They are very into bands over here that don't get quite as much hype at home. I'm really enjoying the change up in music, and I've got a running list for songs I need on my iPod when I'm home again!!!

The other day we were walking in the city and there was this big brass band playing carols in the street. I think I turned purple with a deep, repressed longing... I wanted to hop up on stage and play with them!! I never realized until then how much I actually miss playing my trombone, but I've got this newly kindled need to join a band. Or an orchestra, or a brass choir or something! I've had several of my friends over here tell me that I should just get a music degree when I go back to university. I'm definately starting to think I need some form of musical outlet, otherwise I may explode.

But enough of that! I got myself on a band-nerd ramble there. However... speaking of band-nerd... I'm learning that, "This one time, at band camp..." is quite the global quote. I have heard it from absolutely everybody that allows me to talk about music. Everyone. But right, enough band talk.

Less than a week till Christmas!! At least over here... I believe back home it's exactly a week, and counting!!! Is everyone ready? Turkey's purchased? Stockings assembled? I don't know about you, but on Christmas I'll be having a barbeque in my shorts!!! We'll be at the pool, and lounging around the hostel with all the other people in shorts! You should all... go skating or build a snowman or something. Ha!! Just for reference, this is what it looks like in Brisbane right now:

I've heard it's going to be pretty warm on Christmas! And yes. That's all I've got for now. As a parting gift, here is a photo of Cailan. Enjoy:

~Steph

Hooray for Backpacking! remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Weather!

2007-12-12T03:54:27Z

So! It's me again! I'm terribly sorry, but I have nothing new to report... I figured it's been long enough since my last post though, that I should at least pop in and say hello! So, hello!! How goes everything on that side of the world? Over here it is... hot. And the past few days it's been raining, a LOT. As in... torrential downpour rain. I've never seen anything like it. People were running around in a tizzy because windows were open and everything was getting absolutely drenched. However, down in Sydney they got hail the size of tennis balls, so I guess simple rain is okay!!

What else has happened... Oh yes. The other night there was a fire alarm at around 11pm. I think some genius at the bar pulled the alarm or something, but we all had to trump outside in our pajamas and stand there looking dazed on the street. The firemen arrived, and all that exciting stuff. I was just happy when we got to go back to bed, because standing around in your pajamas is not flattering, when almost all of the other residents were dressed up for parties!!

Right! Last post I promised a picture of the Christmas tree in the city, so here we go... This is them setting it up:

And here it is all finished and pretty (notice the rain clouds....):

I guess that's all I have right now. On a different note, I bought new shoes to wear to any interviews (ahem..... totally a hint to the cosmos. Interview time!!!! Come on!) I'm wearing them in this loverly picture of me standing outside our dorm room. Great yellow wall!!

I have just realized how sunburnt I look in that photo. i'm not, really, at all! I think it's just a trick because of how very very yellow the wall is...

And that's all folks! Have a good week or so, I'll be back shortly ^-^!!

~Steph

The Weather! remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Merry Christmas!

2007-12-07T03:22:37Z

Hey everyone! It's finally starting to feel like Christmas down here!! It took me a little while longer to get used to, but now it's officially feeling like the holidays! I think Christmas music helps... they've started playing a few Christmas songs along with the usual music lineup down at the hostel. Plus there's a tree in reception, that's got all these cardboard-wrapped care packages underneath it! It actually made me laugh the first time I saw it, it's so cute! We're getting a lot closer to the people staying in our dorm with us, and I think we may be doing a Secret Santa, come Christmas. Not to mention Kay and I plan to buy each other something, too!

In the middle of town, there's a massive Christmas tree set up. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I meant to get a photo of it but I forgot until just now. Next post, I promise! It's got all these gold and silver decorations, and a huge star on top that flashes different colours at night time. Absolutely fantastic! Christmas music is playing in all the shops, and I have a very hard time not singing along to some of them. I especially struggle with "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"... I must admit that it seems like a very comical song to play down here! Much to my chagrin, I have not yet heard "Six White Boomers"... I've really been looking forward to that one!!

Life is absolutely dandy right now. We're having a blast! Hostel life is so much different than anything I've ever experienced before. There is this constant flux of new people coming and going. You're meeting people daily... and they come from all over the world! This is far more of a multi-cultural experience than I initially thought it was going to be. It is so amazing, the sheer number of people I have met, and the cool thing is how close in age we all are. It's like a constant, massive university party minus the studying!

I have met far too many people to even start describing it to you. The worst part is the names. I have introduced myself to *so many* people I can't possibly keep it all straight. At first it was alright, because you met people and then almost immediately moved on somewhere else, to meet more people. Now, however, we are approaching two months over here (two months?? for real?? cripes.....) and we are running into people again. It is the worst feeling, standing and chatting to someone you vaguely recognise but cannot place to save your life. Usually, they have forgotton your name too, but it's very, very bad when someone is like, "Hey! You're the Canadians we met up at Airlie Beach, aren't you??" and we're like...... "I don't think I have ever, ever seen you in my life, but okay!!"

On the flip side, at the hostel there is a good chunk of long-term residents too. So while we've got the constant movement of new faces through, we're also settling into something a lot more tight knit. It's very, very cool. The staff all live at the hostel (as far as I can gather) and they're starting to get familiar with us. There's three others in our dorm room who are staying on as long as us. There's actually quite a few in other rooms who are staying, and we're geting to know each other fairly well.

Overall, this is potentially the coolest thing I've done in my life. I have completely immersed myself in this massive, cultural thing, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into! But it's been worth every penny, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it! Sorry there weren't any photos for you today, I'll get on top of that for next time! Also, feel free to determine through my lack of mentioning that I haven't had a job call yet. Poo. Talk again soon!!!

~Steph

Merry Christmas! remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Update... ha ha...

2007-12-03T02:17:57Z

It is I, once again, checking in with no real news to give! Nothing interesting happened over the weekend, which I suppose is normal enough. We're heading out again today to harass more people with our resumes. We're still slightly tentative to talk to recruitment agencies. I know I said we were going to sign up with them, but we looked into several and they seem like a last resort to us. They can hook us up with marginal jobs if necessary, for a cut of our pay. Bleh. We'd rather be able to secure jobs ourselves, minus the middleman.

I think we may broaden our search beyond retail at this point. Perhpas... food joints or something. We shall see how it goes! We're not truly at a point of panic yet, because once we get jobs, the pay is a lot better than back home! Most people are pulling in upwards of $20 an hour, so as long as we keep a job for about a month, we will be solid, funding wise.

When I started writing this entry, I intended not to even mention jobs. They are depressing. Aparently I'm not very good at listening to myself! Now that I think about it though... that's all I've got going on! We haven't really done much worth taking pictures of, but here's a couple nice ones of just us, out and around the city:

And there. I really hope I can start being more interesting again soon. Happy December, then! I can't believe it's December. We left home in October! It seems rather unreal. I shall be on again soon, I intend to give you an idea of how Christmas happens down here, because from what I've gathered, it's a lot different. Peace!

~Steph

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Bleh...

2007-11-29T01:56:01Z

Ah yes... here we are again. Still jobless, and still wondering what the Aussie employers have against me... But never fear! We've resigned ourselves to signing up with a recruitment agency or seven... and then hopefully something will show up. Till then we're still just plugging away at day to day life.

The other night we got adventurous and made quesadillas for dinner. We put in beef and caramalized onions and cheese and barbeque sauce and grilled them in garlic butter... yummy!It was pretty fun, although almost nobody had ever heard of a quesadilla before! We had to explain to everyone what they were... it was really funny!

We've settled in to our rooms quite nicely. My bed squeaks, and probably irritates the whole room, but oh well!! Here's a lovely shot of me among my cultivated mess:

The other day we went around the city, for something to do. All the decorations are going up, plus there's Christmas carols, etc, etc... It's hard to wrap our heads around! I cannot remember a Christmas that wasn't cold (actually, I live in Calgary... that's a lie... but at least it was cold *around* Christmas)... but for your amusement I have taken a photo of a Christmas wreath avec surrounding palm trees. Hah!

And that's that, folks! As I mentioned... we're signing with agencies today, so if I don't have work by the time I pop in here again... I may have slumped into a depression. Cheers!!!!

~Steph

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Alright Already...

2007-11-25T02:45:36Z

Ah yes... The resumes are all handed out, to essentially every single retail shop I could find, and now we wait. And wait and wait and wait... What a drag! I was really hoping the job thing would go down easily, and if I don't get at least one phone call by the middle of this week I'll actually start worrying. Quite honestly, I don't have a whole lot to report at the moment. We're stationary at the moment, and until I get a job call, there is nothing to say!

I'm thinking of all of you, and just figured I'd check in and say all is well... we're alive and doing fine! The weather is gorgeous, Christmas decorations are everywhere (which is rather odd, considering how used to snow I am), and we're settling into our hostel nicely. Six of the eight people in our dorm room are staying long term like us, so we're starting to get pretty close. It's an interesting lifestyle! I will admit to being very tired of living out of a backpack... and I miss my private bedroom, and real mattress!!!

But enough complaints! We're having the time of our lives, and it's hard to imagine how fast it's gone already! Our last two months are going to fly by too... Travelling seems to make time fly like nothing else I've ever done. It's a very interesting experience and I'm learning a lot. I've met so many people that I never would have met back home, people from all over the globe! It's fascinating, swapping stories. On that note though, we met two boys from Calgary the other night! I couldn't believe it. We had a very thourough and energized discussion about hockey, much to everyone else's amusement. It was lovely... Nobody on this side of the globe knows anything about hockey, and I was starting to slump into deprival... Talking with a pair of Calgarians was just what we needed!

I'm afraid I don't have any interesting photos to put up. I'll take some scenery shots later this week to show you, but we haven't been up to much that's photo wothy! I'll check in again soon, *hopefully* with the news that I've secured a job! See you!!

~Steph

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The Job Hunt Continues!

2007-11-21T02:04:53Z

Hello again! I'm back with more updates and photos! First of all, I'll give you a run down on our plan. We've talked to the hostel, and we're guarunteed a room over Christmas/New Years if we pay soon. We're doing that without a shadow of a doubt... we've been hearing horror stories of the difficulties in getting a room during the holidays. Since we're staying in Brisbane over the holidays, we've decided to just spend an entire two months here, instead of the one we initially planned on. This means, when we get to Melbourne, we won't need to look for work there too. All in all, we think it's rather logical.

Now... we've been out almost every day, talking to people about work. I'm fairly certain we've got jobs soon... we went to an interview downtown yesterday, which was a mild disaster. We had met some people at the mall, and we were just kind of chatting and they told us they could call up their boss and get us an interview.

Cool enough... We went through everything, but it was a really crappy, comission based sales job. You know the kind... where people stand on the street and badger you to come over and "talk for a while"? Plus, they wouldn't even tell us directly what we were expected to sell. The most we got out of them was, "oh... it's just sales." The final straw was we would have to buy essentially a brand new wardrobe of professional looking clothes, which unfortunately doesn't fit into the backpacker budget.

So instead we wandered around the city! Here's a few pictures of Brizzie:

Then, to console ourselves, we went to the bar with friends. Always a fun plan! It was Trivia Night, so that was really fun. We did rather well, because we had two Canadians, two Irish guys, and a Brit in our group. Pretty much covered the geography trivia ^0^! After everyone was thouroughly happy, the boys decided to build a tower out of empty jugs. They collected several from our table, and once people figured out what was going on, the whole bar started donating jugs to the cause:

I must say, they we very pleased with themselves once they had finished. I think it was like... 30 jugs high, from floor to ceiling, and it did stand by itself. A few more jugs were consumed, in celebration, and then it fell over. Ah well... there are always fun times to be had at the Backpackers Bar!

That's all for now! I'll make sure to keep you posted on the progress of my job hunting...OH! And Happy Birthday Mummy!!! Love you! I'll phone you on your birthday for sure...

~Steph

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Brisbane, Take Two!

2007-11-16T00:53:20Z

Hello again! Yesterday was a fun filled and adventurous experience in travelling, and by this I mean boring and monotonous and full of waiting. We checked out of our hostel in Cairns, and had to wait around until about noon, when we caught a cab to the airport.

From there it was a relatively smooth process checking in, domestic flights are hella easier than international. Then... our flight was delayed, *sigh*. We hung around until it was time to take off, and then boarded the plane. Where we sat. Once in Brisbane, we caught a shuttle bus (after waiting for it) and were finally dropped off at our hostel. Yay!!

The point of that lovely story, is that we're in Brisbane again. Cool. We're right in the middle of a TON of little bistros and shops and etc etc... I can't see us having any trouble finding work!

I mentioned in my last post that we were planning a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We did it, and it was an awesome time! At first, we were mildly unimpressed because there was somewhat of a torrential downpour. Icky weather.

After we cleared that, everything started looking up. The weather was great, and we spent the rest of the 2.5 hour sailing trip on the suny, windy deck.

We arrived at this fantastic sandy beach in the middle of the reef, and went snorkelling. It was SO cool. The fish and coral and everything were super colourful and it was great. We even managed to get a priate snorkel tour from one of the crew! It was a super great day, and I'm so happy we did it!

And that's that! Today I expect to be searching for a phone and a bank... maybe a job if we're up to it ^0^! I shall keep you posted on my progress here, and will likely be posting again soon. Bye!

~Steph

Brisbane, Take Two! remains copyright of the author dogdudette, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wrapping it up...

2007-11-12T03:23:22Z

Well! I'm checking in from Cairns, which is the last city we visit on this leg of our trip. I can't believe it! In a couple of days I will have been away for an entire month. It sure doesn't feel like it! Perhaps it's because we've been constantly on the move, but this could have been a couple of weeks, in our eyes. I've been having a blast... so I'm very interested to see how the rest of the trip pans out!

On the 15th of November we fly out of here back to Brisbane, where we started from. I imagine that landing there for a second time is going to be marginally less terrifying than when we first did it! First order of business then will be job hunting! And finding a cell phone... and a bank account... *sigh*... There's always stuff to do!

Today we're hoping to book a snorkelling trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. If there's one thing I've got to do while I'm here, it the reef. Ideally we'll get to do that tomorrow... how cool! Unfortunately, I can't seem to get photos uploaded on this computer, I'm sorry! You'll have to wait again... but I promise a bunch more as soon as I can.

Not much more to update... I probably won't check in again until Brisbane. See you later!!

~Steph

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Mission Beach

2007-11-08T01:29:11Z

Hey guys! I'm finally at a real computer again, so I uploaded a bunch of pictures. They're all from Magnetic Island, so that probably would have made a better title, but oh well. Right now we are in Mission Beach, which is a lovely little place. Our hostel is right on the beach, but they don't reccomend going in the water because of the jellyfish. Nuts ^0^... poolside hammoks again, I guess!

Right... So here's a couple shots of the lorikeets I mentioned earlier:

Next is the view from the beach we were right beside:

And me in a hammok! :

Now these ones are all from the wildlife tour we took, where we visited with LOADS of fun animals:

And there you go! I told you I'd come through with a bunch of photos ^-^. Not much else to report really... we're here on Mission Beach for four nights and then we head north one more time to Cairns. That's probably where I'll check in from again... later!!

~Steph

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Visiting the Koalas!

2007-11-06T08:31:40Z

Hello again! Today's our last night on Magnetic Island, so I super-duper promise to have a bunch of photos posted either tomorrow or the very next day. I'm sorry for the boring-ness of late. Anyway, tomorrow we catch a 9:45 am ferry off the island, and then a Greyhound up to Mission Beach. I've heard that it's nice up there, so I'll keep you posted ^-^.

Today was a lovely break from the overwhelming heat. It was slightly cloudy, and only 25C! Yay! We hit up the pool for a couple of hours, and then got changed again, because we were going on a nature-tour and bush walk. It's really cool, there's a wildlife sanctuary right attached to the hostel, and since we are guests here we got a discounted ticket, hooray!

It was a really cute little park, and we got to touch all the animals. I held a baby crocodile, a skink, a cockatoo, a huge python, and of course, a koala! There were massive fruit bats, too, and I hung out with the flock of lorikeets again. Realy super fun. We had to pay in order to be able to hold a koala, which happens everywhere in Australia. It's something about conservation and whatnot. We paid, and it included a really nice photo (I'll be mailing that out tomorrow, along with my disc of digital photos... I know I promised them sooner but I couldn't find a post office on the island!) So anyone who lives close enough to my mommy and daddy should stalk the house, if you want to see my first full memory stick of pictures... I'm pretty sure dad'll be willing to show them off for me, right??

Ah yes... what else... Yesterday was Monday Movie Night, so a bunch of people headed down to the bar where they set up a big screen and we watched a movie outside, under the stars and crickets. After we just kind of hung around outside because we didn't want to go to the dorm yet, and I was almost brutally assaulted by a falling mango. Those buggers are vicious...

And that's all folks! I'll do my best to get on a computer tomorrow, and my post will be essentially all photos. Talk to you soon!

~Steph

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