June 4-6

June 4-6
Location: Jackson House- Hunter Valley NSW
We left Dubbo at around 8:30 am to make our way to the Hunter Valley. We saw a lot of dead animals (mostly kangaroos and foxes) on the road on the way and hardly any live animals which was disappointing. We went for tea to one of my host moms house, Felicity and then made our way to the Jacksons house were we are staying for a few days. After arriving at the Jacksons we went to our second rotary meeting in as many days in Cessnock, which was not the club that hosted me but I went to lots of their meetings because my host mom was a member there. The dinner at the Cessnock club has now set the standard for all rotary meals because we had lobster which was terrific!
The next day we did a trip to nearby Newcastle to have a look at the beach that I went to all the time when I lived here. We saw lots of dolphins and a playful seal, all having fun in the water. Later that night we went out to a local art show and then out for a fancy dinner.
Saturday we fulfilled another of my must-do items on my list by doing a Hunter Valley wine tour. Steve and Janette (my host parents) drove around to 5 of the better wineries in the area where I really liked both the champagnes and dessert wines (also known as butterfly pee). For dinner we made garlic prawns (at my request) as they are a favourite!
Favorite Moment:
Janette- Having sunshine today
Steve-Waking up and realizing that he’s still alive
Madison- Winery tour a nature walk lead by Sara
Sara- Winery tour and seeing the dolphins.

June 1-3

June 1-3
Location: Dubbo New South Whales
On June 1st Madison and I got the bus to Surfers which took about two hours and then got our rental car. We spent the next 12 hours driving to Dubbo. I drove the entire way while Madison played DJ, snack provider and most importantly, navigator. We stopped only 3 times, for lunch, and twice for petrol, we skipped dinner even!
Our first full day in Dubbo we went to the zoo with Michael, my host brother (who had been in Hungary when I was living with his family). We saw more types of animals than we had seen at the Australia Zoo and because it’s an open plains zoo (which means that the enclosures are huge and are quite natural environments) we could drive through the zoo instead of walking the entire thing.
That night we went for dinner at a pub with my whole host family, mom Jenny, Dad Peter, sister Louise and brother Michael.
The next day I went to school for a few hours with Louise who is a teacher and I answered questions about Canada for 2 of her classes. Some students had some pretty silly questions such as “Do you have Saturdays and Sundays in Canada?”
That night the four of us (Madison, Michael, Louise and I) went to the Rotary meeting for the club that sponsored us to all go on exchange, Louise went to Poland, Michael to Hungary and then me there. I was informed that I was to give a speech as we walked in which made me a little bit nervous but they all seemed very keen to hear what I have been up to since I left Australia 5 years ago.
Favorite Moments:
Sara- The zoo and seeing my host family and rotary people again.
Madison- Showering without flip flops on and the zoo.

May 28-June 1st
Location: Byron Bay
Entry by Madison
I was not sure how Byron Bay would be at first because as soon as we got off the bus our hostel picked us up and the girl didn’t say one word to us and drove crazy and yelled at other cars. Luckily she wasn’t a good indication of how our time was. We spent a lot of time suntanning and Sara did some swimming in the ocean and body boarding. There were lots of shops to walk around and one night we went to listen to some local music at a place called Train and then to The Beach hotel (which used to be owned by Crocodile Dundee!).
Our last day it poured rain all day so that really cut into our suntanning time, we are hoping for suntans in Thailand!. The hostel was nice and our room was a big 4 bed dorm so we weren’t bugged at all. My bug bites were still in full force by I’m fairly positive it wasn’t bed bugs. I’d wake up in the night every once in a while and have a bug bit scratch-a-thon which wasn’t enjoyable. We were up early on June 1st and took the greyhound at 7:30 am back to Surfers, it rained our whole walk to the bus station but only took 10 minutes so we survived.
Favorite Moments:
Madison: Laying on the beach tanning
Sara-All the good shopping and finding books at the book exchange shop.

May 27

May 27
Location: Surfers Paradise
Today was a great day as I got to connect with one of my Dubbo friends Kiera. Kiera picked me up in Surfers and drove me around to all of her favourite spots over about 6 hours. I saw the neighbourhood that she used to live in and also the one that she lives in now as well as some of the places she has worked. She caught me up on all of the gossip about our school mates in Dubbo. Kiera, her mom and brother moved to the Gold Coast after Kiera was accepted into aestheticians’ college, then she went back to school after that and is qualified to work for a plastic surgeon.
When I got back after my tour with Kiera, Steve and Jay were preparing to leave on their plane back to Brisbane and that was a bit of a sad goodbye because they had been so much fun!

May 26

May 26
Location: Surfers Paradise
What a day! Jay and Steve, our Australian roommates ended up being able to convince Madison to go out last night which was fantastic because I hadn’t been able to convince her to do it yet. There was a Scottish guy, Lee, and between the three of them us two girls were significantly outdanced! They all had some fantastic dance moves! Today the boys had several more items to accomplish on their lists so we joined them for most of those. These things included Jay getting his nipple pierced, Steve finishing a McDonalds Combo meal in under three minutes and completing a centurian (100 shots of beer in under 100 minutes) which Madison and I also took part in but were unsuccessful in completing. Later that night the boys decided that we couldn’t go to bed until we had experienced an Australian favourite—which is fairy bread. Fairy bread is white bread with butter on it with colored sprinkles put on top.
Favorite moment:
Madison- Hanging out with Steve and JaySara- Listening to Jay yell during the nipple piercing

May 24/25

May 24/25
Location: Surfers Paradise- Queensland
Yesterday we made the 3 hr trip from Mooloolaba to Surfers Paradise. We are a little bit concerned about getting any further south because of the floods that are washing out the roads. I was very sceptical of our hostel when we were picked up in a very old, tacky limo and then showed to our room where our beds seemed to be in the lounge and there was a condom on the table. Turns out its an apartment style hostel so we have a kitchen and bathroom that we share with 6 other backpackers in our apartment. Last night there were 4 Swiss people in the bedroom that were very loud and an American guy and tonight the Swiss people are still here but two Australian guys came who are really funny. They are filming a mockumentary where they are doing crazy things that are on their bucket lists (things to do before they kick the bucket)
Favorite Moments:
Madison: Sara getting mad at the man trying to sell us pubcrawl tickets
Sara: Talking to Andrea on skype!

May 23- Australia Zoo

May 23
Location: Mooloolaba/ Australia Zoo
Entry by Madison
Today was zoo day! I was up bright and early like usual and our hostel had a free breakfast, so we ate and then headed to the bus to go to the zoo! It was pouring rain but Sara wanted to keep a positive attitude and plus she ended up with a really cool poncho from the gift shop because of the rain. As soon as we walked in we got to feed elephants and were the zoo workers favourites because of our enthusiasm, it was a tough crowd! Next we went to the crocoseum and they put on quite the show. Sara won a poster for her amazing monkey impression (in reality she sounded like a seal/howling dog). After lunch we went and hung out with the kangaroos which was really cool and Sara got some quality bonding time with one. We went and watched the tigers play with their trainer in the water which was really cool to see. There were tons of crocodiles and koalas and it was really great to see what an amazing person Steve Irwin was and how much his family has done. It was a really good day and we saw some really cool animals. Just another couple of animals to add to the list of animals we’ve seen and touched!
Favorite Moment:
Madison- Petting the kangaroos and finally seeing a Cossawary
Sara- Petting the kangaroo

May 21/22

May 21/22
Location: Mooloolaba (pronounced Ma-loo-laba)
Entry by Madison
May 21st was our last day in Airlie Beach and I’d say that 6 days was definitely enough time and was glad to be moving on. We checked out of our hostel and got in a bit more sun tanning. The rest of our day was spent reading and relaxing at the hostel until it was time to head to the bus.
So it turns out a 16 hr bus ride isn’t very fun, let me tell you!
I managed to put my body in a number of interesting sleeping positions, all of which were not comfortable. To be fair it went pretty quickly and I could think of worse ways to travel but I’m still glad to have that ride over with. The bus dropped us off in Maroochydore (pronounced Ma-roo-chee-door) and then our hostel picked us up and took us to Mooloolaba. The waves here are crazy! There are tons of surfers and all of them are nuts because I’ve never seen such huge waves. Apparently its because its been raining a lot and there were even flood warnings the past few days! We walked around a bit and bought some groceries but nothing exciting. It’ll be early to bed because of our lack of sleep on the bus and then it’s zoo day tomorrow!
Favourite moment:
Madison- Getting off the bus and being so close to the zoo
Sara- Seeing the huge waves.

May 20

May 20
Location: Airlie Beach- Backpackers by the Bay
Today was rather relaxing and slow as we didn’t have too many plans besides the beach! When I woke up I was surprised to hear that there had been a fire alarm during the night and panic in the halls that I had completely slept through!
I talked to my parents for a while and then spent a bit of the morning on the internet before we hit up a book exchange shop where we stocked up, we have both read several books each on our travels! We returned to the hostel just before there was a huge down pour of rain luckily!
We both had to pack our bags up as we leave tomorrow for the Australia Zoo hostel.
I took part in the trivia contest at the hostel where our team won (hooray) and we won a bottle of champagne. Our hostel also shows movies in the evening so I watched that before bed.
Favourite moments of the day-
Madison- Talked to Colby (her boyfriend) and getting sunburnt (again).
Sara- Winning the trivia contest.

May 19th-
Location: Whitsundays to Airlie Beach- Backpackers by the bay
When I woke up I had NO desire to do my last dive on the trip so I ended up just relaxing on the deck of our boat for the morning while others dived and snorkeled. This is a picture of part of the boat from the deck!

After landing back at Airlie beach I quickly met up with Madison and we went to the beach and did soms shopping, I got some beads to make a bracelet when I get home, lots of freshwater pearls!
In the evening I joined back up with my boat group for one last goodbye at a restraunt where we had a few drinks and visited!

May 18, 2009
Location: Whitsunday Island, Wings 3
I woke up after a very sleepless night at 7 am to a ready made breakfast and was quickly chucked into the water for my second scuba dive. We were promised that this dive would be better than the last and we would see the Devil's gates which are underwater plants that look like gates and as the current moves them they look like they are opening and closing. For whatever reason our guide didn't take us there which was rather disappointing but we did see some very cool fish and coral!
The next dive was back at the same location as our first one had been so I opted to snorkel instead and I was so glad that I did! I saw several more clown fish and more exciting was a 3 meter long eel! I thought that there might be something interesting going on when I saw several very large fish all go to one area, apparently these fish act as body guards for the nearly blind eels. As soon as I saw the eel I started screaming through my snorkel and all the other snorkelers from my group also came to watch the eel move from hiding spot to hiding spot. It is very surprising to see how much the underwater life works together to keep safe from predators, I've never seen animals helping each other like this!
At both sites there were very large fish that came right to the back of our boat and were quite curious to see what were were doing. Apparently these fish are very territorial and there is always a dominant male and female in each area. When the dominant male dies, the dominant female then changes sexes and becomes the dominant male of the area. In this bay that we were in there were 3 dominant male fish, George, Georgina and Georgette all duking it out for dominance.
After lunch we spent time on Whitehaven beach which is said to be the whitest beach in the world. This is possibly the most beautiful place in the world!

Swirly waters

I was a little excited.

Sunset after getting back onto the boat.

After dinner I did a night dive which I was really scared for. The instructor and other divers were teasing me quite a bit about sharks but thankfully none showed up. I didn't find night diving all that different than day time diving and I found the scariest part of it all was driving in the dingy to and from our dive site in the pitch black!

The 4 divers took over the on board hot tub when we got back and by the time we had all warmed up it was time for bed! I slept soo well after not sleeping that well the night before.

Favorite moment:

Overcoming my fear of night diving and seeing the underwater night life!

The pirate ship that was anchored across the bay from us, just beautiful!

May 17

Location: Airlie Beach/ Whitsunday Islands

I was all ready to leave on my sailing trip this morning, I showed up at the office of the sailing company for 9:30 and was then told that this was just a check in and I didn't have to get on the boat until 12:30! Sometimes being left with several hours of free time isn't that great!

Madison and I ran into each other at the internet cafe luckily and spent the rest of the morning on the beach.

When I finally got onto the boat I was surprised by how nice and friendly everybody was. I was one of 25 passengers on a boat called Wings 3, a brand new boat that has only been in the water for 3 weeks!

That first day I was easily convinced to go scuba diving at a place called Luncheon Bay where I saw lots of clown fish (Nemo's) and other really cool fish and corals! In the evening the crew had put together a slide show of all the pictures they had taken that day as well as they gave us a history of the islands and we saw the top 50 underwater photographs that they've taken in the last 2 years. Later in the evening there were a few friendly dolphins that came to the back of our boat as our lights attracted the feeder fish.

The bunks in the room I slept in on the boat

The tiny tiny bathroom. This picture was taken purely to show you all how small it is.

Our trusty Greyhound bus!


May 15, 2009
Location: Magnetic Island to Airlie Beach

Today we woke up with a great surprise because we hadn't heard our possum friend at all in the night! We figure its because we put away all of the food and put it into our little fridge so he couldn't smell it.
Madison is still nursing her sunburn and she looks like a spy because she's wearing a black long sleeve shirt and long black pants.
We got the bus from Magnetic Island to Airlie beach which was 5 hrs, pretty unexciting, we didn't see any kangaroos but I kept Madison entertained by trying to sleep on the bus and almost falling out of my seat a few times!
When we arrived in Airlie Beach there was a beautiful sunset that lit the entire sky with oranges and reds. It was really interesting to walk though Airlie Beach and see all of the places I remembered from the last time I was here!
Favorite moments:
Madison- seeing the sunset from the bus
Sara- Playing name that tune with our iPods!

Madison and I on the ferry from Magnetic Island

Picture: Sara holding Dexter, the koala

an echidna

Sara kissing a black cockatoo

picture: The birds that attacked Sara

The rest of the day was spent laying in hammocks and nursing my sunburn. Last night we were visited by our annoying possum friend again and this time he was pretty much trying to break through the door and was climbing all over the roof. We're hoping he might give us break tonight though. It doesn't help that people feed them.

Later in the evening I was summond by Sara to come outside and when I did she was covered in scratches and bleeding because she had been attacked by a huge group of birds. I wish I would have seen it cause it sounded hilarious!

Favorite moments of the day:

Sara- Holding the crocodile and koala

Madison- Have a less sore throat then yesterday and holding all the animals!

May 12-20

May 12/13
Location: Magnetic Island
After getting completely soaked for the last week in Cairn's we finally made our first advance down the coast to Magnetic Island. We were rather concerned by the overcast skies when we were arriving but after a very loud night ( more about our night beast guest later) we quickly took advantage of the blue skies and parked ourselves on the beach. I obviously did a far better job of applying my sunscreen than Madison did as I am still as white as ever and she is a ravishing shade of tomato red.

Magnetic Island is about a 20 minute ferry ride from the city of Townsville which is the most northern part of Australia that I had reached on my last trip. We spent most of the day witnessing Madison's ripening skin and devouring books in the hammocks by the pool, we also caught a beautiful sunset down at the beach. We have both decided that LIFE IS GOOD!

Favorite moments of the day:

Madison- Coming out of the dungeon like internet room this morning and seeing sunshine!

Sara- Spending time on the beach for the first time this trip and hammocking!

May 14th, 2009

Location: Magnetic Island

Madison's Entry

Today we woke up to more glorious sun!! Which would have excited me more if I didn't have to wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt cause of my ridiculous burn! I never learn! Today we hit the animal jackpot though! We went on the koala bush walk and we got to hold a crocodile, a black cockatoo, a lizard a koala bear and a python! It was so exciting!! There was also a very cute and friendly wallaby who jumped around the whole time and followed us. We also licked the back of these green ants that tasted like lime, it was very interesting.

May 5-8, 2009

Monday, May 5th 2009
Location: Cairns
We got to the hostel late last night and it was so great to see our long time friend again. We were pretty tired but were quickly convinced to go for a drink and have a visit with her. The next morning we decided to head out for breakfast and do a few things around town.
On our walk around town we could hear these really loud squawks and when we looked up, much to our dismay, were thousands of bats in the trees above us.


We had decided that we wanted to do a trip to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest and we got such a good deal plus the man doing the deal threw in two extra nights with the car for free!
We took advantage of this opportunity by going to a place called the Crystal Cascades for a short hike and one of the most spectacular swims. We were feeling quite adventurous and did a lot of rock climbing and even went down a little waterfall like a waterslide.
We discovered that one of the best things about being backpackers in Cairns is that you get offered free meals from restaurants, our first meal was either hot dogs or vegetarian spaghetti, not so great tasting but it filled our bellies!


May 6, 2009
Location: Daintree Rainforest- Cape Tribulation
We started the day off quite early by leaving on our trip north from Cairns. We tried to keep our eyes out for signs that pointed to interesting spots along the way to our hostel. One of those spots was Mossman Gorge where there was a swimming hole. We determined it was both too cold and too populated (by tourists) to truly enjoy a swim there as we felt we really couldn't top our adventure from yesterday.
In Australia they drive on the left hand side of the road and so we nominated Nicole to do our driving since she has done a fair amount of driving here already since she's been in Australia since October. This all worked out until we were getting on to a ferry, I think the man may have had a crooked finger and pointed us to the right side of the boat, Oops!
Staying in the rainforest is simply amazing, at the ground level there is very little sunlight but you can constantly hear birds, insects and animals all the time, falling asleep I felt like I was listening to one of those relaxation CD's!


May 7th, 2009
Location- Cape Trib Beach House Backpackers
Written by Nicole
I woke abruptly at 6:45 to the sound of footsteps, a door open and a lively exclamation by Sara of 3 wild pgs right outside our door. Madison and I leaped from our beds, joining Sara and a few other mid-morning bathroom goers to marvel at these feral beasts. One lady made an interesting comment regarding the bacon and egg breaky and then began to gush over how 'lovely' and 'beautiful' they are.

(One day when I have more time I will try and post of the video of the pigs, just imagine the pigs from Survivor Australia until then!)

After breakfast (non-pork) and a quick shower we embarked on a 9.5 km jungle trek, passing a croc watering hole and making our way through jungle vines and swampy puddles.

An almost-dip in the croc-free upstream pool (consisting of an out-of-water drench by an unanticipated rain cloud) preceeded our return via the rocky beach route. We opted for a swim in the backpackers pool (the jellyfish are still making the beach waters their home), followed by various diversion such as photography, spider spotting and beach stolls. In the evening we shared champagne on the beach and Madison and I (not Sara because she was too scared) went on a full-moon lit night walk which quickly turned into a night drive because we got too scared as well. We saw a possum, cane toad and lizard.

May 8, 209
Location: Cape Tribulation/Cairns
Written by Madison
Today we woke up to our last day in the middle of the rainforest. Cape Trib was a really awesome experience and allowed us to see reef, beach and rainforst, the only place where this is possible in the world. After we finished breakfast we packed up and checked out of the beach house. Our first stop along the drive back was at the board walk that had really cool mangroves where the trees have longs of roots that hold the tree out of the water. After that we took the ferry across and didn't mess up this time, yay for staying on the right side of the boat! Next we hit up one of Sara's must do's in Australia which was a crocodile watch. We went on the Bruce Belcher's tour and he's given over 35,000 tours. On the tour we saw 6! crocodiles!!!! It was soo cool, especially because it seemed like we might not see any when we first started off. We saw two large crocs, Big Al and Scarface and 4 smaller crocs.


Once the croc tour was done Sara decided to take a crack at driving and did a lovely drive for us until we stopped for lunch. We finished our journey at about 6 pm and checked back into our hostel at Cairns which kind of seems like home cause it's familiar. We got back into our upgraded room again which is great because it only has three beds and it's own private livingroom, fridge and bathroom! We spent the rest of the evening talking about whats coming up in the next week or so and did some trip planning.

Preperations!

Well, we are almost all prepared to go, I must say that moving and going on a big trip at the same time causes quite a huge amount of frustration and confusion!
Madison and I will try to update this blog for your reading enjoyment as much as possible, without missing out on whats going on!
Our rough itinerary is that we will be traveling from Cairns to Brisbane from May 4th-June 29 then going to Dubbo to meet up with some of Sara's host families and friends then to Maitland area to do the same. June 12th we depart from Australia and start our adventures with Nicole in Thailand until the 30th. On the 30th we will go to Tokyo until July 5 and then home to Calgary!