Fitzroy Island

I am such a slacker when it comes to blogging. I travelled down the coast down to Sydney. I had a great time along the way. We stopped at Fraser Island, the Whitsundays, Surfer's Paradise, Byron Bay.. and many more.

The pictures I posted up are of Fitzroy Island. It was where we had a massive party that was too much fun to explain. It was pirate themed. Hence the costumes.

I am sad to be coming home so soon. But I have completly enjoyed my time while I was here. I will update in person I am sure.

Miss you guys and love ya!

4/12/09 Scuba Liz

Carol and I just got done with our SSI Dive Course. It. Was. Amazing. We had a great instructor. Her name is Mel. She was super laid back and all that fun Australian stuff. Carol and I went in on Sunday and started our two day class. We had to learn how to breath under water. Which I found out it is a lot harder that just "put the regulator in your mouth and breath". It's more of a mind thing. After a minute under (just in the shallow part of the pool) water then your brain kinda panics and you try to surface for air. Luckily, Carol and I got over that after about 10 minutes. We we taught all of the things you need to know. Like not to surface too fast, how to change your mask under water, how to retrieve the regulator, how to save a buddy, we even took off our gear. We lucked out by having a small group. It was just a German girl, Carol and I. So we got all the one on one attention and didn't have to fight for space in the pool. It was very nice.

Enough about that... Diving the Great Barrier Reef.

Carol and I went on a day boat called the Sunkist to get to the boat we were staying overnight on. The weather was amazing. It was calm and sunny. We sun bathed on the front of the boat for a bit. It's really a tough life that I live. Haha. Mel was showing us different things like the water currents which we were quick to say "The EAC!" (East Australian Current). She said a lot of people who watch Finding Nemo know a lot more about stuff like that. Thanks, Pixar!

The water was gorgeous. It was a clear blue to where you can see the fish from the boat. We saw lots of flying fish above the surface too. We saw a white tip reef shark about two meters long.

We went on a night dive too. That was very cool. It was scary at first to hop into pitch black water. But after we descended it was okay. Limited visibility makes me less scared. Cause if there was a shark about to eat us, I wouldn't see it until it was too late. I find comfort in that in some weird way. Denial is good. We saw an epileptic shark (something like that) that either tenses up or thrashes around if you grab hold of it. I didn't try. We saw baby cuttlefish and parrot fish sleeping in caves.

It was all very fun. I felt like Ariel. Carol and I did our certified dive and got it recorded. Everyone will have to watch it. It was a lot of fun. Everyone should at least snorkel the Great Barrier. I am so proud to have done one of my bucketlist items. Diving the Great Barrier Reef was the one thing I have always wanted to do before I die. Whoo hoo. Check that off my list.

But it was very great. I plan on diving all the time now.

Carol and I are just on our way of traveling down to Sydney. We are in Mission Beach at the moment. I will try to update more.

Take care!

25/11/09 Before I left Mogowra Station

So I am nearly finished with my 8 week stint at a station. I am not supposed to be on the Internet for my own pleasure... but the kids can be quite rude so I feel like it justifies it.I turned out to be in Normanton rather than Kurumba. I am on a million acre station. We muster weaners. (baby cows weaning off of theirmothers). I just teach the kids. I help out on the weekends with the cattle.Other then the kids themselves, I have grown to like it out here.Don’t get me wrong, I plan on having a mob (Aussie slang) of fun when I get back to towns and cities. But in the 8 weeks here I have gone from missing and wanting to be back home to enjoying the fact that I am growing as a person. Things I do at this station amaze the workers as well as myself. When I get bored and my co-workers are not back yet I go out to the horses and pet them. I don’t know if you recall American Liz being terrified of just being near horses. I have even helped out with moving chucks of a bull to use as bait. The workers kept telling me “Just think about it like you are cooking steak” which I replied “I don’t cook steak!!” So that was very strange for me to just cart around bull meat into a big bucket. Gross. I have found out that I’m one of those people who can suck it up and do the job that needs to be done. A lot of stuff that involves getting dirty and sweaty I do now. Not often... but enough.
So on November 2nd there is a Melbourne Cup Day which I think would be like the Kentucky Derby type thing were we all took the day off work just to drink and celebrate. We got to go to Kurumba and so I have now seen the Gulf of Carpentaria. I guess the girls get all dolled up and some of the men wear their nice clothes.. I had to borrow a co-worker’s dress because mine got bleach on it... but I guess I dolled up so nicely that I was nominated in the Best Dressed competition. I don’t think my outfit was rockin... but I guess I looked nice enough to earn a free bottle of wine! So that was a lot offun. We started drinking at ooooooh.. 10 am-ish. Australians really know how to drink. So do the Irish, which a lot of them are over here working. So I am constantly the lightweight of the drinkers. Everyone laughs at me cause I turn beet red. I guess some things about me are funny in every country. Haha.Today I was excited to drink my instant Starbucks coffee that the Van Tassels were nice enough to send me. It even started raining so I was super happy. It was a nice cool rain but in warm weather. It was like two of my worlds coming together. I am pretty happy at this moment. I realized too, that as I get older, I enjoy my life more. There are some young people here and I am so glad to be closer to 25 than be 16or 20 again. So that is fun to figure out too. I have become that nagging older woman who is like “when you get older you will realize that what you think is smart now, may not be the case as you get to my age!”Even though these kids drive me a bit batty I realized I have a good impact on them. The little boy told me I am the best “city teacher” he has ever had. He has also shown a bit more manners. A bit.
Can’t wait to meet up with Carol and get certified to dive! Miss you guys! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Eat some extra food for me!

29/09/09 leaving Cairns for Kurumba

So I have finally caught up with my blogs. I feel like I have been on the computer all day!

I love Cairns so much! It reminds me a bit like Hawaii (minus laying out at the beach..cause of the crocs). There is so much more to do and see here than Alice Springs.

Cairns is by far a party place. (today I am blogging and doing laundry). I don't party as hard as all the other backpackers.. but it is still lots of fun. I have had the same room and room mates since I got here. It turns out there are a lot of Irish over here. I am lucky enough that they like me and invite me to hang out with them. I have gone to BBQs and to a place called Josephine Falls. The falls was so much fun!
I have made a lot of friends on my journey. I am still loving it in Australia!

Tomorrow morning I am headed off to Kurumba it's near Normanton. So if you look at the map of Oz I will be right near the Gulf of Carpentaria. It's on the right side where the water dips in (the gulf).
I asked if there was cell phone service. Yes! And I will be a governess (sounds intense) to two young kids. I think they are 7 and either 4 or 5 years old. A governess is just a more proper word for tutor.

That's just for the next 8 weeks. On a farm. I asked, I will not need to do any farm work unless I want. I will get paid extra for that also. I get weekends off. It sounds pretty sweet.

And I get my own room!! How I miss that! So I hope everything will go well.

Then in the beginning of December Carol and I will be heading down the East Coast to Sydney! We booked our rooms and everything! Whoo Hoo!

Visiting Carol on her farm 16-20/09/09

So after the fun adventures I decided to see how Carol lived on her farm. The kids were super sweet. There was a set of twins (James and Kate, 12) and the youngest (Troy, 10) that she looked after. While I had a lot of fun.. I realized again how bad I am at farm work.

One day we had to draft cattle. Which is where you separate the cows into different groups. There was one crazy white cow that jumped the fence. Which was real funny to see... until the dad ran and grabbed his shot gun. And shot it. Twice. But I guess that taught the other cows a lesson! That was a nice "welcome back to the farm!".
The second day Carol and I got to clean out a truck full of cow poop. Luckily Troy helped us out. Did I mention I don't get paid for hanging out at the farm? I get free meals and a room.. and don't get me wrong.. I am all about helping out with the chores. But in my head I was thinking of doing dishes, or help with the laundry. Not cleaning a truck full of poop. Haha. Apparently Carol and I were cleaning it too well. Which the kids told us later "well, you don't have to make it spotless! It's just gonna get pooped on again in a few days!". Which made so much sense.

It was a lot of fun (besides death and poo). I got into my first ever passion fruit fight. It's like a food fight. But only with passion fruit.

Carol and I went for jogs in the evenings which was an adventure in itself! Hearing laughing kookaburras and seeing kangaroos and wallibies hop away is very interesting.

We even went swimming in a waterhole! It was kind of a lagoon.. But I don't fully know what counts as a lagoon to be sure. We asked the kids if we should be worried about crocs and they said no.. so we kept swimming until we were exhausted.

I gave Kate a couple of items of clothing that I don't wear or it is getting too hot for. I guess she has been wearing them almost everyday. Hahaha.

Oh kids!

Hartley's Croc Farm (with Carol) 15/09/09

I flew into Cairns and Carol met up with me the following morning. It was the first time in over a month since I saw her. We decided to walk around downtown the first two days and then go to the Croc Farm the day before we left (back to Carol's farm).

Hartley's Croc Farm was pretty fun! At first Carol and I saw Koalas and Kookaburras and we thought they were stuffed. The Koalas were sleeping in trees and the Kookaburras were standing on the ground. There was no real in closure besides a fence. So Carol and I decided to snap photos anyways. That's when one of the birds turned it's head and blinked. I was excited!

We walked on to look at the crocs, which once again I couldn't tell if they were real or fake. They were real. Really big!! And some were green! But like pond scum green. I think there was over 100 of them at this farm.

There is a boat ride out to see the crocs jump up and eat. The boat ride reminded me of the Safari Jungle Boat like at Disneyland. Except this ride you really did have to make sure your hands and arms were inside the boat at all times. The boat guide took chicken bits and hung them from an big long stick and showed us the way they ate. It was intense to hear all the chomping and snapping of their jaws. While on that ride I found out that female crocs have this strange 3 month period where right before the eggs hatch they get crazy and over protective of the nest. I heard that one female croc attacked a helicopter that landed too close to her nest. And within those 3 months she takes care of her young.. but after a certain point if her babies are still hanging around... she'll eat them.

We got to touch a baby croc (about a year old) named Bruce. He was pretty cute. Cause his mouth was taped close by good ole scotch tape. We also got to pet the koalas. Still have yet to hold one.. But I will!

We got to feed cassowaries, which really show how birds evolved from dinosaurs. They are just crazy looking! They have long blue necks with a red.. gobble.. and this weird giant fingernail growing from there heads.

We saw a guy do one of those crazy "get in a cage and make the croc do tricks" guy. It was really neat. He got really close to the croc too. His name was Bart (the croc). So he didn't sound too scary until he started doing the ever famous "death roll".

It was a very exciting and very Aussie trip! And it was fun to geek out with a friend! Who else would let me climb on top of a fake prehistoric croc to act like I was surfing?!?

Uluru 10/09/09-11/09/09

So Uluru. THE Rock.

I got to see it twice! Whoo hoo! Well, two days in a row. It was massive!!!

I loved it. I was hoping to climb up it.. but sadly it was too windy. Which we thought was a ploy. But one point on the ground I was swayed by the strong winds.

There is so much more to the rock then what is seen from post cards. We went there the first day just to talk about it and see cave paintings. Also to get sunset photos of the rock. I had a couple of beers and decided to "rest" against it. I am so clever! Haha. We got to see how steep the climb up is too. That's why I am pointing in fear at it. But if I ever get a chance to go back I will climb up that rock, darn it! The photo of the sunrise was really pretty. But as you continue to walk around the base of Uluru you realize you are just facing the sun coming up. So what starts out as "magical" just makes you squint and get sweaty. But when I finally got around to other parts and views of the rock it was pretty sweet. It took about an hour and a half to walk all the way around it.

All in all I was disappointed that I couldn't test myself by climbing up it. But it was such a beautiful sight that I couldn't be too sad. You could still see the moon as you walked so I felt like I was on another planet. The planet of the apes, actually.

It was a great tour and I suggest it to any one who would want to go. There are ritzier ones where you stay in a hotel and whatnot.. but roughing it sounds so much more fun to me!