Mom and the Sister Down Under!!!

I've finally finished all of my assignments and have time to blog about mom and Sarah's visit... and to say the least, IT WAS AWESOME!!! I was so good to see them both-- I missed them (and the rest of my fam!) so much!

 

They arrived Sunday, a day later than planned due to the weather back home, but it was better late than never! When they got here Marion drove is to pick them up at the train station then we took them to the hotel. After giving them a little bit of a breather, they came over to see where Sturr and I live, met the crew, and we had a nice little barbie. Lilly was the ultimate entertainer, as always :)


On Monday, we took them to see the botanic gardens right by uni, which was actually really nice! I hadn't been there before. We then came back to the house for lunch and then I have them a tour of uni. They were laughing the whole time sarcastically saying "wow, Joy, this much be rough" because the campus is really beautiful-- I guess I take that for granted sometimes. After the tour, I showed them to the library because mom had to get some things done and I actually had to go to class. Afterwards, the four of us caught up for some yummy Thai food then mom and Sarah were ready to hit the hay.

 Tuesday, we rode the train to Sydney in the morning then walked to Darling Harbor where we went to the Wildlife Center. We just had to go there so mom and Sarah could see all of the Aussie animals :) After that we took the ferry around to Circular Quay where the Opera House is. The ferry ride was gorgeous. It was nice to sit there and soak in the sights. When we got off the ferry, we grabbed some lunch and then walked around the Opera House for a bit. By then we had TONS of walking and were ready to head back for a nap before going out to dinner with Lindsey, her mom, and her mom's friend. We went to this restaurant right in Wollongong where I had the best steak I have ever tasted. Unfortunately though, I had a fever brewing all through dinner (go figure) and had the chills the whole time. Booo!! I decided to just stay at the hotel with my mom and sis instead of going back home... Maybe I got sick because moms and sisters are the best at taking care of you when you are sick and I just wanted to take full advantage of them being there ;)

 
Wednesday was a relax on the beach day. I got up with mom and Sarah but right when we were about to head out the door I started feeling bad again so I sent them off to the beach and lighthouse while I went back to sleep. I was finally feeling better in the afternoon so after they came back for lunch, we went back to the beach to relax. The weather was perfect while they were here :)

Thursday, Sturr and I had to go to class in the morning. Afterwards, we met up with mom and Sarah at the train station. We took them to Kiama, a town Marion and Andrew had taken us to before, and we saw the blowhole. Once again it was a beautiful day and the coast there was gorgeous. 

Friday was our last day together :( They came over to the house for lunch and we hung out until we had to leave for our Jervis Bay trip. They then headed to Sydney for the rest of their time here. 


It was so great seeing them. It's crazy how fast the time flew by. This past week has flown by as well. I can't believe that have my last class tomorrow and it's so unreal that we will be home in about 25 days. I think I'm ready though :)

 
 

Jervis Bay Surf Trip!!!!!!

I know this is out of order and I should be blogging about mom and Sarah's visit first, but I let Sarah be the photographer last week so I'm waiting on some pictures to add to the post!

Last Friday, Sterling and I headed to North Gong Station to get picked up by the amazing Katrina and Kendal-- the Arcadia staff we started our Australian adventures with. About twelve of us students piled into a mini bus/van and headed off to our first stop, Kiama, to see the Blow Hole (we took mom and Sarah there a day earlier and it was a lot more active then). We then headed to Jervis Bay where we set up camp at Green Patch/Bristol point. This really cool guy, Paul (I could write a whole post about him-- he is really fascinating-- aboriginal, knows sooooo much about a lot of things, worked three jobs in college, owns some serious businesses, happens to be a millionaire but is incredibly modest) provided all of our camping gear (tents, cots, food, chairs, everything) and stayed with us the whole weekend. After camp was set up, we walked down to the beach. The sand was super white and squeaky!! haha I'm pretty sure all of the local people thought we were obnoxious because we wouldn't stop squeaking the sand.

Camp!

We played frisbee for a while and then walked back up to our camp sight. On the way back, we saw a giant snake laying across the path. Kendal believed it was a python and didn't think it was poisonous but the general rule in Australia is to assume all snakes are poisonous. It was strange how it just laid there and didn't slither away when it heard/felt us coming. Sturr was glad he finally got to see a snake in the wild though!! That evening, Paul cooked us an AMAZING dinner!! and guess what!!! WE ATE KANGAROO MEAT!!!! It tasted like steak :) 

:)

Roo

Wallaby

More roos

When it finally got dark, we went back to the beach. There were bioluminescent plankton in the water so when you stirred the water up or when a wave crashed on the beach, the plankton glowed. It was the coolest thing ever!! The group then went back to camp for some hot tea and hot milo, then a few of us went back down to the beach to watch the stars. The sky was so clear and beautiful! Sterling saw four shooting stars and I saw two. It was incredible.


The next morning, Auntie Julie, an aboriginal woman, taught us about bush tucker, medicine, and the local fauna and flora. I'm sure this may sound boring to some, but it was actually REALLY interesting. She was just so full of knowledge, it makes you wonder why we have pharmacies when the plants you need are right there. I even tried some of them :) One of our friends on the trip had a tooth ache so Auntie Julie and Paul gave him this waxy sap to numb it. I wish I could remember all of the plants and uses. Their methods of catching food seemed so practical too, it's mind blowing that people aren't taking advantage of their vast knowledge. 

Auntie Julie & Paul

After the bush walk with Auntie Julie, we had a yummy lunch back at the camp site, then finally, we loaded the bus to hit another beach where we learned to surf!! When we arrived, we put on our wetsuits, grabbed our boards, and walked down to the beach where the instructors went over the technique in the sand then sent us to try it out in the water. This is when I discovered that I LOVE SURFING!! The time went by so fast and Sturr and I were shredding out there catching waves left and right! I totally want to go again. 

Me and Lindsey after surfing!

Once again when we got back, we had an amazing dinner, after which we headed to a campfire were Auntie Julie told us dreamtime stories and cooked us some fresh damper. It was delicious and the stories were really cool. We could have listened to her all night.  

A cool ship in Jervis Bay

 Finally, we hit the hay and unfortunately we had to pack up camp in the morning. We drove to Hyams Beach which supposedly has the whitest sand in the world-- so glad I had my sunglasses, it was really bright with the sun reflecting off of it-- then drove to the cute little town of Berry for lunch.

Sand.

I am so glad we had such an awesome group. Everyone got along really well and I have to say, we laughed so much. It was a really incredible experience and it's sad knowing our time here is coming to a close. 

Some of the crew

Anywhooo, this is our last week of class!! I only have one assignment left... hoping I get motivated soon!!

The Remaining Time is Going to Go by SOOO Fast!!

Here's why...

1. MOM AND SARAH GET HERE IN LESS THAN 3 DAYS!!!!!! This will be during our second-to-last week of classes, and to be honest I don't plan on attending most of them :)
2. Immediately following, we are going on a weekend camping trip at Jervis Bay where we will be taking surfing lessons-- wooo!!
3. After that is the last week of uni-- 2 papers due that Friday and Saturday but one is already finished!
4. The day after classes end we will be heading to NEW ZEALAND for 5 days with our good mates Lindsey and Julie! (Decided against doing a stopover on the way home for a few reasons)
5. The remainder of our study break will then be spent studying (boooo!!!)
6. Then we have finals starting Nov. 9th!! (Mine are the 10th and 12th, Sturrs are the 9th,10th, and 15th)
7. THEN... (drum roll please)... WE COME HOME the 18th!!!


So bitter-sweet. I don't know what Andrew and Marion are going to do without us Americanos to make-fun of haha

Aussie Outback Roadtrip

Immediately following our Fiji trip we headed up the blue mountains to begin our trip out bush-- and by immediately I mean as soon as we got out of the airport, Andrew picked us up and we were on our way. We stayed the night at Andrew's parents house and the rose early the next morning to take on the biggest leg of our trip. We rode about 1,100km (on looooong, straight roads) and saw heaps (as well as heaps of nothin)! It was crazy to see the scenery change gradually as we went along. There were so many wild animals! Kangaroos hopped in front of our car (the trusty PRADO!) kind of like deer in the us, there were tons of sheep and goats, some cows and horses along with emus and really pretty birds. There were train tracks everywhere even though we were in the middle of nowhere. This trip made me really miss my dad because he would have LOVED it!

Sorry Marion!! :)

long. flat. straight.

cows (obviously)

If you look closely, you can see two emus

 Anyways, Friday evening's stop was Broken Hill. We set up our tent and the rest of camp. It actually ended up raining that evening and night (and every other night we were out there... go figure, tons of rain in the desert) but it stopped long enough for us to catch the sunset over the Mundi Mundi Plains.

The tent!!

Mundi Mundi Plains

Outback sunset

Saturday, we did much less driving and much more sight-seeing. After we packed up camp, we went to the Historic Day Dream Mine in Silverton. Sterling and I went on an underground tour of the mine which was pretty neat. Then, we had the BEST SCONES EVER when we finished-- fresh baked in a brick oven.

After that, we moved on to the Living Desert where there were these really cool looking rock sculpture things. Is crazy how they put these attractions in what seems to be in the middle of nowhere. 

Next, we went to the Silver City Art Centre where we saw Ando's Big Picture, the world's largest acrylic paining by a single artist that measures 100meters x 12meters. Words can't describe how incredible it was! The painting was positioned around the walls of a circular room and the floor had been landscaped with dirt and plants to match the painting. The painting includes an Outback sunrise, the Menindee Lakes, the Broken Hill Sculptures, and many other Outback landmarks and animals. It was beautiful. 


We then went on top of the Line of Lode, which is basically a GIANT pile of waste mining(?) materials I believe. From the top, we could see the entire town of Broken Hill.

Line of Lode in the background w/ a building on top

We then went to the Menindee Lakes which were so full! It was shocking to see such a large lake (with waves and all) in the middle of the desert. (Hmm... while I was just looking for that link up there, there was an article from march that said the Minindee lakes had it's wettest start to a year in over 100 years...interesting!) 

Trees in the water

Train track pic for dad!

After all of the sight seeing, we headed to our destination for the evening, Ivanhoe. The road to Ivanhoe was all dirt. In the Outback, the dirt roads get REALLY slick, and guess what!!, it rained the few nights before and it rained while we were on the road, so the road was insane! It's hard to describe but it all turned to mush and we may or may not have spun out of control and ended up off the side of the road. It was a funny experience only because there is literally nothing around to run into. 

Muddy muddy mess

When we finally got to Ivanhoe, we found the the caravan park that we were going to camp at no longer existed, so we set up camp in a park by the road by the police station that luckily had a pavilion so we could cook in a dry place and bathrooms!! ... another one funny experience.

The next morning, we woke up with only one goal. Find and get to a place in time to watch the footy finals and we did just that! We drove on more slippery dirt roads!! We came up to a car (who would go on those roads in a little car?!?!) that had slid off the road into a ditch. We stopped like nice people would, but as we were stopping I was so scared we were just going to slide right into their car. It was seriously that slippery and there was no way that we would ever get enough traction to pull them out... so we just got their information and then carried on... they'll be 'right. We finally made it to a pretty nice campground in West Wialong that evening, took much needed showers, cooked up some meat, and watched the footy! I should also note that it rained again that night haha at least it kept the giant flies away!!


On Monday, we headed home... all paved roads from West Wialong. It wasn't too long of a drive, we made it home by 3ish and I slept a lot of the way. Props to Andrew for getting us home in one piece.


All in all it was a good experience... quite different from staying at a resort in Fiji though!

Bula! Coral Coast, Fiji

 

How am I supposed to put this trip into words? I cannot describe how truly amazing it was. Friday, the 23rd, was my last day of class before the mid-session recess (more like 2/3 through the session recess). When I finished my exam, I came home, took a nap, began packing, watched some footy with the gang, and then finished packing late that night. I was feeling kind of nervous about the trip, REALLY hoping it would be worth the money we spent. We booked through a travel agent and all of a sudden about a month ago she was like "if you are going to book, you need to book today" so we did it!

Andrew drove us to the airport early Saturday morning (THANK YOU!!) and then we were off. When we landed in Fiji in the early evening, we were greeted by singers singing "Bula, Bula," Fijian for hello and were given shell necklaces. The workers were all so nice. Each one greeted us with a smile and a "Bula!" It was refreshing to be in such a tiny airport where people weren't so up tight. We met our airport transfer (arranged by the travel agent) who drove us to our destination. The country seemed quite poor-- houses built from concrete and sheet metal, yet the area was still beautiful.

When we arrived at the Fiji Hideaway Resort, we checked in, were given a rundown of what was included in our package, and then were taken to our ocean view bure where a fruit plate and fruit smoothies were waiting for us. It was incredible. I had no idea we would be in a little house right next to the ocean. After that, we just chilled until dinner, enjoying the view. Every evening at 6:00, the torches were lit and there was a giant torch in the pool. Sunset was soon after and was so beautiful. We had dinner, which included three courses-- sooo good! 2 course lunches and brekkie was also included with our package as well as drinks at any time. Everything was very well presented and had some sort of fruit garnish with it. There were also singers at every meal who sounded really good, and then there was some sort of entertainment afterwards.

On Sunday, we slept in and then went reef walking. It was such a new experience and we saw a lot of neat things. I got a lot of use out of the waterproof camera case my parents got me for my birthday!! We then came in for lunch (an Aussie barbie that day), explored the resort, and then laid by the pool for a while. That evening, after dinner, there were Fijian dancers doing different dances from all over the world. 

Monday, we actually woke up in time for breakfast (had to get our moneys worth!!). It was a feast of a buffet. Every kind of breakfast food you could think of. We went reef walking again for quite a long time (got a little burnt!). We walked all the way out to the edge of the reef. Instead of crashing at the shore, the waves crash at the edge of the reef. The coral there was really pretty. We came back in time for lunch--helloooo banana split-- and waited around by the pool for high tide so we could go snorkeling. Snorkeling was awesome!! It was crazy to see how everything changed from low tide to high tide. We hadn't seen many fish during low tide but there were TONS that came in with the high tide. I knew some would come into the reef but I didn't realize that many would.

Tuesday morning it rained for a little while. It was probably a good thing as our skin needed a break from the sun. Later we were able to explore the reef a little more and go snorkeling. Sturr lost his snorkel tube because he couldn't be restricted from diving lower. He had it so close to shore, then couldn't find it once he realized it was gone! Ha it was funny for me to watch :) The water was a little cold but the rain seemed to bring so many more fish to the reef; so worth it. After dinner there was a Fijian singing and dancing group. They did a variety of sitting and standing dances, and I really enjoyed it. Sturr had steak & prawns for the millionth time this trip; he couldn't help but get it. Sometimes I got it too and would give him my extra prawns.

Wednesday was our last full day. We went reef walking and snorkeling again and just enjoyed being outside in the gorgeous weather. It was sad knowing we would have to leave Thursday afternoon; we had such an amazing and relaxing time. 

The next day, we were picked up and driven to the airport. We bought some souvenirs and some lunch then waited for our plane. We arrived back in Sydney in the evening where Andrew picked us up and we began our journey to the Outback (next post).

The Fijian people we came across were so nice. It was nice to have a relaxing holiday were we weren't always on the move. I am so glad we took advantage of the opportunity to go there because who knows if we will ever be back to this part of the world again. 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain