Thailand (Patong & Phi Phi Island)

I never had any intentions to go to Thailand at any point in my planning to come to Australia, but after talking to my friend Siobhan who had been and did her diving course there, I thought maybe I should do the same thing. Not only did I do and complete my diving course there, but I had a trip that will be apart of my memory for many years to come.

We flew 9 hours from Sydney to Phuket and spent the first night in a beautiful resort before heading to Patong the next day. I'm not sure if it was culture shock or just the mere fact that I was in a very weird place (I'm going with the later), but I really felt like we were far away from home in Thailand. We arrived in Patong only to be followed (or stalked) for an hour by a taxi driver constantly saying "Tuk Tuk" convinced that we needed him to give us a ride. Along with that we were called upon by many of the sales people along the streets to buy their goods... whether it be pirated DVD's and CD's or clothes or interesting wooden carvings. By day, Patong was a big huge market, by night, the streets were filled with open bars and tons of... well... to put it nicely... women selling themselves. At this point I wasn't sure if it was harder to deal with that, or the bad smell every time we walked over a sewage drain. Eck... makes me nauseous just thinking about it. Combined with the heat and stray dogs running around everywhere, I'd have to say Patong wasn't my favourite place, although the beach did have a beautiful sunset, which Jesse and I enjoyed blissfully.

The next day we left for our 6 night stay on Phi Phi Island. Also where Ma Ya Bay is, or where most of you will know where "The Beach" was filmed. We started our 3-day dive course right off the bat so that we could get it out of the way and enjoy the last few days exploring the island. I LOVED Phi Phi Island. Not only is it a beautiful beach island, but there are no cars! How wonderful is that??? You just walk everywhere... or some people would ride their bikes, but it was so easy to get around on foot, it was great. The first day of the dive course taught us the basic skills of diving and what to do if we encountered certain common situations. We did some of the skills in shallow water in the ocean, but our actual diving took place on day 2 and 3. The dives were amazing! Saw everything from Nemo fish to Octopus to turtles and even a Leopard Shark! The coral was absolutely beautiful... so many different shapes and colours, it was almost mesmerizing. After 4 open-water dives and a written exam, Jesse and I are now certified open-water divers! Yay! Now I can use my certificate to go diving in Australia!!!! We celebrated by enjoying a couple of "buckets" and partying the night away at the "Half Moon Party". A little kitty came to celebrate with us as well... I guess Patong has the dogs and Phi Phi has all the stray cats. Weird.

Our last couple of days we got to enjoy relaxing and seeing more of the island. We went to Ma Ya Bay where "The Beach" was filmed and went snorkeling there. It looks exactly like in the movie. So secluded and private... aside from the 30 or so other tourists that were also on the island. ;) We found a cave at the back of the island where there were ropes hanging so that you could hang on. I soon found out that they were well needed as everytime a wave would come, it would knock us right off our feet. Spent a little bit of time lying on the beach, but we were only allowed to stay at Ma Ya Bay for 2 hours, so our longboat driver called on us to take us back to the hotel soon after.

The next day we thought it would be fun to go snorkeling in search of Reef Sharks. We met a guy named Val a couple nights before who came along with us as he had been before and seemed to know where they were. We swam around for about an hour and didn't see any sharks. Saw lots of other kinds of fish and coral, but no sharks. As we slowly started to make our way back to shore I was just floating on top of the water with my head under looking around when all of a sudden a huge Blacktip Reef Shark swam right in front of me! I froze and I think my heart skipped a beat. When it swam far enough that I couldn't see it anymore my head jolted out of the water and I looked around for Jesse who was looking straight at me. I screamed, "did you see that?!?!?!?". He was like, "what?". At this point I thought... I should probably put my head back in the water in case the shark comes back. It didn't, which was probably a good thing cause it scared the begeezes out of me. I've attached a link to a photo of a Blacktip for those who care to see what they look like.

http://www.shark-pictures.com/viewpic/blacktip-reef-shark-picture-735.html

That night we hiked up this crazy long staircase that took us up to the viewpoint of Phi Phi Island. We went just in time to see the sunset, so it was absolutely beautiful. It was a great end to our stay on the island, and the next day we were back on the boat to Patong. We spent our last night and day in Patong so that we could do some shopping since everything is SO cheap there.

Thailand - the land of smiles it truly is. The people are so friendly and nice. It was almost as if nobody had a care in the world.... they were all chilled and relaxed all the time. If only we could all live that way.

Adelaide - Melbourne (& Kangaroo Island)

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog. This trip from Adelaide to Melbourne actually took place 3 weeks ago now... but better late than never.

My friend Dan came to visit from Vancouver and so of course I had to take him to Ice Bar, hence the winter jackets. I'd almost say there was a cold front in Sydney, but it was just more like rain... A LOT of rain, unfortunate for Dan as he didn't really get to see Sydney in it's true hot and sunny state.

Kangaroo Island was spectacular! The coastline was just indescribable and to see wild Kangaroos was the most amazing sight. Though I'm saddened to say I think I saw more dead Kangaroos on the side of the road than I did live wild ones. We stopped for a bbq lunch on some farm that had a little Koala walk. I spotted about 4 wild Koalas as well as a Wallaby... too cute! We also stopped at a beach where sea lions were snoozing. We were allowed to walk on the beach obviously at a reasonable distance from them... but there was this one little guy who I think was looking for his mum and came right up to us! He was a little confused, but definitely amused us all.

Along the Great Ocean Road I'd have to say my favourite sights were the wild animals. Saw a few Kangaroos, an Echidna and a bunch of Koalas. I've named myself the "Koala Spotter" as I was able to find them quicker than anyone else. The road itself reminded me a lot of the Sea-to-Sky highway going up to Whistler. Lots of twists and turns and feeling like you might drive off the edge and go crashing into the ocean below. Yeah... it was great! No, really... it was. I definitely want to to it again. The Twelve Apostles was another great site along the Great Ocean Road. I think there are only 7 left standing, but who's counting? It was one of those sites that I could've stared at for hours. So beautiful.

We arrived in Melbourne safely, and I even got to try their wacky driving maneuvre called the "hook-turn". Totally weird, where you drive out into the middle of the intersection and sit in front of the traffic on your left until their light goes green. Supposedly this is due to the trams, but I think they just made it up to be weirdos! Totally illegal move anywhere else in the country. Melbourne was a nice city... quite different from Sydney and pretty in it's own ways. I was only there for a couple days so I'm hoping to make a trip back there again as well.

That's about it! It was such a quick trip, but well worth it. Next stop - Thailand!!!!

Pearl Beach

Went to Pearl Beach for Australia Day long weekend. Didn't want to come back to work this morning, but what can you do? Can't afford to be a beach bum the whole time I'm here... but at least I got to enjoy 3 full days on a beautiful quiet beach along the central coast. Looking forward to my friend coming to visit next week and travelling down to Adelaide and along the Great Ocean Road. Can't wait!

Happy New Year from Sydney

Well another New Years in Sydney! How lucky am I to have seen the Sydney Harbor fireworks not once, but twice!!! So awesome.... best fireworks show EVER! I have to say though, I'm a little glad that Christmas and New Years are all over with now. All the parties, food, drinks, lack of sleep... I'm a little exhausted! Off to my first ever Cricket match tomorrow! Should be either loads of fun... or really really boring. Looking forward to the Aussie experience though.

Hope everyone had a great New Years! Enjoy the videos I posted... make sure to turn up your volume to get the full essence of the experience! Good times!

New Zealand - South Island

After a month and a half of working downtown Sydney I decided to take my first "vacation"/trip to the south island of New Zealand.

I started in Christchurch and took a bus tour called "Stray" around the south island. So many crazy things happened along the way on my little Stray adventure, so to quote the Kiwi's, I'll say "SWEET AS!"

My very first thoughts of NZ were, "geez, there are a lot of sheep!" Apparently 10 X more sheep than people! Our first stop on the tour was a little town called Kaikoura... well known for it's crayfish, fur seals, dolphins, and whale watching. I decided to go seal swimming here and I must say that experience is right up there with scuba diving the reef in Oz. Amazing! A group of us all geared up in our wet suits and snorkels and slowly made our way out to a seal colony not far off shore. As we swam through a little rock crevase, most of the seals were still perched up on the rocks. I'd say there were probably around 50 - 80 seals all around us as we swam through towards the open pool in the middle of the colony. As the tide came in they all started to slip into the water and swim all around us. They weren't at all afraid of us, but they were definitely curious. At one point I turned around and there was a big male about 5 meters away from me and he started to swim right towards me! My heart started to thump in my chest and I looked towards the guide because I didn't know what to do, but he wasn't looking in my direction. I looked back at the seal and he was literally right in front of me! He looked at me curiously for about 5 seconds and then dived under the water, did a couple flips and swam away. I can't explain the pleasure it was to be apart of the habitat of these beautiful wild animals. It was totally awesome!

Our next stop was Abel Tasman national park. At this point we had our core bus group... most of which were picked up in Picton coming down from Wellington in the north island. This also included our driver Hoover who was doing her very first south island trip on her own. She made a deal with us that if she screwed up in anyway, we were allowed to think of silly things for her to do. Well, of course being her first trip she was bound to take a wrong turn somewhere and sure enough, on the way to Abel Tasman she made a wrong turn that took us an hour in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. So we were 2 hours late in arriving at Old MacDonalds Farm... yes that is where we stayed, and yes, it was literally a farm with ducks, sheep, shamels, etc. So Hoovers punishment for her mistake was to dress up as a farmer and sing "Old MacDonald" at the local pub that evening. Good times!

The next day I took part in a 1/2 day kayak in Abel Tasman where I got to enjoy the scenery of the park from out on the water. I wish I could've spent more time there, but I only had 2 weeks to go through the south island, so we moved on the next day to Berrytown.

On the way to Berrytown we had to make a stop. Apparently Hoover messed up again with something, though I don't know what. Her punishment this time was to stop on the side of the road, hop a fence and chase some sheep. (I've attached the link of the video of this which was posted on YouTube.) Too funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qowQs-PpCTs

Berrytown wasn't anything special. I think only 40 people live there and it was just a place for us to stop overnight before heading to Franz Josef. To make a fun night out of it we all dressed up as the opposite sex and had a little party. The guys performed a rendition of YMCA, which was hilarous. (See photo)

The "hang-over" bus departed the next day for Franz Josef. Along the way we made a stop to pick up groceries and gifts. As we were about ready to leave, the bus wouldn't start! A bunch of the guys all piled at the back to push the bus and thankfully it didn't take too long before we were up and running again, so we made it to Franz Josef safe and sound. Luckily that night was a little more low-key as I had an 8 hour hike up the Franz Josef glacier the following day. The hike was incredible. We wore crampons on our shoes so that we could walk on the ice without slipping and we hiked through caves and crevases in the glacier which made it that much more fun. We were also lucky enough to see NZ's only mountain parrot, called a Kea, on our way down the glacier.

The next couple days, again, were stops on the way to Queenstown. Makaroa was our first stop. It was a beautiful camp park in which we all stayed in little cabins. The night was entertaining as we did karaoke at the bar. Me and a couple of the girls sang "I Will Survive"... sorry, no video for this. The next day we stayed in a beautiful little town called Wanaka which had incredible views. It actually reminded me of Vancouver with the surrounding mountains and waterfront.

The next stop was definitely my favourite place of the south island, Queenstown. It's like a bigger version of Whistler with tons to do and absolutely stunning scenery. A few us of went up the gondola which over-looks Queenstown and raced each other on the luge runs at the top. I also took a day trip to Milford Sound, which also was just stunning. I got my first penquin sightings there... they're so cute! Also lots of mountains, waterfalls, and seals.

Queenstown was also the place where most of the people on the bus went their separate ways. Some headed home, others more south to Stuart Island, and a few, like me, back to Christchurch. It was sad to say good-bye to the friends that I met here, but I'm hoping to see some of them in Sydney as a lot of people continue on to Australia for more travelling.

Finally, I ended up back in Christchurch where I will spend my last couple of days in NZ before heading back to Australia. I will be going swimming with the dolphins here and maybe do some shopping at the markets. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in NZ and wish I could spend more time here. I may just have to come back!

Back to Sydney on Tuesday where I will spend Christmas on the beach with a BBQ! Sweet as!