Australia
February 15-July 1 2005
March 7:
Last night, my New Zealand girls and I got back from a weekend long surf trip at Bell's Beach in Torquay. The surfing was fun; I got up plenty of times and had one really good ride. Its harder than it looks. Our first night it rained pretty good and we were camping. My pillow got all wet and my tentmate's sleeping bag was soaked.
The second night we went out dancing. In the morning, we all over slept. Then the guides took forever cooking breakfast. We ended up 40 minutes late to our surf lesson and we were angry. We also suspect that some of the guides were able to come along for free because of how much we paid and that they used our combined cash to buy beer for themselves. All in all, the weekend had highs and low but it was memorable.
Tonight, we had a floor dinner of tacos, chips (fries), and ice cream with a donut appetizer. Only $4. A big group of us from the floor played a game of pool. I did okay, but I was just happy to be invited along. I had heaps of fun. This semester abroad is going to be good, I can tell.
March 11:
Last night was Bar Night. I ventured out with the floormates ALL BY MYSELF. I've been spending the majority of my time with the girls I traveled New Zealand with but they weren't up for Bar Night, so I decided to branch out and make some new friends on my own.
I made some real progress getting to know my floormates and other kids from The States. I met a kid from Georgia named Andrew. We talked for hours about the most random stuff and discovered we have a lot in common.
March 19-21:
This weekend was the LaTrobe University Mountaineering Club "Big Weekend." I went with my girls from New Zealand and Andrew. It was great. Unfortunately, I did not properly prepare for the cold weather and froze my butt off. Andrew let me borrow his fleece zip-up and sock hat for the first night but he was in a hammock by himself, so he froze his butt off too.
We went rockclimbing, hiking (up a mountain!), and rafting (sort of, there were like...2 rapids). When coming down from the rockclimbing site, I started a minature rock slide. One of the rocks caught me in the ankle and gave me a really good scrape. I ended up getting two new scars as a result of this weekend.
March 25:
It is Good Friday today and I have flown to Sydney to meet up with my parents. I guess the Australians find Good Friday just as important as Easter Sunday because nothing was open. We ended up walking around a lot. Our hotel is located near an area called "The Rocks." We took the typical pictures of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge as we walked around the Circular Quay in Sydney Harbor.
March 27:
We walked through the Sydney Botanical Gardens today and saw a whole bunch of bats. They were everywhere! And huge too! I'm talking 2 ft. wingspan! The Aussies call then flying foxes. Other than that, the gardens weren't that impressive. The ones in Melbourne are better and in the summer, they show movies outside projected on a wall or big screen or something.
March 28:
Today we jumped on a bus and headed out to Gap Park and Bondi Beach (which known for its great surf). It was a nice area with a fun boardwalk. Next we went to Fox Studios but were unable to see any of the filming areas (which was really disappointing being a film major) because there was a film in production, so we decided to head back into the heart of the city.
On our way to the Sky Tower, we walked through Hyde Park, a lovely place that houses the ANZAC Museum and a giant chess board (ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp). The Sky Tower holds a 360-degree observation deck but it wasn't that impressive. The Realto Tower in Melbourne, which also has an observation deck, is much cooler.
At night, we took a ferry cruise around the Sydney Harbor and got some great pictures of the Bridge and Opera House in the moonlight.
March 29:
Today we saw the Art Museum of New South Wales. They had some big-name artists there: Van Gough, Monet, Pollock and so forth. But there were also a couple of Aboriginal art exhibits that were really cool.
We ate dinner at a restaurant down by the Quay where my dad ate Kangaroo. Not bad actually, a little tough, but not bad.
March 30:
We headed out of Sydney, bound for Melbourne today. After some strolling around in the city, my mom and I sat in the hotel room devouring wine and brie. We were drinking out of low ball glasses and using a plastic fork to cut the cheese.
March 31:
About an hour outside of Melbourne, lies the town of Healsville, which is home to a famous animal sactuary, that is found in an area called the Yarra Valley. The Valley is basically wine country. But getting out there was a bit problematic. Let me tell you, driving in Melbourne is a bad idea! I got us off on the wrong foot as navigator after about a block and we spent the next 10 minutes trying to make a right turn. This task proves to be more difficult with the presence of trams. But eventually we made our way out of the city and the scenery was beautiful!
The Healsville Sanctuary was really cool. I finally got to see a kangaroo! There were also dingos, wallabies, koalas, echidnas, and a tasmanian devil that just would not stand sill. We sat at that damn fence for somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes trying to get a good shot of that stupid animal.
