home sweet home

let it be known that i've returned to the united states of america this evening!  and i'm so happy to be back.  when the man at customs in l.a. said "welcome home", i felt a happy pang in my heart...  i'm absolutely ecstatic to be back!  :)

however, the rest of my trip was sweet as!  i ended up going to the town of 1770 where i rode a motorbike, then to airlie beach, sailed the whitsunday islands where i fell in love with scuba diving, up to mission beach where i went skydiving, to the tully river for a day of whitewater rafting which got my adrenaline up more than the skydiving (go figure!), followed by cairns where i became a padi certified open water scuba diver and dived the great barrier reef!!!!  after cairns, i went up to cape tribulation and licked the butt of a green ant & went on a sea kayaking adventure, and then back down to port douglas where i lounged on the beach for what would be the last time in australia!!  i returned to cairns for one final evening and flew back to sydney on 5 june.

at that point, i realized how limited i was with my time!!!  i stayed in katoomba with my close friend from nz and we were grannies for 2 days reading and watching movies and just relaxing.  it was lovely to catch up!  and her cat larry is a cracker.

after katoomba, i made my way to bondi to stay with my irish friends and just went to the city (darling harbour & circular quay) for the next 2 days.  a bit of shopping and a bit of reminiscing and that was the story.

it's been an incredible experience in aus.  crickey!?! always felt surreal and now it's surreal being back home.  but there really is no place like home sweet home.  

alright... where to next???

it's a whirlwind!

annnnnd i made it out alive from surfing and actually got up on the board a few times!!! i'm not contemplating a surf camp in the near future somewhere in the usa! i think it's the kind of sport i'm made for! (surprisingly enough...)

i'm now in hervey bay and just returned from fraser. from the time of my last post to now, i've traveled to surfers paradise for a couple of days, brisbane, and noosa. it's just the beach life in both surfers and noosa while brisbane was a city - which i enjoyed (especially because there was good weather).

after noosa, i went to hervey bay which is where i picked up the tour for fraser island. i was with a group of 7 other backpackers and we were on a self-guided tour in a 4x4 on the world's largest sand island! it was awesome. beautiful coast, champagne pools, gorgeous lakes, rain forest growing in the sand, camping on the beach, dingoes spotted everyday, heaps of fun. loved it. our group was a good combination as well.

and now i'm off to the town of 1770, rockhampton and then airlie beach from where i depart for a sailing trip around the whitsundays. i'm loving every moment of this trip and it's unfortunate that i have less than a month left in this fantastic country... this trip feels like a whirlwind and needs to slow down so that i can savor every moment of it! ahhh.

keepin it short for this one.
k bye.

oh and i'll prob attach a picture sometime in the near future.

thank goodness it's warm again!!

seeing as it's fall / almost winter here, melbourne was pretty chilly! actually, everything from adelaide from melbourne was a little too cold for my liking! (not nearly as cold as jersey gets in winter... but still, it was the coldest i've been since winter '08!) melbourne is your typical city... buildings, parks, shopping (tons of shopping can be done in melbourne - but i resisted!), good food places, etc. i walked the entire city, i'm sure of it!

i went to phillip island which is right near melbourne and saw some wildlife, a farm where they shear sheep, and... the penguin parade!!!!! the little penguin is the smallest penguin in the world! and they all march out of the ocean, onto the beach. and it's hilarious because they run to the beach... and then run back to the ocean because either they are alone, scared, lost, confused, etc. and then they try again! it's honestly one of the funniest things ever! and very cute. i love penguins. <3 unfortunately, you can't take pictures of the little guys because they get scared... but luckily i bought a picture at the gift shop near the center!

liz flew into melbourne for two days to meet me and see the city for herself. she arrived in the evening and so , the next day we went to a microbrewery called little creatures and borrowed bikes from them (free ninety free!) and rode all over the city. i'm surprised we didn't get hit by a car! we rode for about 3.5 hours without a stop really and then returned them and headed out for cinco de mayo! of course we went to a mexican restaurant! taco bills. oh yeah. it was decent mexican food! then we went to st. kilda the next day and ate at a super cute cafe called bigmouth, later had a cake (it was really not that great) at one of the shops because apparently st. kilda is known for cake shops??, and walked to the beach area. st. kilda is very eclectic. and finally, liz and i visited the museum of melbourne and saw some dinosaur bones! (i love dinosaurs!)

let's see, that same night, after the museum of melbourne, i went to canberra on an overnight bus (yes! saved some $$ by not getting a hostel!) and walked around the capital of australia. saw the parliament house where k. rudd works, went to the library, walked near the lake (very pretty), and back to the main part of the city. kind of a lazy day, but i saw what there was to see in canberra.

and theeeeeen, i bussed it back to sydney for one evening and a very very lazy day that involved laundry and the re-packing of my suitcase. went to dinner with liz and our aussie girlfriends one last time in darling harbour. afterwards, i went directly to the bus and took another overnight trip to byron bay.

which is where i am right now! byron is heaps warmer than melbourne, canberra, sydney... i went to the beach yesterday and sat around. it was lovely! i also walked up to the lighthouse (it was a hike, let me tell ya') and watched the sunset. it was gorgeous. then walked through the rain forest back to the hostel. a friend and i went to cheeky monkeys (the place [apparently] to go in byron bay for a night). it was fun - a little crazy. and now i'm waiting until 2pm to go on my surfing lesson!!! it should be interesting... i'm just hoping that i don't break anything! haha. me and coordination are not friends.

after byron today and part of tomorrow, i'm off (yet again!) to surfers paradise.

oh did i mention that it's warm again?? thank goodness!!!

annnd, in one month from today, i'll be on a plane headed for the united states of america.

off the charts brilliant! (alice to melb)

alright. so i've made it to melbourne! and i'm here for a few days checking out the city and some surroundings as well.

but, before i arrived in melbourne, i did some amazing things on the way down from alice springs!!! it was an off the charts brilliant experience!?! i took a tour first from alice to adelaide through the outback. this involved long bus rides, sleeping in swags under the stars (no tent!?!), hiking, some swimming in a water hole, a giant rock (uluru!), camp fires, an underground village (cooper pedy), more hiking, a vertical walk up devil's peak in the flinders range, and other fun camping / outdoor activities. it was brilliant! good work.

that was only part one of the trip to melbourne. part two involved a wine tour of the barossa valley in adelaide, more long bus rides, grampians national park, a waterfall, the pinnacle at the nat'l park, a small hike or two, more bus rides along the great ocean road, the twelve apostles, the london bridge, apollo bay, wild kangaroos, wild koalas, one wild echidna, oh and proper hostels (actually - better than proper!!! super clean, comfortable and beautiful!) and other fun gor activities! it would have been an even better trip had we rented a car and driven ourselves - you know... more freedom and such - but i can't really complain! it was really great!

and now i'm in melbourne and it's a really cool city. i haven't done too much thus far, but don't you worry - i have 5ish more days left and tons of things to see / do!

the start of my vacation (during my year long vacation)

i'm finally finished with working in australia!! wooo! it was such a relief on friday when i left work for good. the only downside was that i actually just recently started to enjoy work. figures!

i'm in alice springs right now and it is hot as anything! i got here on sunday afternoon and leave in about an hour or so for a 5 day camping trip through the outback. i've never been a big camper, but i'm really looking forward to this!

alice springs has been interesting these past 2 days. it's a short walk into the centre of town where there are a few shopping centres and a few cultural things to do. walked to the cultural precinct yesterday and saw some aboriginal art and the aviation museum and a cemetery with the grave of the most famous aboriginal artist. i was glad to do something cultural and i just love experiencing art (at least ever since i took a course in college called 'experiencing art' haha!). i also did a short walking tour of the town centre which included the stuart gaol. i sat in jail for about 45 min. actually!!! (to listen to some dude talk about the history of the building... kinda boring). that's about all there really was to do here. and so the rest of the time, i took advantage of the heat, the sun, and the amenities at the hostel i stayed in and went to the pool! sweet deal.

that's all i've got for now. i'll try and write again shortly after my camping shenanigans! :)

sydney is better with a friend on vacation...

i know, i know… i haven’t been keeping up with this thing all too well (cough allie cough). better late than never, i always say.

since my nzed trip, there have been a quite a few fun and different happenings in my life. the day (literally the day) after my return, my friend amanda from nj came for a visit to sydney! and boy was i happy to see her! it was absolutely lovely having one little piece of home with me for 2.5 weeks and devastating to see that piece return without me!! her 2.5 weeks here with me honestly brightened sydney in my eyes. don’t get me wrong, i absolutely loved sydney before she arrived, but having her here and seeing her experience the city (and being able to experience it all over again – and through a tourist’s eyes) was incredible! here’s a rundown of the awesome activities that we did during her visit:

picnic in rushcutter’s bay, visits to hyde park, tour of botanical gardens (::sigh:: i love the botanical gardens), visit to the nsw state art museum in the domain, lunch at circular quay, ferry ride to taronga zoo – including a seal show, giraffes (i love them!!!), aussie animals, elephants!, and a gondola ride – so great, thai food, hunter valley wine tour, hand feeding kangas at the reptile zoo (or being attacked in amanda’s case – no harm done though!!), saturday night at the ivy (a gorgeous & fun club), an attempt to watch the sunrise at bondi beach at 6 o’clock am (a bit too cloudy… oops), dinner aboard a pirate ship! (well, a tall ship – close enough!), the ferris wheel, the carousel and coney island at luna park, an amazing dinner and the magic flute – the opera! – at the sydney opera house, over 1,000 steps at the bridge climb, a superb view at the sydney tower, a few movies here and there, pancakes on the rocks (twice!), the rocks market, the 3D dinosaur movie at the world’s largest imax theatre, a stroll around darling harbour, weekend in the blue mountains including the blue mountains explorer bus, the jenolan caves, and tons of bushwalks, and last (but most certainly not least) the extreme shark dive at the manly aquarium (which was more remarkable than i can even describe!!!!)!

so yeah, she and i did a lot during her 2.5 wk vacation. and i loved it. and she loved it. and it was perfect! i would have never done some of the activities that mandy and i did during her stay if she hadn’t been here…

after mandy’s departure (tear), i packed my things and prepared for my move. see, our 6 month lease was up on the apartment in elizabeth bay and i was not too keen on extending it since i’m going on an ultimate vacation myself very soon. so, i moved to north bondi in with my friends sara & oved. (i worked w/ sara at glicks and we’ve been friends ever since) i’m loving living so close to the beach again and have been known to frequent the beach on both saturdays and sundays! and it’s pretty wonderful living in a cute town again rather than so close to the cross! i’m staying with sara until i leave for my trip and then again right before i leave this country in june.

i head out for a 7 week vacation on april 19th. i fly out to alice springs (the outback) and work my way down to melbourne and then east to canberra and back to sydney and then all the way up the east coast to cairns. i am extremely excited for what awaits me on this trip!!! i have some plans for my time spent, but not everything. thank goodness for the lonely planet book australia – otherwise i’d probably be lost without any idea of what to do for 7 weeks! (7 weeks… i can’t believe i am going to just travel for seven whole weeks!!!!!)

oh and, no worries, i’ll keep you posted on my whereabouts and plans!

ps. have you counted the months that i’ve been away thus far – it’s been about 8 months. and i return to nj in june. oy.

new zealand.

i've been back from nz for about a week already. and all i can keep thinking about is how absolutely incredible that country is. i have never seen so many beautiful sights in my life. i suppose that is what the world looked like before we came around to mess things up! i don't know what else to say other than incredible.

here's what liz & i did on this adventure:

christchurch - kaikoura - blenheim - nelson - motueka - kaiteriteri - marahau - takaka - motueka - murchison - punakaiki - greymouth - hokitika - franz joseph - fox glacier - franz joseph - wanaka - queenstown - dunedin - christchurch.

whew. what a trip!

and here are the details (well, some anyway):

day (well actually night and then day) 1 & 2: we only spent the night in christchurch and then picked up our car in the morning. then we started driving on the left side of the road! crazy. but not as bad as i thought it would have been. however, in the first 45 seconds, i had a roundabout to deal with! that was the most confusing moment of all the driving, i'd say! well, that and the 7,000 one lane bridges! kiwis are crazy for building so many one lane bridges!?!

then, in kaikoura, we saw a colony of seals. it was raining so we moved along to blenheim which is really big for wine. we ended up stopping at one vineyard so liz could buy one of her favorite brands of wine. it was still raining, so we moved on to nelson.

day three: in nelson, we met some hippie hostel owner - he was really funny. we walked around the super cute little town, drove to the beach, visited the library (free internet... oh yeeeeah!) then... our brake master flex broke. actually it's called a brake master something or other. but i decided flex fits just fine. luckily, we didn't get into a car accident!?! we were also lucky that we were so near a brake shop (literally less than a block from where we stopped and figured out what was wrong!) we dropped the car off, called roadside assistance (which wasn't very helpful), and had to leave our car overnight. the guys at the brake place were extraordinarily nice and helpful.

day 4: after lance (our car) was better, we drove off to motueka where we stopped at this cafe called hot mama's cafe. now, only if you know the other half of jaychel will you understand the importance of a cafe called hot mama's. it even jogged a memory of how to say hot mamas in russian. anyway, after the cafe, we went to see the golden sands in kaiteriteri, to abel tasman national park in marahau, and to the second clearest springs in the world in takaka. then it was back to motueka to stay in a little hut on a vineyard.

day 5: from motueka we drove to punakaiki (famous for blowholes and pancake rocks). we stopped in the funkiest cafe in murchison along the way. the pancake rocks were really cool. but the blowholes didn't blow at high tide because the waters were a little too calm. but we did get to see some dolphins which was pretty awesome!

after the pancake rocks, we moved on towards hokitika with a stop in greymouth to buy some gas and groceries. we heard greymouth wasn't anything special and didn't see anything in our travel book to make us think otherwise. after that quick stop, we made it to hokitika (where my kiwi friend sheena is basically from!) and drove out to see the hokitika gorges. i have never seen such naturally blue water. it was like looking into a swimming pool and seeing the blue lining, but actually, it was natural. insane & beautiful. then, after dark, we drove to a spot on the highway where there was a dell. a glowworm dell. those suckers can really glow. creeped me out a bit because of the darkness, but well worth it!

day 6: from hokitika we drove straight to franz joseph! we did a short walk to view the incredible glacier before driving further south to fox glacier. once in fox glacier, we made our way to lake matheson (the famous reflection lake) and then back to town to meet up with our tour guide. the tour took us to the base of the glacier and then our guide took us on a hike up the glacier and onto the ice. very adventurous. very fun. 800 stairs to make it up to where we needed to be before we even stepped onto the ice! good exercise, i'd say! and it was just extraordinary. i never thought i'd climb a glacier in my life! and then i did. and i'd love to do it again!! after the half day hike, we went back to the hostel in franz joseph where we were staying the night and hopped in the hot tub for some r&r before making our way to the blue ice cafe. a perfect ending to a perfect day!

day 7: drove for about 5 or 6 hours to lake wanaka. very beautiful scenery along the way and a very beautiful lake at that! we decided to take it easy on day six and just rested in the hostel for a while and had a quiet evening. we knew the next few days would be action packed, so it was probably a good choice!

day 8: a drive up some more mountains and through a cloud east into queenstown - adventure capital of the world! straight away, we did the shot over jet boat ride and then a few hours of white water rafting (my favorite activity the entire trip!) of course we went out that night for some fun! ;)

day 9: just ask to see the video of our adventure activity when you next see me!!! haha. i'll keep you in suspense...

day 10: we had plans to go to milford sound, but it was rainy and gross out. so we made a decision to not commute for a total of 10 hours to be on a boat for 1.5 hours. and instead, we saw a choice movie and relaxed instead.

day 11: drove through the rain to dunedin. there was a parade going on (i suspect it was for our arrival!) when we got to the town. toured cadbury factory and speights brewery.

day 12: long drive back to christchurch. it stopped raining overnight. but we had to ford the river because of some flooding on the only road that could take us from dunedin to christchurch! it was crazy, but there were many police officers around to make sure we were safe. returned the car, took the bus into christchurch and did some walking around the town. quiet day. then back to the airport for an early morning flight.

now, i'm back in sydney. the day after my return from nz, i picked up my nj friend mandy and we're taking on this city! great fun! more on that another time though!!!

hope you enjoyed my novel on nz!!