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!