June 30 – July 3: Byron Bay to Brisbane
Candice: Hello All!! If anyone is actually reading this, that is. Otherwise, I’m just rambling to myself, lol.
So, I’m not exactly sure where Tom left off, but I think it was right before we all tried surfing. Surfing was pretty sweet. I’m sure Tom will type his own, because he absolutely loved it, and did awesome, as with Sam. I had a bit of trouble getting up, but eventually got it. It was still fun, even with my troubles though, and beautiful day. Both Tom and Sam even caught their own waves in the first lesson!!! (The instructors were just pushing us off). Tom was so pumped, he rented a surfboard the next day (July 1), and was out there the whole time. He was really getting it towards the end of the day (The morning waves were pretty tough. Again, I’m sure he will elaborate).
Sam and I decided to go kayaking to go see some dolphins. Kayaking in the ocean was sweet! The waves go crashing in on you, trying to topple you, and it’s almost all you can do to stay on. It would have been sweet after we broke through the initial waves and were just chilling on the rolling ocean, but we unfortunately BOTH got sea sick (and I think it escalated so badly because we fed off eachother). It was still a good experience, and even with our sea sicknesses, we had a blast riding the waves into shore. Haha, although we totally got thrown out of the kayak right at the end, and it landed on my head (Thank God they got us to wear helmets!!). After that, we recovered on the beach, watching Tom catching waves.
We decided Canada Day would be as good as time as ever to go have a couple drinks and check out Byron Bay nightlife. To our shock, they actually celebrate Canada Day there!! We got all facepainted up (after a couple of bottles of cheap wine , and partied at a classy (italics for sarcasm) place called Cheeky Monkeys. We had a lot of fun there, and after awhile hit up the beach at night. Afterwards, we went to go try out a different bar, but the cheapest cover charge we could find was around $35. So, back to Cheeky Monkeys we went, and Sam and I had a blast dancing (Tom not so much I think. Hopefully he wasn’t too bored!!)
July 2 was a little bit of a hung over off of cheap wine day. We chilled on the beach for a bit, then took off up north towards Brisbane. On the way, we hit up a place called Spring Brook, with the self declared “Greatest View in the World”. The view was pretty sweet, but the greatest might be debatable. It was nearly dark by then, so we drove back down to the coast to find a place to stay, closer to the wildlife reserve that we wanted to hit up the next day. We found a rest area right on the beach, with bbq’s and the whole bit. It looked iffy if we would be able to sleep there, but Tom asked a couple of people walking by, and they said people do it all the time. So, off to an early bed time we went (it was depressingly early, like 9:30. Lol, I’m not used to partying anymore, it took a lot out of me!). about 20 minutes later, we got a knock on the van, threatened with a $300 fine, and kicked out of the place for the night. Pleasant, I must say. Tom made us stay in bed, and drove us to a rest stop around 30 km away for us to stay the night. We’re going to try to be more careful where we sleep now!!
Today, July 3 (for me, probably not the day that this will actually get posted), we hit up the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. The place was pretty awesome. I got to hold a koala, and pet kangaroos!!! And Sam had an ostrich fall for her, and follow here around making funny noises.
And now we’re on the road again, trying to find a rest stop. Hopefully we have more luck tonight!! Anyhow, we’re almost to the rest stop we’re going to check out, so I’m done blabbing for now. Take care everyone!!!!
June 24 – June 28: Blue Mountains and Drive to Byron Bay
Candice: Hey Everybody!! Tom’s making me write in the blog. Not that I don’t want to, but I find these things awkward to write in, and probably sound like an idiot. Oh well, here I go.
We’re driving up to Byron Bay at the moment. The van is now completely set up. I even have my laptop plugged in to the new car inverter, and can make a cup of tea from the car water boiler. We are set!!! Tom also changed the oil in the van behind a Target store. Lol, we probably looked quite odd doing it there, but oh wells! It’s done now.
Last night we slept for the first time in the van at a rest stop. Rest stops here are sweet. They’re like mini campgrounds. Ours even had a playground. It got a tad chilly last night, so we didn’t play on it, but still, pretty cool.
We are just coming from Blue Mountains. We were only there for half a day, because it was too cold for the clothes we had, but it is so beautiful there. Going back in summer is a must. I won’t yammer on about it, just show some pictures, but even they don’t do those mountains justice.
Not much else has happened since Tom’s birthday. And about the sharks, Mr. and Mrs. Lukaszewicz, I swear I looked into it carefully!! The sharks he was diving with look scary, but they’re very non-aggressive, and only eat small fish. I figured he was going to do it anyway, so I would get him to do one in a safe environment!!!
Well, we’re about to pull over soon, so I’m going to turn off the computer. Love everyone and miss everyone!!!!!!
Tom: As Candice mentioned, we have visited the Blue Mountains and they were amazing. It was actually pretty chilly there, very windy, so we ended up driving back up north and stopping at a rest stop. The rest stops here are really nice, have everything you need and they are 100% free. Pretty sweet.
We just arrived at Byron bay yesterday and immediately went to the lighthouse to take some amazing photos of the surrounding area. This place is sooooooooo beautiful. I have never seen such amazing beaches, and they go on and on for kilometers! It is so lovely, I wanted to go swimming the first day but we didn’t even find a place to sleep for the night so I figured I should probably wait…
We ended up finding this really cool caravan park (Its basically a RV park kind of thing). We have showers, cooking area, electricity, and a beach which is 1 min walk away. Today, we woke up in the morning and went snorkeling for a bit.
The waves were pretty big so there was not much to see:
Instead, I tried body surfing with my snorkeling gear. I waited for a nice big wave and started paddling towards shore and then the wave pulled me all the way back to shore!!! It was the most amazing feeling ever, I have never experienced anything like it!! It got me really excited for surfing!
A couple of minutes later, we seen some dolphins swimming 20 feet away from us! I got so excited that I ran back to shore to grab Candice, but unfortunately by the time we grabbed the camera they have left the area. I think we will be more ready tomorrow. We ended up playing in the waves for a couple of hours in our new wetsuits (I got a sweet new one for $100, which is an amazing deal. I seem to find these great deals everywhere). After that we went into town to look around, it is such a nice place. Very small and fun loving town that is situated between two amazing long beaches. One is open to the ocean with nice waves, and the other is on the bay side which is a lot more calm. Walking through town, we ended up finding some sweet body boards for sale $20, me and Candice bought some so we are very excited to try them out tomorrow.
We are also planning on taking some surf lessons tomorrow which is going to be lots of fun! I think I will be renting a surf board or buying one so that I can just surf for the next little while as we move north up the coast towards Cairnes. It looks sooooooo much fun, I can’t even imagine but I know it will be amazing. Even just being pushed by the wave on its own was such a great feeling. I love this place so much, I have never even imagined it would be this cool. Anyways, I am sitting in a laundry room typing this up so that I can upload it next time we get internet, so I sho0uld probably be heading off. I apologize if it is hard to read or lots of grammar mistakes, we have been drinking quite a bit of wine tonight and I am just getting super excited for what is in store tomorrow. I got this wicked boogie board with a great white shark picture on it!!!! How awesome is that!!!! Next time I will post some pics of me surfing and boogie boarding, PEACE OUT!!!
June 23 – Toms Bday
So today was my birthday and we decided to go to Ocean world to check out some of the different kinds of marine animals. Once we got inside I was about to pay for admission and I noticed they got these shark dives here, and before I know it Candice says to me “Guess what? You’re diving with sharks today!”. She booked it a while ago and surprised me right on the spot, definately the coolest and most thoughtful birthday present I have ever received. I could not think of anything better, I think Candice wins the Best Girl Friend of the year award
We walked through the shark tunnel and took a look at some of these sharks, they are friggin’ huge! I was starting to get a bit nervous now, look at them. They are grey nurse sharks:
Once we got in the water, this big (2.5m wide) manta ray comes into our little pool setup area and starts playing around. It was so cool to see, he just wanted to come inside and check out what going on and who these new people are.
We entered the main shark tunnel area and then the sharks started swimming around. From the pictures it looks like these guys are just crazy violent sharks that will bite into you as soon as you get in the water. It is quite the opposite, these things were the most peaceful and graceful fishies in the aquarium. They just glide effortlessly past you, they don’t care too much about you. They know everything about you, whether you are scared, excited, nervous, and how warm you are. It was really awesome, these things are very big.
They are bigger once you are in the water, the pic’s shrink the actual size down by like 25%.
I got to spend over 30 min in the water with the sharks and rays and other kinds of cool fish. It was so awesome, I will never forget it.
After the aquarium, we just decided to relax and walk around the town area. Towards the end of the day we went back to the hostel and met up with some of our new friends. We went out for some beers, and then eventually went for a nice long walk along the beach. The sound of the water splashing along the rocks is amazing. The waves can get so big here, still blows my mind away. Anyways, we are just about to head out to grab some camping gear and other items, will be posting soon!
June 18-20 In Sydney, Updates
Since the last post we have been very busy trying to find a van. It was really stressful time for 2-3 days because it is really hard to get things done without a vehicle. On top of that, cell phone usage or any kind of telephone usage is pretty expensive here in Australia. Over here, you pay the same price to call someone within the city as you would to call someone across the country. Very weird, but at least incoming calls are FREE so if you can, give us a call! Our cell number is 0413534078, to call from Canada you would dial 011-614-1353-4078.
Anyways, we would be meeting up with 3 different people each day, all in different parts of the city. A lot of the vans we looked at were either total pieces of crap (valves ticking, gearbox making noises, etc), needed some work to pass safety (required to register the vehicle), or were a total rip off. We were about to get this 83’ Toyota Hiace which was driving pretty well compared to some of the other vans. It had a rebuilt engine, but I kept grinding the guy to drop the price. We got it down to 2,400, but with insurance and registration it would be about 3,500 total. Long story short, we didn’t get that van and thank god. We found a way cooler and newer van the next day, the very last van we were looking at. We got a 99’ Mazda E2000 van, it’s got a nice big bed in the back so we are ready to start road tripping up the coast. Here is a pic of the van:
(The van above is not ours, but this one almost the same, we will post pics of ours later once we take some pics)
All of the vehicles here that we looked at would be a risk to drive up to cairns. We got this van for $3,800. It almost seemed too good to be true, but I looked at it and drove it around, it drives very very good. Way better than any of the other vans. Who knows, there might be something wrong with it and maybe we will find out later, but this van was the safest and least risky one we had to choose from.
(Below is a pic of some of the vans we looked at)
As we were looking at our van, another couple came to look at it. I knew we cannot let this van get away so I told him we will take it. We ended up having to run and take a ferry back to downtown, get our collective money since we can only with drawl $1,000 a day, and hop on the ferry again. It was so stress full, we just wanted to finally get something so that we can begin relaxing instead of looking for a van all the time.
(Above at night catching the ferry)
Finally once we got the van, it was already pretty late, maybe 10:30 pm since we ended staying at the guys house for a bit and chatting. I’m glad we had to drive back during that time when there is no traffic… It was good practice for me to drive on the left side of the road and get a bit more comfortable. The next day we decided we are going to move from our hotel to this really cool hostel in Manly (suburb 25 km from downtown area).
The drive there was very nerve wrecking since it was in the morning right after rush hour. There are so many on-off ramps here all over the place and people tail gate here and drive really crazy. The lanes are very narrow too, so it was a tough drive. After driving here, Edmonton is nothing in comparison. We missed a couple of exits and had to back track a bit but we eventually made it to our destination in one piece. After that experience, I feel pretty comfortable driving on the left side of the road. It is not that bad…
The place we are staying at is a wicked place, it is 2 min from the beach. The waves here are so big and there are surfers everywhere. It is such a nice and relaxing place, people come here after work to relax and enjoy the beaches. So many friendly people… Our first night in the hostel was a lot of fun, we went to get some groceries and cooked up some stir fry in the common kitchen. We ended up meeting a group from the UK, some people from the USA, Russia, Brazil, and every other place you can think of. It was so cool talking with these different people and comparing different stereotypes and views that we typically have of each other. It was interesting that we all had so many things in common and yet we were so different as well. We all sat around a table and just talked and talked. Very cool experience. We met some really interesting people, people that planned to go on vacation for 3 months and ended up travelling for the past 7 years. Very care free spirits, all they do is go around and travel till they run out of money. They go to work for a month or two and head back off again. These two Brazilian guys we met were really funny, stereotypical care free hippies.
They tried to sell us there van and they just keep saying things like “If you don’t feel the van, then its not for you”. All I can hear is the valves ticking really loud and I am thinking that this engine is going to blow up soon and all they can say is “That is the sound of the engine, its is alive and breathing” or something like that. Very funny guys, they cracked me up. Anyways, today is my birthday and we are just about to head off the Aquarium. Candice and Sam and hurrying me up so I will post more later.
June 17-19 Arrival In Sydney
Sydney:
Tom: It’s been two days since we have arrived in Australia and I love it. Before I get into talking about Sydney I will post some background info over the past 2 days. Sorry about my writing, I am writing this on the fly and it is probably poorly written… Anyways, here we go… Our flight wasn’t too bad, it was very long, but not bad. The first flight from Edmonton to San Francisco was delayed by 40 min, so we were worried we would miss our flight in San Francisco. Once we got off the plane we ran real quickly to get to the International terminal. I’m glad I looked ahead of time online and found out which gate we were supposed to be at, otherwise we might not have made it on our next flight. Once on the plane, I realized it is going to be a very long flight. It’s 11:00 pm (Cali time) by now and I have the window seat, Candice is next to me and some other girl has the aisle seat. I kind of felt bad for the girl because Candice and myself would always wake her up so that we could go stretch our legs and go to the washroom. We probably did this 6 or 7 times haha.
Plane
We finally landed in Sydney and it is almost 7:30 am (Sydney time) by the time we get our baggage and go through the “Containment Zones”. It was kind of funny, Sam mentioned that she always loses her baggage… Me and Candice picked up our bags, Sam’s bag didn’t make it, it was left behind in San Francisco. We called the hotel and managed to get an early check in, immediately called a cab and headed over. We unpacked and decided to go for a walk. As soon as we walked out I was smiling and cheerful. It is so beautiful here, the different kinds of trees and plants, the buildings, everything is so pretty.
We walked past some parks, past a bay with navy ships, beautiful bridges and the view of downtown Sydney.
It is soooo nice here, I can’t believe that I have been living in Edmonton almost my whole life… It’s depressing. Everything is so nice over here, and the weather kicks ass. It is the middle of winter here and I am walking in a t-shirt. A T-shirt!! And then, within 5 minutes, it started raining haha. The weather is very strange, sunny – and then raining, and then sunny. It is a little bit annoying because you have to carry around an umbrella with you wherever you go, just in case, but it sure beats Edmonton’s winter. It really quite nice, the sun is shining, but it is raining. Very cool. We walked through downtown which was really nice and sat down for lunch. I don’t know why I always hear “Sydney is so expensive bla bla bla”, because it is not true. The cost of food in restaurants or groceries is very comparable to what we have in Edmonton. Over here, the price you see is what you pay. Tax is included and there is no tipping, which is pretty sweet.
I got a good chicken Cajun sandwich for exactly $12.50, which is cheaper than Earls or any other restaurant in Edmonton once you add tax and a tip! Bread is between $2- $4 depending on which you get, same as in Edmonton. Doritos here are $2. Everything is comparable to Edmonton I would say. I haven’t looked much at houses and stuff, but the lady at the bank told me you can get a decent place for $250,000. I am not sure what you get in Edmonton for that price… Not a lot. Anyways, after lunch we walked around a bit more and went back to the hotel to get some sleep. We were pretty tired and we went to bed at 7:00 pm… haha we are pretty lame (Candice: hey, we were up for like 48 hours, and it was 3am Edmonton time!!!).
The next day, we spent walking around and checking out the touristy areas. We went through these botanical gardens along the coast and they were incredible. Huge ass palm trees that are over 100 ft tall, big fat trees wider than a house, they got all kinds of crazy trees here! As we were walking along the sidewalk, i jumped down onto this little beach area and touched the water. It was warmer than any lake/ocean I have been to in Canada, and it is the middle of winter here! I would have jumped right in, but I left my swimming trunks back at the hotel. The locals here would probably think I am crazy also, they think it is cold right now…
Anyways, I had a very wicked two days so far in Sydney. I love this place, everything about it. It is going to be very hard to go back to Edmonton a year from now I think… we will see. It is almost 9 pm now and I am writing this entry on the laptop in our room. We don’t have free internet here so I will post this message once we get to our free Internet access area, Mcdonalds Café! Yes, Mcdonalds-Café! They have normal Mcdonalds stores here, but they also have little cafes kinda like star bucks or second cup back home. They are actually pretty cool and have decent items. Anyways, I am gonna sign off for now. I apologize for the long and unorganized entry… I was just writing things as they popped into my head of my recollection of the past two days. I will try to keep the next blog entries a bit shorter and more to the point.
Testing
This is just a test post. I have been packing all my stuff today and now taking a break.
