The Real Australia

First of all, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!

Sorry again for such a late post, but here is my story from my Christmas adventure:

My fabulous friend Phil: an Englishman I met when I was in Newcastle, has spent this past 7 weeks working on a farm doing program called WWOOFing (willing workers on organic farms) where he works for a few hours a day for his accommodation and food. The family he is wwoofing with graciously invited me to come spend Christmas with them and their friends! So Friday afternoon, after my first full work week, I made my way to their friend’s home right outside Nimbin. When I finally arrived, after a 5 hour bus ride to Lismore and a 40 minute drive to their home, I knew this weekend was going to be a cool experience; The family lived in a cute, cottage-like home right in the middle of the rainforest. The family was not the only creatures inhabiting their land, they where sharing it with two diamond pythons who live on the roof, some wallabies (kind of like mini kangaroos) who hang around, and, in true Australian style, some of the worlds most poisonous spiders.

Phil, Josh (one of the kids of the family Phil works for who is really cool!) and I stayed in a cabin that was not attached to house, but was a muddy up hill walk to get too. Because of the torrential rain that was happening all weekend, the walk was pretty much a slip and slide. I was lucky to have borrowed a pair of gumboots (New Zealand word for rain boots!). The weekend was filled with delicious food, great company and some fun adventures.

On my second day there, we drove into the town of Nimbin; known as the Amsterdam of Australia (if you catch my drift…). The town is only a couple blocks long, smack in the middle of nowhere. It is surrounded by mountains and fields, and filled with dread locks and hippies. Our drive there was quite an journey. The car’s battery was perma-dead, and had been that way for quite a while…Issue? Not for these practical people! Solution: We had to push the car down a hill, work some magic to spark the ignition and VOILA! Battery. Ya…I was pretty impressed.

Anyways, we got back from Nimbin right on time for a glorious Christmas dinner spread: Roast lamb, many different salads, potatoes, bread, tons of beer and wine…YUM!! We spend the night with the family: the adults where friendly, warm and hospitable and their kids where so outgoing and adorable. I really felt like part of the family and it was great to be in a home again for a bit.

That Sunday night, I headed back to Brisbane, to my real world (if you can really call this the real world…). So far, work has been going really well and starting on Saturday my training will be over and I will be a travel agent! Woohoo!! So, if YOU are looking to book anything throughout Australia, you know who to call…

my vacation from my vacation

It has been so long since I have sent you all some love from down under, and I know you are probably all missing me, so don’t worry… this one is extra long…

In Brisbane, the day after I went to the Ashes, I decided that before I start having too much fun to look for work, I should look for a job. I woke up early in the morning, printed myself 30 resumes and handed them out everywhere: retail stores, cafes, restaurants and travel agencies. What a success it was!! By the next afternoon I had received a call back from 3 places, 2 coffee shops and as a TRAVEL AGENT at a backpacker’s travel agency called Peterpans. So, needless to say, I chose Peterpans. I could not have wished for a better opportunity: I will be training in Brisbane but working in Surfer’s Paradise, and trip packages to backpackers! Pretty much a dream of a job! The training is not going to start until the 20^th of December, so Peterpans put me on a trip to Rainbow beach to go for a 3 day camping trip to Fraser Island, all expenses paid for! This is one of the most popular trips that the company sells, so they figured it would be beneficial give me a hands learning experiencing of what I will be selling. Yeah Baby!!

Before heading up to Rainbow beach, I had a few days to waste, so I spend them at the Nomads resort hostel in Noosa Head. Another beautiful place! The hostel had a really nice, tropical pool, which we played in on a rainy day. It had it’s own bar which was a pretty popular place for both backpackers and locals, and it was only a quick walk to the beach, the shops, and a nice national park. PS. I have recently grown accustomed to doing everything barefoot and I absolutely love it! For the past 3 weeks, no matter where I am going, whether it be the 20 min walk to the beach or going grocery shopping, I do it all shoe-free. You all should try it, who knew freedom of the feet could feel so good!

Anyways… I stayed in a fun-filled 16 bed dorm with a group of Australian girls who where taking a vacation from their home in Melbourne, a group of Americans who working for the hostel, an Israeli who I made latkes with for Hannukah. Our door was always open and we all had tons of fun for the 4 days I was there.

Next, I headed up to Rainbow beach: a crappy little town whose sole reason for its existence is due to its proximity to Fraser Island. Although it does have a really beautiful beach, I guess most of Australia’s east coast does, so this place hardly gets much recognition. When I first arrived I was as sick as a dog, so the two nights I spend here I was in bed by 9pm. I couldn’t have planned a better place to get sick because the hostel is really calm as everyone prepares to wake up early for their Fraser Island Adventures.

Finally, Monday morning I woke up at 6 am, sore throat-free (wahoo!) and headed off to Fraser Island. The only means of getting around on this Island is by 4WD and if you were 21 or older and had a license to drive a manual you where able to drive. Of course, my sub-par driving skills prevented me from being able to drive, but I sat in the front most of the time, so it was almost like I was driving and I still felt bad-ass. This Island is the world’s largest sand island. It is a world heritage site, and with reason! It is such a beautiful place. In the three days we where these, we visited 3 fresh water lakes, each which seemed to had magically appeared in the middle of nowhere… like a mirage. One of them, Lake Mackenzie was maybe one of the nicest lakes I had ever seen. The water was so blue and clear! It was amazing. I spend 2 nights and 3 days camping on this Island and it was tons of fun. I was in a group of 10 others, known as group Hawesome. We cooked, cleaned, camped and partied together. It really was an amazing experience.

I am now in Mooloolaba (ya, I know, crazy name!), where there is a torrential downpour and a thunder storm louder then I have ever heard in my life. The metal roof right next door to my hostel got hit by lightening. Eep! It was the loudest and scariest thing ever. I came here in hopes to take up 4 more days of surfing before I head inland to Brisbane to train for my NEW JOB! 

Love and miss you all!

The Ashes

As cricket is one of the biggest sports in Australia, I figured it was a must to make it to The Ashes; the worlds biggest cricket match – Australia vs. England. It took place in Brisbane; at the Gabba cricket stadium. It is a 5 day match (wtf!?) and I attended the 4^th day. The day started at 10am and finally finished early, at 5pm, due to ‘bad light’ (wtf again). Cricket was slightly more interesting then I was expecting, but still averages at a fun level equal to baseball…

The most exciting part of the day was spending my money away on the $6.60 beers and watching as the drunken, male-dominated crowd got rowdy. Although taking place in Australia, it was clear that the majority of the crowd, or at least the majority of the boisterousness of the crowd, definitely lay in the hands of the English. I actually think most of the crowd in the stands were too drunk to even watch the match by noon, and spend the rest of the day bantering. Of course, the favourite cheer of these Englishmen had absolutely nothing to do with the cricket game, but instead where singing drunken bus tour songs like Yogi Bear, and the store in Chicago! It was hilarious hearing grown men sing songs that I would only bust out if I was on some sort of Krista’s birthday related event. I noted some good ones for the next time…

I’ll leave you with the favourite cheer of the day…sang to every one of the woman in the crowd, should they be ballsy enough to leave their seats for any reason (and if you know the size of my bladder, you can unfortunately assume that throughout the day I was privy to this cheerful invitation more then a few times.)

“Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, get your tits out!”

Don’t worry…I ignored it.

Camp B'nai Byron

After almost three weeks in Newcastle we finally got out. We took a ten hour, overnight bus up the coast to the hippie town of Byron Bay. We arrived, tired and groggy, to the messiest 16 bed room dorm we have ever seen. It felt like I was taking a step back in time to my years at camp living in a cabin with a bunch of messy girls.

Little did we know though, that this week, and for the next 3 weeks, is what is nationally known as ‘Schoolies’. What is schoolies you may ask’? It is spring break for graduating high school students. So, I am partying in Australia’s version of Cancun, with high school students everywhere. As for anyone who isn’t a high school student around here, they are called ‘Toolies”…Guess that’s me!

Despite the decision to come here at a really unfortunate time, I absolutely LOVE Byron Bay. It is a really gorgeous town, filled with coffee shops, great shopping and tons of tourists. There are great paths to run on, a pretty beach to go relax, and a never ending nightlife. The hostel I am staying in, although being fairly mess and small, is TONS of fun. Everyone who comes here stays around for at least a week, if not more, so it is easy to actually get to know everyone. I have been here for over a week now, spending most of my time with a group of 4 Canadians.

Up until now, it has been raining most of the time I have been in Byron, which cuts down on what I can do while I am here…but it still has not cut down on fun. Everyone in Byron Bay seems to be the most fit and beautiful people I have ever seen, which has been so encouraging to keep healthy and fit. It is really a great environment!

Tomorrow, I will be heading 2 hours up he coast to Brisbane with two English blokes who I met here to go watch the Ashes; a 5 day long cricket match Australia vs. England.

…When in Rome!

Housekeeping

It has been almost 2 weeks now that I have been living in the Newcastle YHA hostel and working for free accommodation. The work, although unfavourable, is fairly easy; I spend 2 hours a day cleaning the hostel, from making beds (the easier job) to cleaning bathrooms (not as gross as you would think…but still sucks). Probably my favourite part of the job is that I get to laugh at Mark knocking on people’s doors and say ‘housekeeping’ and actually be serious about it. It never fails to make me giggle.

Considering people usually only spend 2 – 3 days traveling through Newcastle, I am now, in backpacker terms, considered an expert on the hostel and the town. It has been cool to be able to get to know this place a little bit better then the average backpacker and the hostel is a really homey place. I would definitely recommend a Newcastle visit to anyone!

There is also a group of 6 of us who work here together and have gotten to know each other really well; 1 from Sweden, 2 from Germany, 1 from England, Mark and I. the daily break down normally goes down like this: 9:45 wake up, work from 10-12, spend the afternoon on the beach, do some dinner, and get to gooning. It has been a pretty relaxing couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to moving somewhere new and exciting in the near future…

PS. We are EATING Kangaroo for dinner tomorrow… stay tuned for those ‘hop’penings. 

The Melbourne Cup

One of the first things I’ve noticed about Australians: they LOVE to gamble. There is an abundance of gambling bars and almost every bar has a machine in it where you can gamble, which apparently rakes in tons of money.

So, although yesterday was not a holiday, it was expected that most of Australia would be non-functioning and drunk by 3pm to watch the nation famous Melbourne Cup. Of course, we took part in the Australian tradition; we placed our bets and parked our butts in front of the TV to watch the horse race. It was great! I ended up being really successful In our hostel-wide sweepstakes, I pulled ‘Zavite’ out of a hat. In my actual bet, I bet on ‘Maluckyday’ to place. I got lucky both times!! ‘Zavite came in dead last, which got me some chocolate for my sorrows (aka best win ever!) and for ‘Maluckyday’s’ 2^nd place standing, I made myself six bones! Exciting!

A Halloween Nightmare

On our second day in Port Stephens, Mark and I decided to go for a leisurely 45 min bike ride to check out the town of Port Stephens and to hike Tomaree Head; a kilometre hike that rewards you with an amazingly gorgeous view of the bay, the town, the ocean and Port Stephens infamous lighthouse.

Once we reached the summit, we noticed that there were rain clouds rolling in. We decided that we should try and bike it back before we got stuck in the rain. Fail. About 5 minutes into our difficult, uphill bike ride, it started to thunder. And then lightening. And then rain. And this was not regular Canadian rain that I am used to, but a torrential downpour. The thick raindrops were blinding and hurt when it fell on our skin. I was praying that the piece of crap bike that we rented would make it through this mess, without being struck by lightening, hit by a tree, or simply falling apart in the stress of the matter. Thankfully we made it back to our hostel…right on time for the rain to stop.