Heaps of Dingoes..in a big way.. Fraser Island & Sunshine Coast (Week 13)

G'day from Fraser Island!

so this weekend...where do i begin...well, 6:30am Friday Holly, Mari and Hayley picked Taylor and I up...in our little nissan (that legit quick glance was a CRV...ahah) and off we went! We named our pretty silver vehicle Judith..and Judith treated us well this weekend, even though we beat her up a little bit...

Our destination was FRASER ISLAND...  The largest sand island in the world at 1840 km² with a resident human population of 360 people. 

It took us until about 1:30pm to get to Hervey Bay/Rainbow Beach where we let down our tires, bought a vehicle driving permit and our barge ticket, and ate lunch. Pretty soon we were off to the Island...by now, we had no cell phone service and were not so sure the next time we'd get it again. Needless to say, we made it across tretcherous sand to the barge where we drove right on and of course exited our car and snapped a ton of pictures of the gorgeous water and backgrounds.

When we drove off the barge 10 minutes later we were on Fraser Island surrounded by crystal blue water on our right and sand dunes stretching on forever on our left. Holly was driving at this point and we flew right down the GORGEOUS beach. It was breathtaking to be driving freely down a beach, no sight of anything but sand and ocean..it was the most peaceful place in the world.

It was low tide, so we got lucky, and drove freely throughout the beach, it was the most thrilling thing in the world to have this open white sand beach waves crashing, just incredible. On our drive we stopped at the shipwreck called the Wreck of the Maheno (The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings. During the First World War the ship served as a hospital ship in the English Channel, before returning to a luxury liner. In 1935, the ship was declared outdated and on June 25, 1935 the ship was being towed from Melbourne when it was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 9, 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. During the Second World War the Maheno served as target bombing practice for the RAAF and was used as an explosives demolition target by special forces from the Fraser Commando School. The ship has since become severely rusted, with almost three and a half storeys buried under the sand. Climbing on the shipwreck is not permitted. -WIKIPEDIA).. it was pretty cool, though of course I tried to climb inside and in doing so smashed my head...there is a big bump on my forehead- not cool. Yet, we continued on and We drove to the point, and hung out there for awhile. We got in some sun, nice tanning spot. and over this cliff thing you could see all of the sharks, dolphins, sting rays etc. in the water. It was pretty cool. I was laying there with my ipod in and eyes closed next to Holly when all of a sudden I heard Hayley and Mari yell my name and point and I turned around to be only 4 feet from a DINGO! I legit did the exact thing you're told NOT to do...grabbed all of my things, jumped up and sprinted into the car screaming. Of course, once I was safe and doors were slammed shut I snapped pictures..but holy shit was I scared.

We left there soon after and drove back down the beach to this townish kind of place called Happy Valley. This is where we were staying at a friend of Holly and Hayley's house... The Rigbys. These are two guys that Hayley and Holly met when they had visited Colorado last year. The Rigby brothers house was nice, very beachy. It was nice to be able to stay in a bed, compared to our friends that were camping with the dingoes!

The boys hadn't gotten to the Island yet so we went into the backpackers right in Happy Valley and went straight to the bar... after sharing 8 jugs of Pure Blond beer between the 5 of us girls, the boys arrived and we went to their house. We ended up drinking and hanging out there the rest of the night.

Saturday morning we all got up and headed down to the water. We laid out for a bit in the sun and ran into our other friends that had been on the Island as well. After a few hours we decided to go pipin' which is similar to crabbing...and use the pips to go worming in the sand to use the worms as bait to fish. Needless to say, I took the pictures- no slimy moving creatures for me! That wasn't as successful as we had hoped so we headed back to Happy Valley for lunch. The boys took naps and we all laid in the sun on the roof. After showering we tried to venture to the next "town" over but the tide was too high and we wouldn't make it, so we turned around and ate pasta for dinner a second night in a row. After dinner we all hung out and drank again, sharing stories and "playing the friend game" as Taylor calls it- where we would tell ridiculous stories getting to know eachother. We passed out pretty early since we were waking up at 7am Sunday to leave.

When we woke up at 7am we drove off down to the beach to leave the island but the tide was coming up too high for our Judith and we knew we'd get stuck..so that was attempt 1 and we turned around, went back to the boys house and had breakfast/slept some more. At about 10:30 we tried attempt 2, but it was only an hour after high tide and we again weren't going to get out. So at that point we went back to the backpackers bar and ate again, only this time it was lunch food. After that we finally made it out to the barge and off the island. However, on the drive out..we picked up two French men hitchhiking their way down Fraser to the barge to go back to their car on the mainland. They were interesting, nice though..and they were willing to sit in the trunk so it worked out fine! We dropped them at their car and made our way back to Hervey Bay/Rainbow Beach to fill our tires back up and get gas. We went from there to Sunshine Coast..simply following the signs and our instincts, as we had no GPS! It was quite the adventure. At about 4:30pm we arrived in Noosa Heads, and it was amazing!

Noosa is basically a little shopping kind of town, with a gorgeous beach, it's a mix between  Nantucket and the cape in a way...it's the classy version of Byron Bay- even though Byron is my favorite and I am headed there next weekend...

So yes, we shopped and had dinner at a great pizza place and then drove our last 2 1/2 hours home. We finally made it back- clearly needing to extend our rental car a day. It was epic though, a weekend for the record books.

It's Monday now... I have a full day of class tomorrow followed by some birthday celebrations for my friend Kiki and the rest of the week will be busy getting work done to leave for BYRON BAY on Thursday night. We are spending a few nights there...it might just be my last trip to Byron...in who knows how long. I can't wait though. Sydney next week with all of the girls. Should be amazing!

I've been here 3 months now...it's been a wild ride! Can't wait to share more!

xoxo

The Weekend of Facing Fears....Melbourne (Week 11)

G'day from Melbourne!

This weekend was great! I spent it in Melbourne with two friends, Rachel and Marni whom I have known since Dor L' Dor (Israel) in summer 2005. Both are Camp Tel-Noar girls and good friends of mine.

DAY 1: FRIDAY APRIL 30

The journey down to Melbourne began on a very hungover Friday morning. Let me back track first and tell you that when we were booking our flights there was a deal with Jetstar. Though we all sat via Skype from our computers in our rooms booking the flights, I was the only one to click and get the real deal for an 11 am flight. So, off I went flying alone. The only problem was, Marni and Rachel weren't arriving until  5 hours after me.  Needless to say I hired a driver to get me to the airport and I left, my first time ever really flying alone! I made it though safe and sound! I got myself a sandwich and coffee and got cozy with my book while I waited for my friends. They finally got there at 5pm and all was good. We took the Skybus from the airport into the city and took a tram to our hostel from there. We wandered a bit, just long enough to eat dinner at a hidden Thai place. Not too bad, but we were quite full after, stopping at 7/11 just to get some water and Pizza flavored Shapes crackers of course!

Our accommodation was Vic Hall. To call it a hostel would be lying, but to call it a hotel would too. Therefore, it is simply a classy Hall. We had a double bed and a twin bed, a big flat screen TV mounted to the wall and a private bathroom. Classiest hostel ever? It was pretty nice, and the beds were comfy as could be! Great for the relaxing and the sleep we all needed!

DAY 2: SATURDAY MAY 1

Saturday we were up and at it early, as Autopia Tours picked us up at 7 am for our Great Ocean Road tour, the EUREKA Package! To start we headed to a few great surf spots with beautiful views! The entire day was picture perfect, and I sure did take over 100 pictures of it all! At Bells Beach we had our morning tea and biscuits. From there we went to see wild koalas and parrots on our way down Great Ocean Road. The place we stopped for lunch was a quaint little town where we sat on odd rock formations, and bought a woman's homemade baked goods. It was cute! 

There was even an old Asian woman who had no idea how to use a restroom, she left the stall door open, and came out of the stall just to pull up her pants- very strange! After taking fun pictures we were on our way, we saw all of the touristy spots along Great Ocean Road, focusing on look outs and our favorite the Twelve Apostles. This is said to be a wonder of the world.. but I am not quite sure. At the lookout for the Twelve Apostles the three of us took an awesome helicopter ride along the coastline to see the 8 remaining apostles from an incredible viewpoint. There are only 8 left, as the most recent to fall was in 2005. They are rock/limestone formations that over time rot away due to the crash of salt water in the ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous, and being my first helicopter ride that was very cool as well.

From the Twelve Apostles we went on to see other rock formations individually, the Lock and Gorge was pretty, we were basically inside a cave of limestone rocks. Then London Bridge was nice too. The story behind it is that London Bridge fell down, literally. In January, 1990 a couple was out on the far flat area of London Bridge rock, when the connecting piece fell into the ocean. It took 3 hours for the couple to be rescued, giving the media plenty of time to get there and show it live. Having all of this media attention it came out the next day that the couple was actually having an affair! Wrong place at the wrong time or karma? You tell me. 

After seeing that we were headed back to Melbourne. We didn't follow Great Ocean Road back, instead we took the highway to a little town for dinner. There was a huge accident involving an Asian tourist bus and a car colliding. We ended up turning around and delaying dinner to go a different route. Needless to say, dinner was Maccas- nothing special. We were so excited to be dropped off at our accommodation and not have to leave that the second we got back I showered and we watched a movie in bed, passing out soon after.

DAY 3: SUNDAY MAY 2

Today we met up with Marni's parents! They are so sweet. We woke up late, went wandering..and sat at an spresso bar for a bit before meeting marnis parents to go to lunch in federation square. From there we went to the 88th floor skydeck saw the whole city and did the edge ride that sticks out of the building and the floor goes clear so u look straight down 88 floors to the ground- so scary!! I hate heights :( :( and then we went to this ally with tons of street art- soooo  cool, I toook so many pics. Then that's when rach and I split from them and ended up eating meat pies at a great place called Pie Face and went wandering. After realizing how early it was we walked towards our backpackers and decided that instead we'd go for drinks. We considered saki bombs but changed our mind and went to this bar for happy hour. Low key- very low key. We just had a  drink and then came back here. I showered and we laid in bed watching yet another movie, though both tipsy- not at all motivated to go out.

DAY 4: MONDAY MAY 3
So today was pretty cool. Went on a free city tourist tram that takes you all over and explains where you are and such as you go. We ended up getting off in Federation Square but not before seeing a "man" that's no longer a man, but surely a woman jump on the bus with some interesting kids. Rachel and I tried pretty hard not to laugh until we looked at Marni and couldn't hold it in any longer. After wandering for a bit and seeing the ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image) which was pretty neat, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe and headed to the hotel to wait for our tour. When the tourguide arrived we were in a private tour being driven in a mini-van style Mercedes benz. It was silly...but off we went. We went to a couple gorgeous surf spots took tons of pictures of course. Also saw wallabees and then went to a koala reserve and saw kangaroos too. We were so close to cows and bulls too, they were practically coming up sniffing inside the car. Then we had afternoon tea, and then came to phillip island to see the 


penguins!! The penguins literally come up to shore at sunset in what's called rafts, or big groups of 100+. They travel quickly up the beach and waddle their way into their burrows. They made a ton of loud noises and you could clearly tell who was mating and who looked lost. They were just adorable and It was a shame we couldn't take pictures. (The flash hurts the penguins eyes). After that cool experience we had a great dinner (swordfish) and headed home. We went for dessert at Pie Face once we were back in the city, and left her parents after they walked us back to Vic Hall.

DAY 5: TUESDAY MAY 4

Today we had to be out of Vic Hall by 10am. In doing so, we found out that for 15 dollars each they would provide us transportation to the Airport later and give us a free place to lock up our bags, very clutch! We left and walked all around. We started at Queen Victoria Market where we didn't get much other than food and I bought Steve a present :) However it was cool to see, and if I lived there- I'd definitely get my fruits and veggies there- SO MANY CHOICES! We spent a few hours there wandering it like it was a flea market in Florida, before walking towards a new part of town. We were determined to shop! Not before we got delicious crepes though! It was pretty out at this point, cold but nice. We wandered in and out of stores going into Aussie's biggest department store where I felt like I was in Chestnut Hill at Bloomies! It was crazy but we all had the self control not to buy any clothes or anything! I'm proud of us! 

We then had to head back to our accommodation to wait for the transportation to the Airport. Security flew by and then we were waiting to board the plane. It was rainy at this point, but we had to walk across the tarmac and up stairs to board the plane for what was a bumpy and boring flight. Not only that, but when we landed in Goldie, the guy we had hired to pick us up told us he had to wait for the next flight to land in 10 minutes, and gave us each a $5 bill discount for the wait. Only he had a $20 so he gave Marni that, and said to split it. Tacky. Then it turned out I got a little grumpy because AN HOUR later we finally left the airport. Lame. Finally getting back to Griffith Village was nice though, I got to catch up with my girls and shower and I even put some pictures up because I couldn't sleep.

Now, after an amazing weekend getaway I am back on the Gold Coast and facing a bunch of roommate drama, more to come on that later- I'll keep you updated.

Until the next trip,

xoxo

Ruminations... (Weeks 9 and 10)

G'Day!

Not much has happened these two weeks. It's been a busy chaotic mess of figuring out how to get all of my work done and still be able to lay outside in the sun all day, and go to the bars at night. I managed, skipped a few nights out and missed half days out in the sun- no biggie.

I've come to the conclusion however, that these past three months have FLOWN by. I cannot believe that next week is already May. Next comes June and I leave here. It's wild to think about. I mean, I am so used to living here, I feel like when I go home it's just going to be strange, and I'm sure I will talk funny. For sure, my mates will just not understand :). It's going to be more of a culture shock going back to America than it was coming here!

I'm excited though, there is so much ahead. Whenever I picture landing in Logan Airport and seeing the family I picture crying and running and jumping in their arms, as funny as it seems. On top of that, I can't wait to see Steve. I actually get giddy thinking about it!! I miss my boyfriend way too much! I also can't help but think about camp.. and the fact that I only get a few days at home before I leave again to go back to Pembroke. Should be an interesting summer to say the least.

Welll, I am off to Melbourne... :) see you on the return!

xoxo

These few weeks didn't bring much, except excellent Thursday nights at the Tav and fun times in the Village..

Pre-Game Thursdays @ TAV
Left: Me, Lucy & Colleen
Right: Me, Elle & Colleen