Weekend in the Sun(Rain,&Cloud)Shine Coast

On Day 1, the Sunshine Coast, was the Rainy Coast, Day 2 it was the Cloudy Coast, and on Day 3 it was the SUNSHINE COAST!!!! Wahoo.

I stayed at a friend's (Sarah) place on residence at the University of the Sunshine Coast. It was a nice set up there. She's got access to two pools, a gym, a beach volleyball court, and tennis and basketball courts. The Friday night wasn't the greatest. It just rained and rained, and I ended up watching a chick flick with 7 Canadian Girls. I did go to Australia Zoo .... didn't go in, but I bussed into the parking lot.

On Saturday we headed to Mooloolaba (try saying that one) Beach for a day of fun in the cloud. Went for a quick dip in the water. It was very busy there as they had a Tri event going on. The best part of the day was Hacky Sack Yoga man. By far the most unbelievable Hacky Sacker I've ever seen. He was doing tricks that were unimaginable, then he would balance the ball on his foot and do crazy yoga moves. Unreal! The cloudy was not all bad.... it resulted in one the best sunsets I've seen in Aussieland. And, since the University is loaded with kangaroos, I was able to get my dream (Kangaroo Sunset) Photo. Although it's not bouncing, I still like it!

The Sunday was great. Sarah and I just hung out at the pool and read. The sun was shining. Then some German guys asked if I'd join in for some Beach Volleyball. Are you kidding me??? Of Course!!!! Lots of fun, until a Super-German came in. I like playing against Super players cause it forces you to play well, but when you play with one, all he wants is to smash the ball the whole time. Not a team player. Then had to say goodbye to the life of a student and head back to Brisbane, ready for the trip to Fraser Island tomorrow!

The pool with the beach volleyball court in the back ....

Uploaded photos to my photosite.

Rain Rain Go Away

Leaving Brissy this morning. It's pouring rain again. Boooooo!!!!! I'm hoping the Sunshine Coast lives up to its name!

Surfer's Paradise? More Like ......

Surfer's Notsonice. At least weatherwise because it was terrible today. I should have known since it was raining in Brisbane. When I got to Surfer's Paradise (2 hours south by train/bus), it was absolutely pouring.

The city is very strange. It's like a mix between Las Vegas, Honolulu, and some Theme Parkland. Highrises on the beach, casinos everywhere, and there seems to be like 10 major theme parks. I was hoping for a day at the beach, and maybe take a surfing lesson, but that didn't happen.
What saved the day was finding a Pele book at the bookstore. He's got the same birthday as me. Gotta love Pele!
I also got my flight home booked with Cathay Pacific. They are so friendly and helpful. Going to stay in HK for 16 hours and try to do some sort of day tour. We'll see how that goes!!!

Putting the Gordon Head to Brisbane

Today was another fun day exploring Brisbane. However, I had a friend, Minnie, along for the trip. We worked together at the Bay and both grew up in Gordon Head! She's now doing her Masters here in Brisbane. Today was filled with fun. Botanic Gardens, Lunch at the Irish Club (nice recommendation), I booked up the rest of tour (see below), got some slurpees, walked around, hit the fake beach, headed to the Art Gallery (they took my backpack from me) and then went to the museum.

Tomorrow, I'm training down to Surfer's Paradise for the day, then Friday training North to Sunshine Coast to stay a couple nights with another former Bay co-worker. I'll then head back to Brisbane on Sunday. Then leave on a 2 night Fraser Island Tour, that brings me back to Brisbane. Then off to Cairns on the Thursday and am there for 8 nights. Fun Stuff!!!!

Sadly, the end is in sight. But the Switzerland eyes are beginning to open!!!! Will probably look into booking my Perth to Van flight in the next couple days. All the best!!!

Australia Literally!!!!! I'm Back!

I'm back in Brisbane. Leaving behind beautiful New Zealand. I was happy to leave Auckland. I found it to be a bit dirty, boring and smelly. However, I was sad to leave all the friends I've made. The early morning flight was crazy, I got there 2 hours before the flight but spent about 1:30 in lineups, so the time flew by. Also, I got the Emergency Exit seat again without asking. I guess the single, tallish, young male is what they look for to put in those seats. I didn't complain. The movie was August Rush. Had never heard of it before, but was entertaining. I left Auckland at 7:30am and arrived in Brisbane at 8:00am.... a quick flight.

Brisbane is hot, and muggyish. My backpacker's is shitty. But had free wireless internet. You give a little, you get a little. That won't matter if my laptop gets stolen though. Hopefully not. Today, I just walked around the city, and now my feet hurt. I have a friend living in Brisbane, so I will hopefully meet up with her tomorrow, then maybe head to Gold Coast (Surfer's Paradise) for the day on Thursday. On Friday, I am planning to head north to Sunshine Coast, where another friend is going to Uni there. After that, things are still in the air. But will likely head to Fraser Island then fly to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef).

Nothing really funny happened today. Pics here.

North Island Part 2

Day 12

Before leaving Rotorua, we stopped off at the Agrodome to watch a sheep show. Yeah!!! It was very entertaining, especially when we did comical things with the sheep’s wool. The highlight was when one of our more “senior” tour members was sprayed by cow’s milk and then she tried to steal a lamb. Very funny. Off we headed on our way to Waitomo, the site of limestone caves. On the way, we found a shop that had a beach cricket set. SCORE!!!! Myself, an aussie bloke and a Japanese girl had a thrilling cricket match before we set off for our Caving Adventures. I participated in the Blackwater Rafting. It was actually just tubing in the pitch black in an ice cold cave. We did have wet suits and headlights. The craziest parts were that we had to jump down waterfalls, you just put the tube on your butt, hold your breath, and jump backwards. The guides actually helped with a push. I’ll put up some photos of the caving in general. Unfortunately, the CD with our groups photos didn’t work properly.

The most bizarre part of this day was going to see a rabbit get shaved. You’ll have to check out the photos to believe it, but they tie the rabbit up just like Mel Gibson in Braveheart (no blue face paint). They then go crazy with the shavers!

Day 13

Due to a fun pizza party the night (it was technically the last day for all of us north islanders), I forgot my Beach Cricket set at the hotel in Waitomo. D’oh! It was going to be fun in the bay of Islands. We dropped off the 10 or so leaving us in Auckland and headed to Pahia or something like that. I’m just calling it Bay of Islands. This was one of those long drives and no photos days. The weirdest part though was that we dropped off 10, but picked up 30 as another Contiki tour was starting as ours finished. Lots of new people to meet. To make up for the lost cricket set, we purchased a soccer ball, and kicked it around. At the same time, the sand flies came out and destroyed my legs. Great.

Day 14.

The fun day at the Bay of Islands. Myself, and about 5 other from the OLD group took part in an all day Dolphin/Catamaran extravaganza. There were many more NEW people as well. Part 1 was the Dolphin watching, we cruised for a couple hours before finally spotting a couple dolphins. We had the option of swimming with them at a cost of $30. If you hit the water, you had to pay. I was in my swim trunks, and thinking about it, but unsure as the dolphins did not seem very friendly. 3 friends from the OLD group got wet suited up and were all ready to give it a go, however, 18 people had already jumped in (that was the max allowed at one time). What happened next was extraordinary. The dolphins went left, the dolphins, went right, the dolphins went out far …. The people just didn’t move. Only one guy actually started swimming anywhere, and funnily enough the dolphins actually swam up and with him. No one else even got to see the dolphins while they were in the water. That’s 17 x $30. They didn’t let a second group go as the dolphins were not friendly enough.

Part 2 was the much better part. It was a cruise/lunch on a wicked catamaran. All we did was lounge around drinking beer and wine, and having a great time. One german dude hit the booze hard with his bro and picked up a $120 tab. We docked for two hours at one of the islands and snorkeled, explored, kayaked, and Donuted (inner tube behind a boat). Very fun time. That night was the last night for our group. So sad.

Day 15
Left the Bay of Islands, and made it to Auckland. Auckland is dirty and smelly. Not a huge fan so far. I went to the wrong backpackers as there are 2 with the same name in a 5 block radius. The afternoon was spent with some of us old group members lying in a park.

Post tour….. on Saturday (today for me), several of us tour members ferried over to Waiheake (sp?) Island and spent the day bussing around and lounging on the beach. A very fun day.

Updated more photos again.....

North Island .... Part 1

technically done the tour now .... just catching up on things

Day 8 (I think)
This was another long travel day. We got a new tour manager in Christchurch (wahoo), and headed off for our adventure in the North Island. Along the way we hit some beautiful roads, and got out at a few gorgeous beaches. We then made it to the InterIslander (the ferry that crosses the Sound between the North and South Island). Contiki doesn’t put there busses on the ferry, they just unload one tour at the port, and then load the other tour going in the reverse direction. Our group got out, and then cleared our luggage into a van for the ferry. Then the other tour group’s manager started putting their tour’s luggage in the coach. Then for some strange reason 5 of our people on the tour starting helping this manager load the coach. I admit, that I did not help, as I was the only person who realized that the ENTIRE other tour group was standing about 10 yards away just watching their luggage get put in by another group. I was dumbfounded at how stupid these people were.

The ferry over was cool. There appeared to be 10 decks on the ship. Or as were announced by the kiwi crew … “dicks”. “Liferafts and jackets can be found on Dick 6 but not Dick 7”. The ferry had 2 movie theatres, a pub, a nice cafeteria, and some wicked Lookouts. I had bought a box of Froot Loops a few days earlier, so I went for a bowl of cereal. Just follow your Nose!

We arrived in Wellington around 5:30, and I quickly headed off in search to meet up with Thea, a friend from University. It was nice to have a break from the tour, I was going to call it an early night as I still wasn’t feeling well, but thought I would stop at the restaurant where the group was having dinner to see what was going on. I’m still quite shocked about this place. First, the bouncer looked like he was ready to tackle me when I tried to walk in ….. I then asked if “Contiki” were still there, he smiled and welcomed me in to the strip show that was going on. Even more disturbing than that were these male predators. There were about 10 to 15 guys prowling around from girl to girl, or in some cases guy to guy, or guy to girl, with the goofy “I want to have sex with you tonight” smile. I think I got hit on about 5 times, and one guy gave me his number. I only kept it because he somehow wrote it on a coupon from one free dinner at the restaurant. Anyhow, there were a few moments where we really had to push them off. At one point one got so aggressive he knocked a girl’s drink over, and shattered the glass on the table. Kiwis seem not to know that No, means NO!!!

Day 9

Sleep in !!!! Wahoo, first one so far on the trip. This day was an All Wellington affair. I met up with Thea late in the morning and she took me up the hills to her office building. She works for the Metservice (Meteorologist), so the building is in a wicked location, with awesome views. Then went down through Wellington’s Botanic Gardens, past the Beehive (Parliament Buildings), then along the Harbour for lunch watching the Dragon Boat Races. We then got tickets (scalper tickets) for a NZ vs England Cricket match. We sat with the Barmy Army. The English fans that spend their lives following the tricket. Barmy means Mental, and let’s just say that is a fair name for these fans. There were some wicked costumes: Spiderpig, batman, and robin, dresses, ginger spice, seargent peppers. They also had cheers for every situation (ex. Cute girl walking by with ugly boyfriend ….. they spontaneously break out into “Is she really going out with him?”). Most fun I’ve ever had at any sporting event. I forgot there was even a cricket match on.

Wellington was a really awesome city. I could have easily spent a week there. It’s got a small San Francisco look to it. All I need to find is an Uncle Joey and Uncle Jesse. Oh man, a beach boys song just came on at the hotel right this second. Makes me think of the Beach Boys episode. Ok, Cut it Out.

Day 10

Wellington to Taupo. Yadda yadda, driving again, stopped on the road to see Mt Doom. They love their Lord of the Rings here. Not too much exciting going on at Lake Taupo. Myself and one of the girls participated in a Lake Hole In One challenge, with a floating green. We failed. The night was filled with an Irish Pub of course. In prep for tomorrow. Then off to the Karaoke. We brought the house down performing S Club 7 …. “everybody get down tonight”.

Day 11

On to my favourite day. Or at least what was supposed to be my favourite day. Surprise surprise. We actually stopped on the 1 hour drive from Lake Taupo to Rotorua at Huka Falls. Only 5 of us actually walked out to the falls. That was strange. We then headed to the Zorb at Rotorua. Zorbing consists of going inside a plastic bubble and then rolling down a hill. You can either get strapped in, or go in with no harnassess, but lots of water. There are also two tracks, a straight downhill one, and a zig zag one. This was the #1 thing I wanted to do in NZ. Unfortunately, as I was signing up and clicking off disclaimers, you are not allowed to with heart conditions, yadda yadda, other sicknesses, or if you’ve ever dislocated your shoulder. Technically I was still allowed to go down the straight one, as long as I lay on my back and didn’t move the whole trip down, but the risk was in my own hands. Or shoulder. They also mentioned that they frequently have people dislocate their shoulders in the Zorb. Great! I decided that 8 months of pain wasn’t worth it for 5 seconds of fun.

It’s too Luge to Apologize. So after the disappointment of zorbing, some of us headed to the Luge tracks. This was absolutely the funniest thing ever. First off we painted our faces green (St Patty’s Day), and then we raced down the tracks at break neck speeds. There were a few running of people off the road, and some wicked collisions. It was absolutely awesome.

Rotorua smells like Rotten Eggs. In Rotorua, I went to get some alcohol, and got refused for the first time in my life. And that was even with my ID. I didn’t have my passport though. It may not have helped that I still had green face paint on from St Patty’s Day. Persistence paid off when I tried again, and got refused again, this time at a grocery store. Fortunately I got the lineup on my side and they caved.

The night was fun. We had a cultural Maori performance at a traditional site …. The Hotel Lobby. It was a lot of fun. Lots of yelling, and spinning sticks. I got up on stage with some of the other guys and performed the Haka. After dinner we headed for a room party, then off to the local Polynesian spas for some warm tubbage action. A very fun day.

Continuing to add photos to my photosite
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