Next time you hear from me, I will be in America.

Where did the time go?

–me

I’ll miss my morning routine: wake up, make two scrambled eggs, toast two pieces of (stolen) bread, side of tomato sauce, sprinkle the eggs with garlic salt/butter and Italian herbs, with a multivitamin to top it off. Following breakfast was always a barefoot walk in my pajamas out to “check the mailbox,” i.e. check to see how amazing the weather was.
I’ll miss the convenience store, aka St. Lucia Supermarket, where I solely bought eggs, yogurt, bread, cheerios, and ice cream.
I’ll miss the proximity to garlic naan for $2.50.
I’ll miss paying in change, because when you pay in change, it doesn’t count.
I’ll miss the pretty colors of Australian money and the fact that it’s made of plastic and therefore waterproof!
I’ll miss coming home at around dusk to hear my neighbor’s kid practicing his violin. Crapily, but preciously nonetheless.
I’ll miss the “DING” noise that the TransLink buses made when someone would press the stop button.
I’ll miss rocking up to Emmanuel for random meals and having a new person question my residency there every time. And breaking other rules, like getting hot chocolate in the plastic cups. Oops.
I’ll miss my BIKE. The Southern Star. While I was decidedly elated for the first few weeks, it began to fall apart fairly soon after purchase. By the end of it, my bike had two broken pedals (one fastened via Piers’ ziptie remedy), couldn’t shift gears on the lefthand side, struggled to go up any sort of incline, and a regularly flat front tire. It lives on with Brenton.
I’ll miss “Bike Lady” being the first contact on my phone.
I’ll miss having “Destiny” as my ringtone and having a built-in flashlight on my phone.
I’ll miss the random occurrences that made me double take: seeing a possum walk across a telephone wire at night, four black hawk helicopters buzzing around St. Lucia, the random guy on the street asking you “How awesome are YOU?!”, etc.
I’ll miss walking into either of my religion courses with Sylvie, knowing that the loud music bellowing down the hall is most likely coming from my classroom.
I’ll miss observing the CCC in religion and violence with Gen, and Gen in general.
I’ll miss the on-campus lolly shop, which had me hooked on Crunchie Bars.
I’ll miss biking home from campus/Emmanuel at 2 AM, speeding downhill through the bus stop, along the biological sciences library, and down the hill that I slaved over biking up much much earlier in the day, and having the whole road to myself.
I’ll miss riding down Brisbane Street with no hands into my housing complex.
I’ll miss the way UQ looked at night, especially through the arches into the Great Court, which was underlit with orange path lights.
I’ll miss riding the City Cat. From my first ride the day after I landed up until my last ride into the city, the allure of jetboating on the Brisbane River as a form of public transport never got old.
I’ll miss going to Emmanuel supper to get biscuits/cookies and also developed my affinity for vegemite and butter on toast.
I’ll miss the ability to sometimes be walking on campus and see five people I knew in a row and another time go the whole day unnoticed.
I’ll miss having to duck while riding my bike up the initial stretch of my street, lest I be pecked on the head by swooping magpies.
I’ll miss Wednesday night training sessions with the Lovers.
I’ll miss six dollar thai. A lot.
I’ll miss, admittedly, being called Princess by my favorite group of Australians.
I’ll miss the proximity to beautiful beaches both north AND south of Brisbane, care of the Sunshine and Gold Coasts.
I’ll miss the chocolate covered honeycomb muesli bars from Woolies. Heck, I’ll miss the fact that they call granola “muesli.”
I’ll miss “toMAHto sauce” being ketchup, restaurants always being BYO, capsicum being pepper, and the term “entrée” being used for appetizers.
I’ll miss the gorgeous sunsets, whether from a lookout point on Byron Bay or just from the library on campus.
I’ll miss people saying “cheers” instead of “you’re welcome.”
I’ll miss the wonderful sense of freedom and independence I had while being half way around the world from my hometown, despite not being the country that touts those two things so darn much.
I’ll miss the feeling of winning a national championship in the sport I love, and the honor of being recognized with the best of the best.
I’ll miss randomly showing up at Brenton’s house, either to steal food for spontaneous camping trips or just to get schooled in Mario Kart 64.
I’ll miss Piers telling me to get “happy chicken” eggs, “six dollar thai!” chants, and our phone chats.
I’ll miss the way JJ says “UM!”
I’ll miss gossiping with Megs, getting the finger from Tash, hearing awkward your mom jokes from Kaitlin, and cooking with Molly.
I’ll miss Australian ultimate, which is growing and improving quickly, all while retaining an immense sense of community. Free drinks for spectators at men’s league finals are fun too.
I’ll miss the way the sun feels here, despite the fact that I was 800% more likely to get skin cancer because of it.
I’ll miss the immense potential for adventure and activity; rock climbing, biking, kayaking, sky diving, bungy jumping, swimming, bush walking, camping, city hopping, etc etc.
I’ll miss LOOKOUT POINTS. Everywhere I went, whether city, desert, rainforest, or beach, there they were. And I loved every single one.
I’ll miss my balcony, which was the reason I picked that room in my house.
I’ll miss being kept busy by traveling and building new friendships, rather than schoolwork.
I’ll miss being able to spot the Southern Cross in the night sky.
I’ll miss my Sigg and my Ray Bans, which have officially taken up residence somewhere in Brisbane. Lucky.
I’ll miss the year-round nice weather that Brisbane has to offer. 70 degree day winters?
I’ll miss South Bank, which is where I met my climbing friends at Kangaroo Point and was just a reminder that cities CAN incorporate natural beauty.
I’ll miss all of my international travel buddies; Casey, James, Kris, Hannah, Jenny, Lindsay, Cory, Jeff, Jon, Matt, Meghan, and of course Alex and her friends who visited me during their spring break.
I’ll miss complaining about how Australian bacon is NOT bacon at all!
I’ll miss the heaps of junkmail we would get, mostly to a fellow by the name of “Lemel Lau.”
I’ll miss the novelty of telling people I meet that I’m “studying abroad” and having people being legitimately interested in what a religion major is all about.
I’ll miss Greyhound, Premier Motors, Jetstar, Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways, and Qantas being some of my top hits online.
I’ll miss updating here. Writing has never been so fun!
Etc, etc, etc….

Brisbane, Bribie Island, Mt. Coot-tha, North Stradbroke Island, the Whitsundays, rock climbing in the Glasshouse Mountains, Byron Bay and Nimbin, Noosa and the Australia Zoo, Vanuatu, Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast, Moreton Island, Fraser Island, Darwin, New Zealand, Melbourne, Caloundra, Lizard Island, Cairns, Alice Springs and Uluru, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, and last but not least, Sydney.

And to think the thing I was most scared about before coming abroad was that I wouldn’t take advantage of the travel opportunities…

Anyway, I meant to have this type of post written before leaving for the reef, but obviously it was a very hectic (and sad) last few days. I said goodbye to almost everyone, though, and am happy with the way things ended in Brisbane. The end of my time in my host city came FAST, seeing as I busied myself to the last second, causing it to sort of smack me in the face. At the moment, however, I am on Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef with my parents and I must admit, it’s quite a lovely distraction. Pretty much a 180 from the way I’ve been traveling haha but it has been enjoyable. We are here another couple days before heading to the iconic red center of Australia, Uluru.

While I don’t mind sharing the little things that will make me miss Brisbane and surrounds, this post is really for me. I know it’s corny, but y’know, that’s just the way I am! . Oh, ps, I totes saw Nemo today. That was nice.

Kbye! Updates like I used to do are probably over (lots of pictures, LOTS of words, full analysis, etc) but if I get an internet connection along the way, I’ll try to post some tasty pictures. Nom.

–me

• This trip was completely solo. Independent. I booked it without anyone traveling with me. I didn’t know where I was staying until around dinner time after I landed and was perfectly content with the situation not being sorted prior to my arrival. I trusted Piers to help me out, and he of course did. No rush necessary!
• I used public transportation seamlessly without questioning any one during the entirety of my stay. I used the buses, trams, and trains to get everywhere I wanted to go and didn’t let a bit of unfamiliarity stop me from going places.
• I stayed with a wonderful family and girl who I actually randomly had played Ultimate against back in July, Mish. Her family was incredibly welcoming, despite most of them not knowing of my arrival until I actually showed up (heck, MISH didn’t know until that day haha) and I felt so comfortable just being in a house with a family. And they have chickens, an aviary, a goose, some other awkward bird with a fro, and a dog and a cat! So that was exciting.
• Melbourne is built for wandering. And I did just that for a lot of my alone time. My first day had me wandering through the arcades, cafes, shopping streets such as Bourke St, watching a hilarious (to me) “tree lighting” ceremony with live music, ornate cathedrals such as St. Paul’s, and so much more. I also went up to the top of the Rialto Towers, a popular lookout over the city and took some wonderful shots of the city during the day and night (free re-entry!).
• The next day, I met up with Piers and a couple of his teammates/friends for Saturday morning breakfast on Degraves Street, which is an alleyway tucked off of Flinders Street, home to several utterly adorable cafes with storefronts that lead into the street and umbrellas and chairs that flood the middle of the street. Piers, Seb, Basil, and I sat there literally for three hours and Piers and I even ate through two breakfasts, as the Barr brothers joined us later. It was too perfect.
• Said bye to Piers in the afternoon and wandered onto the tram to head into St. Kilda, a popular suburb outside of the city. What a great choice! Situated on probably the most accessible beach for Victorians, there is a long stretch of (extremely populated) beach with a nice pier that I walked out onto for a good view of the city center in the distance. Walked over to Luna Park, which is a small classic looking theme park, with the entrance being through a giant mouth of a clown haha. Creepy, but a good picture, which you cant see so ha! Then Acland Street proceeded to complete my life, seeing as there were multiple cake/pastry shops in a ROW. I finally picked one and had tiramisu. Mmm.
• Meghan was spontaneously visiting Melbourne from Sydney that same weekend and flew in that evening! I met up with her and Vanessa and we had dinner together. A joyous reunion.
• The next morning, the three of us did an all day tour of the amazing Great Ocean Road. Literally more than twelve hours total. The Twelve Apostles may be one of the strangest natural occurances I’ve witnessed with my own two eyes. Crazy! Google image this one, for real. I’m making you guys WORK!
• Monday: I lazed around the house for a while after getting up early the last few days. Made some eggs with their fresh chicken eggs and finally said my goodbyes to the family. Finally made it into the city for lunch with the girls, had a tasty cupcake from a delightful little specialty shop on Degraves and then hopped to the airport.
• Kaitlin picked me up, said my goodbyes to her once she dropped me off (:() and then quickly met up with Gen for Thai food (<3!) and then said goodbye to HER as well (more ). Rushed to campus to say bye to Jenny as well before she hopped on her bus away.

So yes, thats a very GENERAL outline. There are many intricate observations and details that I fully intended to flesh out, but alas, due to the arrival of my parents (!!) in just six or so hours, that time commitment just isn’t possible. But I will leave you with this sentiment. When you travel alone, you do rely on yourself, even when you have people looking out for you. You have to feel comfortable being alone and by yourself, even when surrounded by thousands of people (which was the case in this scenario). At this point in my study abroad experience, I have traveled a lot (if you couldn’t tell…) and with a lot of different people for different types of experiences. It’s been a long journey. Sometimes, you just need that time for yourself to explore and relax. I got to pick everything I wanted to do and wasn’t held back by anyone or anything. I walked around with confidence and curiousity and in general felt at peace. Because there were times when I was literally by myself for six hours or more at a time, I had a lot of time to think. And a lot of that thinking time turned into reflection time. The last year or so confronted me with a lot of challenges that I have had to adapt to and really changed who I am as a person. Some of these things havent sat well with me for a while, but while I’m always changing, I really valued some of the conclusions/epiphanies I had while I had time to myself. And I feel at ease and content with who I am and where I’m going in my life. For now…haha. And considering the RIDICULOUS amount of times I have discussed and defended my major here (religion, for those just tuning in) for example, that is a wonderful thing.

So moral of the story is: Take some time for yourself. I dont care if you can’t just go fly random places like I’ve been doing so frequently because there are other ways to do it. Heck, just go for a walk alone for a bit. There’s plenty to see without someone constantly on your hip. I love being with people and interacting with them like its my job (hopefully someday!), but enjoying your own company is just as important because, in reality, you’ll always have yourself. Cant say the same for any other human being that enters your life, no matter how much you think they will hang around. So learn to love yourself why dont you?

OK now it’s scary how soon my parents are showing up…ah! Once I start jetsetting with them, the updates may not come, depending on my access to the internet. Hopefully I can post little bits since we will be getting around quite a bit! A last hurrah post from Brisbane will most likely get cranked out before leaving in a couple days as well…sadface. But for now, hope you enjoyed the lack of photos and slightly less wordy post .

–me

As much as that disclaimer is true, I really hope that I can transfer into words the way I’ve been feeling ever since I came home from New Zealand. Seriously, I’m not sure what’s up with me these past few days. I am 100% happy, I love everything about life right now, and my heart is literally racing with excitement all the time (like right now!!!). I just walked out of my MARS bio exam and am now officially complete with University of Queensland studies. Done. Kaput. Finito. I cant believe it…am I a dork for wishing it wasnt over yet? Regardless, I am complete and that is certainly adding to the heart-pounding. I am not kidding when I say I studied for one hour, calculated that I only needed to answer 6 out of 50 correctly to pass the course, and then upon beginning the exam, made sure I could indeed answer six questions, allowing me to race through the test in less than a half hour. Equal study time for exam time? Sounds legitimate to me! But without further ado, allow me to commence what will quite possibly (and hopefully) be my best update yet: New. Zealand.

If I didn’t get into UQ, the University of Otago in Dunedin was my second choice. After what little of New Zealand I was privileged to experience, I know confidently that I would have been just as happy there. However, I only had a week of time to spare there before my single exam and figured a bus tour would help me make the most of my time there. I booked through the travel agent on campus (thanks to the recommendation of Gen), and Matt followed suit a couple days later. As quickly as I had booked, Saturday afternoon rolled around, with Matt and I hitching a ride to the airport with Gen, and preparing for our quick flight over to Sydney for a bit of a layover. Landing in Sydney is always exciting, as the skyline is a bit more distinctive than under-the-radar Brisbane. Spotting the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House might have excited me a little too much, seeing as the older couple sitting in the two seats next to me judged me slightly. Whatevs. Anyway, little did we know how difficult things would become upon landing…

Bit of background information: Back in August, my intelligent companion, Matthew Paul, sent his very important travel document, The Passport, through the washing machine after our trip to the Whitsundays. Totally necessary to travel with a passport within the country. Anyway, the ticket counter guy in Brisbane didn’t do much else other than give Matt a hard time about its wrinkly frayed-ness, and we thought very little of it. However, after I passed through customs in Sydney, Matt proceeded to show his passport and got systematically destroyed by the customs lady. She laid down the law: “This passport is UNACCEPTABLE. You MUST get this replaced. You will NOT be allowed back into Australia with a passport in this condition.” We were flabbergasted. Eight days in NZ. On a tour for seven. Not exactly limitless funds. And an exam on November 10th. The situation was not favorable to flying to the US Embassy/Consulate, which is located in Auckland aka NOT anywhere near where we were going to be. We fought with her for a bit, with me trying my best Dad impression (you always seem to talk your way through anything ), and her eventually getting fed up with us…she claims to have been “going above and beyond the call of duty by still talking with us.” Yeah. Bullshit, lady. She recommends that Matt still go to New Zealand, as they would accept his passport there, and figure it out from there. She claimed that the process was “relatively easy” and that it happens “all the time.” Apparently, we could simply mail the passport and have them expedite it back by the time we returned to Christchurch. Man, lady, you sure fooled us…

Matt proceeded to spend the rest of our layover trying to figure things out by calling the consulate (closed all weekend…) and figuring out the situation with his mom. I got us a bag of mini-Toblerones to try to ease the situation, but honestly, I couldn’t believe the drama that arose from one person’s opinion on the state of a passport. I literally felt like I was in a movie when they called for boarding and Matt was still in limbo about whether he should get on the plane or not, causing me to say to him in desperation, “Do you want me to get on this plane or not?” Hahaha looking back on it, it was pretty epic. He decided to come, we boarded, and had the chance to settle down for a few hours. We landed in Christchurch a little after midnight and figured out the bus into the center of the city. We fortuitously grabbed the last bus and were quickly transported to the middle square of the city. Upon stepping out of the bus, the two of us quickly grew fond of the unique little bit of scenery that we were plopped into, while also appreciating the cool clean air that has slowly been disappearing from Brisbane as we near summer. Base Backpackers, our hostel for the night before and after the tour, was right by the center square, which was the location for the iconic Christchurch Cathedral. We checked in and decided to take a look at the Cathedral. Upon reaching the front doors, they were locked, but since the next morning was conveniently Sunday, we noticed there was a service going on at 7:30! With our tour meeting at 9, this was ideal, and we decided to wake up for church. We went to bed after having a stress bomb of a day, anticipating the start of the (planned) adventure…

After waking up to an unfortunate cacophony of incremental snoring by the guy below me (seriously, who snores with increasing pitch?), Matt and I bailed in time to snag a less-than-healthy breakfast at Maccas before heading into the cathedral. Entering the church was awesome; there are so many things within churches that make them unique, and I made sure to check out as much as I could before the service started. We were directed to sit right up in the choir pews (the church being not the most popular destination for people on Sunday mornings from what I could see…) and we were part of a congregation of about 20. More people trickled in as it went on, but still, not exactly a full house. It was All Saints Day on November 1, so a bishop was there to give the sermon, and by the time the service was over, I felt pretty accomplished for doing church in ChristCHURCH. Haha. Matt seemed to like it as well, suggesting that we go again when we came back in a week. Yay!

Da Cathedral. Whatupppp

We shuffled out way back to the front of Base, where we were meeting our bus group, Connections, and checked in with Craig, our Kiwi tour guide for the week! We had some small talk with some of the other group members and after hopping into the bus, we did a small driving tour around the city. We were given about an hour or so to explore on our own once we were shown around and we took to the streets with two new buddies, Bridget (from Melbourne) and Leann (from Denver). Matt had some passport things to sort out, so once we took care of that, we strolled down the streets over to some adorable markets. They had more craft stands than I can recall, but there was jewelery, shell artwork, wood work, a leatherman who made belts, clothing, and more. I tried not to get too tempted this early on in the trip, though Matt was eating it up haha. We continued on further down the street which had us among the arches of Canterbury College, which used to be a university but has since transitioned into the main hub for Christchurch’s cultural activities and is home to more trade shops and art galleries. Matt and I walked through here and conversed with several of the artists themselves, while listening to the musical stylings of a distinctive man, both in his amazing voice and appearance (cant really miss a prosthetic leg…I later learned that his name was Mitta, but I’ll get to that much much later). Anyway, we were loving it, and as we walked back near the markets, we realized that there was a whole section of food stands! Kebabs, Thai, Chinese, frankfurters, pizza, sushi, you name it! My FAVORITE, however, was the CREPE STAND <3 <3. And not to mention the crepe man. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a person who appeared to enjoy life more than this man. Little did he realize that I bought three crepes from him almost just because of his amazing attitude. I guess I also like his craft too .

Crepe man!!! AHHH I miss him.

Heart. For real. We also got pizza from a wonderfully shy but adorable pizza man, who I later learned is named Bjorn (will be getting to THAT much later as well..!), who gave us free samples and endured my chatter mouth quite successfully. Matt and I, impressed by the sample, ordered some for ourselves, and sat down at one of the cafes, listening to a lady by the name of Elle Walker play her saxophone to a backtrack of some sort. Truly lovely. On our walk back to meet the bus, we came across four children, younger than highschool, performing a bit of an Irish step dance on a three plywood-built stage set up on the street, with one of them being an overly aggressive, clearly asserting his manhood by intense tapping, boy, which was highly entertaining. I took a video, but due to my lack of extended WordPress features, I cannot post it here. But just know it was fantastic. After such a wonderfull few hours in Christchurch, I wasnt sure if I was ready to leave! Luckily, we had all of the next Sunday to explore further before flights, so I was content for the time being. Our first drive was to the Flock Hill Sheep Station up among the mountains known as the Southern Alps. Within fifteen minutes of driving, we left the ordinary world and managed to be in Middle Earth seemingly within an instant. Huge plains of the greenest grass with scattered sheep along the entirety of the drive, with the peaks of the mountains appearing out in the distance. Now, here in Australia, it’s not exactly the bumpiest of countries and while I’ve seen beach after beach, mountains that can truly claim a presence in the skyline have eluded me. My jaw was on the floor for a good portion of the drive. Beautiful, to say the least. After making a few stops, one most notably being in Springfield (which had a giant Simpson’s donut dedicated to the town – get it? Springfield? I think they had some sort of involvement with the movie I guess), we were swirling through paved roads through the mountains, finally arriving at the small grouping of lodges at Flock Hill. After moving into the lodges, we all came back out for a treat! The owner of the ranch walked us all out to one of the fenced in fields and prepared us for a bit of Sheep Herding 101. Once we were all in, he let one of his herding dogs go, as she raced around the pen, sending all the sheep and lambs in a path directed by her. We watched the dog lead them around and finally straight towards us!

ROAR! She's FIERCE!

Once that was done, the owner told us a bit about sheep and the work that sheepdogs do, as well as showing us how they shear the sheep. Apparently the best sheepdogs are girls, mostly because they work until they drop pretty much, and basically that we are better than boys. So there. After the talk, he even let us hold some of the lambs! I picked one up, and literally right when the picture was taken, then lamb thrust his/her little head under my chin, making for one happy looking photo .

Only four days old! What a baby! Teehee

That was a very happy moment. Anyway, we were also shown the shearing barn and learned a bit about the economics of running a sheep station. All and all, a very fun-ducation type activity, one which I was surprised I enjoyed so much. When I first got my itinerary, I didn’t think much of this stop. Turned out to be one of my favorites…anyway, after that, we all walked up a bit of hillside to get a sweet view over the property. Amazing. I am jealous of what this man owns.

The overlook with Bridget, me, Matt, and Leann

See that lake down there? The group proceeded to walk down there, and being the brave and youthful souls that we are, Matt, Leann, Mark, and I all SPRINTED into the freezing cold lake water for a dip. Refreshing is not quite the word I would use to describe it, but I’m glad I can say I took the plunge. The evening finished up with a nice dinner of amazing lamb (sadface…oh well!), Matt setting up a slackline and having everyone have a go at it, and finishing up with some hang out time in the main lodge. A very good first day to say the least.

The next morning, Matt, Leann, Bridget, and I all woke up at 5 am to try to catch the sunrise. We walked up to the lookout point we went to the day before, warm blankets in hand, and waited. Two issues emerged: first of all, we were up way too early. This aint Brisbane. The sun doesnt rise at like 4 am. The second issue was the lack of sunrise. Plain and simple. While it was pretty to see the world light up slowly, we didn’t get anything dramatic. So I shall label it as an almost-fail: didn’t get what we came for, but it still didn’t suck. Woo. Anway, after breakfast, we all piled back onto the bus and began our drive to the town of Fox Glacier, home of, you guessed it, the Fox Glacier..!

We pit stopped in a small town by the name of Hoktika, where a jade factory held several unique craftings of the native stone, but unfortunately, Matt was forced to continue figuring out his passport situation. After hitting up the mailroom, calling the consulate several times, learning that he needed a bank statement and in essence a bank ACCOUNT, things were becoming more convoluted than either of us imagined. After acquiring some of the “new passport issue” paperwork, we were forced to get on our way, with things even more unsettled than before. Cant stop a bus tour…anyway, we made it to Fox Glacier, moved into our accommodation, and after about an hour, we all gathered to get transportation to the glacier! Each of us had to obtain a pair of heavy duty socks as well as shoes, with a pair of ice spikes to buckle on! They made walking on the ice a wholeeeee lot easier…anyway, we drove for a short time and pulled into the parking lot. As was common with most places we drove to, we were surrounded by towering mountains, this time carved out by the glacier, strewn with green trees all over. The clouds sat amongst their tops and shrouded their true height. The glacier itself was in sight, rolling out between two peaks, and as we began our bushwalk, we passed by several bright cyan blue glacial lakes. These lakes were common throughout our tour and never ceased to amaze me. Such a stunning blue.

This picture has a little bit of everything I just described. Woo.

Our hike through the jungle (yes, oddly enough, the jungle environment is uniquely able to survive just beside a glacier…nature!) took longer than I would have liked, but having a group of 24 I suppose merits breaks. We eventually made it onto the glacier, however, and had a lovely stroll on ice. Since we did a shortened version of the full-day hike, we unfortunately didn’t make it up as high as the ice caves and much of the ice that we could see was covered in sediment, but I still snagged some dece pictures!

The glacier's start from a bit of a distance. It was quite massive.

Um....I'm a dork. Check out my socks. "Nice socks" - NAME THAT FILM!

After getting back into the town, as Matt continued working on his passport, I had the pleasure of spending the down time before dinner with Mark, an awesome guy from Australia. Huge fan he reminded me a lot of Alex VDB in terms of our silly conversations (especially about the Cafe Mafia that infiltrated the town of Fox Glacier…seriously, does ONE ROAD really need six Cafes?!) and I was sad to hear that he was leaving the tour a few days early for his brother’s wedding. Likely story. Anyway, dinner was especially lovely, considering I was sitting at a table with a German, Frenchman, Austrian, Korean, and Chinese girl, all who were for some reason INCREDIBLY intrigued with the fact that I played a sport by the name of Ultimate Frisbee. Not sure what it was about me, but I was surprised at how interested a lot of people on the tour were in getting to know about where I come from and what I like. It was nice to share these things with people from literally around the world. The three cups of chocolate mousse I had for dessert topped it off in an amazing way, and after a little bit of digestion, a majority of us gathered to follow Craig into the bush to hunt for GLOW WORMS!! Forming a bit of a congo-line to wind through the path in the dark, hundreds of tiny inch-sized worms were spottable on what looked like thin air, giving off a range of strong to faint green luminescence. We reached several spots on the walk where there were extremely populated sections of them, and as Craig shined a dim light on them, it revealed giant fallen trees, under which the worms called their home. As dorky as it sounds, the walk was magical and I’m pretty sure I would like it a lot of all animals glowed a little bit. Just a suggestion.

The next morning, after having breakfast, me specifically with Kim, Simon, and Mark, we began our morning with a quick visit to Lake Matheson, one of the many “Mirror Lakes” that New Zealand is known for. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy that morning, so while the vegetation that surrounded the periphery of the lake was extremely clear on the water, we didn’t have the privilege of seeing the far-off Mount Cook in the glassy reflection. Bummer! Still a nice wake-up walk though. We hit the road, with Craig playing the song “Fireflies” by Owl City in honor of our glow worm experience. Honestly, I think I’ve probably listened to it a hundred times since then and am currently listening to it as I type this very moment. Needless to say, I am a fan. Anyway, after another pit stop at an overlook of the Tasman sea and crossing of the longest one way bridge in the country (Haast Pass), we made a stop at a waterfall that had a bit of mysticism attached to it. Apparently, there is a fairy named Esmerelda there and she is a very judgmental fairy for certain. If you stare at the waterfall for about a minute and look to either side and see “magical” things, then she likes you. If not, then you suck at life, pretty much. I made sure to check my level of life-suckage, and learned that I am indeed a good person, after seeing the shifting psychedelic rock after watching the water tumble down. Shocker…haha. Anyway, skipping out on a picture of this fall just cause. No further explanation required. We continued our drive and had the pleasure of driving along a gorgeous mountain road alongside of some of the more famous glacial lakes, Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawea, and Lake Dunstin (sp?). Um, WOW.

Perfect day, AMAZING reflection.

Me, Mark, and Marlene at Lake Hawea...saweeet!

As we continued on, we passed over the 45th Parallel, aka of latitude, which marks the direct halfway point between the south pole and the equator…neat! After a nice stop over at a fruit stand, we continued onto through the Kawarau gorge to none other than the birthplace of bungy, The Kawarau Bridge. The world’s first bungy and part of the reason why New Zealand is known as the “Adventure Capitol” of the world, the jump is over a glacial river that made appearances is the Lord of the Rings and the jump is from a bridge, dropping down 43 meters (141 feet) with the option to get dunked in the water! Ah! Bridget, Yu, and Gael all did jumps right then and there with all of us cheering them on and it was just grand. We finally continued onto our stopping place for the next two nights, THE place to be for extremeness, Queenstown! Our lodging was extra spectacular, located at a higher altitude that not only gave a nice view of the bustling town, but also the mountain range known as the Remarkables and Lake Wakitipu out in the distance. Casey insisted that they were called “the Incredibles” several times, but alas, the movie was not named after this mountain range. Our first evening in Queenstown had a majority of us going out to Willie’s pizza for dinner, complete with a retractable roof (random!?) and then afterwards, a unique little trip to the novelty bar known as “Minus Five.” The name is derived from truth; it is literally “minus 5″ in the bar and everything is made of ICE. Ice sculptures filled the room and we were given complimentary ugg-boot-type shoes and giant overcoats to keep us toasty for our time in the bar. Upon entering, we were given a drink in a cup made of ice and we spent the next 30 minutes in our private bar made of ice. Weird. Was sort of overpriced for what it was (aka not all that awesome) but it was worth experiencing. After leaving the bar, I chatted with Simon and Kim for a bit and then called it a night, since I was waking up early to…dun dun dun….BUNGY JUMP.

While I continually told myself that I wasn’t going to try bungy jumping before coming to New Zealand, Matt had managed to mention it just enough times to get me to consider it and eventually cave into the idea. After a light breakfast, Mark, Elliot, Leann, Matt, and I all boarded a van that took us to the Nevis Bungy Jump site, the tallest in New Zealand. At 134 meters (440 feet), this jump was located in the middle of nowhere; we drove through a sheep farm tucked within the mountains and once we actually got up to the bungy facility, we were delighted to see that our platform was in fact NOT a platform, but actually a pod tethered to the sides of two cliffs dangling over the Nevis River, accessible only via a gondola. Fabulous. We were all fitted into our harnesses fairly quickly and took a seat to wait for further instruction. Time continued to pass…and after quite a bit of time, we were informed by the staff that the conditions were windier than they had seen in several years and that they needed to wait for the conditions to improve to even think about letting people jump. It’s a long way down…on a string…with rocks on either side. I was keen to wait. A bit under two hours passed and the wind finally died down, allowing us to jumpstart our nerves again. The gondola ride did a good job of that, with me feeling the strong urge to pee. Not possible with a full-body harness on. I seriously thought I would pee myself at some point because of my inability to go (sidenote: I didnt, thank you very much), but I was herded onto the gondola to head over. Being in the pod was AWESOME! They were pumping music and the pod never had more than 10 people at a time. People began to do their jumps…everyone in my group successfully didn’t die after doing theirs, leaving me for last. Unfortunately, because Matt, Leann, and Mark were all supposed to get on to a rafting trip, they actually LEFT the pod before I did my jump, in a sense stranding me. Luckily, Elliot was still there, which made me feel better, but I was a tad bit miffed by that. Still, bungy is a solo thing, so it didn’t really matter in the long run. Anyway, my turn arrived and I was strapped up and ready to go in minutes. We werent really given much of an opportunity to chicken out, as I was led over to the very edge of the plank creeping off the side of the pod. I looked down, tried not to think, and did my best impression of a swan dive, down into the gorge. The pictures speak for themselves:

View One

View 2

Plummeting. Safely of course! Note: Thunderhorse Jersey

So that was pretty ordinary….oh who am I kidding, it was INSANE!!!! I’ve done sky diving and bungy now and I honestly think bungy was more exhilarating. Not as long of an experience and you don’t get the incredible views, but if you’re looking for a personal challenge combined with a thrill ride, then I suggest bungy. Amazing way to start the day. We got complimentary t-shirts with the height and bungy on it and left all sorts of pumped. When we got back to Queenstown, the three rafters went on their merry way, while Elliot and I feasted on renowned “Ferg Burgers” from….Fergburger! Craig told us we HAD to get a least one while we were there, and this was an ideal time. We took our burgers over to a park and had a nice chat…talked a lot about traveling, Australia, America, life after uni, the usual. I then decided to hop onto the free internet in the bungy center and managed to finally get ahold of Casey, who happened to be stopped in Queenstown for the night! I eventually met up with her (yay!) and we joined Bridget, Elliot, and Gael for a treacherous walk up a mountain to get a better view of Queenstown. There was a gondola that would take us up as well, but that’s for babies! ‘Cept we totally rode it on the way down haha but irrelevant. We enjoyed a nice view of the Remarkables and made it back in time to meet Ryan at Fergburger for dinner (twice in one day? No judging).

Us with the Incredibles...oops I mean, Remarkables...

After dinner, Ryan, Casey, and I all chilled out for a while, roamed the town at night for a bit of a stroll, and topped off the evening with an episode of CSI: Miami. Solid. Said goodbye for the time being, as our tour was rolling out of Q-Town the next morning! Unfortunately, before leaving that morning, we said goodbye to Mark, Eve, and Amy, which was sad because I was a fan of all three of them. Alas, though even more roomy-ness on the bus I suppose. Our destination at the end of the day was the one I was most looking forward to on the itinerary: MILFORD SOUND. Quite possibly one of the most photographed locations in New Zealand, this World Heritage National Park is carved out by a massive fiord, hence the name “Fiordlands,” and dwarfs cruise ships with its massive peaks. On the way to the park, we had to pull over to the side of the road for about 10 minutes to allow a bike race to go by! This was highly entertaining, due to the fact that all of us exited the bus for the sake of cheering on the bikers as they pedaled by. We felt so loved. We got back to driving and after waiting for the light to change at a one way tunnel (Homer Tunnel) within the park, we emerged into the gateway to the Sound. Our chariot for the evening was the Milford Wanderer, a lovely sailboat that does overnight trips on the water. Our group boarded the boat with about 25 other guests and we were greeted with a bowl of hot soup as we headed into the Sound. It’s definitely difficult to judge scale with the surrounds, so take a look at how small the sailboat and cruise ship look in this picture.

Checks that out! Dayum

As you can see by this picture, it was quite cloudy and rained intermittently throughout our whole stay on the sound, which was a bummer, but apparently it rains like 80% of the time there anyway so it was to be expected! We made our way to our mooring location for the night and were given a choice: go for a small boat ride in punts around the area or hop in a kayak….OBVIOUS CHOICE!!! I had been dying to kayak pretty much since I landed in Australia and seized this opportunity pretty much instantly. Many were deterred to hop in one due to the falling rain, but honestly, doesn’t that make it all the more exciting? The cool portion of the passengers hit the water and kayaked around. Within minutes we noticed little bundles of movement along the shore…PENGUINS!!!! The sound is home to the two rarest penguins in the world, with these penguins being at #2, the Fiordland Crested Penguin. I was IN LOVE!!!!! I didn’t get a good picture of them but we spotted them again the next day and I did my best.

My life is so cute. PenguinSlider gets new life. <3

While I was out on the water, I managed to get talking with a guy, Tom, from Colorado and that was nice. Would lead to some interesting conversation with him, his buddies, Elliot, Marlene, and I later on haha…Anyway, we all returned soaking wet to have a nice dinner aboard. Matt organized all of us to play Mafia after dinner and that was highly entertaining! I was Mafia a couple times as usual…as good as I am at putting on a good lying face, I get way too stressed out haha. No good. It was quite late after a few more hours of hanging out on the boat, and while people slowly trickled to their cabins, I was wrapped up into a conversation with mildly inebriated middle aged men, mostly with “Chris,” which wasn’t his real name, but I jokingly called him that when I said I would never remember his real name, and now I actually cant. Go figure. But yes, Chris was telling Elliot (the Aussie) all about how Washington, DC was designed with the intention of making delegates from other countries feel insignificant and belittled, with all the monuments and such. I, rather politely too, said to him that I highly doubted that was their aim, and while it was one way of interpreting their symbolism, that I don’t really think America purposefully tries to give off that vibe. He then turned to me and said something along the lines of “I respect you for stating your opinion, but you are 100% wrong, and it’s mostly because I am older and worldlier than you.” At that point, I sort of just shook my head and said goodnight. We had all been talking about religion stuff before too (cant really avoid it when people constantly question your major…) and Elliot said that they apparently called me the “anti-Christ” when I left. Haha what!? Anyway, that happened.

The next morning, we were set to do a bit more cruising around the sound. We had the pleasure of seeing more penguins, seals, and bottlenose dolphins swimming around our boat as we went through. I even got to drive the boat for a while! Don’t worry, there were only two casualities…kidding, kidding.

I'm so mad at my crap for brains camera. These pictures arent representative at ALL of Milford's beauty

Once we docked, we boarded our bus and had a big day of driving ahead of us. After another pit stop (and frisbee-throwin’ session ) at the fruit stand, we hit the road. To pass the time, Craig put on “The Goonies” for us to watch (HEYYY YOUU GUYSSSSS!!!) but sadly, it died, and we only got like an hour into it. Fail. Soon enough, we were at Lake Ohau, another lake made bright blue by glacier-ness, with views of Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand, in the distance. Our group was the only guests for the night, so we were pretty pumped to have the grounds to ourselves. We settled into our rooms and Bridget and I decided to take a stroll down to the waterside to grab some pics.

It's hard to see without pointing to it, but Mt. Cook is the little flat-topped mountain to the right in the middle of the lower level of mountains. Spot the Cook!

We all had dinner after that and someone pointed out that there was a ping pong table in the lodge! Now I’m not a pro, but I can certainly hold my own in the realm of table tennis. It became quickly apparent that I was the best player there, and I managed to go undefeated in my six or so matches (winner stays on after all…) but it was all in good fun. Simon started a rumor that I was “state champion” of ping pong (what does he know about “states”? Silly Brit) and I had to defer those comments for the rest of the evening haha. Several of us then chilled in the hot tub to unwind, though I just stuck my feet in. With the air being as frigid as it was, I did not want to deal with the shock of leaving THAT water into THAT air. No thankssss…went to bed after that, with the intention of waking up for a sunrise…and this time, I was not disappointed.

Bridget managed to snap Leann and I awake for the sunrise, which we missed the beginning of, but man oh man. Even my elderly camera snagged a beautiful shot of the underlit clouds, silhouetting the mountains and trees.

Not doctored. Holy Crap.

Huh, weird, the orangey-ness doesnt show up like it does in my iPhoto. Lame. But still, so worth the early wake up. Our last day of official touring with the group included a trip to Mount Cook, which in reality with still more than 100 km away from Lake Ohau. We took about a 40 minute walk once we parked and made it to a nice look out point, which had the mountain as well as a view of the glacier nearby, which explained the several trickling rivers throughout.

Cookin'. Yay!

We left Mount Cook soon after and began our path back to Christchurch with a few notable stops in between. My favorite in particular was at a spot I THINK on Lake Tekapo, which is where the small “Church of the Good Shepherd” still stands today. Apparently, the settlers built that church when they initially got to that town and it pretty much as been left untouched since. It really is an adorable little stone building though, right by the edge of the water over looking the mountains. There is supposedly a year-long waiting list for people who want to get married there. I mean, with this view, I wouldn’t mind waiting:

View from Heaven? Nope, just N-Zed

So that was nice. Even better, right near the church was New Zealand’s version of the BALTO STATUE!!!!! If you know all too much about me (and I know many of you do), I am freakishly obsessed with finding Balto whenever I go to Central Park in New York City and just Balto in general. Whats not to like about a heroic wolf-dog that saves an isolated Alaskan town!? Anyway, it’s really just a statue representative of all sheepdogs for the work they do daily, but still…Balty <3.

Ignore that little kid in the picture. Its just me and Balto. Sheepdog. Sheepto?

Teehee anyway, we continued onto Christchurch and had the sad realization that our tour was officially over. Sadface. We all organized a group dinner, though, which was really nice, but Matt and I decided to crash at the hostel early (oh, if you couldnt tell by now, Matt didnt leave the tour early to get his passport sorted. UQ said he could move his exam, leading him to change his flight on Sunday from Brisbane to Auckland…more on that soon).

We woke up early the next morning to head to church, with Bridget, Leann, Marlene, and Ashley joining us. I sat next to a lady who came alone and thought very little of it at the time…anyway the service ended, and I walked out and exchanged some words with the lady I sat next to before meeting up with some of our group for breakfast. After breakfast, Matt, Leann, and Bridget were headed back to the markets, but I had a particular item that I needed to purchase. The Sunday before, I stumbled upon an absolutely adorable hand-knit hat with the ear flaps, a brownish base color with none other than RAINBOW LLAMAS CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE ENTIRETY OF THE HAT!!! While I instantly felt a good fit with it, I thought I may have come across a hat of equal or GREATER amazingness along the journey, so I held off. With bated breath, I entered the shop, desperately hoping it was still there waiting for me, and there it was! EXCELLENT! I purchased the hat and cant WAIT to flaunt it in Richmond. Seriously, get pumped. After making that purchase, I fully intended to walk back to the markets to meet up with Matt, but as I walked through the quad in Canterbury College (where the wool shop was), I stumbled upon the lady who I sat next to in church! I excitedly told her about my recent hat purchase, leading her to tell me that she though it “suited me.” After some conversation, she told me she was going to get some coffee in the cafe right beside us if I wanted to join her. I of course took the opportunity to have a chat with a local Kiwi and was pleased with the offer. I snagged a hot chocolate (not much of a coffee drinker), grabbed a paper just in case she just wanted a reading partner, and climbed the stairwell to join her. She looked about 60 and we shared a great conversation. Her name is Enna, and I thank her for being so quick to invite me for a hot beverage! So thanks, wherever you are! As I walked back through the courtyard, I saw that the man with the guitar and prosthetic leg was back in his usual location, just setting up for the lunch hour. For some reason, I decided to plop my bag and self on the bench alongside of him. For a little over an hour, we chatted between his songs and I truly enjoyed his company. When I said goodbye to him, he told me that if I’m ever back in Christchurch, he will be right there where I found him. Perhaps I will be able to greet him again some day. So that was awesome, but I had been gone for a few hours and realized that Matt must be really confused about my whereabouts. I went back into the markets and realized that our pizza man from last week was ALSO still pizza-ing! I stopped to chat with him and he said that he saw Matt looking for me about an hour earlier…and after I ordered my pizza, Matt had apparently checked again in the meantime. Fail! But I enjoyed my pizza to the saxophone stylings of Elle once again and just enjoyed my personal solidarity. After I finished, I of course grabbed a crepe for dessert (Nutella!) and was finally tracked down by Matt! I munched on my crepe as we strolled for a bit, and when I was finished, had the strong urge to take a photo with potentially my favorite pizza guy of all time. So we did!

Matt and I with Bjorn!!! !!!!

Ok not the best picture ever, but I am wearing my llama hat and we are thumbs-upping about life. Bjorn then spontaneously gave me his business card and told me to friend him on facebook haha still havent dont that but I will soon! Heart!!! On the walk back from the markets, we came across the biggest freak of a street performer ever. He “captivated” his audience pretty much by yelling at people who walked through his “stage” that clearly belonged to him…and I admittedly was cracking the eff up. At one point, he ran up to the police car that was rolling by and basically yelled at them, running away from them screaming, “I DIDNT GET ARRESTED!!!” Haha. The act grew old quickly though, and we peaced without getting hassled, though Matt had some exchanges with him. After witnessing some giant chess being played in the forum outside of the cathedral, we finally were forced to catch our shuttle to the airport at 2 pm. Luckily, I had Ashley and Basia to chat with in the terminal, though I was sad to be leaving everyone in our group for good.

Yayyy we are cute. This is us as we were leaving Q-Town.

Piers was nice and picked me up from the airport and it felt nice returning “home” to such a welcoming place. On the plane, though, I realized how temporary that home is for me at this point. It was a bit of a shot to the heart, but still, the sunset was gorgeous on the ride back and Piers reminded me of six dollar thai for this Wednesday, and I was instantly in a better mood.

Wow, over 7000 words? I guessed I would top out at around 6000, but apparently I had a lot to say. I hope it wasnt too obnoxiously long. The moral of Matt’s saga? He gets to Auckland Sunday night, goes to the consulate Monday morning, is informed of the existence of “emergency passports,” get a new visa in the afternoon, and books a flight home that evening on his way to the airport. Superstar I’m proud of him…I dont know if I could have handled that stress. So yes, he took his exam this evening as well. Yayyy….

Anyway, I’m still listening to “Fireflies.” You probably should have read this post while listening to it, to get the full effect, yknow? Shout out to Alex, who leaves N-Zed in just a few days. I wish you kept a bit of a blog…Your study abroad location is one of the most beautiful in the world. I know you loved every second and I wish I could have seen you there. Next time…

The next few days will be “Brisbane Appreciation” as I attempt to photojournal my daily life. I havent booked yet, but I want to go to Melbourne this weekend, with Piers accompanying me there for a couple days, but it will really just be a “me” trip. I hope it works out! Props to anyone who made it through this blog. But if you did, thanks for caring.

Back to the States in 27 days.

–me

]]> http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/true-life-im-traveling-with-a-refugee/feed/ 2 unnecessaryjumping Ch.Ch. Ch! Get it? LOVE Doggy style? <3! Flocky Pretty time Woo Foxy More of Da Fox UM wow. Hawea. Yayyy Schwingggy Fallling No big dealio Stolen from Casey Sound off! Babies Another angle Lake Ohau! Sunrise, Sunriiiise Moun-taaaain Holy crap, literally Balto for fakes YESSSS Connections Nov 09!!! http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/an-ode-to-insomniacs-everywhere/ http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/an-ode-to-insomniacs-everywhere/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:22:00 +0000 unnecessaryjumping http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/?p=299 ]]>

Craig (my N-Zed tour guide) played this song after the morning song (which I will get to!) the morning after we checked out glow worms (also will be covered) and it hasn’t stopped looping in my head ever since! Reminds me of my favorite band, Mae. Anyway, it’s helping me cope with not being there any more. A full update regarding my amazing eight days over in New Zealand to come soon. Meaning maybe tomorrow? I probably wont feel like studying. But STAY TUNED! I promise I have lots of pretty pictures and lots of wordy words just BEGGING to escape my fingertips, but a little anticipation never hurt anybody.

Why do I only have 29 days left in this hemisphere? Leaving will be one of my biggest challenges, I’m afraid.

“I’d like to make myself believe………….
…………That planet Earth turns slowly”

]]> http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/an-ode-to-insomniacs-everywhere/feed/ 1 unnecessaryjumping Blue, Green, White http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/sleeping-under-the-stars-literally/ http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/sleeping-under-the-stars-literally/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:31:44 +0000 unnecessaryjumping http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/?p=272 ]]> Well, it’s happened again, except even worse. At this point, I find it hard to believe I ever wrote my blogs the day after I got home from a trip. Obviously, I didn’t do work then. But today I finished writing my last paper and now all I have to do is take my MARS exam on the 10th and (due to weird circumstances that I wont be getting into) I have my conversation meeting thing with my Aboriginal Studies professor the day before my exam. I was on campus tonight to print my papers out and turn them in and realized how completely and utterly attached I’ve gotten to campus. It seems like just yesterday that I was comparing the Great Court to the Westhampton Green! Preposterous! Completely different. And lovely. After my exam, I’m going on a take-pictures-of-my-daily-life-and-brisbane frenzy and I am extremely excited for that. But anyway, before I ramble about the little things, I will finally talk about the big thing. And by big thing, I mean the massive outback expanse of the Northern Territory, with Darwin as its capitol up on the Top End! Unfortunately, due to my increasingly laziness when it comes to blogging, this recount will probably not be up to my standard. Guess we shall find out!

So all disclaimers aside, last Friday I finished up one final push at the library of compiling research for my two papers. I spent literally 9-5′s at the library last week, with the lovely six dollar thai break in the middle of the week (<3) and basically couldn’t WAIT to get started on Darwin. My travel buddies for the weekend were Jon, Cory, and Jeff, which was really exciting because after having a blast in Noosa, I knew they would be a good time. Our flight was in the evening, and after getting a nice lift to the airport from Holly, we meandered around Brisbane Domestic for a while before boarding. After a couple hours and a half hour time difference (who does that?), it was approx. 1 am. We had plans to pick up our rental car for the weekend at 6:30 AM and so started our weekend of frugality! A consensus was agreed to before leaving and we had all decided that sleeping in the airport was probably the most fun thing to do ever. And also the freest. So basically, we got of the plane, sketchily moseyed on over to one of the gate waiting areas, hopped on the couches, and attempted to sleep. My body wasn’t havin’ it, and after reading through the entirety of Jeff’s Lonely Planet: Australia, I still couldn’t sleep. After some intense internal deliberation, I finally said “screw it” and whipped out my sleeping bag, plopped it on the ground, put my jungle hat over my face to dim the bright airport lights, and actually managed to fall asleep. Upon waking in the morning at around 6, I take the hat off of my face and to my surprise, people were EVERY where! When I fell asleep at 2, it was just the four of us, but then there I was, casually sleeping, no less in a sleeping bag, in the middle of dozens of people. I’m pretty sure I over heard someone say something about my sleeping bag haha but even so, I actually slept pretty well and dont regret it for a moment. So there. Anyway, we hustled on down to Hertz to pick up our pimpmobile, which was a Toyota Corolla with collapsible backseat (would come in handy…) and we began the next phase of adventuretime: Go to Litchfield National Park!

Teehee I just thought it was cool 'cause it says "Outback"

On our way through Darwin, we sort of realized a couple things: We were going camping! How fun! Oh the joys of the wilderness and living amongst it. Some issues, however, included: 1) no tent, 2) no (other) sleeping bags, 3) one real flashlight, Jon’s bike lights, and our amazing flashlights on our phones (my FAVORITE), 4) no means of cooking food. We went to Woolworths to stock up on our food supplies for three days and since this was my third camping trip in a row, I’m starting to get it down to a science. A loaf of bread, peanut butter, honey, fruit, muesli bars, some sort of snack food, beans (oh yes, more specifically Heinz’s “Baked Beanz” I kid you not, they have the Z), and that basically does the trick. I realized just this last time that I go completely vegetarian on the weekends when I do this, to which I threw up a little and ate a million baby pigs. Ok unnecessary. But anyway, on the way over to Litchfield, we had conflicting opinions about the matter of the tent. To get one, or to not get one, was the proverbial question. At one point, we pulled up to a stop light and saw to our right “CAMPING SUPPLIES!” (well, no exclamation mark), but seconds earlier, we made the conclusive decision to bypass a tent. Besides, we weren’t even in the proper turning lane! Preposterous to try to make that turn! So um no tent. That worked out…interestingly.

Anyway, we rocked up to Batchelor, the little town outside of the park, for some maps and info about the main attractions. After the epic fail that was “Rum Jungle Lake” (note: not actually in the park. Just is a shitty, waste of life side road that tricks you into driving down into its wasteland of uglyness and failure. Clearly the team reject from the park), we made our way to the Magnetic Termite Mounds….and let me just say, these things were EVERYWHERE! Throughout the bush driving by, we could see these oddly shaped mounds of dirt piled up sporadically, in the shape of weird cones, tombstones, or bulging crowns. I think some of them are even referred to as “Cathedral Mounds” if I am so informed. Anyway, the cool thing about these huge mounds is that the termites that build them over time are genetically predisposed to build their mound in a certain place in a certain direction based on their internal compass that they are born with. Cool! They have to build them super high so that when it’s rainy season, they have higher ground to get to! Here’s a dorky picture with me and one of the bigger, cooler ones:

Yeah, a bunch of bugs made THAT. We regularly exterminate ARTISTS!!

K these legit look like gravestones. It was hot as death up there though, so I'm not too surprised.

We then hit up Walker Creek for a brief stroll, swim, and lunch time before hitting the main attraction of the park, Wangi Falls! When we initially arrived there, it was PACKED with about three busloads worth of visitors, and that was just not our thang. So we decided to do the hike up around the falls (regrettably with no top-down views of the Falls however) to potentially widdle out the crowd a little by the time we returned. Before arriving at Wangi Falls, we had simply been driving through long dry red dust-lined roads, with stick thin clearly thirsty trees to either side of us for miles (its currently the very end of the “hot and dry” season…and boy did we feel it!), but the environment completely changed at the falls! All of a sudden, we were in the jungle. Weird. But once we got out onto the clearing, we had our first of many expansive views of gigantic national park sprawl. Little did we know how much more massive Kakadu was in comparison to Litchfield, but it was still pretty impressive, I daresay.

Haha WordPress has an example for the caption to be "The Mona Lisa"...so thats what this is.

We looped around the track and made it down to the mouth of the falls and were pleased with a slightly smaller group of visitors.

Prettyface ) Not a bad swim. Dry season = tiny falls though

The next hike we did was to a non-swimmable, more lookout-able spot by the name of Tolmer Falls, which was EXTREMELY parched and only had a tiiiiiiiny strand of water cascading down the rocks. It provided yet another gorgeous view of the expanse, but we were starting to get anxious for another swim, so we hopped back in the car and drove along to the Buley Rockhole, a hot-spot (cool-spot?) for locals, who had eskies out, including one shaped like a Toohey’s can. Nice. They certainly did the trick and we hung out there for a while, just relaxing in the plunge pools that stacked up on the river. The campground we were eventually staying at housed our final landmark, the Florence Falls, which was set deep below the campsite, requiring us to spiral down many pathways and stairs.

Even though a waterfall is just a waterfall, that still doesnt detract from their awesomeness

So we had our swim, we had our fun, but because we were done with our activities for the day, we had to face the sad harsh reality of our “campsite.” And by campsite, I most certainly mean our top of the line plot of land, equipped with a few scattered rocks that were inappropriately placed for dining upon, a firepit that unnecessarily taunted us in the center, and of course, our Blue Steel Stallion, parked valiantly, if not a little bit awkwardly, along the periphery of the site, leaving a big open space for, I dont know, maybe some tents. But, alas, if one recalls the earlier declaration before entering the park, tents are for squares and babies. Baby squares, even []. I realize that is a rectangle but what can I do. Anyway, since it was not sleep time yet, we didn’t think too much about it and got to eating dinner. We were all pretty damn excited about having beans/z (depending on brand, Jon LOVED his 89 cent woolies brand beanS like whoa) and then realized it wasn’t that exciting. So there we were, sitting in a mini-circle with our cans of beans in hand, and Jon makes the glorious observation that we were SUCH hobos and that we looked like a group of homeless people. The ridiculousness of sleeping in the airport in addition to our multiple camping failures made this quite an amusing moment, and I attempted to capture it:

You get the idea.

We ate for a while and then dark began to fall (a little bit later in the NT which was exciting!) and the stars began to come out….yessss. It was still freakishly hot out, but the nightfall helped make it feel a little bit more comfortable. However, I was still hot in a sports bra and my hikin’ pants in the conditions, but what can you do. At one point, I sat down on one of the awkward-rocks and upon lying back down onto it, I realized how warm and toasty it was! The four of us each grabbed rock around our little site and sat in the dark chatting. After a while, Cory and Jon got tired and began their attempts to sleep in the car…dun dun dunnn. Jon and I, being quite the talkers normally, however stayed out there for what seemed like hours, talking on the rocks. I feel like I learned about 75% of his life story within that one conversation haha and I loved it. Our vocal chords ran dry eventually though, and we decided that, yes, we would be sleeping on the ground. Which written out seems like a terrible thing, but in reality (and having a sleeping bag helped…) it was incredible to be falling asleep out under the stars. Nothing over head. Just me and the outback. Not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, but its sheer clichedness made me excited about the situation.

Waking up in the morning, I was pleased to feel no bug bites and no missing limbs, deeming the campsite officially safe. Good thing it was ex post facto. Anyway, we all forged a brekkie together and packed up quick to start our sort-of long drive to Kakadu. On the map, these places (Darwin, Litchfield, Kakadu) all look relatively close, but in reality, it takes a few hours getting between them. I can barely imagine what the REAL outback (i.e. no vegetation) is like. Guess I’ll find out soon ) but for now, we were off on a two-lane highway with marked speed limits of 130 kph (around 80 mph) and sped down the barren highway. Seriously, though, when we would see another car, it was sort of a big deal. You have to be careful about petrol when in the outback, since you never know when the next station is going to emerge…we luckily didnt run into problems, though our “Abandoned Car” count reached four.

Repeat this picture about...I dunno, three million times.

Yeah. After a few hours, we finally arrived at Kakadu National Park, another World Heritage site (like Fraser) and is basically ginormous. According to wiki (aka my bffl), it is the size of Israel. Or half the size of Switzerland. Almost 5 million acres!!! Eat that, 100 acre wood (though it is endearing, Winnie the Pooh, but still, no offense). According to the Aboriginal tradition, Kakadu has six seasons, with the season we were in being Gurrung (aka hot and dry…and death). One thing about Kakadu that was different from Litchfield was the firm restrictions against swimming in any of the water, and for good reason. Thats because these waters are infested with saltwater CROCS, the largest reptiles and pretty freakin dangerous to boot. So despite the intense heat, I was ok to not go swimming. Anyway, we went to a TON of places in Kakadu, all with beautifully complicated Aboriginal names, but I’ll just cover the highlights. One of the lookout points was called “Bukbukluk” and I mention this for Elisabeth: Jon and I proceeded to yell “WE USED TO PLAY THE BUCK BUCK! AND STICKBALL!!! ZIPZOPZOOBIDDYBOP” hahahaha love. Havent thought about that in a while. Anyway, one of the coolest places we stopped by was Nourlangie, which had HEAPS (hehe) of Aboriginal rock art! So amazing and spectacular!!!

Score! And to top off that excellence, we also spotted a wallaby just chillin’ in a shady overhang among the rocks. Out of the sun and heat…smart little marsupial. We kept truckin’, however, and walked to another wonderous lookout. This was only the beginning, however, since when we drove across the street to another lookout, we got some extremely badass views of the park, including Arnhem Land, which is sacred and access is prohibited unless permitted by the Aboriginal people who own the land. Baller. The lookout point I speak of was very ambiguous: there was a sign that had the start of the walk, but then once the initial path disappeared, we had a steep incline up basically a mountain. There was the occasional orange arrow that was screwed to rocks that guided the way, but still…anyway WORTH the hike….:

Depth perception sucks with these pictures

Self-Timer Magic

That view was pretty damn cool. According to our books and such, we were told that the sunset at Ubirr was not one to miss, so we made our descent with enough time to drive over to that site for our last hike of the day. I will mention that we went to Cahill’s Crossing for a tadbit (its a pass through the South Alligator River that goes into Arnhem Land) to look for crocs…unsuccesful first look. That would change…

However, Ubirr. So I dunno if you’ve ever read my blog before, but I tend to have a serious addiction to posting pictures of and recounting depictions of sunsets. This one dropped over the Nadab floodplain and was a sight to see for certain. I’m sure it was one of the only solidly green areas of land at this time of year as well. It’s hard to choose a picture, but it must be done.

Zoomshakalaka on the sun and reflection

Uploading that picture just took entirely too long so I hope you like it. It was dark once we left (obvi, we watched the sunset) so we quickly hustled over to the Merl campsite which was right next to Ubirr, and were pretty much the only non-campervan there. Sigh. I think we determined that there are two ends of the camping spectrum – campervan and us were not camping properly, but we were closer to legit camping than those cheaters. So hmph. After playing some Wisconsin-type card game called Euker for a bit, we started to spot the glowing glassy eyes of spiders on the ground. Yeah, I slept on the ground last night, not gonna happen with them spiders. So this happened: Cory in the back seat folded down, Jon in the navigator seat, Sarah in the drivers seat, and Jeff on top of the picnic table with Jon’s sheet and my sleeping bag?! Ultimate fail?! That’s alright, still alive! No spiders I hope.

For our second day in Kakadu, we went on some hikes with the intention of finding CROCS! We walked along the murky river (at a safe distance) and waited. In time, we saw crocs slowly emerging their big ol’ heads out of the water. Really mysterious creatures, them saltwater crocs. It was hard to photograph them since they so seamlessly rise and fall from the surface of the water. My camera is kinda suck so I didnt get any good pictures of them, but we totalled seeing seven crocs! Not bad! We went over to some marshland and hiked around there, saw lots and LOTS of birds, and decided we were pooped. We peaced out from Kakadu after food…with myself offering to drive! To rent a car in Oz, you need to be 21, and same goes for driving. However, I think I am capable of driving in a straight line and therefore offered to drive us back to Darwin. While it was thrilling momentarily driving on the right hand side and on the left hand side of the road, it faded pretty fast. But still! I  can check that of my list!! Oh ps, because we were in the middle of no where, we barely had any radio stations and we had access to this one pop station that played pretty much chick rock plus “Run This Town” (seriously, how many times do you want us to hear that?). The one song that also kept coming on?! Party in the USA…by….MILEY CYRUS!!!! HAHA. I mean. What? It became our unofficial theme song for the trip, and I was secretly thrilled. No shame on the blog, but I didn’t exactly divulge my fandom right then and there. We also thought it was appropriate to yknow, be in Australia. For a party. In the USA. Totally appropriate….

Yeah so we got back to Darwin, walked around, got freakishly hot, and decided LET’S FIND THE PUBLIC POOL! GREAT life decision. Did that for a few hours, then went to see a creepy movie called “An Education,” then went to Maccas (NOT mackers haha my bad) and feasted on meaty Angus burgers. Mmm meat. We then returned to the airport to bring our little car to its home. We ended up spending a million hours at the airport. Delays. I also had a mini aneurism trying to figure out my travel plans to New Zealand with Casey. Unfortunately, things just didn’t come together. The scenerio would have had me doing a ridiculous amount of work in an extremely short amount of time. Confusion. But I got a hot chocolate and things got better. The flight was alright (the seat next to me was empty YES) and when I woke up (it was a redeye flight…ugh), I saw that I had an amazing birdseye view of Brissy.

If you look closely to the far left, you can see the 'Gabba!

Tada! Upon landing, I managed to crank out paper number 1 and then completed number 2 over the following days. In the meantime, I booked a bus tour and flights to the south island of New Zealand! I was going to be on my own, but last night, after I showed Matt my brochure, he calls me and says he’s going to do it too! So we leave tomorrow…I am so pumped. And if I wasnt exhausted right now, maybe I would write more words, but that’s all been done already. I had a great time in Darwin, though it was a little hot for my tastes. New Zealand will be cold for sure…meh. I havent packed yet! Bed time instead.

To Kiwiland, Middle Earth, and Home of the All Blacks!!!

–me

ps Happy Halloween!

]]> http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/sleeping-under-the-stars-literally/feed/ 1 unnecessaryjumping License pltates are fun Eff Kinda Freaky Cory on the Edge Wangiiiii More Cascady Prettyness Desperation Road. ! CIMG5115 CIMG5114 I'm Tiny wooo CIMG5156 Brisssy http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/researching-before-darwin/ http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/researching-before-darwin/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:34:15 +0000 unnecessaryjumping http://unnecessaryjumping.wordpress.com/?p=259 ]]> Doing some reading for my Religion and Violence paper about the validity of claims by atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris:

“Let me describe the general phenomenon I’m referring to. Here’s what happens, in the generic case: a person, in whatever culture he finds himself, begins to notice that life is difficult. He observes that even in the best of times—no one close to him has died, he’s healthy, there are no hostile armies massing in the distance, the fridge is stocked with beer, the weather is just so—even when things are as good as they can be, he notices that at the level of his moment to moment experience, at the level of his attention, he is perpetually on the move, seeking happiness and finding only temporary relief from his search.

We’ve all noticed this. We seek pleasant sights, and sounds, and tastes, and sensations, and attitudes. We satisfy our intellectual curiosities, and our desire for friendship and romance. We become connoisseurs of art and music and film—but our pleasures are, by their very nature, fleeting. And we can do nothing more than merely reiterate them as often as we are able.

If we enjoy some great professional success, our feelings of accomplishment remain vivid and intoxicating for about an hour, or maybe a day, but then people will begin to ask us “So, what are you going to do next? Don’t you have anything else in the pipeline?” Steve Jobs releases the IPhone, and I’m sure it wasn’t twenty minutes before someone asked, “when are you going to make this thing smaller?” Notice that very few people at this juncture, no matter what they’ve accomplished, say, “I’m done. I’ve met all my goals. Now I’m just going to stay here eat ice cream until I die in front of you.”

Even when everything has gone as well as it can go, the search for happiness continues, the effort required to keep doubt and dissatisfaction and boredom at bay continues, moment to moment. If nothing else, the reality of death and the experience of losing loved ones punctures even the most gratifying and well-ordered life.

In this context, certain people have traditionally wondered whether a deeper form of well-being exists. Is there, in other words, a form of happiness that is not contingent upon our merely reiterating our pleasures and successes and avoiding our pains. Is there a form of happiness that is not dependent upon having one’s favorite food always available to be placed on one’s tongue or having all one’s friends and loved ones within arm’s reach, or having good books to read, or having something to look forward to on the weekend? Is it possible to be utterly happy before anything happens, before one’s desires get gratified, in spite of life’s inevitable difficulties, in the very midst of physical pain, old age, disease, and death?”

-Sam Harris – The Problem With Atheism

The difference between Mr. Harris and I: He says no.

I say yes.

Turns out reading about atheism, even from the most articulate and reasonable writers, is reaffirming my beliefs rather than breaking them down. Sometimes the most enjoyable reads are by people you completely disagree with.

–me

One reason why I am being lazy about writing this is because it was remarkably similar to my experience on Moreton Island sans freedom. Lindsay, Jenny, Marc, and I were with a tour group doing a self-drive thing, which means the tour members (of age, aka not me…) drove the 4WD car around the island for 3 days and 2 nights. We were provided with all our camping gear, except a SLEEPING BAG, which I assumed was camping gear (hint: it is…) and left mine at home. They did provide sleeping mats though, so that sufficed alongside my towel as a blankie. Anyway, so there was a group of about 25 of us and we were split into three cars. Ours had eight people, two swedes, a german, an irish folk, Marc who is from the Netherlands, Lindsay and Jenny who are Canadian, and me representing the home of the brave. The term I eventually formulated in my head as the trip went on about the people in my car was “delightful dumbasses.” They were enthusiastic enough, and friendly, but just…frustratingly stupid and obnoxious. German girl in particular. And they really knew jack shit about camping. But I tried to take it as an opportunity to basically people watch and I can have a good laugh at it now. But having said that, my favorite times on the trip were when I went off on my own. On our one full day on the island, after visiting Indian Head, the Champagne Pools, and Eli Creek, we missed the turn off for a place we were going to explore and just decided to keep going to our campsite…at 4 pm. Aka there was a good 2-3 hours of daylight still left. I did NOT go to the island to sit around and drink goon (aka boxed wine, aka it was invented in Australia and is EVERY WHERE). So after offering a hike to the others and being turned down, I set off down the beach to find Lake Wabby, a lake that our group observed from a sweet lookout point but (once again) feared the setting sun and therefore skipped actually going for a swim. After walking for about 30 minutes, I got to the walking track and read the sign…5.5 KM return, with an estimated 2-3 hour time frame. This would have been nice, if it was noon. Unfortunately, it was already approaching 5, and the sun is usually completely set by 6:30. I started walking and saw people trickling back in the other direction. I asked them how far to the lake and they all responded with “Ohhh you have a LOONG way to go…” With the message being repeated to me several times, I decided that yes, I WAS going to get to the lake. No turning back. So my strategy? Run. Like a true freak, I was running through the loose sand path that would take me to Lake Wabby, with the hope in mind that I would have time for a short swim in the lake and get back to camp before sundown. Since I haven’t really done much exercise since unigames, I could only run for so long, but I made sure to keep up my pace. At certain points, I had a quick look around and realized that I was indeed sprinting through a gorgeous jungle. Didn’t really have time to appreciate it, but alas. Anyway, I rounded a few corners, climbed some stairs, and bolted down hills at full speed, terrified that I would sprain my ankle, but I FINALLY reached a clearing, and just as I reached the end of the trail, the last two people who were visiting the lake were leaving…what a treat! I reached the lake and had it ALL to myself. Situated at the steep bottom of a large sand dune, Lake Wabby is unlike the other various lakes on the island due to its support of lots of fish and has a natural deep green color to it. None of my pictures properly encapsulate the green-ness, the huge sand dune, and the pretty trees all in one so I’ll just pick one, but needless to say, it felt very private and I’m lucky to have had the lake for a private swim (and destresser from any travel group frustrations).

I made bffl's with a bunch of catfish along the shore. Syd Fish?

Despite my desire to stay there forever, I remembered that the setting sun was of personal concern for me, and I limited myself to about ten minutes at the lake, feeling refreshed in more ways than one. I began my sprint back, which really is always easier, and totally felt the Rocky-theme going through my head. Before I knew it, I was back at camp as it was getting darker, with the water already boiling for dinner that evening. Boo-yah. So, moral of the story, if you want to go do something, go do it. Don’t let whiny lazy babies stop you from having the experience you want to have. Ok, stepping off the soap box.

Before I move on to the next story time, pictures from Saturday (Maheno Shipwreck, Indian Head):

UQ-ers. Unlike Moreton's fake ones, this wreck is actually real.

ME!! and some other people. Ignore them.

Indian Head to the left of me, My Head on top of the RENEW t-shirt

Aight sweet. I could post pictures of pretty jungly forest times and pristine clear water creek times, but I wont. So deal with it or hunt me down when I’m in America and look through my iPhoto. Wow, I have some serious ‘tude in this post. If it wasnt 3:30 AM right now, maybe I wouldn’t be so moody…but I digress.

Our last day had one glorious item on the to-do list: GO TO LAKE MCKENZIE. Aka the prettiest and most popular spot on the whole island. The second we got there, the main section of beach was crowded, so I did what I did best: DITCHED ‘EM ALL! I put my stuff down and started a walk around the lake. Once again, GOOD decision. After walking through some tall reeds and some woodland (I felt like a real explorer, teehee, dork), I emerged onto a vacant portion of the coast and experienced seclusion for the duration of my walk around the circumference. While I only made it about half way around the lake (pretty massive lake though), I was LOVING it. The reason why it’s so popular is pretty obvious: with practically perfect white silica sand reminiscent of the perfection of Whitehaven Beach (a la Whitsundays for those not keeping score), the water reflects a magnificent spectrum of blue, starting off perfectly clear at the shore, shifting to bright neon blue, and finally, it abruptly shifts to a deep blue, showing a dramatic color change. It was a bit cloudy when I did my picture taking (cleared up later on…damn youuuu!!!) so it’s not captured as vibrantly as it looked, but eff.

Lake Mckenzie's prettyful water <3

Oh sidenote: Wiki just told me this – The original name of the island is ‘K’gari’ in the Badtjala people’s language. It means paradise. Sweet! Anyway, I had a wonderful stroll and a guide was chillin with some people and even offered to take a picture of me and the lakey.

As you can tell, I lead a terribly difficult and stressful life...

So after my walk, I spent the rest of the time there tanning on the beach and soaking up the sights. Very pleased. We left the island by 4, spent the night in Hervey Bay and then came back home early Monday morning.

Ok so I lied. I wrote a decently long post. But honestly, its over 2000 words shorter than they have been recently so I WIN!!

Before I click post, I would just like to shout out to the Redhotz back home. They send out care packages every year to abroaders and even though I knew it was coming eventually, it was still lovely and amazing. SO cute reading the messages especially from the newbies. I cant wait to meet them, and apparently they want to meet me too! So that was precious moments. And I got to have a cultural experience with my friend Gen, who had never had a pop tart before. Americana to the MAX!!!

In conclusion, I leave for Darwin late Friday and get back on a redeye flight on Tuesday. I don’t have too much time to write my two research papers, but I sincerely believe that after the torture workload I suffered first semester sophomore year, I can do anything in ANY time frame. Bring it on, Australian Abroad Assignments, bring it ON!!!

–me

On Thursday, I had finished my MARS paper before class and spent the afternoon in the city to plan my trip to Fraser Island with Jenny and Lindsay! Fraser is the largest all-sand island in the WORLD and after missing out on a class trip there (granted, I’m not enrolled in the class that went haha but basically I heard a lot about it), I am super pumped to get out there. I made it home a little bit before dinner when I get a call from Piers. Because Unigames is over (*tear*), the Lovers don’t train anymore and therefore makes getting six-dollar-thai a little less necessary (though obvi it is necessary for ME). But anyway, Blair and Piers decided to invite me over for dinner to make up for the loss of our dinner-time tradition and it was really sweet of them. Piers whipped out his huge wok and we cooked up a nice little stir-fry, which as Blair and I lamented was severely lacking meat, but I’ll take handouts. I meant to get them ice cream afterwards but perhaps I can make it up for this week. Anyway, so while we were eating, I began to tell them about my grand camping plans for this weekend and mentioned my intentions to go to Moreton Island, another all sand island that is pretty much entirely National Park and is right by my buddy, North Stradbroke Island, so what’s not to love! Piers made sure to inform me that you definitely need a camping permit, so that little bit of info got me more into planning mode. I left their house at around 9 and made my way to Emmanuel to begin what I thought would be a simple process of figuring out where to catch the ferry and getting the permit. One word: WRONG.

After needing to steal Casey’s resnet number to even log onto the computers at Emmanuel, Matt and I started looking at the licensing process on the Queensland National Parks site and selected a location that was “accessible by foot” (aka pretty much anywhere, you just have to walk after all) and picked the “Blue Lagoon Campsite” due to its cool features and the fact that we thought the island was totally small enough to just waltz on over from our docking spot off the ferry (hint: wrong). So we purchased the permit online and got to figuring out getting there. Due to renaming the ferry within the last five or so years from “Moretonventure” to “Micat,” we were thoroughly confused for another hour or so trying to find the proper ferry, with only two options being available anyway (the Tangalooma Resort ferry and the Micat). Once we actually figured out the ferry, we saw that it was $25 each way, totalling a price that seemed like a lot at the time, and deterred us from Moreton Island for a little bit, which I was bummed about but sort of just wanted to go camping SOMEWHERE. So Matt began to advertise other locations, like Lamington National Park, which is where he went for one of his class trips. We determined that we would train it down to Nerang by the Gold Coast and then take a cab into the park, which we once again thought wasn’t “too far.” Clearly, we had issues all weekend with judging distance, but google maps eventually told us that it was an hour and a half to get to the park from Nerang, and therefore those plans were nixed! It was getting late and we were growing weary, and Matt reached a point where he was about to give up and just bail on the idea. NOT HAVING THAT! I managed to convince him to keep looking at stuff with me, and we went back to looking into Moreton (which was what I wanted all along). We saw ferries would be leaving at 8:30 AM and 1:30 PM the next day, and we decided that the 8:30 would be our best bet if we wanted to maximize our time on the island. So that was awesome. Another problem that we encountered was that, unfortunately, we realized that in order to survive, you need food, and 1) it was too late to go food shopping that night because it was 11 PM and 2) by the time we needed to be AT the ferry, we wouldn’t have had time to go to the grocery store in the morning either. Matt made it clear to me that he wasn’t down for leaving at the later ferry time (which in retrospect would have been a poor decision so woo and yay to 8:30) and we were once again at square one. No food, no trip…which then began the “CALL OUR FRIENDS AND BEG TO RAID THEIR KITCHENS!” adventure! I started the trend by calling Brenton and making the odd request and then biking down to Oval 7-ish area and then all the way back to Emmanuel, with food in hand. After this first food obtaining endeavor, however, we tried to pre-book our ferry tickets and while the website was functioning the first time we tried, just when we decided to try again, the website went under “maintenance until 2 AM, sorry for the inconvenience.” Yeah well, EFF TO THAT. I had JUST gotten our first bit of food and now we cant even go?! We were by no means done with food compilation, however, so we figured the next two or so hours could be preoccupied with scavenging. So we got to work.

We walked around Matt’s hall for a little bit, obtaining small bits of food including rice cakes, some fruit, honey, and chips. Not bad, considering I got a full box of cereal, loaf of bread, weet-bix bars, and almost full peanut butter (I paid him don’t worry haha this wasn’t straight up thievery, promise), but not enough! We raided Hilary’s house next and gathered some more fruit, muesli bars, box of shapes, and instant potatoes. Maybe more cereal? Then we went to Paige’s house and got some more muesli bars, soup and beans (both to be consumed cold), chips, and lollies (which we ended up chucking due to its weight). After completing our raid, we were close to the ‘ville and decided that we deserved a kebab to celebrate our long evening of planning and begging. I suffered a little through mine, after confusing “hot chilli” to mean “filled with beans and ground beef” when it actually meant “extremely spicy and painful,” but it was grand reflecting on the strangeness of the night. By the time we got back to Emmanuel, it was almost 2 AM, so we did a little inventory of our food and Matt prepped me on what I should pack. The clock finally struck 2 and when we go to book our Micat…it wont let us mark our “starting date” as 9 October!!! Must have had something to do with the whole day-of thing (procrastination much?) but we were disheartened to the max for about five minutes. I then decided to go to the FAQ section of their site and discovering that you don’t ACTUALLY have to pre-book if you’re just walking on, since the boat is pretty massive, and therefore, we stayed up late for no reason. Fabulous. We managed to figure out how to get to the ferry and Matt had me meet him back at Emmanuel at around 5:15 AM. Good thing it was 3 AM when I went home…

After biking to Emmanuel with my giant packed duffel bag-turned-psuedo-hiking-bag that I wore like a backpack the whole trip, Matt was fast asleep and luckily I was able to get into the dorm to bang on his door to wake him up. Once he was on the more functioning side of life, we began our first hike of the weekend: going across the Green Bridge to get to the Park Road train station. It wasn’t HORRIBLE, per se, but it was a 45 minute walk at the crack of dawn with all your gear on your back. We got there in plenty of time, though, and took our train out to the Wynnum North stop, aka Middle of Nowhere. A cab took us to Port of Brisbane from there and we somehow were finally there! We were really doing this! We got on the Micat and, before we knew it, had drifted off to sleep. During some of our waking time on the boat, we had snagged a map of the island and realized that our campsite was actually kind of freakishly far away from our landing spot at Tangalooma, aka more than 10 KM away. Sidenote: the Micat is a people AND 4WD barge that carries peoples’ big trucks over to the island. Much like Fraser, people basically get around using their 4WD’s. Ok. Anyway, we randomly had made conversation with one couple who happened to be at the Blue Lagoon campground and I ended up asking them ever so nicely if we could get a ride with them over to the site. They said they were cramped for space but would “have a look” once we docked. Once we got there, Matt and I waited on the bottom deck where all the cars were and one by one, they all drove off, with our buddies no where in sight. Fail. We asked a ranger what direction we should start walking in to get to our site, point us up the beach to Middle Road, which crosses from one coast to another.

Middle Road is that thicker black line in the middle...Our campsite = the little tent icon on the otherside...eff

We started trudging down the beach (and hiking on sand is just a bit harder than solid ground) and as we approached Middle Road, we made the executive decision to rely on two things to get around the island: our legs and our THUMBS. A few 4WD blew past us, but soon enough, our extended, outstretched arms with erect thumbs beckoned over our first victim, I mean, vehicle. We learned that they were headed in our direction and they willingly took us aboard…fun! Their names were Mark and Brooke and they showed us our first bit of hospitality and luck that we would have for the entirety of our trip. The trip through Middle Road was extremely rough and long and would have been SUCH a waste of daylight to walk, so thank goodness. Once we reached the beach, however, the tide was high and therefore dangerous and unwise for driving. The couple offered to drive us a few hundred meters back to the entrance of the walking track to Mount Tempest, the highest point on the island and, at 280 meters, also the highest coastal sandhill in the world! After donating a full water bottle to me after SuperPump exploded in my bag (hearkening back to my Sigg much?) and giving us their number if we needed a ride, we couldn’t thank them enough for their generosity and said our goodbyes. With all our gear on our backs, we began the trek up the mountain. After a few hours of heart pounding hiking, we were rewarded with an AMAZING panoramic view of the island and feasted on our first bit of scavenged food.

Looking South. Note the sand dunes on the upper part of the coast.

The hike back down was (predictably) smoother, and before we knew it, we were back at the beach by mid-afternoon. We walked along for a little bit but soon enough, we got back to hitchhiking. After a few failures, we jokingly signaled to a huge bus passing us and actually got the 4WD behind them to pull over. The two people (Mark and not sure?) were high school biology teachers, with their students in the bus ahead. They were staying at Blue Lagoon as well and we got a lift over to the site from them. After thanking them, Matt and I spent a few minutes looking over the campsites and after another snack, we got into our bathing suits and headed to the actual “Blue Lagoon”! Just a short 5 minute walk away (with the beach being even closer on the other side), we happened upon the expansive lagoon tucked within the rolling terrain. We had a nice swim in the water, which I determined was fresh (gotta learn how to keep my mouth shut while swimming…), and relaxed on the sandy shoreline in the late afternoon sun. We scrapped together our fancy dinner (aka the soup and beans) and ate as the sun set, once again producing several amazing pictures that I struggle to pick from every time!

Schwing no biggie

As with most Australian nights, it got dark quickly, and we shuffled around the campgrounds trying to find the optimal place to pitch the tent. We found a spot that was set a bit away from the few other filled sites and had a nice quiet space for sleeping. Matt’s tent is super awesome and easy to put together, making me SERIOUSLY want one (who wouldn’t want a portable house?!), and our little green two-man was ready. We spent the rest of the evening chatting on the beach, experiencing the rough waves on the eastern side of the island, and in the tent under the stars. A few hours after we called it a night, I get woken up by Matt and realize we are being drizzled on! We quickly hopped out of the tent to put the tarp on and it proceeded to rain for the majority of the night.

Luckily, upon waking bright and early, the rain had subsided, and we looked forward to another great day of hikin’, hitchin’, and explorin’. After a bit of breakfast, we packed up the tent, gathered all our belongings back onto our backs, and hit the beach by 10 AM. Our plan for the day was to hitch up to Cape Moreton, the northernmost tip on the east coast of the island, which displayed the Cape Moreton Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in Queensland! With the walk looking to be a little less than 8 KM, we desperately tried to hitch a ride up the beach, which was a straight shot to the lighthouse. Unfortunately, car after car passed us by, despite our desperation. The wet sand wasn’t incredibly hard to walk on, however, and although it would have been much easier to get a ride, the walk up to the foot of the cliff wasn’t that bad. Matt and I even played a rousing game of categories to pass the time, in which I beasted him in the realm of “American Foods.” Yes. He beat me in office supplies and car brands, however, so I didn’t exhibit complete domination.

Not a particularly important image, but I thought it was pretty. The rock was bright red slightly out of the frame and was cool, ok!?

Anyway, we started the rather difficult hike up the sandy cliff, but eventually made it up to the top. Once again, worth the effort! The view reminded me of Straddie on the Gorge Walk and I smiled to myself (and probably actually smiled too).

Moreton Island NOT Straddie. Promise.

Woohoo Matt rocking up to the lighthouse. Funtimes.

We dropped our bags and had lunch at the tip of the island, unsure of where we would go next. While we were eating, we see three guys peak over the edge of the cliff and saw them headed our way. Matt decided to ask them where they were headed after exchanging some greetings, we learned that they were headed down the west coast of the island towards Bulwer, which was the small grocery on the northwest portion of the island. We knew we needed to be back down to the Wrecks/Tangalooma for our ferry on Sunday and decided to ditch the Blue Lagoon, preferring to hitch with Matt, Matt, and Shane! These three guys were really fun, probably only five or so years older than us, and we got to chatting as we drove across the island. After cutting through some of the bush and emerging onto the beach, we noticed how far away we had already travelled from the lighthouse, and Matt and I once again reflected on how difficult (i.e impossible) these hikes would be. Once in Bulwer, we all decided to get some ice cream together at the shop and bonded over that! It was precious moments to the max and they even offered to drive us along to beach as far south as they could, getting us closer to our eventual destination. Once we sadly said goodbye, we quickly got over it and realized how GORGEOUS our second campsite was and the fact that I could experience one of my life goals for a night, “Live on the Beach.”

The view from the back of our enclosure. Not bad real estate, eh?

Score. It was definitely swimming time again, and since the waters on this side of the island were much calmer, I wasn’t as freaked out to dive in! After only a few minutes, however, Matt calls out to me from further inshore, “Did you see that thing jumping out of the water? It’s…it’s a tuna! Tuna don’t just jump out of the water for nothing! GET OUT!!” Haha, so I swam frantically to shore and watched this massive tuna literally leap out of the water. Perhaps it was being chased by a shark, perhaps it was just going for a jump…but yeah I’m not taking any chances. As we were drying off, we noticed that two kookaburras were chilling on our tree in our campsite!! So freaking cute…Matt decided to whip out his harmonica to serenade the birds, and one of them flew basically within ten feet of us and just stayed there for a while. It. Was. PRECIOUS!

Matt: Stage Right, Kookaburra: Stage Left

Yay. We eventually scrapped together our dinners and examined the view from our beachside residence. We determined where the Port of Brisbane was in the skyline and we ALSO could see Brisbane’s skyline…amazing! The coolest moment was when we realized we could see each of the Glasshouse Mountains distinctively right across from us! Ngungun really is tiny in comparison to the other ones I know by name, and I felt very special being able to recognize them by shape off in the distance. I waved to my former self who was on the summit of Ngungun just a few months earlier and had a moment. Special. The sun set again in gorgeous fashion and I attempted to be artsy with my now severely outdated digital camera with average results. Here’s a picture of a random tree stump in the middle of the surf that I liked!

Yay reflections and shifting colors. And prettyness!

Matt and I spent the rest of the night having great conversation, which eventually was stifled due to the chilly air, and we set up the tarp on the tent not for the purpose of keeping rain out, but rather for warmth. Good thing we did, since we experienced yet another rainy night! When we woke up the next morning, it was still a little drizzly and cloudy out, but we hoped for the best as we ate breakfast inside our temporary home. We packed up and got straight to hitchin’.

It only took a few tries, but we eventually got a short but desirable ride just a few kilometers down the shore by the Cowan Cowan Pass and learned that these dudes were attending a wedding. Once they dropped us off, we walked along the rest of the no-drive-zone and hitched one last ride back down to the Wrecks, which was greatly appreciated. One of the ladies in the car told us about a hike to some peak that would give us a good view of the wrecks, so we started off further down the beach after saying thank you. Our stroll took us past civilization, aka the Tangalooma Resort, and we were certainly out of place for that length of beach, with all our possessions strapped dutifully to our backs. After a decently long hike down the beach, we reached the entrance to a path that led to “the Desert,” one of three huge purely-sand dunes, much like, yknow, a desert. The hike to the desert was listed as “moderate to steep,” and it wasn’t kidding. Having the load of the bags probably made it seem worse than it actually was, but after pushing up hundreds of steps and pathways, we finally reached the opening to the desert. I have lots of pictures, but sand is sand is sand is sand, so I’ll only post a few, but MAN it was expansive…and we were going to walk alllll the way across it….dang. Despite being pretty tired from the cumulative hiking we had been doing all weekend, we made it across and climbed up to the top of the dune, on which a small group of resort guests were sand tobaganning with a guide. We sat there and watched them go, catching our breath for a moment and chatting with some of the guests, and within a few minutes, the group was packing up to leave. For some reason, the guide generously gave us the slightly cracked but definitely still functional piece of wood for US to use!! He also gave us a candle to wax up the bottom for optimal acceleration! We were super pumped and thanked him for the opportunity. The proper technique is to lie flat on your stomach, with your hands pulling up hard on the front of the board. I went first and started flying down the dune!

Note Jungle Hat. It did NOT fly off!! Good Jungle Hat.

Needless to say, it was AWESOME!!! I didn’t think we were going to get the chance to do this (I had heard about it from some other people who had been) but we were so lucky to get the chance…and for no cost at all! Walking back up wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had, but it was worth the effort.

Look at how TINY I am! And VICTORIOUS!!!

After we were sufficiently tired out by sand boarding, we had a little snack at the bottom on the dune and trekked back across the desert, which was, once again, an easier hike on the way back (score). Matt randomly found a pair of goggles in the desert (?), which we were really excited about since we were going to explore the wrecks as our last activity! Once we passed back through the Tangalooma Resort and realized that tasty island alcoholic beverages were WAY out of our budget, we continued onto the shipwrecks that Moreton Island is known for and got pumped for a swim. We got up close and personal with the rusty boats and saw several schools of fish hanging out via our goggles! After a bit of exploring, we got cold and decided to just relax for the next hour or so before our ferry home arrived. Not before snagging a picture though!

Yeah-yuh Richmond at the 'Recks

So that was awesomeness. We boarded our Micat ferry home, departing a bit after 4:30, and experienced a double rainbow AND breaching humpback whales on the way back! This was special! But our entire adventure does not count as completed until we are back to where we started….

…which ended up being a little bit harder than we anticipated. We called a cab while still on the boat and ended up waiting for a really long time, due to the incompetence of the driver (I’m sorry, but no one here actually knows where they’re going. These people are CAB DRIVERS, and they don’t know. GPS’ should only be for ME!!!) Anyway, after WE magically provided him the address of the train station, we learned that, oops, they were servicing that part of the track. Eff. So we waited to catch a bus that took us to ANOTHER station, which we also waited at for a while. I decided that it was time to employ my “I-Know-People-Who-Live-On-The-Other-Side-Of-The-Green-Bridge-With-Cars” superpower and managed to get a hold of Will, who generously accepted to pick us up to drive us to the bridge. We had a fun ride with him, which lifted our spirits, and we frolicked back to campus with our gear. We finally parted ways and so ended the epic saga of “Sarah Wants to Go Camping”!

While I usually don’t pressure people into doing things, I’m SO glad I didn’t give up with Matt during our multiple epic fails on Thursday night. I know he wanted to go, so I knew all he needed was a little motivation . It was really fun to live off of our backs and I hope I get into more camping in the future! But for now, I have three looming papers and an exam to worry about…good thing I have Fraser, Darwin, and New Zealand to look forward to! Geez…rough life, right?

–me

P.S. By request, BLAIR BLAIR BLAIR BLAIR. You are being mentioned in this blog BECAUSE YOU ARE AWESOME. Ok bye!

Last Saturday, a group of the team went to Jules’ house to watch the AFL Grandfinal (Geelong Cats vs. SomeOtherTeamThatLost) and it got me freakishly excited to hang out with my team for an entire week. While the group of us didn’t really gel earlier on in training (it’s hard with only one training a week and very busy schedules for everyone), our little hang-outs and scrimmages were slowly bringing us together. After returning home, I managed to calm my excitement enough to actually sleep a little bit before leaving at 11 AM the next morning, via Brenton’s PARTY BUS!!! After packing up all my clothes and food, I walked over to Oval 7 to meet the bus, which would be taking down Brenton, Will, Megs, JJ, myself, and four other from different teams who we GRACIOUSLY offered rides to . Will brought a tape deck adapter and therefore started off the week of listening to good music! The four of us UQ-ers in the back were quite loud and obnoxious on the way down, probably scaring the people on other teams (strategy?) but we all had a fun ride down and started the trip off right.

SCHWING! Please note my new water bottle, Super Pump. Sigh...

After not quite knowing where we were going (iPhone google maps…good in theory but almost ALWAYS fail in practice haha), we eventually found the Longbeach Breakfree, which would be our accommodation for the week. Right near the center of Surfer’s Paradise and Cavill Avenue (aka where all the parties are), we were less than 100 meters from the beach and I couldn’t have been happier with our location! Unfortunately, it was about a twenty minute drive from our fields (more with the awful traffic in the Gold Coast), but overall, very satisfied. We were also situated a street over from the iconic Q1 building, which is the tallest pointy building on the Coast and is basically the highlight of the skyline, no biggie. Anyway, my room was the first to be checked into, which was located on the 11th floor (we were scattered all over the building due to the type of room we all had) and upon opening the door, I was shocked! We were each living in legitimate flats for the week! Each apartment had a master bedroom, a room with two twin beds, a full bathroom with washer/dryer, and a big common space that had the kitchen, couches, a TV, and most importantly, two SICK balconies, one facing into the city and one facing the beach. While the view from the 24th floor was certainly better than ours, I still wasn’t complaining:

Yessss victory. Go, beach, go.

So after our excitement faded about that, we hit the beach! After throwing in what would be the first of many windy conditions, we all sprinted into the waters as more of our team rolled up. The sun was setting before we knew it and we all eventually broke up into our rooms to cook dinner. In my room was myself, Megs, Al, and Molly, which turned out to be an AMAZING place to be for great dinners! The other three members of my room were keen on being healthy, with Al and Molly providing a ton of fresh veggies to be cooked up with our pasta and meat. Johnny Mac and Brenton also joined us for our meal and we had a fabulous pasta dish with chicken. I helped a little I guess…aka I chopped onions and garlic (poorly) and basically made it obvious that I was the baby of the room. After dinner, the whole team gathered in 605, which was quickly renamed “Nirvana” by Will. The party room, Nirvana housed Will, Tyson, Ryan, and JJ, and was outfitted with Will’s awesome sound system that he brought down with him.  We received our AUG special edition white jerseys (made of NOT shit material!) and talked about our plans for tomorrow morning. We all hung out in Nirvana for a while and some people decided to go to the clubs for a bit (theme was Team Colors – not exciting), but we all hit the hay pretty early, since we would be waking up at approx 6:20 AM for a 9 AM game the next morning!

The alarm went off in the morning and I was tireddd…but PUMPED! I got a text from Casey wishing me luck for the week, which was muchly appreciated (hence the mention in this post) and I got started on bland breakfast number one of many. I ate one of my chocolate honey nut blahblah muesli bars as I toasted a couple pieces of bread. I put peanut butter on the toast and feasted. Yum, not. The party bus departed Longbeach at around 7:30 and we began our first foray into the awful traffic. As I mentioned earlier, we luckily had fabulous tunes provided by Will, JJ, Ryan, Jules, and Lindsay’s iPods for the week. One unexpected thing that came out of this week was finally having exposure to some really great Australian music. I hope to steal it from them before I leave!! We got to the fields and began to warm up for our first game against Flinders Fury, the team that won gold last year. Personally, I didn’t feel like our team was fully into it when we started playing, and it reflected in the final score. We lost that game 9-12 and were shocked by it, considering all we had been talking about leading up to the games was our strategy about games we could afford to lose or not (though there was plenty of cocky talk about winning it all haha) and losing that game was not a fun time. But Al made us think about the feeling we were experiencing then and remember that we didn’t want to feel that way again. We had a bye until after lunch, so we feasted on small sandwiches (that’s right, food is provided for lunch at Aussie tourneys, comon America!) and waited for our next game against UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). We were able to roll this team 15-4 (scores to 15 were rare considering the wind, ugh), but it was a well played game and we had to work hard. At the end of games here, both teams circle up with arms around each other with the team members intermixed and each team captain says a few words about the game, ending with three big cheers for the opponent. The Lovers gave out male and female MVPs to the other team every game and gave them a Lovefest pin as their award! Some other teams did that too, UTS being one of them. To vote, we all close our eyes as they point around the circle…and they picked me! I got a mix CD and a toy plastic trophy from them and I’m excited to listen to it! Yay! After another break and warm-up, we played UWA (University of Western Australia…far far away!) and beat them solidly 12-3. The scores dont really show it, but these games were quite hard due to the wind and were really hard fought.

We headed home to jump in the ocean and the really weird heated pool to relax the muscles…best feeling EVER! After having a shower and dinnertime, a majority of the team decided to attend the pirate party at Melba’s! My costume was really slack, considering I didn’t prep for ANY of the themes, and took donations from Bree and Megs, which were a monkey tail and ears and eye patch…Pirate Monkey?! The boys (Ryan, Doug, JJ, Will, Tyson, Brenton) all had really great costumes and I was ashamed of myself. I’m not really sure when to enter this part of the week into the post, but the boys in Nirvana had all watched this lovely YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c) and were quoting Trent all week, starting that night. “AHM, ah me folks eh? I dunno aye? I just kinda rocked up here” was pretty much reverberating throughout the Gold Coast. UM! Haha…I need to get Tyson or JJ saying that so I never forget it…gets me every time. Get the FUCKOUTTAMYSHOP! ANYWAY, basically we went to Melba’s and proceeded to dance it up to a live band for several hours. Doug, Molly, and I decided to go to Mackers (i.e. McDonalds) for a cheap ice cream sundae and called it a night. First game was at 11 AM, which was better, but still early wake up time!

Our first game was against Macquerie Uni, which I know a lot of Richmond kids are at and was the first school I considered studying at, so I really wanted to CRUSH THEM!!! Another hard game with a stronger womens line than most (ours being the strongest ), we beat them 12-4 in a well spirited match. Well, I guess it was well spirited, because it was in this game that Piers decided that we should employ the tactic of “POINTLESS YELLING!!” in which we do just that, yell pointlessly. I was on the sidelines when we first started doing this, and after Piers said yell something pointless, the first thing Tash says is, “I love SAUSAGES!” and we proceeded to judge her immensely. Our warm-up plios were also filled with random yelling, especially doing active groin stretches in which you look like a sumo wrestler and therefore have to YELL like a sumo wrestler. TAMAGATCHI! CHICKEN FRIEND RICE!…REFRIGERATOR! AHM! Um, so that happened all week pretty much. Lunch happened and we had our second game against ANU Totem (Australia National University). After beating them 15-7, we circled up and they awarded an MVP award to us…which I somehow also got! I say somehow because Megs had the sickest layout of all time in the endzone and I would have been blinded by that magic. They gave me a selection of several pairs of underwear, and with my team recommending the bright pink ones with Totem’s logo ironed on the front, I selected that one and the Totem player helped me put them on over my orange shorts…quite the look, I tell ya. Did the same routine with the warm pool and had a tasty dinner. I honestly dont remember what we did Tuesday night?! We weren’t a fan of the theme (The Wiggles?! wtf) and I just have no effing clue haha oops. I’m sure I was having fun though! I can guarantee though that when I came home, I watched some cricket with Al, which was always a nice way to end the night.

Day Three of tournament times was vital for us, and winning both games would give us a direct bid into the semifinal round on Thursday. Our first game was against University of Sydney, who lost to Flinders in the final last year. While I don’t remember the details too much other than the fact that I dropped at least three perfectly good hammers while being wide open, we managed to pull out a win 9-8 on universe point (foreshadowing…) and left that game with a bit of relief. Our next match was not going to be any easier against Monash University, which ended up being the Overall Unigames champions (most medals I think). Another rough game for me personally, we all battled through the wind and ended up pulling away and winning 10-5. Phew! We were all really excited because 1) direct bid to the semifinals and 2) 3 PM game which means PARTYTIME!!

The theme of the night for all of AUGs was “Hat N Tie,” but apparently every year, frisbee picks a night and makes their own theme, which we decided was RUBIKS CUBE! For those who dont know what this is, you basically wear an article of clothing that is each color of the rubiks cube and trade with people at the party until you are all one color. Ryan even brought his actual rubiks cube and showed us his skills (no really, this kid knows what he is doing). He taught Tyson how to solve it too and the two of them were impressing us in Nirvana before we all went out. I was lazy with my costume and wore mostly green with one blue item that I was willing to sacrifice, but Brenton and Doug helped me out by giving me a white SWINE FLU mask, yellow glove, and orange pants that i wore on my arm haha. Close enough. We all looked pretty cool though:

Arent we precious?

The venue was Melba’s again and we quickly got to trading. I had a lot more fun than I expected; people randomly coming up to you trading shit things for other shit things and occasionally something cool! I traded away the mask for a yellow and green bag with a zipper that says Australia on it…I’LL TAKE THAT! Megs got the coolest Furious George hat and some crappy yet awesome aviators made their way to Will and JJ. Overall, I became all green, several became blue, some became red, and none left without something new to their name. At one point, Tash came up to me and said she was leaving and I had had my fill as well, so I decided to peace with her. We ended up walking back and chatted up on the 24th floor on her room’s balcony for a while and it was just so nice. Amazing view, perfect weather, and I love Tash (despite the multiple “Fuck Yous” and middle fingers in my direction, but I’m American so I guess I deserve it). Kaitlin came back soon after and we exchange your mom jokes before I decided it was sleeptime. Watched some cricket again while I iced and then went to bed excited to get lots of sleep!

The next morning, most everyone decided to go to the beach for the free morning, but I had been getting some intense burns due to my skin sensitivity (damn malaria pills!) so I didn’t feel like being in the sun more than I had to. I appreciated the alone time, however, and decided to ice and then go for a dip in the pool to warm up the muscles. Before I knew it, we needed to head to the fields, where we ate our lunch and prepared for our semifinal against Monash, who beat Ballarat in their pre-semi earlier that day (while we were relaxing, hell yeah!). We knew they would be coming out strong after losing to us yesterday, and we saw that they spent a good 45 minutes with their coach with the whiteboard as we ate lunch, spending a good ten minutes on Johnny Mac alone, I heard. Haha, love it. While this game was much better played by Monash, we also pulled it together (proud personal moment: had a nice layout catch of a junk throw that flew past its intended receiver and defender…is it just me or can I only catch crap?) and we beat them 10-7 to advance to the FINALS!!!! The Flinders-Uni Sydney semi was finishing up on the field next to us and they were on universe point…with the win going to U Sydney! TAKE THAT FLINDERS!!! Flinders ended up losing to Monash in the Bronze medal consolation game, so basically, effs to them. Though it would have been nice to beat them after they beat us. Oh well.

We all had a great team dinner in Nirvana later that night and decided to have a chill hang out with the team in the room night. Lindsay brought catchphrase with her (!!!) and we were entertained for hours. The Australians all judged several of the clues (not all English is the same…) but it was really fun. Our final match was at 1 PM the next day and we were all really excited for it, some nervous.

The day of the final arrived and we were exactly where we expected to be, aka in contention for the gold. Being placed at the 12th seed of the first division, on paper it looked like we were no good, but everyone there knew that we were contenders and favorites to win it all from the start. We watched the end of the bronze medal match and started our warm up. By the time we were done with stretching and stuff, we started our triangle drill in the middle of the field (basically a box drill but with one less point). The sidelines were filling up with every other team on both sides and it was absolutely thrilling to have such a big audience. I showed off a little bit with more layout catches in the drill than in the actual game haha but it pumped me up a lot to have everyone watching. We had great throws and catches in the drill and we looked good to go for the start of the game. We even whipped out our favorite cheer, which was a rendition of the “Final Countdown” (very appropriate song for the week…we cheered it post game as well). After the first pull, however, Sydney came out very strong, broke our zone easily, and ripped off four quick points on us before we even scored. They even went up 2-6 on us at one point, but I never thought to myself that it was over. We settled down on the attack and went back to our typical “hoovers and grinders” mentality, moving the disc up the field in smarter fashion in the wind. At one point, I was talking on the sideline to the wing standing a few feet off the line in front of the main spectator tent, and out of NO WHERE a Sydney guy on defense comes FLYING into me full on, pancaking me into the ground and people in the tent. Almost no one on my team saw it, but everyone on the sidelines were like DAMN and I wasnt too happy about the incident either. After that, I wanted to beat them so much more than I already did. I took the field when it was 7-6 (us), and on an upwind point, Johnny Mac hucked a backhand to me at the front right corner of the endzone and I layed out to take it to half. I hadn’t had a layout point all tournament yet, so this one felt extra sweet. Coming out of half, we were feeling confident, but by no means finished. Cap went off when we had possession of the disc and we had a chance to win it in a game to 9, but we let our lead slip away as they climbed back to tie it up 8-8. In the point or so before, a huck was thrown to J Mac in the endzone and him and his defender made AMAZING bids for the disc…but the defender got the best of Johnny and John landed HARD on his right arm and he thinks it might be a rotator cuff tear/injury…EFF. But anyway, he came back on once 8-8 happened and I was called on as well to play for universe point. We started with the disc but turned it over and after they broke through some of our zone, a throw was put up to one of their better male receivers in the upper left corner of their endzone. He bid for the disc with is feet still in the endzone and CAUGHT the disc…as it bounced two inches away from him!! Everyone knew it was down, but there was a split second of despair and yelling from everyone. The crowd was definitely into the game, as they chanted “DOWNNNNN!!!!!” On the turn, we worked the disc slowly up the field up wind, and in fitting fashion, an amazing put from most likely Al was sent to Johnny in the middle of the endzone to get the WIN! 9-8! What a rush! Everyone sprinted into the endzone to have a quick celebration before we thanked and circled up with the other team. After cheering for each other, we opened up the circle and cheered the crowd and then took some pictures with the scoreboard before the medal ceremony.

Half of the teams at the ceremony, Lovers at the bottom!

The beginning of the ceremony was an announcement of individual MVP’s per team and overall that were voted on by captains after each game (I saw Al filling out one of the sheets once; it also has spirit points). Johnny Mac and I were voted as MVPs for UQ and Johnny was also on the overall vote…exciting! We then watched the Division 2 teams get their medals (QUT got Bronze, Brisbane represent!) and clapped it out for them. The Division 1 medals were then given to Monash (bronze) and U Sydney (silver)…then it was OUR TURN!! We each got announced by Nathan as we received our medals and lined up to take a glorious photo with our shiny new hardware.

Lovers 2009 - AUG Gold Medalists!

Love. We shimmied off to the side to take photos for the UQ guy that was there and listened to the announcer continue on. I noticed there was another pile of medals on the table that had a green band, unlike the red, yellow, and blue of the other ribbons. The announcer proceed to tell us about the “Green and Gold Team” honor that they give out every AUG (for each sport too) that is basically the Australian All-Star team of that sport as representatives. The team is selected by vote of team captains, an AUG representative as well as an AFDA (Australian Flying Disc Association) rep and they pick the team based on balance of skills, meaning its not just stacked with cutters or amazing huckers, athletic ability, and spirit of the game. The team can only have 6-8 women and 8-10 guys so it’s a very small group. After they announced the name of the first girl selected, I hear MY name called (last name mispronounced of course). My jaw dropped and I think my heart probably skipped two beats, but I went up to grab my medal and the other girl had to stop me from walking back to my place in the crowd. I just looked around up at the front and watched the rest of the team get announced and couldnt believe that I was standing with the players that teams PLAN their game plan around. Names that even I had heard of before coming here. It’s a feeling I will never forget and an honor that I will never belittle. The final roster consisted of 8 women and 10 men, with Johnny representing Lovers on the men’s side of things. Everyone congratulated me, people were coming up to me to tell me “great game” and got to be a little celebrity for a day. All of this great success made me SO pumped for the “Dressed to Impress” aka FLAUNT THAT GOLD MEDAL party that night!

Before heading home, the party bus hit up Mackers for a celebratory burger on the beach and then hurried home to get to boozin’! Needless to say, Nirvana was a MESS after that night.

Showing off the Goldy in fine form

Random spirit trophy?? I have no idea where we got that from...

After a lot of Lovers-exclusive partying in Nirvana, we peaced out to the club to get our victory dance on! Let me tell you, having a shiny gold medal makes everyone like you just a little bit more haha. I had my pick of dance partners and it was really funny and fun. Made lots of new friends who I have NO idea who they are (random numbers in my phone…it happens?) and had the stamp of approval. I can deal with that. As the night went on, we got some munchies, but heck if I have money. Luckily, Chris decided to be nice and got me a double cheeseburger and I snacked on that happily. Twice in one day? A-OK if you are National Champion. A bunch of us then walked along the beach and finally made it back in around 2:30. SUCCESS!!!!

The next morning was bittersweet, as we all frantically cleaned up our rooms and packed up our things. Piers recommended a place for a cheap breakfast (a trend? SIX DOLLAR THAI! THREE DOLLAR BREAKFAST!) and we loaded up a drove out to the place whose name I dont recall. Three dollar breakfast became six dollar breakfast (still not bad!) because I ordered the Special twice and got me four eggs, four pieces of toast, and lots of (not actual but they claim its) bacon. Not nearly enough butter though…anywho, it was a proper finale to our crazy week and we broke off into our separate cars to head home. The party bus was much more of a sleeping bus this time around and we made it back to Brisvegas before 2.

Bye Bye Surfers

If you would have asked me a few weeks before this tournament how I thought it would feel to win a National Championship, I probably just would have been like “that would be cool to have that title.” Now that I’ve been through the journey with this amazing group of people and had that attachment to them, winning the title is so much more than just the medal. The connection to the people and the community and the respect that everyone gives each other within that community is truly unique and something that I dont think I will ever have in American ultimate. To be on the gold medal team AND the green and gold team is not a common thing and I am just amazed with the opportunities I’ve had via ultimate since I’ve been in Australia. It’s hard knowing that I wont ever play with this roster of Lovers or even half of the people on the TEAM ever again, so I will cherish this week and tournament forever. The other scary thing is that its OCTOBER! HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN!??!? AH!!

Moral of the Story: If you are involved with Ultimate, congrats. You are involved in a game that is fulfilling not only because of the simplicity, excitement, and beauty of the game, but also because of the people around the WORLD that are passionate about the same thing that you are and love to share in it. Thank you, Australia, for hammering home that point.

Time to write two papers. Here’s to you, Lovers!!! You’re making my abroad experience what it is!!!!

–me, aka Princess

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! I love you and I miss you ) I hope I make you proud, despite me breaking myself with all this Ultimate. Forgiveness.

PSS I forgot to include JJ’s great song:

We’re the UQ Lovers, you can be one too, ’cause playing Ultimate is the thing to do.