New Zealand!!!

It seems like it has been a while since I last wrote, but I did make it to New Zealand safe and sound. There just isn't that much time to write and it is expensive to get online. So for the fast updates...

The highlights has got to be participating at a Marae. It is a cultral welcoming when staying with people from NewZealand. Remind me later and I will tell you all about it.

The other fun stuff was our backpaping hike. It was 16 k both ways. So it is like 10 miles each way. It wa green and beautiful. But I need to get all cleaned up from it so once again it is a short one.

Sara, I am trying to take lots of pictures and I have asked around about the candy wrappers!

Sydney

On our last day at the Blue Mountains I was able to go on this amazing hike. It has got to be my favorite one so far. The whole trail is carved out of the mountain. Being by the egde gave us a constant veiw of the surounding area. Plus there were tons of waterfalls. It wasn't a long hike, only 2 1/2 hours, but it was beautiful. That night we went the Sydney Temple. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, temples are some of the best places to be. I'm also looking forward to the two other twmples we will be able to go to.

Since then we have officially been in Sydney and taking it easy, or at least as easy as we would like to. Everyday we are free to do as we please as long as we have at least one other person with you and we aren't being stupid. So yesterday and today I have been spending it with Kaye. We went to the Sydney Opera house to get tickets for Faustus... Absolutely hated it. We ended up walking out. But hey at least I can say I saw something there.

Today we went to an Asian Garden, which was beautiful. I really love the oriental look of everything. We spent like 2 hours taking pictures and eating our lunch there we packed. Otherwise we would check out little stores we would pass as we walked around. One of my favorites areas was one of the outdoor markets that is only open on Saturdays. Unfortunately we got there right be fore they were cleaning up.

Tonight we will be going to a Rugby game. It is Australia vs South Africa. So it should be an exciting game. Otherwise we will be heading to New Zealand Monday Morning. Then things should be getting more intense. I'm excited for that.

Sorry once again I can't upload pictures, the computer is being weird. Maybe next time :)

Alice Springs and Blue Mountains

Once again Things are absolutely amazing. After leaving Cairns We ended up in Alice Springs. The whole time there we had a tour guide, Mark, showing us around. This was awesome because we got to hear some of the leagends and stories of the places we visited and hiked.

Some of the highlights were riding on camels, hiking Kings Canyon, taring my pants, and walking around Uluru. OK, the taring of the pains was not a highlight, but hiarious. That just leaves me one pare to leave for the rest of the trip which will make things interesting. I guess they were not strechy pants. :) Uluru is concidered a sacred place to the aborigenese (probably spelled wrong). When I learned more about the place I felt reverence towards the place I probably would not have felt otherwise. At one point around the place; Mark wouldn't let the guys look at the mountain because it was a womens sacred place. The whole thing was amazing. Walking the base was a 10 K.

Some fun foods I've now eatin is Camel, Kangaroo, and I had a meat pie. I was told I will be eating some really interesting things in Fiji.

Well, we are now at the Blue Mountains close to Sydney. Unfortunately the canyoneering part of the trip got cancelled because of prices, but we will make the most of it. So far we have been taking it easy and gone on a bunch of tiny hikes. I wanted to go on a 8 hours hike that I heard was amazing, and I got vetoed. I still have a bunch of energy and am ready to keep going instead of resting.

Oh, last night when we arived was interesting, because I didn't have a room for some reason. So I am not staying in a room with ayone else from the group. I ended up with a girl in her 30's from Canada. Brian, the advisor on this trip was glad that it happened to me instead of anyone else. Some of the other girls said the same thing. I guess I have the nack of getting a long with stangers. It was sweet and I really didn't mind at all. In fact I really injoyed myself.

Well, thats good for now. Even if we are taking things at a slower pace I am still loving my trip I don't have much time to write more so I will try to add some pictures next time :)

Scuba Diving the Gread Barrior Reef!

So scuba diving was absolutely amazing! as is verything else we do. Within the last 2 days, I went on 7 dives. Many people skipped one or two, but I couldn't let a dive pass me by. Sad story first... I lost one of my water cameras, so I don't have any pictures of the great barrior reef. I realized I was missing it on the 2nd dive. Oh well, I'll get pictures from other people.

So some of the highlights of the dives started on the way out to the reef. We saw a hunch of hunch back whales. This is a very rare thing but incredible. Other highlights was seeing sharks on two seporate ocations, one during the day and about 3 during the night dive. Those were the big ones. Other things I saw was some huge clams, nemo fish along with many other types, a sting ray, a manta ray, lion fish, and a baracuda. Deeper you are, you can't really see the different colors of the reef very well, but closer up towards the surface you can see the colors very well.

Another fun thing that happened yesterday is that we went and saw the Harry Potter movie! It is not as big of a thing here in Australia. We bought the tickets and was able to get in with no problem opening day and didn't have to wait in a line long. I really did enjoy it, and it is a plus that I got to see it before everyone else does in America.

Today we went to the Dain Tree Forest, and did a boating thing through crocadile territory. We ended up seeing three of them. A female, a big male and a really young one; all sun bathing in differnet areas. Most of the day was driving from place to place and we came back early so we have time to email home and do laundry. Tomorrow we will be going to Alice Springs and we don't know the next time we will have the chance to do things like this again.

I absolutely love it here. Everything is sooooo beutiful. I'm not good with my words so I have a hard time expressing myself. Over all, everyone is getting along with each other, and we are just taking it one day at a time. The biggest draw back of this place is that the humitiy is killing my face. I am breaking out bad. This isn't good because it will make it harder for me to find a foreign husband. JK, until next time :)

Hey I will keep it short today, but once again it has been a great day. The whole day has been going to a rainforest, seeing a bunch of animals, and enjoying the layout of the land. Yes all of those pictures involving the animals were taking today not yesterday but oh well. I'm trying to figureout how to use this blog thing. Anyways, the highlight of the day has got to be holding a Kolla and feeding the Roos. Oh I'm also petty good at throwing a boomerang.

Tomorrow will be scuba diving the great barrior reef, So it might be awhile before I write again. We'll see :)

I made it to the down under!
Anyone that was around me as I left understands that I was cutting it close with trying to get out here. Getting very little sleep, submitting a paper literally minutes before leaving for my flight and still taking care of loose ends during the drive. But it all worked out!

The flights to out here weren't bad at all. Every flight I was on I met a new friend. The funniest one has got to the flight to be the 14 hr flight Australia. I was was sitting next to a guy that I seemed to catch off guard a lot. The best time was when the flight attendant was asking me what I wanted to drink with my dinner. The guy next to me could not understand why I wouldn't take advantage of the free alcohol, or when I would ask about the different fun things to do, that I wasn't really interested in going to the late night parties. Overall he would laugh at me and think I'm crazy, which has some truth.

Being here in Cairns so far has been amazing. The weather is great, I love the scenery and the different kinds of birds are incredible. Especially at 6 AM, and they are loud. I actually did enjoy it as a thing to wake up to. Last night we were free to wonder around the area, and I went to Esplinage. It is a man made lagoon where people can wonder around. It is also next to the ocean which makes it feel more real. We can't go swimming in the real ocean here because there are crocodiles. I kept a look out for them, but haven't spotted any yet. I'm still hopeful. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the place yet because I forgot my camera. I will need to be careful not to actually loose the thing.

Church was awesome this morning. There are 24 people in our group and we just about doubled the mount of people there. It the entire city, there are only two branches. Everyone was incredibly nice there and I love how everyone seems laid back. I LOVE IT ALL HERE!. O yeah, In the middle of the the church building is an out door court yard with benches. I was hoping we would just have sunday school there, but I was not that lucky.

Anyways, I am off to go have another adventure