Tassie and The Melbourne Cup

Halloween was spent on an airplane flying to Tasmania. We had planned a trip to Melbourne and booked the tickets... then saw great fares from Melbourne to Hobart so we decided to tack that on to our trip. Minor detail: Melbourne has two airports... Hint: They aren't close to each other. So we flew from Brissy to Melbourne-Avalon airport which turns out to be about an hour away from Tullamarine Airport. So Marisa and I got a $100 cab to the other airport to make it in time for our flight to Hobart! But we made it so everything was good. We went to our hostel (called the Pickled Frog) and checked in. We were assigned a room and went to check it out and found that we were living with two very messy boys who loved cologne just a little too much. After some cleaning/rearranging everything turned out fine and we went to find some dinner. Hobart was very dead at night and we ended up eating at a pub in town before an early bedtime.

Sunday morning we got up early and had an amazing breakfast (I am sincerely going to miss scones, jam and cream when I get back to the states) and then walked down to the harbour. We hung out at Salamanca Place which is a trendy area that used to be the warf warehouses. They are all made from convict cut sandstone because Hobart was really just a huge prison colony in its infancy. From there we went on a little tour of Battery Point where all the old colonial houses are and basically spent the rest of the day walking.

Monday we had the best pancakes for breakfast before we went to Cascade Brewery for a tour. Cascade is the oldest brewery in Australia and makes ciders and beers. Its really a pretty spectacular building (it too is made from convict cut stone). Because of its location Cascade is able to make a batch of beer each year with hops that are fresh picked that morning. Most beers are made with dried hops since you can only harvest them once a year... So this special release brew is called First Harvest and each year they only make 4000 cartons to be released throughout Australia. Monday evening we headed back to Melbourne but our flight kept getting delayed. I ended up making my hat for the Melbourne Cup in the airport with a pair of nail clippers... we finally made it to Melbourne around 1am and were back at the Choi's house around 2am. Long day.

Tuesday was CUP DAY! Everyone was dressed up in their finery and flocked to the racecourse. Seeing tons of people in suits and hats is quite something! We had a spot right on the rail and got to watch all the races right up front. Olivia Newton John sang the national anthem and all the famous people sat up high in the stands. I think we had more fun :) Sydney even won money on the Melbourne Cup itself which was won by a horse named Shocking. We got to hang out with him in the paddock after the race and some of the girls even were able to give him a pet. My only complaint for the day is that it was too windy to wear my hat the whole day :( Other than that... it was absolutely perfect. When we got back to the house we had a cake for Jacob's birthday and got to hang out with the family.

Wednesday Marisa went with the rest of the girls on a tour of the Great Ocean Road and I hung out with the Choi's. Miriam, Jacob's mom, took me to a flea market where I got lots of souvenirs. Then Jacob and I went into the city and I had a Mighty Melbourne cheeseburger. It had an egg and beet-root on it! Surprisingly I liked it... then we went to the State Library and toured around. I scheduled for classes there and got waitlisted for two :( After that we walked through the Crown Casino which was spectacular before we went to have some coffee and dessert on the Yarra river. DInner was Vietnamese prepared by Miriam. Dessert was Pavlova which apparently is a traditionally New Zealand dish and was served with kiwi-fruit :)

Thursday morning we woke up at o'dark hundred and went for a hike up a very steep track called the Kokoda Memorial. Clearly Marisa and I took a bit longer than Jacob... But it was really very pretty and we saw lots of kookaburras searching around for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day in the city and did some more shopping and sight seeing before we headed to the airport. It was nice to get back to Brissy (it was WAY colder in Melbourne) but now it is time for finals. Sad. Almost time to come home... Cant wait for the holidays! Miss you all!

A Social Few Weeks...

So I have decided to do this blog entry in REVERSE chronological order so my little Jack-O-Lantern can feature at the top of the page.

The past few weeks have been filled with end of term social events... and oh guess what, schoolwork. I know its tragic to admit, but I actually have had some assignments that needed completed since I've been in Brisbane. This little guy to the left is Jack. He is my attempt at bringing fall and consequently Halloween to Australia. Since it is spring it is NOT pumpkin season here... and this was the only orange thing I could come up with. Actually was sort of gifted to me by the drunken traffic cone fairies. Its rumored they live on the floor below me.

PS. Thanks Aunt Margie for the Halloween lights... they come in handy when you have a plastic Jack-O-Lantern.

Last week at some point we made a point of making it down to South Bank, which is the man-made beach in Brissy. I took the camera so that you all can see the BEAUTIFUL jackaranda trees that were in full bloom. That picture is of campus. Pretty stunning right? Brisbane is renowned for the jackaranda trees (the other city where they are plentiful is Pretoria) and there are many legends that go along with them. UQ students claim that when they begin to bloom you must start studying for finals. If you wait until the blooms have fallen to begin your revision... its too late. Youre done for. Im thinking of gluing purple tissue paper to the trees in hopes that it will give me longer to study!

Going back to last Sunday we had an all girls outing. The event was called "Ladies Day" and is in response to the male version which occurred a few weeks prior. Essentially it is an annual tradition where all of the girls in college wear the best thrift shop dress they can come up with (this years theme was floral) and then go to a park and get ridiculously drunk together for the duration of some Sunday afternoon. The drink of choice is cheap boxed white wine... and the rest of the events are secret. Ladies honour.

[editors note: everyone is entirely sober in this picture, as it is the first of the day.]

And finally, my favorite event of college life thus far... Emmanuel at Home. This was two Fridays ago and was such a ball. Everyone in college gets fancy and heads out onto the quad where there were tents and champagne set up. This years theme was "Hollywood" so the girls got glammed up and the boys went retro. The pictures from this night were so much fun and everyone just got to stay on college grounds for a night. At one point (wait for it... here comes the Good Old Boys' traditions again...) the boys all go out to the oval and smoke cigars with the Headmaster of college. Not to be out done, it is traditional for the girls to dance around in the bras and participate in a rousing game of limbo simply because they can. With the boys gone... girls, well the girls make the boys wish they werent out smoking cigars.

New Zealand

So for mid-semester break I went with two friends for a 9 day trek through New Zealand. It was spectacular. We left on Saturday mid day from Brisbane and flew to Christchurch on the south island. The city itself is known for guess what? A church. So after checking into our hotel (yes, hotel not hostel because we found an amazing deal) we took a stroll through the city. Its just beginning to be spring so all of the flowers are in bloom and the trees are blossoming. Christchurch has the feeling of an old European city and lots of little cafes and museums scattered all around. The church was incredible, especially when you think about where and when it was built. New Zealand stayed fairly remote and rustic much longer than you would think! Unfortunately Jess and I had colds so we called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. The next morning we tooled through a few street markets and visited the botanical gardens. Its sort of amazing how easily we amuse ourselves. We spent nearly an hour playing and taking pictures in this spectacular old hollowed out pine tree. The next morning we flew from Christchurch down farther south (and farther into the cold!) to Queenstown.

While in Christchurch we decided that hiking one of New Zealand's glaciers was a must do activity. We also realized that with our travel plans as they were we weren't going to be able to fit that in. So we changed our flights around with a little chatting on the phone with JetStar. That meant 3 extra days before leaving Queenstown and no more Auckland... but it had to be done.

Queenstown must rank in my top 5 places. We landed and stepped off the plane on to a tarmac to walk into the airport and were greeted by spectacular mountains rising straight out of the valley floor. No foot hills, no gradual grade, just mountains. Appropriately enough the range is called "The Remarkables". It is the only other mountain range in the world that runs North-South besides the Rockies. From the airport we took a cab to the resort (another great deal) we were staying at and got a bit of a tour of the city. The only way I can describe Queenstown is to say it is a cross between a Colorado mountain town and Annapolis, MD. Obviously I adored it. The town itself is set on a huge glacial lake that is crystal clear and almost always perfectly placid which reflects the mountains quite nicely. So once we checked in we headed back down into town and got lunch at a great cafe called Vudu on one of the side streets. Then we booked our activities. Jess set up a skydiving session for Tuesday and all of us booked white water rafting for Wednesday. I had planned on skiing at Coronet Peak on Tuesday but my cold had gotten worse so I had to scratch that. Very sad story. We also booked our glacial hike and transportation up the west coast to make it to Fox Glacier.

That evening in Queenstown we had dinner at a great pizza joint called Winnie's and then went to a bar called Minus 5. PS. Minus 5 is ACTUALLY Minus 5 degrees Celsius. The bar itself is made of ice, the chairs are ice, the walls are ice, the CUPS are ice... its all ice. Very cool figuratively and literally! On Tuesday Marisa and I hung around town while Jess hurled herself out an airplane at 15,000 feet. As a treat for her when she came back we had booked an hour in the hot pools up in the mountains. So once we met her after her infamous flight we headed up to Onsen Hot Pools right outside of town. This place was pretty spectacular. We had our own little room with a built in pool filled with heated run off from the snow melt that over looked the Shotover River Valley. Then, with the press of a button we could retract the wall and half of the ceiling to be right outside on the edge of the cliff. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Wednesday morning we woke up early AGAIN to go white water rafting. It is still cold... remember that. So we put on wetsuits and jumped in some vans which took us to our put in site. The road we travelled on is one of two roads too dangerous in New Zealand to be covered by insurance companies. We did it with an 18 passenger van. Spectacular. Finally at the bottom I was feeling a little nauseous but got in the boat anyhow and learned how to paddle. I think I have a new past-time to take up because I absolutely loved white water rafting. We did class 4 and 5 rapids towards the end and no one from our boat even got tossed. Although, at the end as we went over a waterfall Jess did somehow manage to smack her face off her paddle leaving her cranky and with a bruised nose the rest of the trip.

Thursday we got up early again and checked out of our hotel before trekking down to the city to catch a bus. We got on a coach to take us up to Fox Glacier and made a few stops along the way. The first stop was at a really beautiful orchard in Otago which is the central wine region of the South Island. From there we continued on to Wanaka which is a cute little ski town about two hours away from Queenstown. The mountains on the way there were really spectacular and we crossed over a mountain pass into the subtropical rainforest part of the island. Next we stopped at a beautiful waterfall called Thunder Creek Falls before we continued up the coast to the small town of Fox Glacier. The town has a permanent population of 250 people. We stayed at the Fox Glacier Inn and hung out in the little town for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday we woke up to TORRENTIAL downpours but were told we would hike the glacier rain or shine so we got dressed and headed down for brunch befor

e we checked in. So after hanging out in the lodge for a few hours we went to the desk to check in and were told that our hike was cancelled due to dangerous rock slides. Yes, after changing our flights and booking two days of bus rides to and from this little town, the weather stopped us from actually walking on the glacier. It was a pretty tragic moment. Our only

option was to take a hike to the terminus (the face) of the glacier, so we took it. Im very glad we did because it was

pretty spectacular just to be able to see the glacier. We got to hold a bit of the ice and even sample a little bit.

Saturday we had to catch our bus back out of Fox Glacier early in the morning and slept most of the way back to Queenstown. On the way back through we stopped in Wanaka again and then continued on to Queenstown. When we arrived back in Queenstown we were surprised to find that it had snowed while we were away. We found ourselves a place to stay for the night and then went off to complete our souvenir hunting. The rest of the evening we sort of chilled out and went to a local tavern for dinner (where we got carded for the first time all trip?) She even asked for my passport?! I guess we were looking a little ragged at this point.

Our flight out was fairly early Sunday morning and from Queenstown we flew up to Auckland. Then in Auckland we had some layover time before we flew out to the Gold Coast. It was significantly cheaper to fly to Gold Coast and then take the train up than to fly directly into Brisbane. In Auckland though Jess got pulled out by a check in agent for having too much baggage and they charged her $160 to check an extra bag! Needless to say she was very very unhappy. After our flight got delayed sitting on the tarmac we ended up getting into the Gold Coast an hour late and missed our bus to the train station. Clearly this was a good day of travel for us. Once we finally made it to the train station we still had a two hour train ride and two more busses to make it back to campus.

Even with the last day of travel, New Zealand was incredible. It is a very beautiful country, that is a totally different world than Australia. Id love to be able to make it back because there is so much that I feel like I missed. Im fairly certain I could spend a whole year just on the South Island and never see the same place twice. Its like a huge playground for big kids!

Brisbane Dust Bowl

So I woke up this morning and groggily read my facebook wall. Olena had written something about the sky being red and such so I was entirely confused. Then I opened my curtains. Apparently there had been a huge dust storm that blew up the whole eastern coast of Australia in the night and covered Brisbane in an orangey haze. We had to close all the windows, but it was still so hot outside that it was a very strange day. Hardly anyone was walking around and there wasnt even a line for lunch! But I still went to class and walked around. All the asian kids were wearing masks and such it was fairly amusing. I do have to admit though that the dust made it pretty disgusting to breathe.

There is also a very cute kitty that lives in and around our bike rack. Since I had my camera outside with me I decided to take his/her picture.

The Whitsunday Islands: Best Three Days of My Life

Very seriously, I have not been as happy/content as I was this past weekend. Ever. The Whitsunday Islands are north of Brisbane by quite a bit. They are about a two hour Greyhound trip from the town of Mackay, which has an airport that serves 3 gates? Maybe two. Anyhow the islands themselves are actually the tops of a flooded mountain range. They lie at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef, and as far as Im concerned, are heaven.

On Thursday we cabbed to the airport very early and took a flight from Brissy up to Mackay where we sat for two hours in the airport waiting for our Greyhound bus. It was a bit late which made us nervous because we were supposed to get there at 2:10 and get on our boat at 2:30. Well we watched HSM3 on the bus, good times and finally made it to Airlie Beach at 2:30. We ran to check in and caught a cab down to the marina to an audience of crew and passengers.

No worries though, we made the boat and didnt even take to much crap for being the late Americans. We boarded a 34m sailing yacht and from there its all a hazy dream... :)

I had a cabin with my three friends and even had a porthole to sleep next to. We left the marina and cruised up through Whitsunday Passage and anchored for the night off Hook Island. The night was mostly spent making friends with the other kids on board and we were visited by a dolphin that hung around the boat for most of the night. The next morning we woke up early and cruised into Tounge Bay off Whitsunday Island. From there they tendered us in to shore and we hiked up to a lookout point. From the lookout point we were able to see Whitehaven Beach in all its glory. The beach itself is the most photographed beach in Australia and is pretty spectacular. It is the product of an extinct volcano which put down huge quartz deposits which have since been ground into the purest sand in the world. It is 98% silica and was used to make the Hubble Telescope lens. We were told its great for exfoliating, jewelry polishing, and teeth brushing. Im fairly certain I could have stayed on that beach for months and months if someone would just bring me some food and water! While we were playing in the sand we saw a few lemon sharks and stingrays, but I couldnt get any to be friends with me :(

From there we got back on the boat and cruised to Luncheon Bay off of Hook Island. Here I got to go on a very nice dive and saw some absolutely huge angel fish. The viz was a little compromised and currents were strong but the coral was spectacular. While we were out we got to see a few Green Sea Turtles! I love them! The rest of the day was spent lounging about the deck and enjoying the sunset/stars.

We woke up obnoxiously early again the second day and cruised down around Hayman Island. Hayman is the site of the only 6 star resort in the Souther Hemisphere just in case you were wondering. We dove off the back of the boat in Blue Pearl Bay and it was INCREDIBLE. Perfect visibility and coral arches, tunnels and swim-throughs that made me feel like Ariel in her treasure room. There is also this fish that hangs about the bay named Elvis. He is a Great Maori Wrasse and has been sort of socialized to hang out with the divers. I got to feed him and give him a hug. We are talking about a fish that is 2/3 my size. After my second dive I snorkeled for a while and hung out with Elvis a little more. We also did flips and dives off the stern of the ship (5m high) plus we had a water slide. So eventually we did have to come back to port and Im pretty sure I shed a tear or two. I certainly was the last person off the boat.

Oh well. Back to Brisbane...

Conservation Trip: Wild Mountains

I know I havent posted in a while! Ive been busy!

Two weekends ago I went on a volunt

eer trip with a few other American students. We all headed over to the headquarters with our

sleeping bags in tow and piled into a Landy... which they called a Troopie. There were ten of us in this thing for two hours into the boondocks of Australia! I personally loved it... and rural Australia looks like rural anywhere USA plus kangaroos. There are broken down utes (pickups) in the front yards of doublewides. No worries :) But we did see some roos just hanging out in the shade. When we finally got to the last turn in our directions we went down this little cow path road which climbed and climbed up a crest of this huge ridge. There were really spectacular looking mountains just jutting out o

f this fertile pasture land. We passed two vehicles that had been left because they couldnt make the 20% grade. We made it. Slowly.

When we got to the top we were greeted by the caretakers of this camp and shown to our A-frame tent/cabins for the weekend. We had a spectacular view! Even the toilet/outhouse had a view! But we changed and hung out for a while before dinner and some work. We built two bridges out of logs and railroad ties to finish a fire track across the mountain. Occasionally they do controlled burns of the mountainside so that wildfires dont get out of control during the arid months. So finishing up the access track was sort of important as summer approaches. We made good progress the first day and finished up easily the second which was awesome.

The only complaint I really have about the weekend was that the whole place was vegetarian. Sort of sad but we did alright. We made our own dinners and got pretty creative. Plus they gave us chocolate cake and we whipped our own cream for dessert! We also saw the most spectacular stars I have ever seen. The Southern Cross is a little smaller than I would have expected, but still impressive. Side note. Koala noises are terrifying. It is a weird cross between a bear growl and a wild boars grunting in the middle of the night. Honestly. You need to go to youtube.com and search "koala noise". It will astound you.

Crazy Week!

I know I know... Im behind. But Im going to catch you all up right now so get ready!

Monday we went to see the Brisbane Broncos play at SunCorp Stadium. They are a rugby team with a real horse for a mascot!

Tuesday I found out that it was absolutely necessary to wear a hat to the horse races on

Wednesday so I spent the day at the local mall scrounging through craft stores... Wednesday was a public holiday for EKKA (which is sort of like a HUGE state fair). Essentially it is a huge drinking holiday for which everyone dresses up very formally and goes to see Thoroughbred races. Needless to say, after crafting myself a hat and headwear for the rest of the Americans... I went to bed early.

Then on Wednesday we all woke up at 7:30 for some breakfast and then got dressed and started with mimosas at 8am. Everyone had a great time and the races were alot of fun. I won like $2 on a bet... and lost a few but we saw alot of great hats!

Thursday was slightly less eventful. I only had class! But we talked

about American history in my politics class so that was fun because I knew the answers. Then we did have a formal dinner in the evening. I took a picture of the hall so you can all see!

Friday morning I received my package from home, and perfect timing too because I found the Steelers game on live in our commons room! So I had my jersey and snacks and a grand time! Later in the day we trekked downtown to meet our tour group to leave for our surf trip. We al

l piled into a bus and started the 5 hour drive down to Spot X. We didnt get there until 3AM! It was really cold there at night, but the night was so clear it was like looking at the stars at the Grand Canyon. Spectacular.

The next morning we were unwillingly woken at 8am for our first surf lesson. We got wetsuits and boards and after two attempts at standing up on dry land our instructor Rhys was like "okay dudes, in the water." WHAT?! Haha luckily there were lots of people to help and I got up fairly quickly. We spent two hours playing around in

the water and practicing before lunch. Then we hung out on the beach for a while and I found a stellar sea shell (which you know pleases me to no end). Later in the afternoon we went surfing for another two hours. We got to screw around on a surf board that had a camera built into it so we had footage of our surfing skills :) Later after dinner we had a bon fire and taught the Aussies how to play flip cup before we went to bed.

Sunday we woke just as early to go surfing again this time on some green (unbroken) waves. I had an awesome time and I think everyone was sad to leave, but we were all so sore. I felt like I had been put in a washing machine on permanent press for a few cycles. The surf was really strong and there were a few rip currents on the beach so it really took alot out of us. On the trip home we stopped in Byron Bay for a while and hung out.

Yesterday I booked some more of my spring break trip to New Zealand... but more on that later. As for this week Im hoping to get some homework done and rest up!