Australia 2012

Goodbye Cairns, Hello Melbourne!

egjohnson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:46:00 GMT

Greetings from the “land down under”...

We have left hot, humid Cairns, and have come to “four seasons in one day” Melbourne.

But, before I talk about Melbourne, I need to finish up our stay in Cairns...

We finally finished up our cleaning duties for the hostel, and for our last day, decided to do a tour of the rainforest and waterfalls. Little did we know, this was no ordinary tour...

The day starts out at around 8 am, where a bus (whose name is Gus... We’ll get into that later) picks you up right from your hostel. As soon as we got on, our tour guide made it his mission to memorize everyone’s names (which he successfully did). As we drove into the rainforest, our tour guide, Cousin or “Cuz” Rohan, informed us on all of the landmarks and other interesting things about the rainforest and the town of Cairns. He also explained to us that the bus we were driving on was named Gus. Gus the bus had his own personality for sure. He would honk (talk) and Cuz Rohan would translate for us. If you think this sounds odd and random, you’d be right... The whole day was packed full of odd and random things that kept the whole bus laughing. The sights were gorgeous, and swimming in the different waterfalls was a blast! Especially the one where you could actually slide down... He had snacks and juice for us in the morning, and we stopped in a little town for lunch that overlooked the Tablelands (the valley), then at the end of the day we got hot chocolate and more snacks. On our way back home, instead of being exhausted from a long day, he kept us singing and dancing to oldies, and by the time we got back to our hostel, we were buzzing with energy.

It was by far the highlight of my trip so far!

The next day, we hopped on a plane and headed down to Melbourne. We met up with Scot’s Great Uncle Ward on our third day here, and he offered us a room to stay in. So we stayed there for four nights and had lovely meals cooked for us and loads of great information thrown at us. Then we met up with one of Ward’s daughters, Shannon, who offered us a room in her house, which is where I am writing this now. We are so thankful for the hospitality of Ward and Shannon. It really helped us get on our feet again and able to make new plans because once again, we could not find any work.

Because we couldn’t get any jobs, and because our money is running quite low, we have decided to rent a vehicle and drive up the east coast, see the sights, then drive back down to Sydney and then leave back for Canada on March 1^.

It is disappointing that we won’t be able to see the west, Tasmania, New Zealand, or Asia... But it has been a great trip so far, and it will be nice to be back home as well. And maybe one day we’ll come back and see the rest.

Cheers!

Photos: Cairns

egjohnson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:06:00 GMT

Crikey!! A CROC!

egjohnson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:57:00 GMT

Hello all...

We have now been in Oz for 24 days.

So I'll start this blog talking about the koala sanctuary in Brisbane since I forgot to in the other one.

After taking a short bus ride just outside the city, we came to the "Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary". It was basically like a big zoo, but every species is native to Australia. And let me tell ya, they have lots of awesome creatures here! Tons and tons of different beautifully coloured birds, (with some that even talked), little lizards and big lizards all the way up to the croc, also; dingos, tasmanian devils, snakes, and the list goes on... Oh, and of course koalas! Tons and tons of adorable koalas that you can "cuddle" and get your picture take with. We also got to feed and pet kangaroos. All in all, it was a great day, seeing and learning all about Australias many creatures.

Now back to Cairns...

When we first got here, we were very optimistic. It's a pretty little old town with its roots in first a gold rush, then sugarcane farming, and now mostly just tourism as it is one of the closest cities to the Great Barrier Reef. We liked the small town feel and also that things were much cheaper here than in Brisbane. We even started working at the hostel for three hours a day cleaning the bathrooms for free rent, breakfast, and supper. We thought we would easily get jobs here and then get an apartment.

Well, things aren't looking so good anymore...

We are getting pretty sick of cleaning disgusting toilets and the breakfast is only served till 9, the free supper is basically glorified macaronie and cheese, and the rainy season is just beginning here in Cairns, making it even more humid and, well, rainy.

We also wanted to buy a vehicle, get out of here, and drive down the coast to Melbourne, but it would take two weeks to get a licence, and we really don't want to stay here another two weeks cleaning toilets.

The good news I suppose is that we got to see the Great Barrier Reef and a crocodile farm.

The GBR was pretty amazing. We took a big boat out to the outer reef where most boats aren't allowed to go, and we got to snorkel three different areas of the reef. The first spot had quite a big current and lots of jellyfish though, so it wasn't my favourite. I actually got stung by a couple jellyfish (even with a lycra suit on). Once on the face, and once on the arm. The one on my arm stung for about 15 mins, but I kept on snorkeling. Other than that it was a great experience. We saw tons of different brightly coloured fish, a giant clam, and a few turtles! The boat also supplied us with tea, coffee and a ligh snack before we left, then a big lunch, and then more tea and cake to end the day. It was great!

Then the other day we went on a crocodile cruise which ended at a crocodile farm. On the cruise, we actually never got to see any wild crocs because the tide was too high, so that was a bit of a bummer, but once we got to the farm, we saw lots! The farm is the major supplier to Louis Vuiton and some other very high end companies. They sell them the leather for thousands of dollars. Then they send the meat over to differet restaurants. It was definitely interesting... Also creepy... Creepy to think that these ancient animals share the city with people.

Other than that, we have just been job hunting (with no success), and cleaning...

I really want to go into the rainforest before we leave, but money is getting thin, and I think we might just move on to another city and try our luck there.

I think our next plan of action is to try fruit picking. It is tedious, and if you don't find a place that pays you per hour, its pointless, but we are not sure what else to do.

Hope some luck comes our way soon...

Next blog might be from Melbourne.

Beautiful Brisbane

egjohnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:39:00 GMT

Hello everybody!!

We have been busy busy busy... and when we weren’t busy, the internet has been tremendously slow. So needless to say, this has been a long time coming.

So where do I even begin? I suppose I’ll start at our arrival to Brisbane...

We arrived in Brisbane in the early morning of Jan 2. Our motel wasn’t ready for us to check in so we decided to wander. I didn’t know what the motel was going to be like; if it was nice, if it was close to the city... I just knew it was a good price. Turns out, it was all of those things! It was a small room, but it had a kitchenette, a flat screen, a balcony, and a pool. So anyway, before we could check in, we just dropped our bags off and headed down to the river and ended up at a place called “south bank”. It was a beautiful trendy neighbourhood with tons of shops, a park with water dragons (iguana type guys that were all over Brisbane) and lots of birds and trees. South Bank also had a lagoon, which was essentially an extremely long outside pool beside the river where people could swim for free! We then went across the river to the centre of Brisbane city. It was a very busy place where you could find any type of store you needed or desired, as well as people dressed to the nines. That seemed to be a common theme in Brisbane... The people seemed to always be dressed up, no matter where they were going (made me feel like a bit of a slob). All in all our first day was very busy, add a few hours of walking around the city in there and you’ve got yourself some extremely tired tourists!

The next few days were filled with some walking around the city, followed by more walking!! I really shouldn’t complain though, getting out into the fresh air, while getting some sun and exercise is a pretty good deal. We did end up mastering the train and bus system too (something we are proud of because it was both of our first times using public transportation).

Some other adventures we had in Brisbane was walking through the botanical gardens. It was a gorgeous park with all sorts of different trees and flowers from all over the world! We took a riverboat tour down the Brisbane River, which had wonderful views and a narrator that told us all about the different landmarks. We also rode a Ferris wheel that overlooked the river.

On one of the days there we took the train down to the Gold Coast and went to Surfer’s Paradise. We both definitely want to go back because it was SOO much fun! The city in itself was a sight to see and we didn’t get to spend enough time wandering around there because we spent most of the day playing in the massive waves at the beach! This was my second time ever being in the ocean and first time ever being in waves like that. It was one of the best days we’ve had here in Australia so far... We had such a blast. The next time we go though, we’ll be bringing boogie boards!

All in all, our stay in Brisbane was great. There was a downside though... We had an awful hard time looking for a place to rent while we were there. The places we looked at were expensive and you definitely did not get a lot for your money. Our plan was to get a place, get settled, and then get a job. This was obviously proving quite difficult.

We tried extending our stay with the motel, but it ended up being booked up, so we went to a hostel not far from it. We ended up meeting a friendly Danish guy there that had just come down from Cairns. He was telling us how much cheaper it is up there and how there is a lot more work opportunities.

After trying again unsuccessfully to find either a job or a decent place to rent we decided on a whim to go up north to Cairns, which is where I am writing this blog post!

It is gorgeous here! As we were about to land in Cairns, you could see the Great Barrier Reef from the plane, as well as beautiful forested mountains.

Our hostel is amazing compared to in Brisbane. You get so much more for your money here! It has a bigger pool, free breakfast, cheap meals, free pick up and drop off into the city every hour, the list goes on... and this is all for half the price of what we were paying in Brisbane. Also, if we work here (which I definitely am going to look into) for only 3 hours, our rent is free and we get all our meals for free!

So we are feeling pretty good about our sudden move to Cairns (pronounced Cannes). We have already booked a Great Barrier Reef snorkelling tour for Monday (which I am so excited for, I might not be able to sleep for the next few nights!!!!!).

The only downside is thinking about all of the crazy critters that could potentially kill us, like: salt water crocodiles, sharks, jellyfish, snakes, etc... Our plan is to just stick with the locals and never go into the ocean or rainforest without a guide. Sure hope that plan works!

Hope to write another entry after what I am assuming is going to be an amazing tour of the GBR...

Cheers!

Photos: Brisbane

egjohnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:22:00 GMT

Photos: Sydney

egjohnson — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 19:05:00 GMT

Wonderful world of Oz

egjohnson — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 18:29:00 GMT

We have arrived!

It was no easy task, it took a very long time, my butt is sore and I feel like I could fall asleep right this second, but we MADE IT!

Scot and I left Saskatoon airport at 5:50 pm on Dec 30, had a layover in Calgary airport where I finally got to watch National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" (since I didn't have time to over the holidays), then we were supposed to leave Vancouver at 11:45, but the plane was delayed an hour (these are all local times by the way). The reason they said the flight was delayed was because the plane needed de-icing or something, but we will find out later on that there is something far worse wrong with it.

Once we left Vancouver, I fell asleep almost immediately. Scot found it hard to sleep on the plane so he didn't get much sleep. I probably slept for at least 8 hours in total, and watched movies and TV for the rest. We were in the air for over 14 hours. There had been some mild turbulence, but nothing too dramatic. The only thing that kind of scared me was when the Captain came over the intercom and told all of the flight attendants to get to their seats right away because it wasn't safe. I was then expecting there to be some crazy turbulence, but nothing happened. We find out later, about an hour before landing in Sydney that one of the hydraulic lines was leaking. So the landing was a bit freaky, because none of us knew what to expect. We did end up landing quite smooth and there was a whole fleet of emergency personnel to greet us, and pull our plane into the loading zone.

So needless to say, I'm happy to be alive and in sunny Sydney.

Today we managed to navigate the train system and take ourselves down to Darling Harbor, where we walked around the boardwalk and had fish and chips by the ocean.

We met a fellow traveller, a really friendly Scottish guy named Duncan, who rode the train with us and shared some great stories and tips.

Everyone here seems so friendly and nice... Maybe it's the weather?! Whatever the reason, it feels very welcoming, and I really think we are going to enjoy this adventure.

Anyway, I'm going to call it a day, we leave for Brisbane tomorrow morning at 6, so we will need to get a good nights sleep!

Till the next time...

Organizing, Packing....

egjohnson — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:30:00 GMT

So this is my first blog post... EVER!

Scot and I leave for Australia in 2 weeks and 5 days.

Things are a bit more hectic than I expected they would be. With Christmas just around the corner, trying to get all of our Christmas shopping done, as well as our packing and organizing is proving a bit stressful. I thought leaving at this time would be perfect... We would get to see our families and friends because everyone is home for Xmas, and the plane tickets were very well priced at New Years. What I didn't think about was all the running around we would have to do to see everyone, and all the stress of trying to buy and wrap presents as well as tying up loose ends before we leave the country.

Buut, things always find a way of coming together in the end, and I am not a person to overly stress until I NEED to overly stress.

Scot and I have been watching a lot of shark attack shows lately, which might seem like a crazy thing to do before leaving for a country surrounded by every type of man-eating shark alive, but I have been trying to educate myself of the dangers of the ocean. I don't want to be one of those stupid tourists who does everything wrong when precautions could have been taken.

This is our last week of work, which is quite bittersweet for me. I absolutely love the people I work with, and my job... So leaving them is going to be hard, but I am also getting extremely excited to start our adventure!

Well, I should get back to packing and holiday baking...