Return To Australia

Homeward Bound!

meriadoc262 — Thu, 9 Jun 2016 10:56:00 GMT

Well, I've finally left Landaa. The last couple of weeks were interesting. I finally got to the point where I really just didn't care so that meant that I started to let crazy Celina out a bit. I became a lot more social during that time which was a bit of a pity seeing as I would be leaving soon and wouldn't be able to hang out with my new friends. There were some bad days and some good days.

I will say that I did have myself a few breakdowns during the last couple of weeks. One night in particular, we had a late football (soccer) game and when I went in to defend, I took a hard ball straight to the face. I fell back onto the pitch and immediately popped back up. Everyone was worried but I said it was okay. It definitely woke me up! But my face was killing me. I almost started crying just from the shock of it. Afterward, when we ultimately lost, I tried to get back to sleep. My face hurt so much, I took some Panadol and was slightly seriously worried that I might have a concussion. It was then that my brain decided that I needed to think about Lucious, so I basically cried myself to sleep, finally, at about 2 am. Not my favorite moment for sure.

We had a few more matches, lost all of them, though one was really close, 4-5. I took some more hard hits, this time just to the torso, but my newly developed Biggest Loser abs helped fight them off. The last game was quite fun as we were only marginally worse than the other team, not incredibly disadvantaged like before. We still had fun anyways.

Another not so good things. I was doing a course with some students and one had a lot of trouble equalizing. To make matters worse, right as we started out descent, I got nipped really bad by a jellyfish or other critter. I didn't see what it was, but my forearm became red and inflamed. I went down anyway. It was going okay, but we spent a lot of time going up and down between 4-7 meters. Eventually, I called it. We already completed out skills, and it wasn't worth it to keep doing this yo-yo thing. Upon heading back, I started to notice my chest hurting. Great. We got out and I was able to keep my composure in front of my students, but when they left, I broke. I was itching and burning everywhere, it hurt to breathe, I was frustrated with my performance and I just couldn't handle it. I fell down on my knees behind the shop and started crying, trying to catch my breath. I tried to control myself and after a few moments went inside to file some paperwork. My manager came over to me and asked if everything was alright, I said no and walked away to finish my work. I found some sting/bit cream and put it everywhere. I snuck in the back again to try and control myself but was fairly unsuccessful again. I headed for the shower again to try and rinse off all the sting remnants, and a coworker approached me and asked what was wrong. I couldn't really speak and she was freaking out, thinking that I couldn't breathe. I could, I just couldn't talk without crying. I slathered on some more cream, changed and sat on the stairs in the back. Still more of my coworkers found me. When I told them what was happening and they could see I was having trouble coping, they made me go to the doctor. He confirmed what I already knew. I most likely had some lung barotrauma from going up and down, that compounded with the stinger and stress of the dive had exhausted my ability to cope and I broke down. Nothing really to worry about, but I was so frustrated with it all, that it only made the situation worse.

Luckily that seemed to be the last of my very troubled days. After losing and breaking bits of my kit and having other things go wrong, I started to have some better times. I finished up two groups of students which was really rewarding. The first group was some of our apprentices and they were super sweet. They wanted photos of us before we headed for our last dive and then thanked me afterwards. One even wants to be an instructor himself, so we'll see how that goes. The other two were nice to do since I did the full course by myself. It wasn't exactly in the order I would have liked, but I did it all on my own, so that was rewarding in itself.

I started to get on with a lot of the staff more toward the end so it was nice to talk to people later. I still couldn't stay out too late due to my workout plan, but it was nice to get out of my bubble for a bit. We had a fun outing to another island one day and that was quite interesting. I just wanted to sleep so bad, and I got a bit in. I ended up drinking a bit too to deal with the bad music, and spent most of the night looking at the starts and trying to nap on the beach as people tossed sand on me. We got back way too late and I was so tired the next day for my workout. I was nearly done with the workout, and when I finally finished, I had dropped about 2 kilos, which isn't too bad over a month's time. But I'm starting to get some tone and definition in, so that is good and will help for the summer.

My last couple of days were quite nice. There were a lot of us leaving around the same time, so we had a couple of get togethers. Once consisted of naming country capitals and choosing who would drink if you got it wrong. Needless to say, I was forced to drink quite a bit and when I couldn't stand it any more, I pretended to pass out so I wouldn't have to taste it all again. It worked. We also had an after work briefing/meeting before they all left and there were a lot of goodbyes in that one. It was like it was a counseling or therapy session. Very strange and funny at the same time.

I had my last two days on the island off. The first one I went out on our manta ray research boat. I got to snorkel with over 15 mantas and it was incredible. I helped them to try and get IDs on some of them. I've only every seen one before and it was a bit farther away, so it was amazing to get so close to them. We snorkeled quite far and long against a bit of a current as well. I was passing out to and from the site. When I got back, I started to clean the rest of my diving gear and went to go back to my room. I had just gotten to the staff area when I saw about ten guys run after me with paint. I had no idea what was going on so I ran toward my room as fast as I could. They caught me and smothered me with paint. They thankfully let me put my phone and camera down as they took me to the beach to throw me in. I had completely forgotten that they do this celebration right before Ramadan. They continued to pelt me with color as we tried to get more people colorful. It was a lot of unexpected fun. I was just glad that I hadn't yet taken a shower. The color stains quite a bit though. It's two days later and I still have color under my nails.

The next day was very chill. My manager took me and the other interns out for breakfast at one of the resort restaurants. I freaked out a bit because I was finally able to have pork bacon again and there were copious amounts of nuts that I devoured. Afterwards, I headed to the beach to try and fix my divers tan one last time. Then it was shower and laundry time. I watched some episodes of 'Playing House' while I packed then I sort of sat around trying to figure out what to do. It was strange, it seemed like I had waited so long to leave and now I was just about to. I felt bad for some of the guys that said they would miss me and wished I wasn't leaving. I managed to stay up a little late to say goodbye to some people. Some were at the after hours hangout while others were at poker night. I attempted to retire a bit early, around 10, but then I started talking to people around and some of the guys stopped by to say good bye. I was attempting to go to sleep when some of my friends who were already back home started chatting to me, so I stayed up a bit talking to them. All in all, I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep before I needed to get up for the early morning flight.

Thankfully my bags weren't as heavy as I thought, and I should be able to avoid any excess baggage fees on my return home. I have completed one leg of my 7 flight journey back home. This one has a 15 hour layover included. Yay me. Luckily, some of the people on my flight, all employees, took me under their wing and we killed some time at a nearby hotel for drinks and some food before they had their afternoon flight. We even popped over to Male for a bit, but that was enough for me. It was nice to talk to them, they were all people that I'd never seen around the resort or even met, but we got on pretty well while we waited. They have since left to go do their STCW training, which is a lot of fun I might add, so it's just me in the airport for another 4 or 5 hours before check in. I was meant to maybe meet up with some other dive team members, but I have no access to wifi, so instead it's journal, music, eating and nap time for a bit. These first 8 hours or so have gone by decently quick, so let's hope the remaining ones do as well...

The End is Freaking Nigh

meriadoc262 — Thu, 19 May 2016 18:35:00 GMT

Titling this one with a quote from the Supernatural final. I'm in my last weeks here in the Maldives. I've become our go to person for Russian courses while our Russian speaking instructor has been restricted to out of water duties. I've managed to get a variety of certifications done so far, so that's pretty cool. I am however, still very ready to go home.

I had a couple of bad days this week for no apparent reason, which frustrated me even more. Maybe it was because one day I broke part of my BCD tank strap clip, then the next day I completely broke it after losing my pocket mask... Maybe... I had enough things to distract me though. There were some guests from the states that I got to chat with and take out, so that was pretty cool. We did some really good dives and I even managed to find 3 mantis shrimp on my own! I was telling them about mantis shrimp on the ride back and when we talked about their strength, we labeled them the Chuck Norris of the underwater world which I believe is quite apt.

There was also our first football (soccer) match this week. We lost, as was predicted, but the other team only scored 3 times as many goals as us, so that's not too bad. I accidentally scored a goal on us, but whatever. Those things were enough to distract me for awhile. My biggest loser workout has also been distracting, though there were quite a few mornings where I really didn't want to get up for it. I even managed to gain weight (.3 kgs) this week as well. Whoops! We're all saying that it's muscle. However, I've decided that the no dessert rule didn't do anything, so now I'm back to just eating what I want, including dessert. I generally make relatively healthy options though.

It's been raining quite frequently here which has been nice, however we've had to adjust things accordingly. Not that big of a deal though. Luckily I haven't been too bored with the lull. I even got to decorate a happy birthday sign the other day at work, that was quite nice. The weeks still seem to go fairly quick, but the days can still drag on. I very much enjoy doing nothing on my days off though. However, I have been decently productive. Laundry, university assistantships to apply for, email for dive jobs, writing, et . I even got some good movie watching in. One of the Ice Age movies was on followed by Horrible Bosses. It felt good to have a bit of a laugh.

Other than that, it's been pretty boring and I'm just killing time until I get back home. I look at adoptable dogs way more than I should and watch lots of tv shows and movies since stories are my thing. I should probably hang out with people more, but I'm just too lazy, plus, I have to get up at 5:45 every morning, so I'm not too keen to stay up passed 10. That will suck when we have our football matches that start at 11pm. Anyway, that's all on my boring life, I can't wait to get home and catch up with everyone and do our shows. Then, it's back to school and a bit of stability for a brief time. Till next time, take care of yourself, and if you are about to be robbed by a lady boy, you can push him through that glass window, but don't let your arm go with it.

Cheers

Photos: IDC and IE Maldives

meriadoc262 — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 21:56:00 GMT

Some snapshots of the IDC and IE in the Maldives

IDC and IE

meriadoc262 — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 21:55:00 GMT

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life...

So, it's been awhile since I've arrived in the Maldives and I think I'm passed the adjustment period, however that doesn't mean I haven't been emotionally sidelined at times. Let's see, since the last update I've been doing quite a bit of DM work in the shop. I was mainly assigned to do orientation dives with customers and then do boat dives with them whenever they went out. I got to watch one course, but that was about it, so hopefully more will come.

About two weeks ago we started out Instructor Development Course (IDC). It was back to school with lots of studying in presentations. But don't worry, I still have time to catch up on my shows and even get hooked on a new (but old) show, Gilmore Girls. I was surprised at just how non stressful the IDC was. I was prepared to be stressed to no end based on what others had told me, but I think I had prepared myself sufficiently enough to not worry so much. It was actually quite fun at time. We did many exercises, and my favorite was when we got to pretend that we were the worst diving students ever for a Discover Scuba Diving course. I haven't had that much fun underwater in a long time. I had to keep clearing my mask since I was laughing so much. I used up so much air for such a short dive.

As it got closer to the Instructor Examination (IE) the heat cranked up a bit. I was starting to get a bit stressed. It didn't help that PMS was starting to rear it's ugly head as well. Our examiner wouldn't arrive until about lunch time, so we were left with one whole morning to wait and worry about everything. I very much agree with Tom Petty "the waiting is the hardest part." I nearly made myself sick that morning. I was starving, but couldn't eat. To make matters worse, the very first thing I discovered in the morning was that Prince had died. I was floored. I greatly enjoyed his work throughout his prolific career, and being from the same state, it was heartbreaking. It got to me more than I thought it would. I think the stress of everything was coming together. I was struggling to hold back tears in the morning after breakfast before we began. I needed something to take my mind off everything.

Finally we were able to begin our exam. We had a late day our first day. We did presentations in open water, rescue diver exercises, in class knowledge development presentations and our theory and standards tests. I think I finished up around 9. I shoved some fries into my face and headed to my room to decompress. It's funny to see how I react to stress. After the in water presentations that afternoon, I felt so much better. I had my personality back. I was dancing and being ridiculous outside the classroom and I was back to the crazy weird person I am. It didn't even bother me that I had three more hours of exams to sit through as well as more water presentations the next day.

This morning, we had to finish up. We has a confined water presentation too do as well as some skills to perform. It was ridiculously low tide, so we edged closer to the jetty. After our presentations and skills, we cleaned our gear got changed, and were all given the good news that we passed. After that, it was obligatory jumping and certificate picture time. We were all so relieved. And exhausted. Once we said our goodbyes we were given the rest of the afternoon off. I continued to look up more news and celebrations of Prince and then had an early lunch as I was starving. Even though it was cloudy, and had been raining for the last couple of days, I was determined to head out to the beach for a bit to listen to some Stuff You Should Know, fix my terrible wet suit tan which had gotten egregious, especially on my arms. I've never had a farmer's tan before, and I didn't want one now... especially seeing as I wasn't even working on a farm. The rain decided to cut my beach visit short, but that allowed me more relaxation time in my room.

I was still on my Prince kick, so I watched the New Girl episode with Prince and was delighted once again. I continued perusing videos of his performances and finally lost my shit when I watched a live performance of purple rain. I was doing that sort of smiling happy/sad cry where you have good feelings because what you're watching is so beautiful, but it's sad because it won't be able to happen live again. I don't know what the deal is with all the musician's that are being taken. Somewhere, there is a killer concert and jam session going on. I happened to discover that a radio station back home, the Current, is playing Prince's full discography, over 26 hours. Thanks to the wonderful world wide web, I'm able to stream and listen. (Even with this outrageous internet situation).

For tonight, we will have a small celebration of sorts, and I may just let myself watch 'Purple Rain' as tribute. I was a bit miffed that I didn't have anything purple to wear in remembrance, but I was fortuitous enough to snag a purple PADI bracelet. Solidarity. I only wish I were back home so I could have gone to the amazing memorial at First Ave. I would have loved to have been there. Alas, I have to settle to reliving the classics via radio channels.

I was successfully able to distract myself from some of all that craziness when I applied to, interviewed for, got offered, and accepted a position in graduate school for college counseling and student development. I figured I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but if I can help others figure it out, that would be pretty cool. Plus, it can allow me to work in study abroad offices and potentially go back to Australia where I can advise during the week and dive and instruct on the weekend. Not a bad plan to me. So it looks like it's back to school in the fall. I think I've even worked it out to study abroad in South Africa, and then visit friends in Europe on the way home, as well as head to Thailand for a bit then hit up my friends in Oz. Seems like a decent enough plan for now. I might even join the First Responder team at home and afterwards look into becoming a public safety diver for the city. I guess time will tell. As for right now, emotions are still running high, but a big sense of relief has also washed over me with the exams out of the way. I'll get about 5 weeks of instructing with training wheels, then it's back on home to the fam for festival season! We're busy as ever and I'm super keen to get back into it. Until next time folks, enjoy the ride!

Anything beautiful is worth getting hurt for - Prince

Cheers,
C

Maldives!

meriadoc262 — Mon, 4 Apr 2016 01:06:00 GMT

Well, I've been in the Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru for about three weeks and it's been an interesting ride thus far. I was blown away at the start. Coming from the traveling road of sleeping in hostels, eating the cheapest things I could find and spending more money than I hoped to was put in stark contrast when I was greeted by a Four Seasons representative at the airport, ushered into their airport lounge, given free food and internet and having my bags be all sorted onto the seaplane for the afternoon. It was crazy being catered too so much. It was overwhelming. I did enjoy the free food obviously and internet as my US sim won't work since the Maldives is outside of my global coverage. After a nap in the seaplane airport, it was time to board.
About 12 of us, including the crew climbed aboard with all of our bags and then after a quick briefing, we were off. The water is just as blue as you see in the pictures. You can see the lighter, turquoise water near the islands transitioning to the dark blue of the deep as the reef drops off. I was overwhelmed by how pretty everything was. I was grinning from ear to ear. We were picked up by boat and brought to the pier. I was greeted my members of HR and when my bags came, they brought me to my room where I could get settled in and someone from the dive team would grab me for dinner.
I was floored by the room as well. No more bunk beds. Flat screen tv (that does in fact work, I had to turn it on and see for myself), own wardrobes, air con, bathroom, and to top it off, there was a welcome pack on my bed. It had a water bottle, chocolate, juice and a welcome card signed by some of the staff. I did one of those full body jump/dance/seizure moves I was so excited. I wasn't sure when I would be grabbed for dinner, so I got to work putting away my things. I didn't have too much with me, so it didn't take long. I was exhausted from sleeping in airports for the last two nights (one in Manila, the other in Columbo) and I was so excited to have a comfy bed, and super comfy pillows. That's right, they gave me 2 pillows! I was all about that.
At dinner I was once again overwhelmed by the choice and abundance. A far cry from getting the most I could for a few pesos in the Philippines. I met some of the dive team, including one of the other interns. There would be four of us and two more girls would be joining us and staying in the same room as me. After dinner, I fell, exhausted into bed, ready for HR paperwork the next day.
The next day I signed all my HR paperwork and became a bit concerned with some of the standards and regulations. I jettisoned my bracelets since it said you could only have one and I was counting my anklet as my one. There is no way I'm willingly taking that off. It's on until it falls off and I'm back with my CDC friends. I'm not doing away with my Christmas present. The dress code would take some getting used to, and honestly, I'm still getting used to it. As a female, you have to have your shoulders covered and shorts can't be above your knees. You can, however, wear a tank top in the gym. I'm actually becoming very self conscious every time I step outside in non work or gym clothes. There's only about two more months left though, so I'll be fine. It's a bit hard to live by those rules when you work in the dive shop though, and you're constantly in a bikini. I put my wet suit on as soon as I can, but if you have to wait before heading out, it's quite warm.
In the afternoon, we were given an orientation to the dive shop and went on an orientation dive at the house reef. It was my first shore dive. It went quite well. They went through the whole orientation drill with us so we could do the same thing in the upcoming days.
The next day the other interns came. When they got off the boat, we greeted them then all got tossed into the marina. I tried to avoid it, but I was picked up, tossed over someone's shoulder and we both went it. It was a lot of fun. I was happy to be thrown in that water, if it were the Cairns marina, that would be another story. I didn't even care about the laundry I'd have to do. Later we did orientation dives with the whole intern group. I was on the boat in the afternoon for a dive and even did a night dive. It was interesting to see how everyone works. The team is really cool, and I get along with everyone. It's not the same as in Cairns, but it's nice. I stayed up way too late talking with the other girls. It was nice to get to know a little bit about everyone. I was getting a bit scared though, everyone else seemed to have so much more experience than me. I haven't even been diving a year and some of them had been working in places many times longer than I had been diving. Honestly, I started to feel a bit worried that I might not be up to scratch. I could tell I was the underdog, and it meant that I needed to push myself a lot.
I got caught up on my shows as well and it was good to be taken out of the diving world and island life for a bit. Even if the wifi here is quite slow. I keep thinking how awed I'm going to be when I go home and have web pages loaded within a second. A luxury.
The next day I got put on Nitrox to get that certification. The theory and dives were quite easy. I finally sat down and made a calendar so I could get a workout plan going as well. I'm back on my couch to 5k program and doing other 30 day challenges and what not. I'm all set to get fit before heading home to work. I even started paring down my eating as well. I let myself go crazy the first week, eating anything and everything until I was content. Now I'm much better, using the small plate and only have dessert once a day.
The next couple days were mostly fine when it came to diving, but I was struggling in other areas. I still haven't dealt with my dog's death back in December, and my subconscious decided that now would be a good time to try and deal with. That, and PMS to the extreme made me very homesick and desperately wanting to go home. My dreams were upsetting me when I would wake up. They were all with my dog in some respect and I would wake just feeling so sad and guilty. I'm sure I cried myself to sleep silently one night. I'm doing okay keeping all of that in check right now, but I still have the occasional day when I wake up with extreme homesickness. I am very much ready to go home, and I can't wait to be back home, but I am here for a purpose. I'm here to study for my instructors exams and then get a little bit of experience teaching and get experience in 5 star resort operations. It's good for me.
I finally had a day off which was nice. I managed to apply for graduate school and some graduate assistantships (in college counseling, yes, another, not really related thing to what I'm doing right now). I went out on turtle safari with the recreation department. It was a bit weird to be treated as a guest with people that you work with... however it was nice to be in tank tops and bikinis and not need to worry about anything. My workouts have been going great, I can already feel and see myself toning up again and I'm already down 2 kilos in just over a week.
They've had us doing pretty much everything in the shop. We guide, do orientation dives, assist on courses and DSDs, and of course, study and do our tests. We went to the nearby island for dinner one evening with most of the dive team and that was quite nice. We also had a goodbye BBQ for our apprentice who is leaving. Lobster, octopus, chicken, beef, fish, it was all delicious. We even had ginger beer, Bundaburg brand! So I had a little bit of Oz with me. I got to try out anti gravity yoga on my second day off and I quite liked it. Some of the moves were a bit scary to try. You're basically using a cloth hammock to do yoga, and a few times you lift your feet off and you swing, which was daunting at first, but then really fun.
I ended up diving with a really cool kid over a few days and we saw some cool stuff. We saw a dolphin on Easter, some guitar sharks, eagle ray, octopus, and of course heaps of different fish. I quite enjoyed those dives. I like the part off getting to know people. That's why I really liked working on our liveaboard, you got to really know people, if only for a short period.
As for right now, our IDC (instructor development course) starts in just over a week, then we take our instructor exams. I'm a bit nervous, but I've been practicing a lot with my skills and theory, so I think it will be okay. Chris told me the good news today that he passed his IE exams and is now officially an instructor. I'm very happy and proud of him. He's off to Thailand to work in a bit, and I'm sure he'll have loads of fun there. As for me, I'm going to keep working on my skills and study hard so that I can pass my IE and feel confident as an instructor. After, I'll try and get a little bit of experience teaching and see if I can freelance back home for a bit. Wish me luck ya'll, I'll let you know how it goes. Miss you all and can't wait to see you in two months!

Cebu City... again

meriadoc262 — Mon, 4 Apr 2016 01:02:00 GMT

Back in the city. I realized that I booked too many days here, but that's fine, it gives me time to study and write. My first day back was mainly business. The ferry ride over was about 2 hours. I tried to sleep unsuccessfully. I did get awkward sunburn lines however, since I was on the top open air class and in the one spot where the sun was hitting. After getting to the hostel it was nap time for a bit. Afterwards, I dropped off laundry and decided to take a walk. Staying at the same place, I knew my way around pretty well, but I was headed somewhere different. I was looking at some of the malls in the area and thought about going to a movie, and decided on Deadpool. The Ayala center was the only one with it playing, so I decided there. It was about a 45 minute walk. The walk wasn't too bad, but I am starting to get sick of and annoyed at all the hellos and calls I get while walking down the street. No matter, I rocked up to the mall a bit early, so I decided on a haircut and bubble tea. Then, movie time. I treated myself to some nachos and headed in. I had a mini scare when I went to buy the ticket because I forgot that it was rated R and I didn't have my ID with me. Luckily they must have figured that a girl on her own in the Philippines was clearly over 16. I was interested in how the movie was "different" from the other Marvel movies and wasn't too disappointed. Going meta and doing many fourth wall breaks as well as a cheeky opening credit sequence made it quite entertaining. I emerged from the theater to a darkened world, it was about 8 and I was contemplating getting a taxi back to the hostel when I just kept walking. It was quite pleasant outside at any rate, and it did me good to get some exercise. I didn't manage too pick up any breakfast food, but I was content just to go to the little bakery in the morning.
The next day I had decided to walk to the Taoist temple and then back to the Ayala center to watch Zootopia as I was hearing good things and I could see it around midday. I forgot that this hostel isn't the best for chatting up new travelers, it seems like most people are just in transit and set on their path. I got up a bit later, popped by the bakery for water and breakfast, then set off on the route google maps had given me. It took almost an hour to get there, but I made it. I slipped my jeans over my shorts and put on my long sleeve work shirt so that I could go into the temples. There were some really cool dragon sculptures and some great views of the city itself. It was quite a nice view. It was also interesting that the temple is in the Beverly Hills suburb of the city and it is called that for a reason. The houses are quite shwanky, by anyones standards. Sure, they're not the gargantuan mansions of L.A. Beverly Hills, but they are all very high brow. I putzed around the temple for a bit, checked out the gift shop and bought a bracelet for good fortune, because I'm always a sucker for those Buddhist type things, changed, and headed back for the mall.
I had a bit of time before the showing again, and wandered again. I found some great ideas of things to buy back home at some of the outdoor adventure shops, including a Lifestraw water bottle. As it was Tuesday, I rocked up on a taco Tuesday deal. I got my cilantro fix and free iced tea. It roughly satisfied my Taco Bell chalupa craving I had about a week earlier, so that was good. I was starting to hit an afternoon slump, so picked up a coffee and headed into the movie.
I thoroughly enjoyed Zootopia. I got put back in my storytelling zone. I love the way going to a movie in the theater can transport you. I get fully immersed in the world and often forget where I am afterward. It totally recharged my love of storytelling and writing. I laughed, I cried, and wanted to watch it again immediately afterward. Unfortunately, as I would find out the next day, that was the last day it was to be played. Though it was just released in the states the previous weekend, it had been out over three weeks here and new movies swooped in to replace it. Though immersed in the story, I couldn't help but delight in how well the script was crafted. From previous call backs to making little details come full circle, it moved at a quick pace, nothing was excessive and everything contributed to the overall story. And, of course, the central relationship went through all the key points making you laugh, cry, and delight. I have to admit I was genuinely scared at points and even surprised by certain events. It was well crafted. I've got some major work ahead of me to create something that comes close to it.
After the movie, I finished my saunter around the mall, picking up foodstuffs to last me my last few days in the country. Then, it was time for the walk back to the hostel... after some gelato with a free scoop. However, talk about awkward. Eating ice cream is strange in itself, but walking down the street at dusk, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while eating ice cream and being the only foreigner in sight is just ridiculous. I paused at an ATM with a waste basket and perplexed the guards inside the banking establishment. Eventually I made it back and after washing the dirt and who knows what else off, I picked up some random thriller book in the hall and read. I also started looking at dogs, which I should never, but frequently do, and found quite a nice pup that I sent a picture of to my mom. I laughed when one of the first responses back was "dad wants to know if you need us to go pick him up." If only. The pup's birthday was a month before Lucious's, and his name was Lucas. Two Luke's, both retriever crosses. I do really want a dog since Lucious passed, but I'm sure I need a bit of an adjustment period when I get home seeing as I have dealt with it by not dealing with it. How healthy. More study days await me, then, it's back in the air and off to the Maldives!

Alona Beach, Bohol

meriadoc262 — Wed, 9 Mar 2016 15:03:00 GMT

A double ferry ride adventure to get here, but worth it. I put myself back into a dorm which worked out great because I immediately started talking to people again. I could tell that I needed it. A bunch of us from the hostel went out for dinner and drinks. It was great to indulge in a little bit of narcissism, talking about myself, my travels, jobs, etc. It was nice getting to know a few others as well. One thing that's nice about talking to travelers is that, the more you do it, the more apt you are to just let your guard down and talk honestly. We had a good chat about traveling with someone versus alone and how hard it can be when you team up with someone. Those of us that did it didn't anticipate how hard it would be. It was just another case of "you're not alone". Much like my initial breakdown when I came back to Oz just after Christmas, it was comforting to know that other people had similar experiences.
I sort of wish I had a bit more time here, but I (foolishly?) prebooked my hostel in Cebu city. It's definitely a great place to travel solo. Every night I managed to hang out with people from the hostel for dinner and drinks. Every night we acquired someone new as well. The hostel I stayed at was pretty good. The air con wasn't quite the best, but it did the job at times. Also, free breakfast where I could make myself peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for later when I would go out exploring.

The first full day there I wandered around and explored. I booked myself a day trip out to Balicasag Island for the next day and checked out some of the beachside shops. I had a bite too eat at The Rockaway... I would not recommend the gyros. I almost psyched myself into getting food poisoning and throwing up, but managed to get passed it. I was delighted to be back in live music mode. After a little afternoon siesta, I went out for dinner with some of the hostel crew and enjoyed an acoustic set while eating dinner... or rather dessert. I had a late lunch and didn't really want much to eat, so dessert for dinner it was. We had some flyers for free beer, so we moved locations. I only made it halfway through mine and nipped off, exhausted.

The next day I headed out for two dives on Balicasag. The first dive was pretty good, the vis wasn't that bad. There were heaps of turtles and we even came upon a patch of garden eels. After a bit of a break and snack we were back in for dive 2 at a different location. The vis was reduced to about 5 meters here. We did a wall dive and you couldn't see too far out into the deep water. I was getting ridiculously bored, so I started chowing down my air as I attempted to make rings with the bubbles from my regulator. I was mostly unsuccessful, the exhaust valve is almost too efficient for this. I started swimming upside down and keeping tabs on everyone else. It made me realize how much I need a task while diving. Whether it's guiding, teaching, or perhaps one day welding, I need a task as fun dives aren't really doing it for me anymore... unless they are purposeful i.e. thresher dive, wreck dive, etc. Still, a dive is a dive and it went pretty well. However, I did notice once I got to the surface that I had been skip breathing a lot and had a decent headache upon surfacing. However, some coffee and a lie down helped.

A couple of people from the boat who were staying at the hostel went out to lunch and I joined them. I was able to let my gear dry out at the shop and picked it up later in the afternoon so it could finish drying in the room. We also had a brown out that day that I was unaware of. Yeah, they don't call them black outs, they call them brown outs. The power was supposed to come back on around 6 pm. It came back on around 8, just as we were heading out to dinner. We all ran for the showers instead before heading out. Most of us just got beads of water, but some were able to get a couple of streams before calling it quits. We had a nice diner again, and afterwards went out for drinks. I didn't order anything, I was exhausted from diving, and needed a coffee or sleep. But, still, I went with to some upstairs club. I was fascinated the whole time by one of the bouncers. He looked like a mix of Billy Bob Thorton and Sean Connery. Most amusing. Eventually we all headed back.

I was loving this being back on my own, it was great. The next day I decided to rent a bike and head up to the Chocolate Hills and Tarsier Sanctuary. There was a guy in our hostel checking out and going to Tagbilaran. He also wanted to check out the sites so I told him I'd drive him up so he could drop off his stuff and rent a bike. We frog hopped with each other on the way up. We passed Loboc river, drove through the man made forest and eventually came to the Chocolate Hills. I had low expectations since many people had been underwhelmed by them. It was neat. But all I really needed was to go to the lookout point, take pictures, look for a moment, and then I was good to go. Glad to have driven myself instead of having to wait for others on a tour.

It was time to retrace steps most of the way with a slight detour to the Tarsier Sanctuary. We actually saw a few of the tiny guys and they were quite fascinating to watch, even if we only did so for a short while. With that done, we thought about grabbing some food, a late lunch/early dinner. I had heard that the Bohol bee farm was good, so we went there... after getting bit lost on a side road. The food was probably the best I had in the Philippines and wasn't too expensive all things considered, especially as it was all organic and grown there. I had ribs with an awesome lumpia (think spring roll type thing) stuffed with cheese, cilantro, lettuce, avocado, and other deliciousness I can't remember. And, of course, homemade ice cream for dessert. Afterwards, the two of us went back to our respective hostels. I snuck in a bit of a nap, wandered the beach and headed back, content to have an early night. I caught some of the people from the hostel on my way back, and they persuaded me to go out with them. We had dinner and drinks and I excused myself so I could pack up and not annoy everyone in the room the following morning. It would have been nice to stay an extra day, but I was due back in Cebu city to get things settled before heading off to the Maldives.

Siquijor

meriadoc262 — Fri, 4 Mar 2016 21:40:00 GMT

Ah, I don't think it ever felt so good to be on my own again. I honestly didn't realize how hard it would be to travel with someone. I know that I'm quite independent, but I didn't realize how much of my own time I need. It's tough when you travel with someone and are basically forced to do everything together. You sit down to eat, and you don't have any stories to tell each other, because you were with each other all day. Siquijor (pronounced "sickee-whore") was the perfect place for me to recharge and enjoy my own company again.

I splurged a little bit and got myself a double room all to myself. The best part, I open my door and I can sit down on my patio and stare at the sea just feet from my doorstep. I spent the first day/afternoon settling in and meeting some of the canine locals. I found the cutest little puppy that I named Raiden. He was a sweetheart, but a bit of a little shit as well. He's very much a puppy and into teething. I made the mistake of playing with him a bit rough and he decided to go after my legs as I went to walk away. I distracted him successfully with a stick. I sat down to a great view for dinner and had a delicious meal of chicken curry. About halfway through though, little Raiden decided to stop by. I thought he was going to do very well at first. He sat down and stared at my food which was on a low table. Then he started the whining and jumped up. I pushed him down and dusted the sand off the table. This continued for some time and he even jumped up on my bench for a better angle. After about ten minutes, it was too much for him, he snuggled up next to me on the bench and fell asleep. I petted him while finishing my dinner. Once he was fully passed out, I quietly got up and retreated to my room. The plan was to get to bed rather early (read before 10) to get up, rent a motorbike and head around the island.

The next morning I went to reception and rented a bike for the day. I had google maps in my pocket and decided to just go in a direction and not really stop. Unfortunately they only had automatic scooters, which wasn't as fun as a semi automatic, but no worries, I was happy to be on the road again. There were many places I could have stopped along the way, but I just kept driving. I did manage to pull over to a small fruit stand. I bought some fat bananas from a nice woman and a brown thing on a stick that looked appetizing. It was. In fact, it was some sort of deep fried, caramelized banana. Only 5 pesos or about 10 cents USD. A decent little snack. I got back on the road and continued on my way. I circumnavigated the entire island in just under 3 hours. I was back to the hostel before noon and had time for a quick nap.

I was running out of cash, but still needed to eat, so I popped into town later and bought the most random stuff at a shop: bottle of water, apples, peanut brittle, peanut butter, crackers, delicious sugar coated pastry things and random homemade candy which proved to be a delight. I brought the trove back to my room and gorged on food in bed. It wasn't as bad as eating my leftover pad thai like a burrito for breakfast in Moalboal - I looked like Gollum eating fish and I remember hoping no one knocked on my door because I would stare them down, noodles dripping from my face and mutter 'don't judge me.' After my binge, I had a chat with my sister and brother-in-law which consisted of lots of laugh, and continued my relaxing. I had a few more nights in Siquijor and the plan was to do much of nothing. Read, write, relax, and barely leave hostel.

The next morning I took a stroll down the beach at low tide. There are heaps of little blue crabs working diligently to clear sand and I assume scavenge for food while the tide is out. They are quite humorous as well. Back in Hawaii, we encountered ghost crabs that would scurry away in a hurry if you approached. These guys had a bit of a different tactic. If they sensed that you were getting too close, they would hunker down and freeze. Basically play dead. I tossed one over and he didn't move. I righted him and continued on my way. The water was warm on the edge and it was soothing to just hear the waves and watch the boats and sun. No roosters waking you up! Success!

After the morning stroll, I sat out on my porch, ate some of my oh so nutritious food and started going over my divemaster manual. I alternated between that, reading the encyclopedia of recreational diving, writing, and watching tv shows. I even had a two hour skype chat with my mom which totally revitalized me. It was great to laugh so much again and vent out all of my frustrations over traveling. My day of not doing much was very much needed, though I didn't really realize it. Every night I would pass out watching Big Hero 6 and wake up whenever I was rested, usually around 6. I was apparently more sleep deprived than I realized. I was also growing astoundingly more happy with each passing day. I guess I didn't realize just how frustrated and surly I had become. Taking a step back totally set me right. That night, as I was outside studying, Chris ended up popping by to say hi. I didn't realize he would be staying at the same place. We chatted for about a half an hour and it was fantastic. Sine we had gone our separate ways we had stories to tell each other, and it was almost like it was back in Cairns. It felt good to have my friend back, if only for a half an hour. I realized that for our friendship to be highly functioning, we need that time apart. I was much happier for it and it seemed as if he was as well. I also got to geek out because he had received some IDC study materials and there were equations and test questions and everything! I was getting my nerd back on and I loved it.

The next day I woke rested again at the bright hour of 6:30 and set off on my reading, writing and tv watching. I took care of a bit of business as well, booking the last of my hostels in the Philippines and getting my flight up to Manila booked so that I could make my flight to the Maldives. I was enjoying listening to the radio back home as well. I was getting a bit up to speed on the political circus that was going on and was happy to not be dealing with that. I did enjoy just the little random thing from home like the radio personalities and the commercials for local businesses. I was super content with my own company again and loving the break. I spent a lot of time just looking out at the ocean and getting a snapshot of it in my mind. I didn't realize how much I needed the time out, but I was recharged and ready to go on to the next island...

Bit 'o the Philippines

meriadoc262 — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:54:00 GMT

Manila and the start

Well, been in the Philippines for awhile and it's quite an interesting place. The initial culture shock was quite a bit much; as soon as I got into Manila, I wanted to leave. The best thing about it was meeting up with Chris. It was so good to see a friendly face, especially after how upset I'd been after leaving my dive work family. Not really having anything planned bit us in the ass a bit. For starters, we got majorly conned out of our cab fare to the hostel. We paid about 800 pesos, approximately $24 AUD... it should have been more around 200 pesos max. Oh well. Lesson learned.

The first day was spent attempting to get over get lag and exploring the city a bit. We walked for over four hours just wandering. The smells were something I never want to experience again. Imagine a mix of hot sewage and excrement... you might have a rough idea. It made me long for bat shit alley in Cairns, I would have much rather taken that. After the business of flights was taken care of, it was back to hostel and diner. I was a bit taken aback by the fact that there were proper dress codes in places. For example, you need to wear sleeves at a lot of places... I have one sleeved shirt, one long sleeve and two jumpers. Not too keen on wearing any of those in this heat, but it had to be done. After awhile I got rather immune to this rule.

There are also heaps of stray dogs and cats running around. At first I was very hesitant to give any of them a pat, because I didn't know the conditions they had been living in, even though I really wanted to give them a cuddle. That quickly went away after about a week and I was giving almost all the critters some attention. If I had gone to school to be a vet, after seeing this, I would come to the Philippines and spay and neuter all the dogs and cats I could find on the street.

The consensus from most of the people in the hostel was to get the hell out of dodge and move on. Not planning did screw us a bit, but we did have ideas... Chris knew he wanted to go to El Nido, so we booked a ticket to Puerto Princessa in Palawan where we would start our journey north to El Nido.

We stayed at a really nice hostel called Shebang. It had the best shower I've come across in the Philippines. Downstairs, there is a jungle shower. You have a bamboo mat to stand on, rain shower head above and large trough in front. There are vines climbing up the wall and natural lighting. It was fantastic. They had really good food and were very helpful in organizing transportation and everything. They even picked us up from the airport in a little tricycle. They had a sign with our names on it which was really cute. It was my first foray into proper Philippino style transportation. For tricycles, they take a motorbike and attach a sort of metal side car to it where people can sit and stash their bags. You can get a level below this where some people attach just manual bikes instead of motorized ones. I got very used to using them when I couldn't walk to my destination.

Puerto Pincessa became a bit of a stop over point for us with not a lot to do. We met some interesting people there, and there is a good atmosphere in the bar to get people to mingle together. People don't walk much in the Philippines, but it's the way I like to get to know a place, so I did a lot of walking. First down to a little beach, and later into the mall in town for dinner. There's not a whole lot to do in Puerto, most people go to the underground river and that's about it.
Honestly, most of my time was spent freaking out and trying what to do next. I normally have more of a plan, but I was winging this trip. The biggest thing was finding a place to do the IDC. It was also hard for me to get used to just traveling again and not working. I prefer settling, and making a bit of a home someplace, so getting back into a more transient lifestyle took a bit of time. It didn't help that every hour Chris kept changing his mind about what to do. Traveling with someone else is hard work. You're not just responsible for yourself anymore, you have to think of both parties. Our thought processes were all over the place.

Before setting foot in the Philipppines, we thought about going to Malapascua and doing the IDC with Thresher Shark Divers. Then I found a gig in Thailand where you would work as a DM first, do your IDC, then work as an instructor. The pay wasn't great, but you could get experience and it was in Koh Lak and the Similan Islands. We both got accepted and it looked like we were jumping ship from Philippines early. We decided to still go up to El Nido though before we 100% confirmed with them. We also found programs in Mexico, the Dominican, Maldives and more in the Philippines. There were too many option and it was making us crazy, so we went up to El Nido...

El Nido and Sabang

After a rather cramped 7 hour van ride, we arrived in El Nido. We stayed at a place called Our Melting Pot (OMP) and it was a decent stay. I was finally used to not having a key for our rooms and just remembering to lock up my bags and hope that people were kind and wouldn't nick our stuff, because I'd heard of others losing stuff like money and more. The town is very small, easily walkable, but a bit expensive. We had a bit of a wander down the streets to some dive shops and booked some dives for the next day. On our way back, we passed even more dive shops and I saw once that said they were running and IDC at the end of March. We popped in to check it out...

The owner, Jose, was a great guy, super nice and full of character. By the end of it, we had decided to do the IDC with them. Since wifi is shoddy in the whole country, he told us he would email us the breakdown of everything later. Once we got it, it looked like a good deal. It just meant that we would have to extend our visas and do a bit of proper travel before heading back. We unbooked our dives with the other company, half because we were going to do the IDC with Jose, and half because Chris was getting sick.

The next morning we did a spectacular climb up Mount Taraw. It was a proper climb, not really a hike, you were basically bouldering for a good chunk of it. The view at the top was worth the climb and waking up at 5 am. We just missed the sunrise a bit, but it was still glorious. You could see all of El Nido and into the ocean. I have some great pictures. We were quite high as well, though it seemed father when we got to the bottom and looked up to where we were. We met some people at the hostel and hung out with them a bit.

We had a nice wander about town and on that particular night, we decided to go out for drinks. Now, I don't really drink and don't really like to drink. Those of you that have read my escapades in Cairns may laugh at this and think it's a lie, but honestly, normal life Celina drinks maybe five times a year. Cairns brings out that debaucherous side of me, and my friends can often easily goad me into drinking more... as was the case with this particular night. I thought it was going to be just a couple beers, but it turned into a pub crawl down the beach. My better sense left me because when we started doings shots, I thought I'd better leave. It only got worse from there. When you close your eyes and point to shots on the menu, that's when you know it's bad. After the fourth or fifth shot, I ran to the toilet. Upchuck city. Part of me really wished for flushing toilets instead of the squat ones you have to manually "flush" by pouring water in the bowl. It wasn't pretty.

We all made our was back to the hostel and I had two more friendly toilet encounters before finally falling asleep. We were meant to do a tour that day, but we both slept in and decided to push it back. All I really wanted was food. I managed a bit down before my last toilet visit, after which, I felt much better and consumed about four rolls with spreadable cheese. Other than that, I was doing surprisingly well. Chris however, was hurting. All day we just took it slow and didn't do much. The recovery day was needed, though it made me very much not want to drink again.

The next day we did our tour, Tour A. We got onto a little outrigger boat and headed to different lagoons, islands and beaches. We had barely left the shore and some of the guys broke out the rum. It was quite hilarious. The snorkeling we did was quite good. I saw heaps of cuttle fish, which I never saw much of back in Cairns, so that was great. The lunch was amazing and I had a bit of a siesta on the beach. The major downside of the tour was that we didn't get back to shore until about 7/7:30. We were told 5. It normally wouldn't be an issue, and I was by now used to everything being late in the Philippines, but we had dropped our bags off at the dive shop because we were moving into a house of Jose's since we were hanging around El Nido for a bit longer. We didn't want to get back and have the shop be closed and be homeless. Chris was proper freaking out, but I figured it would all work itself out. And it did. We got our bags, headed to the room and all was well.

We had a bit of a business day the next day, organizing flights and accommodation to and in Cebu City for our STCW course. I even managed to get some work done on taxes and fill our applications for other diving internships. Things started to get a bit hairy over the next few days, because both of us applied to other IDC places around the world and we started getting responses. Chris got accepted to a place in Mexico, and I got accepted to a place in the Dominican. We had to do a pro and cons list and eventually decided to stay put.

The next day was my favorite day yet in the Philippines. We got up early and rented some motorbikes so that we could check out some of the beaches further north, namely Duli beach and Nacpan beach. Chris got a moped, which was quite hilarious, and I went for a semi automatic motorbike. They had me test it out first and I nearly killed myself because I was too heavy on the throttle. Once I got a handle on it, I was good though. We grabbed our things, got some gas, and set off. I didn't realize just how much I would like it. I wanted to just keep driving and not stop. I completely understood why Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman did their long way round and long way down motorcycle trips. It's addicting. If we didn't agree to go to the beaches, I probably would have just kept riding. We got lost a couple of times. One we realized ourselves, the other someone else pointed out to us, but eventually we go to where we were going.
At Duli beach, I was keen for a surf, but the ocean was a bit rough for my tastes and soon the boards were all rented out. I was instructed by my friend Kyle to find some good surf spots, and that was the closest I could find at the moment. There was a cute, small little resort built by a Dutch couple. We had lunch there and relaxed for a bit before shoving off for Napcan.

Napcan was much more touristy and there were heaps of people. A big difference from the private little Duli just further north. We took a bit of a nap on the beach and soon after headed back. We still had a bit of time before we had to return the bikes, so we kept on going south to check out the scenery and what not. I love the feel of the open road. I might have to dust off our dirk bike when I get back home. Our journey had soon come to an end and we returned the bikes before having dinner. It was a simple enough day, but my favorite since being in the Philippines.

After having another business day, we booked another tour, Tour C and enjoyed a really small group of people. I think I enjoyed this tour a bit more. There were less people and everyone was really relaxed. We hit some really good snorkeling spots, and also some wicked thermoclines. It almost made me wish I brought my wetsuit. We met a couple cool couples and we all agreed to meet for dinner later. We had a nice time learning about other peoples travels and where they were heading to next. We had a van booked for about 4:30 in the morning the next day as we were going to Sabang for a couple of days before flying out to Cebu.

The ride south wasn't too bad, we had a bit more room which was nice, however, we were abandoned in Puerto Princessa after the driver took our receipt. We couldn't show proof that we needed to get to Sabang and had paid, but luckily, the goodness of the Philippine people shown through. The shopkeeper organized a van for us and we only had to pay an extra 200 pesos each. Finally we arrived at our hostel and it was very cute and secluded. It was called Bambua. It was off into the woods which was quite lovely because it meant you could hear the crickets at night and didn't have to hear the roosters in the morning. The owner was a German fellow who had been there for about 27 years. He was super friendly and helped us get tours sorted.

The weather was a bit shit and rainy the days we were there, but it didn't get us down. We took a walk into town at one point and I needed some wifi because I had a skype interview with an IDC internship in the Maldives. I was originally just doing it to be polite, but I started to get a bit excited about it. The connection was bad, and the call failed, so we had to reschedule for a couple days later when I wouldn't be somewhere with limited electricity hours and decent wifi. We spent the next day doing a nice trek to the underground river. It was still a bit grim out, but I was happy we did the hike. It was preferable to just the boat, and there weren't a whole lot of people there which was ideal. The river itself was quite impressive. Lots of bats and heaps of interesting stalactite formations. The chapel area was my favorite. When our two days in Sabang was finished, we headed down to Puerto for one night back at Shebang before we caught our flight out to Cebu.

Cebu City

Yet another adventure in Philippines transportation. We knew not to be in a big rush since most of the flights get delayed, and we were not disappointed. We had a stop over in Manila, and both our flights were delayed. Hooray! Once again, I was surprised at how blasé I was about the delays. Chris was broken up about it, but it just made me laugh.

When we finally got into Cebu it was nearly 11 pm. We grabbed a taxi to the hostel and eventually went to sleep. The next day we had to go to the university for enrollment and then extend our visas. It was a bit of a process at immigration, I thought registering for the course would have taken longer, but we were waiting almost five hours for everything to got through, which it eventually did.

After our business day, it was time to start class. They have a fairly strict dress code, long pants and sleeves must be worn all the times, so I was living in my jeans and work shirt for the entire 8 days of the course. Luckily there was a break in between, no classes on Sundays, so I was able to hang out in shorts all day. The course ping ponged between being really interesting and really boring.

Our first two days were spent on fire safety. First day was all lecture in the classroom. I meant to study that night, and did a bit, but was freaked out the next day when we had a quiz before doing the practical part. I passed, and then it was on to putting out fires. We started small with donning coveralls and using fire extinguishers, then we got to gear up in the full kit complete with cabas to go inside. We rotated positions to do a search and recovery inside a building, then it was time to put out the big boys.

I got to be point man going into the burning building. They weren't kidding when they say you can't see anything inside. The fire was relatively small, but the smoke was all engulfing. I used the heat to determine if the fire was out, but at times it felt like it had started up again. I couldn't hear Chris and he couldn't hear me when I called to back out. Next they did a large open flame and Chris and I swapped positions, him taking point and me right behind. We worked in tandem with two of our other team mates to completely put out the fire. I don't know how, but after every exercise, my face was just black. I must have had a bit of a leak in my mask somewhere, because no one else was as dirty as me. I liked it. It made me feel accomplished. I gave a shout out to all my fire fighting friends, I only had a taste of what they deal with and I applauded them for doing it.

The next day was the start of the boring bit, we had three days about personal safety and social responsibility. It could have been alright, but the classes were very long, there was a lot of emphasis on large shipping boats that I will never be on, and it was a lot of legislation stuff. I was happy when it was over and we were on to personal survival techniques. This and the fire fighting were tied for my favorite. Chris and I were tagged as experts due to our work on the boats, and we were selected as leaders for the practical exercises. It was quite fun. We had one minute to don our life jackets. Then we had to jump properly from a 4 meter high platform, get into a life boat, bail out any water, abandon the life boat, and cluster for warmth. We also did a simple float test, got to right an upturned life raft, use sea anchors and gear up into other suits. It was a lot of fun and I even got some good pictures out of it from the staff there. I made the mistake of not bringing a towel, but it was okay. We were in jumpsuits for the drills because we can't be distracting people in our swimmers I guess.

After that it was time for first aid. This was my third first aid course in about a year, so it was basically all review. It did get very strange at one point, because we were talking about lacerations and stuff, then the nurse started going on about penis sizes and what not. For like half an hour. Chris and I just sort of stared at each other puzzled. I'm pretty sure I actually wrote down 'what is happening?' in my book. The quiz and practical were super easy and after that, we were done. All we had to do was claim our certificates and shirts the next day. That's right, I got a University of Cebu pollo shirt afterwards! I was super stoked about it.

About half way through our course, I got some news. I had applied for an instructor internship position with the Four Seasons in the Maldives and after a Skype interview, I was selected as a candidate. I took about a day to mull it over, I was really excited about the opportunity when I first heard about it, but was also a bit worried. Chris made me do a pros and cons list during class one day, and I realized that I couldn't turn it down. It was going to be expensive, yes, as I would still have to pay for the course, but I would get experience as an instructor and free lodging and meals. The major down side was having to tell Jose in El Nido that I wouldn't be able to do the IDC with him, but he was totally understanding about it. It also meant I needed to buy my own gear. We had checked out a few different dive shops around Cebu, and I found some stuff I liked, though it was a bit expensive. I splashed down the money like it was coming out of my ass and had to buy a gear bag to accommodate the extra items. I was excited to get to use my gear though, since we were finally going to dive once we got to Malapascua. It was finally time to leave Cebu, so we got in a taxi to the bus station and prepared for the long journey north...

Malapascua, Moalboal, and Apo Island

Once we reached the port of Maya on the northern edge of Cebu, we hopped a little catamaran to Malapascua. It was late at night and we had spent the whole day traveling, so I was ready to hit the hay. Luckily we had a room already waiting for us since a friend we met in El Nido was doing her rescue course and planned out a stay for us up there so we all could travel together for a bit. She even booked us in for some dives the next day.

We got up around 4 to head to the dive shop. Luckily they had a pickup service because, though it wasn't too far, it would have been an ordeal to walk the path in the dark... with our dive gear... without knowing exactly where we were headed. The shop was quite nice. They set up all of our gear for us and took everything down to the boat. We were scheduled for three dives that day: A morning dive for thresher sharks then two afternoon dives at Gato island. We were not disappointed for our first dive. Though the vis wasn't that great, we ended up seeing three thresher sharks in total. Along with many nudibranchs, much to Chris's chagrin. There was enough time in between for us to go back to the resort, have a nice breakfast and catch a bit of a break before heading back to the shop.

The afternoon dives were great as well. There is an tunnel under the island and our divemaster took us down through that first. At the end, we waited as white tip sharks came into the cave. It was really cool and they got quite close. When we popped up on the other side, the boat was waiting and we had our lunch. After that, we hopped in for another dive, this time around the island itself. This was was really exciting for me, as I saw my first sea horse and even saw a mantis shrimp! Something I have been waiting ages to see. The dives we did were also quite long, all about 60 minutes as we were on 12 liter tanks. I kept getting cold towards the end as I was in my 2.2 mm shorty wet suit. My toes and fingers also started going numb. I think I will have to invest in a full 3-5 mm wet suit soon.

After getting back from the dives, we washed our gear, hung it out to dry and put our names down for two dives the next day. One for hammerheads and another thresher dive. It just meant that we needed to get up even earlier. I got word that one of our friends who did the traineeship with us, Bruno, was in Malapascua and we all decided to meet up for dinner. He had been working in Thailand in the Similan Island and said it was pretty amazing diving there. The pay isn't the greatest, but apparently all you would do as a divemaster is guide dives and that's it. You didn't have to worry about gear or tanks as all that was taken care of for you. The only down side was having to do visa runs every month. It was good catching up and have someone else to talk to, especially since I was getting third wheeled at the moment.

The next day our dives went really well. We didn't see any hammerheads, but we did see a giant manta ray that I got on video. We happened to see threshers again too, and I even got video this time. Doing the dives in the morning meant we had to time let our gear dry and explore a little bit. I had intended to take a nap, but instead got distracted calling people back home. Mainly to vent about my status in our group as it was starting to piss me off a bit. After letting my frustrations out I felt a bit better and was given advice many times over to the point where I just accepted it and said, screw it, I'll go along with the things we have planned right now, then I'm bailing and traveling on my own since I basically am right now anyway. With that in mind, I just needed to survive Moalboal and Apo Island, and perhaps a bit of Siquijor with them. About a week, I told myself, doable.

The next day we got up not as early as we had been, but early enough to pack and grab brekky before our full day of travel down to Moalboal. It ended up being not that bad. We caught a free boat back to Maya from the dive shop then caught a cheap non-AC bus down to Cebu city. The ride was long, about 4-5 hours, but I was highly entertained listening to my music. I was starting to go through live music withdrawals, and as I listened, I started salivating over drum and guitar tones while simultaneously tapping out lighting cues. I was quite ready to go home. Once in Cebu we decided to take a taxi all the way down to Moalboal, just to get there. It would have been cheaper on a bus, but this way we could go right to our hostel and stop at an ATM. The ride wasn't that bad. About 3 hours with traffic, and I actually got to talk to my friends for part of it an have a genuine conversation, so that made me happy.

We got in a bit late to Moalboal, but the rooms were nice. I had a big room with a double bed all to myself! We dropped our stuff off quickly then walked around to try adn find some dinner. We found a dive shop that was still open and booked a sardine dive for the next day. The main reason we came down to dive here. It sounded really stupid and like a joke at first, but after looking at pictures, I was quite excited to dive with the sardines. The wifi was even quite decent and I managed to catch up on some shows before passing out.

Thus far, I think Moalboal may have been my favorite. You need to get the correct pronunciation though, it's Mwoalbwoal. Just say it with like you're a rasta and you'll be right. The dive in the morning was quite nice. We got dropped off only about 5 minutes from the dive shop and followed the wall all the way back to the shop. We actually went too far and had to turn back. The sardines were actually really cool. Once of the neatest things I've seen while diving. We stayed in their area for about 15-20 minutes then continued along the wall. We didn't go very deep, only about 15 meters or so, so we were able to have a very long dive. We also saw heaps of turtles along the way. I couldn't feel my fingers again by the end of it, but it was still a fantastic dive. We left our stuff out to dry as we did some more exploring.

We were meant to leave the next day, but stumbled upon something that looked very interesting: canyoning. Basically, starting at the top of a river/waterfall system and making our was down by was of hiking, swimming, and jumping from great heights. It looked amazing and we were all keen to do it and stay another day. We had to move accommodations, but that wasn't a big deal. Our new place was right across from the canyoning office, so it was quite convenient.
In the morning, we dropped our stuff off at the new place and got geared up for canyoning. I got to ride on top of the four by four for a bit and it was quite nice. It took us about 45 minutes to reach our starting point. I initially didn't really know what to expect, but when the first thing they did was lead us to an edge to jump, I knew I was in the right place. It was exhilarating! The best thing I've done in the Philippines yet! I wish I would have know about it earlier, I would have booked more time there to do rappelling down the waterfalls. We hiked through more rivers and jumped off higher cliffs. One at 12 meters and the last one at about 15 meters. The other two back out of the last jump, but I couldn't resist. Besides, there were like 60 year old guys in front of us doing it. I wasn't going to wuss out. I would have spent all day jumping from cliffs if I could, it was that good. Despite nearly losing my contacts multiple times and biting my lip, I was ready for more. We had an amazing lunch afterwards and it was time to head back.

At the hostel we started to pack and get stuff sorted. I managed to catch up on some more shows and felt like a bit of a bad person as I delighted in some schadenfreude as the other two were stressing about flights and the rest of their trip. It didn't bother me, I wasn't going to the same places as them and the more frustrated they got, the happier I became. I know it's not good, but it felt like retribution for earlier. I was quite content and one of my pals from the traineeship said it was good and to not feel bad. After all, it's my happiness I need to be concerned with, not theirs, so live it up! I added that last bit myself, but otherwise, that's basically the gist. I'm glad I have other friends I can count on to give me sound advice and that actually care about me as a person. I had been talking to my friends Kyle and Michael a lot since leaving and they were really helping me out, as much as I missed them and everyone else from the boat. It was getting a bit easier the longer I'd been away, but I would get surges of homesickness both for my dive family in Cairns and my real family back home. I even had a few bouts of desperately wishing I was traveling with my sister instead. These would come and go though, and I hoped not to get too sucked into them.
The next day we were off to make the journey to Apo Island. After a trike, bus, boat, jeepney, another trike, another bus, and another boat, we were finally on Apo Island. A little quiet slice of paradise. After dropping my stuff in my room, I headed up the trail to the lighthouse. I managed to get there just in time to see a beautiful sunset. I popped back on down for dinner with the others and we hit up the dive shop to get on the list for two dives the next day.

The next day we did two dives. A crazy drift dive in the morning at a place called coconut was quite fun. The current really ripped at some points and I accidentally had one of my integrated weights fall out. Luckily it was at the start so I managed to get it secured back in place before we really took off. We saw heaps of sea snakes, moorish idols and clown fish. We finished the dive not too far from the shop and it was relatively short compared to our other dives, 45 minutes. I surprisingly didn't get cold. We had time for a nap and lunch then another dive at 2. Oh, I forgot, it was also my birthday, so I thought a good way to spend it would be by doing some dives. The afternoon dive was quite nice as well. We went down a sloping wall and saw bubbles coming up from the sand due to volcanic activity. It was pretty neat. There was a gorgeous lion fish just hanging out and plenty of turtles to see. This dive was a bit longer and my fingers just started to get cold in the middle, but warmed up toward the end as we got shallower and hit some warmer thermoclines. I even got to play with a few Christmas tree worms, some of my favorites, so that was a good birthday present.

Back at the room, I treated myself to a saltwater bucket shower. Yup, that's right. They filled 20 gallon buckets with salt water and you took a little bucket and scooped up water to wash up in. I didn't realize it was salt water until I hit my face with it. It's the same water you use to flush the toilet, so nothing too fancy. After that, it was a nice evening meal, followed by catching up with people from home then to cap off the night, watching Big Hero 6, because that always makes me happy.

The next day I just took it easy. No dives and nothing planned. I slept in a bit, had myself a nice breakfast and started to plan the rest of my trip. I found a place to stay in Siquijor and was looking at things to do and how to get there. I even snuck in two episodes of The X-Files, when the wifi was really good. Other than that, I took a nap, ate more food and just enjoyed the scenery. I did a little bit of pre packing that night while listening to Stuff You Should Know, then once again capped off the night with some Big Hero 6. The next day would be traveling to Siquijor.

It's been a while...

meriadoc262 — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 14:48:00 GMT

It's been a long time...

Well, I really did mean to write up on my adventures, but work, and at one point sickness, got the best of me. If you can believe it, I finally left Australia I was having a hard time with it again. It didn't really help that we had a few going away get togethers. Here are the cliff notes over the last couple of months. I ended up passing my divemaster course! Though I was taking it way too seriously and was stressing out to no end over it. I even managed to snag a position working on our boats as a divemaster for a bit after the course. I saw one of my best friends, Chris, leave, which was heartbreaking, but made a new best friend shortly thereafter, Kyle, and was heartbroken again when I had to leave him as well. I was once again surprised by the friends and family I created while in Cairns. It is honestly the best thing about traveling that I've experienced. When I first started off, I didn't think I would actually make good, life-long friends. I assumed I would stay mostly solo, but I apparently have some social skills! Who knew?! Without my people, this experience wouldn't be the same. Now I have friends and coworkers I can message and visit all over the world. The only shitty part is having to leave them after getting so comfortable and adopting them as family. I've tried holding back tears and it hasn't really worked.
On my last official night out, me and a friend Michael, we're having one last big hurrah. It was great getting people together one last time. However, I struggled to keep it together at the end. Kyle left to go home, and after the hugs, we watched him walk away. He had quickly become my new best friend over the passed month and now I was leaving him. I turned to Michael and after seeing the look in his eyes, I lost it. We were both tearing up and I didn't expect it to hit me so much. Some of the others made fun, but I didn't care.
My flight wasn't until the following evening, so I made plans to meet people at the pier after work. They insisted I have one last drink with them and I obliged. Luckily, Kyle was sweet enough to offer me a ride to the airport, so I got to spend a little bit more time with him and the others. I even managed to see the guys working on our second day boat before leaving. Quite a few more hugs and I was feeling the love. It felt especially good now that I was almost over my sickness I'd had for about the passed month. With that, it was time for my departure. Kyle joked that I still had time to miss my flight. If I wouldn't have been leaving to meet up with another friend, I would have greatly considered it. After saying the fifth goodbye to him in so but two days, I was determined not to cry this time... At least not yet. Nope, that would come on my middle flight from Darwin to Singapore. I was doing alright, but started to feel really alone and isolated from everyone. I tried listening to some new music I got from some of my dive family. One song in particular, Nota de Amor, I got from Christian, our Chilean instructor who I completed my open water assist with. It's one of those songs that I have a memory associated with. When I hear it, it takes me back to us dancing on the dive deck. It made me extremely happy and sad at the same time. I put it on replay a couple of times and smiled as I tried to hold back tears. I am in serious need of some hugs and cuddles.
I have no idea where this next chapter will lead. Chris and I plan on doing out instructor course in the Philippines and I guess try and find work afterward. Hopefully I can still hit up Europe taking the long way home and visit my German friends. Then, home for summer and work, then calling up everyone come September and traveling and working with them again.

best,

Back in Cairns!!!

meriadoc262 — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:03:00 GMT

So, I know I said that I would catch back up on this upon my return to Oz, but I've been quite busy with my traineeship and just now have had the time to finally sit down and recap a bit of the last few weeks.

First things first, I am back in Cairns!!! Hooray!! I spent the first week or so catching up with some friends from before who were still in town. Many of them were on their way out, so the timing was perfect. I managed to find a house to stay in for a bit and started getting the rest of my stuff sorted. I went to the dive shop almost straight away to organize my traineeship start as well as time to do my rescue diver course. I had about a week to hang out before courses started. A few days of it were nice, but after too long, I just wanted to get back into diving and work.

The rescue course was great!! It was probably the hardest course I have ever done. It was also the best. I feel heaps more confident in the water and feel like I could really contribute in an emergency situation. It was exhausting though. We were told that the first day would be a bit easier, getting acquainted with the boat and doing a few drills, then the next day was supposed to be the hardest with the last day giving us a great feeling of accomplishment.
It was a bit different for me. The first day was by far the most physically difficult for me. We started with getting a boat induction, explaining all emergency procedures, knowing where all the emergency equipment is and so on. After that, we had to grab our fins, mask and snorkel and do drills gearing up as fast as we could and jumping off the bow, swimming to the back deck and repeating over and over until we could successfully gear up in under 10 seconds. After that, the drills started.

They let everyone on the boat know that a rescue course was going on, so that no one would be alarmed. We also don't yell "help" for our emergencies, we yell "pizza! pizza!" When we heard this, we had to grab out gear, a floatation device (usually a ring or BCD) and book our asses to the bow where we had to assess the situation and take charge. The first few times, I jumped in as lead rescuer. This is where I got drained. The other trainees got to play victims for us. The first victim we rescued, our friend Roy, did an amazing job panicking. He was apparently told to do whatever he wanted and that's what he did. Even once we got him in a safe position and talked to him to calm him down, he wouldn't calm down. He kept struggling the whole time. There was one drill where he was off the port side about mid boat and because of the current he drifted quite far from the boat. Next he went unconscious in the drill, so after doing rescue breaths and drifting even further away, our instructor yelled at us to just get in as fast as possible. There was a lot of yelling, but it helped to put us in the right direction.

The second day, people went a bit easier on us. They would stop panicking when we talked to them and calmed them down and climbed back into the boat on their own. That's not to say it was super easy. Often times two would be in the water pretending to be siblings and as soon as one would be back on the boat s/he would jump back in after the other one. We did a couple of back to back drills as well. We did a few underwater panicking drills and then I was made to be unconscious while the other girls brought me back to the boat. I wasn't yet on board, and they informed us that our instructor was missing. Shit. I couldn't do anything yet as I wasn't safely on the boat. Once they revived me. I took off as a snorkel team. We found him hanging onto the front mooring line. Me and the other trainee dove down a few times to calm him, and he told us not to do that afterwards, otherwise he would have pulled off out masks. He eventually came up, continued panicking and I settled him down before our divers made it over. We had recaps after every drill talking about what we did well and what needs improvement. I expected it to be a little bit harder, but I think he was going a bit easier on us. Honestly, the hardest bit was waiting for something to happen. The second morning I almost threw up after breakfast because I was so worried and kept getting inside my head.

In the end, we all passed and passed out on the ride back home. One of the other girls and I tried to help find a missing drone right before we had to head back, but we were unsuccessful. I felt bad and we drifted quite a bit, but the other team didn't find it either. The worst bit was probably the fact that we had reverse profiled really badly all day. Whoops. After that dive I wasn't feeling too great. I started to get some sort of cold, sinus infection thing with a sore throat that was dampening my mood a bit. I spent the next two days before my first working shift sleeping and taking Benadryl and anything else I could find to try and make my sickness disappear. I was still sick for about a week and a half, but it was fine.

I spent my first shift working at our dive shop on Fitzroy Island. Here, we basically issue fins and masks and snorkels to guests, gear up any divers that go in the water, bring kayaks and paddle boards down to the beach and fill up scuba tanks. It's a pretty chill way to get eased into everything. I only spent one four day shifts here, then they bumped me to the day boat for three shifts. The day boat, Reefkist, is probably our hardest boat to work. It's very fast paced and you don't have much time to rest of even eat lunch. I had the great pleasure of having my first shift on the boat when we had really windy weather, about 25 knot winds. This meant I was on puke duty on the back deck. The first day I even threw up a little, and I normally don't get sea sick. Luckily for me though, I can just use the sick bag, toss it and I'm good to go helping others. I don't feel like crap after.

A typical day on the boat starts with us gearing up all our tanks we will need for the day and checking the cylinders. We prep the galley with tea, coffee, biscuits and water for the guests. We get wet suits, masks, snorkels and fins set up and start a head count as we board. We collect paperwork from the snorkelers, intro divers and certified divers then leave port. We make a stop at Fitzroy Island to drop off any crew and passengers and pick up any passengers coming out with us. After that, it's an hour out to meet our liveaboard boat, Kangaroo Explorer.

Once we're moored up to KE, we transfer our passengers over that our staying the night, bring over any stores, get some more tanks and get our lunch. Then we head to the first dive site. Once here, we each have our own responsibilities. Someone does a snorkel briefing and will be guiding in the water for the first session, another person is on lookout and another usually helps on on deck and with lunch set up. If we have a lot of us on, we often get the chance to go diving. The first session lasts about 2 hours. After this, we have lunch and head to the second dive site where we basically do it all again. The lookout and snorkel guide swap positions though. Often times we moor back up to KE and dive/snorkel at their site. This helps because at the end of the session, we give back their dishes and they give us their dirty laundry, extra tanks we'll need and their passengers. Then it's back home. We clean up gear, do stock take and check over our gear on the way back. We stop at Fitzroy Island again and then go home. Once back in port, we clean the boat. Often times we end up work 12 hour days. Longer if we have to refuel, because we have to be at the boat at 5:40.

It can get really crazy if we have a lot of intro divers and certs with changing gear and what not, but it's nothing that a beer after work with the gang can't solve. We've met some really cool people on the boat as well. The other day we had the production manager and merch coordinator from Fleetwood Mac on the boat as well as Mick Fleetwood's guitar tech. They were super cool guys and I ended up chatting with them most of the way back to Fitzroy where we picked them up.
Often times we all hangout after work for a beer and to chill out. It's a lot of fun and you get a good friend base just with the other trainees. It's great meeting people from all over the world. It sounds like a lot of us will be trying to find work around Thailand or Indonesia or the Philippines when we're done. We might end up having mini little reunions with each other as we travel, it will be great fun. Hopefully after getting a little experience as a divemaster in Southeast Asia and after working our summer season at home, I can go on to get my instructor license and spent 9 months out of the year traveling and teaching diving. That's the pseudo plan for now. So, until next time chickens, have a good day and peace on the reef!!

Cheers,
-C

Homecoming

meriadoc262 — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 02:06:00 GMT

To say I've adjusted to being back "home" wouldn't be 100% truthful. I've started to get things squared away and started to get back into the groove of work, even if it is just temporary for 3 months. It is definitely weird being back. I'm having a bit of reverse culture shock. I miss having GST included in everything, I miss half flush toilets, I really miss hearing a large diversity of accents, I even miss not having a tv so I can be forced to meet people and do things. I really do miss my home in Cairns and all my friends back there as well as those that have already returned to their home countries. Some of us have plans to get together for a reunion at some point in the future, but we will have to see how it pans out.

Reflecting on my experience, it's strange to see how far I've come. I went from being over the moon excited to leave for Australia at the end of December, to having a complete breakdown upon arrival in Sydney since I didn't have a job right away and didn't know what I was doing. I even considered coming home early since I had no idea what I had just done to myself and my life. Luckily I got through that. Also, almost everyone I talked to went through the same experience. Looking for jobs and trying to figure everything out can be rough when you truly are on your own, but it's something you have to go through. Yes, it sucks balls when you're going through it, but you'll make it through and you'll be hella grateful that you stuck it out, I know I am.

I fell in love with Australia all over again. This time a little further north in Cairns. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, and I often have to hold my tongue when people say they were in Cairns for a week and that was too long. I love the city, the culture, the activities, the people, everything. I really do consider it one of my homes. Once I finally settled myself down and got to working, I really got into a groove. It took me about a month, but eventually I was even able to make some dear, close friends that I am supremely grateful for meeting. I honestly didn't think I would actually make close friends while abroad, I thought it would be strangers chatting to pass the time, but it was so much more than that. I learned to let my guard down more and just be the crazy version of myself from the start. Apparently I'm not quite as socially inept as I thought and I'm not as much of an introvert as I thought. Part of me is retreating right now, and I just hope I can get it back when I return. I'm sure I will. I want it all back. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was actually living life and not just plodding along. It didn't matter if I had a life plan mapped out, I was living for the moment and just doing what I liked and wanted. It was quite liberating.

I miss the fact that when you travel, the first question you normally get asked is "where are you from?" Not "what do you do?" or something along those lines. There have been times I've had hour long conversations with people only to leave and realize that we don't even know each others names. As the days went by, I was heaps better at randomly chatting up people and being genuine. Just on the ride to the airport, I had a nice conversation with the other passengers about diving while I was messaging three friends from the boat. It was fantastic, but felt a little sad since I had connected with loads of people over the last two weeks and now had to leave. Luckily, a few will still be around when I return.

Part of me feels a bit bad that I'm not overwhelmed with excitement and happiness about be back home. Honestly though, home doesn't feel the same. Or rather, it feels exactly the same while I'm the one who has changed and it's not quite home anymore. In fact, Cairns feels like my home and the three months I'm spending at home feels like a break and vacation from home - though I'm working heaps more on this portion of my "vacation". Basically, it just feels weird. Part of me desperately wants to tell all of my stories to people, but I know they really only want the cliff notes version before their eyes glaze over. I went through a lot of stuff and had a lot of experiences while their, and people back here at home only know bits and pieces, if they know anything at all. It was my friends abroad who helped my through the tough times and knew what I was going through and laughed with me along the way.

As far as future plans, I'm back home until early September working, then it's back to Cairns. I will start by doing a dive master traineeship and afterward, I may possibly stay on for an instructorship. I will have to sort things out with visas and what not, but I'll cross those bridges when I get to them. I can't wait until I get to go back and see my friends and continue diving and living in Cairns. Hopefully I will get to go to some other cool dive sites on my days off. The next step is to see if I can figure out how to get residency as quickly as possible, then I won't have to bother with silly visas anymore.

Since I will be working all summer, I won't be posting anything until I leave for Cairns again, or perhaps once I am back in Cairns. So, until then, have a great one and I'll see ya'll soon.

Cheer,
-Celina

Return to Cairns

meriadoc262 — Wed, 3 Jun 2015 15:41:00 GMT

After a long month and a half away, I'm finally back home in Cairns. She's still just as gorgeous as ever and actually has a few minor changes with different businesses opening up and what not. I didn't sleep much on my red eye flight from Perth, so when I landed at 4 am, I decided to walk the 8kms or so back to my hostel. I figured I'd get back in time to change for morning yoga and set my day right. It felt good to get back into the groove of working out again. Man, I've been away far too long. I even managed to scrounge up some free breakfast from the leftover bins. Hurrah! I got to talking with my girls before they started work then conversed with some of the other guests that were still there when I had left. I talked about getting my open water diving license and one of the guys mentioned a friend of his that owns a travel shop and can set people up with a volunteer program on the boat to get extra dives. I was sold.

I popped over to the shop, it's called Adventure Cairns and Beyond and Ezzy is the one who owns and runs it. She is amazing and so is the shop. If you need any tour booking and such in the area, or anywhere in Australia really, go see her, you won't be disappointed. I ended up settling on an advanced diver course with Cairns Dive Center, the same place I will do my dive master training with. It ended up working out perfectly. I would start my course on Monday, then go out on the boat Wednesday. I would finish my course on Saturday and go right into volunteering for 8 days. It left me with just over 2 days back in Cairns afterwards to get all my stuff ready to go home. I popped over to CDC afterwards to put down a deposit and talk about doing the traineeship when I come back in September. Everything is sorted!

Upon returning home, I chatted with the girls and got caught up on all the events and things that have happened since I've been gone. We all got ready to go to one of our friend's birthday parties that night and we hung out the whole night just chatting, eating and drinking. A good way to return home. We had mentioned common dishes from our home and decided to have a go at making them for each other. I was on first shift and was going to make tater tot hotdish. I just needed to get the fixing the next morning.

I got a little more sleep and started off on my hotdish making adventure. I ended up finishing it just in time for lunch and everyone enjoyed and ate it up. Success! I did a little shopping with the girls in town just wandering around and we chatted the whole time. By the time we got back home though, we were wrecked. A nap was in order and I forced myself awake afterward to go to Woolshed one last time before I left. It wasn't very busy this night, so after a couple of hours, we left, got our kebab, and went home. The battery on the lock to the hostel was dead, so I had to jump the fence to let us in. A couple of our friends were still up, it was about 1:30. I ended up staying up passed 5 talking to them, they had been here before I left earlier, and we had a lot in common as far as our degrees and interests, so it was great to catch up and just talk with them.

I briefly slept in the next day and got some stuff done in town. I started organizing my stuff for my course and time on the boat. It didn't take long for the lack of sleep to catch up with me, so I eventually knocked off to bed. I actually ended up falling asleep while reading, so I was really wrecked.

The next day I started my theory courses in the pool, and it was amazing! Our instructor, Ethan, is a hilarious Aussie that keeps everything entertaining. We have a pretty good group of people from all over the place. Germany, Canada, USA, Holland, and China. It's true when they say diving is easier than snorkeling. The hardest thing I had to do was at the start, but on my gear and sit down in the shallow end and breathe without a mask, or plugging your nose using the reg. I struggled a little bit because my buoyancy wasn't good, so I kept popping back up to the surface. After probably less than five minutes, we were all sorted and ready to move on. We had some great kebabs for lunch - the guy makes his own humus and sauces and hand raises the lamb and chicken that he uses. The next day was just as great and we got to spend most of it in the pool this time working on getting out buoyancy down. We ended up going a bit late, so we all ran back to our homes as quickly as we could so that we could make it to Reef Teach, a little 2 hour or so interactive talk about the reef and the marine life and what not. We were told about it on our first day of theory and a few of us decided to go. It was very much worth it, and you learn a lot from the people there. We had Gareth, a crazy South African give us the information and you can tell that he really loves what he does. Afterward, I went back home and hung out with my friends for a bit. I had a really early wake up call the next morning to get out to the boat, so I went to bed relatively early and made sure to say goodbye to the few people that were leaving in the next few days.

Early morning stop at the shop for some paperwork and it was time to go on the boat. Ethan was sick and still not any better, so he wasn't able to come out with us, so we got passed over to another instructor, Nick. It's crazy the personality difference. Nick is very calm, cool, and collected, much different from the crazy, out-there Ethan. We popped onto the day boat, Reefkist, and made our way to rendezvous with Kangaroo Explorer, the live board boat. I was starving when I boarded and had heaps of fruit and coffee to keep myself going. I explored the vessel a bit and even met a father and daughter from Minnesota. I was so excited and didn't really shut up the whole time. When lunch finally came, I totally over ate. I may have to drop a weight off my weight belt by the time I'm done! We had a couple of our training dives later and each time I noticed myself getting better and better and having more control. I love it! I had a nice little private room all to myself as well, so that was great. We all ended up staying up pretty late though, just talking and sitting on the moondeck watching the the sky and catching a few shooting starts.

The next day was the first 5:30 am wake up call for our morning dive. We ended up getting in 4 dives that day and a snorkel. It was great. We saw a big moray eel while snorkeling and followed it to a turtle. I do wish I had my own gear though. I can't wait to get it and come back! After our afternoon dives, we were all officially open water certified! Yay! I had some homework to do for my advanced course, so I tried to get that done. I actually ended up falling asleep while doing it and woke up around 1 am to finish. We got to do a boat drop as one of our advanced courses which was nice because we had been on the same reef for awhile due to some bad weather coming in. I heard word that CDC is restarting an instructorship as well... I may have to apply for another visa when I come back in the fall, because being an instructor would be amazing. We'll see. Most of our open water people left, and I got swapped over to volly duties so now I'm getting in with my boat crew family.

I absolutely love being on the boat. The people are amazing, funny and great and you get some amazing food while being able to dive 3 times a day. I managed to stay in my own room for awhile before moving down to the crew cabins with the smelly boys, but it's okay. I think the morning dives are my favorites. It's a good time to see sharks as well, and when we finally moved from the East Timor dive site, I saw 3 sharks in one go on a morning dive. By about my 20th dive I was able to get myself neutrally buoyant in no time. Turtles, lion fish, christmas tree worms, sharks, trigger fish, and so much more. Even if you "don't see anything" on a dive, it's still a good dive in my book.

Toward the end of my time doing volly work, we had a group of new trainees coming in to do their rescue course, so it was fun to watch the different scenarios they had to do. It's pretty cool, because some of those guys will probably still be here when I come back in September. We will have a little mini reunion and welcome new members to the family. I didn't really want to leave the boat on my last day, but there were a few others that were getting off with me, so we would be able to hang out once back on land.

I didn't really have any trouble on land which was surprising. We all decided to hop over to Woolshed for a beer after work and to see off some of the other passengers. The crew showed up about 45 minutes after us. I got my deposit back from CDC, so I had more than enough to pay for the night. More of the crew showed up and we had a blast drinking, bullshitting and cavorting. We decided to break for showers and a change and meet back up at 8. I hadn't had dinner yet, and was 2 ciders down at this point and was feeling it. I went back home to the hostel and chatted with the girls for about an hour before I made a quick change and headed back out to see the crew.

Most of us rocked back up shortly after 8:30 and after awhile went upstairs. It was ladies night so we got free champagne and cocktails all night. The boys also bought some whiskey cokes and I'm sure there was a shot of fireball in there somewhere. My glasses got busted all to hell again. The lens popped out, the frame broke again, and another part of the frame got bent. I just stashed them in my pocket for the night and decided to deal with it in the morning when I was sober. We decided to make the move to Gilligan's. I had never been before, so it seemed like a good idea, though I had to focus. My friends thought I may have been too drunk to get in, but we didn't have to worry. It was all good. It was quite busy, especially for a Sunday night. I think it was around 2 when we finally decided to call it a night. I was lucky I didn't have to get up to work the next morning, one of the guys still did and I felt really bad for him.

I didn't sleep in too much the next day unfortunately, and I'm pretty sure it took me until about 2 pm to completely sober up. I hung out with the girls and we went out for a drink at Salt House that night. We were quite tame about it, thankfully, and got to bed early. It was great to get some good sleep. It's weird to think that tomorrow I'll be starting my long journey back home. It hasn't hit me as hard as when I first left Cairns, but perhaps I'm still in denial. One last hurrah tonight before I leave. I'll make sure to do a post mortem when I get home. Until then, see you guys soon.

Cheers,
Celina

Finishing Auckland and Perth

meriadoc262 — Thu, 14 May 2015 14:03:00 GMT

Sorry this one took a little bit to get out. I wanted to put it out after I had finished up my stay in Perth. Not like any of you are waiting with baited breath to hear what I've been doing. Trust me, it's not that interesting. Anyway... I finished up my time in Auckland nicely. I felt totally out of shape again as I hiked through the Domain and up Mount Eden. Since I'm trying to live on the cheap, I had my delicious lunch of one giant carrot while sitting on a lookout perch near the middle of Mount Eden. There were some spectacular views of Auckland and all the smaller islands. It was a nice place to just sit, relax, and take in the sights. After finishing my lunch, I finished climbing to the top of Mount Eden. The crater was quite large, and was just barely able to fit in the frame of a photo. I was able to get some great views of the islands on the opposite side as well. I decided to be a bit adventurous and wander around for bit. I went along some of the suburb areas for a bit and then as I was getting tired, I decided to retire back to the hostel. After doing a trial package of my stuffs, I decided to check and see if there was any live music going on somewhere.

I tried for Danny Doolan's again but it looked like they weren't playing. I picked up a free travel magazine instead and headed back to the hostel. Once there, I checked out a poster that showed a club just down the road that gave backpackers free entry, one free drink, and a free raffle ticket upon entry. I decided to try it out. Granted it would have been a bit of a waste if I won any of the prizes (unless it was alcohol) since I was leaving the next day, it was worth being around people. I got my free drink (it was a choice of beer or a vodka drink, I opted for vodka cranberry and pretended it was Malibu). I nursed my drink for quite awhile and sat alone for a bit. Some random people joined at my table after awhile and eventually they added me in their conversation. One girl was from Hong Kong, a guy from Portugal I think and another who was born in Brooklyn but had a thick Spanish accent. Brooklyn was delighted when he learned I was from Minnesota and went off about Marshal from 'How I Met Your Mother' and how much he loved Minnesota. I could tell he had a few drinks in him at this point, and I doubted that he had ever actually been there, but I went with it anyway. More people were gathering inside for the raffle, so it was getting harder to hear, but it was nice to have someone to talk to even if it was a bit of a strange conversation. The raffle came and I did not win anything. They had a DJ on after, but I wasn't keen on staying, so I knocked off back to my hostel. I figured I'd try and get some good sleep before all my plane and train adventures again.

In the morning, I checked out of the hostel and stored my packs for the morning and afternoon. I found a free walking tour and decided it was a good way to kill 3 hours. They were filming bits of it for what I can only imagine is some sort of promotional video stuff for the city, so who knows, I might be on some Auckland city promo videos. Look out for it! Our guide was quite good, he was actually a Spaniard, but he'd been Auckland for awhile. Highlights from the tour that I remember, the Maori name for Auckland translated to 'the city of a thousand lovers'. Back when sailors were going back and forth, some people established brothels for the men, but due to strict curfews, the owners would often lock the sailors in the basements at night and then send them on their ships in the morning. Housing prices in Auckland are ridiculous right now too. At least to me. The average cost of a house in Auckland is about $600,000. That seems incredibly steep to me. I don't think I'll be immigrating here! On the plus side, if you get your residency, you can go to the University for only $7,000 a year. Pretty good, and a bit tempting. We got to see a lot of the marina and wharfs. They had a lot of maps of the evolution of the city over the years. They are trying to push public transportation and are working on developing their rail/subway system, but it's a few years off even though they have the lines painted down for it.

After the tour, it was airport time. I was more excited than I probably should have been to see what dinner I would get served on my flight. Man, I really do love Qantas, they treat you right. Since this was my longer flight, I kept myself entertained with a few movies so that I could fall asleep once I got to Melbourne. I watch 'Song One' and 'Still Alice'. Both dramas and more independent type features and both good in their own rights. I couldn't help but draw certain parallels in my own life from them, as you do. I nicked a blanket from the plane so that I could be a little bit warmer while sleeping in the airport. The airport was fairly dead at this time of night, it was almost midnight. I had done a little bit of research to find a nice place to get some shut eye, but it seemed like all the soft benches were already claimed. I settled for the bench at Krispy Kremes. I was hoping to get some sleep, but it didn't really happen. By the time I thought I should go to sleep, my brain decided to have about twelve different things pop up that it wasn't to take care of right then and now. I must have spent three hours or so going over possible grad school possibilities and another hour or so trying to figure out all of the stupid responsible adult stuff I needed to take care of when I get home. I did manage to get about 20 minutes of sleep at a coffee shop counter as I charged my phone. However, I was rudely interrupted from my half awake, half asleep limbo from a text notifying me that my flight was on time. Before too long, I was actually able to check in for my flight which I did and I was the first one at the terminal. I continued entertaining myself until we boarded.

The flight from Melbourne to Adelaide is one of my favorites, because it's so short. It seems like you just get to cruising altitude, you get your meal, and then it's time to land. I had awhile before my train departed, since it didn't leave until 9 at night, so I took a somewhat round about way to get there so I could pass by Coles for some food to take with me. I didn't feel like lugging my packs around anywhere else, so I headed to the train station well before departure. I ended up messaging a girl I met back in Darwin who was asking about my Uluru tour. Once in the train terminal, the two guys I met on the ride down from Darwin showed up. We got to chatting again. They both have much more travel experience under their belts. That's okay though, they also have quite a few years on me as well.

Eventually it was time to board and I was ecstatic to finally get some sleep, even if I did have to wake up every couple of hours to reposition.
The train ride was rather uneventful. We made a stop at Cook, population: 4. And I thought Fort Ripley was small! We just walked around for about 20 minutes to stretch our legs then got back on the train. It was a lot of reading, writing, and listening to Stuff You Should Know. I was starting to get restless again. I know I peg myself as an introvert, but I need to talk to people. If I'm left alone by myself for too long I start to go stir crazy. Maybe that's one of the reasons I talk to myself. We passed through an even smaller town called Forest with a population of 2. We did see some camels along the train, I didn't get very good pictures of them, but they were neat to see in the wild. After another sleep, it was a few more hours until we got into Perth. Once at the train station, I hoofed it to my hostel. Wow, do I know how to pick them. This one is by far, the worst hostel I've stayed at, however, it is the cheapest. I had to wait about an hour to check in which was fine. They had booked my room I was staying in so they had to move me. Fine, whatever. I am unable to connect to their free wifi. There was supposed to be a BBQ the night I got in, but there wasn't any. It was too late for me to get any food and the last time I ate was at about 10 am. Luckily someone left some frozen vegetables in the free fridge that I ate up. Yup, eating other's free food leftovers, this is me. I was partially jet lagged since I was 4 hours behind Auckland time and 2 hours behind Cairns time. I crashed pretty early and was awaiting the free breakfast in the morning.

Either I heard the receptionist wrong or something is screwy, cuz there was no free breakfast this morning. Strange, especially considering on their website they said that they were not only supposed to have free continental breakfast, but they would have free pancakes on Sunday. After waiting over 2 hours, I couldn't take it any more, I decided to hit up Woolies and then bum around and listen to some live music. I made sure to get extra snacks incase I was to be gypped out of breakfast the rest of the week. I wandered around Northbridge for a short while and ended up at the Piazza for free music. They had two bluesy acts that were both good and they supplied you with bean bags. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky. I almost fell asleep there, but I knew I needed to get back to the hostel to drop off my food before heading back out to listen to some more music.

I tried to heal myself as well. I had pulled my trapezius muscle yet again. It was the third time in a week. First when I got off the train in Adelaide, then my first full day In Auckland and now here again. This time wasn't as bad as in Auckland, but it was still painful. For those of you that have never experienced it, it's kind of like being stabbed and constricted by a python at the same time. My whole chest and upper back hurt and it went so far as the making my jaw and top of my mouth hurt. I actually did a search when I was in Auckland and felt like I was dying and Google or whatever I used was all like "dude, you need to call an ambulance right now!" I was all, "I don't have time for this even though I feel like I'm dying. You probably think I'm having a heart attack instead." After all, what could a doctor really do for a pulled muscle other than tell me to rest and prescribe some pain killers and exercises. I'm pretty sure it's just from inactivity. Every time it's acted up had been after either siting on the train, sitting in bed, or sleeping. I'm hoping getting back on my workout regimen in Cairns will help and make it go away.

On Monday I decided to put my feet and shoes to the test. I wandered over to Kings Park and the Botanical Gardens for some meandering and photo ops. The park is quite large and I must have spent over 2 hours wandering around. In the early afternoon I had to push on if I was going to make it to Cottesloe to watch the sunset on the Indian Ocean. Over 12 kilometers one way to get there, and I walked all of them and probably a bit more due to my aimless wandering in the gardens. I made it to the beach a couple of hours before sunset so I took the time to dip my toes into the cold ocean and have a nice read. I was delighted to watch the sun set over the ocean. It felt a bit full circle for me as well. I've seen the sunrise from Australia's most easterly point, Byron Bay, and now, almost five years later, I have seen it set on the west coast. After the sun had disappeared, it was time for the long walk home. It only took about two and a half hours or so, and I did manage to destroy another pair of socks, but it was worth it, and incredible view. It seemed like it'd been a long time since I hung out on a beach, however, I did for a bit while in Auckland, so it hasn't even been a week. I made it back to the hostel and was wiped out. I met a German guy who is staying in my room, he said he used to work here at the hostel and it used to be much worse. Oi! I didn't think it could get much worse. We even have mice eating our food and you're lucky to have toilet paper in the stalls. There's just sort of a communal vibe that the place is shit and so no one cares about anything. Hooray.

The next day I wandered around Northbridge some more along with the CBD. Nothing too spectacular happened, I did try and get some of my tax stuff situated for here in Oz since I was contacted by one of the companies to file for an early refund. I was semi social in that I read my book out in the lounge area. I was tempted to go out earlier when I heard them watching 'Wipeout', but by the time I got out there it had changed to sport. Eventually it even went to baseball and it didn't seem like people were too keen on watching, yet no one changed the channel. There was a club a little ways from the hostel that had a free BBQ night where you would get a sausage and free beer upon arrival. I went with a group of girls from the hostel, French and Italian, and we were the first ones in line. We were also the only ones in the place. It was completely dead. The beer was crap and the sausage was ok. The music was teetering on the verge of decent. They did play some Prince, so they had me going for a bit. As soon as we got out free drink and meal, we left. Good thing too, I didn't want to stay there any longer than I had to. It was back to the hostel for snoozages.

On Wednesday I went on the saddest, most awkward and embarrassing walking tour ever. I was the only one on it. It was just me and the guide for over two hours. It was a bit painful at times. I did see some different parts of the city though, and went down near the waterfront and other areas in the CBD that I hadn't explored before. I even had time to sneak by the art gallery afterwards to check out their installations. I made it back to the hostel quick to relax before heading out to Mustang bar for $5 BBQ (and actual good BBQ with a proper burger, salads and a decent beer) and to listen to the live band, PUMP.

As a side note, I've discovered that Everclear and I have sort of been chasing each other around the past few weeks. They were in Auckland the day before I got there. They were in Adelaide the day or day after I arrived for the train and now they are in Perth the day that I leave. I wonder if they have the same guitar tech and road manager that they had when we worked with them two years ago, I could have said hi. Anyway, I'll knock off here. I'm so freaking excited to go back home to Cairns, you guys have no idea!!!

Hugs,
-Celina

Trains, Planes, and Kiwis

meriadoc262 — Mon, 4 May 2015 20:34:00 GMT

This week was a lot of travel, and by travel I mean sitting on planes and trains. I finally shoved off from Darwin. Probably some of the most productive stuff I did there was darken my tan. After a snafu with my hostel booking where they didn't add my last night, I chilled out with some people at the pool bar and called it an early night so that I could catch the shuttle to the train in the morning.

There was a guy from San Francisco and one from Germany waiting for the shuttle who had bumped into each other before and the three of us got to chatting. We were all going all the way down to Adelaide, and we were all actually taking the train to Perth the following week, so I will probably see them in a few days assuming their plans don't change, it'll be interesting to see what they got up to over the week.

I've gotten smarter on my train rides and took about 3 books from the hostel book exchange to read, as well as loaded up a bunch of Stuff You Should Know podcasts so I can get smarter. The only problem with the latter is that if I listen when I'm tired, I always fall asleep cuz Josh and Chuck's voices are just so soothing. Leaving Darwin we made a pit stop in Katherine for a few hours again. Gave me time to charge my phone and get some reading done. Then it was back on the train to head to Alice. We wouldn't get there until the next morning, so we all got to have a nice snooze. It's actually not that bad sleeping on the train. We may not have nice beds or anything, but we have more room than you do on a plane, so that helps. In Alice we had another stop for a few hours, so this time I chatted up people back home for a bit and it made the time go by much faster than it did in Katherine.

After our stop, it was a long ride to Adelaide. I decided to brave the train showers, and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be to remain vertical. We made a brief stop just after nightfall so we could look at the night stars and stretch our legs. You can see the Milky Way very clearly down here. You can see it better in places like Uluru, just because there's less light around, but it's pretty cool anywhere down here where you see it. After a sleep at night, we got into Adelaide around noon the following day. I grabbed my bags and made the trek to the airport. I had to take a moment to toss out some of my liquids since I'd be flying international this point, but once that was done, I braced through security and made a bee line for Hungry Jacks for some actual food. At this point I was being sustained by peanut butter and wheat bix, that was all I had had to eat for the passed two days on the train. It was incredible to get something with a bit more nutritional value in my stomach. The box of salted caramel Tim Tams that I ate afterwards were also delicious.

I was getting a little worried since I was flying through Melbourne to go to Auckland and only have about 2 hours too transfer to my international Auckland flight once I landed. My flight to Melbourne ended up being delayed about 45 minutes. However, I was flying Qantas, so I got perks that I forgot about. Mainly, food. Nice lamb pie for dinner, rice crackers for snack, chocolate for dessert and wine to drink with my meal. The main down fall with this was that the flight to Melbourne is so short, just over an hour, that by the time I was maybe halfway through my dinner the crew got the call to prep for landing. I slammed the rest of my wine and hoped I wouldn't be too tipsy trying to go through customs and immigration. It didn't help that it was around midnight now too, so I was quite tired. We landed and I booked it as fast as I could to the international terminal. Luckily I had sorted my liquids out already, so I didn't have to deal with. The line for immigration was moving along fairly quickly, but I kept checking my watch. My plane was boarding in fifteen minutes. Great. I got through immigration fine and made it to my terminal about 5 minutes before I got called for boarding. Thankfully I had a few minutes to fill up my water bottle and empty my bladder.
The plane ride was fine. I didn't get much sleep. I watched about three quarters of 'Into The Woods' before I nodded off. I stuffed my face with their goody bag of snacks and tried to rouse myself when we landed so I could be somewhat coherent going through customs. Thankfully that went rather well. They did take my apple that I got on the plane, but nothing else. We got in about 5 am and I wasn't due to check into my hostel until noon. I found a seat in the terminal and managed to get in about an hour of sleep at some point. I eventually hopped the bus to my hostel.

I tossed my stuff in and started to take care of business. I needed to do laundry really badly, so I got change for that and ran out to get some food quickly. I texted my pal in town to see what was going on and I found an Irish pub called Danny Doolans (apparently a very end of the line type bar) with live music and ended up staying much longer than I thought I would - especially seeing as I had been up for almost 36 hours or so straight minus my little nap - but it was still relatively early, about midnight. I was meeting my friend the next day at 9:30, so I knew I needed sleep.

Luckily I passed out pretty quickly and my alarm went off too early. Not really, it just seemed like it to me. We pushed back out meeting time an hour, so I did get a little more sleep. I gathered up my day bag then went out so we could catch the ferry to Waiheke island where we were going around and doing wine tasting. The ferry over gave us some nice views of Auckland. It was a quick 40 minutes to the island. We hopped off and picked up a rental car. We went to Cable Bay winery first to do a tasting. Afterward, we drove in the wrong direction for a bit before righting ourselves and going to what would become my favorite spot, Man 'O' War. I had some really delicious Pinot Gris here and we ended up having two glasses each of our chosen wine and sitting on the beach catching up. I was already feeling the effects of the wine. It didn't help that I had only had a granola bar for breakfast. We met up at another winery with one of his friend for another drink and some olives as a snack before heading back to Cable Bay. We got to watch the sunset and chill out on bean bags while drinking more wine. After that glass, I was quite a bit passed my tipping point. We opened a bottle of red after that, of which I had some while munching on my banana chips and feeding them to the duck nearby who tried to nick my whole bag. The banana chips weren't enough to stop the churning in my stomach though. I was quite drunk. We had more people join us and were going to eat dinner in a bit, but they made the right decision to put me on the ferry back to Auckland. I set my head down and I swear it was only 5 minutes later that we were back in Auckland. Good thing they had guard rails for me. Double good that there was a Macca's on my way back to the hostel. A nice large Big Mac meal with strawberry shake would be just the thing to set me right. I don't think I've ever had any better tasting fries.

When I got back to my room, there were a few new people. There was a guy from Massachusetts that was from a town just outside of where my sister went to school, so we started talking a bit. Or rather, I talked a lot because that's what happens when I drink. It was actually quite early, maybe 9, but I needed to go to sleep to get up for my Hobbiton tour.

I was in and out of sleep, but made it to the bus for my Waitomo caves and Hobbiton tour. You couldn't take any photos in the glow worm caves, but they were really cool. It was like looking up at the night sky. The stalactites and stalagmites were all really neat and it reminded me a bit of going through the black hills in South Dakota. We got a yummy lunch and headed to Rotorua and Hobbiton. They had a nice little tour of Hobbiton for us and we even got to go into a few of the holes. We finished the tour at the Green Dragon Inn where we were treated to a beer or cider. They have a full time maintenance and gardening staff to take care of the place. We had a little bit of time at the gift shop before we rolled out and headed back to Auckland. There were a lot of great photo ops throughout the day and our guide was full of information, most of which I have forgotten.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Auckland. The plan is to visit Mount Eden and look out at the other volcanic cones then probably nip on over to the restaurant my friend works at to say hi and sample some of the fair. Who knows, maybe I'll end up back at Danny Doolan's before the night is over. After that, it's about a half day in Auckland before catching a red eye back to Melbourne, sleeping in the airport, then heading back to Adelaide to catch the train to Perth. I'll get a few days in Perth before flying back to Cairns! But now, it is time for sleep, and lots of it. Until next time people, have a good week!

Cheers,
-Celina

Darwin

meriadoc262 — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 13:42:00 GMT

I made it up to Darwin, and surprisingly, the train ride coming up wasn't that bad. I normally like train rides, but the one from Melbourne to Adelaide was a bit boring at points. I managed to get some good sleep on the train actually, and you get much more space than you would on a plane. I finished my book from the hostel way too quickly again, but I had some Stuff You Should Know podcasts to keep myself entertained.

It was back into the land of warmth and humidity when I got off the train. Darwin is further north than Cairns, so it's a little bit warmer here than my old home. It is very similar to Cairns in other respects as well. They have a little lagoon type area by the wharf for people to swim at, they have the Esplanade, a botanical gardens and an abundance of clubs, pubs, and bars catering to the backpacker culture. I didn't do much in the way of exploring my first day in. I only had the afternoon, so I tried to get myself settled. I have been booking so many different hostels along my journey that I have forgotten which one had which amenities. It's been awhile since I've had to pay for internet like at this hostel, and I had also gotten used to free breakfast, which is another thing not included here, but, at cheap rent, it's fine. Also, there is a Coles right across the road so I can easily get my sustenance. Instead of peanut butter and jellys, it's back to Wheat Bix and peanut butter and instant noodles. Living like a queen, right?

The next day, I basically took off down the road and wandered along. I made it to the Wharf precinct and got to check out some of the shopping areas and pool area. They have a wave pool area as well that people can chill out in. I haven't had much need for it since there is a pretty nice pool here at the hostel, and I'm too lazy to walk that far for a swim... yet I'll walk like 10 kms with no destination in sight. There is a small little Chinese Temple in town that was nice to visit. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was the middle of the week, so it didn't seem too out of the ordinary. I found myself at the library for a bit. It was nice and small and I discovered that they had music on in a few days, so I made a note to come back and visit it. Along the Esplanade is Bicentennial Park that goes along the coast line. There are many plaques and statues commemorating all the servicemen and women for their commitments. It was getting to be later afternoon and I thought I would try to make it to a free boxing class. I made it up the road to where I thought it was supposed to be held, but I didn't see anyone or anything set up, so I wandered down the path a bit and had a walk on the beach. The tide had come in when I finally turned around, so I had to scale some rocks up to the bridge to make my way back to the hostel. That was basically my big day of exploring around the area. The main part of Darwin seems smaller than Cairns, so you could get all your exploring done fairly quickly. At night, I managed to find a bar with some live music that was a literal 30 second walk from my hostel. It was an acoustic guy with a looper pedal and he was just mixing himself on a little mix wiz unit. I parked myself in the corner for the night. At one point a couple came in and the girl invited me to come sit with them. Apparently they were on their second date. They had met in Melbourne and decided to travel to Darwin for a week. Bold. It was interesting talking to them, I mainly talked about the production company and that stuff. After a bit, it seemed like I was this strange third wheel, so I took my leave. I ended up chatting up the bouncer a bit, who apparently is in a band, and then knocked off to bed.

The next day I made the trek to the Museum and Art Gallery of The Northern Territory. I ended up spending most of the day here. It was a bit of a smaller museum, which was nice for me. I was a bit overwhelmed by the one in Adelaide, so having a little bit of a smaller building was nice. They had a great exhibit on Cyclone Tracy. It devastated Darwin when it hit, and there were many personal anecdotes and photos from the wreckage and rebuild. They even had a small room to simulate what it sounded like when the cyclone hit. That was actually really scary. It's in a completely black maybe 2 meter by 2 meter room with just the audio playing. As soon as I went in, I immediately clutched my bag without realizing it. It was quite freaky. They even had a warning outside the door saying that survivors of the cyclone might be disturbed by the noise. They also had some art on display from local high school and college kids that was pretty cool. There were some great views of the ocean from up there as well. I wanted to listen to more music at night, so I went back to Wisdom for a bit, but also wanted to check out the club next door, Monsoons, because they had ladies night and were apparently going to have a drag show that night. I ended up going early to get my free champagne, but I wasn't going to sit around there alone for three hours waiting for the drag queens so I took care of some stuff at the hostel before heading back. It was a bit disappointing actually, I thought it would be a proper drag show, but they just paraded them out for one song then had the shirtless guys dance. A bit of a let down. Though I may be one of the only girls that gets disappointed when I have to watch shirtless men dance instead of drag queens. We have Priscilla to thank for that. The next day was pretty chill. There was going to be music at the library, so I headed over there. It was just an acoustic guy inside and it was mainly for kids, but it was nice to have something to listen to while I got some work done.

Saturday was ANZAC day. There weren't a lot of things going on for it, but they did have a parade that I managed to go see. It's sort of like memorial day or veteran's day back home. There were some cool fly overs with helicopters and jets. A lot of places were closed early for the day, but there were a ton of bars still open. I ended up getting to know the girls in my room. Two are from England, two from Germany, and the other one is from Canada. We all hung out by the pool in the afternoon and decided to go out together. We split ways halfway through the night, the German's deciding to go to the clubs and us deciding to go to an Irish bar with a live band. It was packed, a few people got thrown out, but the band was alright. We ended up chatting with some people. We had a few more drinks and sat outside for a bit chatting. This particular bar actually closed quite early by Australian standards, 2 am, so we took our leave and went for kebabs and pies. The kebabs are quite expensive here, much more so in Cairns, so I'm happy that I went for a pie instead. A Ned Kelly. It had bacon and egg and cheese in it as well. It was delicious. Our conversations got very strange. At one point we started talking about movies, especially Australian horror films, then we got on terrorism, 9/11, and the state of Aboriginals in Australia. You always find interesting things to talk about early in the morning. By 3 am we called it a night and returned to the hostel.

The next morning there wasn't much movement in our room until after noon. I kept constantly waking up, but I didn't make myself mobile until 12:30 or so. I don't remember the last time I've slept in that long. Especially considering when I would go out in Cairns I would get a few hours of sleep and then wake up for work, it was a bit of a switch. We all hung out again during the day and got our tan on in the pool. At night, I went with Amelia, the Canadian to Deckchair Cinema down by the water. We watched "God Help The Girl" and it was a decent movie. I got freaked out part way through because I saw a critter walk by my chair. I went to pet it thinking that it was small dog, then I realized it was a possum and thought better about it. We all called it an early night.

Today it's just been chilling by the pool and reading. Tomorrow is my last day in Darwin and I'm using it to pack up and figure out where to catch the bus back to the train station. I'm actually quite surprised that I'm not more homesick for Cairns since being here. I mean, I am still terribly homesick for it and am going back in about 2 and a half weeks, but I thought that Darwin being so close would make me hate the city and want to catch a plane back right now. Thankfully I've managed to enjoy Darwin a bit. I was able to get my flight for Auckland booked as well! That will be really fun. I'm catching up with an old college buddy who is taking me to an island for some wine tasting and I'll probably go see Hobbiton and check out the views. After that, it's a long train ride to Perth then a short plane ride to Cairns so I can see my friends, get my open water diving card, then go back home for the crazy summer season. It's going to be a lot of travel this week, but I'll let you kids know the highlights along the way.

Cheers,
-Celina

Alice Springs and Uluru Tour

meriadoc262 — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 10:48:00 GMT

So, I managed to get out of the cold in Adelaide to experience the warm in Alice for a few days before it went down to cooler temperatures just like in Adelaide. A couple days it was warmer back at home. My first impressions of Alice were not the best. Small town with not a whole lot to do. And I thought I was getting a bit bored in Adelaide! I decided to take a day off my first full day in Alice and just hang around the hostel organizing stuff and getting my tan on. It felt good to just hang out for a bit instead of rushing to the next thing.

The next day it was a 5 am start to get ready for my Uluru tour. Unfortunately I didn't get much sleep as I started talking to people back home and stayed up way passed midnight (wink) and finally got a few hours before go time. Luckily my hostel was able to store my extra bags and they had breakfast early so I was able to intake some nutrients before getting on the bus. It was a long drive to Uluru, about 6 hours with stops included. I managed to get in some rest between talks from Bez, our guide. However, it was not a good time to forget your headphones, as I did, but I survived... clearly. We got dropped off at our lunch site for a quick bagged meal before heading off to Uluru. We visited the cultural center first where we learned about the origin story of Uluru and some traditions and cultural idiosyncrasies. Then, it was a quick ride over to Uluru where we could walk to 10 kms around the base. It was a quite warm day, about 36 degrees, and the flies were out in full force as well. The flies are just as bad as everyone tells you. They're just annoying is all, and don't hurt you, but it's just tedious to constantly have to swat away at your face and body. It really is a giant rock in the middle of the desert. The contrast of red dirt and rock with green foliage and blue skies is quite beautiful, I was able to a few nice photos from the trek. Through the walk I was able to chat with a couple different people from our group. We had a family, a few solo travelers, some couples and friends all traveling in our group. When we finished the trek, it was hard to tell whether we got a tan of if it was just red dirt... it was mostly red dirt. We had ourselves some delicious snacks and headed to the viewing point to see the sunset over Uluru. We got more snacks and champers to enjoy the sight. The sun sets behind you and you can see the colors change on Uluru. It was very pretty. Next, we headed to our campsite for the night. We all helped out cooking dinner, chicken stir fry, and then got our swags out to sleep under the stars. I was exhausted from little sleep and wanted to crash around 7 before I even ate, but, then I started talking to some of the other people and ended up getting my second wind. It wasn't until after 10 that I finally climbed into my swag and it was way too hot, I don't think I even went in my sleeping bag until the middle of the night. The stars were amazing. You get a real good look at the Milky Way in the southern hemisphere. I finally managed to find the Southern Cross, it's smaller than I keep remembering, so I keep missing it. I always seem to think that it will be the size of Orion of something, but it's not.

After a quick nap overnight, it was time to get up early again to see the sunrise at Uluru. We weren't the first group there, but we did have some pretty good viewing spots. Once the sun was fully up, we got a look at Kata Tjuta and how the sun was playing on the domes, then it was off to Kata Tjuta for the Valley of The Winds walk. Thankfully it was open all day today as the heat was down. It was overcast and cooler, though our friends the flies were still out, but the wind helped keep them away. On tour, it seemed like each day got better and better. The terrain was much rougher for this hike, lots of loose rock to contend with, but we all made it. The rock formations were stunning and it was great to be able to walk in that place. That was all done in the morning. We made it back to our campsite for a lunch of burritos and then it was time to pack up and make the 3 hour drive to Kings Canyon where we would be spending the night at a different campsite. We made a pit stop for some fire wood. I was excited that I got the biggest piece, though I received many scratches, slivers and scrapes for my efforts. Also, I had made the mistake of wearing white shorts that day, not the best thing to wear whilst bush camping in the outback. We had actual tents at our new site, and most people slept in them, especially because it did start raining at one point, however, I wanted to sleep out under the stars again. We had time to decompress when we got to the site and after dinner, we had kept the fire going to roast marshmallows and chat each other up. I couldn't stay up nearly as late this time. I brought my swag onto the grass and snuggled up. I got some amazing sleep that night. I only woke up once and didn't even notice the dingo that strolled through camp, he didn't take my shoes, so I was happy with that.

The next day it was another early 5 am start to eat breakfast and catch the sunrise at Kings Canyon. I opted to do the long 3.5 hour hike. We first had to get up heart attack hill, yes, it's really called that, and yes, people have really died from heart attacks whilst climbing it. It was rough, but we all survived. We stopped at the top and watched the sun rise for a bit before Bez pushed us on. The terrain wasn't as rough at at Kata Tjuga, but it wasn't perfectly smooth either, a nice little challenge. Bez took us down to The Garden of Eden where we had a bit of a rest and even ate some apples. Yup, eating apples in The Garden of Eden. We didn't see any serpents though. That was quite a lovely place to just sit and rest. It was quite lush and green there as well, a complete contrast to the red sand and rock everywhere else. We kept on moving and once we got on top of the canyon more we could see the other formations and how they looked sort of like beehives and a lost city. We even got to take a picture of ourselves at Priscilla's crack! As soon as Bez asked if anyone had seen 'Priscilla', I immediately yelled "yes, yes, yes!" like a crazy person. If only I had a frock and some heels, that would have made for a great picture! Around noon, we finished and made our way back to the campsite for lunch. This time it was camel and beef burgers. Camel tastes alright, no too different from beef actually. We loaded our bags, rolled up our swags and got ready for the 6 hour journey back home. We stopped at a couple different road houses and one even had a baby joey there for us to pet. Some naps, an emu farm and a little bit of Stuff You Should Know, and we were back in Alice. It was perfect timing for me, because about a half hour after I got back we had a free BBQ. Granted it was nowhere near as elaborate as our Dreamtime BBQs, but hey, free food is free food. I took it graciously even though I was feeling mildly sick. Everyday on tour I ended up waking up with a sore throat, not good. I called it a night fairly early and knocked off to bed.

The next day was sick rest day for me. I managed to make a quick trip into town for juice and snacks then cracked into my Kangaroo Island honey that I was saving to help myself get along. It was basically a day in bed drinking tea, breakfast juice and eating honey and cinnamon while I watched some shoes and took a nap. I did feel better in the evening and even went into town to The Rock Bar where there is apparently live music every night starting about 8. It was full of quite a few people, but, though the band was set up, they weren't playing. After waiting over an hour, I finally called it quits and headed back to the hostel. Another fairly early bedtime after talking to my friends up in Cairns, seems like the excitement keeps on going there, I'm glad I've started to adjust my trip so as to get more time back up there with them.

That's it so far. One more full day in Alice then it's a 24 hour train ride up to Darwin where hopefully there will be a bit more happening, especially since I'm staying there over a week and don't have any tours booked as of right now. If anybody knows anything fun/cool to do in Perth, let me know so I can check it out. Until next time guys, keep on livin' the dream!

Cheers,
-Celina

Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

meriadoc262 — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 22:17:00 GMT

Adelaide kind of reminds me of an East coast college town. The museum and art gallery are nice. I had a good time traipsing around in there, especially on a rainy day. I got to explore the downtown area near Rundle Mall. It's got quite a few shops and basically everything you would need. The whole middle of it is a pedestrian walkway for about 5 blocks.

I think my friends up in Cairns have made it easier for me to start randomly chatting people up. I ended up hanging out with a Polish girl, Danish guy and a guy from Melbourne. We went to the Botanical Gardens for a guided tour that lasted about 2 hours. It was nice to hear some of the history of the place. They actually have a sort of competition with roses there. They plant a bunch of different ones, don't spray any insecticides or anything and the ones that pass the judging can be grown and sold in the area. They had some really pretty and aromatic ones growing.

There was a pool tournament at the hostel after the free BBQ and I was forced into it. Luckily I lost rather quickly so I didn't have to humiliate myself for too long. I ended up playing scorekeeper for the rest of the night which was where I should have been all along. The Polish girl I had been hanging out with during the day won a bottle of wine, so we broke into that after the tournament. It was a bit of a strange evening. I ended up braiding a Canadian guy's hair, a group of us had a rather spirited conversation about guns and I watched the last 20 minutes of Kill Bill and was thoroughly confused. My time working at the hostel kicked in as I started to clean up everyone's bottles since all the others had either gone to bed or passed out on the couches.

I caught the bus and ferry over to Kangaroo Island the following afternoon. I'm intrigued to see how the long train rides will treat me after the bus ride. I don't think I should be left to my own devices for too long. I have way too long to think and overthink. At least I should be able to get some good writing done on the train though. KI very much has an island feel. It's very chill and the people can be almost too relaxed at times. If you want anything done in a timely manner, don't get your hopes up. I had the good fortune to have a room to myself my first night. I got to put on some music and have solo karaoke night. I was also fed some food by some fellow guests. They had some pasta and sauce leftover and when they saw I was eating cup noodles, they took pity on me. Huzzah for free food! I actually slept really well here for the first time in a long time. It was very quiet and peaceful, it was a good thing I set my alarm, because even after getting 10 hours of sleep, I was prepared for more. I guess I'm still making up for lost sleep after my brief stint with alcoholism.

The next morning I got ready for my all day island tour. Our guide was very entertaining. He was a Kiwi but had been on KI for over 10 years now. He added his signature humor to pretty much everything. KI has 4,500 people living on it... and half a million kangaroos. There are only two chicken farms on the whole island, and they both have heaps of dogs protecting the chickens form predators like goannas, eagles and feral cats which are all a big problem. We passed a town called American River where the first American's to the island settled. They were actually the first to come to the island and they went for the seals, to get oil from them since it would burn for a long time. That's basically all the little historical anecdotes I have and can remember from the tour.

We went to Seal Bay first. It was mating season so the sea lions were quite active. We got to see quite a few males challenge each other. Nothing got too out of hand, but it was still neat to watch. You can only go on the beach in a tour and they are very strict about how close you can get to the sea lions. It was quite funny to watch them scratch themselves and hop along the sand. At one point, there was a group of them snuggled together and one of the larger ones raised his flipper and wrapped it around the one next to him. Who knew that sea lions were fans of spooning. I s'pose it helps keep them warm.

We were off to lunch next which was delicious. There was salad, coleslaw (with cilantro!), bean salad, and the best potato salad because it had corn and bacon added. We got some chicken and beef sausage as well. They had some pretty good coffee there as well. The water was actually really delicious because it was rain water. South Australia is the driest state in Australia so nearly everyone on KI has rain water catches. They also have a few dams on the island, but they're not like the dams that we have with the locks and everything, they're basically small freshwater ponds for the animals to drink out of, or, if there is a really bad drought, farmers and locals will hike up to them to get water for their homes.

Next it was off to the koala walk. They had flags marking the trees where the koalas were located. There was even one in the car park near the bus. Apparently they have to cull the koala population quite a bit because they just keep growing in numbers and killing all the gum trees. They apparently don't like the blue gum trees however and will actually starve themselves to death than go back to eating it. Not a very good outcome. It's a hard balance they have to strike, because most of the world thinks to the koalas as nice, cute and cuddly critters, but they can actually do quite a bit of damage to the trees in the area. We had the good fortune of spotting an echidna! My phone had decided to die right before hand, so I got a few shots with my GoPro. I got really excited and had the opening theme to 'Rescuers Down Under' playing in my head because there is a small section where an echidna scuttles across the bush.

We were off to the Remarkable Rocks next. These are basically rocks on a cliff that had been weathered and worn into neat shapes over the years. There were some great photo opps at that location. You could even go inside some of them which was really handy when it started to rain a little bit more. We were pretty short on time, so we popped from one location to the next. We went to Admirals Arch to see the New Zealand fur seals and the light house. The seals were going nuts in the water. Some were play fighting with each other and others were diving for food. Quite a few of them were even jumping out of the water, I assumed for fun. Apparently they are more family oriented than the sea lions. When out at sea, a big group of them will link flippers and form a giant raft so that they can have a rest after diving for all their food. Team work!

We got to drive through Flinders Chase National Park. There was quite a big fire that went through the park back in, I believe 2007. When we would come to the top of a hill, you could see all the dead tops of trees. Apparently it was a bit of a disaster because no one could agree who should be in charge of stopping the fires. The cops wanted to be top dogs, then the rangers at the park wanted to be in charge, and finally the fire squad, who should have been heading it up from the get go, finally came in. The fire was started by lightning strikes and it seemed to be well contained at first, but then the winds shifted and what was four small fires became one giant blaze tearing through the park. It took awhile for tourism to pick back up as well. KI is one of the few places where you can get 100% organic honey as well. I picked some up and they are the only place to have this certain kind of bees and only that one kind, so their honey is quite special. As night approached, we were dropped back off at the ferry and most people went back to the main land while I opted for another night on the island.
Again, it is a very quite place, so there wasn't much to do at night, other than read, write, and sleep. The next day, I explored the port city of Penneshaw which is where the ferry drops you off at. Public transportation is essentially nonexistent on the island, so I couldn't really stroll very far as the main attractions were a bit of a ways away. So, unfortunately, no sand boarding for me, oh well, you can't win them all. I did head down to the penguin center, though I didn't see any. Apparently they are mostly active at night, and at the same time, there aren't many around right now because the seals have been eating them. Whoops. I did spend over an hour walking on the beach though. I initially was just going for a stroll, but I started picking up seashells for souvenirs. There were quite a lot of varieties all in good condition. So, people, you may be getting some authentic KI seashells when I get back. There were quite a few photo opportunities and the sea is a very pretty color. It goes from the deep blue out in deep to the blue green as you get closer to land and finally a light teal to end. There were quite a few people out having picnics and such despite the rather strong winds. I managed to walk around town a little bit more before heading back to the ferry terminal - the only place where there was legitimate free wifi - to upload some photos I had taken. That evening I was able to catch my ferry and bus back to the hostel. I'm one for a chill lifestyle, but KI was a bit too relaxed for me, I prefer more things happening. I think that's why I enjoyed Cairns so much, it's chill and relaxed, but there's basically always something to do very close, even if it's just going for a walk or hanging out at the lagoon.

Back in Adelaide for a few more days. I finally did a tour of Haigh's chocolates. Bright and early at 9 am, because who doesn't want chocolate first thing in the morning? It was cool to see that they do everything by hand. Apparently they only do a certain job for 45 minutes max before they switch though. We got to see them coat and decorate some truffles and got to see some chocolates get a chocolate shower. They had some cocoa pods from different locations around the world for us to smell, and it's kinda crazy how distinct the aromas are. I resisted the urge to buy some chocolate at the end. It would all melt, assuming I didn't eat it all first. There were a few markets going on in town that I checked out, and I also took a nice walk to an op shop to see if I could find anything I liked. I explored the mall a bit more as well. I came upon a rather nice Kathmandu duffle bag that I nearly bought. I don't really need it, but it might be nicer and easier carrying a backpack and duffle instead of two backpacks. However, I did get my Kathmandu backpack I currently have for free, so, even though the duffle is on sale for like $40, I may have to give it a pass.

I finally found a gig guide to Adelaide online and found a band to listen to. They were called Frenzy. It was kind of funny, because I stopped by The Woolshed first (I needed to see how it compared to the one up in Cairns). I basically went in and then out at The Woolshed. It was much worse than the one in Cairns if that's possible. I'm sure it's because I went alone, and because I got hassled by a drunk guy after less than a minute in the place. I was out. I made my way over to P.J. O'Brien's to listen to the band. They weren't starting for awhile, a 10:30 start seemed really late to me. I had a delicious iced salted caramel drink at the chocolate shop next door to kill some time. I finished and still had some time before the band started, so I ordered a drink. When I was on KI I wanted a drink so bad. I did a throwback to Cairns and ordered a rum and coke. I almost immediately regretted it when I saw the bartender but Bundy rum in the drink. This is gonna taste bad. I thought. Sure enough, it did. I didn't realize how spoiled I had been on Sailor Jerry's and Bacardi. Never again will I order a rum and coke from a bar where Bundy is the rail rum. I'll stick with my ciders than you very much. I was excited to be at P.J's because it gave me my Cairns connection for the night. I stayed for two sets. The band was quite good. They played a good variety and even had some fairly new stuff. They were the first band I've heard do a Vance Joy tune. They were using an X32 board, and I talked to the sound engineer after the first break to check out the gear cuz I'm a nerd like that. I could only make it for two sets before I had to call it a night. 12:45 is a late night for me since leaving Cairns. I popped back to the hostel and grabbed my tablet. I needed to upload the videos and photos so that I could free up more space on my phone. I was delighted to receive messages from the girls up in Cairns. They were having a good night and we continued chatting until I had finished with my uploads and called it a night.

On Sunday I decided to check out a bike again and head to Glenelg. (I love that it's name is a palindrome). It was just as far away at Port Adelaide, about 15 kms one way. I packed my delicious lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and took off. Honestly, I don't know what my body's gonna do when it gets real food. I've been using the hostel's white bread for my sandwiches, and honestly, I feel like I'm getting the same nutritional value I would if I were to eat cardboard, but I digress. The ride was quite nice, about 40 minutes or so. I didn't get lost this time luckily. The town was quite cute. There was a guide dog event going on, so I got to see lots of dogs and even pet a few! There was also a volleyball competition going on that I watched part of. I basically wandered around aimlessly for awhile before eating lunch and eventually heading back to the hostel. I was beat. I attempted taking a nap while watching a movie, but it didn't really work. I started writing about half way through and haven't stopped since. That was at about 4 pm... it's now almost 10. So, yeah, I've done a shit ton of writing today, and hopefully it will pay off. With any luck, I can get heaps of sleep tonight before heading off to the airport tomorrow.

Oh, and once again my plans have changed. I will be giving Tassie a pass and visiting just Auckland in New Zealand. I will also spend my last two weeks back up in my home in Cairns. I can visit with my friends that will still be up there, get my open water certification and talk with dive shops about returning in the fall. I'm excited for all of that... and to be warm again. Well, that's basically it now kids. On my way to Alice now for some hot, dry heat and Uluru! It should be a wonderful adventure. See you all in a week.

Cheers,
-Celina

Melbourne, Adelaide, Easter

meriadoc262 — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 23:22:00 GMT

Well, it was a good thing I came into Melbourne during the comedy festival. I got to see quite a few free shows and have a few good laughs during my short stay here. I had a tour guide on my waterfalls tour that said that people tend to either prefer Melbourne or Sydney and usually it's whatever city they visit first. I would have to say that, though visiting Melbourne first (five years ago) I think I prefer Sydney. Though honestly, they're both a bit too big for me. However, I do love all the street art in Melbourne. There always something to do, though perhaps there are too many options. I guess it just depends on who you are. Anyway, onto what random, crazy stuff I did.

My first night in Melbourne, I got booked into my hostel, had some free tacos and headed to Adam Hills's new show 'Clown Heart' for opening night. I bought my ticket the day they went on sale, so I was in the third row, very close to stage. It was great to see him perform live! He tends to start off his shows bantering with the audience, and this was no different. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile, and it felt good, especially after the hard time I was having leaving my home in Cairns. My hostel was only a 2 minute walk from the venue, so I was able to fall into bed soon after... to be woken up by garbage trucks and the like early in the morning. I keep forgetting the sounds of the city. On the plus side, my room was very dark, so I got quite a bit of sleep, even if it was broken up throughout the night. I had managed to grab some food earlier in the day, so I am back on the diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yay! I think my stomach's gonna freak when it eats meat again. Thankfully due to the generosity of other backpackers, I got some noodles to eat during the week as well. That's right, I have no shame, I totally raid the free food bins. It's how I got an extra thing of peanut butter to use for snacking.

The next day was mainly taking care of business. I needed to get my rail pass sorted out and figure out, in part, the remainder of this part of my trip. I got slightly screwed on price, since, April Fools! they raised the price $50 the day I went in to buy. Oh well. I also ran into a snag because the train from Adelaide to Alice was full so I needed to find another way of getting there, which in this case meant flying. I was able to get a fairly cheap flight, however I keep getting my currencies mixed up and the flight was more expensive than I thought because it was in USD not AUD. Thus, I'm mixing stuff up a bit and having to adjust. At this point I figure I won't be going to Queenstown, just Auckland, and possibly won't be bungy jumping... unless I do it whilst back in Cairns. We shall see. Rail pass and train journeys booked, flight to Alice booked, hostel in Adelaide booked. I was feeling quite accomplished, so much, in fact, that I treated myself to some free comedy. This one was a Swiss woman who could do impressive bike tricks. The hostel had a free 3 hour walking tour on (though I didn't know it was 3 hours when I went on it) so that was a nice way to get reacquainted with the city... as well as get totally turned around and lost. Thankfully our guide knew exactly where she was going and got us back sage and sound. I took advantage of more free food at the hostel, (pasta night, yum!) and took the opportunity to see how my friends in Cairns and Bali were doing. All seemed to be going well for everyone, yay! I slept for quite awhile again, I think I'm trying to make up all the sleep I didn't get while I was drinking so much in Cairns.

More free food, this time, breakfast pancakes! It was a day of free. Free pancakes, free chocolate, free comedy and free video game playing. A short walk from the hostel is ACMI (The Australian Centre for the Moving Image) where there are free exhibits about, you guessed it, moving images. TV, film, video games, etc. In the gaming lab I was able to play a little Tomb Raider, some Super Mario Brothers, Sonic and even Little Big Planet. (The later I had never played before, so that was interesting). They had a lot of neat exhibits to check out for free. It was sort of like being back in one of my media studies classes... but in a good way. I caught some more free comedy, one group from South Korea in particular called 'ONGALS' was very funny. Mostly pantomiming and yelling, so, obviously it was funny. Again, more free food from the hostel, snackies and stuff, but I was able to save some cookies for later! We went passed too many chocolate and dessert shops on our tour, so I was desperately craving sugar. I called it an early night (again) since I had a morning train ride to catch.

I spent the whole next day essentially on the train to Adelaide. I shouldn't be allowed so much time to myself. After getting of the train, I realized I had only said about 20 words aloud to other people so far. That changed as I walked to my hostel since I started talking to myself. I was able to catch a nap on the train, and I finished an entire book with a few hours to spare, so I did manage to get a little bit of writing in. I was getting quite bored actually and just wanted someone to chat with. However, once arriving at the hostel, I was able to chat up some of my roommate. There is a pretty cool Canadian guy who I started talking to. I told him about all our music stuff and he talk about working on the oil rigs in Calgary. It was quite interesting. There was also a trio of boisterous Irish guys who were being quite particular about their attire for the evening. I didn't join anyone going out since I was so tired. It's a bit weird actually being cold again. I had grown accustomed to always being hot and sweaty. One of the really good things about living in the tropics, you rarely have to use lotion... I miss that.

Easter Sunday was a nice little day. I checked out a bike from the hostel (there is a free bike share program in Adelaide and you can rent a bike, lock and helmet free in exchange for your ID) and took a ride to Port Adelaide to check out the Fisherman Wharf Markets. It was supposed to be about a 15km ride one way... that is if you don't get lost and turned around, which I did, a few times. Regardless, I made it to my destination. The port was a cute little town and the market reminded me of some of the craft fairs back home. I didn't buy anything, but there was some neat stuff there. I happened upon some dolphin cruises and decided that $8 for a 2 hour cruise rise was a pretty good deal. Thankfully I had packed a lunch and was able to satiate myself before my expedition. The dolphins actually swam with the boat for awhile and I got a few good pictures of them. There were a few other boats along the way, and even a large liner from Hong Kong that was getting pushed around by tug boats. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Back on land, I grabbed my bike and headed back towards Adelaide. This time I had a better idea of where I was going, however, I was going straight into the wind, so, you know, that was super fun. I took a bit of a detour, and instead headed into the downtown area of Adelaide. Why? I had read that there was a bar called The Woolshed (yes, just like in Cairns) and I needed to find it, take a picture and send it to my pals. It was perfect timing, because right after my phone decided to die and I had to finish navigating myself back to the hostel. Quite easy with a map. I may be slightly directionally challenged, but give me a map and I'm golden. So, about 50km and 7.5 hours later and I was back. Shower, dinner, the end of 'American Beauty' and I was spent. I think I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. It'll be good for me though. The plan for tomorrow is to go to the zoo, however, seeing as it's supposed to rain, I might opt for indoor activities like museums and art galleries. Then, on Wednesday I go on my Kangaroo Island tour! I should get lots of pictures from that. Hopefully I can do some sand surfing too.

Well, I'm beat. I honestly don't know how I'm even still awake and writing this, but there you go. Have a good week everyone. I hope all your spring breaks and all that were enjoyable and that the weather is treating you nicer. Until next time, take care.

Cheers,
-Celina

Leaving Cairns :(

meriadoc262 — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:50:00 GMT

I apologize in advance that this may be a bit of a downer post. I have just left my home in Cairns for Melbourne. It's a bit of culture shock going from such a cute, quaint city to a large metropolis. The worst part was leaving my family of friends that I had developed. Sure, it was only 4 people I got really close with, but for me, that is quite significant. It normally takes me awhile to open up to people, but I was able to with them after about a month and a half and I am really grateful for that. The last few days have been rough though. Knowing that one of my good friends was leaving for Bali and that I was leaving for Melbourne the next day was hard. But I'll get to that, I'll talk about some of the happier details of my last week in Cairns. (Though not my last week ever in Cairns, I'm obviously going back).

I finally managed to do the Blue Arrow hike at the Botanical Gardens. It wasn't quite as hard as what I thought it would be and it didn't really take us that long either. About 5 and a half hours round trip, including the one and a half hours to walk there and back and stopping for lunch. It was a good little walk for us though. We even saw a goanna! He wasn't too sure about us though and climbed up a tree as we walked past. I did also manage to get some new ink before leaving Cairns. It's small and shop minimum around here is really expensive, about $100, but with the exchange rate it's not super bad... but still expensive.
A couple of my friends and I decided to take the day on Friday, get day drunk and walk around Cairns getting touristy pictures that we haven't taken yet. It was a blast. We even made a stop at the Woolshed for a couple of jugs of rum and coke. Some food at pie face and a little bit of a rest at the lagoon and our day was fantastic. That would have been a great day to have last forever, but it had to come to an end, as did our time together.

On Saturday, we went to our boss's house to make dreamcatchers. It was good to be crafty again and just hang with the girls. However, there was a moment during the afternoon where I all of a sudden just felt really sad, or scared, or something. It was like a switch had flipped. I think it was finally hitting me that I was really leaving Cairns. Really leaving my new family. It put a damper on the rest of the day for me, and actually left a bit of a cloud around me for the next few days. I had had such a good time in Cairns and actually connected with a great group of people, which I wasn't really sure would happen, and now I had to leave them all. Yes, change is good, but it's also hard.

I bought a going away present for our friend who was leaving for Bali. It was rum and coke. I think I was having trouble dealing with the departure, since I got much more drunk than I intended. Not the fun, talkative drunk, the need to be taken care of, singing into the toilet drunk. I felt terrible. Our last night hanging out and that was what happened to me. However, it did come a bit full circle considering out first night hanging out left me in a similar situation. I had to spend the night on our couch trying to set myself right. I don't think I really got any sleep and in the morning, I basically felt numb as we said out goodbyes. It's strange and terrible to grow so close with someone in such a short amount of time to have them go away and be unsure of when you'll see each other again. Knowing I was leaving the next day and would have to say goodbye to more people didn't make things easier. Packing up all my stuff wasn't fun. I needed a few moments to myself. That was kind of the crappy part, because I needed time to process, but I knew time with my friend family was limited.

On my last night, the girls were really sweet. They bought me a going away cheesecake and got me a card. I just about lost it then and there. It was going to be a long night. We sat in the courtyard drinking for a good while before heading out to the Salt House for cheap drinks. There was a bit of an argument that broke out there and it really put me off. I was already having an off night, being really quiet and retreating back into my shell. They could all see it as well. We decided to have one last night at the Woolshed for $8 jugs and then a nice kebab on the way home. Another argument broke out at the kebab shop and I almost took off for home alone. I couldn't deal with leaving and people arguing all at the same time. Even sitting here in my hostel in Melbourne, I don't think I've fully processed it. I continue to torture myself by browsing through photos of our good times. It might take me a few days to shake it, but I'm sure by the time I get to Adelaide I should be better. After all, we're in the epic adventure part of the journey. Running around and traveling. I will most likely return to Cairns before I depart for home to get my open water diving certification so that I can return in September to complete a dive master traineeship. At least that is the bold plan for now. If that goes well, I can return home the long was and visit my friend family on the way.

I can't believe March is over. I remember thinking when I got to Cairns that 12 weeks or so here would be a long time. This last month, especially since my birthday, has just flew. I know it has to do with the fact that it was about that time that I actually started to be a bit more boisterous and really get to know people around the hostel. I'm so happy that I did and that I didn't just stay the quiet little one. I am so grateful for my core group and I love all of them to pieces. They all make me a better person. And they give me new places to visit! Well, that's about all I can really muster to write about right now. I've got to get ready for some free tacos and for my Adam Hills show! Yay comedy! I'm hoping he'll set me right. He's one of the few things that can lift my spirits no matter what. Can't wait for opening night tonight. Well friends, thanks again for taking the time to read if you did. Sorry it wasn't a bit more entertaining or upbeat this week, but don't worry, I'll have more to tell soon. Hope you all are doing well.

Cheers,
-Celina