Our Crazy Australian Adventure

The Death of Steven the Station Wagon

shannonj2589 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:52:00 GMT

After arriving in Brisbane all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to make some money back on our only "good investment" we have made since landing in Australia, we have been savagely let down once again. After spending what seemed like hours trying to contact the registration company in New South Wales to try and re register our currently illegal car, we came to the conclusion that not much could be done in the way of registering him without passing a safety inspection. Setting out with high hopes for a mechanic near our local McDonalds, we spent two and a half hours in the company of the Hamburgelar and Ronald waiting with our fingers crossed. As soon as the mechanics saw us walk through their door after completing their inspection they got grim looks on their faces and told us to "take a seat". We then spent about half an hour going through all of Steven's various ridiculous issues, with the three of us laughing hysterically the entire time. The mechanics enjoyed that we took our misfortune so lightheartedly, and told us that we could sell it to the junkyard for $1.30 AUD. But only if it had a full tank of gas. Luckily though, we put our heads together and did some research and found a friendly gentleman named Dave who will give us $100 if we give him Stevie for the purpose of "bush bashing". We decided this is a pretty good deal, and we're now cutting our losses and reaching deep into our parent's pockets for support. What else can go wrong! Haha we're taking it all with a grain of salt though, we're still smiling. See you guys soon!!!

Whitsunday, Fraser and 1770

shannonj2589 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:11:00 GMT

So here is an update finally. We left bundaberg and headed up to airlie beach for our whitsundays trip. The trip was overall decent we had a good time hanging out with an australian boy we met on the boat the second night. We also did some snorkelling which was pretty sweet, Lauren was pretty scared at first and was afraid that the fish would touch her but she warmed up to it and we all had a good time. However the day before we were suposssed to go snorkelling and we were the last group waiting to take the dingy to the island. It was pretty crappy out and a huge gust of wind blew a strecher of the boat unluckily right into the crew member that was supossed to take us to the island! He somehow managed to climb onto the boat with blood pouring from his face. We were all rushed below deck and the boat set off for a hospital on one of the islands, leaving most of our group behind on the beach. It was super shocking to see and i started uncontrollably crying. We all calmed down ate some chips and played uno and enjoyed the rest of our time. Next we headed to fraser which was a a long drive. Fraser was AWESOME we all had a super good time. We were a little fearful of our driver but we didnt wreck our vechicle like another group who now owe 4000 for a dent the size of me they put in their truck from hitting a tree. There was 55 of us all together and we partied all together, some a little harder then others... Though we were pretty lame and were always in bed by 11 or 12. The lakes were gorgerous. The one day we had to walk 45 minutes through sand dunes just to get there. We all thought we were going to die on the way there but it was totally worth it. The only unlucky thing that happened to us on that trip was our chicken got swept away by the sea after one of the guys drop our food cooler into the sand and some the girls tried to wash off the food. Although it doesnt really matter because everything got sand in it everything had a little crunch to it. After fraser we went back to 1770. We did three tours there. The first was scooteroo which was riding on motorcycles well looking at kangerooos. We all had a blast and got so comfortable on the bikes by the end we had them topped out at 80km an hour. We also saw our first knageroo on that trip and were suprised how close we could get to them. The next day we went on a tour of the rainforest. We had a bbq and our first campfire. We also met a green tree frog named kermit who lived in the toilet at the lookout point. The last tour we did was a farmstay which was basically just horseback riding, but it was nice becasue we got to brush our horses and we didnt have to ride in a line down a small trail we all got to raom around a bit. Now were chillin in Noosa for today and heading to brisbane tommorow to try and sell our car. Its also Lauren's B Day today so were making a fancy supper and a cake tonight should be a good time.

Bundaberg.. Another change of plans! (Jenna)

shannonj2589 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Well we've moved again! After leaving Brisbane (where we actually made some friends this time! Sad to leave them, but such is life) We went to Noosa Heads.. entering cyclone zone (dundundun).. Haha it actually wasn't that bad, we slept in the tent the first night with no rain! Shannon did some research that day though and found out that we would not be able to go on our Fraser Island trip when we had planned to (we were supposed to be in Rainbow Beach and ready to go the next day) as there was a bit of a cyclone issue. Being the apparently simple minded girls that we are we completely missed any and all warnings of said cyclones, until 6:00 the night before our trip! Luckily the travel agent was still open and we were able to move our trip back.. So the Fraser Island trip is now on the 20th of March, just very shortly after our Whitsunday's trip. Back to the fun in the cyclone.. at around noon the day after arriving in Noosa Heads it began to rain.. and rain.. and rain. Now we decided it would be a good idea to check out a newspaper and maybe learn some details on the weather. Walking into the news stand all headlines in bold letters read "CYCLONE COMING; GET OUT NOW!" And all we have to say to ourselves is wow, how typical of us. So we go back to the campsite, plead for our money back. They offer us a one up, they'll just put the money we've already paid towards our own personal cabin! We paid just thirty dollars more and had our own little living space, which was really nice and definately a good idea with the rain that hit us that night. We stayed in our little cabin for two nights, and this morning we departed for Bundaberg! We arrived in this cute lttle hick town this afternoon, excited to see a lot of natural wonders in the area. We're somewhat disappointed by the hostel.. its a bit of a nightmare. The room smells like pee and there's a strange stain on the ceiling.. Trying not to let it get us down though! We're definately looking for a new place to rest our heads for tomorrow.. Tomorrow we're going to head out and see an inactive volcano, some natural craters and do a tour of some caves! Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures to put on here! It's a bit difficult to get pictures on here as all of our laptops are in storage, but some internet cafe's have USB ports for camera's so we'll try to get to one of those soon. We're looking forward to the next couple daysand we'll keep you informed!!

Back in Brisbane.. AGAIN (Jenna)

shannonj2589 — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 17:47:00 GMT

Well we're back in the death city that we all hate.. (no we're not biased.. haha maybe a little. someone did steal a ridiculous amount of money from us here). Luckily for us this means a break from sleeping in our tent (his name is Bo, for those of you who don't already know. Yes, we have begun to name inatimate objects that we own. We do know this is sad, but give us a break!). Bo is enjoyable enough but three city girls are not built for camping in the Australian wilderness seven days a week. We have a nice air conditioned hostel with REAL BEDS for tonight, we're all very excited. I'm personally ready to sleep now (it's about 4:00 pm). Shannon has pretty much outlined most of what has been happening over here. We've had some good times, Lauren winning the trip was definately a bonus. Surfing was a good time, other then the mean instructor guy. (He totally deserved a good yelling at) We're all pretty sore and bruised today, the highlight of the bruises being the watermelon sized one on my leg. Its beautiful, Lauren has a picture that will hopefully be posted soon. We're all sore but in good spirits. Things are looking up for us here, we're planning our adventure and will soon know when we're coming home! We're all upset to be coming home early, but also excited as we miss everyone in the homeland. Not much else to say, Shannon has covered most of it. Hopefully our lives will get more exciting soon and you guys will have some good reading material! Thanks for following we'll try to update a little more often.

Were actually travelling now!

shannonj2589 — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 11:38:00 GMT

So its been a long time since weve updated so here it goes. We bought a station wagon its name is stevie. He has a couple quarks and some of the interior its falling of as we go but hes a good little car. We bought a tent and having been sleeping in campgrounds as we go. When we first left Brisbane we headed to Tweed Heads to register the car. Our first night there and our first night using our brand new tent the heaven's decided to open up and it just poured like crazy! We all didnt have any waterproof clothing and we didnt own an umbrella even so we all got quite soaked and tired to sleep in the tent anyways. In the middle of the night water started seeping through the bottom and we all had to curl up into tiny balls to avoid the water. Lauren's part of the tent was drenched and she ended up sleeping in the car. It was not a good night. Other then that night camping has been fine. We saw a little of a major surfing competion, collected some shells on the beach well we were there. Next we headed to Surfer's Paradise, but did not understand the hype about the city. Its just a lot of sky scrapers, but we went to wet n wild which is a huge water slide park and had a blast. We headed to byron which is were we currently are. This is so far been our favorite place. Our first night here we went to cheeky monkey's the back packer bar. Lauren got picked to enter a competion to win and trip to fraser island and won! We booked a tour there as well as whitsundays here. We also went to Nimbin which is a small hippie town. We walked around there for a bit and had a bbq after. We saw a huge lizard well we were waiting for the food it was probably like 2 feet long but pretty harmless. We also went to this sweet watering hole with a waterfall after and Lauren and I jumped from a rock into it we were both terrified but it was amzing. Yesterday we took surfing lessons from a super crazy man. He was swearing and yelling at evceryone pretty much the entire time. Jenna finally got fed up with him and yelled back "STOP FCUKING YELLING AT ME". Luckily there was another instructor who was very nice and we just avoided the crazy man. None of us have a secret talent for surfing but we all managed to stand up a couple of times. It was hard work though and were all super sore a bruised it looks like someone attacked us. Well thats pretty much it were haeding to brisbane today to drop of some stuff and then our continuing to go north

Plans have changed...... (Shannon)

shannonj2589 — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:15:00 GMT

So plans have kinda changed and not really because we wanted them too. Our landlord wasnt answering our phone calls the night before we were supossed to mve in and friday morning we were all ready to go and we still could not get a hold of him. We suddenly realized we had been taken for a ride and he had run off with our bond which was 2280.00AUD. We checked our the address he gave us it was fake and were pretty sure he lives in the house he showed us and thought we were easy targets which we were... So we went to the police station gave a detailed description of him and the events that happened jenna also handed in all the emails and her contact numbers between them as well as the contact number the website had that we first fond him on. The police were awesome here and it seems like they are actually making an effrt to find the guy s were hoping even if we dont get our money back that he gets caught. Now that we have no house and none of us want to stay in brisbane we decided to change our entire plan and put some luggage in storage and find a fruitpicking farm with accomidations and work our butts off for a while. Everyone i have talked to said they have heard from friends that they actually really enjyed it and everyne parties together on the days of like a family. After that were thinking about buying a campervan and sleeping/travelling in that although were all a little worrried abot driving and I will have to teach the other girls how to drive a manual which culd be quite interesting. Anyways were all ok and are moving on and or excited to start seeing the country we love u all and miss everyone!!! ( o and sorry if i missed a lot of os this keyboard sucks)

Our Rude Awakening! (Shannon)

shannonj2589 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:50:00 GMT

So this morning its about seven were all sleeping peacefully in our beds when all of a sudden our fire alarm in our room starts going off! We all jump awake and one of the girls goes to reception. We figure out our roof is leaking right beside the fire alarm and is shorting it out. The poor guys that came to fix it kept getting shocked as they tried to turn it off. We now have a huge bucket just chillin in our room and we all hope it stops raining soon!!

Friday Night in our PJ's (Jenna)

shannonj2589 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:34:00 GMT

Well its Friday night and we're all in our pyjamas in the hostel.. this is a little different from in Saskatoon! We're all pretty sleepy and we havent found a lot to do for nightlife in Brisbane so far. We also need to work on making friends here, which is tough in this hostel because everyone seems to be a lot older then us. This should be easier when we all get jobs and can start meeting new people.

We got our house! The first house we looked at we all really liked, and the landlord really liked us. We were going to take a look at some other houses just to be safe, but all either expected a six month lease or were stuffy real estate agents not too eager to rent to three 18/19 year old girls. Luckily we found this house so fast though! We move in on the 20th (which is the 19th there). We're all really excited and will post some pictures!

Monday we're going to go look for jobs in Garden City Mall, which is a huge mall development about a 10 minute bus ride from our house. We're all crossing our fingers that we wont have any problems getting a job soon. We've made a lot of plans to do different tours before we're done living at the hostel and have to get back into the working world. Next week we're planning on visiting the zoo, the rainforest and the koala sanctuary. We haven't done a lot in the last few days, we just looked at the house and then spent the next day setting up the bond (security deposit) with the landlord.

Hopefully we'll get more interesting soon! Keep looking for new updates.

Gallery: Ello Mate!

shannonj2589 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:04:00 GMT

Sydney and a bit of Brisbane

Our first week Down Under

shannonj2589 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:11:00 GMT

Well, we finally got around to setting up this online journal. We've been in Australia for just over a week, finished our tour through Sydney and now we're in Brisbane.

The plane ride was down here was absolutely terrible. The first two flights were perfect, short plane rides and short waits. Unnfortunately, when we got to LAX the tables turned. We found out we had a nine hour wait instead of the six that we thought. Our solution to the long wait was to leave the airport and find a restaurant, which we were assured was not far at all. After about an hour of wandering around amoung the huge buildings and not finding a single restaurant, we said screw it and walked back to the airport. Then we waited for what seemed like a lifetime, and finally got on the plane. Which was a ten hour ride, also terrible. The plane was nice on the inside and we had a lot of room, but ten hours of trying to sleep in the upright sitting position is not a lot of fun. Fiji was pretty for the four hours that we were there, we're excited to go back and spend ten days there on our way home.

Sydney was good, we did a lot of touristy sight seeing. The first day went down to Darling Harbour, which is gorgeous and had an extremely expensive supper in one of its beautiful restaurants. We were still tired and jet lagged from the long plane ride, so we just went back to the hotel after making plans for the next day.

These plans included going to the Sydney Aquarium, which we arrived at shockingly early after not being able to sleep past 6:00am. Lots of really cute interesting animals, we learned about many different types of sharks and critters from the Great Barrier reef. One part of the aquarium included a huge tank with a glass tunnel through the middle of it. This was extremely interesting, sharks and stingrays were swimming all around us in this tunnel. We paid $5 to tour around this tank on a glass bottomed boat, which was interesting. It gave us a view from above on all the fish and creatures we had already seen. We also got to feed some of the fish, and watch them all crowd around the boat as we threw the fish food in. There was a dugong exhibit set up, meeting much excitement from Shannon as she studied them in grade 3. The dugongs were cool we got to watch them eat lettuce and just generally hang out. They were living in a habitat with a giant turtle and some sweet stingrays. We learned how to tell the difference between a male and female stingray, much to our disgust. The aquarium was a good experience, ended by a trip to the gift shop.

After the aquarium on the first day we took a water taxi to the opera house area. The water taxi took us on a trip of the harbour, which was really interesting and pretty. We saw the prime ministers house and learned that for a small fee of $300 you can walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge, something we were interested in but too poor to afford. The opera house was pretty but somewhat boring because if you aren't there to watch the opera there isn't much to do. We walked around the area, which was called The Rocks for a while, looked in some shops. When we were through, we went to the area where we assumed the water taxi would pick us back from and prepared to phone them. Finding a phone seemed to be a bit of a struggle however, as we walked in a complete circle taking us about an hour to an hour and a half to end up exactly where we began, learning that pay phones are apparently in short supply in the business district of Sydney. After this long journey, we had supper and went back to the hotel to sleep.

The next day in Sydney, we shopped the malls for a while, and then tried to go down to Manly to the beach, but learned that the ferries didn't run as late as we'd hoped they would and that we would have to wait for the next day. This we did, the next day bright and early we caught the train to Circular Quay, and from there the half hour ferry to Manly beach. This was gorgeous, but somewhat windy and the current was strong. We went in the ocean (Jenna and Lauren's first time!) a bit before lunch. After lunch when we went back the beach was a lot more crowded, and there was a blue bottle warning out. We tried to go back in to the water for more wave jumping, but our fear of these tiny blue jelly fish looking things got the better of us, after people kept runnning back to shore from the water exclaiming "I got stung!!!". We finally had to leave the beach after we realized that Lauren didn't put any sun screen on, and had turned a pretty scary colour of red. She says she gets weird tan lines from sun screen.... and only puts it on her knees. Well, we guess she learned her lesson. Silly Lauren.

The last couple days in Sydney weren't as exciting, we tired ourselves out on the first couples days. We hung out, tried not to get any more of a sunburn. We were going to tour an area near Sydney called Blue Mountain, but the tour guides warned us that it would be +33 the day we were going to take the tour, and that we probably wouldn't see any kangaroos or much wildlife because they'd be hiding from the heat. We all decided it would be a better idea to do on the way back when it will be a little cooler.

We checked out of our hotel in Sydney and made our way to the train station with our ridiculous amounts of luggage, getting lots of stares and comments about moving in, to which we said "Actually we are! we're from canada!" After struggling with weight in Jenna and Shannon's luggage (we were both ridiculously overweight, had to cram a bunch of stuff into Lauren's luggage) we got our luggage checked onto the train and went to wait in a room for our train to arrive. There were some tiny terrors of children that apparently really liked Lauren. They kept pouring the contents of the garbage can on her lap, and hitting her with everything they could find. She wouldn't stand up for herself, so finally Jenna went and found their mom. Not that this helped much, she seemed to find it kind of funny that her kids were such little brats.

Finally we got on the train, which was really nice. Until the same kids started to scream and cry non stop. Luckily, if we turned our iPod's up loud enough they could perfectly down out the horrific noises coming from the childrens seats. The scenery was nice until it got too dark to see, and then we went to sleep. It was a bit easier to sleep on the train then it was on the plane, but a 15 hour train ride isn't exactly ideal for a goodnights sleep either.

We arrived in Brisbane on Tuesday here (Monday for you guys). We got here at six in the morning, and it was probably already +28 and extremely humid. We had to wait four hours before we could get a room, which we decided was totally worth it to get some air conditioned sleep. After waiting for EVER we finally got to our room and discovered that the "air conditioning" they advertised was a fan mounted on the wall. This did nothing to improve our already dwindling moods. To escape the terrible heat we went in search of somewhere to have lunch that was air conditioned, and after that went to a movie (also air conditioned.) Temperatures here were 33+ yesterday, it was awful for us poor Canadians who left our homes in -30 weather. We tried to convince hostel staff to let us sleep in the air conditioned bar, with no dice. Finally we just went back to our humid hole of aroom and layed half comatose for hours until deciding it wasn't worth it and got up to start a new day.

And here we are! We're going to go look at a house today, we'll let you know how it goes! We'll all be posting our pictures and individual accounts of days on here from now on. Keep checking back! We'll try to update daily.