Auckland and surrounding areas

We went to the hot pools on Monday and they were so relaxing. there was a lot of people there because everyone had the day off cause it was the queen's birthday but they were still pretty warm. On tuesday Erica and I did an exciting activity that we are not able to tell you at this time., From wednesday to Thursday we went on a Tour to see some caves with glow worms and then we went to Rotarua where we got to spend the evening in a Maori village learning about their culture and then eating a huge buffet that they prepared for us. It was amazing! Yesterday ERica and I spent the day on the bus stopping at Taupo and then making our way back on a double decker bus back to Auckland. It was so cold in the morning that erica and I each had a cup of hot chocolate and three cups of tea! When we got back last night we went to a fancy restaurant with Alicia and Marilee for dessert! Today we are leaving for Winnipeg. WE are excited to come back home ( we are hoping it will be way warmer than it is here) but we are sad to leave Alicia and Marilee. This trip has been absolutely amazing and we can't wait to show you all of our pictures and tell you all the stories we have!

Weekend in Auckland

We had quite the weekend! It isn't even over yet because it is a long weekend because it is the queen's birthday!! Marilee, Gordon, Erica, Alicia and I drove to Matamata yesterday and Erica and I went to go see Hobbiton ( or Hobbitville as I like to call it). Erica loved it and I thought it was kind of cool but I haven't seen the movies or anything so it was not as special for me. Marilee and the rest of the crew went to the cheese factory. Then we drove to Tauranga for hte night because some of alicia and marilee's friends were partying there for the weekend. So we went and partied with them and stayed at a hostel and then this morning we hiked up a volcano (Mt Manganui). IT was beautiful. Tomorrow we might be going to the hot pools tomorrow. I can't believe we leave on friday! IT is so soon. The weather here isn't hte greatest. IT is cold and rainy but we are with amazing people so that is all that matters!

Cairns and Auckland

so right now we are in auckland but we had a good few days in Cairns.
we went on the reef for a day of snorkling and saw a couple of sharks and other exciting stuff like that. it was too bad that it was rainy all day but we really couldn't complain because we had amazing weather for the rest of our trip. we left for new zealand on wednesday and we are here until June 5th, the day we fly home. We got to see marilee's house yesterday adn spent the afternoon there and then went up to the sky tower for a fancy dinner and went out dancing after! It was so much fun! Today marilee has to work but we are going shopping and hanging out with Alicia this afternoon and then probably doing some more partying tonight! Well I have to go for lunch so I will make sure to update more later

Whitsunday's Tour

Erica and I went on a whitsunday's sailing tour for two nights with 18 other people and 4 crew members! It was a lot of fun! We got to go snorkling and scuba diving and we got to see NEMO!! and this other huge fish that I don't know the name of! We didn't do much sailing, it was mostly just a motor which kind of sucked. the weather was perfect though and the water was warm! The sleeping quarters weren't the best. there was really not enough room for 20 people to sleep down there. ERica and I had to share a single bed (even though they called it a double bed...a single bed was half the size of a normal single bed). There were also bed bugs but erica and I didn't get bit which was lucky! the food on the boat wasn't the greatest but the amazing snorkling and scuba diving experiences made up for it!
Yesterday when Erica and I got to try eating crocodile. It was pretty good. It kind of tasted like a combination of chicken and fish.
We are hanging out in Airlie beach today and then tonight we are taking a bus to Mission beach, which gets us there at 4:15AM ( who knows what we will do or where we will go when we get there) and we are spending the day in Mission beach tomorrow and then going White water rafting the next day! It is going to be a crazy time!
I heard you winnipegers got more snow over the long weekend! I am so sorry to hear that and the weather better be nicer when I get back in exactly two weeks!

Fraser Island and Pictures!

So we went on our fraser Island tour and it was amazing! The weather was perfect! 25 degrees and sunny. we were in a group with 8 other people and we got a 4wd vehicle and took a ferry over to Fraser Island and then got to do some crazy driving which included a lot of bumpy times. luckly we didn't have to drive because that would have been terrifying. we spend a lot of time at the different lakes and beaches on the Island. one called Lake Mckenzie was absolutely amazing. It had crystal clear water! It was fantastic! It was kind of cold at night but that doesn't mean we couldn't have a good time. the first night we went and sat on the beach and someone brought a guitar and so we started singing wonderwall by oasis and a bit of s club 7 and then we saw a dingo so we started making up songs about dingos!

The first picture is in Sydney the first day we got there. the second picture is in the blue mountains with the three sisters in the background. the third picture is on great ocean road just outside of Melbourne with our friends Andrew and Sam. In the background are the 12 Apostles. The fourth picture is when we were in Noosa with some entertaining people from Denmark. the last picture is of our group on the fraser Island tour at Lake Mckenzie! Enjoy the photos!

The photos got uploaded backwards so read that last section bottom to top.

Noosa!

So I played soccer on the beach and erica refused to play so it was me and around 10 other guys. I scored the first goal and they were all a bit surprised and my amazing soccer skills! They were totally blown away!
Now we are in Noosa at a pretty sketchy hostel. the bathroom in our room is disgusting and it is cloudy and so we are trying to find random things to do. We went shopping this morning and I think we are going to go to some laguna lookout or something this afternoon with a girl from England who is staying in our room with us. We are here for two more nights and then we are heading out to Hervey bay and fraser Island to go on our first adventure tour! Oh by the way there is totally a creepy guy staying in our room with us...I am scared to make him mad though cause he has long hair and looks like he has some pretty good karate moves up his sleeve.
I think I am going to go eat a cookie now.
there is no nightlife here so we might just go see a movie or something. we went to a restaurant last night and there was someone singing there so that was wonderful but it was over by 8:30...so another early night to bed for us!

Surfer's Paradise

Erica and I are in Surfer's paradise right now! IT is pretty much like paradise but the surfing was way better in Byron bay (from what we have observed). WE had so much fun surfing! we got to the beach in a group with 3 other people and we did some stretches on the beach and a little warm up run ( consisting of running for approximately 2 seconds). Then we got on our boards and rode the waves! It was spectacular! WE have videos and pictures that they took of us and they are fantastic! we can't wait to show all of you! We were both a little bit sore yesterday and we are still feeling it today but it was so totally worth it! It is way more of an arm workout then you think it would be. The hardest part is walking against the waves to get further from the beach so that you can surf back towards the beach. WE both really recommend that you try itat least once in your lifetime!
Today we are just going to hit up the beach and I (jess) will maybe be playing soccer on the beach in the afternoon with some other people from the hostel ( if anyone shows up). That's right all you soccer people....I am going to play soccer on the BEACH! Then I will spend the rest of the day relaxing because that is what surfer's paradise is for!
Tomorrow we leave for Brisbane. I have no idea what is in Brisbane but it will be an adventure!
I heard that it was raining in winnipeg. Hopefully you guys aren't getting to wet. Can someone please update us on how the flooding is going? please...pretty please!

Byron Bay

The rest of our time in melbourne was lots of fun! we went on a road trip down Great Ocean Road with Andrew and Sam which was amazing! Then yesterday Erica and I went shopping and got lost on the tram and then we went out for supper with the boys and then went looking for penguins ( we couldn't find any :( )
Right now we are in Byron Bay and the weather is amazing! It is so nice to be in the warmth again. Melbourne and Sydney were not very warm...it got pretty cold at night ( you could see your breath). Erica and I went to the beach today and went shopping at all the little shops close to the beach. Our hostel is like a 5 minute walk from the beach so it is wonderful! Erica and I are going to learn how to surf tomorrow! we are super pumped about it! I am sure we will be pro surfers by the end of the whole thing. The rest of the time we will probably be relaxing on the beach and working on our tan that people are expecting us to have when we get back to Winnipeg. Erica and I both can't believe that we only have one month left! It is going by super fast but we are having so much fun!

Melbourne

We got to melbourne on friday and had a long nap and then met our friends Andrew and Sam ( we met them when we were in Ireland). Today we went to an Australia Footy League game!! It was super cool! there was so many people! Tomorrow we are going on a roadtrip!! Anyways this is super short but I have to go back upstairs to my room. oh one thing about our room. we got upgraded to a all girls floor and our room is pink and we have our own bathroom ( there are 4 other people in the room) and hair dryer is included! I feel at home because the walls in the room are pink! It is fantastic! The problem is that one girl this morning decided that it was okay to stay in the bathroom for an hour while erica and I just waited for her to be done. she thought that because she was in the princess room she should be allowed to take as long as she wanted in the bathroom. I am totally going to beat her in there tomorrow! I can't wait! Hope all of you winnipegers are doing amazing!

Back in Sydney

Two things we forgot to mention in yesterdays post
1. On our 3 and a half hour bushwalk we climbed around 1000 stairs! It was a great butt workout!
2. we went to the Common Ground Cafe. If you are not aware, there is the same cafe in winnipeg on sherbrooke street. It is owned by the 12 tribes. We thought it was pretty cool that they had the same thing in Australia
Today:
Took the train back to Sydney. It was a rainy day here. We went to Wildlife World and we got to pet a koala! It was a pretty sweet time! The butterflies attacked Erica because she was wearing a pink jacket! It was pretty funny!
Tomorrow we are heading to Melbourne to visit our friends we met in Ireland! we are both super excited for it! We haven't done any partying yet because we have been super tired and have done a lot of walking around during the day! I have a feeling some major partying action will start tomorrow night!

Katoomba

Erica and I took the train to Katoomba today to see the blue mountains. Erica claims the mountains look a bit blue...but I couldn't really see the blueness ( I think she is a bit crazy). We walked 20 minutes to Echo Point. we saw cockatoo on the way there and got super excited! we thought it was a parrot... At Echo point you can see the three sisters. You should look up the story about the three sisters on the internet..it is pretty fancy. Then we walked an hour to Katoomba Falls and then we went to Scenic World!!!!!!! We got to go on a Skyway (a gondola thing that took us from one cliff to the other, a cableway, and a railway! It was pretty sweet! we were so high up!!! It is pretty cold here...you can see your breath. I am currently wearing two sweaters. The internet is pretty expensive here so I only have like 2 minutes left so I am going to have to apologize for this boring post and I will make it up to you at a later time ( I promise)!

Sydney

Well Erica and I had a super long flight here. However we were super pumped that the backs of the seats in front of us contained a tv screen! We watched Yes Man, Twlight, Bride Wars and I watched part of Madagascar (cause I am cool like that). Erica was watching the Mighty Boosh. we stopped in Vancouver for 12 hours. As soon as we got there we decided it was a good idea to wander through the parking lot to find a bench. We found this random park at the side of the parking lot so we went and sat there for a while! We met Erica's sister for a couple of minutes (she was leaving Vancouver to go back to Winnipeg). We then took the bus to downtown Vancouver. While I was telling Erica a lame story about how going over speed bumps in a RV was the best time of my life, we met Jaeger. He tried to help us on our bussing extravaganza. He just got back from Surfing in the Phillipines and he pretty much knew as much about the bus system as we did. We got on this bus that took us on a complete tour of Richmond and we ended up back where we started and then the bus finally took us downtown. We wandered around downtown for a while and then proceeded to almost fall asleep in Starbucks.
Upon our arrival in Sydney Erica's bag was nowhere to be found. Some kind airport worker gentleman located her bag in Auckland (we stopped there.). It will hopefully be at the hostel when we return in a couple of minutes. Right now we are at a travel agent/Internet Cafe where another kind gentleman planned our entire Australia trip. He booked our tours and some other spectacular activities that I will not expose to the general public at this time. As you can probably tell we have kind of had no sleep. We did go to Manly beach though...it was pretty manly. We took a Ferry there and Erica wanted to go tubing behind the boat. We went past the Sydney opera house which is yellow. We are not going to party tonight because we are practically dead.
We are going to eat some tasty bites right now.
we are heading to the blue mountains tomorrow. Erica and I aren't sure if they are actually blue or not...we'll keep you updated on that one. Hope you guys are having as much fun as we are! Hopefully you didn't get anymore snow!

ONE WEEK!

Erica and I leave for Australia in exactly one week today! We leave on April 26th at 8:00AM and then fly to Vancouver, spend the day in Vancouver and then fly to Auckland and then to Sydney! That is going to be an intensely long plane ride!! Hopefully we will be able to get more than 20 minutes of sleep on the plane (unlike our flight to Europe). We have booked our first hostel so far but other than that we are just going to go with the flow. We are going to spend the day in Sydney and then go 2 hours out of sydney the next day to Katoomba to see the Blue Mountains. Then back to Sydney and maybe book a flight to Melbourne to visit some friends we met in Ireland (who live in Melbourne) and we will see where that leads us. Erica and I are both super excited to be able to get out of Winnipeg and travel again! We are also super excited because we are stopping in Auckland on the way back for around 9 days and get to see Alicia and Marilee and Gordon! It should be a fantastic time!