Spring Break

DAY 6 

Wednesday, April 19th, 2017

Toady was an early morning wake up! 5am wake up time and had breakfast then got on the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry took forever to leave and most people fell asleep on the ride back. Once we got on the mainlands it was time for our 2-hour bus ride to go white water rafting in the Tully river! They put a movie in for us to watch on the way up but my eyes were closed before the opening credits came on. After I woke up from my nap I looked outside the window and looked at the beauty outside. Once we got to the top of the river, we got off the bus and got all geared up. I forgot to pack my chest piece for my go pro and I was too afraid of losing it or it falling off of my helmet so I decided to leave it on the bus.

Within 10 minutes of being there and getting ready it started to rain. I was already nervous to begin with. I had never done anything like this before. I was afraid of falling out of the boat and getting hurt. Our instructor, Allen, was very nice and helped ease my nerves. He ensured my group that we would all be safe. My group would have to work together to listen to Allen and all the commands he gave us to steer and guide the raft. I was sitting up front ready to head down the category 4 rapids. Once we all got going, it wasn't as much work as I originally thought it would be. I imagined rowing the whole time but that was not the case. We would row a couple times then stop. When we would go down some waterfalls we had to get in the “get down” position and sit in the bottom of the raft with our oars in the boat pointing towards the sky. This got my heart racing, seeing the falls we were rowing straight towards then getting down the last second. Half way through we got out and relaxed in the river going down with the current (alongside our boat with Allen inside of course) This was so much fun just floating down the river with all my friends. The sun even came out for a little bit. We were pulled back into the raft and headed to a spot to have lunch. I had a sausage burger (I think...not really sure what it was but I was hungry and ate it). After I finished eating lunch I got to see a GIANT EEL in the river and some big fish and turtles as well. After lunch it was time to head back in the raft because we were only half way down the river and still had 2 or 3 more hours of rowing!!!! 

After lunch my hands were sooo cold It hurt to row since I had to hold on to the metal oar. Allen said once we get moving the bold will start following to my hands and I’ll be warmer. As we were all rowing Allen told us about where we were. We were in the famous Daintree rain forest, which is the oldest rainforest in the world!!! It is an estimated 180 million years old! Riding down the Tully river  through the beautiful rainforest. I really wished I had brought my GoPro so I could capture some of the beautiful waterfalls and trees I was going through. Our raft (almost) made it without any people falling out. One of my friends fell out on the last little fall. 

I surprisingly really enjoyed this experience! I had more fun than I originally thought. We got back on the bus and drove to this (random-I don't know why we had to go here) Pub to pick up our pictures from the white water rafting experience. I knew I was going to get them no matter what they looked like because I didn't have any pictures on my GoPro or phone and I know my mom would want pictures to scrapbook. After everyone got their pictures, we headed on the bus for one last road trip to our final destination for the rest of the trip. I was about to fall asleep when I saw the brightest rainbow I have ever seen. I was really happy I didn't fall asleep and miss seeing the beautiful rainbow or scenery.  

After a few hours we finally arrived in Cairns, the last stop on our destination. We arrived at the coolest hostel called Gilligans. It was very nice for a hostel it felt very clean, so I was happy we would be spending the last 4 nights here. We had an hour to get ready and head over to this place called Woolshed for our dinner. I had a delicious steak! Our group had the whole upstairs to ourselves. After dinner I watched a gold fish racing competition! This was so funny to watch. At first the auctioned off gold fish to use as “countries” One of my friends paid $5 to race Japan’s Goldfish. There were 2 long tanks with a start and finish line on each sides. Players put their fish in the water and had to blow through a straw to create bubbles to make the fish go to the other side of the tank. This was very entertaining to watch everyone race their goldfish. After the gold fish races we just stayed and danced there for the rest of the night. This was also an early night due to waking up at the crack of dawn for tomorrow-day 7.....”Adrenaline Day”

Spring Break

DAY 5

Tuesday, April 18th, 2017

Today was a free day on magnetic island! Finally a day where I can sleep in. Some friends and I went and got breakfast at our hostel. I got some toast, eggs, and bacon (it was amazing). It was at breakfast where we debated on going for our free day. We could rent a jeep and go explore the island, rent jet-skis, but we decided to go horseback riding! It was a 2 hour horseback ride that would take us bareback on the horses into the water right on the beach. 

We took the local public bus into horseshoe bay to kill some time before our time slot for horse back riding. We walked around and went in some of the local shops. After the shops, we decided to go paddle boarding! This was my first-time paddle boarding! It is a lot harder than it looks. I started sitting down paddling, then stood up for a little bit, fell in once, then decided just to sit the rest of the time. It was very hard to paddle against the wind! While I was out there I saw a turtle pop its head out of the water! After paddle boarding, we went and had some lunch (I had a delicious chicken wrap) then got back on the bus and headed over to the horse ranch! 

My horse’s name was Cookie. This was the longest I had ever gone horseback riding for. Our guides were very nice and taught us how to trot with the horses! I had a hard time at first but then I was able to get into the rhythm and get the hang of it. We went through fields into a forest, where I saw my first wild  Koala!!! It was up high sleeping in a tree. It was a nice relaxing time riding through the forest going down some small hills before heading to the beach! Once we got to the beach we got off and put on our stinger suits got ready to go ride the horses in the water! It sounds like so much fun horseback riding in the water is so much fun....but it's a lot harder (and more uncomfortable) than it looks!! We rode the horses bare-back, which means without a saddle, in the water. It was very hard to balance on them in the water with no saddle. The first horse leading the rest started to poop in the water! There wasn't a way to avoid the floating “road apples” so they just brushed up against everyone’s leg. After we got out of the water we changed back into our dry clothes and headed home. 

When we were riding back I was talking to the tour guides about my classes I was taking that I found out that one of the friends I made on the trip was in my Aboriginal arts class back at UOW! Small world! After we got back one of my friends had mentioned how my face was looking really red and blotchy. I think I might be allergic to horses because my face was itchy with hives through out the ride. I decided I should get some allergy relief medication before going back to the hostel. I found a IGA (which is like a small grocery store) and they had no medicine for allergy relief!!! All the other stores in the area were closing in 5 minutes so I just decided to go back to the hostel and hoped someone had some. I asked my tour guides if they had any and the hostel didn't have any allergy relief medicine either. Luckily by this point, the itchiness went away. I had found someone in my tour group that had some Benedryl with them and took that! I had a nice burger for dinner I got a delicious drink that was served in a pineapple! We got to meet up with tour group #3 to play games and dance the night away. we all went to bed early since the wake-up time for the next day was at 5 am!!!!

 Day 4 Enjoying the sun and swimming in the beautiful water with some friends! You can also see the sailboat “Siska”!

Day 4 of spring break a video of the sailboat. This was on our way out of the marina! You can see the rain clouds on one side and sun on the other side of the boat (luckily we were heading towards the sun!)

Heres a video of day 4 swimming after lunch!

Spring break

DAY 4

Monday, April 17th, 2017

It was a quiet Monday morning when I woke up to the sound of pouring rain….. Pouring rain. It was 6:30 am and I sprung out of bed because I remembered my friends and I had hung our stuff out to dry the day before. Boy! was our stuff soaked! I quickly brought everything inside. We had to find a dryer since we were leaving after breakfast and we couldn't pack our soaking wet clothes with all our other ones. We found a dryer and chipped in some money to dry our clothes. We had a nice breakfast (peanut butter toast and a banana...again) and some orange juice. It was a crappy day to go sailing but we were not going to let the rain ruin today. We packed all our bags and got on the bus and drove down to the marina. 

Once there we put our shoes in a box and hopped on the ‘Siska’.This was my first time on a sailboat. It was very different from the day before with the speed boats. As we slowly sailed out there were big dark rain clouds on one side and clear sunny skies on the other side (luckily for us we were heading straight for the sun!)  It was nice and relaxing on the sailboat..then the sails went up and the boat started to tilt! I had the best seat in the house since I was the last one to put my sunscreen on and come up from underneath I sat right up against the stairs so I had something I could lean my back up against in stead of balance with the tilted boat.  While we sailed in the Whitsundays, the captain told us the history of the “Siska” and how it used to be a famous race boat back in its day. After about maybe 45 minutes we made it to cook’s island where we anchored and had lunch. It was cute we each got our own lunchbox with a little wrap for lunch and some crackers and a water bottle. Once the sun got warmer, I ended up putting on a stinger suit and jumping in to go for a swim. I was cold at first and didn't feel like putting on the stinger suit but I’m so glad I did. Everyone was enjoying the surprisingly beautiful weather and swimming in the beautiful clear turquoise water. After an hour we got the final jump call we got back on board and headed back for land. After all the laughing, jumping, and swimming this day ended up being surprisingly amazing. On the way back in the clouds came back and it started to rain even a little bit. We got really lucky with the weather while we were swimming and having lunch out there!

Once we got back we had a 2-hour drive to Townsville to catch a ferry over to Magnetic Island. The line to change was so long and we were cutting it close to the leaving time, me and a couple friends went up on a second floor patio and changed up there quickly (wasn't sure if we were allowed to go up there but we didn't want to have to change in the bus bathroom or sit in our wet bathing suits for the whole bus ride). The drive to Townsville was long I took a little nap but I woke up when we were almost there and got to see all the beautiful scenery. When I said we were cutting it close, boy we cut it close… getting to the ferry with 2 minutes to spare! If we had missed that one ( i can't remember) we would have had to wait either an hour or our ferry was the last one of the night!!! Either way, we made it on time and arrived at Magnetic Island! 

We had to squeeze on the public bus (all 60 of us!) to get to our hostel for the next 2 nights. This was the coolest hostel we stayed at so far! It was right on the beach and the rooms looked like little huts! After dropping our stuff in our rooms we went and had dinner. After dinner, the hostel had a big game of bingo. I didn't like playing bingo because I had too many cards and the guy was saying the numbers too quick. There were 4 rounds and it just went by so slow. After what felt like ages a kid from our group ended up winning the big cash prize at the end (yeah I was a little jealous!). After bingo was over they moved some tables and chairs and turned the place into a dance floor and we got to dance for the rest of the night. It was such an amazing night dancing right by the water and seeing the Australian flag blowing in the night sky. From a rainy morning to a sunny clear day, to a rainy afternoon to a nice warm breezy night, it was a fantastic day…. And it was only day 4, I still had 5 more days left!

Spring Break DAY 3

for some reason I couldn't post these ones with the post itself but here are some more photos from day 3 of spring break!

SPRING BREAK

DAY 3

Sunday, April 16th, 2017

Day three started out very early as we arrived at Airlie Beach at 6:00 am. I thought once we arrived we would get to our hostel and be able to take a quick nap but, I was wrong. Once the bus arrived, everyone (that wasn't still sleeping) got off the bus and stretched after the long 10-hour drive. I was so peaceful walking on the beach watching the dark gloomy sunrise. A cyclone had just passed through this town a few weeks prior so there were tree limbs and debris all over the beach. There was even a washed up sailboat! After the sun was up we got back on the bus and headed to our hostel for breakfast.This place was really nice the room was really big and had a lot of outlets (sharing a room with 6 girls who have laptops, phones, cameras, and GoPro's to charge having just 2 outlets was a challenge). It felt like we were just waiting around this hostel forever (time I could have spent sleeping). We locked all our stuff up in storage and walked together down to the marina. I was a nice walk with even better views.

We got to the marina and signed some forms before getting on our boats. We started going out slow and the captain said ok this is the speed for the whole ride.... then said just kidding and went faster. We got up to speeds of 30 knots (that's about 35 mph) This boat was able to crash through all the waves and make some serious turns. There weren't any seats left so I had to stand. The captain instructed all of the people standing up to put their hand through the safety strap in between our legs and hold on. I was nervous at first cause I thought “how am I going to stay in?” but I was really glad I was standing. Although it was a bit of a leg workout trying to keep my balance, it was so much fun bouncing with the side of the boat through the waves. We were listening to music as we raced with the other boat filled with the other half of our group.

It took us an hour to get to the spot to go snorkeling. We put on our stinger suits (to protect us from jellyfish) Since there was a cyclone just 2 weeks before we got there, the water was a little foggy and we couldn't see that much of the reef. I got cold and decided to go back in the boat. I was able to sunbathe while watching people swim and jump off the boat. After 30 minutes we all got back on and we headed to a different island to go for a little bush walk(what they call a nature walk). I wasn't too thrilled to be hiking in flip flops that were about to break. But once we got to the top and saw the view......It was totally worth it. It was just a breath-taking site. The “sand swirls” are the 3rd most photographed place in Australia. The photos just don’t do justice.....

After going on the hike to see the sand swirls, we drove 20 minutes to go kick back and relax on Whitehaven beach. The sand was so soft and again you could rub it on your skin to exfoliate it and have smoother skin. We had a small little buffet on the boat (we got the food on the boat then had to walk through the water to go have lunch on the beach). Some of my friends and I soaked up the sun for a while before cooling off with a swim in the water. I opened my eyes underwater and could see fish! I tried to get a video of it on my go pro but it kept swimming away before I could get close enough to see. I had an amazing time on this beach and wish we could have stayed longer. I have seen nothing like this at home. Crystal clear water, warm soft sand and surrounding mountains of other islands. We got back on the boat for our 2-hour journey back to land. I was so content with life. On the way back I got the front seat of the boat. It reminded me of sitting up front on my dad's boat. The captain halfway through gave us all lamington cake ( a sponge cake dipped in chocolate with coconut shavings). We tried tossing the extras to the other boat when they came by but they were too far. Once we got back in the bay the captain did some fast turns and we all cheered. In this moment I thought it was the best day ever. Even just recalling back on it now it makes me so happy. We got off the boat and was able to explore the town of Airlie( I went and got some aloe lotion because I forgot to reapply my sunscreen...)  before having dinner. My friend bought an anklet and postcard wherever she went and I loved that idea so I decided to do it as well. Here is where I got my first anklet and postcard to remember Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. I also got some souvenirs for my family as well. I got back to the hostel and we had dinner then danced the night away at the party on the hostel deck. Everybody on the dance floor was jumping so much the support beam of the deck broke! (don't worry we didn't fall through the floor) we all had to stand on the other side of the deck for the rest of the night!

Photography Assessment 3

Today I hung my final body of works. I am really proud of how they came out. My portrait collection is called Personalised and my landscape collection is called Journey Abroad. This assignment is worth 60% of my grade. I have seen myself grow through the course of 13 weeks. I also captured beautiful images of my Australian friends. The landscapes were places I went to all the time in the city but never notice the true beauty at night time. 

Here is my artistic statements that I had next to each body of work

Portraits 

My portraits were inspired by Marjorie Salvaterra’s Hallelujah collection and Lee Jeffries’ Homeless collection. They show strong emotions and details of the face. I wanted to bring out a different emotion in each of my friend's faces. I felt that the black and white made for a  stronger portrait to see the up close details of the face. Salvaterra’s collection was lighter whereas Jeffries’ was darker. I wanted to show different moods as well, this was done by having each photo be darker or lighter. The title Personalised comes from each portrait being different showing how each subject has their own unique personality. 

With the lighting studio, I was able to have a more intimate connection with the subject to get the desired shot. I liked using the studio because I was in control of the lighting. I explored different types of lighting by using either harsh or soft lighting. By having the subject’s face up close to the camera, it draws the viewer’s eyes to pay attention to the details of the face more. I created these photos of my friends to show a side that they don't always show.  

Landscapes

I wanted to try something completely different to what I have done before with landscape. I was inspired by Bas Marijnen’s nighttime photography. His works incorporated vibrant colors and geometrical shapes. My idea was to photograph different shops and places around town that we see every day but don't notice the true beauty. The title Journey Abroad, highlights this new environment I have been living in the past five months here in Australia.

I went out at night and took photos of places that people pass every day but don't notice the true beauty of it during the night. When discovering new locations, I looked at the light in terms of color. I wanted the photos to have an eerie night time vibe but still allow for vibrant colors to make for an interesting photo. I made sure I adjusted my aperture and shutter speed so the lighting popped and the shapes were clear and in focus.

Sydney Bridge Climb

June 10th 2017 

I always said I wanted to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge but just thought it was too much money. A few of my friends from spring break that live in Sydney went the other day during Vivid (a festival of music, lights, arts and much more. It lasts 3 weeks in the harbour and they have light projections on the Opera House and the Bridge is all lit up.) I had planned on going to Sydney for vivid one last time with my Australian friends. But due to unforeseen circumstances, one of them couldn't come and the other one never responded to me till later in the day. So I decided tonight would be the night I went and climbed the bridge all by myself. All my other friends were busy or didn't have the money or were terrified of heights. So I went to the library to study for a few hours before heading to Sydney for the night. I decided to leave the library and head in 2 hours earlier. I am glad I did this because there were delays on the trains due to the rain. The train I originally was supposed to take had to reroute to avoid water on the tracks. I got off a stop and had to wait for a bus that would drive us to a different train station that would get us to Sydney. I met a nice girl around my age. She was living in Sydney and going to UOW. We waited forever for the bus to come pick us up. Once it arrived we had a long drive but I am glad things happened like this because I was able to see the beautiful sea cliff bridge and drive through the beautiful scenery. I sat next to my new friend on the new train once it finally came. I couldn't pronounce her name or understand where she said she was from all I know is she was from somewhere in Europe! I'm glad I met her because talking with her kept me calm in the situation the weather had put all the Sydney passengers in (there was a lot of people going to Sydney that day). I got off at Redfern and ran to catch the train to circle quay. I tripped going up the stairs and banged up my knees pretty bad and I missed my train because it was 1 minute early. I only had to wait 5 minutes for the next one but this would bring me to Circular Quay by 4:50 and I was supposed to be climbing at 5:05 pm. Of course, it was a 10-minute walk from the station to the bridge climb place. I was supposed to be there 15 minutes early so once I got off the train I called the place to let them know I was running late. I was just stressed because I left at 1:45 pm and I just arrived there at 5 pm!!! All I can say is thank God for google maps! I was able to find the bridge climb place. I checked in and the front desk guy was very nice and made sure I made it to my group climb on time. My heart was racing cause I was stressed and late and about to climb the Harbour Bridge! I was surprised they breathalyzed me before climbing (after climbing it I can see why that want to make sure everyone is sober!) I put on this gray jumpsuit and had to go through a metal detector to make sure I had nothing else left in my pockets. Then my group heading into the preparation room. We put our safety belts on. I got to talk to the people next to me. There were a lot of couples and one older family (older than me and the other couples....like 40s/50s). We had a bunch of attachments to keep us warm or anything we might need up there. I got a rain jacket, fleece, handkerchief, head light, and headphones. Everything was attached to us so it wouldn't fall off out on the bridge. I was going to take the gloves but they didn't fit my hand and I couldn't find a right and a left. It was only 15-17 degrees Celcius (so about 59-62 degrees Fahrenheit) It was actually a really nice night out and I didn't have to put any of the jackets on!  We got neon green light up vivid vest. Before we left we had a test of the ladders we would be climbing out on the bridge. I made sure I held on tight and stepped on foot at a time. We climbed up the other stairs, out on our headphones and headed out. We had these things that we attached to a wire for safety. The headphones were used so we could hear our tour guide talking to us on the bridge. I was more nervous to climb this bridge than I was Skydiving or Bungee jumping! The scariest part was walking from the bridge climb center to the ladders. It was a very small walkway. climbing the ladders coming from underneath the cars to being above the cars was the scariest part. They were a lot steeper than the practice ones inside! I would have my foot on the stair and my knee could touch 2 other stairs above! I sang a song in my head to distract me. I was holding on to the handrails extremely tight. I had to keep telling myself one step at a time and not to look at the cars driving by below me. Once we got past this part I was fine. We took a picture with the rest of the bridge left to climb in the background. Our tour guide talked about the history of the bridge and how it was made. Like it took 3 people to put the rivets in the steel or that 16 people died in a span of 8 years it took to make the bridge (2 were crushed by falling granite and 1 died on his way to work...but with the health and safeties they had back then, it's surprising they didn't have more). Our guide told us how Elton John stayed at a hotel and had a piano put in on the top floor and when the hotel asked what he wanted to do with it after he left, he said to just keep it and its still there today (you can rent the room for $18,000 a night!!! and of course you have to stay a minimum of 2 nights). Also, he mentioned how Sylvester Stallone stayed at a hotel and the police raided his room for steroids but he had thrown them into the harbor. My tour then went to make a joke about how the harbor is the best place to fish because the fish are so big!!!  We would pause every once and a while to catch our breath or stop and look at the view or have our picture taken. Once we got to the top we were 134 meters above sea level ( 440 feet).Since we were doing the vivid experience tour there was a light up 70s style dance floor that we got to go and dance on. It was absolutely amazing. I had a 360-degree view of the city while standing in the middle of Sydney's famous Harbour Bridge! Just looking up at the 2 Australian flags I shut my eyes and took it all in to remember forever. We headed back down to earth facing the beautiful lit up city. A famous Australian actress, Cate Blanchett, and her kids walked by us. The people around me were like omg was that really her and I was just like oh cool who was that. I am just so proud of myself for heading into the city all by myself and doing the bridge climb alone. This was something that I did for myself. I am growing up and becoming an independent woman. I live to tell the story so I hope I didn't make anyone worried. It was very safe and the company took extra precautions to make sure nothing was left on our bodies that could blow off and possibly hurt someone or cause an accident below. This was an amazing experience and I'm glad I did it during vivid because it was 100 times better. I'm also glad the rain held out. It poured on my way here and I was walking around the markets and vivid after before it started to pour again and I left. I am always grateful to experience vivid and seeing the city from the harbor bridge!

Melbourne day 6

We started our day by having a light breakfast before packing all of our stuff and checking out. Since Melbourne is known for their coffee culture we had to try some coffee before we left. We went to this little coffee spot just a short walk from our hostel. Erin got a latte and I got an iced mocha. I was not expecting it to come out looking like a dessert! There was chocolate syrup on the side with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it with some milo (basically hot coco powder mix) on top of the ice cream. After coffee, we headed back to Hosier Lane to check it out and see if it had changed since last time. After we walked through we went to fed square again. It wasn’t any different from the other day. We sat outside for a little bit and soaked in the sun. After relaxing for a bit we decided to go souvenir shopping. I actually hate going into touristy souvenir shops. I just get overwhelmed and don’t know what to get everyone. We walked to 4 different souvenir shops and went back a couple times because I couldn’t make up my mind. We walked around the city with nowhere to go. It was nice because I felt so relaxed just walking around and exploring the city finding new places. Around 12:30 we went back to the restaurant that was above our hostel the first couple of nights. It was called the joint bar. I got spaghetti and meatballs and Erin got a veggie burger. The spaghetti was so sweet and delicious but there were so many meatballs I couldn’t finish them all. After lunch, we went back to one more souvenir shop before leaving. We took the tram to southern cross where we got on the Skybus to bring us to the airport. We got a quick picture by the Melbourne sign before it started to rain. We got really lucky this week with the weather. Sunny and 50s/60s for most of the time. I was only really cold when we were on Phillip Island at night on the beach watching the penguins. It only ran twice, once while we were in the Eureka sky tower so we missed it and once more right as we were walking into the airport. This trip was absolutely amazing. It was the first time I felt comfortable walking around and enjoyed exploring a new city (although most of the time I was following Erin who was navigating). We had to learn to get around by either the tram, bus, or by foot. This trip was also probably the most walking I've done in my entire life. From Saturday, June 3rd- June 8th I walked over 42.82 miles and took 112,837 steps. I am really happy with everything we did on this trip. We crossed almost everything off our list of what we wanted to do in Melbourne. We did 19 out of the 21 things we planned on doing. We didn’t have the chance to get to the National Gallery of Victoria or the Melbourne star st night (we did pass by it during the day). And exactly one week from today I will be heading on my last big hoorah with Erin and Olivia to the gold coast. Melbourne will always be one of my favorite cities I visited in Australia and if I ever hit the lottery I could see myself living there or in a suburb nearby.

Melbourne Day 5 

Today was the day we had been waiting for...The PENGUINS!!! We woke up and walked to return the movies then stayed at the beach for 2 hours waiting to watch the pelican feeding. There was about 30 pelicans. I never realized how big they are!! It was cool the feeding lasted about half an hour and the lady feeding them was talking telling all about pelicans. After we walked around the shops again. We went back to and had lunch with the German guy we met at dinner last night. He was very friendly but his accent was so thick I could barely understand him. After lunch the bus came to pick us up. We were the last ones on the bus and had to sit next to strangers. It only was for 10 minutes on our trip to the koala conservation sanctuary. It was cool walking on the boardwalks looking for the wild koalas. I learned more about koalas today than I have before. They make weird noises when attracting mates. The dominant male sounds like a laughing pig and the female sound like a female human screaming. When the babies are born they are the size of your pinky! We walked around and saw about 5 wild koalas. It was a little boring because they were high up and sleeping. We went for a small bush walk. Then looked around in the gift shop for awhile. I got a press penny here! From this place, we got back on the bus and went to Churchill island. We arrived just as the whipping techniques were all done. It looked hard cracking the big leather whip. Once that ended we looked at some baby lambs, chickens, bunnies and guinea pigs. We also saw a dog herd sheep. This was really cool but the dog seemed to be stubborn and not listen that very well. I expected the dog to be able to herd all the in a short amount of time but it took 15 minutes before we left. We went and fed some grass to the old Clydesdale horse. After the dog herding show, there was a sheep shearing demonstration. This was really cool and something I've never seen before. I was scared for the sheep. He was picked up and held in between the guys legs while he shaved him. It was cool listening to the guy talk about shearing sheep. The world record for capturing and shearing was 14 seconds….FOURTEEN SECONDS for the entire thing!!!!! The guy we watched took almost 3 minutes to shear the entire sheep! After the sheep shearing, we had a cuppa (cup of afternoon tea) and a biscuit. I went into the gift shop and bought a scarf because I was freezing and the sun had not even set yet or were we even close to seeing the penguins. After the afternoon tea we went to nubbies lookout to try to find some seals or penguins. On the way there the bus came to a sudden stop because there was a wallaby standing in the road! We went to nubbies to try to find some penguins so we could take pictures of them because it is illegal to take pictures of the penguins after sunset. We walked on the boardwalk and saw the breathtaking views of the cliffs and the sunset. Unfortunately, we didn't see any penguins or seals, but still enjoyed the beautiful views. We spent 15 minutes waiting for one last guy to come back on the bus (we were scared we lost him… the bus driver laid on her horn so he would know it's time to go and we were looking for him). We headed over to the beach to see the penguins!!!! It was very cold and getting late so Erin and I shared some hot chips (french fries). This held us over for the night. We were sitting on concrete stairs on the beach waiting for the penguins to come. I tried taking videos on my go pro but I was too far away to see anything. Then after looking up from my phone while we were waiting I saw about 5 or 6 penguins pop out of nowhere! It was so cute seeing them walk up on the beach!!! They are known as the “little penguins” at full length they are 13 inches tall!!! They are also the only blue penguins in the world. Once our butts started to get frozen we decided to go walk on the boardwalk and search for some penguins. We were able to see some more Penguins up close!! We heard all the mating calls as well. Very weird noise! Although we weren't allowed to take pictures (it was illegal after sunset; you used to be able to with no flash but some people don't know how to turn the flash off and it was hurting the Penguins so that's why it is illegal now) but, I paid so much money to not try to snap a quick picture. If people got caught the Rangers were just saying you're not allowed to take pictures (luckily no rangers saw us taking pictures). After an hour, we got back onto the bus for the 2-hour ride home. We got back to greenhouse backpackers but we had to go back to our hostel from the beginning of the trip to grab the rest of our food in the fridge. By the time we got back to greenhouse the kitchen was closed from9:30 pm-11:30 pm for cleaning. We were so tired and couldn't wait till 11:30 to start cooking so we just ate the chips and salsa and sour cream for dinner. It was very inconvenient to close the kitchen during those times! Luckily we were only there for one night.

Melbourne day 4 

We had breakfast before checking out of Flinders. We walked to St. Paul Cathedral where we were supposed to catch the bus that would bring us to Phillip Island. We made a quick stop at our hostel we would be staying at Wednesday night because we were only allowed to bring 5 kilo overnight bags. Luckily Greenhouse backpackers allowed us to store our luggage there for free! We walked from there to St. Pauls Cathedral. We went inside there looking for a bathroom. The inside of this church was stunning. You weren’t allowed to take pictures inside unless you paid $15 for a photo licesnse. But I had the opportunity to quickly take some since I saw no one up front or around to tell me I couldn’t take any. The bus eventually came and we got on and were on our way to Phillips Island to go see some penguins! Our first stop was to Moonlit Sanctuary. It was called this because they used to do tours at night when all the nocturnal animals were active. Here I made my “Lucky Australian Penny” from the penny press machine. We walked around and saw these funky looking geese, wallabies, wedge tail eagle, kookaburras, Tasmanian devil, dingos, and of course Koalas. We had seen enough Australian wildlife so we went and looked around the gift shop before lunch. We were given free lunch of beef and chicken sausages and a salad. After lunch, it was about an hour drive to Phillip Island. We found out we were the ONLY ones doing the overnight tour. We could have just done a day trip and would have saved us half the money. Once we got to our hostel there was no one at the front office so we called and they said our keys were behind the desk. So we walked up to our room level 1 room 12…. We walked into our room, opened the door expecting to be in a 6 person shared room come to find a double bed and our private bathroom! We unpacked and were figuring out what to do now when someone opened the door…. We were very confused she said oh sorry then left. We were like uhhh are we in the right room? We waited 20 minutes then we went down to reception to ask what there is to do on this island. When we got there he said I think you are in the wrong room. (in my head I was like well that explains why that person walked in). She was a cleaning staff… they thought we were someone else when we called so they mixed up the rooms. He said we could move back into what we originally signed up for (the shared 6 person room) or stay where we are now… (I could read Erin's mind we both wanted to stay in the private room but didn't want to have to pay the difference) Luckily for us, he said we didn't have to pay since they messed up. We were so thankful we got to stay in the private room for the price of a 6 shared dorm!!!(the dorm was much cheaper than the private room). We walked across the bridge and went to explore the town. There were like 7 shops/ restaurants. It felt like a ghost town we would walk into a store and it felt like we were the first customers they had all day. One lady even had her dog in the store with her. He was very cute spangle named chewy. We went to the grocery and got easy mac and got $1 movies! The walk back was so windy on the bridge I felt like I was gonna be blown off! We got back and had our easy mac (it's so much better here than back in America) We ended up watching our movies and going to bed early!

Melbourne Day 3

I woke up and made some pancakes and toast for breakfast. I also had a banana and a cup of tea as well. We headed out to find some more street art. The street art we found today wasn't as cool as the first day. We walked in Federation square but didn't see anything. I wasn't sure if it was because it was a Monday morning or what. We walked across a bridge and saw a nice view of the city. At this time I got a nice little 20 minute FaceTime with my dad and stepmom. It was great catching up with them and also showing them some of the wonderful things in Melbourne. After walking around all morning we went to a mall to kill some time before church. I was really excited to go to church here. I was nervous we would walk in and it would be such a small tight-nit community church that it would be obvious we were visitors. Luckily for us, it wasn't like that. The mass was different from back at home. There was only 1 reading and the gospel. There was no music as well. I knew some of the things to say and at other times tried looking at a card to follow along but was so lost. The mass only lasted 30 minutes. I was really glad I went so I could say I went to mass in a different country! After church, we walked back to our hostel to have some more PBJ sandwiches. After we went out on a quest to find a small pink lake. We were disappointed when we got there and it was a rusty red/brownish color. We got back on the bus after our little bush walk. We walked around town and went to this little place called pony island. We got some hot chips (fries) before deciding to go up the Eureka Tower. This tower was 948 feet tall, the second tallest on the continent! I went out on the "edge" while Erin stayed inside and watched. As a thrill seeker, I found this a tad boring since we stood in this glass box and it came out just a little bit. I could see the ground below my feet but I wasn't scared at all! I sent myself a postcard from Australia's highest post office! (There was a mailbox in the tower you could send mail too) we made our way back down to earth. We went to Coles to buy food for dinner. We cooked chicken nachos with cheese, sour cream, beans, guacamole, and salsa. They were absolutely amazing! After dinner, we went to the hostel's bar and played trivia. We had a guy from Finland on our team. Our team came in second to last! We went back to our room and packed our bags for our 2 day overnight trip to Phillip Island!

Melbourne day 2 

Took the tram to Brighton beach boxes walked around took the wrong way but walked down a beautiful neighborhood. It ended up being a beautiful day. Started off with a jacket and by the time we got to the beach I had to take my jacket off. We spent about an hour walking along the beach and taking pictures by the boxes. We left and started walking towards St. Kilda beach. It took us 2 hours to get there but it was a nice costal walk along the beach. Half way through we stopped and had a little picnic on the beach. We had PBJ English muffin sandwich and some grapes, popcorn, and granola bars for snacks. There was a bunch of dogs playing on the beach! We saw a life guard training activity in the water where they were racing in boats out to save people from the water. We passed through Saint Kilda marina and saw some pretty big boats. I passed a skydiving place and wanted to go so bad because then I would have gone skydiving in 3 different states in Australia (but I didn't go; it was too much money) we finally got to st. Kilda 2 hours later. It smelled so gross cause it was low tide. It looked like a fun place to hangout in the summer time. We went to Luna park. The entrance had a huge head as the entrance. Erin and I just walked around cause the rides were $10.50 each and the only one we wanted to go on was under construction. We took the tram back into the city and went to the botanical gardens. We walked up to the statue of remembrance. We walked up a lot of stairs to go to the top of the statue and got to see some pretty views of the city. After we left we walked around the park and through the leafs on the ground we found our selves at the entrance of the gardens. The garden was so big we ended up walking in a circle and ended up out front by the statue of remembrance again. We hopped back on the tram to go find this place that sold freak shakes. We split a shake called white ninja( (it was white chocolate, peanut butter, m&m, kinder surprise--chocolate egg with a little toy inside, walnuts, chocolate cake, chocolate walnut fudge, and chocolate fairy floss-- like cotton candy) it was absolutely amazing. But I'm glad we split it because it was 16$ and I would never have been able to finish one by myself. After the shake, we hopped back on the tram and headed to the grocery store. We originally had planned that we would make nachos but after walking 9.79 miles that day we were exhausted by 7 pm. We just bought microwaveable Mac and cheese and had some veggies with it too so it wasn't so unhealthy. We had broccoli and carrots. After dinner we went to bed at like 8:30 pm we went to bed because we were so exhausted from walking around ALL day yesterday.

Melbourne day 1 

School is finally over and I have 20 days till my only final so I decided to travel to Melbourne with my friend Erin. We went up to Sydney Friday, June 2nd for the night so we didn't have to leave Wollongong at 5:00 am to catch our flight to Sydney. We went to the grocery store and bought microwaveable dinners and a muffin in the morning. (Trying to save money by not going out to eat)We caught our flight to Melbourne at 8:15am. We were nervous our backpacks and shared suitcase would go over the weight limit. We paid for one 15 kilo checked bag and it ended up being 11kilos. But everything worked out and we made it in Melbourne in 1 piece! We bought a Skybus (a double decker bus) ticket to bring us into the city where we were staying. I didn't even step foot before I fell in love with this city! The architect and colors off all the buildings are so unique and each one is slightly different from the next! We got off the bus and tried to figure out what tram we needed to take to get to our hostel. We arrived to our hostel and put our stuff down then we decided to meet up with our Danish friends Julie and line (sounds like Lena) from spring break. Line met us outside our hostel and showed us around Melbourne! We walked to the famous Hosier Lane where there is beautiful street art. It's so popular that it is constantly changing everyday! We went and got a sandwich from the grocery store and met up with Julie and had a little picnic on the lawn in front of the state library. It ended up being a nice day out! We had some nice cherries and caught up with our lives after spring break. After lunch we went to a market. I got a lavender grey tea and walked around the market. After we left we parted ways and headed back to the state library. We went inside and saw the beautiful dome gallery. We walked up a lot of stairs but it was so worth the view. After the library we went to Coles(the grocery store) and bought stuff to make peanut butter sandwiches for the week. We also got grapes, popcorn,bananas and granola bars for snacks to have during the day. We got ready and went to Line's apartment for dinner. We had a minor set back before getting there... I thought I lost my wallet. I froze my cards and went back to Coles to ask if they had found one and retrace my steps. After taking a step back and breathing (and saying some prayers) I looked at the window in our room and saw the curtain was closed and of course I found it on the windowsill the one place in the tiny room we didn't check. So after that mini panic we took the tram to Line's house. We had dominos pizza for dinner and played some card games with her roommates. I had a great night meeting all her friends. I'm so glad I went on my spring break trip because I have met people from all over the world. Julie and Line are from Denmark 3 of Line's roommates were from Scotland and 1 from Holland and 1 from England. When we first walked in and the roommates were hanging out in the living room I thought it was going to be awkward but they ended up being very friendly! I even had them sign my Australian flag I have been having my friends sign. I know when I hang my flag up back at home I will look at it and remember all the amazing times I had here in Australia

Day 3

More speeding through the Whitsunday Islands on an epic boat