The Great Ocean Road While in Sydney I had set up this tour through the YHA travel agent with Great Adventure Tours This company was really great and I continued to travel with them. I was picked up at my hostel with two German women named Elena and Sara who I befriended on the tour. Immediately I also met three other women named Esther, Hilary and Rosie who were to become an inseparable group with me for the next two weeks. Where were they from? You guessed it- England. Hilary and Rosie are sisters and Esther is moving [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/3036.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3036.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] North Melbourne Kangaroos Melbourne Melbourne is a big city of buildings and taxi drivers that have no idea where they are going. Holly and I navigated our way to our YHA hostel and settled in for the night. We polished off her Goon (bag in a box wine that is really cheap in Australia) and I called in vain for my WWOOFing place. WWOOF stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. I had arranged to work on a horse farm abo [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/3034.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3034.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] The Three Sisters[url='/Videos/3035.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3035.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Kangaroos While flying to Sydney I started to realize how truly excited I was to be visiting Australia. I had wanted to go for many years and my dream was finally realized. I started to become giddy in the airplane and kept looking out the window. Once we hit land I was thinking how beautiful it looked. The land was open plains and then sparse trees that even [View Full Entry]

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Esther and I arrived at Franz Josef only to discover that it was a "town" of two streets with 11 restaurants and other tourist shops. BUT when you look up one side of the town you are able to see Franz Josef Glacier and Mt Cook. It is very quaint and incredibly relaxing to be there. So much so that I decided to stay an extra day. The night we arrived we walked around the town which took us all of 10 minutes. We also made our arrangements for the next day...a glacier hike! 1/2 day Franz Josef Glacier Hike [View Full Entry]

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We arrived to Wellington and the city was beautiful! It had a different feeling than Auckland, but it is hard to describe what it was. I liked it more and it seemed less touristy. Richard, Vicky, Kate and I walked around the city and arrived at the cable car that takes you up to the Botanical Gardens. The cable car ride was completely uphill and the view was pretty amazing. It was possible to see the harbor and the city. We walked around the gardens which traversed a hill. At points we were puffing to climb, but we made it. [View Full Entry]

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White Water Rafting Rotorua is a small New Zealand town. It has white water rafting, geothermal pools and a cute little downtown. We were set to go white water rafting. There was a big group of us that had met on the Magic Bus and we all went together in a bus that was driven by this "crazy" guy. It seemed that most of the Maori drivers that we had met were born entertainers and this one was the most entertaining. He continued to tell us that he did not have his driver's license and drove like a madman. It [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/2412.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2412.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] My jump LAX to NZ Leaving Los Angeles was an adventure in itself. I am currently looking for someone to teach me how to read military time because I obviously have seriously problems...I missed my flight to New Zealand! I thought that 2045 meant 11:45pm and not 8:45pm so Taya and I made our way back to her house and I settled in for another day in LA. However, that was not the only hold-up that I had to NZ. The next day as I was waiting in the parking lot of a grocery store [View Full Entry]

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What a great trip so far! thing. Tonight I leave for New Zealand for 11 days and to be honest I am seriously flying by the seat of my pants. I have a hostel booked for the first night and...that's pretty much it. I have tons of stuff I want to do and I will just let the days guide me. As to Los Angeles, wow! Taya planned such a great time for me. The first night was spent with some great friends of hers, Brian and Mike. Actors, all of them, I tell you! It was very entertaining as they [View Full Entry]

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General Suggestions- 1. Start a travel blog before you go and send the link to your friends (It has been a great way to communicate) 2. Bring comfortable shoes 3. Prepare for rain everyday with an umbrella or jacket 4. Bring a digital camera (the computers have the capability to use all kinds of cards from digital cameras) 5. Try all the different kinds of food (gallo pinto, pollo a la leña, ceviche) 6. Travel the local buses on directo routes to your destination instead of collectivo...trust me! 7. Try to stay with a host family at least once so you [View Full Entry]

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On Friday I went to Arenal for the weekend. I wanted to experience the joy of riding in a public bus for 5 hours and wow, what a joy! Sarcasm intended of course. I left from San Jose in a public bus to the city of La Fortuna. The Arenal Volcano is located there which is the most popular attraction. I secured my seat next to 3 other extranjeros (people from other countries). They have been in Costa Rica for 3 months learning English and they were from different parts of the US. After meeting them on the bus I saw [View Full Entry]

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