Silverwisp

Well, one week left and I cannot wait to get back to work. I'm now quite poor, but still have enough to take a 6 hour trip on the Great Barrier Reef. I still think Cairns is an odd city, it's more touristy than anything I have seen so far. Also, it does rain in Australia I have found. I thought it'd be dry, but it's rained 83.5% of my days here. Tomorrow, though, we're going to Cape Tribulation! I hope to see the 20ft salt water crocodiles I've been hearing and learning about. Also, I'm going to hold a koala before this trip is over, damn it. IT WILL HAPPEN! I only have two more things of concern in my classes. In a few hours I will have a biology final, which I'm not too ... read more

It is markedly hotter here than NZ. Cairns is an odd city and I can't really describe it. There are bats (large ones) in the trees by the city library and they screech like a mixture of pig/baby cries. There are hundreds of parrots that gather at dusk in the city center. Didgeridoos are only $25! I'm sitting in a "Kwikmart" type of store, paying the cheapest fees I can for internet ($3.50/hr). This is across from a large hotel/casino/rainforest dome, called the Reef. The hotel we're staying at Used to be called Inn The Tropics and I was surprised TravelBlog actually had it in their locations list. It is, by far, the jankiest P.O.S. place I have stayed at. It reminds me of Mexico in a way. The hotel is also trying to be a ... read more

Well, Queenstown was a blast! I did not go bungy jumping, however. The Shotover Jet was one of my most memorable experiences in QT. At over 80km an hour, we 'shot' up and down the Shotover River, going through canyons, almost hitting the walls, turning at the last second with hairpin turns. Then the driver would do full 360 spins! I'm so glad I had sunglasses to keep the water out of my eyes. Besides that, I took the gondola QT is famous for up the mountain side and enjoyed the views. They have a luge ride up there as well, so I decided to try that out. I got stuck behind a kid that was going really slow, so I'd stop and wait until I thought she was far enough away. The scenery was gorgeous ... read more

***I wrote this in Harihari, but didn't publish it because it wouldn't let me upload pictures*** Once again, we're in the middle of nowhere, but instead of beautiful mountains and scenery, we're in this scrubby field. There's a few sheep and chickens wandering around. At least we have laundry and internet here, though. Continuing from where I left off... From ChCh, our group traveled to the Cass Field Station and stayed at University of Canterbury's base there. This was really in the middle of nowhere, with a train running through the valley. This meant no internet. The station had a wooden deck covered pit for food scraps. The laundry machine broke the first day, but the drying room dried pretty well. Cass was a real log-cabiny place w/ cement floors in the bunkrooms and wooden floors ... read more

Also known as ChCh. I'm staying at this retro motel/apartment place at the moment. They have no internet what so ever, so I'm at the library. Unfortunately, this means I will not have access to Skype until further notice. The food is still bland in New Zealand, but they do have great curry places. And Thai. I can get some killer Thai food at this one place where all their dishes are $10 NZ and it's fabulous stuff! I really miss real Chinese and Mexican food. I went to this place called South of the Border here in ChCh, where they had chimichungas and quesadillas and burritos. They served my meal with WHITE RICE and COLESLAW. UGH! I would die if there was -at least- a Taco Bell. Or Panda Express. It's my third day here ... read more