cben08
Caroline Joined: August 30th 2005
Logged in: September 9th 2006
Logged in: September 9th 2006
Travel Blog Posts
1st night in Thailand
Sunday was quite a day for anticipation; our flight didn't leave until 1:15 in the morning, so we spent the day in Melbourne getting ready to go. We were so excited to make it to the airport and leave for Thailand. After a long flight we had made it at 6 am in the morning. The first part of our trip in Thailand is 5 days at a place called Ao Nang. It's in Southern Thailand, close to where the tsunami hit, but also where all the beautiful beaches are. It has been nothing but amazing so far! Today we took a longboat (the wooden things you see in magazines) to another island to spend the day at the beach. It was so beautifu, mountains surrounding us, like nothing we've ever seen. The best part of ... read more
Overlooking Wineglass Bay
Before we left for Thailand, MN and I went to Tasmania for a couple of days. Lyndsey & Helen had gone the previous weekend, but we still wanted to go to the Open, so we changed our flight. For those who don't know what Tasmania is, its an island off of Australia, but it's considered part of Australia, the eighth state. Anyway, there's much to see there and we only had two days so we had to be picky. There were two hikes we really wanted to do, so we rented a car and headed on our way. The first one was Wineglass Bay, it was a good drive away, but so worth it. It was absolutely amazing! It was about a 4 hour hike and some of it was along the beach and alot of ... read more
Rod Laver Arena
Where to begin..........I will start out by saying that this has been by far the best week of my life. Something I have dreamed of since being a child. Mine & MN's ex-asst. coach from Furman now works with Xavier Malisse and was able to get us player's badges for the Open. We didn't know what to expect, but we knew it would be good haha. Anyway, right when we arrived in Melbourne, we went directly to the Open, as Xavier was supposed to play around that time. Right when we got here, we basically were treated like superstars haha. Had to go into a different gate and under the stadium to go get our pictures taken to get our badges. I was amazed from the beginning! Within 30 seconds we had passed Taylor Dent, so ... read more
On the winery tour
We decided that it was way TOO HOT in Alice Springs, so we actually changed our flight to a day earlier and headed to Adelaide. We got there and we could definitley immediately feel the temperature difference, it was amazing!! We spent the night wandering this really cool & cutesy city. It had a great downtown filled with coffee shops, outdoor restaurants & cafes. Our real treat is getting excited about heading to the Barossa Valley for some wine tasting & most importantly a break from the hostels. A couple months ago I found this cute cottage online and reserved it just for this break. We got to the cottage and could not have been any more excited when we saw it. Don't worry, we took plenty of photos...it was absolutely perfect! Two rooms with two ... read more
Sunset
Well, we were all excited to see the Outback, but were dreading the heat.....it was definitely in the 120s before we got there, and only supposed to be hotter.....we got there one night and didn't have much rest time before our two day tour group picked us up at 5 am. We loaded the van and headed to King's Canyon, one of the main attractions. Driving in this part of Australia was really cool, we wouldn't see any cars for the longest time and it literally was desert the whole way with maybe a couple gas stations every 100 miles or something. When we got to the canyon we were supposed to do like a 7 mile hike, but of course it was closed due to extreme temperatures.....we got to the second lookout which gave us ... read more
Sexy Stinger Suits
After our Whitsundays trip, we didn't think anything could compare to it. So we headed up the coast to our final destination on the east coast which was Cairns. Cairns is basically the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, so we were all so excited to see this famous landmark. We were there for two days and had two different tours booked. the first one was for Cape Tribulation, which is a rainforest (that meets the reef). We drove up there and went on some beautiful hikes around the cape, it was really cool. Our last day was a boat trip to the Reef. It turned out to be awesome. We got to spend the whole day relaxing and snorkeling. Look at the pic of me and MN. Yep, we had to wear those goofy things ... read more
Pride Of Airlie
We hung out in Airlie Beach for a couple days anticipating our sailing trip around the Whitsundays. We crossed paths with Helen, Julia & Ashtona and got to hang out with them which was really fun! They had a fantastic time on their trip so it made us all the more excited! We boarded ship and the sailboat itself was amazing & pretty big. Our schedule for the next three days was basically being lazy on the sailboat while sailing to the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen mixed in with some snorkeling. Can't beat it! All of our favorite beach was Whitehaven, it was so beautiful, absolutely indescribable. We were all really sad when we had to leave the boat because this trip was all of our favorites so far!!... read more
Lake McKenzie
Well, we got to Hervey Bay late on Wednesday night and were all geared up for our Fraser Island adventure. For those that don't know, Fraser Island is basically a sand island (the biggest one in the world) just off the coast of Australia. We had signed up for a 3 day camping adventure. We have no guide, just fellow travelers and we navigate our way through the island in a huge jeep. We had no idea what to expect, but our group was the four of us, 2 Canadiens, 1 French guy, 2 German girls & 1 Korean guy. We loaded up took the ferry and were on our way.....our first stop was Lake MacKenzie, the most popular destination on Fraser Island. It's basically this clear lake....I've definitely never seen anything like it, unbelievable!!! It ... read more
Noosa
After our night in Brisbane, we were headed to Noosa Beach. We had heard this place was a wealthier beach community that was quaint & typically beautiful! We got there and of course were not disappointed. The town centre was so cute filled with yummy looking restaurants and cool shops. Our first order of business was setting up a surfing lesson for the next day. So all four of us headed out to the beach on a beautiful day for surfing. Kathryn had taken a lesson in Byron, me & Lynds had our few in Manly, but MN was a beginner. We had a great instructor that taught us each a lot. It was so much fun! We were all up surfing in no time at all....I even have the pics to prove it haha. Me ... read more
Sunrise
Well, we have officially left Manly and have begun our 8 week adventure around Australia, Thailand & Cambodia. Our first stop was Byron Bay. We had heard fantastic things about this little beach town, but were still definitely pleasantly surprised when we got there. For the next three weeks Lyndsey's sister Kathryn has joined us for our adventure up the east coast. The hostel in Byron Bay was a bit "alternative" haha, pretty much everyone had dreads and some lived in teepees. But it was a great place! We loved it.....so we spent our days enjoying Byron's beautiful beach. MN & I even got up one morning at 430 to watch the sunrise from the most eastern point in Australia, it was of course indescribably amazing! Since we were spending our Christmas in Byron, we decided ... read more
