camping, scuba and stargazing

Hey all,
Sorry about the time gap. Things seem to keep popping up, or shutting down in my laptops case. Fingers crossed that this post manages to make it onto the net.

SO, bad news. The ocean ate my camera. and i did cry. In fact since the 4th (which is the fateful day when a little bit of me died inside [ note, not joking. i feel like i'm missing something vital]), i keep having issues keeping track of my stuff.

NIck and i left Wollongong on the 6th. He had originally been planning on going over to christchurch in NZ, but ended up changing his plane ticket so that we could spend a little time together and he could meet up with some Norweign friends before they left the country for good. We ended up boarding a train at about 4pm, for a 13 hr train ride. and let me tell you, sleeping on a train is not an eas or restful thing. everything it slows down or excellerates, depending on where you are/what way your seat is facing, you fall off. and whatever sleep you do get is highly unrestful. When we got off the train the next morning in Brisbane, we found our hostel and had a nap. From there we met up with said norweigns, and did some exploring. We went over to a place called The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where koalas reigned supreme, and i even got to hold one. There was a snake there too you could hold, but i for obvious reasons decided to steer clear of it.

WHile other people were enjoying their time spent with the snake, i made friends with a baby koala who i named Bilbo. He was small, fluffy, and incredibly cute. Surprisingly enough, koalas are pretty quick little suckers on the ground. they can really run around! As the name implies, the area is mainly dedicated to koalas, and we got to see some really small baby ones with their moms. Artifically impregnated, they were still adore little guys to try and sneak a peek at. While we were there we also fed kangaroos, an emu, and saw casawarries, wallabies, wombats, dingos, parrots, lizards, and all those kind of oz things. That night our hostel was having a triva night, and having just read a Bill Bryson novel, picked up from the hostel novel exchange, i was feeling pretty confident. And i would have been a bigger help to our team, The Space Stegosauruses of Justice, if the trivia had been about oz. However, it was general, and i really suck at that. We needed tanner and his awesome knowldge hella fierce. But somehow we managed to win all the freebeer and the nachoes, so i like to think that we were the real winners in that game.
oh, and it reinforced that pictionary is an evil game. IN fact, its ebil.

On the 8th, we went on a river cruise tour and learned a little about brisban history. I had wanted to go on a rainforest walk, where we could have gone through the canopy, and seen volcanic areas and waterfalls, but was outvoted. We were able to go to the XXXX (four-ex) brewery tour, which was pretty neat, and we got to try an assortment of their beers. They brewed a specific one for girls, which they called 'sparkling' or something abserd, and it tasted fairly gross.

on the 9th we went down to surfers paradise. Our norweigns had missed their plane that morning, so they ended up tagging along with us. We got a nice little hostel, not too far from the beach. we ended up just chilling out a lot, and enjoying the community. We hung around there for a few days, and by the end of that time we all had a flannal shirt (known as flannies), had been to the Q1 tower (one of the 20 highest buildings in the world, one of the only ones having residents living in it), and just generally enjoying things. we hopped on a small shuttle to get to Byron Bay from there, where we were meeting up with some wollogong friends.

We camped in a strict campsite, enjoyed the indoor dining area and explored the town. On the 12th our norweigns got on the right plane at the right airport, and my brother nick left to go back to wollogong so he could pick up a few things. from there he was off to nz. That left me, Tornado Dave, Bur and one of their UofA friends Caleigal. We saw possoms alot at night, because we changed to a more chill campsite, and enjoyed living not very far from the beach. The swells were decent for beginners, and while still not being able to stand up on a surfboard, i think with some more practice i can start to get there. It might help having a longer board then the one i have right now, but we'll see where that leads. Monday was just a pretty chill day, which ended with us stargazing on the beach. I registered for a PADI certification scuba dive course, which ran from tuesday the 14-friday the 17th.

The scuba course was pretty fun. We learned alot about the history, why people do it, and skills we would need for doing it by ourselves. We spent the first two days in a swimming pool and doing classroom stuff, then the next two days in the ocean in a place called Julian Rocks just off the coast. One the last day we had a test, and i got 86% (and yes, i DO have to brag about that). We had a small class, only 6 of us; myself, a brit named lee and four koreans who our instructor called 'team korea.' All in all, it made for a pretty good experience. i can now dive to 18m (which is actually fairly deep underwater) with a buddy, which is pretty cool. Byron is in the top 10 places in oz to dive, and we had hard conditions we were told (3-4m visibility, which is unacceptable for almost all recreational diving). On the last day we saw breaching humpback whales and a dolphin pod, and apparently we were swimming about 6m away from humpbacks and didnt know it! thats how bad the visibility was.

I regesitered for uni courses at 3 am in the morning one night, and called my mom back home. My phone died on the way back, andthe next morning i was hella tired at scuba class.

For the past two days have been sleeping in my buddy tornado daves van, and his good friend tanner showed up today in byron with his van. Have no idea right now what the plan is, but you can bet that whatever we end up doing is going to be a blast. the last i heard was bbq on the beach....

OOOh, before i forget. For my scuba course i had to pee in a cup (which i'ev never had to do before) for my doctors appt, and then i got to smile for a passport photo. Which was odd. But their sending all my certification stuff back to canada, and they seem to find great sport in joking that it might get frozen in ice somewhere....silly aussies. I have a girl from my floor coming down to do a sem abroad in brisbane, so i'm going to head up there to visit her, help her get some stuff in order, pass on some of my oz knowldge, and just catch up. Including today i have only 12 dyas left, so i guess that i have to start planning stuff. which is going to be a strange feeling to do again...

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