It has been too long hasn't it?

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Now that life has returned to traveling and I have time aside from the hectic life of residence you will hear from me on a more regular basis. I apologize for those of you who have been attempting to follow my progress but things have died off due to school and exam madness. I will do a very quick recap first for those not wishing to read the full text or who want a quick summary so that they can read the rest later.

Since exams ended we headed to Jindabyne to see our friend Stuart and to see 'the snow'
Surfed heaps
Since leaving Weerona College on July 5th:
- I pushed my flight to New Zealand back a week to hang out with my sister and travel with the Norwegians before I run off to New Zealand for almost 2 months
- Caught a train up to Sydney and from there to Brisbane to meet up with Nina the Norwegian and her friend Siri before they left to Asia.
- In Brisbane we ventured to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
- Took a river cruise through the city and went on a brewery tour of XXXX (a Queensland company)
- Took Norwegians to the airport but they went to the wrong one, missed their flight, and spent 3 more days with us!
- 2 nights in Surfer's paradise and a climb up the Q1 (the World's tallest residential building)
-1 night in Byron Bay (I know but I have a flight soon to New Zealand but I will definitely go back)
- Back in Wollongong for the night while I pack for New Zealand

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Living in Weerona has come to an end. Spending the majority of my time with 18 years old again was most definitely a maturing experience. I just hope I wasn't like they were when I was 18... That being said my time was still very enjoyable. I lived with roughly 70 Americans, many of whom I befriend but I expended most of my efforts getting to know the Australians and some of the other study abroad students. Many good connections back home were made as well as many on an international scope.

We sadly missed the big move out day as we had rented a car (my first rental!!!) and I drove 4 other people (Nina, Siri (both Norwegians), Dave and Rebecca (sister)) down to Jindabyne which is an odd 800km I believe. We drove all day, stopping at some exciting landmarks like the giant merino sheep and admiring all of the kangaroo's and wombats, both alive and dead. We arrived at Jindabyne in the evening, sat down for a pint at the pub and waited for Stuart to see Transformers before running over to his house and having a hot tub and some star gazing.

The following day was Rebecca's birthday and we ran up to Thredbo again to look at the snow. There was considerably more than the last time I was there so we built a snowman and had a small snow fight. It was odd to me that there was a member of our group from Sydney who had NEVER seen snow before! That was mind boggling but I imagine it is a completely different world. I never saw a true ocean beach until I was 16 so I guess it may not be too weird... We also chased some kangaroo's, wombats and fed Stuart's Alpaca’s which are just funny animals in general. Nina loved the alpaca’s as she thought they looked 'stupid' and were fun to feed.

We came back and celebrated Rebecca's birthday party with a wonderful brownie cake made by Stuart's mother and then settled back into our hot tubing, sauna's and star gazing. We stopped back in Canberra to see the war memorial the next day and drove straight to Wollongong.

Afterwards our time was spent sorting out anything donatable that was thrown out into various piles for charity and surfing. We celebrated Canada Day at a friend’s house, found a bunch of random Canadians such as a guy from University of Alberta and our Geology friend Jane Marzetti. We celebrated in style dressed in Red and White, singing Oh Canada a fair bit, and making the Aussie's enjoy it as much as us.

I pushed my flight to New Zealand back so that I could spend some more time with Rebecca so we booked an overnight train up to Brisbane (~13 hours) and slept on the train until we met up with the Norwegians in a hostel there. From here we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was an absolute blast. We went to koala, and snake lectures, fed kangaroo's and emu's, saw dingo's, kookaburra’s, brightly colored parrots, Tasmanian devil's, baby koalas which had more energy than I had expected and a whole bunch of reptiles. The baby koalas definitely were more active than I had imagined and were running all over the place and leaping from tree to tree. Definitely not the typical image that is in one's mind when thinking of a koala. There was a small exhibit of reptiles, mostly the most dangerous ones from brown snakes, sea snakes, taipans, several monitor lizards and a couple frogs and lizards of note here in Australia. We also saw the first in vitro fertilized baby koalas which appear in those cute pics of the mom koala with her baby. Later that night we played trivia and won 4 jugs of beer and nachos, making a great night to the end to a great day.

The following day we went on a river cruise to see Brisbane and learn about some of its history. The city is loosely wrapped around a meandering river system so the tour took us from one end of the city to the other in quite a bit of detail. We proceeded from here to the XXXX (Four X) brewery where we learned more than just how to make beer. We learned the entire companies’ history which was more then we bargained for. I knew how to make beer from my numerous brewing experiences here but it was still really interesting to see the scale of the operation and how they were canned and packaged for distribution.

We said good bye to the Norwegians, I took them to the airport and was ready to see them off when they realized that they had gone to the wrong airport, the Brisbane one instead of the Gold Coast airport. We were then lucky enough to spend 3 more days with them as their new flight departed only once every few days. We travelled that day down to Surfer's Paradise where we just hung around on the beach because the conditions were too dangerous to surf so we wandered around the city and the main strip. The following day we climbed up the Q1 tower which is the world's largest residential building and has the fastest elevators in the world, 77 floors in ~40 seconds. My ears were popping and I managed to video the floors on the way down so people can appreciate the decent when I return home. The view was spectacular up there as can be seen by my pictures. We sat up there and watched a storm roll in, a rainbow form and the tiny little people below us.

I regret only spending one night in Byron Bay but I have resolved to go back there. We rented a couple bicycles and rode up to the light house and walked to the most eastern point in Australia. The cliffs looked like east coast Canada style cliffs and this lovely rainbow formed over the lighthouse and we got some very vibrant photographs of the scene. We went through a rainforest walk to get there and then when we saw how good the surf was went out and attempted to catch some waves despite it being the busiest surf beach I have ever seen. Well over 100 people were in the water trying to catch these waves... Definitely made things rather difficult and interesting. The tip of my board broke before I left Wollongong and I had to do a shoddy fix job several times on the trip from traveling and occasionally surfing. Just a small crack in the top not too much to worry about.

We met up with Dave and James who were camping for the night in the van that Dave bought and we ended up camping with them and heading out to the city for a bit of the night life and for some pizza after our canned food dinner with bread. We arose for a morning surf, enjoyed our last day together and then said farewell to the Norwegians as they actually made it to the right airport and I hopped on a bus and a train to come to reside in Wollongong where I will pack and gather my junk for my expedition to New Zealand.

I intend to buy a car after a few days in Christchurch before heading to Queenstown to meet up with a couple Aussie mates who are snowboarding before heading to Milford Sound and Doubtful sand among others. We will see where my travels down there take me as my plan is to spend about 2 months in a car trying to see the magical sites and the sites from the Lord of the Rings.

My flight leaves tomorrow at 7pm, arriving just after midnight. I am feeling the pinch in my pocket because Australia is not a cheap place and their dollar has gotten a fair bit stronger. New Zealand however is definitely a better place to make my money go further and is cheaper. I will be very happy there despite the slight decrease in the temperature of both land and ocean.

I hope this satisfies your thirst for my adventures for the time being. Look towards more form me soon. My apologies for my blog tardiness but remember, I am having enough fun for both of us so it may be hard at times to post very often.

Thanks for reading and expect to hear from me soon!

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Photos

My traveling companion Brick
I will make a full album of him once my travels have commenced more.

Surf Crew
These are my buddies who I typcially went surfing with.

Bottles bottles everywhere...
These were some of our beer bottles that we would fill when we brewed our beer.

The Mangey Wombat
This is Tanner's van that he is taking all over Australia.

The Rockstar
Our friend James Burr during his show at the Oxford Tavern Wollongong

My foot after meeting with some rocks and my surf board
I feared for about a week I'd broken something. No point getting the foot checked out as there is nothing they can do. I think it just turned out to be a bone bruise and some muscle bruising as it stopped hurting about a week after it happened.
Fear not people, unless an injury is incapacitating you will not hear about it until I am better, thus you need not worry!

Burr and Reese
True Blue Australian friends

Aussie Rules Football (AFL)
This is a purely Australian version of rugby involving lots of kicking... Imagine Quidditch from Harry Potter and it is a close comparison.

An Australian Snowman
Do you think even the snowmen will have different accents?

Obscure sign in Australi
All right, it may not be so obscure because it is at 'the snow fields' but the irony from this picture compared to Alberta brings a smile to my face =)

Nina surfing
Nina the Norwegian surfing!

The Farm surf day
A bunch of us surfing at a beach about 45 minutes south of Wollongong

Last exam of the degree
We have finished our degrees! We celebrated our last test by going in our underwear and in Canadian flag capes. There were no issues but we made the exam admins laugh a fair bit. I am actually heading back for further classes so although it was my last test for my degree, it won't be my last test.

Comments

[Monica Coulson]

Just keep enjoying your trip and be as tardy as you can!! It is wonderful to be able to follow along with your adventures, but life is for living and exploring -you can write about it all after if you have time. Take care and have so much fun!! Love you! Mom