Blogs from Oceania - page 7800

Hey Guys, Just a quick hello, how are you message from home before I leave, to let you know how I'm planning on updating you all. (ps Thanks for the great travel diary idea tiff, hopefully mine will be as cool to read as yours.....;o)) It's pretty exciting realising that departure is so close! A little scary too, but not too much! Just to remind you all....I'm off to Lyon tomorrow, via Chch, Auckland, LA and Frankfurt....all in all about 38 hours of airports and planes....sigh. Well lots of packing and last minute organisation to do here, of course, Sending masses of love and hugs to you all, hoping everyone is well and happy, I'll email from France when I get a chance! Any emails will be gladly recieved at my end, I'm sure I'll be missing ... read more

After passing the Breakaways Rach, the two Irish John's, and Uver (he;'s german) and i switched busses and headed to Uluru. We camped in swags, think an candy wrapper made of canvass that you put your sleepig bag in and become a cocoon to avoid the frigid desert nights. At 5 am we got up to see Sunrise then hike uluru. Only Rachel and 2 japanese girls from our bus violated the wishes of the native owners to not climb uluru. So they when up, while the rest of us went around the base. Uluru is huge (which is why it is famous) and all red sandstone. The stone looks so different in the light and from angles. At points it almost looks like cloth, it has that drapery look to it. It is so beautiful. ... read more

were our dinner in Adelade, but i get ahead of myself.... After the Blue Mountains Rachel, Brendan and I headed into Sydneyto have drinks and dinner with my friend Beng, his girlfriend and his brother Vincent. (Beng is an Aussie who i met in Copenhagen last summer, and the 2 of us spent several days exploring.) At first i was concerned that the whole thing would be awkward. No worries, it turns out. We started immedately drinking, an activity enjoyed by all! Everyone got along, we were all quite animated and ejoying ourselves. Dinner was Pizza (for everyone but Rachel, and her pasta was the best thing we got) and 2 liters of house white wine. It was the worst wine i have had in australia, but we drank all of it. From dinner, we headed ... read more

It's always been a dream destination of mine...to see Tahiti. Her beautiful Islands lived up to the gorgeous brochures we have all seen and drooled over. But, the sparkling jewel was defintely....Bora Bora. The beauty of this island took my breath away! I visited Papette, Huahine, Moorea....which were all beautiful, but Bora Bora just stands out with it's amazing view. As I landed, and saw the almost black mountains{Mount Otemanu and Mount Pahia}, with the lush emerald greenery and the stunningly gorgeous blue lagoons...no words can describe the beauty. If, I appear to be 'gushing' it's because I am. This is paradise. And paradise does come with a price. Yes, a high price! Over-the-water bungalows start at $500 USD a night. Oh.....but, what a splurge. With glass see-through coffee tables ....you can see schools of fish ... read more

Only Rachel would come up with that description for a purple cactus which was shaped like an artichoke. So here i am in Sydney, after 36 hours of travel. I got through it of course and it was totally worth it! The trip started off well, with an improptu discussion about the hideousness of the american job market and the problems of standardized testing when i checked in at Newark airport. Lets put it this way, i had 4 very liberal conversations enroute to Sydney, 2 with americans, 2 with Aussies. These 4 conversations, the empty seat next to me from LA to here, and the 8 hours or so of conversations i had with my friends while at LAX are what made the trip overhere bearable. After landing and getting to town, we took much ... read more