First of all: no, I am not dead. I realise that I have gone more than a month and a half without an update, and I deeply regret that. The truth is I have just been pretty lazy, and the longer I waited, the harder it got. So I figured the best way was to just skip most of what I missed and move on to more recent occurrences.
I will briefly go over my spring break trip because it definitely deserves mention. My spring break trip was, in a word, amazing. I spent a week on the south island of New Zealand with a tour group of around 30 college students, mostly from America. We traveled all around the island on a big bus called Roxanne (we listened to the Police song every morning to get going). We went to a sheep station in the mountains, hiked on a glacier, spent the night on a boat in Milford Sound (the rainiest place on Earth at sea level), and spent two nights in Queenstown where we went horseback riding, jetboating on a river and bungy jumped! New Zealand has, without a doubt, some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. After New Zealand my two American mates Cory and Mike headed with me to Queensland, the northeast state of Australia. We actually had a bit of a hiccup in our transition because we didn't leave enough time between the flight from New Zealand into Sydney and Sydney going up to Queensland. We missed the flight and had to spend an extra night in Sydney, which ended up being quite relaxing. We met up with our other friend Patrick in Airlie Beach where we went on a two day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef. The water was the clearest blue and we went snorkeling with some beautiful fish and coral. After the Whitsundays we took an overnight 12-hour busride down to Hervey Bay where we went to Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world. The only way to get around the island is in 4-wheel-drive vehicles so we went through a company that rents them out. The four of us (Cory, Mike, Patrick and myself) were paired with four English girls just about our age. We all got along really well and had fun driving around and camping on the island. I've uploaded a bunch of pictures from the trip to make up for the lack of detail. They can be found
here.
Upon returning from spring break, we had to jump right back into school, which was rather difficult after a 17 day holiday. My first week back was relaxed as I didn't have any schoolwork due. October was relatively calm. We had our formal farewell dinner on October 31 (unfortunately Halloween isn't really celebrated here), which was quite fun.
My roommates and me all dressed up for our formal dinner. This was probably the hottest day so far at about 95 degrees and we were all very hot.
The next weekend, a group of friends and I traveled down to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. We left pretty early because the whole trip takes about five hours by train. This area is generally known for its amazing views of valleys, its many bushwalks and the Jenolan Caves nearby. The town we stayed in, called Katoomba, was rife with antique shops and old bookstores, which we perused for a few hours. We then visited Echo Point from which the famous Three Sisters can be seen, pictured below.
We went on a bit of a hike to see some waterfalls before heading back to our hostel. That night we went out to eat at a small cafe with some live music. The helpings were heaping and the music was melodic, so it was a pleasant evening. The next day we decided to visit Jenolan Caves, which is one of the largest limestone cave systems in the world. We had to take a bus that was about an hour and a half to get there. Our guided tour didn't start until afternoon, but they gave us a little headset to do a self-guided tour of a different part of the cave system. After that we had a bit of lunch before meeting up with the tour group. On the guided tour we actually got to go pretty deep into the cave system, which is quite developed inside. There are concrete pathways with handrails and lights all throughout. The sights are spectacular and there is truly nothing else like it. Taking pictures inside the cave was hard because of the low light, and using a flash washed out the shadows so the features didn't look as impressive. I did manage to get a few good shots that weren't blurry.
The tour wasn't too long, but it was definitely interesting. We emerged from the cave to be greeted by the glaring sun. We got back on the bus and headed back to Katoomba. The next day we walked around Katoomba a bit more before boarding the train for the long journey home.
I had finished most of my major assessments right before the Blue Mountains trip, so I have basically been done for most of November and have been trying to use some of my free time. I just got back from another trip to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. My roommate Nat invited me to come and stay with her and her friend in her aunt's holiday house. Her aunt actually won the house in some kind of lottery. I was looking forward to staying in an actual house and not having to pay for a hostel. When I arrived, I was shocked to discover that the "holiday house" was more of a multimillion dollar villa blocks from downtown. It was a two story house with three bedrooms and two luxury bathrooms with a pool out back, and I even had my own queen size bed, which was fantastic.
After I was done exploring and ogling the house, we had some dinner and lounged for a bit. We decided to go out on the town so we headed out to Jupiter's Casino which was quite busy. After losing a few dollars at the slots we decided we'd had enough and headed out to find a bar. It happened to be Schoolies Week, which is when all the high school graduates go on their celebratory holiday to the Gold Coast, so there were 18-year-olds running around everywhere. Most of the bars were loud and packed but we managed to find a nice quiet bar and relax there for a few drinks before going home. The next day Nat's other aunt and uncle came to visit with their kids. We mainly lounged around all day and talked to them about all sorts of things. That evening the thunderstorms started rolling in. The Gold Coast got hit by one of the worst storms in a long time. Near Brisbane some houses were completely destroyed and one man died after getting caught in a storm drain. However, since the region has been in drought for so long, the rain is actually a good thing. Although personally, I was a little disappointed because it didn't stop raining the entire time I was there. The next day the three of us went to a water park called Wet 'n Wild. It was raining and pretty cold, but the lines were short so it was worth it. The next day we rented a little car and drove up into the mountains. We visited a manmade cave which was a sanctuary for glow worms. They had about 15,000 in the small cave and we got to learn all about their life cycle and how they glow. We had wanted to do a hike, but most of the trails were closed because of the storms causing trees to fall over. We did manage to find one short hike to a waterfall and got completely drenched in the process. The next day, right as I got to the bus stop to head back to the airport, the sun came out. Awesome. Overall though, it was a great trip.
I now have 10 days left before I have to move out of the residential college. I'm going up to a city called Ballina to stay with my roommate Telly for a little over a week. Then I'll be flying down to Canberra to stay with a family friend. After a few days there I'll stop by Sydney for one last time before heading back to Newcastle for a couple nights. On December 15 I'll head over to Auckland and then back to Seattle on the 20th.
It's crazy that this long adventure is starting to come to an end. I have exactly one month left until I get back to Seattle, and I plan to make the most of it. People are slowly starting to leave. One of my best mates Mike just left yesterday to go back to Chicago. I've gotten to know a lot of people from the midwest and a few from the east coast, and I hope to visit them in the hopefully not-too-distant future.
