The Adventures of Papa Bear

If any of you have ever seen the travelocity ads with the traveling gnome you'll get the idea. I brought along one of my (many) teddy bears from home. I got him when my papa was in the hospital so fittingly named him "Papa Bear" he's come with me on many trips through the years and this time he's getting a spotlight. Tim came up with the idea to take pictures of him while we were camping and I've decided to continue on with it so we'll see how many places I can get a picture of him! Here are the ones from Jervis Bay.

Camping at Jervis Bay

This past weekend I went down to Jervis Bay with Tim. If any of you have been in contact with my mother I'm sure you know all about him :-P We left Friday night after work and got there about 10:30 pm. Putting up a tent in the dark wasn't exactly ideal but we did manage to get it standing! We probably would have been screwed if it rained but it did stay up. Once we had the tent up we had a few beers and checked out the stars which were amazing, just like being up north back home. After freezing through the night we got up and checked out the beach during the day - so gorgeous! Bright white beaches and clear blue water, the sun was finally out after weeks of rain. We went swimming and layed in the sun for a while then checked out some beaches near by, it's all in a national park. We tried to get to one by walking but at one point we had to walk up over a hill to get around and as soon as we peaked over the top we were greeted by a man and woman in uniform asking for ID. Apparently we'd stumbled on the Australian Navy base, whoops! It rained Sunday so we left early and took the scenic way home, definitely a nicer drive. Overall it was an awesome weekend, one of the hidden gems of Oz.

Our beach at the campsite

A lovely, flattering photo Tim took while I napped on the beach

Hyam Beach

Cave Beach

Hello Again!

I have been VERY bad at updating this recently. I haven't had a camera or decent internet access and not really anything to update on but I guess I should keep it going. I've just started working at a call center in Sydney doing customer service for a weight loss company.. fun! Not. It actually isn't that bad, everyone I work with is really nice and they're all travelers like me for the most part. It's mostly Irish people actually, there was one other Canadian but she quit today. The company is called Igea life sciences, theres three products they sell: Bodytrim (a lifestyle program that tells you what to eat and do to lose weight, no miracle pills or anything) Super Slim (a shake you drink to feel full before meals, ya like that works) and Skin Physics who sell an age recovery system and a cellulite reduction system. I HATE the Skin Physics phone calls, basically the products don't work and therefore everyone calls to complain and send it back to get fixed. The other calls are all pretty straightforward, obviously you get a few nightmare calls but it's not really that bad. Other than the job I haven't really been up to much, trying to keep it low key so I can save up some money. I did go to Manly beach a few weeks ago so here's some shots from that! I will update again soon... I promise!

Home Sweet Home!

The Stanley!

I've just moved in to my new digs at Bondi! It's a four bedroom, one bathroom apartment in a complex building called The Stanley. I'm currently living with two guys, one Aussie and one from Britain. The Aussie, Mark, is from Perth and has his degree in architectural design which he did for a few years and is now focusing on creating a men's clothing line. The Brit, Tom, is in school and I can't remember right now what he's taking.. oops! I haven't seen Tom as much the past few days as he's been at school. They are both really good guys, no need to worry brothers and father :p Hopefully another girl will be moving in to the extra room soon but for now it's working out really well! The next step is to find a job... fingers crossed!

I've got all my pictures from home up :)



The living room/kitchen, look Dad I've even got a la-z boy!



Contiki Comes To A Close

So the day has finally come to say goodbye to the contiki crew. Can't believe how much we did in such a short amount of time and how fast it flew by! This was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I will never forget any of what I did or who I met. I am so fortunate to have had such a great group of people who were all so kind and welcoming to one another. Although I came out with a few bumps and bruises I wouldn't change any of it for the world. Dad, I don't have to get a tattoo to remember the trip now.. I'll have a wicked scar instead! A part of me doesn't want the trip to end but I'm also ready to get back to Sydney and start looking for work. I think my favourite part of the trip was sailing in the Whitsundays but it's a tough call! I had so much fun everywhere we went and it was so great to see so much more of Australia. The country is so huge though, I've barely made an indent in it! Overall, this was a great tour and I would reccomend it to anyone thinking of doing it! 

Bungee Jumping

After my accident on the river you would think I would take it easy, right? Of course not! Have you never met me before? I was already signed up for bungee jumping and I really did consider not doing it because of my knee but about half an hour before we were to leave I decided I could do it. We climbed 164 feet to the top of the tower and got our harnesses on. It was two girls and two guys doing it from our group myself included. The other girl is tough as nails and I have never seen her back down from anything but when she got to the edge her face went white as a ghost and she said she couldn't do it! That immediately made me worried. When it was my turn to go I think you could have heard my heart beating at the bottom of the tower. They counted down from 5 and I couldn't do it but the second time I just jumped! I have never screamed so loud in my life but once the rope snapped up it felt amazing! My knee was hurting a bit but the adrenaline helped take my mind off of it.
I got to the building to watch my DVD I had purchased and it wasn't coming up. I waited a bit and then someone who worked there came up to me and told me the guy hadn't recorded my jump so I had to go do it again for free. Lucky me!! Not. I did not want to do it at all, knowing what's coming is way worse even if you think it would be the other way around. I was talked into doing it backwards by the guys at the top so I could have a different feeling. Bad choice. Going backwards was so much worse! It took me a lot longer to jump the second time as you can tell by my video. I will try to get my video up soon but I'm not sure how long it will take and I am running out of internet time! Here are some shots a friend got for me though. I should have listened to my mother though because it ended up making my knee a lot worse and consequently I am now on crutches for the next few days. Oh well, it was an amazing experience!

Before the jump with Josh and Julia, missing Tom

Back to safety!

We survived!!

White Water Rafting (Dun Dun Dun..)

We arrived in Cairns on a Wednesday afternoon and had a pub crawl that night through four bars. The next morning I had signed up for white water rafting with about ten other people. I wasn't feeling too well after the pub crawl anyway not to mention the nerves for the rafting. It was a two hour drive to Tully where the river is so I had a good nap the whole way and woke up feeling better and ready to go! I didn't really have any idea what to expect but after the first rapids I loved it and was having a great time. And then it wasn't so great..
We got to a set of rapids called The Staircase and it was classified as Stage 4 out of a possible 6 on a scale of the intensity of them. We got down the first bit and our boat turned to the right so that my side of the boat was backwards. When we hit the bottom a guy on the opposite side fell forward hitting the person beside me who then fell on top of me knocking me into the water and underneath the raft. I was stuck under the raft for about ten seconds. Others on the raft said they were really worried when the two guys' heads popped up but I was nowhere to be found. After what felt like AGES I came up beside the raft but before anyone could grab me I was swept off by the rapids. I was told to put your feet up facing downstream and stay calm but whenever I got my feet up I was taken underwater and flipped around so much that it didn't make much difference. I have never felt like I was going to die before that but there was a moment where I barely had any breath left and I honestly thought that was it. Finally I caught onto a rock long enough to catch my breath and then I was taken down to the end of the rapids where I heaved myself onto shore and just started bawling and hyperventilating. I had a pretty bad cut on my knee and ankle and sore bits all over my body. After calming down I wanted to keep going but the pain was too much so I had to spend the rest of the day on the bus. It was a fun experience at first but it's safe to say I will never be white water rafting again!!

Before the first rapids

We survived the first set!

After my accident, being transported back to safety