whale-less watching & vivid sydney

23.05.2010
well...i went whale-less watching.
what is this whale-less watching you may ask?
oh, well let me explain it to you.

whale-less watching [verb]: paying a company to take you on a boat out into the great ocean blue so you can NOT see whales in their natural habitat.

also, i'm pretty sure about 90% of the people on the boat lost their cookies.
incredibly disgusting, i assure you.

but, to stay positive, i think the ocean is absolutely beautiful so it wasn't terrible and i still enjoyed myself.
i obviously didn't get sick on the boat.

here are some pictures of the excursion:::

a perfect view of the whale-less ocean.

pirate ship! ...ok not really. apparently there is this thing where younger kids go out on this boat to learn how to man a ship and such...super rad, right?!

on the way out...this is part of watson's bay...i'm pretty sure.

27.05.2010
every winter (yes, it's winter here...), sydney puts on this "festival" if you will, called "Vivid Sydney"...here's a little excerpt about it:

"From 27 May to 21 June 2010, Vivid Sydney brings together large scale light installations and projections, music performances, creative ideas, stimulating discussions and debates, showcasing Sydney as a major creative hub in the Asia-Pacific Region."

Today (the 27th of may), i went to the opening ceremony..."the lighting of the sails"...for those of you who don't know what this means...the sydney opera house was designed to look like a the sails of a ship...so "the lighting of the sails" is just what it sounds like, they light up the "sails" of the lighthouse. here are a few pictures...the images changed every 5 minutes or so.

later on in the festival, they lit up different parts of the city...it started at St. Mary's Cathedral and went all the way to Sydney Harbour and ended with the Opera House (which stayed lit during the entire vivid sydney festival)...it was really beautiful...but my camera took a dive in the ocean when i was in Cairns...i managed to save the memory card (yes i know i haven't written about that trip yet...i will when i get back to the states and can upload photos)...so i took pictures with a friend's camera...and he has yet to upload those pictures.

buuut....yeahhh...that sums up my australian adventures up until my study break in Cairns :]

ice bar! :]

On may 22 i went to an ICE BAR!
the whole bar was made of ice! there were ice sculptures, an ice jeep (ha), and a checkers board :]
you were only allowed to stay in the bar for 30...since it was so cold, obviously.
and we got a free cocktail that was mucho delicious.

james and me in our super stylish parkas
me driving the ice jeep ;]
ice bar sydneyyy!!

01 May - Footy Game

Sooo...obviously it is june...and i haven't updated my blog in over a month! so...here is me attempting to update :]

so...i saw my first footy game!!!...for those of you who don't know what that is...it's AFL, Australia Rules Football League. Don't ask me to explain...because i have nooo idea what was going on the entire game. i watched the sydney swans play the brisbane lions! and sydney wonnnn!!! wooooo!
i went with my lovely friendlies torie and james. we had a blast even though we didn't know what happened

here are some pictures :]

here is the field
here is a picture of the field during the game...
goooo sydneyyyyy!!!

wahoo. finally completely updated.

hey kids hey!
soooo...excitement since semester break:

[[numero uno]] shortly after returning from break...the tuesday after, to be exact...i saw WICKED! coolest thing ever, right? it was at the capital theatre. i have been DYING to see this musical for, oh, a thousand years now and i was NOT let down. sadly, i couldn't take any pictures of the inside...it was immaculate, in a word.

[[numero dos]] --- april 23
I WENT TO THE HORSE RACES! i've always wanted to check them out. they sound classy and all that. it was the last day of the year...at the ranwick race track. i bet on one horse...euphemism...that is his picture below...and he let me down :( he lost...twas sad.

[[numero tres]] --- 25 april
i went to the hunter valley for a wine tour! the area was seriously absolutely beautiful! i love love loved it! first, we went to a national park and looked around and such...and then i saw the most MASSIVE kangaroo of my LIFE. and then after we atarted on the actual wine touring stuff. we went to three wineries...the first one was very i jsut walked into martha stewart's country home (but still lovely)...the second was very beautiful and my favourite (tasted the BEST wine ever...sooo sweet...yes, i bought a bottle)...and the last was cool too. i went with my friend james...we had a blast, acting all classy and wine connoisseur-ish.



but...that is all for now..hopefully i have new adventures soon to update you on.
oh, and school is going well...and i'm not failing. (that was for you daddy ;])

09-10 april - end of semester break

09 April --- 3rd and final day on fraser island
We started the day by hiking 1 km into lake wabby. it was so incredible. there were sand dunes and out of nowhere there was a lake right in the middle.

afterwards, we hiked 2.4 km out of the lake and went to a little resort area for lunch. after lunch we were able to go to another beautiful lake like lake mckenzie. this one was called lake birrabean.
afterward, we had to take the ferry back to hervey bay and say goodbye :( of course the sunset during the ferry ride was beautiful.

when we got back to hervey bay and settled and showered ( i was absolutely COVERED in sand from the sand dunes...i'll probably be finding sand for the rest of my life) one of the girls on my tour, heidi, and the english guy neil went to this bar to have dinner. i must say, this was hands down, the most bizarre place of my life. first, the people were just odd...some crazy old rocker lady, lots of surfer beach bum types, goths, it was an odd assortment. and all the people were incredibly trashed. then there was a guy playing really great live acoustic music but every now and then, the DJ would interrupt him for this random fashion show type thing that was going on with 5 girls.
10 april --- going home
this morning i packed my stuff up and headed to reception where the same girl who shared my taxi when i first got to hervey bay was! so, we went to brekky. afterwards, i sat on the beach for a while waiting for my shuttle. while i was waiting 3 guys parachute landed on the beach.
then it was hasta luego spring break :(

08 April - Fraser Island Day 2

08 April - Day 2 Fraser Island
Before I ramble on about my activities, here is a picture of Hayden. He was our tour guide and was absolutely fantastic. I swear he knows EVERYTHING.and here is a picture of our hard core 4wd that we traveled in the whole trip.
today, we started off by driving to the eastern side of fraser island to 75 mile beach...which is actually only 58 miles...go figure. and why it is measured in miles when australia and the rest of the entire world (besides the US of course) uses the metric system? not the slightest idea.
Our first stop on 74 mile beach was the Pinnacle Colored Sands.
Afterwards, we drove to the champagne pools which are these large tide pools of rock, that, when the tide is high, the ocean crashes over the side and foams and glitters over the rocks like champagne. hayden said it was too dangerous to go when the tide was that high, and we weould have had to wait until the tide went back down so we could get out and drive on the beach.
next, we went out to indian head, which is this lava rock formation that scientist believe formed even before fraser isalnd itself. james cook named it indian head because when he sailed past there were many aboriginals gathered there watching...and of course, the british called every dark skinned native an indian.
after, we checked out the wreck of ship maheno. the wreck happened in the early 1900s. the story is actually really interesting...and i'm too lazy to type it all here...google it, it's interesting.
lastly, we checked out eli creek. this creek is freshwater and runs all the way out on the beach and into the ocean. this water runoff into the ocean is enough to fill an olympic sized pool in 35 minutes.
tonight, everyone who was only doing the 2 day trip left the island :( we had a little goodbye party at the dingo bar.

07 april - day one fraser island

07 april---
today i left for my three day tour on fraser islanddd! i started my day at the beautiful hour of SIX AM! and left hervey bay at 730. first, we met ou tour guide, hayden...who is the typical outdoor loving, hilariously great aussie. we took a ferry ride over to the island then began our while 4WD bus trek.seatbelts were required as it was a bumpy road. i met 3 really great firls, tatiana from brasil...she's was absolutely adorable. then there were 2 danish girls sarah and rikke.

first we went to basin lake. we hiked up a trail to this beautiful lake high up in the sand dunes!
then we hiked down and road to central station to have lunch. from there we began on the rainforest boardwalk. this is the only subtropical rainforest in all sand! on the boardwalk we saw wanggoolba creek. it is absolutely crystal clear! the lcearest creek i have seen in my life.
from here we got picked up at the end of the hike and went to lake mckenzie. it was stunninggg! the girls and i took lots of pictures then sarah and i sat in the water for a while, it was so nice and relaxing.

then we headed back to the camp for the night and a few of us walked up to a look out to watch the sunset! the picture doesn't even do it justice.
tonight we had "australian chinese"...basically normal food with fried rice. then we hung out for a while then hit the dance floor! absolutely fantastic first day on fraser! :]