AUSTRALIA!!!!

Trip Start Mar 02, 2005

Trip End Aug 07, 2005

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Flag of Australia Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Hello everyone!! I'm still alive!! I have been rather lazy updating this...kept putting it off. Anyways, I was back in Calgary after Honduras for 5 days, repacked and then I was off again!!! The flight was unbelievably long... Calgary-London 8hours, 4hours in London airport, London-Singapore 12hours, 6hours in Singapore (went on a bus tours into the city and made a friend!!), then another 8hours Singapore to Sydney!!! Left Calgary on Monday and arrived in Sydney on Thursday. So long, but my friend Lauren surprized me at the airport to pick me up!!! I was in Sydney for almost two weeks, just visiting old friends. Very fun and weird catching up with people I have seen, or really kept in contact with, for two years!! I stayed with my friend from field hockey Kath for almost a week, then with my parent's friends Wendy and Viggo for a few days, and then at Lauren's house for my last few days. The weather was kinda crappy and rainy at first but then it was nice for my last few days so I was able to go to the beach one day and to an outdoor pool another day

Boat tour in Singapore

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Then I left Sydney on a 4 day "Learn to Surf" camp!! It was so much fun!! We surfed at a different place along the coast each day and stayed at their camp for two nights and a hostel the third night. There were 12 people in my group from all over: Switzerland, Holland, France, England, Germany, and an Aussie. And of course, I was a surfing machine!!!! Well, maybe I wouldn't go that far but I thought I did pretty well. Not to brag or anything, but on our first day out I was already catching unbroken waves!!! AND on the last day we had a surfing competition. I came in 2nd in my heat and 3rd in the final!!! At dinner on the last night we were presented with our awards, a necklace with a surfboard on it (still hanging proudly around my neck).
The surf camp ended in Byron Bay and I'm still here. I hung out with other people from the camp for the weekend, went to the beach one day and Sunday 5 of us rented a car and drove to some Sunday markets, to a place called Nimbin (ultimate hippie town), and to some waterfalls. One girl drove us on the way there, but she drove a little fast which made the rest of us a little nervous so I offered to drive back, warning them that I had never driven on the left side of the road and that I wasn't really used to driving a standard/manual car. Well I turned out to be even worse that I remembered!! I was ok once I got going, but getting going tended to be a problem (everytime)

Easter Sunday

. It also didn't help that we got lost every 5 mins so I had to attempt u-turns on very steep hills. Anyways, it was an adventure.
This Tuesday I started my scuba diving open water course. the first two days were just classroom and pool stuff, but today we went on two dives and we do another two tomorrow at a place called Julian Rocks. We saw some pretty cool stuff: manta rays, sting rays, leopard sharks, wobbegong sharks, eels, and all sorts of fish.
I leave Byron on Saturday to go to Brisbane where I catch a flight over to New Zealand to start my bus trip. Should be fun but will definately be alot colder....

Talk to you soon!!