Ok, so I’m leaving Australia. It’s been fun, but I’m really ready to leave, and very excited about the new adventures to come.

anyway, as my parents left I made my way over to kings cross, to stay in a hostel in sydney for the first time. I’d called in the morning to book it, not sure how full place were at this time. as I was waking from the station to the hostel, I found out that My place was way more expencive, oh well. SO I checked in and then did a wonder on kings cross, an interesting place. well, I wasn’t really up to being tourist so I found a place that had unlimited internet for $2, so I went. I applied to my tesl course, and did a bunch of stuff I had been puting off. well in the short of it, I had two more days in sydney, and the weather was crappy. I went around and saw the rest of downtown, palce I hadn’t seen yet. But the one place I wanted o go, Bondi Beach, I didn’t go to, because of the rain and cold. So, I left for melbourne a couple of days later, on an overnight bus. And Melbourne. I liked it, though I didn’t really do anything. I walked over much of it, saw a little part of a museum, spent a lot of time on the beach, and sorted out all the tings for my tesl course. not a bad last week, but nothing very exciting either. and now I go to Singapore, and to adventure.

yeah!

So, my parents just left, and I’m back to traveling. So I’ll now try and recount some of the past few weeks.

After Perth we headed to Bun bury, not a very interesting place, but it seemed a good distance to travel on this first day. Needless to say we left here the next day and made our way down to Margaret River. We stayed here for three day, and it was a nice place. On our second day, we took a canoe trip on the river that included a history of the area, and a bushtucker lunch, of traditional bush foods, yum. The exciting thing we did the next day was go to one of the many caves, which abound in the area. After Margaret River, we went to this forest area, where there is a great drive through all these cool forests, and you can clime this tree. It used to be a fire lookout, but now anyone can clime it. You start by going up these rebar steps incased in chicken wire, and they take you up, and up and up. Then you climb a series of latter’s on platforms until you reach the top, this is 68.8 Meters high (that’s about 220 ft) it was a crazy climb, and I had on sandals. So after this we came to Denmark, Albany area. We got a little self-contained cottage unit here, but it was a little basic. We then wondered around a little, and coming from Margaret river, there wasn’t much here. Also the weather had taken a turn for the worse, so the beach wasn’t particularly inviting. We started thinking that instead of the four days we had planed on staying here, we may cut it short. On our second day, we went up to mt barker, and went to the Banksia Farm, the only place in the world where all 73 species of Banksia grow. So much botany! So that night after dinner, we got the bad news, my nana had died. It was good for her, as she had been in much pain, esp. the last month or so. But it was nice that we got to get this news among family. We had also decided to leave the next day, and try exploring further north. And so we did. We spent a fairly leisurely day driving north, till we got to York, and a nice little hotel there, with great courtyards. We did another big day of driving the next day, and stopping at this old monastery along the way (the name escapes me right now), before ending our day in Gerldton. Then we got to the part of this going up north I was really looking forward to, the Pinnacles. This area of desert, with thousands of limestone pillars standing up, some as high as 5 meters. This was quite cool, and it only the weather had been better. So then we returned to Perth, where we got ready to head back to Sydney. Which we did, and coming back, we stayed at this nice hotel in the Rocks. So the room wasn’t anything special, but it had an amazing location, and a rooftop pool and spa. And with the weather not being great in Sydney, the spa was really quite inviting. And that was the basics of my parents trip. Yes, there was allot more that happened, but I just want to get this posted, and be brief, so that’s all folks

So I arrive in Sydney, and my Parents meet me as I’m getting off the bus. great timing. and we then find our way to our hotel, which was quite a bit further out then I had even though. After getting there, for a little, we head downtown, and wonder around a bit. walk around darling harber, and up to the rocks and ciruler quay. then as we are all fairly tired from traveling that day, we see a film and then head back to the hotel. the next day we head back into the city, go to the Zoo, which was OK, and then back and goto the botanical gardens, before trying to find a place for dinner. Our next day we decide to head out to find a far out botanical garden, where my parents wanted to find some native trees they use the pods from. it was a nice garden, but it was also really hot. so then we had luch at the garden, and headed for the blue moutains. cool place, nice views. I hadn’t been in moutains in a while so nice to see, then Dinner in katoomba, before we headed back to the hotel. the next day we started with a lazy morning, before we took the train to twon, as it was new years eve, and I was not going to drive into downtown sydney on this day. we had some dim-sum, and then went to the chinise gardens, whice were very nice. then we wondered about through the city, going through hyde park, and by the historic govt buildings, before seeing the crazy prepereations and security for new years. we then foubnd a drink, then a a place for dinner, before my mom went back to the hotel, and Richard and I waited many hours for the fireworks. we ended up finding this nice little park, the had a perfect view of the bridge, and so we staked it out. after a little while I got in touch with my friend Nat, whom I had worked with in Wellington, and she came down a joined us. so the view was not a great as we thought, because not all the fireworks shoot off the bridge. and it only lasted 12 minutes!?!?!? I’v been to longer fireworks depalys for no real reason, and I had expeced at least 30 minutes. but any way it was fun hanging out, and seeing nat again, and we sat out till about 6:30am, then I thought I should probably get back to the hotel, as we were leaving for perth the next morning, and had planned to leave the hotel about 10am. so disapointing fireworks, but a great new years, and my second in a row with Nat, and good tradition. so any way, we are now in perth, and start the real west coast tomarrow.

I have just reordered the Blog, so that it complete to the moment. take a look through it the stuff is now in the correct cranilogical orger, and there may be things you’ve missed before. thanks for keeping in touch, and checkin out my blog

So, just because I’ve been too lazy, and I want to keep a relitivily up to date site, I’m going to give a quick overview of of a couple of weeks, and because I usually say I might update and put in more detail later, knowing myself, that’s not going to happen.

With noosa done, and no surf to speak of, I made my way to Brisbane. It was kinda nice to see a city again. I didn;t really do anything while I was there, and I spent three nights, but I wondered around, and it was an ok city? upon leaving there, I decided to go to Surfers Paridice. Which for those who don’t know, is quite posibly the most touristy pace in the entire world. I was really just going to stay here for a day of two, just to see it, but then I had a really cool hostel. it was out of surfers itself, and had a really good vibe and people. So I ended up staying five nights, and having a good time. I also hadn’t been going out much in the previous weeks, like to clubs or bars, and so it was fun for a few days. the only thing of note that I did while I was there, was go to a water park, which I hadn’t done since I was like 14, and that was a fine day. So after Surfers, the next stop was byron bay. where I was going to stay for a week, and go surfing. and that’s what I did. A nice week, not very social, butI had a few friends there. the surf wasn’t as good as I’d heard, but I still had fun, and it was nice to be in the water. and more or less, that brings me untill I get to Sydney. So there. . .

Well, I’v been writing up some of the past few weeks, and I just havn’t finnished ‘em yet. in the next few day’s I hope to. I’m now in Byron Bay, here through xmas. just hireda surfboard for the week, and all should be good. well, I’ll try and get this bad boy up to date-ish, keep in touch,

So I haven’t writin in a while, and this will be short, but I’m going to a real city tomarrow, so I can do all the internet stuff and the like then. but today I went to the australia zoo. very touristy, but really cool none the less. sadly, the crock man himself wasn’t there. first this I saw was harriot, a galapagos tortoise, 175 years old, pick up by charles darwin. this wondered around seeing alagaters, some crocks,tazmanian devils, casowaries(sp?), dingo, and koala. then my batteries went dead and I reallized that I hadn’t been charrging my batteries, so I had to go and buy some, crikey! after that it was almost time for the show so I went and got a seat. so to explain, they have a show with various animals in there new stadium, first is snakes, then tigers, then free flight birds, and then the crocks. the first one, snakes was kinda lame. I mean, what can you do in a snake show, unless you charm cobras. but anyway the tigers were cool, and the birds were neet as well, and they just flew around the stadium. but it was cool to see the crocks, and see the feadings, and such. but no wrestling. after the shows, I had lunch then wondered around, through a kangaroo and wallaby area. where they were just all free in this area, and you could go up to them and pet and feed them. after I finished that, there was going to be another crock show, and since that was the main atraction here, Crikey. it was cool because it was in a smaller area. so then after this show I made my way over to the tiger area, which was nothing that special. then the elephants where getting a bath, but then portlands zoo is so good for elephants, that wasn’t anything special either. then I went through another koala part, there you could pet them, then the same thing with red roos. then I saw the wombats, very strange aminmals. next was the deadly snakes, and that was cool. they had the five most venemus snakes in the world (the top 11 are australian) and some pythons oand other snakes as well. but this time I made my way back to the elephants, and it was feeding time, where we were able to feed thme ourselves, and that was cool. and then I just had a wonder back, then only new thig I was was the kamono dragon, and I could only see part of it, and it didnt move, so whatever. any way all n all, it was really cool. a bit touristy, but it was a zoo, and that’s kind of the point. but definalty a good day.