Day 11-12

Our very last day in Australia!!! Time flies by when you're havin' fun, doesn't it?

It seems as if we just landed in New Zealand a couple days ago, not even talk about a week!
As time is nearing towards our flight back to Sydney, back to LAX, and back to O'hare, I truly want to say that this trip has definitely been the experience of a lifetime!

We woke up at 3:30 this morning (SO tired) and left the hotel at about 4... Ms.Titus was staying a couple more days in Australia for a trip, and so we all said our good-byes, and I hugged- real tight. Even though I met her just on this trip, I feel like we've known each other for the longest time... We always got so close when we started talking. It was sad. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I was waving goodbye to her, but at the same time, I felt as if I was waving goodbye to Australia and New Zealand. I was really going to miss this place!

When we got to the airport, we got into our regular schedule of checking in our luggage and getting our boarding passes. Yes, it took a long time, but at this point in the trip, I didn't care HOW long it took... The plane rides home weren't that bad, the longest being 15 hours, except the heavy turbulence when we were passing through a storm on the way to LAX- it felt like a rollercoaster, jumping up and down in my seat. I have to admit, it was scary, but fun at the same time! Before we all knew it, we were on a bus going back to North. After some time, I looked out the window and I saw North up ahead. I blinked in amazement... Were we really back home? Already? It was just like yesterday that we were leaving North... Even though it was 12 days ago. Time can really fly by. To be honest, the whole idea of the International Date Line confuses me... The flights totalled in about 26 hours, yet we got home nearly 10 hours after we left Cairns. Hmmm.

It was hard to soak up the past 12 days in just a couple of thoughts. If I had the choice, I'd stay here a couple extra days, walk around, and feel the energy all around me. But that wasn't the real thing. Reality check: the trip was over! I remember getting ready for the trip and cramming in things at the last minute right before departure, and now here I am... 12 days later, thinking about all the fun times I had and realizing that I'm finally coming home. Australia felt like my second home, especially since I got so close to many new people (I could probably name everybody off the top of my head), got more outgoing (stepping out of my somewhat-shy personality), and opened up to the world! I can't thank everyone enough... My family, my friends, everyone who made this dream become a reality! I, never in a million years, would have thought that I'd visit Australia and New Zealand. But to be honest, I was kind of ready to go back home... I missed being familiar to everything around me, everything and everyone being so close.

I absolutely LOVE the idea of traveling, and always did, but because of this trip and the amazing people who made it possible, I want to travel all the time! Just at the spontaneous thought of it makes me want to jump out into the sky and land in another country or place... There's not one country I wouldn't want to visit. :) Travel is my new interest, something I want to continue for the rest of my life! Going on this trip, I've gone through both thick and thin... But crossing any obstacles that were in the way or even passing by the easy things, I feel like I've become a different person. One that has changed for the better. I've learned life lessons that I will always use, became friends with those I never would've have thought of being friends with, and saw things and places I never thought I would! I faced challenges and took risks. Memories were created, stories will be retold, pictures were taken, friends were made... A new family was made, a "travel family". But nothing compares to the fact that I had traveled to Australia and New Zealand! Hope another trip like this one is in my very near future... I couldn't ask for anything more!

 This trip has been absolutely AMAZING and I couldn't ask for anything more! Thank you! Or as the Maori would say, Kia Ora. 

There's not enough words to completely describe this spectacular adventure. 

This truly has been a "once in a lifetime" journey!!!

See you soon!

Day 10

• What I did today

Our last day in Cairns seemed like the first... Time is ticking away and we don't even know it. However, I don't want to think about tomorrow, but live in the time of today and the excitement it has brought!

Early in the morning, after waking up and eating our last Aussie breakfast, we took an Old-style train, called the Freshwater Railway Station, to the top of the mountains. While on the railway, we passed through some amazing sights, seeing beautiful trees, flowers, mountains, and waterfalls... Pretty much everything! I could see the view of Cairns, or at least most of it, and as we rode up higher and higher, it became more breathtaking and simply beautiful. It was so cool to see the city from one of the highest peaks of the mountains!

I even had fun inside the train, too. The train inside was pretty calming, with a lot of space and a lot of colors... My friends and I even blasted our iPods and began singing songs like we never sang before! Full of emotion and passion, all high-spirited... We knew this was going to be one of the funnest days ever!

When we got to the top, we got a chance to walk around the small village of Kuranda. It was gorgeous! Palm trees, animals, exotic flowers... The smell, the atmosphere, the look of it all... All just simply stunning! Even the "Welcome to Kuranda" sign was welcoming and full of personality, in my opinion! While there, Zach, Nishant, Scott, Katie, Shelby, Steven, and I all went to go eat lunch at this rainforest-y cafe... There were sooo many good food choices to pick from, it was impossible to pick, especially because it was our last day in Australia...

But as soon as I saw "Kangaroo Pie" on the menu, I couldn't help but take a shot at it! And it turned out to be delicious! It was sort of like a pastry-like dough-thing filled with meat inside (I wonder if it actually was kangaroo, or not)... but it was delicious! And that's what matters.
Full of food, we began walking around the village and we came across this Aboriginal store where a real Aborigine made and sold real Aboriginal arts. He even told us to give a chance playing the didgeridoo! I have to say, playing a didgeridoo looks like the easiest thing in the world; all you have to do is pick it up, and blow into it, and hopefully it will make beautiful sounds. But no... It's actually the hardest instrument I ever tried playing! It was fun... Blowing into the didgeridoo, I began to make some sort of sounds, but I'm not exactly sure if they were right.

I was actually able to manage to hold the tune for a couple of seconds, which made me proud! I was glad I was able to try playing one, since the didgeridoo is known country-wide! we walked around for a little more, but then we headed to the front of Kuranda, where we took a gondola back down to Cairns.
Along the way, we stopped at this rainforest where a tour guide led us all around it, explaining the most important and most interesting parts of this particular rainforest! It had giant trees! And many other plants and bamboo-like sticks, and even leaves that attached to you when you came up from behind them in a certain direction! I thought it was actually pretty cool... In the giant trees, there were branches and leaves piled in one area, making it give an appearance as if it were a nest. But it actually wasn't, which quite surprised me. It was a way for the tree to capture and gather food, water, and minerals, like after a rainfall or something, in a case where in needed it.

There were wild spiders in the gondola station too, making humongous webs on the ceilings... I thought it was pretty cool to see them, but some people were REALLY scared and didn't even want to look that them. I was scared too, but I never saw spiders like these before, so it was pretty fascinating. We continued to take the Gondola back down until we reached an Aboriginal site and village...

Here, a couple Aboriginal villagers took us around their village, telling us everything about their culture from day to day. This was pretty cool to see how differently they live from us. One thing I remember the most and cherish up to this day, is the fact that I was able to try to throw a boomerang and a spear. The boomerang actually made a full circle, but then died down a couple feet away from me... Second try and I was almost a master! Throwing the spear was not easy at all; it was so hard to angle everything with everything in the right position... I don't know how they do that! But at least I tried, that's what counts. Then the Aboriginal men had a show for us with their cultural dances and them playing didgeridoos! It was pretty neat!

After coming back to the hotel on our last day in Australia, Shelby, Katie, Steven, and I spent our free time going to stores searching for last-minute souvenirs and also went to the same restaurant as the night before! Ironically, we even had the same waiter! After asking him a bunch of questions, we found out his name was Bailey and that he was actually from Wisconsin... Small world, right?! As for my last Australian meal, I had "Kangaroo Steak" with some vegetables as a side. It was actually pretty delicious!!! It's not everyday you get to try kangaroo... It tasted like soft steak, actually! I wish I could get more...


Well, this was my last day here in Australia... It's kind of sad, but at the same time, I cannot believe that I was actually here and saw unique things that I never would've thought of seeing. I saw a different side of cultures, and to sum it all up, I couldn't have asked for a better trip with such great friends!

Day 9

• What I did today & Journal of the Day

No one, and I mean no one, was as excited for this day as we were! We were going to the GREAT BARRIER REEF!!!

After the early hours and a yummy breakfast, we got onto a bus and straight to the Great Barrier Reef port... We got onto a cruise ship and almost immediately took ashore! As the wind was blowing, you could smell the sea salt wooshing up from the sides of the boat... To me, that was the spontaneously beautiful smell of the ocean, and definitely a smell that I will always recognize as this small trip to the Great Barrier Reef!

When we got there, our boat was anchored into the water and attached to this extra port sort-of-thing. I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but it was sort of like a big deck on water... a lot of space, tables, and room for lounging, tanning, and just having "fun in the sun"! The very first thing I did when I got there, was grab my friends and get geared up for our snorkeling adventure underwater. We grabbed fins, a snorkeling mask (the trick when cleaning it is to spit- as disgusting as it sounds- into the lenses and then swish it up with water, it works!), and a snorkel breathing tube... As soon as we walked down the stairs, put our fins on in the water, and our masks were on our faces, we grabbed hands and jumped into the water (carefully, of course)! It was freezing cold at first, but then as you started to move around, it got a little warmer... The water was crystal clear! The very first thing I saw when I looked below me, was open space, lots and lots and lots of it. I kept swimming, while keeping with the buddy system, until we started to get closer to the coral reef. Seriously, the Great Barrier Reef was AMAZING!

At one point in time, I looked up to get a feel of the sun, and when I put my face under the water in the next second, I literally slammed my face into coral! It was pretty funny...! I started laughing so hard, I totally forgot I had a tube in my mouth, and the next thing you know, I began gulping in salt water into my mouth... At the same moment, I started panicking because I didn't know what was happening, and so I started to swivel my body in all directions, exactly what they told us NOT to do. Oopsie. I started to freak out and started swimming backwards too, but apparently I was going in circles because I definitely did not end up where I first whammed myself into coral... All of a sudden, I hit something hard on my thigh in the water, something prickly and rough. Uh-oh. I turn around, trying to look at what I hit, and instead of locating my mishap location, I smack myself into another bunch of coral! By this point, I really did not know WHAT to do and I swam back up, eventually also hitting the coral with my flippers. Great. I finally got back up, taking out my tube from my mouth and gulped in a BIG amount of air. I was fine... Who knew that much could happen in just a couple of seconds?! And I remember it exactly, weird enough. So now, I had a memory AND a scratch on my thigh, a souvenir (yay!)!!! I realized I was feeeeeet away from my buddy, so I quickly caught up... Now, since I knew what to avoid, I started to look around the Great Barrier Reef.

It was just simply fascinating! Everything was in vibrant colors! It was beautiful! The coral were all soft or hard, flimsy or hard, or even flowed with the movement of the water. I even saw this really cool red, orange, and yellow fish! I saw clownfish, Dory-like fish, a small seahorse, clams, a small turtle, and these really BIG fish! I was out on the water for maybe about an hour or so, and after a while I was starting to get cold, and so as I started swimming towards shore (or the side of the boat), I found myself swimming with a school of fish, which I've always wanted to do... I reached out my hand, but they just scattered away. I guess they didn't like company except themselves, or something. Anyways, it was really fun and cool. I even tried following this one fish, but I ended up just going in circles again. I got out of the water, sat on the bench, and took my flippers off, and walked up back to the end, running/hopping to get my towel... I was freezing! The rest of time, I had delicious lunch, talked with my friends, and went to go visit the little aquarium-like thing underneath the boat. My friends and I laid on the deck, having the water evaporate into the air and taking lots of pictures. At one point in time, this lady that was in charge of some sealife thing, brought in sea cucumbers, starfish, clams, and other shells.

They were pretty neat! When I first touched the sea cucumber it was all hard and prickly, which wasn't too bad, but then I touched another sea cucumber, and it was slimy and squishy... the complete opposite! I screamed quietly jumping back! But then I gave up the nerve and picked it up in my hands, and I watched it fold around my hands, starting to suck onto them. It was pretty funny, especially when it started to squirt water out if its little "hole" on top... Then, I picked up the starfish, and it was really cute since it was tiny and small. It was orange and when it was on my hand, its little tentacle-like things started moving and I was like "awwww, it's so cuuute!" And then I dropped back into the water... And when almost everyone disappeared from the deck, I don't know where they went, the lady came up to me and my friends and asked us if we would want to put the creatures back into the reef, and we said yes with big smiles on our faces! We had a lot of fun together, watching the school of fish swim back and forth under the water. And at one point, we realized that the tide lowered and you could even see the coral "hanging" outside of the water... I have to say, the Great Barrier Reef is BEAUTIFUL and completely breathtaking! It's so cool to know that life is all around you, no matter how small or big it may be... It all seems so unreal.

After our snorkeling experience, we started heading back to the harbor. We had a lot of funny stories and inside jokes to laugh about on the way back, it was hard to keep it all in!!! Once we got to shore, I couldn't help but take the smell of the water with me back to the hotel. I even smelled like it too!
Like the previous day, we hung out with friends for a couple of hours... We got dinner and walked around the city. We even dared ourselves to try kangaroo, crocodile, and emu! I never thought that I would even TRY it, but I did, and I'm glad I chose to do so. After all, it was our second to last day in Australia... Why not? Surprisingly, it was delicious! And Katie, Shelby, Steven, and I couldn't help ourselves but get some more meals! It was yummmmmy!

So, the day neared its end, but what a wonderful day it was! Full of adventure and laughs... I wish everyday could be like this!

"I got croc in my mouth!"

Day 8

• What I did today

Whoo-hoo!!! Another travel day! Just what we need...
I have to say though, this flight wasn't as bad or as long as other ones, which is good! It was short and sweet, as Mrs.Titus would say.

Today, to be honest, was the most laid-back day we've had on this entire trip!
The moment we landed in Cairns, I fell in love with it too... Palm trees, hibiscus flowers... It felt just like paradise! Cairns was quite, peaceful, relaxing, and beautiful, all at the same time! As soon as we got to the hotel (probably my favorite this entire trip), we got all got a chance to refreshen and change into our bathing suits. We were going to a saltwater pool in the city! It had a beach by it, too, which made things even better... But the bestest part, was that there was a natural beach too, with WATER and everything! Yay! Not. There was a natural beach not too far away, except that there was no water...? Only mud, soil, and "little ponds" of water, which I thought was pretty funny and weird at the same exact time! We had lots of fun in the pool, no matter how cool it was (temperature wise). We even had time to walk around town for about 3 hours with our friends, where we had dinner, shopped, had fun, and laughed the whole way back to our hotel! It was truly one of the best relaxed days of the trip!
A good night's sleep is all we need for tomorrow's great adventure in the Great Barrie Reef! What a day!!!

Day 7

• What I did today

Today has been one of the many days that I've been looking forward to! Excursion day. Yes, just at the thought of seeing whales out in the open ocean, and doing the BridgeWalk a couple hundred feet in the air above water, just gives me the goose-bumps and the thrill of the day!

One thing though. Whale Watching was cancelled... Funny story. So I woke up this morning, all pumped up and ready to go, when I went down to breakfast with Katie and Bridget. We had a wonderful, delicious breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausages, fruit, toast with butter and honey), and once we finished, we got up to go wait outside in the lobby area. Halfway there, Katie reminds the both of us that we have to take Dramamine (something for motion sickness, you know, if we get a little sick out in the ocean with nowhere to run)... And so me, always being the one prepared (most of the time), take out the Dramamine tablets and give each other two of them and hold it out with our fingers, just staring at them. We pour ourselves a glass of water and take them, and probably in less than second (even less than that, if possible), Mr. Schagrin comes up behind us three and tells us not to take Dramamine because the Whale Watching excursion is cancelled due to the ugly weather conditions. And so we look at each other and burst out laughing! Too late. After a couple minutes of playing Apples-to-Apples and the Knives Game, it starts to hit us. Katie is pretty much half asleep, Bridget looks as if she's about to pass out again, and me, well I'm still holding in... somewhat. It wasn't until during the long walk to Paddy's Market that I was almost walking with my eyes almost closed. Talk about sleepy for the entire day!

I was sad that Whale Watching was cancelled last minute. I really wanted to see whales... But, my mood was a bit more high-spirited when we went to the market. When we got there, it was actually quite nice, a little packed though. But, a market is a market... We got a lot of cool, cheap stuff! And when we walked out, we walked straight into yet another long walk to the harbor area. We dropped by to the Rocks again for a quick lunch and a bit more shopping, but then as soon as we were done, we got another head start for another long walk to the BridgeWalk... There was a lot of preparation done for this! Getting on our jumpsuits, our safety equipment in place... I was the first one in line (right behind the tour guide... he knew my name, too)!

This was the moment I have been waiting for this whole day! It was really windy, and about halfway up, it started raining... For the third day in a row, wow. It wasn't that long of a walk up to the summit of the Bridge, maybe about 30 minutes or so... but with the stopping and taking of pictures (including the preparation stuff down) and walking back down to ground again, it took almost 3 hours! It was definitely worth it though! When I got to the summit of the Bridge, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I'm usually a person who isn't afraid of heights, but when I first looked at how high the Bridge actually was, I was very surprised! When I got up to the top, I saw the most magnificent view of the Opera House and the city itself! It was completely breathless! I've never seen anything like it, and seeing today as our last day in Sydney, it was the perfect way to end and leave this city... Being up there felt so good, and as we were heading back down, I personally didn't want to. Sometimes, I felt like I didn't have my harness attached and the wind would blow me over... That was the best feeling! I wanted to stay up there forever! But I knew that couldn't happen... Like my goal at the beginning of the trip, I made the most out of this moment, and will never forget it! It was so amazing, there's no words to describe it! After we came back down and got back to "ourselves" again and down on the ground, we met up with the other group that went to the Blue Mountains and went to the Sydney Harbor, once again, and in the dark, we enjoyed the city light show! It was beautiful! And like every other day, we finished off the night walking back to the hotel, through the city, this time "accidentally" walking through the "interesting, slightly inappropriate areas" of the city. Wayyy too many clubs, that's for sure. however, we enjoyed a great dinner and definitely slept well, that's for sure!

Our last day in Sydney and by far the BEST!!!

Who would have ever guessed that I climbed up to the peak of the 

Sydney Bridge?!

Day 6

• What I did today

Another magnificent day in the wonderful city of Sydney!

From the very morning, we have been touring the city by bus, starting from one side of the harbor (the one closest to our hotel), all the way to the other side (on the oppposite side of the city)... And I thought that this was a small city!

We got to see the Bridge and Opera House from a farther viewpoint on the harbor... It was kind of like a little cove! I took a lot of pictures here, since there were so many opportunities, and before I noticed, I was making my way down a rocky trail where we could see an opening to the harbor! It was such an amazing view! We had so much fun, running through the rain and wind, trying to see as much of the city as a human possibly can see in one day... I even saw this little cute parrot up in a tree! I never thought of the fact that parrots lived in trees in Australia! Though one thing I didn't enjoy much was that it was raining, rather pouring, like crazy! By the time we got out of the bus to look around, everyone came running back in cause it was so wet, windy, and cold. It would seem funny when people would hop onto the bus, fully out of breath. I guess walking through wind and rain CAN be tiring sometimes... And we were by the ocean, so the waves added a little more to this "experience", too... Though I did enjoy the listening to the waves go WOOOOSH! against the rocks and cliffs! It felt so free...
Continuing with our "lazy day" tour, we got dropped of at a beach. I'm pretty sure it was Bondi Beach... It was so nice... and calming... There were hardly any people there! Maybe a few joggers here and there, and possibly one surfer (I really wanted to go surfing!)... But that's it. We ran in the sand, followed the waves, and once we were out of breath, my friends and I went into this cafe by the beachside. We were so out of breath and freezing cold, and wet (let's not forget that), we got warm, freshly-baked muffins and a hot chocolate- Australian style. I don't know what they put into that hot cocoa, but it definitely topped the American one by a million! I wanted more, but unfortunately, we ran out of time.

But I guess that time was saved in order to enjoy our next and final bus tour stop, the Sydney Harbor! As a little group, we went all the way up to the top of the stairs... but to where? The Sydney Opera House! Finally... A dream come true... As soon as I took a picture, I ran up up to touch it. And surprisingly, it's not as white as it seems or looks on pictures! The color of the Opera House is more like a pale yellow. Hmm, interesting. Anyways, after a walk around the Opera House and down under it, too, we started heading towards the shore, where a line of small shops and little cafes were standing. After getting a lunch (another delicious Aussie burger), we walked allllll the way around until we reached our cruise ship port. This was so exciting! I got onto the humongous cruise ship, which led us in a slow-paced, wonderful tour of the Sydney Harbor itself. With wind blowing in my face, and my cheeks turning cold red, I was enjoying myself, despite the weather...

After about an hour, we finally made it to the other side, and we were dropped off at the Sydney Wildlife Center. I expected this "zoo" to be much larger, since it's Australia, so it didn't meet my expectations. But I definitely saw what I wanted to! All of the native animals of this country... A crocodile, a kangaroo, a wallaby, other animals that I don't remember the name of, and of course, my absolute favorite, the koala! I had the chance to pet a koala and take a picture with it, so I was all for it! It was so fuzzy and poofy, and curled up in a ball... Just like a realllllly fuzzy puppy in your hands! I've always wanted to see and pet a koala, and here I was...! After enjoying a great time at the Center, we had a prepared dinner for us. I had a traditional Aussie burger, and it was delicious!!! I could definitely have another one of those... The walk back home, otherwise known as our hotel, wasn't as bad as other days; however, it was still pretty long and my legs were sore after we finally made it inside. I always found it funny how someone would always say, "Is it around THIS corner?", and we would reply "We don't know yet, maybe...", getting lost in our thoughts and walk.

Another great, relaxing day in Sydney!!! And tomorrow are excursions, which means that we will get to go Whale Watching and climb the Sydney Bridge! You can probably guess how excited I am and see the smile on my face...

• Journal of the Day

Traveling experiences and emotions can often change for the better or the worse during a trip; but no matter what, traveling can give you such a great, new perspective on life and the world around you! Every part of the world is the same, yet different and unique, even if countries are on the opposite sides of the world! It's cool to thing about how small and big the world is at the same time!

So far, I've enjoyed every single second of this trip, making it the best that I can when it counts the most! Going to Australia and New Zealand helped me open up more to other people and things, help me come out of my comfort zone, take risks or overcome my fears, as well as help me see the beauty in things... I've been doing all of this more often now, as we are farther into the trip. I've become more familiar with the people and things around me, relying on them for advice or help when I need it the most, but also trying to put myself in the situation and find a way out. In other words, try it for myself! I haven't been using much technology on this trip either, which is a huge step-up, seeing that I'm always surrounded by it at home. I've tried to become even more outgoing than I am, trying to get to know everyone on the trip, or even talk to people I wouldn't usually think of talking to and make new life-long friends. These are the kinds of things I have noticed improvements in, and even things that can teach you life lessons worth-knowing... At this moment, I haven't really found anything that has been challenging, but maybe that moment is yet to come, who knows?

I feel like going on this trip has so far helped me realize things and places, and focus on them, that I've never seen before. The culture, the way of life, and even the cuisine, is all so different than what I'm used to. The towns look different, the cities' atmospheres are different... Everything about all these places is all so unique and interesting!

I feel like with trips like these, you have the chance to do things you've never done before, and see things you've never seen before... It's all just an unexpecting moment in life, a moment in life in which you're just watching for something to happen or jump out at you! These trips are thrills, pure adventures, and simply just the how the world is meant to be!
Instead of holding back and not stepping up to the challenges you are about to face, there's no point in traveling. Traveling is the time to give it your all and enjoy every minute, every second of it!
Just like that, I've enjoyed every part of the trip and completely fell in love with both countries!!!

Someday in the future, I will look back at these past and upcoming days and say "WOW". Stare, think, and remember all of the places I've been to and all that I've been through... Completely breathless, that's what it is... And put a great big smile on my facem because I finally know what traveling is!