Week 1 Australia - University of Queensland

It’s already been a week in the land down under! While it has gone by really fast, I have also done some AMAZING things within this short week! Its been pretty laid back since “real classes” don’t start til next week. Here’s a little breakdown of what we’ve done this week. Were staying in this nice little place called Benson Court Motel, and we have the whole place to ourselves :)
Every morning we get breakfast at the hotel, then hop on the city bus for a quick ride into to the University of Queensland where we meet up with the group. Our morning introduction course runs from 9-12, but get this, we have a MORNING TEA break at 10:30!!! Every morning, we have around a 20 min break, and the university provides tea, coffee, fruit, and some amazing pastry! It’s a great little morning pick me up! We have lunch at the Women’s College Dining Hall (apparently its the best dining hall on campus) then head back to class from 1-4.
During the first week, they also mixed in an introduction BBQ, campus tour, library tour (FUNN) and some other fun activities. A lot of the sessions didn't last all 3 hours, which was also a nice surprise, giving us some free time to explore!
Here is a pretty large group of us waiting for the ferry into the city heading out to a little local bar called "Down Under" Tuesday Night. Unfortunately...right after boarding the ferry, KL took a picture (below) with the flash on, and the driver wasn't very happy. 5 minutes later, we were back on the dock, and forced to take the bus into the city. It was a fun little adventure, and we learned our lesson that when they say no flash photograph they're not kidding!
Here's some pictures of campus, after the dust storm in Sydney. I guess dust storms like this don't usually effect Brisbane this much, so I guess were lucky that we got to experience it! It was really weird cause in the morning the sky was perfectly clear, then by lunch, the entire campus looked like this:


By Wednesday night, the sky was pretty much clear again, and we headed out to take a tour of the Australian XXXX (Fourex) Brewery.
It was an awesome tour through a working factory (we weren't allowed to take pictures), and it even included a free dinner afterwards!
On Friday, instead of having class, we all met up and played Lawn Bowling. It’s an Australian game a lot like Bocce Ball (ok so I’ve never actually played bocce ball, but everybody else says its pretty much the same.) Basically you are rolling a mini bowling ball on a grass field trying to get your team’s balls to land closer to the golf ball than the other teams.

Since we had this day off, a group of us decided to start our weekend off early and take a trip out to the Glass Mountains, about an hour from Brisbane! I'll let you know how it goes!

Day 14: Traveling to Brisbane!

Now that I'm leaving the "vacation" part of my trip and entering the "work" part, I’m going to stop numbering the days and updating daily for a couple of reasons. First, I know it might be hard to believe, but I am actually going to be attending classes and potentially doing school work, so I may not have free time to update everybody. This also means I won't have time (or money cuz lets face it I’m broke by now) to jump off a building everyday and do other blog-worthy activities. But most importantly, my internet access is potentially more limited than it has been in New Zealand. I’ll update you when I can with new information. Stay tuned!!

Day 13: Waitomo Black Water Rafting

Wow. I can’t believe this New Zealand adventure we have been planning and looking forward to is essentially over! Today we finished our last ‘big’ event for the trip. Tomorrow we’re flying to Brisbane, to start a whole new Australian adventure, and today’s Black Water Rafting was definitely a great end to an amazing trip. Pretty much the main event for tomorrow is finding and eating Hokey Pokey ice cream. According to one of our bus drivers, it's a Kiwi favorite, and a must-try for any visitor. (looks good doesn't it!)

Black water rafting is the term used for any rafting underground. It's kinda like white water rafting, but in tubes. There are a variety of adventourous tours exploring the Waitomo caves, ranging in length, activities, and difficulty. After looking them over, we decided to go all out with the legendary, "Black Water Rafting Company's Black Abyss Tour".

As stated on the brochure, this tour involves:

Abseiling training
Abseiling 37 metres
Caving and walking
Cave tubing (black water rafting)
Glow worms
Jumps
Flying Fox
Climbing

I’d say we made the right choice!
We weren’t allowed to take cameras in the caves with us, but our guides snapped a few shots of us (available for purchase of course) during the adventure.

We started off the day (already cold but in high spirits)

by gearing up with our attractive wet suits, boots, and helmets.

Then we headed out to the cave and went through a quick lesson on abseiling (repelling) on land.

We then had the chance to abseil ourselves down a crevice (about the height of a 13 story building) before entering the cave.

We continued on foot for a bit, until we reached a zip line bringing us deeper into the cave. After a little more walking, it was time for a snack break! Yes, they brought snacks, which was a complete surprise to us! Our guides pulled out delicious home made molasses bars and hot cocoa, “warming us up before we jumped into the cold water.” According to our guides, this first snack break was originally implemented to help those hung over vacationers who just rolled out of bed without eating breakfast, giving them a little substance to help them from freaking out when they hit the cold water. Whatever the reason, the snack break was a nice surprise!

The water actually wasn’t too cold. Ok, is was really cold - but it wasn’t freezing. We headed into the water in inner tubes with our lights on, exploring different structures in the cave and making our own way through the water. On the way back, we all linked our tubes together and turned off our lights, as our guide pulled us through the water in the pitch black cave, illuminated only by the glow worms lining the ceiling. FUN FACT: guides (and individuals lost in a cave) use a unique glowworm formation to orient themselves when navigating in the dark!

Next we slid down a little slide (there was a slide in the middle of a cave deep underground),

did a little swimming (through some small spaces)

Then guess what? Snack break number 2!! This time is was a chocolate bar and hot Orange Spice drink! During this break, our guides showed us how to put our colorful plastic cups over our headlights, and using a special camera setting, we could spell any 6-7 letter word with the lights….he suggested "awesome"…we choose “2 legit”

Yes the camera I have also has this setting and yes I do plan to be using it in the near future!

Next we climbed up 2 waterfalls

And unfortunately I knew our adventure was coming to an end, as I saw a bright light beaming from a crevice down the way.

We hiked a bit back to our van, then headed back for the promised warm showers, bagels, and soup. Hot tomato soup and toasted plain bagels have never tasked so good to me! I couldn’t imagine a better meal to warm your body up after a good 4 hours in an underground cave!

We bussed to Hamilton, where we were able to find a local venue to watch the All Black, New Zealand’s National Rugby Team, play the Australian Wallabys. Originally, we wanted to actually go watch the All Blacks play, but none of their games fit into our schedule! We learned from Curly back in Waitomo that this was a big game for the All Blacks. They hadn’t been doing so hot lately, and if they lost tonight, they would have the longest losing streak even in New Zealand’s history. But…they won! We enjoyed a nice dinner (I mean lunch was free so we could spend a little more…) at this bar by our hotel and watched the All Blacks dominate Australia!

Tomorrow we’re heading to Brisbane!!!!

Day 12: Waitomo Glow Worm Cave Tour

As weird as it sounds, the experience was actually like Disneyland! The Waitomo Glowworm Caves were awesome. The tour was about an hour long, and the first 30 minutes involved walking through the inside of the caves.

outside the caves (we couldnt bring our own camera inside)

Our guide was a descendent of the Mauri, and extremely informative and passionate about the caves and glowworms.

I won't go into detail about glow worms, but they are only found in New Zealand, and are essentially bugs that spin a web hanging down like a string to catch prey that looks like this in the light:

They produce a chemical light to attract other insects to their web, creating a cave lined with tiny lights.

The second half of our tour was on a boat floating down a river in the cave. It was absurd. It honestly looks like you're floating down Pirates of the Caribbean or It's a Small World, but even more amazing.

Here are some pictures, but even they don't do the caves justice. Its was beautiful!

Since the entire town of Waitomo consisted of about 3 hostels, a visitors center, and a couple shops/diners/bars (all in one of course), there wasn't too much selection to chose from for dinner and we headed off to Curly's Bar/Internet Cafe(dial-up)/Diner for dinner - a cute little place where we had dinner and desert :)

Day 11 - Travel from Queenstown (South Island) to Auckland (North Island)

Today we left South Island, heading up to North Island. Since our flight wasn't til noon, KL and I went on a gorgeous morning jog. I had to bring my camera along, and since the path was really hilly, I took every opportunity to stop and take pictures :)

The entire jog was through a forest on a lake, ending at this little private dock (then i had to run back!); soooo beautiful.




We took a Super Shuttle to the airport, and flew to Auckland, where we checked into our hostel for the night. We ended up relaxing in a cafe inside a 24 mega-supermarket called Foodworld! Pretty much a laid back day.

Tomorrow we're busing to Waitomo where we will tour the glowworm caves.

Day 10: Horseback Riding and Ice Bar

Off we go...
The drive to the ranch was about an hour and it was gorgeous (and free since our hostel had a special package).
The driver even stopped along the way for pictures, and pointed out Lord of the Rings filming spots.
We finally got to this tiny little stable, where we got all geared up with gloves, jackets, helmets, and riding boots.

Here's Winston, my horse...aka "The Troublemaker"
He's 13 years old and loves to be in the lead of the group, and if he's not first or second, he'll scare the other horses out of the path until he takes his place in front.

This is Andy, the adorable 1 year old dog that tagged along on our journey, following the horses and chasing rabbits as he goes! What's not to love here?
Throughout the ride, we passed gorgeous scenery,
crossed rivers,
stopped for a group photo shot,
and even had a little bit of excitement when one of the horses got spooked and took off in a full speed gallop down the trail. Apparently this has never happened before, but our guide handled it really well. We all got a QUICK lesson on dismounting our horses, then walked them (Winston leading, naturally) while our guide sped off after the runaway horse (and rider!). Within a few minutes, she was back and we continued our ride, but it definitely got our adrenaline pumping!

After a bit of rest...to the ICE BAR!!

We'd heard about the ice bar from a couple of different people, so we decided to check it out. Queenstown's ice bar is called Minus 5, since it's usually negative 5 degrees (Celsius of course) inside the bar, but it was -8 when we were there. Bit of a cold front.
They only let you stay for 30 minutes, which was long enough for us. It was pretty much like a regular small bar - inside a freezer.
The inside was decorated with unique ice statues and sculptures.


Even with the jacket and gloves, we were COLD. While you have to pay to get into the ice bar, admission includes a shot (in an ice luge) and a free mixed drink
in a cup made out of ice!

It was definitely a really COOL experience! (and apparently other Minus 5 locations around the world don't allow you to take your own pictures, so I think we chose a good one to visit!)