Australian Holiday - 25th May - 11th June 2011

Here is an album of photos that I took on my recent holiday over to Australia! It was so amazing and totally worth the insanity that the flights there and back caused. This trip was from the 25th May through the 11th June 2011. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about any of the pictures. They're just dated with the day that they were taken - as I don't have the time to go and put any more captions on them than that for the time being (with working 4 days a week and then trying to catch up with people when I'm not working - at least I've gotten a chance to go through all of them like this and find the best ones -- this is 301 out of a near 1100 that I ended up taking on my trip. Do enjoy! :)

(Click to go to the album)

Written in the Future but posted in the past...

(I did my best to write a journal entry for every day I was down there - missed a few, but it's a fair 9 pages on word... here you go - written accounts of things that I did when I Flew Forward to the Future)

 Saturday, 28th May 2011                 

Well, my first full day here starts  today – crashed around 8:45ish pm last night and woke up a few times, but I’m doing alright today. Woke up a bit before 9 am, and I’m slowly starting my day. Not quite sure what is planned for the day, but I’m up for anything.

My trip here was long. That flight from LA to Melbourne was... to put it mildly, totally evil and shouldn’t be allowed to exist. It was almost unbearably long, but thankfully I had no issues with either of my flights. Both were on time (well the one out of LA was a half hour delayed, but all things considering, that wasn’t bad at all).

I got to the San Fran International Airport at about 3 pm (my flight didn’t leave till 7:15 pm that evening), and ended up having to pay 40$ for an Electronic Visa, as they didn’t make it as known as  I thought they should have (that I needed one to actually get my boarding passes – oh joy! Another 40$ to add onto the growing list of money that I owe my parents. Not too bad though – I’ll manage, it’s all totally worth it.

Once I got my visa, and my boarding passes, I said goodbye to my parents around 4 pm or so on the 23rd May and I headed through security, where I promptly managed to lose my watch. I took it off to go through security, and then put it down when putting my shoes back on, and forgot to pick it up. Oops! Although as far as I’m aware, that’s the only thing that I’ve managed to misplace – hopefully it won’t be a common occurrence.

After getting through Security, I spent the next couple hours with a mother and son (Lily, and Nathan, if I’m remembering their names correctly) that I met when trying to get my boarding passes – which helped to pass the time. They were on the same flight as me to LA, and were sitting the row behind me on that first flight, so I was able to stick with them, at least till we got to the International terminal in LA, when we went our separate ways – but it really helped to have someone who I knew was going to the same terminal. Lovely pair of people. In fact, I’ve met quite a few pretty decent people on this trip so far. All pretty friendly and easy to talk to.

Once I left the mother and son that I had been with for the first few hours, I ended up going to the opposite end of the terminal from where they were... way farther than I thought it’d be. Wow, yeah, that was a bit of a walk, which I ended up power walking. Not because I was rushed for time – that was far from the reason – only real reason for my power walking was because I wanted the exercise, knowing I’d be spending the next 15 ½ hours or so on a plane flying the red eye over to Melbourne.

Getting on the plane in LA – no problem at all – we did get stalled on the ground for a bit of extra time which got us off the ground at around midnight on the 26th May, instead of 11:30 pm on the 25th May, but all things considering – that wasn’t bad at all!

Oh, I forgot to mention – on the first flight, there was no one sitting in the middle seat – totally lucked out! And I was thinking oh, I’ll end up having someone next to me on the crazy long flight from LA to Melbourne... oh, well. But boy, I was wrong there too! I ended up with no one in the middle seat and a fantastic woman, named Hannah, who was in the aisle seat (I managed the window seat for both flights.. AWESOME!)

It totally makes a flight so much better when one is sitting next to someone who is actually nice and enjoyable to talk to. She was flying down to Australia to meet up with her boyfriend, and spend some time with him – both of us were totally excited and still in awe of the fact that we were both actually on the plane. Haha! My iPod never one made it out of my bag that entire flight! There was so much entertainment to do on touch screen entertainment thing that was on the back of the seat in front of me, that it kept me entertained for the whole flight (when I wasn’t sleeping of course). There is something about a touch screen that fascinates, and yet annoys me at the same time.

Finally landing down in Melbourne at around 9 am, local time, we were all totally ready to get off that plane, and run around. I managed to get through Customs all without any trouble at all, exchanged my money and then headed out to meet up with Dez and her mum who were waiting for me.

On the drive back to Horsham, mom and dad called – it was good to talk to them, even if it was short, and I was a bit out of it. Of course that’s to be expected after such a long flight down here.

10:30 am

It’s been a slow started morning, thank goodness. A bit nippy – but nothing too bad! We’re just lounging about in the living room. Random things pointed out – I’ve been here for 24 hours! :D Me just on here – and Dez on Facebook messing around with Fairy Garden. Wow, yeah, I’m totally distracted.

Sunday, 29th May 2011

Yesterday was a nice slow day. We didn’t do much of anything. Loki had something to do in the morning, so Dez and I just lounged about, not doing much of anything – listening to songs on the Television, and reading and messing around on Facebook. I was actually sitting staring part of the time, waiting for mum to call – she never did. Both of us were waiting for her to call, actually.

When Loki got home, both of us made ourselves get up and go get dressed – we were both still in our pajamas – as I said earlier, it was a slow, lazy day. :)

Oh, I forgot to add in, that when I opened my door to come out of my room yesterday morning, Binx was sitting by the wall on the other side of the hallway looking at the door. As I walked out, he looked up and meowed. He’s a very vocal cat, loves to ‘talk’ quite a lot.

Anyways, back to where I was before I had to mention about that – it did make me giggle and had to give him a pet. We went to this Gem show (the name of it was longer than that, but I forget what the whole name was) as they were looking for some things for their re-enactment group. Dez managed to get a silver wolf pendant that she has been looking for now for quite awhile. The guy that they bought it from is the best silversmith in Victoria, and if anyone needs anything for any historical pieces, he’s the guy to go to.

We then went back out to the car, and headed back towards the house – only to end up having to stop at the store to pick up some things for Binx as well as a little packet of bay leaves that were needed for dinner, and Dez decided that she’s going to try to get me hooked on some things that aren’t available to get in the States. So I bought some packages of TimTams, which have yet to be opened as I managed to fall asleep before they could be opened, but more on that later.

We got back, and lounged around for the rest of the afternoon. I did manage to get online and chat with Laura for a bit, which was nice. Although trying to convince her to go to bed as it was near 11 pm when we ended our convo was difficult. But it was great to catch up with her. After I gave the computer back to Dez, we ended up having a giggle over the fact that she was still awake even though I told her to go to sleep. Some people don’t listen, but I still love ‘em anyways.

Because we’re both super silly, Dez and I decided to take a ‘kidnapped’ photo, and send it to Laura/Steffi saying to send wool and chocolate for my release. But I’m ‘tied’ up in the pink/black feather boa. And I’m so trying not to laugh. Boy, that was a hard challenge. Look.... sad, when I’ve got a feather boa around my wrists, and Dez is trying not to laugh as well. I think I managed to pull it off though – can’t wait to see what Laura/Steffi have to say. It’ll be funny!

After that was finally done (and while waiting for it to upload), we all had giggles at the cat and watched shows on television while waiting for dinner to cook. Dinner was called Suicide, which is corned beef, that is cooked in the slow cooker all day, with spices (can’t remember what exactly, and bay leaves – I remember that much at least), and it was actually really tasty!

Of course the excitement of the evening was the 5th Episode of the 6th Season of Doctor Who... which I’d been waiting 2 weeks now to watch, and what do I do... I fall asleep! Two times! So I missed most of what was going on, so I’ll either need to catch it on later today, or just watch it when I get back. Oh well. I did manage to stay up till about 8:30 pm (even with the two short naps), which is about 3:30 am back at home – which totally explains why I was so exhausted. My internal clock is still on Californian time, and so whenever it gets late there – even when it’s pretty early here – I get exhausted.

1:03 pm

I just have to say that Milo and TimTams are totally amazing (especially when eaten together), and I’m already hooked on them both! :P

Monday, 30th May 2011

Yesterday wasn’t a very busy day at all. Basically I woke up around 9am or so, but didn’t leave my room till about half past 10, or something. Just lounging about, having random giggles over trying to convince Binx to find the Kitchen fairy, which Dez, and I, swear he ate – as he came back in licking his chops a while after we asked him to find her.

Also we got the responses to the ‘kidnapping’ photo that we had taken the day before and posted on Laura’s wall – apparently mum wanted to know how many feather boas it took to keep me down, and Laura just loved it. I had a fun time teasing the two of them over the fact that they found the picture more funny than my ‘safe return’. Laura just gave me a tongue out face, and I don’t know what mum’s response was – or if she even bothered with one.

Time differences confuse me a lot! For some reason I thought that yesterday was Saturday (no, it wasn’t... it was Sunday, as Loki loved to point out. –chuckles -) Got told that quite a few times by him, and by Laura – and by the time that I had told them both that I was aware that it was Sunday here, what did they keep doing? Telling me that it was Sunday. Oh they’re silly.

Another thing that happened yesterday was we were having a giggle over the fact that I’m going to want to take so many sweeties home with me, that I’m going to have to either sell or post my clothes home so I have room in my luggage for my sweets. So far we’re up to: TimTams, Mars Bars, Milo, with some snuck in Vegimite, and there was something else that I can’t quite remember right now.

On the subject of TimTams and Milo... yeah, I can officially say that I’m hooked! Both are just, amazing, but put them together, and it’s better than a smore! It’s an extremely chocolatey smore, without the marshmallow but totally amazing and... you just need to try it for yourself. You bite off opposite corners of the TimTam, and stick one corner into your Milo, and suck up till you feel the TimTam getting soggy under your fingers, and then you just stick the whole TimTam in your mouth – pure amazingness! So good! And no, you can’t steal any of mine that I’m bringing back with me – that’s going into my secret stash, and I’m seeing how long I can make them last.

Tuesday, 31st May 2011

Yesterday was another slow day – of course, no complaints from me. It’s nice to have a few days to just settle into the time and whatnot before heading out. Tomorrow we’re going out on an all day adventure, should be fun! Looking forward to it, definitely.

As I said, it was a pretty slow day, just watching TV, laughing over random things, watching Loki play video games (all the while cursing at the game), and reading I am what I am by John Barrowman, which I finished – so funny! Oh, yeah, can’t forget the giggles over Binx, and playing around with him. Boy, that cat has personality, and is a silly little guy – and totally adorable too – fluffball, he is!

 Also did a bit of modeling for Dez, with some shawls that she’s crocheted, lovely colours. Trying to figure out if I want to buy one of them – although I don’t know how to pick between them! Mom did buy a green scarf which I paid for, and she’s just taking it off of how much I owe them, yet another thing to tuck into my suitcase to come home. Hopefully we can make this work. I know we can, somehow. And still be able to take it onto the plane with me as carryon, as with all the goodies that are tucked into it, I’m not going to want to accidently risk losing it – especially with all of the transfers that I have to catch (one in Sydney, and one in LA to get back up to San Fran).

Mornings have been pretty cold – making me not want to get up out of bed – it’s warm in here, gosh darn it! Out there is cold – and as long as I don’t move much from where I slept, I’ve got a nice warm pocket surrounding me. Although yesterday was a pretty decent day, in temperature – although, I did have my jacket on for most of the day. Fuzzy warm jacket is definitely nice – thanks mom for letting me have (or at least borrow) it for this trip. :)

I have gotten to talk to mum via Facebook a few times. She told me yesterday that she’d call today – just don’t really know when she’s going to call. I really should have asked her, but I forgot to, before she got off to watch a movie with dad. I know the phone will be waiting, whenever she does decide to ring.

Wednesday, 1st June 2011

Yesterday was the last of our slow days, we did go out though – to Spotlight to get some wool, but other than that it was another sit around, read, try to write, crochet, lazy, lounge around day.

Dez and I did end up staying up talking till nearly 10 pm last night – Loki had a work training meeting or something like that to go to, and we had a giggle over the fact that I am usually asleep by half past 8 but he was creeping in the door at 10 and Dez was like “You don’t need to creep, she’s still awake.” :P But other than that, nothing too exciting.

Sorry for cutting this so short – I’m not normally up this early, and it’s freaking freezing (last night was the coldest night so far, at least that’s what I noticed. I’m totally bundled up – and I’m starting to warm up, but my fingers aren’t liking me much at the moment.

I promise a longer post tomorrow – because we’ve got a full day planned for today! Only reason I’m up and dressed before 8 am. :P

Thursday, 2nd June 2011

Yesterday was a great day! Got tonnes of photos, and other than freezing in the morning when we had to get up so early to get to where we were going on time – it was pretty fantastic.

Our day started early, I got up at 7 am, and it was freaking cold outside! I didn’t want to get out of bed. Yesterday was the first day of winter here, and boy, it sure felt like it – frost outside, and just getting dressed was torture – clothes were FREEZING!  We left the house after having a hot drink, me with Milo and Dez and Loki with their coffee, a bit before 8 am. I managed to get a few shots of the river with mist on it – we were headed for Ballarat, and Sovereign Hill, which is this large outdoor museum that gives the history of the Australian Gold Rush.

Friday, 3rd June 2011

Yesterday was a pretty decent day – nothing special done. Lazy lounge about morning, definitely was needed after the early rising that we had to do on Wednesday. Slept in till about 10 am, didn’t leave my room till about half past 11 am – took a shower around noon.

We went out to dinner at Capones for Dez’s mum’s birthday. And I love it there – so yummy! Got dressed up with a few things that Dez lent me, as I didn’t have room in my suitcase for anything dressy enough. It was a jolly good time. Yummy yummy food, with enough leftovers for Breakfast this morning – no complaints there!

Saturday, 4th June 2011

Yesterday was a run around day to get things in the morning and then a lazy lounge about day in the afternoon. Nothing much that we did, watched a few shows, messed around online – kept on missing Laura which made me sad. I’ve not talked with her in ages.

I did get to talk to mum, dad, and Brett yesterday afternoon which was nice! It was the first time I’ve talked to them since I landed on the 27th May (26th May back home). Well, I’ve talked to mum via e-mail and Facebook, but we’ve not actually talked via phone since the 27th. I was surprised that they were all up that late – it was about half past 10 pm at home when they called (So around half past 3 pm here).

I don’t actually find myself missing them as much as I thought I would, probably because I’m just used to being away from them when I’m off at school – so this for me just feels like just being off at school. At least I do have some contact with them with e-mail and Facebook. J

Monday, 6th June 2011

Wow, I totally spaced on writing yesterday! Oopsie! This past weekend (which I actually remembered to not get confused on the days, unlike last weekend), was another pretty slow one. On Saturday we were supposed to meet up with Julie, one of Dez’s friends, for lunch, but something came up and she wasn’t able to make it. So we had a few snacky things at the café before heading to the shop to pick up some things for Binx before heading back to the house. Sometimes lazy days are needed – a few busy days and then a few lazy days, is a nice mix.

You can definitely tell that my brain has finally gotten the note that I’m on holiday as I’ve been getting decent sleep ever since I got here – well except for the day that we went to Ballarat, but other than that, I’ve been getting between 12 and 14ish hours of sleep per night, which for me is definitely saying something as when I’m at home, getting me to sleep in – is quite hard.

Wednesday, 08 June 2011

Again, a missed day – oops, although yesterday I do have an excuse. And a pretty good one at that. I had to get up, somewhat early – around half past 8 am to get ready to leave by half past 9 am to go out on an adventure with Dez’s mum – she wasn’t telling us where we were going. Boy, it was a great surprise.

Driving back down the Western Highway – the highway we took when going to Sovereign Hill on the 1st June – we turned off after about 45 or so minutes of driving, or at least that’s what it felt like – and headed off on little side roads towards a town named Halls Gap. Turns out we were going to the zoo up there – and let me say – it was totally amazing!

When you get there, you head into the main building, and pay. For one dollar, you can buy a bag of food to feed the deer, wallaby and kangaroo. I, of course, bought a bag. When you walk out of the front building you can walk down a short hill to a gate, that you can go through and as soon as you head through you’re swarmed by deer. Such cute little guys, couldn’t help but give them a nibble of the snacks that we had bought up at the front entrance. We walked down the path, the deer still following us. Heading through the next gate, we left the deer behind, and headed to see some wallabies, a few were hiding in the brush off of the path (thankfully I managed to snap a few shots) and elk, before heading onto the next section.

In the next section, we got to see some Tasmanian devils, which I managed to catch one yawning (hehe) and also a few of our deer friends decided to make yet another appearance to beg for even more food. We then saw the birds (taking birds included), and the koala (adorable), as well as the dingos (which are totally super cute and adorable (can I has one?). Then we went onto see the spider monkeys, which Margret decided to tease – got a few photos of that. Poor monkey, yeah, we’re evil – I admit it. xD

Then onto see some other cute animals, all the while being followed by one deer, which I kept on teasing – I know! I know! Bad bad! I shouldn’t be teasing the animals! But it was just so adorable and it did manage to get a few more snacks off of me. We hid under an overhang while a bit of rain passed over. Thankfully it wasn’t anything worse than a hard mist – and passed (or at least cleared up enough) so we could move onto the wallaby/kangaroo area, where you get to go in with some wallabies (or wobblies as Dez calls them), with another few wallibies, and a single kangaroo on the other side of the fence (as well as an “evil bird” – an Emu – as Dez calls them, in there as well. We avoided it at all costs.)

The wallabies that were in the enclosure that we were currently in, wanted some snacks, so we of course had to give them some. They’re so adorable and cute! Getting to feed them – amazing! <3 Love them! They’ll put their little paws on your hand as you feed them. And you can pet them as they eat.       -squee- Yeah, totally amazing! I loved it! We fed them the rest of the feed that we had – as well as giving some of the wallabies, and the kangaroo, on the other side of the fence a few nibbles as well. Of course, we got quite a few pictures! :) Gotta share the awesome experience!

Then we had to leave the wallabies, once the food was all gone, to head on. The next two that we came onto was the Przewalski ‘s Horse (which is critically endangered) and the American Bison (which are totally huge, and adorable at the same time). The Przewalski’s Horses – there was a pair of them – totally and absolutely adorable. Of course I couldn’t help but snap a few photos.  They were totally playful – and seemed to love to pose (maybe) for us while we took our pictures. One of the bison decided that right as we walked up was a time to try and roll – and dropped down, so it looked like it was sitting (got a photo of it getting back up) and proceeded to lay down and attempt to roll over. Rather funny and had me giggling.

From the bison and Przewalski’s Horses, we proceeded through yet another gate – which were there to keep some animals out of specific areas – and were proceeded to be met by our deer friends, yet again, who wanted more food. We didn’t have any, as we had used up the last of what we had on the wallabies and kangaroo back a few sections back. We then were met by the camels, and other animals. There was a section that looked familiar to me in this section – Canadian Geese!

We then headed back out the gate and into the main area that we entered into when we came out of the main building when we paid to get into the zoo.

There was a rather large pig and a few ponies that caught my attention – of course I snapped a few pics. :D Then headed back to the entrance to head out, through the gift shop, I took a picture of some black flying foxes, before heading into the fossil room. Pretty interesting! Snapped some silly pics in there – yes.

There was a little train meant for young kids that was outside of the fossil room, that I of course had to sit on, and we managed to get some silly pics on that one as well. One of me squishing myself onto it – didn’t manage to get both feet up as it was making my hips cramp up. Tiny tiny tiny! Not meant for big people, like me! But I had to do it anyways. And then one of me pretending to drive into Dez – with her trying to get me to stop. TeeHeeHee! Yeah, we’re a silly group, definitely.

Had to stop and get and get a few photos of the marmosets and the Meerkats (which I got one of me taking a picture of them from standing up on a rock – got them looking up at me like I’m insane [Dez got a picture of me standing on said rock taking said picture]). We then headed back into the main building where I bought gifts for Jayden, Dylan, Steffi and Katie. :) I am considering keeping one of the gifts that I bought for the boys, but we’ll see.

Then off to lunch, in the rain. As we got out of the car – a kangaroo decided to make an appearance and cross the road. Sadly I didn’t manage to get my camera out in time (which was in my purse where I had it to keep it out of the rain) but it was totally awesome! Lunch was great! I did manage to get a few more gifts for people. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge to get all the things into my suitcase when I pack up on Friday (for our extremely early start to Melbourne on Saturday to get to the airport in time for my 10 am flight home) but I’ll make it all work.

Thursday, 9th June 2011

Yesterday was a tourist day around Horsham and surrounding areas. We went around taking random silly touristy photos with random things. It was fun! We also had a bit of a dance around keeping ahead of the rain. We went up to Mount Arapeles and I went up to the lookout point and got some amazing view shots! :D We out ran the rain back to Horsham, where I posted the first 9 of my postcards that I had written – and worked on writing the other 3.

Friday, 10th June 2011

Yesterday was a late start day – headed out fishing on the Wimera river, which is really close to where Dez lives. It was nice – I relaxed in my chair and read and snapped a few good river/cloud shots, as well as some birds, because I felt like it. We then went to lunch at Subway before heading to the post office so  I could post off the last three post cards. Not a real big day for the most part, just a slow day.

Today is my last full day here, which actually makes me sad. Although I am getting a bit homesick, it’s been a great holiday. We’ve got a very early start – up at 3 am to leave no later than 4 am to get to the airport in Melbourne by 8 am, for my take off to start my about 23 hour travel time home. Going to be a fun day (majorly pointing to sarcasm sign here). I’ll be back in California at 9:45 or so tomorrow morning – although that’ll be like the middle of the night for me as I’m finally used to the time difference here – just in time to head back into the past. Oh, joy! This is going to be fun.

Although I am happy as I did manage to fit most of what I wanted to fit into my suitcase – other than the clothes that I am wearing today and my pajamas that I’m wearing tonight into it. Not too bad for having bought so may little gifties! :D Makes me happy! I’ll be able to take it all on as carry on instead of having to check.... YES! I’m happy about that! :D I’ll make it back with all my things, instead of having to worry about the airline losing my bag in the insanity of all my different planes I have to get on in order to get back up to San Francisco. First I get on a plane in Melbourne and fly to Sydney, and then I’ve got an hour and a bit layover there, before getting on yet another plane in Sydney and fly over to Los Angeles, where I have to go through customs and wait for three hours. Then I get on yet another plane and fly up to San Francisco where people are waiting for me to take me home. Going to be a long day, I can tell you that! But hey, at least I do have flights home. :)