Saturday, April 28, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
BYRON BAY
This is definately my favourite place yet. After spending 6 days on the sunshine coast for Easter break, I decided it wasn't quite time to go home to Melb yet, so I extended my trip for another 6 days and went to Byron with Crystal and Nicole. On our bus down we passed, which I've heard to be the best surf beach in Australia, and it's called nothing other than KIRRA BEACH! :) Oh yea...it's in a little place called Coolangata. I would love to go stay there for a while but didn't have enough time on this trip. When we arrived in Byron we checked into our room and weirdly enough we were bunked with 4 other Canadians. Two from Ontario and two from Quebec. We got on very well, and met a few more travelling buddies!
The first afternoon we were so excited to see the town we just wondered around and bought a few things while touring. The weather was a little poor so we decided to save the beach for the next day! The first night there we experienced the packbackers bar called Cheeky Monkeys...it was filled with pretty much all backpackers. It reminds me of a bar back home by the music they play, and how everyone is dancing on tables trying to be at a higher level than everyone else. Friday we spent most of the day laying on the beach, trying to soak in as much sun as we could before I had to leave on Tuesday. We organized a sea kayaking trip where you kayak with the dolphins but we didn't see any while we were out on the water. We did, however, see a long head turtle, which our guide said are almost extinct, and is very rare to see them. We kayaked from Main beach to Cape Byron which is the most easternly point of Australia. We had a break on the beach and hiked up the mtn a little to see more of the view. It was an amazing sight. Although we didn't see any dolphins at this point in our trip, the turtle was amazing to see and the experience itself was memorable. The next morning while soaking up the sun again on the beach we saw dolphins 20 ft from the shore, where we had been swimming 15 mins prior. It would have been awesome if we were still in the water, but it was great to view them from shore. They travelled across the bay, so close it felt like we could have just jumped in the water to swim with them, but we didn't. Also that morning I saw a once in a lifetime thing...a dog surfing. It was incredible. The owner would take him out to catch a good wave and the dog would surf all the way into the shore without falling off. I posted a picture of it. People all over the beach were walking down our way to take photos of this surfing dog. Honestly, he was the best surfer out there! hah it was great. After taking a night off from going out on the town, we decided to check it out again. We went to Beach Hotel, which is touristy but you see a lot more locals there. A live band called Dirty Laundry was playing, which got the whole crowd dancing until the bar shut at 12. Afterwards we went to check out La La land, which we heard was the best bar in town from all the locals, but I think we were just too tired at that point in the night to enjoy ourselfs, so we headed back to our hostel. The morning before I left we got up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise up at the lighthouse in Cape Byron, which is the most easternly point of Australia. This was organized by the hostel so we got a shuttle up there and back. We arrived around 5:30am and sat until the sun rose, which was so beautiful and peaceful. Sitting on the side of a cliff waiting for the sun to light up the town. We arrived back at our hostel around 7am and decided to go for a run. Crystal, Heather and I got on our jogging gear and went for a run a long the beach. Somehow I managed to lose the other two and just kept running all the way to the lighthouse, where we were at 5:30 in the morning to watch the sunrise. The views during the day were more magnificant than ever. I wish I could have captured the moment, but I didn't bring my camera on the run, but those images will be in the mind forever! I walked around up there for a good 30 mins then decided to commence my run back. When I reached the beach, I took my shoes and socks off and just walked along the waters edge. I had some good reflection time, and time to myself. I decided to have a very lazy day after all that morning exercise and just lay on the beach for the rest of the day! It was beautiful, 30 degrees the whole time we were there, except for the day we arrived, which made my trip! I caught the bus at 6:45am the next morning and headed off to Maroochy to catch my flight back to Melb. I spent a few hours in Maroochy on the beach and in the mall, just to kill time before I flew out. Being back in Melb feels like I'm back home again. It's good to be back, except for the fact that I came back to a lot of work to do.
That was my amazing Easter Break, that has been one of the best trips so far! I hope to make more of those in the near future! I hope everyone had a great Easter!
Love forever,
Kira
This is definately my favourite place yet. After spending 6 days on the sunshine coast for Easter break, I decided it wasn't quite time to go home to Melb yet, so I extended my trip for another 6 days and went to Byron with Crystal and Nicole. On our bus down we passed, which I've heard to be the best surf beach in Australia, and it's called nothing other than KIRRA BEACH! :) Oh yea...it's in a little place called Coolangata. I would love to go stay there for a while but didn't have enough time on this trip. When we arrived in Byron we checked into our room and weirdly enough we were bunked with 4 other Canadians. Two from Ontario and two from Quebec. We got on very well, and met a few more travelling buddies!
The first afternoon we were so excited to see the town we just wondered around and bought a few things while touring. The weather was a little poor so we decided to save the beach for the next day! The first night there we experienced the packbackers bar called Cheeky Monkeys...it was filled with pretty much all backpackers. It reminds me of a bar back home by the music they play, and how everyone is dancing on tables trying to be at a higher level than everyone else. Friday we spent most of the day laying on the beach, trying to soak in as much sun as we could before I had to leave on Tuesday. We organized a sea kayaking trip where you kayak with the dolphins but we didn't see any while we were out on the water. We did, however, see a long head turtle, which our guide said are almost extinct, and is very rare to see them. We kayaked from Main beach to Cape Byron which is the most easternly point of Australia. We had a break on the beach and hiked up the mtn a little to see more of the view. It was an amazing sight. Although we didn't see any dolphins at this point in our trip, the turtle was amazing to see and the experience itself was memorable. The next morning while soaking up the sun again on the beach we saw dolphins 20 ft from the shore, where we had been swimming 15 mins prior. It would have been awesome if we were still in the water, but it was great to view them from shore. They travelled across the bay, so close it felt like we could have just jumped in the water to swim with them, but we didn't. Also that morning I saw a once in a lifetime thing...a dog surfing. It was incredible. The owner would take him out to catch a good wave and the dog would surf all the way into the shore without falling off. I posted a picture of it. People all over the beach were walking down our way to take photos of this surfing dog. Honestly, he was the best surfer out there! hah it was great. After taking a night off from going out on the town, we decided to check it out again. We went to Beach Hotel, which is touristy but you see a lot more locals there. A live band called Dirty Laundry was playing, which got the whole crowd dancing until the bar shut at 12. Afterwards we went to check out La La land, which we heard was the best bar in town from all the locals, but I think we were just too tired at that point in the night to enjoy ourselfs, so we headed back to our hostel. The morning before I left we got up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise up at the lighthouse in Cape Byron, which is the most easternly point of Australia. This was organized by the hostel so we got a shuttle up there and back. We arrived around 5:30am and sat until the sun rose, which was so beautiful and peaceful. Sitting on the side of a cliff waiting for the sun to light up the town. We arrived back at our hostel around 7am and decided to go for a run. Crystal, Heather and I got on our jogging gear and went for a run a long the beach. Somehow I managed to lose the other two and just kept running all the way to the lighthouse, where we were at 5:30 in the morning to watch the sunrise. The views during the day were more magnificant than ever. I wish I could have captured the moment, but I didn't bring my camera on the run, but those images will be in the mind forever! I walked around up there for a good 30 mins then decided to commence my run back. When I reached the beach, I took my shoes and socks off and just walked along the waters edge. I had some good reflection time, and time to myself. I decided to have a very lazy day after all that morning exercise and just lay on the beach for the rest of the day! It was beautiful, 30 degrees the whole time we were there, except for the day we arrived, which made my trip! I caught the bus at 6:45am the next morning and headed off to Maroochy to catch my flight back to Melb. I spent a few hours in Maroochy on the beach and in the mall, just to kill time before I flew out. Being back in Melb feels like I'm back home again. It's good to be back, except for the fact that I came back to a lot of work to do.
That was my amazing Easter Break, that has been one of the best trips so far! I hope to make more of those in the near future! I hope everyone had a great Easter!
Love forever,
Kira
Thursday, April 19, 2007
EASTER BREAK
This has been the best trip so far while in Australia. For the break my fellow Canadian friend Erin and I planned to travel to the Sunshine coast for 5 days. We flew into Maroochydore which is an hour north of Brisbane, and stayed in the little town just for the night before we set of for Noosa Heads which is another hour north. We arrived in Noosa heads quite early, found our hostel and got settled in. We were pretty exhausted after the days of travels so we went into Noosa Heads walked around, looked in the shops and then settled on the beach for the day. The weather was reasonable. It was quite warm with a few clouds, and three times that day we got stuck in huge down poors....haha one minute we are laying in the sun sweating the next minute it is raining cats and dogs while we scurry to gather our things and find a tree to hide under until it passes. For about 5 mins it rains and then we go back to the beach. It was quite an experience. That night we crashed pretty early after visiting subway for the third time that day. We love our sandwiches. The next morning we were picked up around 10am for our surf lesson. This was my first lesson, and all I was hoping for was to stand up. I managed to stand up several times and had such a blast. We were out on the water for two hours. By the end of it we were pretty tired but just wanted to keep catching waves. After our lesson we retired on the beach for the rest of the day and read our books. That night we met up with Nicole and Crystal (more Canadian girls, I worked with at Milestones). The next day we were up early to move our things to a hostel in Caloundra and visit The Steve Irwin zoo(Australia Zoo) just outside of Brisbane. It was a great day at the zoo, we watched a show of Terri Irwin (Steve's wife) feed a croc. It was an amazing show, and made my day to see her. They performed a trick with the croc called the death roll, where the crock does a back roll and exposes its tummy. They say not many people can live to see that...I felt pretty lucky! On the way back to our hostel, we took a complimentary zoo shuttle back, and unfortunately it broke down on the side of the highway...we sat there for about 20 mins and I just happened to look up and see Terri Irwin standing there and apologizing for the inconvenience. She walked to the back of the bus shaking peoples hands and apologozing, I was thinking, I don't care, I just met a celebritiy...it was pretty cool! We managed to get home shortly after and had another quiet night. The next day Erin and I went to the GlassHouse Mtns which was a short wilderness hike inland, but took most of the day travelling there and back. They recommend you have a car to get there, but we took a bus, a train and then a taxi...it was quite a mission, but in the end saw nice fews and got a little taste of home in the wilderness! The sunshine coast was amazing, and the next day was time to go home, but I just wasn't quite ready to leave. Nicole and Crystal were planning to go to Byron Bay the day I was flying out, so instead I changed my flight to 5 days later and went to Beautiful Byron Bay with them for that time...I'm so happy I made that decision because Byron was absolutely fantastic!
I will leave it at that for now and try to post some pics soon. My Byron blog will be my next posting so stay tuned!
Lots of love from this side of the world...
This has been the best trip so far while in Australia. For the break my fellow Canadian friend Erin and I planned to travel to the Sunshine coast for 5 days. We flew into Maroochydore which is an hour north of Brisbane, and stayed in the little town just for the night before we set of for Noosa Heads which is another hour north. We arrived in Noosa heads quite early, found our hostel and got settled in. We were pretty exhausted after the days of travels so we went into Noosa Heads walked around, looked in the shops and then settled on the beach for the day. The weather was reasonable. It was quite warm with a few clouds, and three times that day we got stuck in huge down poors....haha one minute we are laying in the sun sweating the next minute it is raining cats and dogs while we scurry to gather our things and find a tree to hide under until it passes. For about 5 mins it rains and then we go back to the beach. It was quite an experience. That night we crashed pretty early after visiting subway for the third time that day. We love our sandwiches. The next morning we were picked up around 10am for our surf lesson. This was my first lesson, and all I was hoping for was to stand up. I managed to stand up several times and had such a blast. We were out on the water for two hours. By the end of it we were pretty tired but just wanted to keep catching waves. After our lesson we retired on the beach for the rest of the day and read our books. That night we met up with Nicole and Crystal (more Canadian girls, I worked with at Milestones). The next day we were up early to move our things to a hostel in Caloundra and visit The Steve Irwin zoo(Australia Zoo) just outside of Brisbane. It was a great day at the zoo, we watched a show of Terri Irwin (Steve's wife) feed a croc. It was an amazing show, and made my day to see her. They performed a trick with the croc called the death roll, where the crock does a back roll and exposes its tummy. They say not many people can live to see that...I felt pretty lucky! On the way back to our hostel, we took a complimentary zoo shuttle back, and unfortunately it broke down on the side of the highway...we sat there for about 20 mins and I just happened to look up and see Terri Irwin standing there and apologizing for the inconvenience. She walked to the back of the bus shaking peoples hands and apologozing, I was thinking, I don't care, I just met a celebritiy...it was pretty cool! We managed to get home shortly after and had another quiet night. The next day Erin and I went to the GlassHouse Mtns which was a short wilderness hike inland, but took most of the day travelling there and back. They recommend you have a car to get there, but we took a bus, a train and then a taxi...it was quite a mission, but in the end saw nice fews and got a little taste of home in the wilderness! The sunshine coast was amazing, and the next day was time to go home, but I just wasn't quite ready to leave. Nicole and Crystal were planning to go to Byron Bay the day I was flying out, so instead I changed my flight to 5 days later and went to Beautiful Byron Bay with them for that time...I'm so happy I made that decision because Byron was absolutely fantastic!
I will leave it at that for now and try to post some pics soon. My Byron blog will be my next posting so stay tuned!
Lots of love from this side of the world...
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Hi Everyone!
Here are some photos taken when my friends and I went to Fina, which is the world swimming championships held in Melbourne at the Rod Laver Arena. We bought tickets for the day swims which are just heats to qualify for finals which are held at night. Those tickets were $200 so we decided to go for the cheaper ones! I got to see the number one swimmer in the world, Michael Phelps!!! Wow what a nice body, oh and of course a great swimmer! I saw a few Canadians race, and I had my little flag out! :) It was a great experience, and it felt good supporting my country :)
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