Pete Goes Down Under!

I've FINALLY managed to get the pictures up, and I think I'll make the thumbnails a bit smaller (click on the picture to get the whole thing). If you go back and check out all the entries, you'll notice that some of them now have pictures and that some of them have changed quite a bit. I've finally figured out how I'm going to organise this thing. (The pictures are little distorted, I have the wrong ratio. I'll change it as soon as I can)

At any rate, I'm temporarily living in Sydney for a few days. On Thursday morning (at 7 am, no less!) I'm getting on a bus to travel up the Gold Coast. It's a hop-on/hop-off type pass, so I can get on and off as I please, as long as I get to Darwin in 6 weeks (if I don't, I'm stuck wherever I am at the time). So I finally get to leave the city. Anyway, I don't know when my next post will be, so g'day mates!

Posted by Pete at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Wow.

Not much more to say to describe them. Well, maybe to say that they're breathtaking. The Three Sisters (a cluster of big, big rocks) was amazing, and climbing the Giant Staircase was definately worth the climb (especially listening to Stairway to Heaven as I did it.) I took a LOT of pictures, but the hostel I'm in doesn't support me being able to transfer them, that will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day. We went on a good hike and saw a ton of beautiful scenery, but I don't have time to go into great detail yet. And the pictures are now up!

Cheers!

The large chunk of rock in front is actually one of the Three Sisters, but from the angle she blocks the other two. I can't even say how many pictures I took of these views...I've never felt like such a tourist :)

A random shot of the mountains.

The terrain was constantly changing. Sometimes it looked identical to BC foliage, other times it was completely foreign to me.

I like to call this shot "Three Sisters In Waiting". The clouds were frequently moving around, and with the Sisters in its Shadow it looked pretty neat.

Some local foliage. Pretty.

Ah, the Giant Staircase. It's pretty self explanatory, you walk up the side of the Blue Mountains cliff trails. It's a long walk up and down, let me tell you. And yes, while going up I was listening to Stairway to Heaven.

It starts...

Long way up.

Long way down.

Posted by Pete at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So when I decided to go to Australia I figured I would be the smart one and leave the rainy, miserable crap behind me. Boy was I wrong! Every so often we get a little bit of nice weather, a hot day here and there, but otherwise it's been like BC! Came up to Blue Mountains today and would have liked to go bushwalking, hiking and whatnot, but it looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow and hopefully the weather will clear up. If not...well I'll probably go anyway and trek out like a true BC'er. A little rain never hurt anyone, right? After my little Blue Mountains adventure I plan to start heading north along the East Coast up to Cairns, and from there I'll decide where I want to go next. Of course, that could change if I found a place I like, but that's the "plan" so far.

Yesterday I was finally able to try a little of the "local cuisine"! Kangaroo, emu, and salt-water crocodile. A group of us (all Canadians, I'm kinda getting sick of us, I want to meet some locals! Can't wait to leave the city) went to the Australian Hotel to try their specialty pizzas. Let me tell you, its odd eating that kind of meat on a pizza. The kangaroo wasn't bad, and the saltwater croc wasnt horrible. I wouldn't order them again, but definately worth trying. And the emu? Well, it was absolutely terrible. Fatty and salty and generally disgusting. Luckily I had a good solid rum and coke to chase away the flavour. It's nice finally being old enough to drink...responsibly, of course ;)

Mmmm kangaroo pizza. In the background there's a half saltwater croc and emu pizza as well.

And I've finally decided how I'm going to work this and my emails to people. I'll be posting here every 2 days or so and get pictures up when I can, so if you're on my email list and you havn't heard from me for a while come HERE and check out what's going on. It's just easier to do it this way.

Well, my time is more or less up so I best be heading off. Holly, if you read this, the email address you had sent me didn't work. I'll send you an email with this anyway.

Cheers mates!

Posted by Pete at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Seeing as how surf camp is over and we have a few days to kill before we head up to Blue Mountains, it seemed like a good idea to go wander around the touristy part of Sydney: The Rocks. It reminds me a lot of Granville Island, although not quite as upscale. But lots of restraunts and touristy parts for us to go to. We went and saw the Opera House (which apparantly no aussie goes to; they might go see it, but nobody actually GOES to it), walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and wandered around the Royal Botanical Gardens for a while. The gardens were very nice and all that, but plants really aren't my thing. Once that was done, we went and got some "local" grub, but I'll talk more about that tomorrow when I have some more time.

Cheers!

The Opera House in all its glory!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

Now THIS is what you call Christmas!

A nice shot of the harbour while walking across the bridge

Some bats we saw in the Royal Botanical Gardens. We arrived just in time to see some of them take flight.

These birds are in every park in Sydney, but this shot in the gardens seemed too good to pass up

It's pretty self explanatory, definately a great shot.

Posted by Pete at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I decided to take a 4 day surf school while I was down here seeing as how I had NO idea what the hell to do with a surfboard aside from lay on it and maybe get a bit of a tan. It's about 2 hours out of Sydney and it was a 4 day camp, with two 2-hour lessons each day. It was GREAT! I havn't had that much fun in a long time! Similar to snowboarding (in a sense) and a whole lot easier on the body when you fall!

What really surprised me was how sore your body gets after a lesson! We all woke up the second day and could barely move. You know how well built and in shape surfers are? There's a reason for that; surfing is fantastic exercise. I've got a ton of pictures from that trip and Geoff emailed me a quick tutorial on how to get them up here (thanks Geoff, and I figured out how to get them all on one page! Show me the HTML!) So enjoy these photos (these are the ones that I have carefully screened) and I should be able to get more of my other photos up now!

Cheers!

The main part of camp, where we ate and hung out

The small town beside the beach

WOOOO!

Cutting along a wave.

Weeeeee!

Bail out!

The aftermath

Whole lotta fun!

Posted by Pete at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Also called Koala Park, this place was a little pricey to get in but it was totally worth it. You can actually interact with some of the animals, including the kangaroos and the koalas. Inside I found this out: 'Roos are lazy, and a koala's fur is just like the stuff you find on teddy bears!

Koala! Looks like a little Buddha or something.

Just hangin' out.

Some cool little penguins

Feeding the kangaroo.

Posted by Pete at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alright, well this time I've got some more time on my hands. But these updates probably won't come that often, I'm still deciding on what info I email, when I do it, when I blog, etc, etc. But no worries, I'm still having heaps and heaps of fun.

Had a good time at the Scubar last night, pretty good place for backpackers. Not many Aussies though. In fact, I havn't met a lot of Aussies since I got here, but that's likely due to the fact that I'm in a touristy part of the country. Soon enough I'll be out somewhere else, preferably without a lot of tourists. Maybe some fruit picking, maybe some other really terrible job...who knows.

And in a few days I'll going to a 4 day surf school with a bunch of other Canadians. Looks like a blast! Well, take it easy, I'll keep you updated

Cheers!

Posted by Pete at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the few days living in Sydney has been really fun. We've been able to go out and see a lot, and I've finally got the pictures up to prove it. The pictures in this log are from the first 4 days in Sydney (Nov. 16-18) while we explored the city a bit. Enjoy!

The SWAP group at LAX. We met at the terminal and had a few hours to get to know eachother pretty well. I mean, what else can you do while waiting for the Syndey flight?

The park right outside our hostel. It was nice when we got there, but the weather really wanted to rain. It would start and stop and start again. Talk about weird. Almost as bad as BC (but at least it wasn't cold)

This isn't actually Sydney harbour, its Darling Harbour. But the picture looked good anyway.

SWAPers hanging out at Darling Harbour before going to the Sydney Aquarium

I like this picture. I'm not sure why. Looks like it belongs on a desktop.

Sharks inside the aquarium. Thought it was a cool angle.

I was surprised this shot came out so well through the glass. Nice angelfish.

Another view of Darling Harbour, post-aquarium

A shot of the downtown skyline coming from the harbour.

Bondi Beach. Fantastic.

Posted by Pete at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm in Sydney, the weather is decent, I've gotta run before my friends leave, I'll hopefully update you guys a little later. Take er easy!

Posted by Pete at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alright, so I'm not really in Australia yet, but I've only got about 24 hours until I leave. In the meantime I'm attempting to pack while keeping several things in mind, such as "I don't need as much as I think". This sets me off on a spiral of confusion as I'm wondering if my inital amount of clothes and whatnot has already been influenced by my knowing that I don't need an excess of things, but if it isn't should I cut it down and if so what should I cut down, and havn't I already cut it down in my inital packing selection, etc, etc. I'm sure it'll all come down to how heavy my pack is and how much I'm willing to leave so I don't have as much weight to carry. I knew laziness would come in handy (that, and common sense I suppose).

Anyway, my first stop in Australia is Sydney, with two nights at the Central Sydney Hostel. I should be able to put an update there, and it technically won't be until the 16th (downunder time, probably the 15th here). I'm hoping at one point I can either get some pictures uploaded to here or maybe on the main CotW page. And I can't guarantee how much info I'm going to get onto here, but I'll put as much as I can! Anyhoo, time for me to go try and finish packing.

Posted by Pete at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)