The Boat
ME

The Hill

The bridge

Waterfall sidways

Group

Mt Cook

Lake


The pics are at the top because they are being stupid and internet is expensive so i dont have time to screw with it.

Canberra

Dan and I decided that our last trip in Oz would be to Canberra. Canberra is the capitol of OZ and is a 4 hour by train. The trains leave Sydney central station at 7 am. Dan and I woke early and walked to the station and got on the train and went to sleep. At about 11am we arrived in Canberra and went to the mint. Well we found out that if your country has only 20 million people and there are 3 mints the mints are not very big. Although Oz coins money for lots of other country they doesn’t really add that much work cause they are all really small countries also. After going to the mint we walked to the capitol along the road the cab told us to take. The walk was a “20 min” walk. The walk was 45 min and along the side of what I would call a highway. We then had to walk through a forest to get to the capitol which we ended up on the back end of. The capitol it a 1km block so after walking 2km around it to get to the entrance we finally got in and made our way to the tour. We learned about the government and why they moved the capitol to this city they pretty much just made. After going on the tour and learning about all the rooms’ chambers and procedure of the state. We then caught the bus back to the station and boarded the train. 4 hour of little kids running up and down the aisle of the train pretty much wanted me to kill someone. The parent didn’t do anything and really didn’t care about the children running. Finally after the train ride was over we went back to the apt.

Last day

The last day was pretty uneventful. We woke up and went to this place called “Pancakes on the Rock”. We then went to Paddy’s Market to buy some stuff to take home for gifts. After that it was to cleaning all of the apt out. This was a much bigger job then I thought. I had already packed all of my clothing days before but that was the easy part. I made so many trips to the garbage room. On the way to eat breakfast I had assembled a box of food and my blanket and pillow and some other stuff to I’ve to a hobo before I left. I knew where a couple of hobo always begged for money and food. Well the first hobo I went to and tried to give him the box of stuff declined it. I told him it was his he could have it. He said he had enough blankets and food. I thought this was interesting so I asked him if he knew someone that would take. He told me the hobo across the street would take it. I walked across the street and sure enough that hobo took the stuff. By the time I had crossed the street again the first hobo had picked up all his stuff and was leaving I had blown his hobo cover. At about 7pm I had finished packing everything and cleaned everything. We went and got our last meal at the mall food court. There was a Japanese placed that I had eaten at a couple of time that had really good ramen soup. After that we watch some TV because we had to wake up at 4:30 am to get to the airport and get on our flight.

Travel Day 1

This was the first day of the rest of the trip. We got on the plane fine other then one of my bags is 2 kilos over. I am still trying to figure out how to get rid of or figure out where to put them. I might have to start wearing a suit to reduce the weight of the bag. We both had different flights because of the plane problem with Quantas. We both meet up in the hostel and walked around the town after. Christchurch isn’t a very big city for having 400,000 people. We walked around the main part of town and eat at BK because it was the only thing that was open and cheap that we could find that was closed to home. We had to be up at 7 so we went to the bar in the bottom of the hostel to watch the rugby game and converse with some people. This is where a ongoing joke happened. Somehow well being in OZ I must have picked up a Scottish accent. I have had people I have been talking to think I’m Scottish. I have had this happen about 10 times now over the course of being here. I have had even Irish and people and people from the UK saying this so I have no idea.

NZ travel

We woke up at 7am and boarded the bus. We drove to this lake that was formed by a glacier. The lake has lots of little sediment that causes the lake to look really blue. The lake is called Ohay there was a church that was built out of rocks they had drag from the each. The church probably seat 50 people and has a huge picture window looking out over the lake. It has a 2 year waiting list to get married at. After that we hopped back on the bus and drove to the highest point in the entire southern hemisphere. We arrived at the Mt Cook Park to walk on 20 min hiking trail in the snow. After the walk to the lookout we took some pictures and then took the trail back to the bus. We then had to missing people that took the wrong turn on the trail and took a little longer to figure out how to get back to the bus. That night we stayed at this ski lodge in the mountains. It was really quite and great to look at the stars.

NZ travel 2 + 3

The net day was a big travel day. We drove past the bridge that Aj Hackett made bungy jumping a commercial venture. We also drove past a couple of places that the Lord of the Rings was shot. After driving all day we made it to the Milford sound. Thank to a screw up on the part of the boats end the boat that was booked for us was changed to a much better boat. The boat is like 500$ a night for the room which was a lot more then I paid seeing it was 700$ for the 7 nights on the tour and that includes a breakfast and 4 dinners. So we went out into the sound and we could kayak or go in a motor boat for a little tour of the place. We could also go for a swim in the sound if we wanted to. It was about 40 degrees in the water. So I went around in a kayak and then jumped in for a quick dip in the water. The quick dip was about two jumps in of about 1 min. After the water sports we had dinner. It was really good seeing we were on the wrong the wrong boat. 3 coarse meal with tea and muffins and cookies before dinner. After that we played cards till bed. The next morning we woke up and went out towards the ocean. The sound went from very calm like glass to very ruff. We saw all the water falls around the sound. There are tons of waterfalls because there is no top soil on the rocks so there is nowhere for the water to seep into so all the water just runs back to the sea. After this we got off the boat and got on the bus to go to Queenstown.

Queenstown

The first night in Queenstown we got to the city and then I went to get my snowboarding stuff from the rental place. After this I went back to the motel and got ready for dinner. We were all going out as a group and then go to another ice bar. We went to this place called Lone Star. It is a Texas themed bar and grill. It had lots of long horns on the wall and guns and stars. It is always funny to see how other think of your country. I remember on Vegas night at this one bar everyone was dressed up like they were getting married. Well it was either married couples or pimp and whores or 20 and 30 style fashion. Really odd but anyways… after that we all went to the ice bar at least this one was very cheap because of the group rate. After that everyone went to another bar and we just chilled there in till everyone started to go to bed. I went with the bus driver to a local bar. Which at I saw a tradition of the area. If some is leaving the city or is there last time doing a tour they get thrown into the lake. So this guy gets dragged out of the bar with all his clothing on being held up by his limbs. As they are dragging him out to the lake they strip him down to his birthday suit and throw him in. The water was about 40 degrees and the air probably 50. Would have been much better for him if it was summer!

Queenstown 2

SNOWBOARDING!!!!

I was very excited about this. I missed pretty much the whole season back home. I woke up and took the bus to the MT. It is 1 km above sea level. After getting up there everyone that was going to the hill had never boarded before so I left them at the bunny hill. I then hit the main run before everyone else showed up. The run is 600 meters of vertical distance. I hit this run probably about 12-14 times. It was alto of fun and very expansive I don’t think I ever went down it the same way all day. It took about 5 min to get down the hill. After all the activities, back to the motel to get ready for dinner. Actually I went home and showered and then took a quick nap. We went into town to the local burger joint. After getting some food we went to this bar that was having a live band. I stayed there till about midnight then went home because I was really tired.

Travel day

After getting up we left Queenstown by bus and drove all day. We made a couple of stop along the way. The first stop was at the Aj Hackett Bridge again. Then we stopped at Thunder Creek Falls. We also stopped at this look out when got to the ocean again. After all the driving we finally arrived at the Fox Glaciers. Tomorrow I am going to walk on the glacier as of now it is raining. If it is raining again tomorrow I will not be walking on it so we will see.

DAN ADVENTURE

WELLLLLLLLL!!!! This great time has come to a end. Dan has arrived which is a doubled edge knife. It means my time in OZ has finnaly closed into a month. It also mean travel time.

Sydney With Dan


Dan got here on a Sat morning like everyone into OZ 6am the first flight in from anywhere cause that is when the tower opens. He actually had to wait at LAX to leave because the tail wind would of gotten him here before 6 and they didn't want to have to circle the airport. The also lost his luggage so he actually left the airport pretty quick. We left and to the train back to my APT. At this point he was dirty and wanted a clean set of clothing and they had giving him 100$ to get some to hold him over till his luggage came. Well we went over to Kmart and bought some clothing and then showered. After that i did what i did with Kyle WALKED! we walk from my apt to the opera house. Then after taking picture and generally just showing him the area we walked across the bridge.



We then took the train home and Ate some food. We then got some cereal for brekky everyday to save some $$$$. We then went to Paddy's market to get some shopping done and at this point were pretty much spent and tired. I was tired cause i wasn't used to waking up till like noon and had to get up at 5am to pick up and dan and he was tired from all the flight.

The next couple days at this point at a mess in my mind so im just gonna start talking about what we did in any order i remember.

We went to Bondi beach and slept in! It was actually was really nice at the beach but no one was swimming just a bunch of surfers. It is too cold to swim now unless you have a wet suit on. We walked around a took picture and then when back to town. When we got back we went to the QVB to show him some of the older buildings in Sydney. after that we went to the Tower right about dust so we saw the daylight city and the night time city.

This day I remember it was super museum day. We went to the aquarium and maritime museum. We wondered around in these things forever. It took from about 10am till 5 to do both of them. I didnt really get any pic of most the stuff but i did get a picture of a boat

The next day we went to the zoo. I have probably been to every form of Zoo OZ has now. We did see both the new baby elephant and a baby Roo.

On the way back we stopped at the tower for some day shots. Then at night we went to the Imax to see Transformers 2. It was defiantly better the second time becaue i could just watch it and not have to keep up with the story line.

At this point the next day we left for Alice Springs

We had the biggest bitch know to man at the airport. We e checked in but because we had emergency aisle seat we had to go to the counter. Well the "special counter we had to go to had a que infront of it blocked of from every angle. So after trying to get this lady attention we open the que and walked in. This must of angered her because she thought we were cutting. Then she wanted to look at our bag to make sure they fit and were not to heavy. Well they were to heavy because OZ is only 15lb which is nothing. I had just my sleeping bag and dan tolietrys and a sleeping pad and that was over 15lb. So we screwed with teh scale and because she was a idiot didnt see my foot holding up the bag HAHAHA so we walk up to the counter and got our real tickets to the plan. At this point I hope the rest of her day was horrible and full of missrable coustomers. I got eticket so i didnt have to talk to people. The only person i did have to talk to was a moron. I then went through security with no problem. Well no problem for them i had my steel toes on and im pretty sure they should of sent the detector off but they didnt. At that point i really wonder how good those things are at detecting metal.

We sat next to this guy that does hte EMT and fire on the airport runways. He worked 2 weeks in Brisbane then 2 weeks of then 2 weeks in Alice springs. He lived in Brisbane. We talked to him for a while about his job and the amount of flights.

ALICE SPRINGS

This is the first city i have actully felt unsafe in. I hate to see it but i think it was becasue of the aborignal people in the town. It was was pretty shady they all sit around and lurk asking for cigs and lights or change. It reminded me of downtown Detroit. We pretty much walked the whole town in about a hour. It is really tiny and has nothing in it. We walked back to the hostel and watch the tv for a little bit. That night we went to sleep early as we had to be up at and out by 4:45am to get to go site seeing. Well i should of know better Aussie are never on time for anything it just isnt in there blood. We went out we it was -2 C no one was waiting for us and so we went back inside to watch the morning news. This other british couple said the bus came at like 5:05 and then i got a call at 5:10 asking where i was. We then spent the next 5 hours driving to the middel of nowhere.


Once we got to kings canyon we walked around and got a little info about the area. What people ate and that this was a water hole for the early explorers. I also found out the grand canyon is a gouge and not a canyon. One part of it may of been a canyon but the part we look at and call the grand canyon is a gorge. After looking for any information i cant find out if this is true. A canyon according to the guide is formed by a earthquake and the rocks moving which then cause a change in the water table which will cause the creation's of the gorge. A canyon is a deep cut made solely by a erosional. I cant find anything so you be the judge.

We then got to the camp site and made a fire. IT WAS FREEZING. so skipping a winter must of thinned out my blood some. It was really cold but it was only just freezing out. I now worry about how i will fair at tech. We cooks some BBQ and sat around the fire and talked about our travel and life then went to sleep. We woke the next to get to Ayers rock befor sunrise. We made it

After walking aorund the 9km base we left and i snaped this shot


After that we went to this other rock formation. At this point i really didnt care about rocks anymore. Nor did i care about anything. I was tired from not sleeping well and also sitting in a bus for hours drains you. We did take a group photo at it


We then went back to Alice and all went out to eat and then to sleep because tommorow was another plane ride.

Cairns

We got there and walked into a room that looked like it was trashed. That because it kinda was we went to sleep and woke up to go scuba diving on the reef.

At this point nothing really happened different from the first time. We went out and went under. Dan has trouble with breathing under water and was not able to go so he stayed top side and snorkeled. The only other interesting point was i was showing Dan that the finish on my camera was peeling from the sea water and we drop the camera into the sea. Luckily a diver saw it drop and i held my breath and meet him half way down. I could believe how hard it is to get 5m down. I had to pop my ears twice on the way down. After that we went back to the hostel and did nothing Cairns is really boring if you don't want to go to the bars. we were going to go to the beach but Dan burned his feet and didn't really want to. so we watched some tv and went to the mall because i needed a new book to read seeing i had finished mine. We then found out waht time Harry Potter and watched that. We then woke up the next day and went to the airport to get our flight back to sydney

At this point i may or may not update this again with the next leg of travel befor i arrive home we will see.

ROAD TRIP!!

Friday

Departure date from Sydney I shared a cab with Luke as he was leaving for good to the USA and had to go to the airport around the same time I did. I got out the cab and used the electronic check in seeing I only had my backpack. I got in and went to security. I took everything off. I was going to put my lighter in the tray because I forgot to take it out with my knife back at the APT. I asked the security guy if he could throw it out for me seeing I didn't see any trashcans around. He asked me how many lighters I had on me. I told him just the one I just gave him. He gave it back to be saying I oculd bring only one on the plane. So one lighter mean you are not a threat but TWO and you are gonna take out the plane. So I made it through security and got bomb checked again. I don’t know if I posted it yet but I have now got bomb check every time I have left somewhere. I is a running joke every flight we take On the way out I have been checked. LAX to Sydney, Cairns to Sydney, Sydney to Thailand, Sydney to Brisbane now I can only be happy when they check me. I must look really suspect of a terrorist crime or really easygoing. At this point I had not shown any ID to anyone. I sat at the gate watching the MJ news and then boarded my plane. I thought maybe they would check my ID then NOPE. I got on the plane without anyone ever checking my ID. Now this is what is great about OZ no one cares about security cause it is safe. They are not worried that our bottle of water is a bomb. They don’t care you have A lighter or some scissors in your bag. I got to Brisbane and walked to my hostel. It was very nice and I guess was just remodeled. I was rooming with two guy up there to take a English language test so they can get sponsorship in OZ. They were both from New South Wales and went up to Brisbane to not have to wait to take the test. They both studied most of Friday night which was good cause I was tired and after walking around all night wanted to go to bed at a decent hour of the night to wake up for the Australian Zoo.

Sat

I woke up at 9 because the guy at the front desk said that the train left every 30 min. He was only Partially right. The train does leave every 30 min on weekdays on sat and sun it does not. So I got to the train station at about 9:20 and found out the next train didn’t leave till 11:11. So I walked around downtown Brisbane and took some pictures. Then I boarded the train for the 1.5 hour train ride. I got up to the zoo at about 12:45. I then got a map and figured out what I was going to see. I wanted to see the Koala show and the Croc show. So at 1 was the Koala show and 2 the Croc show. The Koala show was just like anything else the normal info about them and what not. But these one moved more then I had ever seen any koala move before.

The Croc Show was pretty cool other then they had a new croc doing the show and wasn’t very good. But they feed him and taught us how crocs hunt and how to not get eaten by one.

Then I walked around a little before the Birds of Prey Show. This was ok it was talking about the birds and they all flew around the stadium which was cool. After that I walked around because the shuttle didn’t leave till 4:30. I got on the shuttle and got back to the train station. The next train out wasn’t till 6:30. This really sucked cause the town had shut down for the night and the train didn’t come for another 1.5 hours. So I sat on the platform listing to music and watching people. I then got on the train and went back to the hostel. I got some food and played some pool with my roommate and this British couple that was on holiday. Then I went to bed.

Sun Travel Day

So I woke up at 9 because I had to check out at 10. I got ready got my back pack on and headed out for the morning sense my ride wouldn’t be in the city till 2. I went to the museums down by the waterfront. The museums are all free. So I walked through the science and art museums. You couldn’t take pictures which I found kind of odd but for free who can complain. At about 2 Doig picked me up outside of the Gallery of Modern Art. We then started our 12 hour journey home down the coast. It was really cool to see the coast and all the coast towns. We listen to music talked and stopped a couple times for food coffee and petrol. I didn’t get to drive cause I forgot my driver’s license in the APT but brought my Passport for some reason instead. We got back at 2 am and I just crashed.

Monday BRUNO

We went to black carpet event for the Bruno movie release in OZ. We got our spots and waited for about 1.5 hours before it actually happened. It was half an hour late starting because some group of people ran up to the stage and pour some red stuff on it. It was cool he came out on with a horse and in a knight suit on. Made a pretty good speech then walked through the people standing and made them kiss his hand. After that we went to get food and then I went to sleep. At this point only Evan and I are the only Americans I know of in Sydney. He leave Friday so on Tuesday we went to go see Star Trek. I also found out that after all the plane ride home trouble somehow Dan and I are on the same flight home from LAX to DTW which will be nice because of the 4 hour layover in LAX.

Some people may of forgotten about my flickr account the photos that are in this blog are from set found on my flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansench/