Alright, I know that you all are a little impatient with my blogging skills. I apologize, but things have been a little crazy lately.
I will go ahead and jump into telling you all about Sydney and my first week and a half here in Townsville. I arrived in Sydney on the 17th of Feb. Anthony and his brother Stuart picked me up from the airport. For those of you who don't know, Anthony is a friend of mine I met at Purdue who did exchange from Melbourne this past fall semester. After classes ended, Anthony and a friend traveled around Europe on their way home. He met up with me in Sydney before heading home and we stayed at his brother's apartment. Stuart just moved to Sydney about a month and a half ago with his girlfriend Gabby. Big sweetie. Anyway, I arrived and they were very welcoming. It was later on in the evening so we all just chatted before heading for bed.
The next morning, we took it easy and got ready at a snail's pace. Gabby started work that week at UNSW (University of New South Wales) in the HR department. Stuart is working for Shell (the reason for the move from Melbourne), but he doesn't start until Monday (3rd of March). So while Gabby went off to working flipping us the bird in her head (hah!), we spent the day walking around Sydney. I have posted the photos for you all to look at.
We hopped the bus and went downtown to have a look at the Harbor and downtown Sydney. I got some great photos as you can all tell. We then walked to a little cafe/restaurant/bar, which happens to be the oldest pub in Sydney. I had the most amazing lunch meal of my life there...a lamb burger. Great bun, great meat, great sauce....I can't tell you how good it was! Anyway, you can check out the photos of it on my photo link. We sat outside...it was such a nice day. Apparently this was lucky for me because Sydney and a lot of Australia had been seeing some bad weather (rainy and such) over the past few weeks. After wandering around downtown for a bit, we caught the bus back to the apartment.
Funny story here. Earlier in the day while waiting for the bus, we had seen these two crazy people (not trying to be mean...it's not funny, but in a way it is...). This lady was walking with a cane, shouting at this man in front of her for not giving her a swig of his drink (which was wine in a coke bottle). She was walking with a cane in the middle of the road holding up traffic. Apparently up the street from where we were waiting for the bus is a rehab center. Anyway, this lady ends up sitting down in the middle of the street blocking traffic. Cars are honking, she's flipping them off telling them to go around. I know it is sad, but it was entertaining to watch to a degree.
Now...on to more crazy people/bus stories. While waiting for the bus on the return to the apartment, the bus line next to the harbor is huge. There's room for about 6 or 8 buses to pull up. There was a massive traffic jam of buses all along the way. The bus we needed pulled up at the very beginning of the bus lane (not even all the way up to it). We were about 3/4 of the way up the line. The bus pulls away and tells us we can't get on. This lady steps in front of the bus and screams at the driver to open the door and let her on. The bus driver is refusing to let her on. We decided to step aside and wait for the next bus to come. This lady begins screaming all sorts of profanities at the bus driver. "F-you" "F-this" "let me on the F-ing bus" rah rah rah (i.e. Australian version of blah blah blah). She was crazy. The bus driver was arguing with her, but finally pulled over and about 15-20 of us got on. The lady did have a point, but she was a little out of control. There was a big number of us, and hardly anyone on the bus...no reason for him not to stop and wait for us to get on. I was impressed with the driver though, he did not swear at her once, but he did raise his voice. Anyway, so we got a kick out of my ability to attract the crazy people while waiting for the bus.
Moving on, we got back to the apartment, grabbed our togs (aka swimsuits), and got in the car where Stuart proceeded to drive us to Bondhi Beach. Again, photos are posted. The beach was really nice. There were quite a few people there, but everyone was spaced out. It was nice. We hung out here for a little while and then we picked up Gabby from work on our way home.
Dinner was out that night at a Thai restaurant. Very good. We went back, and headed for bed fairly early for Tuesday was our trip to Hunter Valley. For those of you who don't know, Hunter Valley is one of the oldest piece of wine country in Australia. There are almost 150 different wineries in the region. We managed to make it to three of them. It was about a two hour drive to get there. Very pretty. Mountains all around.
The first winery we went to was very nice. I cannot remember the name, but the photos are in order of each winery. The gal serving us was very lovely. She told us a lot about wine and just other small talk conversation. If you look at the photos and see a stage being set up in the grass, this was Rod Stewart's stage. He was playing two nights after we left. So something like the 23rd of Feb. Apparently they have some pretty big names come through there. Matchbox Twenty is another one coming. The lady at this winery pointed us in the direction of a great place for lunch. As you can see by the looks of my burger (check out the photos)...it was massive!! All three of us got the burger...$15 dollars each! But very good...
We then went to two other wineries and just enjoyed ourselves. Don't worry...Stuart was responsible and didn't have much at all. We made sure he blew a 0.00 before we left. Enjoy the photos from wine country. It was a good day. We then headed back to Sydney where Gabby cooked us a great meal and we enjoyed ourselves around the apartment for the night. The next morning I woke up, showered, packed up my last few things and headed for Townsville.
Townsville...I have so much to write about this place, and it is almost 4 in the morning here. I am getting awfully tired. I think my alertness up to this point was the energy drinks I had tonight. I promise to write more in the next couple of days and tell you all about Townsville. I just have so much to write about the city, JCU, the people, O week...it's just too much for tonight.
I hope all is well with everyone back home. I'm sorry about all of the nasty weather. Even at 4 am it's still 80 degrees!
Until next time,
Krissy
xoxo
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Link for Photos
Hey all,
I know I haven't written in a while. I'm sorry I don't have the time to fill you in on my Sydney adventures and recent JCU adventures. I promise to do that soon! But...I did want to let you all know about the place I found to post my photos. The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/kriss.morrow/CookIslands
I believe that if you want to look at any of my photo albums just go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kriss.morrow
I hope you are all doing well and I promise to write soon! Have to go get ready for a night out with all my new Uni friends! =D
Love,
Krissy
xoxo
I know I haven't written in a while. I'm sorry I don't have the time to fill you in on my Sydney adventures and recent JCU adventures. I promise to do that soon! But...I did want to let you all know about the place I found to post my photos. The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/kriss.morrow/CookIslands
I believe that if you want to look at any of my photo albums just go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kriss.morrow
I hope you are all doing well and I promise to write soon! Have to go get ready for a night out with all my new Uni friends! =D
Love,
Krissy
xoxo
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Ahh…so it’s back to reality…or a part of the real world. I must say, Rarotonga is quite a magical place. Hard to believe that you can travel around the entire island (the biggest of all the cooks) in less than an hour or so. I will tell you all that it is absolute paradise. That is for sure. Once again, my travels have led me to meet some of the most amazing people. I couldn’t have asked for a better stay in Raro.
Before I dive into the wonderful story of my stay in Raro…I’m going to take this time to make a quick side note. For those of you who are my friends reading this, and for those of you who are parents of kids my age (or not)….this message is for all of you. I can honestly say that I think every person in their young adult life needs to take a backpacking trip. Stay in hostels. Meet people. Yes, parents….I realize this is very scary for you, but let me just tell you this…it is one of the most life changing, educational experiences I have ever had. I have meet great people from all around the world: UK, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Sweden…the list goes on. I have been in contact and will continue to be with the majority of these people. Do you know what that means for me? More travels to these wonderful places and staying with these other amazing world travelers. Backpacking is a very eye opening experience. I cannot even put into words how strongly I feel that everyone needs to do this. I will say that it is very surprising to me…I have met only 2 Americans in my two weeks of traveling that are traveling and staying in hostels. According to the people I have met, they haven’t met too many Americans traveling either. It seems to be a trend…Americans never leave their own country, yet there is a wealth of knowledge and diversity of people from all over the world out there traveling. I don’t know if it’s because we (Americans) are too afraid or what. I hope that this will be a change in our culture. Parents should encourage their children to travel and see the world. Now is the time to do it.
So I could go on for days about this subject, but you all get the point. No more need be said.
Now on to my say in Raro. The first night there were 5 of us picked up from the airport. A German guy (and for the life of me I can’t remember his name), a Polish woman named Jolanda (she now lives in Melbourne), a Swiss girl named Yvonne, and an English lady (hehe) by the name of Charmaine or Char (I hope you are reading this you old mangy cat!). The first night Char and I were thrown into a room together. We were so tired…it was 12 am when we landed and probably 130 when we went to bed. The next day Char and I grabbed some food from a general store just a few minutes’ walk from the backpackers. We then walked the beach and found a spot to sun bathe for a bit. Here is where we had wonderful conversations including things about politics! Haha! She loves American politics…funny really.
Later in the day Jens (you’ll learn below) and I went on a snorkeling trip down the beach. It is a much better spot than right in front of our hostel. The only problem in front of our hostel is that the water is too shallow. For those of you who don’t know, the island of Rarotonga is surrounded by a lagoon/coral reef. The waves break anywhere between 200 and 300 yards or more off of shore. Inside of this area the water is literally around 2 maybe 3 feet. There are some areas a little deeper than that, but for the most part this is how deep it is within the lagoon. Another major problem right in front of the hostel is that it is very rocky. There is a lot of rock and coral…to the point that it is almost impossible to get in very far. Jens and I walked down the beach a little ways to a sandy area that we were told about by others at the hostel. Here a small stream drains into the lagoon. The water here is much deeper…in some place I can’t even touch! There were plenty of fish and sea life to see. Fish were everywhere…we found a couple of eels, and even an octopus! I was so pleased with myself for finding him in his little hole! Hah! Anyway..then it was time to head back to the hostel.
That night the hostel offered dinner for $15 dollars. You all will never believe this, but I ATE FISH!!!! And it was semi-tasty. I cannot believe I ate fish. It was Marlin…very good on the grill. Anyway, this was a time for bonding for all of us in the hostel.
I should probably go ahead and give you some background on all of the other people I met before I get too much further. There was Francesco from Italy. He lives in Spain and owns a bar in Mallorca. From what he tells me it’s a beautiful place…perhaps on my next adventure! There was a German by the name of Jens, whose English was quite good. He was trying to learn Spanish as well. Then there were the 4 British men…I’m sorry boys (yes…all males are boys at heart!). One of them in particular is of interest. A tall, dark, and quite cute Englishman by the name of Mark. Char found it very funny to point out to me how ironic his nickname is…or what everyone calls him…are you ready for this? Sharky….yes his nickname is Sharky. Perhaps because he has a tattoo of a shark on his left shoulder blade. I’m not sure which came first, the tattoo or the nickname. Anyway…I’m sure you can all figure out why Char found this quite entertaining. For the life of me I cannot remember the other English boys’ names.
The second day Char and I went into the city so that she could get a scooter license. It ended up taking half of the day due to rain. One our way back to the hostel, we stopped by the supermarket and picked up some groceries. We made it back to the hostel where we grabbed our books and just sunned ourselves on the beach.
Alright…so after dinner I had a chat with the English guys who are on their way to America after the Cook Islands (I can’t remember if they are doing New Zealand as well or if they have already been). We spoke about all of the things they needed to do and places they needed to see. It was quite fun. Then it was time for bed as I had diving to do the next morning at 8 am.
Diving was great! I went with Dive Rarotonga, and the crew was just so cheeky (my newly learned English word)!! Haha. It was quite funny actually, I was the only person diving that morning. There were several people from my hostel that went the day before and were going in the afternoon. Apparently getting up early is not an option for most when you are on island time! I quite enjoyed it though. There were three of them making sure my diving experience went well. Two Englishman by the names of Luke and James (very cheeky character this one!) and a local guy whose name I do not recall. He didn’t talk too much, whereas the other two talked my ear off! Not a bad thing…very good! It was kind of nice being the only one…I was pampered and given all of the attention…who doesn’t like that?! The first dive was a place called the Boneyard. I’m sure you are all wondering what is up with the name. According to Luke it is called the Boneyard because it is located directly offshore of a graveyard. The water visibility was absolutely amazing. You could see about 120 ft (40 m for those of you weirdos!! I know there are a few). It was brilliant. I saw lots of fish, a moray eel, coral of all kinds, etc. It was very nice. After the 1st dive we came back into shore and had some hot chocolate and cookies. Yes, I know you are all wondering what in the hell I was doing drinking hot chocolate in the Cook Islands, but I tell you…when you have been in the water and then are wet speeding over the water with wind rushing over you…a nice cup of hot chocolate is just right! After finishing our surface interval, we went back out on the boat to Paradise for a very nice dive. On this dive, the visibility wasn’t as great, but it was still good. I saw similar things…lots of fish and that sort of thing. Unfortunately for me, no sharks and no turtles. Perhaps on the next dive…
The guys at Dive Rarotonga were great. They offered to keep my gear overnight to try, which was very convenient for me considering there wasn’t really any place to dry it at the hostel. They dropped it off to me the next day. Talk about service! =D
When I got back to the hostel Francesco and a few of the English boys (one of their girlfriends as well) decided to go snorkeling down at the Rarotonga Resort Bar and Grill. I tagged along riding on the back of Francesco’s scooter. The snorkeling was fabulous. I can honestly say the snorkeling at that the Rarotonga resort is almost as good as the diving. There’s just so much life! Corals of all color, fish of all color. I’m sorry to say I didn’t have my camera with me this time. It was really nice snorkeling because in shallow water all of the colors are still in the coral. When you dive, the deeper you go, some of the rich colors come out and everything looks blue. One of the English boys stepped on a sea urchin and got 4 spines in the bottom of his foot…whoopsy. Everything turned out alright though.
Francesco and I decided to go on down to Muri beach which is on the southeast side of the island. My hostel was located on the west side of the island. Muri beach is one of the famous beaches in Rarotonga. There is a nice lagoon there that has 4 islands which you can walk out to from the shore. The beach here is much sandier, which makes it a good place to swim. Francesco and I walked across to one of the islands where we took some pictures of Rarotonga. We attempted to walk all the way around the island, but the shore was just too rocky. I can’t believe I did this, but we decided to cut through the ‘jungle’ to get back to the other side where we started. It was quite funny really…we laughed about it. Our bare feet just couldn’t take the rocks anymore. I’m not sure why we decided going barefoot through the ‘jungle’ was a better idea! But everything turned out fine and we made it back out safely. We walked back across to the main island and went for a swim.
On the way back to the hostel, Francesco stopped at the waterfall so that I was sure to see it before I left. It is situated back a ways from the main road (which runs around the whole island). The waterfall was beautiful. The swimming area surrounding it was quite small, but very beautiful. We didn’t say here too long because of the mozzies (mosquitoes). We headed back to the hostel after that. I met up with Char to eat some dinner.
At 830 pm, we were picked up for island night. About 15 of us crammed into the big van the hostel has and went down to island night. Everyone was drinking (only a little bit!). The show was really great. There was a band that played South Pacific Islander music while the girls and guys danced in traditional attire. The host of the show was quite funny. Char has the pictures of him, so I will post them as soon as I can. The show was very good. It is impressive the way the girls move their hips without moving a millimeter of their upper body! After the show, a DJ came out and played music. People were requesting various songs, so I decided to do the same. I asked the DJ to play some hip-hop (what the rest of the world calls rap music). He became very excited and said, “Yeah sure! Do you want new or old stuff?” Of course I said new…so needless to say, for the next hour and a half I attempted to show people how to dance American style! Hah! We all had a great time. Jolanda the Polish woman was quite funny on the dance floor. She was having the time of her life! Especially when we were all dancing to “Dancing Queen!!”
About midnight the backpacker bus (or so we’ll call it) came to take us back to the hostel. Everyone sat around talking. I ended up having some interesting conversation with a certain individual by the name of Sharky. Quite funny!
That night Char and I had promised each other that no matter what happened, we were going to wake up at 715 am to do the island trek (climbing across the mountain). Needless to say, 715 rolled around and Char and I neither one were going to make it across that mountain. We went back to sleep until about 10 (after going to bed at 4 am?? I hope?!) I then caught a ride into town with David, the Spaniard. There I bought a few of those Cook Islands famous black pearls. David and I then went back to the backpackers where I met up with Char and we just relaxed the rest of the day. About 8 pm Char and I barely managed to get back on the scooter and head down to Tumunu Bar where we met up with Luke and James (my dive masters). We stayed there about 2 hours and headed back to the hostel. I finished packing up, ate some dinner, and off Yvonne and I went to the airport.
My flight left at 135 am on Saturday February 16th and 3 ½ hours later landed in Auckland at 5 am SUNDAY February 17th. Quite strange…Saturday the 16th was only about 2 hours for me! Again…as I’m sure I’ve said before…an interesting thing the date line…
Here I am still…hanging out at the Auckland airport waiting for my flight to Sydney! I am so excited to arrive in Australia and see Anthony, a familiar face! It has been so wonderful getting to meet so many amazing people, but I will say, I am ready to settle down somewhere a little longer than 4 nights. It’s hard to believe my travels are almost over and Uni (Uni=University=American college) is about to start! I can’t wait to share all of those exciting adventures with you all!
I hope everyone is doing well. Take care!
Love,
Krissy
Monday, February 11, 2008
Adventures in New Zealand!
Hello all,
The catamaran was on the smaller side. There were about 30 of us in all on the boat. The bow (front) of the boat had a railing all around it, but 6 at a time were allowed to crawl underneath is and stick the stop half of their body out over the water while hanging on. This meant that you were about 1.5 feet away from the water. While hanging off, the dolphins would swim right underneath the boat so you were within 2 feet of them! At one point, one of them surfaced right underneath me and its dorsal fin almost hit me in the face! It was very neat!
I miss you all, but I am having a wonderful time traveling. It is so incredible how many amazing people you meet. I know that some of you are worried about my traveling on my own, but I will say that I think it is the best way to do it. If I were traveling with someone, I don't think I would have met half of the amazing people I have so far. I know I keep saying it, but it's so great. I have so many people and places around the world to visit now!
Keep checking my blog. I will probably update it as I have been...every 3 or 4 days. It is easier for me to do it this way. I hope you are all doing well back home! I miss and love you all!
Cheers (one of my new vocab words),
Krissy
So I hear the weather back home in Lafayette is not so good right now…such a same I’m not there! Hah! Just kidding! I do; however, miss all of you dearly. I wish I could pack up each and every one of you and allow you to see all of the wonderful things I am seeing and experiencing. It truly is remarkable. Ahh…so where to begin.
I suppose the last I wrote was at the Sydney airport. So you all heard the Hawaii details, and now you are all waiting to hear about my amazing time in New Zealand! It has been another amazing adventure with amazing people…I can’t even begin to tell you all!
My first night here was somewhat interesting. I arrived after traveling for 30 hours. I did sleep some in there, but of course I was still exhausted upon my arrival. The first room they put me in was a room for 6. I walked in the door and 6 girls gave me dirty looks. I told them I was their new roommate and they told me the room was full (which it was). I asked if I could leave my things in the room until I sorted out the mess downstairs…there was no way in hell I was going to pull 2 suitcases and a carry on back down to the ground floor from floor 4 (yes there is an elevator, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy). The girls told me to just put my stuff in the hallway! How rude! Oh well…so I went downstairs and they put me in a new room…best thing to have ever happened.
I was them placed in an 8 bed room; however, the first night there were only 4 of us. Emma, an English girl I spent most of my first 2 ½ days with, was in my new room. She is such a sweetheart. She is traveling for a little over 3 months and spent time in Australia, now New Zealand and then the US. She is a flight attendant for a British airline back home. Two other English girls were in my room. All of which were very very nice. Quite a change from the room just down the hall! We sat and chatted for a bit before heading for bed. Although it was a Friday night and perhaps I should have been at the bar for $4 drinks (very cheap here…normally they are $7 or more), which is the Friday and Saturday night special at the hostel bar (First Base Traveler’s Bar). Anyway, bed it was for me.
The next day the two other girls checked out and went up to the Bay of Islands (I will tell you about this in a little while). Emma and I spent the day walking around Auckland and exploring. On our way out, while using the internet in the internet café, I met a guy by the name of Alan from Germany. He was on his way to spend 2 months studying just east of Auckland for Medicine. He is then going to Brisbane and spending two months studying there as well before heading home to Germany. He spent the early afternoon walking with us before his bus left at 430. We found a park within the city called Albert Park ( I think?). Beautiful little place…here are a few pictures.
Emma and I then came back and did some laundry. Talk about expensive! It is $3 for the washer and $3 for the dryer as well which gives you 45 minutes!! Good thing I have only had to do 2 loads of laundry during my stay! Emma and I then found this great little pizza place for dinner called the Kiwi Pizza place. It is a little hole in the wall where you go up the steepest stairs to a very small room. I don’t think you could fit more than 30 people comfortably up there around the tables. But the pizza was fabulous and we had a decent view of downtown Auckland. We then came back to the hostel for Saturday night’s $4 drinks! Yay!
We sat for a while watching other people. There weren’t too many people in the bar at this point. After a little while these two guys came over and sat with us. They were both from England as well. Their names were Steve and Andy. We had some great conversations with them about England, New Zealand, and the US. Very very funny. I also found it very funny how after a while the bar got busy and there were actually people on the dance floor. The majority of the music played is from the US…it was very interesting watching people from so many different countries trying to dance to American music. They sure do dance a little differently than we do back home! It’s not too different, but enough that you can tell a bit of difference. So after walking around Auckland for a while around 230 am, Emma and I left the boys and went to bed.
The next day Emma was leaving. I spent the morning with her in the internet room waiting for Steve to meet me downstairs. He came down and Emma and I said goodbye. I showed Andy around Auckland, just as I had shown Sven around Waikiki. I took him to the park. We hung out there for a little while just watching the birds and enjoying the sun chatting about American football and English football (i.e. soccer) as well as Rugby. I learned a little bit about the rules and how things work. For dinner we found this amazing little Irish pub called Father Teds. On Sundays they serve a $5 roast dinner! I couldn’t believe it! A $5 decent meal in New Zealand?! That’s crazy!
From here we went to the harbor and sat and talked. We shared some music tastes on our iPods while watching the sun set and the boats come in and out of the harbor. According to my tour guide the next day (I will tell you more about this in a minute), there are 1.3 million people in Auckland and 1/4 of them own a boat of some kind! That is incredible! The marina next to where we were at is the largest within New Zealand (or at least the Auckland area).
The catamaran was on the smaller side. There were about 30 of us in all on the boat. The bow (front) of the boat had a railing all around it, but 6 at a time were allowed to crawl underneath is and stick the stop half of their body out over the water while hanging on. This meant that you were about 1.5 feet away from the water. While hanging off, the dolphins would swim right underneath the boat so you were within 2 feet of them! At one point, one of them surfaced right underneath me and its dorsal fin almost hit me in the face! It was very neat!
Because we couldn't get in the water with the dolphins, the crew (made up of two women), took us to a spot where we could get out and swim if we wanted to. It was very cool. They also took us to a little beach area where we were able to get refreshments and that sort of thing.
All in all my trip to New Zealand was amazing, as was my trip to Hawaii. Auckland is a beautiful city. While they say there are 1.3 million people here, you would never have any idea. It doesn't feel any bigger than Purdue's campus. The city is beautiful and mellow. I will be sad to leave it here in a few hours. Oh well, it is time for the next adventure to begin! I am off to the Cook Islands. Here I'm hoping to spend a little more time on the beach and relax. It is time to mellow out. I have been on the go go go everyday since I left home.
I miss you all, but I am having a wonderful time traveling. It is so incredible how many amazing people you meet. I know that some of you are worried about my traveling on my own, but I will say that I think it is the best way to do it. If I were traveling with someone, I don't think I would have met half of the amazing people I have so far. I know I keep saying it, but it's so great. I have so many people and places around the world to visit now!
Keep checking my blog. I will probably update it as I have been...every 3 or 4 days. It is easier for me to do it this way. I hope you are all doing well back home! I miss and love you all!
Cheers (one of my new vocab words),
Krissy
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Hey there everyone,
I know you have been wondering why I haven't posted anything lately...some of you have been harrassing mom and dad about it. I apologize. Things have been a little crazy lately. I am currently sitting at the Sydney airport waiting for my flight to Auckland. But here I go getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning...or from where I last spoke to you all.
I told you all about Saturday night and my time with Erin. Saturday morning I decided to go whale watching. I booked my ticket and
went downstairs for breakfast. The hostel in Waikiki serves breakfast every morning from 9 am to 10 am. It consists only of toast, peanut butter, butter and jam. While at breakfast that morning I met an interesting German by the name of Sven. Before the whale watching shuttle picked me up, Sven and I took a stroll down the strip of Waikiki. He had gotten in late the night before as well, but he hadn't made it down to the beach yet. We sat on the beach for a little while, but I had to head back to catch the bus to the boat. Funny story here...the place I booked with did not give me good directions as to where the shuttle was picking me up. They were to be there at 1230. I arrived at the location (orthe location I thought it was) at noon. I waited until 1245 and no bus came. Needless to say I ended up taking a taxi to the marina in order to get on the boat. The place reimbursed me for the cab, which was good.
Apparently I had been waiting in the wrong location the entire time. Whoopsy! Aside from that little blunder the trip was excellent. The crew
was very nice and very friendly. The whales were absolutely extraordinary. We saw a pair of humpback whales, mom and baby. They were so adorable...I know this is repetitive, but I can't even tell you!
The mom only surfaced a couple of times while we were with them. The rest of the time it was just the baby at the surface. The mom was probably just under the water protecting the baby from any sort of danger.
The baby did the typical humpback move of jumping out of the water and landing on its back. The baby was about 15 ft long and also did a lot of tail slapping. It was so amazing!!! The nice part about the boat I went with was that it probably held up to 150 - 200 people, but there were only maybe 30 of us on the boat
which made watching the whales very enjoyable.
In a way missing the shuttle was nice because the man in the taxi gave me a lot of insightful information. I then took the shuttle back to the hotel where I met up with Sven after showering. We walked down to the International Market. Because it was close/was the Chinese New Year, there were people dressed up in dragon costumes while others marched along beside. It was pretty cool. I'm sure you will all laugh at this, but the majority of the food there was Chinese. Sven of course got a Chinese dish whereas I found the only burger place in there! hah! Anyway, then after dinner we walked back down the Waikiki strip and sat on the beach talking for a while. Sven's English was very good, but he was a bit self conscious about it. He used to be a professional soccer player in Germany until he injured his back and wasn't allowed to play anymore. He then went to school for tax consulting. He has a job interview here in a few months and it's in English. He spent the last four weeks in Vancouver at Language school. Then he was spending a week in Hawaii before spending another 4 weeks in language school, this time in Toronto. He said he just wants to make sure he doesn't sound like an idiot saying the wrong tense in the interview. I thought it was very funny...I would sometimes use words that Sven wouldn't know. He would ask me to spell them and then he would write them on a list with a definition that suited him. I thought that was a very clever idea. It was kind of nice for me as well because it really made me think about communication and how I needed to explain what these words meant.
anyway, back to Hawaii...
The next day I went Scuba diving with Aaron's Dive Shop. Great group of people by the way! Anyway, so they picked me up from the hostel and we drove to the west side of the island which is where our dives were. If you all can believe this (yes you can because it's me...) I was so excited to take pictures with my new super expensive under water digital camera. I made sure to charge the battery and everything. What do you think I did? I FORGOT THE BATTERY!!! Talk about a blond moment! However, there is one good thing to this story. I behaved myself very very well. Typical Krissy would have become very upset and thrown a fit. BUT...this time I remained calm and laughed it off. It was very disappointing not using the camera, but it was also nice. Sometimes when you take pictures, it's almost more of a hassle than not. It makes it harder to enjoy the experience because you are too busy worrying about getting the best shot. The diving was great. We saw a lot of fish and other wildlife. The first dive was on a 180 foot ocean liner that was artificially sunk in the 1980s. Come to find out, the Mahi was the first US artifical reef...thus back in the 80s it was one of the worlds number one dive spots. While there I saw a school of approximately 10 to 15 spotted eagle rays. They were absolutely beautiful! As I said before, I saw many other fish as well, but we won't get into the nerdiness I possess when it comes to knowledge about fish. The second dive was just around the corner and in much shallower water. The Mahi was at about 66 ft at the top of the deck and the bottom of the boat was in about 92 ft of water.
So on to the second dive...the second dive was in about 30 feet at its maximum point. Here there was a lot more coral and less fish, so it was a nice contrast... I got to see it all. There were only 4 of us diving and the dive master dove with us. It was nice to have him there because he showed us things we never would have seen on our own. For example, he found an octopus that none of us would have seen otherwise. Unfortunately we did not see any turtles on this dive even though it is one of the places on Oahu best known for spotting turtles. Oh well, I guess these things happen. THe Divemaster with us was named Kevin. great guy. He used to do research on introducing wolves back into the smoky mountains. He has a degree in environmental science/education. He said it was very difficult after a while trying to explain to people why these predators needed to be reintroduced. We had some very interesting conversations on the way back to Waikiki. When I got back I decided I was going to rent a car. I took a shuttle to the airport to pick it up and was able to park it at the hostel. While waiting on the shuttle to pick me up, I ran into Sven who was with a group of people I had not yet met. Two girls, sisters, from Australia's capital city Canberra. Their names are Feirlee (I'm sure I have spelled it wrong), pronounced "fair-lee" and Brittany who goes by Bit. Feirlee goes by Lou. These two girls turned out to be some of the most amazing people I have met so far on this journey. I have a feeling we will have a lifetime friendship. The other person with them was a guy name Louise from Brazil. The four of them waited for me to return from the airport before going to dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. Funny I know...but we had to find something that was going to suit a German, Brazilian, 2 Aussies, and an American. So Cheesecake Factory it was. After dinner we all headed back and decided it was time for bed.
I invited the girls to come with me the next day on a drive up to North Shore. While Waikiki is nice, it is very touristy...not what you think of when you think Hawaii. However, everyone told me I need to head up to North Shore and check out those beaches. The girls decided to come with me and we had such an amazing day. The drive there is gorgeous. You drive along the water the whole way there. For those of you who don't know, North Shore is very famous for it's surfing waves. We stopped at a couple of places along the way. The pictures I have added to this page are from our trip. I would like to take the time to let you all know that it was Bit's photography skills at work in some of these pictures. I was driving so someone had to take pictures along the way. (Quick side note: this airport computer won't let me move the pictures around so there will be captions at the end).
We stopped at Malaekahana state park first. The beach here was nice, but not as good as I was expecting from the Cab driver's description. We then drove on to Sunset Beach which was beautiful as well. We stayed here a little longer; however, the day was full of drizzley rain. We then went on down the way to the most famous beach in the area: the Pipeline. We stayed here probably for an hour and a half or two hours. We sat there throughout the rain and enjoyed the beach. There was a body surfing competition going on while we were there....cameras and the whole lot! Rumor has it from Erin (the girl in my room the first night) that Jack Johnson was there for the competition. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the 3 of us girls looked, there was no Jack Johnson in sight.
We took some really cool videos of the surfers. There were some amazing surfers there. The Bodysurfing competition was cool, but we watched the surfers more. After hanging out here for a while we decided it was about time to head back and meet up with the boys for dinner. We grabbed something quick and then went out for a little while. There were about 10 of us
that went out together. and no..we didn't get too drunk! =P I know what you all are thinking. Here's where things got interesting. Lou is only 18, so we went to a club where she could get in. It was absolutely dead so we headed back to the hostel. Here we met up with other people from the hostel including one of the off duty workers named Eddie. He talked us all into going down to the beach for a late night swim. It was about midnight at this point. I went upstairs, changed clothes and went down with everyone to the beach.
We all had a great time playing in the ocean. Yes, I know this goes against by belief of swimming at night, but there are wave breaking walls, so the chances of a shark getting in are very low.
Then...the plan was before my plane flight Lou, Bit and I were going surfing. This did not happen because here we go again...are you all ready? I couldn't, and still have not, found my driver's license. Oops. So needless to say things have been kind of stressful. I was sure I had it with me when I checked back into the room after going out, but the girls in my room helped me tear everything apart and we never did find it. So, I got on the flight to San Francisco leaving my ID behind whereever it may be. Then I caught my connecting flight to Sydney 50 minutes after landing. Now here I am at the Sydney airport waiting on my flight to New Zealand! I hope that you all have enjoyed this lengthy post. I meant to post this the other day, but as you can see with all of the excitement it didn't happen.
However, I met some great people in Hawaii who I will never forget. Lou, Bit and I are already planning weekend trips to visit each other!
I hope you are all doing well back home in the states! I miss you!
Love,
Krissy
P.S. I promise to try and do better about posting! The pics below are in reverse order.
Rainbow on the way back to Waikiki from North Shore
The Surfers from the Pipeline beach
Malaekahana beach to the right side
Pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
I know you have been wondering why I haven't posted anything lately...some of you have been harrassing mom and dad about it. I apologize. Things have been a little crazy lately. I am currently sitting at the Sydney airport waiting for my flight to Auckland. But here I go getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning...or from where I last spoke to you all.
I told you all about Saturday night and my time with Erin. Saturday morning I decided to go whale watching. I booked my ticket and
went downstairs for breakfast. The hostel in Waikiki serves breakfast every morning from 9 am to 10 am. It consists only of toast, peanut butter, butter and jam. While at breakfast that morning I met an interesting German by the name of Sven. Before the whale watching shuttle picked me up, Sven and I took a stroll down the strip of Waikiki. He had gotten in late the night before as well, but he hadn't made it down to the beach yet. We sat on the beach for a little while, but I had to head back to catch the bus to the boat. Funny story here...the place I booked with did not give me good directions as to where the shuttle was picking me up. They were to be there at 1230. I arrived at the location (orthe location I thought it was) at noon. I waited until 1245 and no bus came. Needless to say I ended up taking a taxi to the marina in order to get on the boat. The place reimbursed me for the cab, which was good.
Apparently I had been waiting in the wrong location the entire time. Whoopsy! Aside from that little blunder the trip was excellent. The crew
was very nice and very friendly. The whales were absolutely extraordinary. We saw a pair of humpback whales, mom and baby. They were so adorable...I know this is repetitive, but I can't even tell you!
The mom only surfaced a couple of times while we were with them. The rest of the time it was just the baby at the surface. The mom was probably just under the water protecting the baby from any sort of danger.
The baby did the typical humpback move of jumping out of the water and landing on its back. The baby was about 15 ft long and also did a lot of tail slapping. It was so amazing!!! The nice part about the boat I went with was that it probably held up to 150 - 200 people, but there were only maybe 30 of us on the boat
which made watching the whales very enjoyable.
In a way missing the shuttle was nice because the man in the taxi gave me a lot of insightful information. I then took the shuttle back to the hotel where I met up with Sven after showering. We walked down to the International Market. Because it was close/was the Chinese New Year, there were people dressed up in dragon costumes while others marched along beside. It was pretty cool. I'm sure you will all laugh at this, but the majority of the food there was Chinese. Sven of course got a Chinese dish whereas I found the only burger place in there! hah! Anyway, then after dinner we walked back down the Waikiki strip and sat on the beach talking for a while. Sven's English was very good, but he was a bit self conscious about it. He used to be a professional soccer player in Germany until he injured his back and wasn't allowed to play anymore. He then went to school for tax consulting. He has a job interview here in a few months and it's in English. He spent the last four weeks in Vancouver at Language school. Then he was spending a week in Hawaii before spending another 4 weeks in language school, this time in Toronto. He said he just wants to make sure he doesn't sound like an idiot saying the wrong tense in the interview. I thought it was very funny...I would sometimes use words that Sven wouldn't know. He would ask me to spell them and then he would write them on a list with a definition that suited him. I thought that was a very clever idea. It was kind of nice for me as well because it really made me think about communication and how I needed to explain what these words meant.
anyway, back to Hawaii...
The next day I went Scuba diving with Aaron's Dive Shop. Great group of people by the way! Anyway, so they picked me up from the hostel and we drove to the west side of the island which is where our dives were. If you all can believe this (yes you can because it's me...) I was so excited to take pictures with my new super expensive under water digital camera. I made sure to charge the battery and everything. What do you think I did? I FORGOT THE BATTERY!!! Talk about a blond moment! However, there is one good thing to this story. I behaved myself very very well. Typical Krissy would have become very upset and thrown a fit. BUT...this time I remained calm and laughed it off. It was very disappointing not using the camera, but it was also nice. Sometimes when you take pictures, it's almost more of a hassle than not. It makes it harder to enjoy the experience because you are too busy worrying about getting the best shot. The diving was great. We saw a lot of fish and other wildlife. The first dive was on a 180 foot ocean liner that was artificially sunk in the 1980s. Come to find out, the Mahi was the first US artifical reef...thus back in the 80s it was one of the worlds number one dive spots. While there I saw a school of approximately 10 to 15 spotted eagle rays. They were absolutely beautiful! As I said before, I saw many other fish as well, but we won't get into the nerdiness I possess when it comes to knowledge about fish. The second dive was just around the corner and in much shallower water. The Mahi was at about 66 ft at the top of the deck and the bottom of the boat was in about 92 ft of water.
So on to the second dive...the second dive was in about 30 feet at its maximum point. Here there was a lot more coral and less fish, so it was a nice contrast... I got to see it all. There were only 4 of us diving and the dive master dove with us. It was nice to have him there because he showed us things we never would have seen on our own. For example, he found an octopus that none of us would have seen otherwise. Unfortunately we did not see any turtles on this dive even though it is one of the places on Oahu best known for spotting turtles. Oh well, I guess these things happen. THe Divemaster with us was named Kevin. great guy. He used to do research on introducing wolves back into the smoky mountains. He has a degree in environmental science/education. He said it was very difficult after a while trying to explain to people why these predators needed to be reintroduced. We had some very interesting conversations on the way back to Waikiki. When I got back I decided I was going to rent a car. I took a shuttle to the airport to pick it up and was able to park it at the hostel. While waiting on the shuttle to pick me up, I ran into Sven who was with a group of people I had not yet met. Two girls, sisters, from Australia's capital city Canberra. Their names are Feirlee (I'm sure I have spelled it wrong), pronounced "fair-lee" and Brittany who goes by Bit. Feirlee goes by Lou. These two girls turned out to be some of the most amazing people I have met so far on this journey. I have a feeling we will have a lifetime friendship. The other person with them was a guy name Louise from Brazil. The four of them waited for me to return from the airport before going to dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. Funny I know...but we had to find something that was going to suit a German, Brazilian, 2 Aussies, and an American. So Cheesecake Factory it was. After dinner we all headed back and decided it was time for bed.
I invited the girls to come with me the next day on a drive up to North Shore. While Waikiki is nice, it is very touristy...not what you think of when you think Hawaii. However, everyone told me I need to head up to North Shore and check out those beaches. The girls decided to come with me and we had such an amazing day. The drive there is gorgeous. You drive along the water the whole way there. For those of you who don't know, North Shore is very famous for it's surfing waves. We stopped at a couple of places along the way. The pictures I have added to this page are from our trip. I would like to take the time to let you all know that it was Bit's photography skills at work in some of these pictures. I was driving so someone had to take pictures along the way. (Quick side note: this airport computer won't let me move the pictures around so there will be captions at the end).
We stopped at Malaekahana state park first. The beach here was nice, but not as good as I was expecting from the Cab driver's description. We then drove on to Sunset Beach which was beautiful as well. We stayed here a little longer; however, the day was full of drizzley rain. We then went on down the way to the most famous beach in the area: the Pipeline. We stayed here probably for an hour and a half or two hours. We sat there throughout the rain and enjoyed the beach. There was a body surfing competition going on while we were there....cameras and the whole lot! Rumor has it from Erin (the girl in my room the first night) that Jack Johnson was there for the competition. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the 3 of us girls looked, there was no Jack Johnson in sight.
We took some really cool videos of the surfers. There were some amazing surfers there. The Bodysurfing competition was cool, but we watched the surfers more. After hanging out here for a while we decided it was about time to head back and meet up with the boys for dinner. We grabbed something quick and then went out for a little while. There were about 10 of us
that went out together. and no..we didn't get too drunk! =P I know what you all are thinking. Here's where things got interesting. Lou is only 18, so we went to a club where she could get in. It was absolutely dead so we headed back to the hostel. Here we met up with other people from the hostel including one of the off duty workers named Eddie. He talked us all into going down to the beach for a late night swim. It was about midnight at this point. I went upstairs, changed clothes and went down with everyone to the beach.
We all had a great time playing in the ocean. Yes, I know this goes against by belief of swimming at night, but there are wave breaking walls, so the chances of a shark getting in are very low.
Then...the plan was before my plane flight Lou, Bit and I were going surfing. This did not happen because here we go again...are you all ready? I couldn't, and still have not, found my driver's license. Oops. So needless to say things have been kind of stressful. I was sure I had it with me when I checked back into the room after going out, but the girls in my room helped me tear everything apart and we never did find it. So, I got on the flight to San Francisco leaving my ID behind whereever it may be. Then I caught my connecting flight to Sydney 50 minutes after landing. Now here I am at the Sydney airport waiting on my flight to New Zealand! I hope that you all have enjoyed this lengthy post. I meant to post this the other day, but as you can see with all of the excitement it didn't happen.
However, I met some great people in Hawaii who I will never forget. Lou, Bit and I are already planning weekend trips to visit each other!
I hope you are all doing well back home in the states! I miss you!
Love,
Krissy
P.S. I promise to try and do better about posting! The pics below are in reverse order.
Rainbow on the way back to Waikiki from North Shore
The Surfers from the Pipeline beach
Malaekahana beach to the right side
Pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
pic along the way to north shore
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Hawaii 2/3/08
Hey everyone,
I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe I'm up right now. It is 7 am Hawaii time, and I've been up since about 530. Yesterday was a long day. By the time I actually reached my hostel I had been up and traveling for about 24 hours.
I was very pleasantly surprised to find the Phoenix airport so low-key. I suppose everyone who was going to the Superbowl was already there. It makes sense...if I were going to spend the money to go out there, then I would have arrived for all of the festivities!! Anyway, the airport was great...except for the signs upon landing. I had a little trouble finding which floor the check-in desk was for my next flight. The airport is huge!!! 9 floors and what seems like a million miles long...but very beautiful.
I then waited for about 5 1/2 hours for my next flight...the 7 hour jaunt to Honolulu. I arrived about 730 pm (1230 am your time) and grabbed a shuttle to my hostel. The hostel is fairly nice. Funny story actually...upon walking into my room, I met an Aussie by the name of Erin. Very sweet girl. The room we are in has 8 beds; however, there are only 4 of us in here. The two other people in the room are from Japan and keep to themselves in the other bedroom. Anyway, Erin left this morning to head home to Adelaide, but she was nice enough to show me around last night. The room next door has about 5 girls that she introduced me to so that was nice.
We then went for a stroll down the strip of Waikiki. Lots of people and shops everywhere. There is a store here all the ABC shop. It has anything you could possibly need from towels, sunscreen, sandwhiches, water, milk, booze, etc. You get the idea...I guess that's why it is called the ABC store. Although Erin joked that ABC store stands for All Blocks Covered because there is literally an ABC store at EVERY block. It is very convenient I must say.
So when I arrived, Erin had just gotten back from a luau down the way. Along the beach at Waikiki are sidewalks with statues all over the place. One statue in particular is of the guy who supposedly started surfing way back when. I guess it is good luck or something to lei him...thus...Erin and I did it! See our pic below!
We are cute! Funny story about this...these three Japanese men (younger) came over to us and asked us to take their picture, but instead they wanted the two of us in the picture with each of them. So here they are taking a picture for us. They were pretty interesting fellas!
Anyway, well...I will have to write more later. I need to hop in the shower and get my day started! I think I will be whale watching and hanging at the beach today! Tomorrow is scuba diving and Tuesday I think I will be renting a car and heading up to north shore. I hear it is beautiful and Jack Johnson was there for a body surfing contest yesterday! woooo hooo!!!
ALOHA everyone!
Talk to you soon,
Krissy
I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe I'm up right now. It is 7 am Hawaii time, and I've been up since about 530. Yesterday was a long day. By the time I actually reached my hostel I had been up and traveling for about 24 hours.
I was very pleasantly surprised to find the Phoenix airport so low-key. I suppose everyone who was going to the Superbowl was already there. It makes sense...if I were going to spend the money to go out there, then I would have arrived for all of the festivities!! Anyway, the airport was great...except for the signs upon landing. I had a little trouble finding which floor the check-in desk was for my next flight. The airport is huge!!! 9 floors and what seems like a million miles long...but very beautiful.
I then waited for about 5 1/2 hours for my next flight...the 7 hour jaunt to Honolulu. I arrived about 730 pm (1230 am your time) and grabbed a shuttle to my hostel. The hostel is fairly nice. Funny story actually...upon walking into my room, I met an Aussie by the name of Erin. Very sweet girl. The room we are in has 8 beds; however, there are only 4 of us in here. The two other people in the room are from Japan and keep to themselves in the other bedroom. Anyway, Erin left this morning to head home to Adelaide, but she was nice enough to show me around last night. The room next door has about 5 girls that she introduced me to so that was nice.
We then went for a stroll down the strip of Waikiki. Lots of people and shops everywhere. There is a store here all the ABC shop. It has anything you could possibly need from towels, sunscreen, sandwhiches, water, milk, booze, etc. You get the idea...I guess that's why it is called the ABC store. Although Erin joked that ABC store stands for All Blocks Covered because there is literally an ABC store at EVERY block. It is very convenient I must say.
So when I arrived, Erin had just gotten back from a luau down the way. Along the beach at Waikiki are sidewalks with statues all over the place. One statue in particular is of the guy who supposedly started surfing way back when. I guess it is good luck or something to lei him...thus...Erin and I did it! See our pic below!
We are cute! Funny story about this...these three Japanese men (younger) came over to us and asked us to take their picture, but instead they wanted the two of us in the picture with each of them. So here they are taking a picture for us. They were pretty interesting fellas!
Anyway, well...I will have to write more later. I need to hop in the shower and get my day started! I think I will be whale watching and hanging at the beach today! Tomorrow is scuba diving and Tuesday I think I will be renting a car and heading up to north shore. I hear it is beautiful and Jack Johnson was there for a body surfing contest yesterday! woooo hooo!!!
ALOHA everyone!
Talk to you soon,
Krissy
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