Holidays!!

So just to give you all a taste of some of my holidays adventures. I got lucky and scored almost two weeks off of work and got to enjoy it with a lot of great people. I started off by flying to Melbourne with a friend from camp here - Kira (she works in the office). We spent the weekend there at a conference called Grassroots. Met some great people there and also got to see a bit of Melbourne.
From there I flew out to Coolangatta - or the Gold Coast where Joel, Jesse, and Marla picked me up!! Later that evening Lena (intern from Warrambui) flew in to meet us too. This is when the real holiday began. To give you a quick summary I will do this:

Tuesday - Movie World
Basically the rivalry of Disney Land but it was still pretty cool. Got to go on some crazy scary rides, watch a lot of scenes from movies, go to SHREK 4D....watch a real stunt show, among other things it was a packed day of fun!

Wed - Australia Zoo
So cool because we got to actual interact and cuddle a lot of the animals. It was also very cool to see all the Steve Irwin stuff they have everywhere - and we were in the crocasium....and we saw Robert Irwin (that was pretty cool!)

Thursday - Driving and Bundaberg
Drove 800km or so I think...had a stop at a town called Bundaberg where the famous Australian Rum distillery is. We stopped here for a quick tour and then we were on the road again! This day I drove for like 2 hour and through a city with traffic lights, this wouldn't be a big deal normally but this was a manual!!

Friday - Hamiliton Island
We took a ferry out to this beautiful island, all day we spent just relaxing on the beach, driving around our hired (rented) golf cart. No cars on this island! Really just a day to relax and not do too much.
Also from friday-sunday we stayed in a gorgeous villa in Airlie Beach where each night we could come back and make ourselves a proper dinner and just relax in a house like thing (as opposed to a hostel).

Saterday - Ocean Rafting
Spent a good portion of the day out on the water on this powered raft that could hold about 30. This day we also got to go scuba diving which was amazing and I can't wait to do it again! Also we ate lunch of Whithaven beach and enjoyed that!

Sunday -
Joel, Jesse, and Marla left and Lena and I hopped onto a bus to Mackay. Here we spent the evening at the Mackay Harbour and touring small town art galleries!

Monday -
Very early morning as a taxi picked us up at 5:30 and brought us the airport where we flew to Sydney. On this day we stayed very busy using many different ways of transportation that is for sure! We did a tour inside the Sydney Opera House so that was really cool!! Also we did a harbour bridge cruise, we expected a little boat to show up but a huge cruise ship came in that our ticket matched up to! We got to enjoy afternoon tea while looking out onto the harbour bridge and opera house and sydney tower!

Tuesday
We enjoyed the Sydney Tower - got to go up it as well as do an Oz Tower adventure. Basically just a 4d adventure of Australia. We also did the Sydney Aqurium which was way better that I would have ever thought!! Busy day but we enjoyed the afternoon just wandering around and doing shome shopping. We then hopped on a bus that took us to Canberra where we had people from Warrambui waiting to pick us up and bring us back.

It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad that I could get out and see some of Australia. But also it was great to get back to Warrambui and get back into the some what routine life! Well sorry that was a quick summary, I guess you will have to wait for the real good stories when I come home!! Enjoy!!