Day trip to the Sunshine Coast

Here's a photo blog post of our trip to the Sunshine Coast (which is a little bit north of Brisbane) with my friend Sophia who I met at BYU last spring, her boyfriend Josh, and his friend Josh. It was a great day :D Our internet isn't really working, and when it does it works in spurts ha so we decided to upload the photos while it's working and then do separate blog posts later tonight or tomorrow morning. Enjoy!!!

View of Sunshine Coast

 Pretty boats in the Marina

 My friend Sophia was trying to stop me from taking her picture by hiding behind an umbrella. And Kassidi was laughing at my attempts to take her picture anyway ha.

 Eating fish and chips, probably the freshest fish and chips you can get. Delicious!

Shrimp have EYES?!!!! Reminded me of Juno when she found out that baby's have fingernails. Not sure why ha. I guess it's just that you learn a little extra detail about something and all of a sudden it felt so wrong to want to eat it! Everyone thought it was funny, so I had to blog about it. Here's Josh holding them up (as he was moving them around in a little shrimp show for my benefit ha).

Me and my shrimp, or I guess I should call them prawns since I'm in Australia. 

Sophia and Josh in the kayak.

Kas and I on the beach. (I feel like pictures of Kas and I on the beach are going to happen a lot on this trip ha so if you get bored of the beach pictures sooooooooorry, you should probably find a blog about Alaska or something instead of Australia if you don't like beach pictures. ;)

South Bank, Hillsong Church, and an adventure on an Island!

Saturday morning... the perfect day for market shopping! Ally and I decided to make our way down to South Bank, which is this pretty part of Brisbane that has a man-made free beach and lots of different shops!

But before we got there, of course we girls have to have photo-opts! We found this awesome staircase and a secret garden enterance by our house!

Then on the City Cat we took some fun pictures!:] Wind blown hair. Sunglasses. Sailboats. Sailors.

Okay, So... I found something that you can ONLY find in Australia... a Kangaroo leather bracelet! We had the lady explain more about it and how it's kind of a lost art that she picked up! Best part? The one that I purchased was turquoise!...It was meant to be:)

 

HILLSONG CHURCH!

Hillsong Church was amazing! It reminded me of a mini CIY! (Christ in Youth Conference) Music, Message, and People? Amazing! To answer your questions Mr. Marty: The songs do indeed start with the end, they give you money instead of offerings, the congregation gives the message to the Pastor, they hand out empty water bottles, instead of the children leaving, the adults leave... I think I about covered it! ;] 

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Stadbroke Island: Gorgeous!!!

Our family invited us to go with them to Stadbroke Island and we could NOT say no! Lisa was going on about it being beautiful and hello...it's the ocean! So, we woke up..put on our Australian swimsuits, and waited! BUT... one of their little girls felt sick, so they called it off! Lucky for us, they still decided to give us a life to the ferry! :] Little did we know that our Island trip would soon take us on a crazy adventure! 

We got off the bus at Pointe Lookout and found a beach all to ourselves! Photoshoot! If you couldn't tell yet, we are kinda obsessed with pictures! But then, what would a blog be without photos to go with our stories?! We head down to the beach...on this walkway: 

to find THIS:  

Ahhh it was SO beautiful! After we got to the bottom and found that we were the only ones, our photoshoot began! If there was anyone watching, they sure would have gotten a kick out of it! We decided that it reminded of us the Bahamas, we LOVED it! <3

Okay, so after our photoshoot (more pictures on facebook) we were famished! We found this cute little bakery and ordered sandwiches, went to a picnic table that looked out at the ocean, and enjoyed each delicious bite! Funny fact: They always put funny veggies on their sandwiches--like carrots and beats! 

After that I had my first taste of Gelato! :] And now for the punch line.... WE LOST ALLY'S CAMERA! Frantically, we searched every where! We asked everyone and headed to the police station! We took this AMAZING walkway around a cliff and it was so breath taking! We ended up at the main beach where we finally watched surfers and played in the clear blue waters! My new prayer while over here: God, instead of making the ocean taste like salt.. Is there any way it could taste like pepper? AMEN!

When we reached the ferry to get back, we finally got a call... some amazing person had turned in her camera to the station! Bad thing? We are vehicle unit-less and no more buses. So, we had to wait two hours for them to bring it to us...making us catch the last ferry, missing dinner, and taking a train! But lesson learned...NEVER take your eye off the camera and that there are bigger things in life that you could lose! 

Another blessing? God gave us the most gorgeous sunset to watch while we were waiting! Although the pictures don't capture the true picture, it's close! We were watching the sunset through a smoky-hazy lense, which made the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples highlight the sun! Enjoy:]

Big lessons: 1) A cute old man told us "The world is too big to travel all at once, spend your life traveling!"
2) If Heaven is supposed to be more beautiful than anything here on earth...I can't wait to see! The deepest turquoise water, the luscious green trees, the gorgeous swirl of colors in the sunset! All looks like finger paint to him! He definitely is THE best artist!!!

uh Kas, do you have my camera?

Yesterday we went to Stadbroke island! Check it out, beautiful huh? :)

 I need to get a thesaurus because I'm using the word beautiful a lot but it really was ha. How about breath taking or awe inspiring instead ha. We left at 7 and Lisa dropped us off at the Ferry, we then took the Ferrry over to the island, and then a bus to the opposite edge of the island. Like I wrote underneath a few of my photos on facebook, the scenery reminded me of a location where they would film the Bachelorette. (Minus the hot guys competing for our attention ha) There were hot guys, but I think they were more interested in surfing than in chasing after the two American girls trying to do handstands on the beach. That's what we did for a lot of the time on the beach. (Somebody who's name starts with a K and ends in assidi doesn't like salt water much ha) So ya we're trying to turn into pros at doing hand stands. I taught Kassidi and she was doing really well!

It wasn't very touristy, and I liked that about it. The part of the island we were on had a few tiny ocean front shops at the top of the point, like a bakery, a surf shop, a few little cafes, and then you would hike down to the beaches. There were four or five within walking distance (NOTE to anyone considering coming here. This is not a fat person friendly island. By within walking distance I mean possible to walk to if you have water bottles, cover yourself in sunscreen, have a few hours to spare, and have been working out regularly for the last couple months.) This was about half way down to one of the beaches. Down wasn't so bad, but walking back  up it OUCH ha when I woke up this morning they were so sore I couldn't even walk!

We walked down the beach and had Frenchman's beach all to ourselves, literally not another person in sight. It was great. Perfect opportunity for taking lots of pictures. We invented something new. You know how people do "planking" and "owling" well we've invented "mermaiding" inspired by ariel when she gets up on the rock in the Little Mermaid. Just wait, people doing this pose is going to be a BIG thing, started by yours truly. :)

 By the way if everyone would take a look at our swimsuits you will see they are the AUSTRALIAN FLAG! We were really excited when we found them.

After that we hiked back up and got a sandwich... and then TRAGEDY STRUCK. We got gelato (Kassidi had never had it before so I had to introduce her to the awesomeness of gelato) and then ran up the bathroom  and then planned on heading to a new beach. BUT walking out of the bathroom I checked my bag and didn't have my camera.

"uh Kas, do you have my camera?"

"No... why?"

"IT'S NOT IN MY BAG!"

We looked everywhere, asked everyone, put up signs on shop windows, left my phone number, retraced all of our steps (remember the part about us hiking all over the island... ya so you can imagine how easy that was) so long story short after a few hours of me freaking out and looking everywhere we were sweaty, tired, sunburned, and still camera-less. (My camera is by baby for all of you who don't me very well. It was my Christmas present two years ago and it's been with me for a lot of trips. I managed to hang on to it dragging it around Italy for 6 months so I was so mad at myself for losing it in the first couple weeks of Australia.) A family even gave us a ride to the police station to see if anyone had turned it in. No luck. But I called and left my information just in case if someone did turn it in. 

Sorry there are no pictures for the middle part of my blog post. Trust me. I REALLY wish I had had my camera. 

Finally I kind of gave up and we went on this board walk around some cliffs, it was awesome, and found some grass and laid out for a little while. Then we walked down to another beach with a lot of surfers and had fun watching them surf and swimming around and doing more hand stands.

After we walked back up to the bus stop it was 4 pm so we decided to catch the bus and try to be home by dinner. We're in line to take the 4:55 ferry... and at this point I had decided it was stolen and I was never going to see it again. And then I get a message on my phone from the police station that they found my phone!    SOMEONE TURNED IT IN!!!!!! Prayers are definitely answered. I love nice people.

I can't complain because I was happy to have it back. But we were down at the Ferry (there isn't anything around the ferry besides a few little houses and a cemetary so no shops, cafes, etc to wait in) and there wasn't a bus that ran to anywhere near the police station. So I managed to talk the police officer into bringing me the camera... the downside was that it took him 3 hours. But it was worth the wait because we walked along the beach as the sun was setting. Birds. Sail boats. A slight breeze. And we got my camera back in time to take a few pictures before we caught the last ferry. We also talked to an old man on the dock and he had a lot of good life advice. So it didn't end up being the day we had planned. But maybe it ended up being better than what we had planned. How sad would it have been to miss this sunset?

THE best zoo in the ENTIRE world!!!

Ahhhh... I finally feel like I am living in Australia! Besides the scenery, the weather, and the accents... it's just felt like we were in Florida maybe? But going to the Australian Zoo?! Definitely made it feel like we were in the Land Down Under! :] After Ally made me hurry as fast as I could to get semi-ready for the day because we only had twenty minutes to wake up, get ready, and make it down to our ferry... BLOCKS away... all by running! After her very talented skills at directions, we made it to the zoo by the ferry, buses, and train! It was Ally's turn to be Mum! So, thank you Bestie! 

Ready for the best (and my favorite part of Australia so far?) .... CRIKEY! ;] the Australian Zoo!

My mom's favorite animal is a koala bear, so seeing one was definitely on my list! What I wasn't expecting was to find out that I could actually HOLD the cute little thing! And including that, holding a baby crocodile? Yes please!!!!!!! When it finally came to my turn, the lady literally attached the koala on me! Koala's sleep 18-20 hours a day because of the certain leaves that they eat! They don't give off a lot of energy, so the bears don't have any energy other than to sleep! ---For everyone that made fun of us for believing they were 'drop bears'...it was adorable and completely harmless...and fuzzy!!! Mum, I'll try to bring one back! I'm sure sleeping on the long plane ride won't bother it!

-Caution: We are trained... Don't be trying this at home!-

Off to the next adventure: Steve Irwin's family! We went to a show and guess who was in charge of it?! 

Well... I already said, so... Everyone is in luck! His family...in the flesh! I don't know if it was a big thing to anyone else there, but I was stoked! Bindi, his daughter, fed the dangerous crocodile a rat! And they also fed him a pig, after having him show us how he would wrestle it in the wild! ...Don't ever ever mess with a croc! Fact: They wouldn't even chew you up, they would just swallow you whole! 

Okay... now the REAL adventure starts! The kangaroos... amazing, amazing animals! We got to pet and play with them! This is one of the perks that this zoo has. It is a petting zoo, along with just an ordinary zoo. Their exhibits also make you feel as if you were in their natural environment! When we found the kangaroos, we were estatic! We found this one and thought we could have some fun, so we grabbed our Ipad and started to make a video! You can check that out on our facebook wall :] Just don't laugh at us hard, we were really trying!

 As for everyone who wanted me to bring them back a kangaroo, you definitely picked the right animal for me to bring back! ...Do you think I can fit him into my suitcase?!

We had ourselves a photo shoot with the best prop ever---a REAL roo! <3 

After the kangas, we went into Asia and watched a tiger show! They are gorgeous animals! And after watching the movie "We Bought A Zoo" the night before, I was super excited to watch the secret tiger show! The tiger's were showing off their tricks! Some of them being the following: Making artwork with their paws and jumping the highest I have ever seen! It was incredible!!!! 

Our adventure at the zoo was coming to an end..but the adventure to make our way back to home was just starting! We didn't take into account that we needed to get the directions for the way back because we were hoping the zoo would have wifi, which they did..it just wasn't working! So, what did we crocodile hunters do?! You guessed it! Made a game plan and worked our way backwards! With some confusion, frustration, lostness, and hunger---we finally made it back to our beautiful, cozy home in Bulimba! We are naturals! :] Thanks to our dads for helping us be navigators! 

Too bad we couldn't have just taken this for a spin and found our way home! 

One boat, one train, and two buses

And that was just to GET to the zoo! We woke up at 7 planning to get ready and go to the zoo, and we were just chilling eating breakfast, checking facebook etc when I googled the transportation to get to the Zoo and found out we had to leave it twenty minutes. Robin McLellan would have been impressed. Drill team was good for more than just dancing ha valuable life skills. Anyway we threw on clothes, put our hair up, a little make up, grabbed anything and everything that looked like it might be important for a zoo day and piled it into my backpack, put on my purple converse and Kas and I ran (literally ran) to get to the river to catch the City Cat. With a lot of skill (okay probably 90% luck) we managed to find all the right buses and trains and made it to the Australia Zoo. Home of the Crocodile Hunter!

It was hands down, the most awesome zoo I've ever been to. If you ever come to Australia make sure you add this to your must see list. Growing up watching Animal Planet and the Crocodile Hunter I was pretty excited. It was sad though because Steve Irwin died a few years ago and there was a memorial to him.

Favorite parts of the zoo. 1. PETTING a REAL kangaroo. (We made a video of live kangaroo petting footage on my iPad, check out my facebook if you want to see it.) 2. Holding a crocodile. 

3.Getting to watch a show put on by Bindi the Jungle Girl. Be very jealous everyone. 4. Playing around and taking pictures with the Crocodile Hunter's jeep! 

5.Watching a tiger show. Did you know that they can do tricks and climb trees and jump really high? Like REALLY high! And it was up to the top of the tree in about 3 seconds, it was unreal. Want to know a secret? I've ALWAYS wanted a tiger, ever since watching Aladdin when I was little and Princess Jasmine had Raja! So if they ever find a way to make mini domestic tigers I WANT one. :D and last but not least, 6. Trying on awesome Australian outback hats! I really really really wanted to buy it but it cost a lot of money... so I didn't. Maybe by the end of Australia I'll buy one. Kassidi asked me where I would wear it. My answer. Where would I NOT wear it?  I mean come on how awesome would this be. To school, to church, playing tennis, on a date.... it has endless possibilities. haha jk I was thinking more for camping. 

It's a forty five minute drive back. But it took us almost four hours. I'm not a fan of public transport. And by not a fan I mean I really really REALLY hate it ha. We got a little bit lost and ended up hiking through the city from the train station to get back to the river and catch the city cat. Which actually ended up being cool to ride at night because we got on the front of the boat and got to see the whole city lit up. The bridge was amazing and their was a ferris wheel that was neat to see too. I want to ride it before we leave. We met some other students from Denmark and there were a bunch of guys talking in a language we didn't understand but I'm pretty sure it saw Swedish? Anyway we DID make it home, then ate some dinner, did a Nike workout, and went to bed. We were dead tired. Today was good, we slept in, caught up on facebook, skyping, etc. did another Nike workout, and went into town to find jobs BECAUSE my Dad freaked me out on skype today. He said if we didn't find a job we'd have to come home. Which I knew. But I had been really confident about finding a job and wasn't worried if it took a few weeks, but after that I wasn't so confident so we got stressed and kicked it into high gear. Guess what? I start my job tomorrow. Waitressing at one of the nicest restaurants on the street for 18.50 an hour. Take that Dad ha don't tell me I can't get a job :p I want to get put on pajamas and maybe write a few postcards or a letter to a certain missionary who I miss ha. So goodnight to all (ahem what do we have, like 5? if you're reading you should follow us! We get really excited when we get a new follower. It's really easy to do. :) So ya goodnight to all our followers. I'll report about my first day as an Australian waitress tomorrow! Wish me luck.

Finally Back in the Internet World!:)

Wow.....lonnnnnng time with out Internet is not ideal! Worst part? We didn't have a clue! Our cute Aussie Mum took us and dropped us off at the campus...we unpack just to find out that we need a password! Lame...with a capital L! Everyone who knows my family knows that my mom would have been freaking out if I didn't let her know, so I found a way to email her off my new Austrlian phone so she wouldnt die! :) Love you Mummy!:)

So, the next day we headed to the Gold Coast! Even though it was cloudy, rainy, and windy-- Ally and I absolutely loved it! We only got to watch two surfers, which is why we will definitely have to revist, and play volleyball! One of our goals is to learn how to surf! :) Ally and I decided that Australia is so so keen on being healthy! For lunch they had yummy healthy sandwiches and fruit! If we don't go back to America feeling way healthier, something is terribly wrong! Best part of lunch?!? Being able to watch a rugby game! I was super excited because Scott always talked about the game! I'm sad I never got to watch him play!

After the beach, we came back to get ready for dinner and the ball! Ally and I made some friends by this point, so it was fun getting ready with them! This is the point in which I got yelled at for having a halter topped dress! Eeeeek! Ha so, move on to the after dance story! We met this group of people and decided not to be lame and give into our jet lag and go with them to "MaCas"! We had no idea what that was, but was excited! You'll never guess where we ended up at two in the morning? None other than the McDonalds! Which, by the way, is SO different from ours! Not only the prices, but the menu! Then after that we went to South Bank...funny story called Security Guard Ghost! South Bank is a man-made beach which was closed when we showed up! This funny guy stepped onto the sand with just one footstep and out of no where, a voice comes over the intercom and tells us to leave because the beach is closed! The funniest thing ever! After that, we went to Kangaroo Point where we sat on a ledge that was over the water and watched the lights of Brisbane! Oh oh oh!!!! And finally found the Southern Cross! I was so so so so so amazing to finally be able to see it!:) afterwards, we went home to bed...just in time to see the sun coming up and wake up in four hours!

Saturday night was fun! First of all, we gots to have our first Aussie BBQ! Our friends were excited to be around for that! They also loved teaching us new things... As in drop bears! Koalas who are sleeping in the trees will start growling at you and then when you're not expecting it, will drop down and attack you... Yah, found out yesterday it's not true! And then!!! If you are being attacked by a shark, you should poke them in the eyes with a spoon because when they are getting ready to attack, their eyes roll back so they can't see you! So I guess the thing to do when you are surfing here is to carry around your shark spoon....?:)
The dance was fun! We counted down 5..4..3..2..1.. Happy New Years!!!!!2012!!:)

Sunday, I felt bad that we would have been cheating our year of one day, so when it was supposed to be midnight in Utah, Ally and our friend Eden helped me celebrate! Yay!!!:)!

Monday we finally were back home!!! I had an amazing Skype call with Scott and an amazing Skype call with my whole family! I was super excited to hear all of their voices! Even Kenz, who woke up just to talk to me!:) much needed Skype calls! Then emailed everyone and uploaded pictures!:)! THEN... We went to Oxford street to hand out resumes and eat lunch! The first restaurant looked the most promising! So... Everyone cross your fingers for us!:) after that we went to the local grocery store and went up and down every single aisle! There are so many different foods here!!! It was very very entertaining! For dinner, our oriental roommates made a yummy dish that they learned from their Mums and the family of ten thoroughly enjoyed it! Then I helped Ally learn her three new words of the day: gambol, garner, and furtive! Before bed? Read the second chapter in Proverbs and fell asleep!:)

Our run around our neighborhood and a Nike workout started our day pretty well! It's so humid here, so it's way way hot.. But we did it!:) Found a perfect pretty flower to press! One of the best parts?! Skype call from Taffy, Keni, Kache, and Shawn!!!! I miss them terribly and they were so cute... Until the Internet began not working! But still got a good look and conversation first!:) showed them around the house and at the surroundings!:)

Now?! Getting ready, reading, unpacking, waiting for a call for jobs, and possibly a trip down town!:) stay tuned.....:) this time in a shorter time!:)

I'm back!

Kassidi and I at the ball.

In our dorm room w our beds set up slumber party style.

At the beach! I still can't believe its summer here. I love it :)

My stalkerazzi photo. I figured you would all appreciate the pic ha he was VERY cute.

These are the guys we played volleyball with.

By back I mean back blogging, not back in Utah ha sorry if any of you got your hopes up ;)

So what do you get when you combine over 500 Australians, 2 Utah girls, a platypus, a dance floor wipe out, no Internet, a 3am trip to "maccas", a windy beach, ERS, a fancy ball, Modern Family, nightly slumber parties, volleyball, a whole new vocabulary, New Years eve party, church and a fireside, jumping a fence to an awesome overlook, drop bears, all over 5 days at a university campus?

You get an AWESOME YSA convention :D

Platypus - talent show! There were a lot of good acts and singers, but this one guys talent was dressing up like a platypus on the stage (over the course of what seemed like a REALLY long time) most random thing I've ever seen ha. It was so not funny that it was funny.

Dance floor wipe out - at the ball Kas and I were playing around swing dancing together and she went for a spin while I went for a pull back one arm over your head type thing... And then somehow we both ended up sprawled on the floor (Unfortunately I'm not exaggerating). And no. We weren't drunk. At all. Embarrassing? You have no idea.

3 am trip to maccas - in Australia McDonalds is called Maccas by everyone, and after the ball we drove around Brisbane w some friends and one of our stops was there. The menue was a lot healthier, the drinks were a lot smaller, and the food was a LOT more expensive.

No Internet - none that we could access anyway. It was nice to just focus on the convention, but it would be a lie to say I didn't Facebook and skype w my mom the second we got back. I'm kind of a mommas girl ;)

Windy beach - we all took buses to a beach on the gold coast that was BEAUTIFUL! It was a little windy but so much fun. I love the ocean. We had a great time w all of our new friends.

ERS - they had never played! But now they do. :)

Fancy ball - live music. Pretty dresses. It was like Prom minus the corsages with better music and hotter accents not in a high school gym. Okay I take it back. It was nothing like prom ha.

Modern Family - most awesome show. Ever. And I think I have kassidi addicted to it ha. We watched an episode or two everyday on my iPad.

Nightly slumber parties - of course we couldn't sleep in our rooms alone! So we hauled in Kas's mattress. :)

Volleyball - at the beach we hit around a volleyball for a long time. It was fun and cool because we were on the same 7th grade volleyball team together. We dominated!!

New vocabulary - Arvo, Barbie, Bathers, Bloke, Cool as!, Dodgy, Footy, G'day, Heaps, Howre you going?, Keen, Lollies, Mate, Rubbish, Singlet, Shell be right, Tea, Too right!, Uni. That's only a few of the new words and expressions I learned. And to think I was excited to come here because I wouldn't have to learn a new language like I did for Italy haha ;)it was definitely a new experience meeting people and them saying woah, you have an accent! Where are you from?

New years eve party - it was great! Great food and then this awesome all night dance party. The Polynesians can really dance!

Church and a fireside - really inspirational day! The meetings and lessons were fantastic and then we went to two workshops about dating and marriage (I felt like I was back at byu ha) and then later that night we went to a fireside. A boy who had a stroke spoke for part of it and bore his testimony, and that really touched me. He was so brave. I want to be more like him.

Jumping a fence to an overlook - jumping may be a bit of an exaggeration. Late one night we drove up this hill overlooking the river and city and it was BEAUTIFUL. They tried to teach us Australian that night ha. Australian 101. Don't say your r's and draw out your o's, and then use a rising tone at the end of your sentences.

Drop bears - killer koalas that drop out of trees and land on your head and claw you to death. Come to find out they aren't real. Stupid Australian boys. I can't wait until they come to Utah and I tell them about Bigfoot ;)