A stop at the Australia Zoo

So I know this post was posted just a couple minutes after the previous one, but I knew if I did not do it now while I was sitting on my butt doing nothing it would never get posted.

Sooooo, I finished classes and had no idea what to do with all of my new found free time. So I browsed the all knowing Google and found the Australia Zoo to be just an hours drive north from me. Figured, "Hey, why not!?". So I jumped in my car and went for a lovely drive up north to the Sunshine Coast and enjoyed some wild life. I was amazed though when I first arrived that the first exhibit I had to go through was the "American Alligators"... I was kind of at a loss for words, I came all the way to Australia and I am now looking at some alligators. Oh well, got passed them and saw all sorts of fun things, a Tasmanian Devil, a REAL bearcat (Cincinnati), and the most active little otters. I picked up a couple presents for some of you characters back home and was on my way.


After the zoo, I mad a quick stop off at a go cart track and had a couple fun laps. Then took my scenic drive home. A simple easy weekend with no dramas. This week, there is a Microsoft sponsored event called SmackDown on Wednesday that I am quite excited for, and on Saturday I am going to to the Gold Coast to hang out with some new people I met. So I am quite looking forward to that!

Until then, enjoy the increasingly colder weather back home, it is starting to get hot down here.

Quick flash back to Adelaide!

Last we talked, I was riding a bus to Kangaroo Island. I have since returned from my Adelaide and Kangaroo Island trip and am happy to report I had an amazing time! When we got to KI we went on a nice safari like tour, looking at kangaroos, koalas, and other cute and cuddly animals. We had just a lovely time!


For instance, the picture above was taken in one of the shops we stopped into. A tour guide was just walking around with this bag and set it down. Then a little baby kangaroo popped his head out and said hello. He was cute as could be!

We wandered around the island for a while checking out sea lions and New Zealand fur seals and all sorts of other fun animals. Then we went to this area they call the Remarkable Rocks. Limestone had busted through the earths surface and over time, the elements wore it down in a weird way. It was really unbelievable.


After KI we went to the Barossa Valley. Which is one of the more famous wine regions in Australia. We tasted a whole bunch of wines and picked up a couple bottles. All in all, my journey to Adelaide was complete... except I did not get to see any penguins :(


Ohhhhh and I also forgot to mention that we went to a "professional" basketball game while we were there. To be honest, it was quite a sad showing, more of a mix between high school and D2 basketball... But a great experience none the less.

Beach Monsoons and a little trip to Adelaide

Good morning all, I am coming to you from a tour bus heading for kangaroo island. But more about that later. I have to update you on what I have been up to in the 12/13 day break I have taken once again from my blogging persona.

Last week I went out to Morton Island with a couple people from Ferno. We took our 4WD cars out to the beach and did some wonderful beach driving even though the Brisbane area had their record rain fall recorded in October in just a mere 3 days. So it was a reallllly rainy and windy weekend on the island to say the least. On the bright side I got to meet a whole bunch of families that I had been looking forward to meeting, and i got to do a whole heap of beach driving, which was nice to get used to again.



Minus the outrageous rain and wind, I had a great time. We played lots of poker (I came out even) drank plenty, and had some great food.

This weekend I am going down to kangaroo island to see some sea lions, penguins, and walruses. It should be a great time, and I will be sure to put pictures up as soon as I can!

Retun from my first spring break

Last we talked, I was preparing to leave for my spring break. First stop, Ayers Rock aka, Uluru. My bags were lost when I got there, but that was no big deal, I got them later the following day and got $60 from the airport, so that was nice. I took a beautiful motorcycle ride to the Ulgers (another rock formation out there) then rode over to Ayers Rock to get a couple pictures. I thought about climbing some of it, but since the only shoes I had were Sperrys, I decided against it. It was a beautiful clear day and made for a great ride (sorry mom and Mari the 4WD got booked before I could sign up)

The Ulgers


Ayers Rock

Other than those two big rocks, there is nothing out there... I am really glad that I was only there for two nights.

After the big rocks it was on to Fiji!!!
It was soooo hot and humid there i could hardly believe it, it was like a Culver summer. I stayed at the Hinton Resort and spa, it was so pretty! And it was on its own private island!

View Larger Map


This was my view while I was having breakfast.

To say the least it was a beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing spring break! It was also nice because I had no internet connection, so other than my daily calls from Mari, I had no contact with anyone outside of the island.

Hopefully I will be updating soon, this weekend I am going to some sand island for a weekend of 4WD and fishing, so that should be plenty of fun!

AHHH! I have my highs and my lows

I know, I know, it has been almost 2 weeks since my last update, and currently I dont have my new pictures uploaded to my computer, but I do have a couple I can throw at you.

Quick recap of the festivities and events of the recent past. Two weekends ago I was back in Sydney with Rogelio and his amigos. I was there for the All Blacks vs. The Wallabys final Tri-Nations game. It really was a blast, due to the consensus of half the group I ended up wearing an All Blacks jersey.



The game was amazing! The All Blacks were down two trys and two extra points with 15 minutes left in the game. It appeared to be a blow out, but then the All Blacks had a surge and pulled ahead by 1 point with 2 minutes left. It was crazy stressful.


Just a photo of the whole group after the game.

After the game I had another first time experience. We went to this club called "The Club" (a little arrogant, I know, but it was jam packed and had a line out the door). We got to skip the line and did not have to pay the $25 cover. We sat down at our reserved table and got bottle service. It was outrageous! We had a lot of fun despite our lack of energy after the game.

(the guy kind of ruined the crappy cell phone picture, but no complaints.)

On the Sunday night in Sydney Rogelio and I went over by the opera house and saw this crazy man doing some kind of dance with a big back hoe (the video is on my camera card and will be uploaded later). But more importantly I got the shot I have been dying to get, the picture as if I was at the dentist office in Finding Nemo. It was pretty cool.


All in all, it was an amazing weekend. This quick post was just to hold you over for a couple days as I need to finish one more assignment worth 40% of my final grade. I am visiting Ayres Rock and Fiji this weekend and the following week for our "Spring Break". So depending on internet access I will update as I can. And to put a smile on your face for the remainder of the week, this is a picture that we took on our walk to one of the bars on Friday night in Sydney.

This a bum passed out on a bus bench with a beer bottle by his face. His glasses are a little reflective, but they were like goggles! This was taken around... 10:30-11:00 at night.

Till this weekend, enjoy yourselves!

River Fire!!

Ok so, the premise of River Fire is that everyone goes to the river banks and gets drunk then watches the city shoot off fireworks. There were thousands of people as close to the river as they could possibly get.

Now fireworks don't get me very excited seeing as I was spoiled with Kings Island fireworks every night of the summer with a fantastic view from my back yard. But River Fire had something entirely different to offer me. They had something called a dump and burn! It is when a fighter jet flies over the Brisbane River (quite low mind you) and is burning a stream of fuel behind it. It was so cool to see first hand. The video below does not do it much justice seeing as it is just a ball of light moving across the sky, but it was really cool.


There were some cool fireworks that they were shooting off of a bridge too. Which is something I am not used to. So yeah, that is River Fire, and it was really cool.

Mt. Coot-tha

Just yesterday I took a little drive in my 6 wheeled car (as pictured above) to Mt. Coot-tha. It is a mountain just outside of Brisbane that overlooks the entire city

There were some amazing driving roads on the way up, blind corners, S bends and dips that I really enjoyed driving. At the top of the mountain they had a bar and restaurant, but I did not stop and have anything to eat, just took my pictures and continued on my beautiful drive. There were also the three main news stations on my drive up, so that was cool to see where they were and that they were all so close together.

Other than that little adventure I took no other news. Just River Fire tomorrow (after my Business Law exam) and Sydney next week. I will be sure to update soon after River Fire and try and upload a video of the dump and burn.