First Half of Summer 2013 Debrief

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since getting back from Aus. Where has this summer gone? 

The last month and a half have been plagued with a lot of footy, some trips into TO, bought a car, and a trip up to the cottage. Here`s a brief debrief... 

For those of you who don`t know, I started playing Aussie rules football this summer. I fell in love with barracking for the sport when I was in Aus, and decided why not learn how to play. When I first got my hands on a ball I was complete and utter crap to say the least, but I think i`ve come a fair ways. I`ve played 4 games so far and they`ve all been really enjoyable. It`s a great atmosphere to get out and meet some new people. 

I`ve done a few trips into TO over the last month, including: got to warm a new house for one of my good friends, I went with the family to see the Wizard of Oz musical a few weekends ago, Dad and I went to watch the O`s vs. Jay`s baseball game, got a glimpse of the tall ships when they were in the harbor and last weekend got to catch up with some old friends. 

It has been long overdue that I have finally purchased my first car. It is nothing brand new, but it`s all mine and gets me from A to B. 

I spent the July long weekend, traditionally up at the cottage. The weather was not the best but we still got out on the boat and managed to do some fishing. Looking forward to at least one or two more weekends up north this summer! 

The End of Aus 2013

It has only taken me nearly 2 months to finish writing about the end of my trip! To be honest I had written it, but just hadn`t posted and then it got deleted and blah blah blah. So here we go to finish it off....

The Saturday we got up and went to breakfast in Hampton at this amazing French restaurant. I am still craving the croque monsieur that I had there! After breakfast I went into the city to do some final shopping and exploring. I went down to Docklands to look at the shops their and then went along to the Queen Vic Market for some souveniors, all bringing back great memories of when I lived their (sigh).

After I finished all my shopping, Andy and I headed to what has become one of our traditions, going to watch the Dreamtime at the G clash between Richmond and Essendon. It was great to catch one final footy match.

The Sunday was my last full day in Aus. The one thing I had not gone and seen during my time was the Brighton Beach Boxes. Now these are near and dear to my heart because I lived in Brighton when I first came to Aus back in 2010, and the beach boxes were all the googled images that came up when I typed in Brighton.

After reminiscing at the beach boxes, we went back to Andy`s house where there was family lunch for Andy`s and his moms birthday. It was nice to see the whole family one final time before leaving.

Lunch was followed by dinner at one of Andy`s favorite Italian restaurants in Hampton, which I have to say was phenomenal!

Monday was plagued with a very early morning and a few tears at the airport before leaving. The flight home wasn`t quite as enjoyable as on the way there, but are any flights home really that way?

Overall, it was another phenomenal fast paced trip back to Aus. It is just such an amazing country and day in and day out I think about how much I love it there. Just a shame it is so damn far!

Day 13

Day 13 started where day 12 left off. We finally made our way to the airport at midnight, to find that checkout didnt open until 1:00 (when they had told us that it was to open at 12:30). Boarding was suppose to start at 2:30, but come 3:00 we were still waiting to be called. We finally got off the ground just after 3:00 in the morning, 15 hours after our initial departure time.

                                                     

The flight and the morning back in Melbourne were spent catching up on sleep. We headed out in the afternoon to Southland mall to pick up some goodies for Andy's birthday party. 

The weather in Melbourne has been shaping up quite nicely. The mornings and nights are cool, but the days when the sun is shining it is a gorgeous day. With that we spent part of the afternoon kicking the footy around. 

For Andy's birthday we went over to a friends house for dinner and a table tennis tournament. It was good fun seeing some of Andy's friends that I had met before and being introduced to others. My table tennis skills were quite below par, but birthday boy made up for it as the winner of the men's tournament.

I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by, only two more days before saying goodbye to Aus once again :( 

Day 12

If you thought yesterday was a terror of a day, today definitely rivalled it! We got up and got packed, before going out for breakfast at the hotel. The day was quite a cracker with the sun shining bright and not a could in the sky. We went for one final walk down the esplanade. Andy ended up going for a swim in the lagoon pool to cool off before heading home. 

We arrived at the airport and boarded the plane, as per any usual airport experience. As we were taxing down the runway the plane suddenly turned around and headed back to the gate. The pilot announced that there was a pressurization problem and it would be another 15 minutes before we would know more. Everyone sat patiently awaiting to hear what would come next. About 20 minutes later we get the news that were going to have to disembark the plane, this is when murmurs of complaint started to come from the crowd. Another 2.5 hours waiting in the airport, the voice over the loudspeaker announced that our flight had been rescheduled for 2AM tomorrow morning. So we then had to plan how to kill 11 hours! 

We made our way back into the city and our hotel was nice enough to let us drop our bags off. We spent the next few hours exploring the casino, walking along the esplanade, enjoying dinner and getting some final massages at the night market.

Day 11

Today was our last full day in Cairns and we spent it doing what I was most excited for in Cairns, diving the Great Barrier Reef! 

We got at what felt like the peak of dawn to head down to the boat. We managed to catch the beautiful sunrise on the way down. 

There were probably about 40 people on the boat, a mixture of young and old. The ride out to the reef took 2 hours from the dock. About 30 minutes in, my biggest fear happened... I started to feel sick. I went to sit at the back of the boat when all hell broke lose and I said goodbye to my breakfast. It was pretty much all downhill from there as Andy got sick and nothing seemed to help my heaving. Needless to say, the boat ride was no fun at all. 

We finally reached the reef and I hoped once we were anchored I'd begin to feel better. Unfortunately that hope was just that, a hope. The nassau refused to go away. All the crew members told me that if I got in the water it would make me feel better. So I timidly got dressed in all the gear and hopped in the water. After about 15 minutes of swimming and snorkelling around, the feelings were still not gone away and that's when I called it quits and back on the boat I went. I then proceeded to fall asleep and woke up around the time the second dive was supposed to take place. There was no way I was strapping on any scuba equipment right now, but I did go sit on the edge of the boat with my feet in the water which helped me feel a bit better. 

Soon after it was time for the 2 hour journey back to the mainland. Surprisingly this was the best part of the trip. I actually started to perk up and the feelings of sickness I had, had for the last 6 hours were fading. Of course that's how things happen! 

Finally my feet were planted firmly back on land. I think Andy and I had a sense of relief that we had made it through the day. What started off as being the day I was most looking forward to ended up being one of the worst unfortunately. 

We spent our last evening enjoying a meal out and exploring the night market for one final time. 

Tomorrow we fly back out to Melbourne!

Day 10

Day 10 was another early one, as we got picked up from our hotel to make our way up to the Daintree Rainforest.

The first stop on the tour was a croc tour along the Daintree River. Although it was quite a disappointment only seeing 1 croc.
Can you spot him?

After the croc disappointment, we went for a hike through the rainforest to learn about the plants and animals of the famous area. 

Before lunch we stopped at a beautiful beach called Four Mile Beach. It was secluded and felt like a little private piece of heaven. 

Lunch was at a cute little hostel in the middle of the rainforest, followed by a stop at a local ice cream shop. This wasn`t your usual ice cream though, it was ice cream made from local fruits grown on the property. So flavours were a little odd, but it was a nice midday treat. 

It was a long drive back to Port Douglas where we made our final stop at Mosman Gorge. The gorge is an aboriginal heritage site where we learned about the aboriginal traditions and Andy even went for a swim in the gorge. 

 We finished off the day driving back to Cairns. When back we had dinner at the Cairns night market and came across one of the best finds of the trip: Chinese massages. Cheap and relaxing :)

Day 9

Today we woke up early to enjoy breakfast on the esplanade. The sun finally decided to shine bright!

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking around the city and exploring the different shops, along with the lagoon pool that lies right in the city centre overlooking the water.

Cairns doesn`t have a beach, so the pool makes up for it! 

Later on we rented a car and drove up the coast to a resort town called Port Douglas. The drive along the costal road looked right over the ocean, along all the twists and turns. 

After walking along the main drag and enjoying dinner in Port Douglas, we went to a rather unusual evening of entertainment... Cane Toad racing.

I was the score keeper and Andy a toad jockey where he used birthday noise makers to get the toad to hop off the table into his hand.

It was definetley and interesting one of a kind experience.