Hippy Hub and Rainforest Rendezvous Complete With Frickety Frackety Leeches!

When morning came it was pretty rainy, cloudy and cold so we woke up slower than usual and had banana pancakes before I went out for a surf session. The surf was a lot bigger today and the current was pretty nasty. I managed to get one really good wave, like down the wave bottom, turn, little cut back left, pump over the wash, ride the wave as it dies, then get on the front for the reform, then I pumped out the second break all the way in. The other ones I caught weren't as good, but it's worth it even if you only get that one really good one.

We decided that we had enjoyed Byron and Ballina area enough so we started to head up to Nimbin, where all the hippies went after Byron got too Yuppieish for them, it's the hippy capital of Aussie. It was a great little drive, it would have been awesome on the motorbike full of hills and bends and curves. It was a good time. In Nimbin we were offered weed a couple of times, and shrooms once, but resisted the temptation each time. We went into a bunch of different head shops and saw more hemp, smelt more B.O., and inhaled enough incense to last us a while. We found a nice little cafe selling a falafel and hummus platter that looked delicious and used their wireless network to catch up on the real world.

Apparently my mom was reading a book with Prycen that had a world map on it and she pointed to Australia and told Prycen that that's where we were right now. The day after Sheena was reading the same book with him and pointed to Australia and said C-Ami and Lockey while pointing to Australia. He is such an awesome little nephew.

After catching up with the rest of the world through facetiming and emails we wanted to see some of Australia's rainforest. So up into the hills we went and were not disappointed.

On the way to the Borderlands National park we saw a wild Peacock, - really beautiful bright blue head and feathers - and wait for it....... Kangaroos!!!! They were hopping around in a farmer's field!!! They share a lot of the same mannerisms with deer, they kind of stare at you and aren't really sure what your doing there and if they are ok with it, or if they should bound away. It was really neat to seem them just eating the grasses and hopping along.

Then we made it up into the real rainforest, foggy mist everywhere, and ferns and huge moss covered trees. We went on a little walk/hike, I called it a wike, and it was cool to see the big trees and the other interesting plants. So as we're walking all of sudden I hear Cami freaking out, "get them off me" "get them off me" "get them off me!!!" Cami had little leaches all over her shoes. They were just little guys and they moved like slinkies and I thought they were all sorts of fun to watch, but Cami REALLY didn't like them. She isn't freaked out by much and likes spiders and other bugs, but these ones she didn't like. So I cleaned her legs and shoes all up a couple of times on our hike and we made it back to the van with a bit of daylight left. As we are driving to our camp site, I feel something kind of wet on my calf, so I reach down and try to wipe it off only to feel a thick fat leach stuck to the back of my leg. I pull him off and there is blood all over my leg and fingers where I had pulled him off. I'm laughing and Cami's freaking out, but thinks its funny that it's on me and not on her.

We get to our campground finally, with a little bit of light to spare and get ourselves set to write some blogs have some mac and cheese and maybe watch a movie, if we have some battery left. We'll see.


Well, this has been a lot of all at once blogging, without a lot of reflection or comment. So, here is some while I'm writing. Australia is gorgeous. Rolling hills of green and just lush forest lined with amazing beaches. The surf is amazing and beautiful, just watching a place like Snapper Rock with lines upon lines of surf rolling in is breathtaking. The sun is hot, when its out, but it has been pretty cloudy and rainy at some point during each day. The mornings are hotter and usually there is a storm that rolls in, in the afternoon. The people are so friendly and it is nice to hear english everywhere again, even though we have a hard time understanding their accent and I can tell that they have a hard time understanding us some times. - sidenote story, when I was picking up my board from this girl named Karney, I asked at the front desk for Karney, sounds like barney. I repeated myself a couple of times and then she said, "ohhh you mean Kahnay," - ya the accent is different, but everyone is awesome and funny, and fun loving and they like to add "y"s on everything. Take an english word shorten it and add a "y" on the end of it and you'll have an aussie word. Christmas = Chrissy. Presents = Pressy or Pressies. Brisbane = Brissy.

Cami's Australian sentence, "We are going to have brekky at the Uni in Brisy, then head down for a barby in Cooly and get some Chrissy Pressies"

Catching The Waves of Laughter

We woke up in the morning to Surfer's piling into the parking lot and it looked like it was going to be an awesome day. We had a nice little breakfast of oatmeal cooked on our little gas stove by Camilla, and then Cami came out with me. She with her board and I with mine, we were a little surfing couple and we got out past the break without any problems. The waves were perfect and Cami paddled and surfed like a champ.  She got one really awesome one, stood up on it, turned a little bit and gave herself a little "Whoo Whoo" to finish it off. This day was probably the best one that we had surfing so far.  Lots of good waves, a good size and not too much current. There were a bunch of people out too, but every one was really friendly and smiley and a couple of older gents gave Cami some free tips which was nice. I again got the kite out to give it a try when I thought there was enough wind, as there was a little more than the last time, but even after kitelooping to get going I couldn't get going and eventually it crashed and I had to wrap it up. Oh well, hopefully there will be some wind soon.

We went back to Byron for a little bit, but we had seen the good stuff the day before and so we just walked around a little bit, till we saw some more kidcentric entertainment. Children's stand up comedy, as in the kids were the comedians. The kids were pretty funny and it seemed like they had come up with their own jokes about parents, siblings, and school. They all had pretty good stage presence and got us laughing a bunch of times. Also the host was pretty funny, she was a mid 40s overweight pregnant woman wearing a dress that was wayyyy too small for her, cracking jokes about how people think its gross that she's still breastfeeding her two and a half year old, and about how she used to get paddled w/ a wooden spoon, but she never saw her mom use it to cook, so when she went to college and saw someone using their wooden spoon to cook she said " Ew! get that out of the food, that's been on somebody's bum!" haha, and they say "bum" alot and it's funny w/ their accent. She had some good jokes, mostly about herself and we had a good laugh. 

After the stand up, we shared a burger and a salad at a bar across the way and listened to a guy playing the guitar and singing on stage while a woman went around saying how awesome this singer was and "listen to his lyrics" etc, and then she started dancing... and then she got kicked out, and we ate. We then grabbed dessert nearby and listened to another a street performer jam out on his guitar while we ate a mince pie.

We drove back to our spot, and settled in for the night after reading for a bit. Cami just finished the Hunger Games and I have just started it as well.

Surfin Up A Storm

On our last full day in Coolangatta we went to church in the morning, its not hard to get up because the van starts cooking at 7am and everybody in the RV park gets going around then anyway. So we made it to church on time and enjoyed singing some Chrismtas Carols. Cami was a little ticked that the intermediate hymn wasn't a Christmas song, but the talks were good and the hymns were good to sing. Then we went back to the RV park and I sent off the last bit of homework that I had for the semester and we played in the pool. They also had this big blobby thing that was kind of like a bouncy house/Blob/trampoline thing and I did a couple of flips on it.

Monday we were off to Byron Bay which is only about a forty minute drive south of Coolangatta. There wasn't really any surf or wind so we just drove down rather than stopping anywhere along the way. We hung out in Byron for a bit, lots of cool shops to see and hippies and backpackers to watch. Cami found a bunch of things that were way too expensive and resisted the urge to throw things on Credit. I don't think she's bought one thing for herself in the past five months. Window shopping was fun and we grabbed some food and then headed further south as the beaches were too busy, the surf was too low and you had to pay $2/hour for parking. LAME.

We found a nice little spot to go for a surf near Lennox Head and I grabbed a couple of waves on Cami's board, which was really fun. When we showed up it had been raining all day, except for little breaks in the clouds and I ran out in one of the breaks only to start hearing thunder right as soon as I got out past the break. I paddled in and then the sun started to break through the clouds a bit so I switched boards and went out again for a bit. They were nice little rollers, great for long boarding turns. Lots of fun and I'm happier after I've done something active as Cami will attest to.

We had an awesome meal of Fish and Chips for Dinner, and found an awesome little place just south of Lennox Head to stay the night. We went into Ballina to watch a movie, Puss in Boots, which was alright, and then came back to our spot for the night.

Cooly Chrissy Cabaret

We really liked Coolangatta/Tweeds Head Area. One interesting thing is that during Daylight Savings time one half of the town uses one time zone and the other uses another. Kind of bizarre.

Mexican dinner in Coolangata, expensive, (for what we are used to paying for Mexican in the states...) but SOOOO good! 

Why did the hook beak cross the road? 

I surfed the next day and the waves were a bit smaller and nicer for me. I got a couple of good turns on them, then I tried out the kite for a bit, even though there wasn't enough wind to get on the water.

Lockey checking out the waves, he assumed this position often on our vacation! 

Lockey thought he would try to kite

but there wasn't enough wind to get into the water on the board... Sweet storm in the background though!  We had a few good storms, but usually at least a half day of sunshine! 

 We also had grabbed a newspaper to try and find some fun things to do. Advertised in the newspaper was a Christmas Cabaret. There was going to be an eight piece Jazz Band, 7 mystery murderesses, featuring songs from Guys and Dolls and Chicago, it sounded like it would be entertaining so we thought we would give it a shot.



When we found the place, it was a small little theatre with rectangle tables set up everywhere and people were bringing in packed dinners. There were also a lot of septuagenarians and small children everywhere wearing costumes. Then we realized that the "Christmas Cabaret" was really a kid's dance recital. Let's be serious though watching a bunch of kids dancing their life away was hilarious. There were some older kids and even some older grandmas dancing as well -this one eighty year old was givin 'er in her tap dancing shoes, really impressive. Also, if you have boys don't put them in dance classes, these guys were super unfortunate. Like maybe break dancing or hip hop or even ballroom I think would be better than tap and Jazz.



There were some cute little 3 or 4 year old girl dancers and there were some awesome older kids that just danced with every bit of gumption they had in them and Cami had to tell me to stop laughing. If you know Cami and I, usually I'm the one that has to tell her to tone down the laughing. It was a fun evening and well worth the price of admission.

We stayed in an RV park for 3 days in Coolangata, and there was this rad "inflatable pillow" to play on, but is was slippery and it scraped up Lockey's knees pretty good, so they would bother him when surfing, but he's a tough kid, so he survived! 

Our neighbors at the RV park were super nice and would chat us up every time that we came home. They showed us the home they were renovating right behind their trailer and we became quite social with them. They asked us what we were doing for Christmas and after telling them that we were quite happy just staying in our van and having a chat with our families they, invited us to come share Christmas with them. There will be thirty some odd family members and they say that we are more than welcome. We'll probably take them up on their offer, but it's still a week and a bit out.

G'day Mate! How's Goin?

We flew from Fiji to Brisbane and had to circle Brisbane once or twice on account of the rain, fog, and air traffic. We had some trouble pulling out money because apparently my debit card is on its last legs, one disadvantage of having a money clip is that the cards I keep in it get all mashed together and what not. There is a huge gouge out of the magnetic strip, so we'll have to get a new one of those when I get home. So after grabbing heaps of money out for all of our beach toys we were off to pick up the camper van!

We grabbed a taxi and rode it to just outside of Brisbane to Eagle Farm and picked up our Van. It is a three sleeper van, likely the size of a sixteen passenger van with a westfalia type top to it. I guess you'll see the pictures. Pretty awesome right!?!

Me Rocking in our Campervan!

it's got a sink, a microwave, a fridge, and way more utensils and cooking pots and pans than we had in Hong Kong. They also threw in a couple of outside chairs which was nice, because we've used them lots, well at least Cami has used them. I've used them a little.

Anyway... So when we picked up the van there was my kiteboard waiting for me too, which I was super excited about, but still haven't had the wind to use it. = (

So we signed a whole bunch of documents and got the tour on the van -the guy told us that the accessory battery would last for a couple of days and it actually lasts a couple of hours- but otherwise we were on our way!!! We started South from Brisbane, grabbed Cami's surfboard a 7'6" longboard with blue cloud like graphics on it - she doesn't like the graphic, then grabbed mine a 6'6" blue fish, then moved on to meet the last pick up, near Coolangatta - blasting Christmas music the whole time.

Greenery on the way to Pottsville 

I decided that it would be cheaper to buy and sell back the surfboards and the kiting equipment as renting for three weeks was ridiculously expensive. So, hopefully I'll be able to sell them back for about what I paid for them.

While we were waiting to get a hold of the kite guy we stopped at a sporting goods store and picked up some balls to play with. We got a mini football, a volleyball, and a water ball! The waterball bounces on water and if you haven't seen them, then you should youtube it or something, because they are rad. You throw them with a little bit of angle and it bounces right off of the water, although you do have to throw them kind of hard, but it is good for your hand eye coordination. So we grabbed our balls in Coolangatta and then went to meet Mike - the kite guy - in Pottsville.



Mike was super nice and suggested a place for us to stay the night and also a good place to eat. We ate at a nice little restaurant where everybody was super friendly. Cami has been feeling a little under the weather for the past couple of weeks and so the waitress was kind and said that she'd make a steamed milk for her, even though it wasn't on the menu. We shared a Gnocchi with rocket salad and a slice of pecan pie. Yum.

Then we went to find us a roadside pullout about 4kms down the coastline from Pottsville. It was pretty quiet and a pretty pleasant sleep for our first free camping area.

The Beach just outside of Pottsville

We woke up in the morning and started our routine with Cami making some delicious oatmeal. There were also these crazy sounding birds that were pretty aggressive about trying to get our food from us. Australia has crazy birds everywhere.

Crazy parrot-like birds in Pottsville

Wild Turkey Gobble Gobble Gobble - these things were everywhere

We then went from Potsville up to Coolangatta to get some surfing in. I surfed at Snapper Rocks and there was a crazy current that would carry you practically a kilometer down the beach. I tried to catch some waves, but most of them were pretty burly and the current was so strong that even getting out was a chore. I caught a couple, but got owned on a bunch. Cami read her book while I was surfing and then we played with our balls together. The water ball was a lot of fun.

Helicopter making sure I'm all right - just kidding - about a km down from Snapper

Cami Chillin on the Beach 

Me and my fish

I made it out, but next time I walked up current a ways before I got in

Despite this face, the gelato was delicious

Cami's new sandals

We spent the night at a campground, because they had a deal only 25/night if we stayed three nights. So we stayed just off of Kirra beach. That night we watched Santa Clause 2 and fell asleep very easily after a fun filled day.

(PS in the title there is no grammatical error... They really actually say How's Goin? and it's very confusing, you feel like they are asking where you're going, and how are you doing all at once and if they just added the work "it" in the middle of that short sentence you wouldn't have to stop in your tracks before saying "good, you?")

Bula Vinaka Hungry Fijian Sharks!

After leaving Hong Kong we flew to Fiji! We had an overnight flight that lasted 10 hours, and then the time change was that Nadi was 4 hours ahead of HK time. When we stepped off of the plane we immediately felt the heat of Fiji. It was tropical. And then when we stood outside waiting for our bus we realized just how hot the sun was! We were very excited when the bus showed up w/ airconditioning. What we didn’t realize was that our busride to our hotel would take us 4 hours.... yes 4 hours on a winding road on a tall tippy bus, on an empty stomach w/ no sleep for 21 hours.... (25 hours by the end of the bus ride....) I just kept praying that I wouldn’t barf. Even w/ an empty stomach that’s all I wanted to do, I think that India made my stomach a little weak and I am prone to getting carsick so it was a bad combo.... And Lockey was even sick and he doesn’t get sick, so that tells you how gross it was... But it only cost us 12 Fijian dollars each to ride, (6 CAD). Oh and also A big Fijian guy sat next to us for half the ride... For those of you who don’t know what a Fijian man looks like, think Samoan, or Polynesian... Tongan... Big! With a super huge smile, and a big “Bula Vinaka” for all (“a warm hello”).

The landscape is full of hills and small mountains and very lush!

When we finally arrived at the hotel we were relieved to be off of the bus. And when we checked in we were pleasantly surprised to have been upgraded to the Villa... We had a booked a beach bure before which is a cute little cottage, but this villa was a definite improvement. The bure was a single room, w/ a little bathroom outside, and no a/c. The villa had a living room w/ a couch and flatscreen, a big soaker tub, a kitchenette w/ fridge, a huge bed (that was cushy and cozy), a/c, an outdoor shower area, and a balcony w/ a sliding door into our bedroom and another sliding door into our living area. It was the nicest place we’ve stayed, we were thrilled. And tired, and had a really great sleep that night!

We met a random fellow from England the day we got there and he took us for a sail on his little catamaran, and he even let Lockey bring it back to shore! 

  

 The Fijian people are among the friendliest that we have met, all very helpful, all speak english w/ an island lilt. They run on island time. We made friends w/ one of the servers at the restaurant at the hotel, Kessa, she was always helpful and gave great suggestions, but then when we saw her off of the hotel premises she still gave us a big smile and said hello. Also we went out for dinner to a little cafe and the waitress, Lydia, (She told me her name after she had said to just call her when we were ready to order and I didn't know her name so I said "Bula Vinaka"... She laughed and then informed me that, that was not her name!) was so hilarious, she just kept telling me how sweet I was and kept giving me hugs.

Also when we were watching TV at one point there was a field hockey game on, and I asked Lockey, “Isn’t Field Hockey for girls? Because those are the butchiest girls I’ve ever seen...” Clearly they were men, but I seriously thought that it was a girl sport b/c at my high school (and every other Calgary high school I think) there was a girls field hockey team, but certainly no boys field hockey team. Well the next day who shows up to our resort but a men’s field hockey team from New Zealand. So I learned something new... Where they don’t have ice, they still try to play hockey. Also along the lines of sports, they LOVE rugby in Fiji. They had a hotel team (with staff and friends of staff) and a huge field outside the resort where they had tournaments w/ other teams from the surrounding areas. It was a big thing! (And they are big boys!)

In Fiji our agenda consisted of relaxing, enjoying the cushy bed we had, using our soaker tub and outdoor shower, swimming in the ocean, hanging out at the pool, and Lockey finishing an essay. The 2 adventures we had in the 4 full days we were there were scootering for an afternoon and diving....

First the scootering. When Lockey and I go on a scooter we sing our scooter song... it’s the same as the Tuk Tuk song that we sang back in Thailand, and I think we put a link up then for the Tanuk Tanuk Tan youtube video if you want a good laugh... but it goes like this.... Scoot scoot, scoot scoot, scoot scoot Da da da da! Ya, pretty complicated... but it makes us laugh! 

Anyways, Fiji is a gorgeous island, w/ really rich red soil. And all of the green foliage next to the red is very stunning as they are complimentary colors! We went into a little town and saw how neat and tidy they keep their little areas, they have brightly painted humble homes, w/ well kept gardens and trimmed lawns (which would be a feat in itself b/c there is tons of brush in the wild). 

We stumbled upon the LDS church too, which was funny b/c as we were scooting I saw this crazy steep hill and the lawn was all trimmed to perfection, and I took a picture of it, and then Lockey said I wonder if that’s a church, and as we passed we saw the sign! The gate to the road leading to the church was locked, but we could see that there was an outdoor basktball court. We would have loved to have gone to a sacrament meeting there, as I had mentioned before the people are just generally so nice, and upbeat, and it would have been a sacrament meeting, but we didn’t get there until Sunday afternoon so it didn’t pan out, but it’s always nice to see the church in other countries, it feels familiar and like home. 

 After seeing the little town we made our way into the mountainous area (Fiji is FILLED w/ hills and mountains, when we were landing in Nadi we saw the landscape and were really surprised, it was all green and lush and rolling hills and mountains, no flat land! Which lends to the fact that we both got nauseous on that bus ride...) It was gorgeous, just like the rest of Fiji.

And our 2nd big adventure was diving... not just any diving though, SHARK DIVING!!! 

We did 2 Shark dives, and there is a guy who feeds the sharks. We are not in a cage or anything while he’s feeding the sharks, we just hang out in a line on this little trench just above the feeding “arena” and the feeder starts tempting the sharks w/ big chunks of fish. Our first dive we went down approx 30 meters and saw a couple of bull sharks, they are big! the females are approx 3 meters, and the males 2 meters (which I thought was interesting b/c males are usually bigger than females, or have prettier plumage etc...). I thought I might be nervous diving w/ sharks (Lockey was just excited of course), but once you are down there watching a) you no longer have control over the situation, so you have to take it in stride, and b) they just were totally not interested in us! They actually seem timid or shy, which could obviously change in an instant, but they ignored everyone except for the feeder! then we went up to 15 meters, and there were smaller sharks (white tipped reef sharks mainly) and they would go right over our heads! And when you would turn around all of a sudden there would be sharks behind you. (Oh PS during this time there were 5 Fijian men down there with us, a camera man, the feeder, and 3 body guards w/ big metal poker sticks.) It was pretty nuts. Then we went up to 10 meters and fed the black tipped sharks, well not us, but the feeder guy.... These were actually the laziest dives we have ever done, you just go down, relax and watch in complete fascination as these crazy “big fish” as the Fijians call them, chow down!

Our 2nd dive was WAY cooler! They saved the best for last I guess! At one point there were SEVEN bull sharks swimming around!!! Lockey was on the end of the line, and while everyone else is laying on our stomachs as instructed Lockey was up on his knees, always wanting to be closer to the action.... The sharks were close enough though! We were approx 15-20 feet from the action at any time. At one point I thought if that bull shark is in a bad mood and decides to eat me I’m through.... They were FAST! (Although Lockey was the one kneeling, so they probably would’ve pegged him off first...) Anyways it was a fantastic experience! (Oh and the first thing we did when we got back to the resort was call my dad to tell him that we survived... )

After diving we went and grabbed pizza (it was actually a very delicious pizza), and a coconut tried to murder Lockey!  Well I guess it didn't have very good aim, because it fell right behind him.  The Fijians told us that a falling coconut has never killed anyone, but have you ever tried to crack one?  

On a side note, the morning we got up to go dive my throat hurt a little, but I checked my ears and I could still pop them (which is necessary to go diving b/c of the pressure change when you descend). But when we actually started going down all of a sudden I felt pressure in my ears, and since it’s never really a problem for me I continued to go down thinking that the air would just squeeze out... it didn’t. So I did my hand signal to my dive buddy (Lockey of course) that there was a problem w/ my ears. We went back up until my ears didn’t hurt again and then started to go down more slowly, one of the dive masters came over and told Lockey to go down (w/ hand signals obviously) and then he grabbed my hand and took me down slowly which was really great b/c I was a little worried that I might have missed out on the shark dives! But it all worked out, and by the next day I had a full blown case of bronchitis... I was certainly very lucky that I got to see those sharks!

After all of that excitement the next day was spent warding off a fever... so I sat in the shade in the pool... It didn’t work too bad! Oh and Lockey and the hotel staff tracked down a tylenol for me too.

Our flight to Australia was early morning so we had to spend our last night in Fiji in Nadi close to the airport, but the ocean water was warm like a bathtub, and there was a Fire Dance performance at one of the nearby hotels.  

All in all the short Fijian trip was awesome. We loved Fiji, and would go back if we didn’t still have lots of places to see and it wasn’t the furthest place in the world from home... that may be an exageration, but I’m not sure, the time difference was the most we’ve ever had from Calgary, we were 19 hours ahead! ( or 5 hours apart Robert! :)

Vinaka (thank you) Fiji for a great experience!