HEAVEN. gallo cheese and chocolate factory!

another pretty waterfall - called Dinner Falls

Part of the group in front of Dinner Falls!

This is my buddy Jed, the owner from "On the Wallaby" (the place we stayed in Yungaburra)s dog with a serious case of depression.  But the town was so small, that he followed us to the pub, came inside, and hung out in the pub all night.  And everyone in there knew him.

The edge of the huge waterfall, a 280 meter drop

Kat and Brett checking out the view from over the edge down 280 meters!

Typical adidas shoes in the shot picture.  You can't tell , but the drop was so far - a lot farther than it looks like in this picture!

Cassie, Kat, me, Amanda, and Brittany and the view!

The group above the waterfall!

Unlike what my instructor told me (and I believed), rainbows are not upside down in the southern hemisphere.  Just the same as in ruff raleigh

Learning to boomarang from an Aboriginal man.  Didn't really get it down, but I'll keep working

Digeridooing it up. He played for us, and then his brother (another aboriginal elder) gave us each a totum, which is basically an animal and colors that go with it, and he sort of tells you your future.  My year is looking up - I'm going to meet my future husband before my studies are over.  But I have a "confidence issue," and he wants me to dress the way I feel and feel the way I dress.  He told Kat the same thing- we were both the only 2 people in sweatpants and t-shirts.  Coincidence?  I think not

Haven't had a computer to post with, but now we're back in business.  We just got to Port Douglas, a beach town where when you are standing on the sand, you can see the beach, mountains, and the rainforest all from one spot.  It's insane!  Anyways, we went to Tyrconnel, a historic gold mine where we camped out for 2 nights.  Then we went to a homestay with a family.  We were with an older couple who runs a bed and breakfast.  They had 2 dogs, so thank god I got some dog in my life.  We also went to their neighbor's (Farmer Dave) house and got to meet some cows and make some cheese from the cows milk and cream.  Next we moved onto Yungaburra.  When we got there we couldn't believe how small the town was and we were all dreading it.  But they had really cool trails up to HUGE waterfalls and luckily, there wasn't much to do at  night except go to the pub.  Yes, THE pub.  The only one in town.  I found out that I should probably stay away from Champagne.... for the rest of my life.

This is Silver - I realized out that I'm not only a dog whisperer...

We made cheese from Silver's milk and creme!

Us and our homestay family - Gwen and Bruce Bradford

Oh, Yungaburra.  This is the town we were stuck in for 4 days that has about a 1 mile radius.  1 pub.  1 grocery store.  Bet you can guess where we spent most of our time

Insanely huge curtain fig tree!

Since my last post...

since my last post... I'm now on magnetic island, we went to the aquarium, turtle hospital, did a hike, went to balding bay, went to townsville, and hiked the fort trail where australian and american troops stay during wwII... off to tyrconnel tomorrow.  6 hour bus ride, yuck!

balding bay - saw a stingray here, did some rock climbing, went for a swim...without shoes on!

traditional australian cane toad racing... people bid on frogs, then the winning frog's better wins the pot!

turtle hospital - this is ruth!

on the bottom is what looks like a rock... its actually the most poisonous fish in the world.  The rock fish! 

On the Fort Trail hike

Me and Kat on the Fort Trail hike

check out that view and how blue the water is!  View from the fort where american/auz troops fought together

kat got a little bit too crazy at the fort.

my first koala sighting! it was too far away - this picture is taken on my camera when my camera was looking through binoculars.  Not an easy task I might add!

They are a little confused about american sports over here... see the backboard?  A little too far back, I think

off to Townsville!

things didn't quite work out with our airport plan... sleeping in the airport until our 6:30am flight to Brisbane, then flight from there to Townsville!

Day 3 in Sydney!

opera house!

something's wrong with my camera, but this is VIVID.  It's a lights and music festival in sydney.  This is a view of circular quay, I am on the opera house side, and across the way is the historic rocks district

Also part of VIVID - lights on the opera house

Got to visit Sydney Harbour Bridge - but didn't get to climb it!

and more VIVID!

View from Sydney Tower.

I think these turtles had too much to drink last night.

In USA this is an Acura TSX, in Australia it's a Honda Accord - how does that work?

Me and the Opera House!  There was a sign nearby that said one American tried to change it's name to the Oprah house....

This one's for you dad.  They do it to every word!

Unfortunately, it looks like Aussies are UNC fans

no longer jet-lagged

Finally woke up well-rested today - went to the pub to watch the NBA finals and every other American in all of Sydney was doing the exact same thing.  We asked a couple of locals what was a good pub to go to and they kept telling us "Go to cheese.  You know cheese?" No, I obviously didn't know "cheese?" (not related to the nail salon at all Alli), and I thought it was a pretty weird name for a bar.  So we kept walking when one guy told us it was the next pub down - we walked only to find CHEERS.  Put an aussie accent on "Cheers" and you get "Cheese." 

had my first meat pie - haven't decided how I feel about those yet.  And dad, there was a sign for "brekky" at the local burger king.  They DO do that to every word.

Day 1

Finally arrived in Sydney after a 14 hour flight - thank god for Benadryl.  We got to where we're staying at about 9am, but our room won't be ready until 2pm! So Kathryn and I decided to just stroll the city and see what we could find.  Visited the QVB (queen victoria building) and Paddy's Markets in chinatown.  It's pretty much just like NYC's chinatown, but indoors and there is a huge produce and meat market with it.  Never seens so many koalas, kangaroos, outback hats, and boomarangs in my life.  We couldn't stand any longer (been  awake and traveling for about 30 hours now), so we're back at the hostel waiting for our room and a nice shower and nap.  finalllllllllllllllllllllllllly.

And So It Begins!

Our trip finally starts tomorrow - 3:30 flight from Raleigh to Dallas, then Dallas to LA, then finally LA to Sydney!  Alli B asked me who was going with me to the airport tomorrow to "show me off?"....