Blue Mountains Feb 21

The three Texans (Ryan, Nick and Myself) decided to make a day trip up to the Blue Mountains. It took about 2 hours by train and when we arrived it started to rain, haha how typical right. After a small trinkle it actually got nice so we make the 30 minute walk to Echo Valley to see the Three Sisters. Once we arrived it began to rain again, haha yeah I know, great luck huh?? But actually it turned out to be a beautiful day and we got to do a hike and eventually take the steepest railcar in the world!! Here is a picture of what the Three Sisters represented and then me in front of the Three Sisters.





Here is a really nice waterfall that was in the forest around the Blue Mountains.



This is a picture from the steepest railcar in the world, it was pretty cool because there were no seatbelts and the chairs are like lounge chairs, but we decided to lean over as it was going up. This was really cool because once you though it was really steep, it eventually went vertical, haha pretty insaine =p



Heading down to Melbourne on Monday Feb 25, sharing a ride with some people in a van and should take about 3 days to get down there or so. Will update shortly!!!

Coogee to Bondi Beach Feb 10 - 14th

There is a really nice walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach, this is right along the coast and it is extremely beautiful. I was able to get a board and surf at the beaches there, this reminded my of Hawaii because the water was crystal clear and was beautiful. I definately liked the beach life out in Bondi and Coogee. There are a few other beaches around the area and I plan on showing my Yank friends them when the arrive. I just really hate backtracking so I want to do something once and then move on from there. Here is a picture of me and my Swiss friend Juli on the walk from Coogee to Bondi.



Here is a picture of Bondi beach where I stayed for 4 nights. There were tons of people here and a bunch of tourist.

Sydney Feb 7th

G'Day mate from Australia. Sydney is a really big city and everyone is always on the move. There are a bunch of tall buildings and everything is pretty much centered around the harbors and the bays around Sydney. There are some really nice gardens that are walking distance from the main city center and they are nice because each are extremely beautiful. For some reason I really dont feel like im in Australia, I guess it is because Im in a big city and have not really seen the outback or anything like that yet. Im still waiting on some friends to come in and I am getting itchy feet and really want to get back on the road. After my friends get here I plan on going on a trip to the Blue Mountains, so the next posting should be from pictures from the Blue Mountains. Here are some good ole pics of the Harbor Bridge and the Operah House.





Like I mentioned, there are some really nice Botanical Gardens in Sydney, and in these gardens there are tons of bats!!!!! thats right Bats, so here is what a typical tree looks like in these gardens and if you look carefully, that is not fruit hanging from the branches =p



Here is another picture from the Botanical Gardens, funny, thats my friend Paul, we met in Fiji and again in Sydney, its awesome remeeting friends, esp from different countries!!



I want to get some pics of the Operah House, Harbor Bridge and the bats at night so expect to have some more pictures up from Sydney, but this time they should be night pictures!!

Fiji Jan 29 - Feb 7

Unfortunately/fortunately for me, I flew in right after 2 cyclones blew through Fiji. This was pretty crazy because while I was there, there were still flooding and trees were blown down. It looked like a mess and from what I hear people go stuck on the islands without food or water for a couple of days. I did not get to make it out to the islands because the boats were closed and the weather was not co-operating with me. The whole week I was in Fiji, I saw about 20 mintues of sunlight, nevertheless, I still had a great time and met some great people who I plan on meeting up with again and traveling with. I made the best out of the time that I was in Fiji and plan on heading back up there in Jan 09 after my time in New Zealand!!

The second day I was there, there was a Kava ceramonie. This used to be just specifically for the chiefs of the village but then became a national drink. Kava is made from a root and filtered out in water, apparently it was supposed to make you feel mellow but didnt really do anything to me other then make my tounge numb. The way your supposed to recieve it is that you clap once, drink the coconut bowl, then clap twice when you done. It was pretty cool to sit around and talk to the locals about different things!!



At the hostel I was staying at, I ran into an Irish guy, Aden, we got talking and talked about hiring a car and driving around the South bend of the island toward Suva the capital. The weather was not great but we still had a good time. I mean if you spend more then 12 hours in a car with the same people then you know your in good company. Here is the crew at the Coral Coast, Millie, Hanna, Me, and Aden. I have to add that driving on the roads/highways in Fiji was an experience in itself. No lights on the roads, small animals/people that come out of nowhere, and to add to it, the Europeans I was with have never drove an automatic car.....meaning the brake got jammed thinking it was the clutch. To add, it was raining and the left light was out, haha and Fiji would have speed bumps that would come out of nowhere.....glad it was a rental!!



This picture is of me at the Coral Coast, it really didnt look like Fiji, so I held up some Fiji water to prove it, haha but the coast was really cool because there was broken up coral everywhere along the shoreline!!



Here is a picture of my infront of their "street lights" apparently they would light these on fire for some better visability, unfortunately for us they didnt light these, apparently they were for special occasions!!!



This is probally the funniest thing that I have seen while traveling.......Very Classy!! Anyone looking for a place to dine better check this out!!!



Will have some pics up from Sydney soon, I want to get the majority of the good pics together and do a posting all at once!!

Christmas Islands Jan 29

Leaving Hawaii, I saw something that was pretty amazing in itself.....because it was raining while we were taking off, there was a double rainbow that surrounded the plane like a halo, unfortunately I was unable to get my camera out in time to take the picture but that still stuck in my head!!

Christmas Islands is apparently a small island chain thats between Hawaii and Fiji. It was amazing just flying into these island chains because the views from the airplane was awesome!! The sights were like the stuff you see in the postcards. Here is a picture from the airplane, here you can see 4 different colors of water that surrounded the islands!! Like I said it was amazing and pictures do not do justice to what I saw!!



This was a picture of the Airport....what was really funny about this is that the staff were not wearing shoes and if you look you can see the whole town at the airport to say goodbye to their family. I hear that the tallest point in the Christmas Islands is about 100 feet above sea level. There were tons of palm trees and it seemed like a really simple life!!