Saturday, 31 July 2010
Day 8....saturday 31st july!
Today we had an amzing day in sydney...woke up at like 9am and had THE best sleep ever in Pru's house! Met the girls at Wake Up Sydney hostel which is apprently the best hostel in the world at 10am and then went to breakfaSt....Malcom my mums cousin rang Pru and arranged to pick me and Pru up tot ake us for lunch which was lush! I cant believe i havent met Malcom or Pru in 21 years! He picked us up then took us to Watson Bay which is the richest area in Sydney.....its like Beverley Hills in Hollywood!the houses were worth like $16,000,000 houses! We then went for a drink in Watson Bay and saw Alex's private school and her friends houses and her grandparents houses etc! Malcom took me on a guyided tour around the sydney harbour and took us for Sushi on Bondi Beach which i reallllly small considering its sooo famous! I then went to Clovelly which is an area by Bondi Beach where my family live...there house is sooo nice! I met Lucy.....malcoms stepaughter and Tracey, Malcoms Wife! It was a brief 3 hours but soooo nice to finally meet my family! Pru is sooo cool and malcom is awesome!!!! We then were dropped by the Sydney Opera house and met the girls who had been shopping all day! they went ton the botanical gardens but me and pru didnt fancy it so we drank a few vodkas by the sydney opera house overlooking the harbour bridge....amazing! I still cant belive im here....it was amzing just having a relaxed drink over looking the opera house and harbour bridge today! Then the girls met us and we all had a drink in Opera Bar before heading to a pub for a big dinner of fish and chips....the best meal since iv been in oz!We then went back top the hostel and got ready and hen went to World Bar in Kings Cross to drink out of teapots...i had multiple vodkas...got me Lou and Pru into VIP and free drinks...then had cocktails wooohooooo!Then we went bck to the hostel and partied in Side Bar underneath the hostel all night...woohoooo was fab and verrrrry drunk now!!! i always seem to be drunk while typing these! time for bed ...hEllloo hangover!!!!!!!
Friday, 30 July 2010
Day 6.......friday 30th july
Today is Sydney day wooohoooooo......cant wait to experience a big city ...all the tourist attraction and the nigt life :D
Only me, briana, louisa and bridget are heading to sydney to stay all weekend...we are kind of the party animals and talkative ones of the whole 12 person group so we kind of stick together!
However we had a whole days volunteering work tog et through first....it was atually quite fun today! The sun was out and was really hot......we were all working in small tops and tshirts and sunglasses......a bit of heat makes soooo much difference :)
We were maintaining the tourist walkpath around the wildlife park today.........we actually came across a Death Adder (the 5th most dangerous snake in the world) and a Wolf Spider (another deadly bug)......it made me feel really wary picking up rocks and shovelling dirt and moulch (woodchippings) but it was interesting too......we also came across an Emu male who had been sitting on fertillised eggs for 12weeks.....they sit down and dont move until the eggs fertilise 6-12 weeks after the mother has planted them....they dont even move to go eat or drink so lose loads of weight!
Today was fun because me and the girls were just crazy excited for Sydneeeeeyyyy :)
We are catching the 5.06pm train after we finish work at 4pm and will be getting to Sydney at 6.30pm ish! I have arranged to meet my 2nd cousin Pru in the Wake Up Sydney Central Hostel bar for a few drinks then head to grab a bite to eat and got a bottle of wine to enjoy back at her flat! She's soooo nice......definately abit of a party animal like me :) \
Me and Lou are staying with her tonight then moving to Wake Up Sydney hostel tomorrow night fo our night on the town wooohooo :) We are having a touristy day of sightseeing and explorign around Sydney and may even go skydiving if we have enough time....maybe we'll save that for Cairns though!
I'm alittle bit drunk now so better go to bed as im hogging Pru's laptop in her flat at 1am and everyone has just toddled off to bed soooo good night :)
Only me, briana, louisa and bridget are heading to sydney to stay all weekend...we are kind of the party animals and talkative ones of the whole 12 person group so we kind of stick together!
However we had a whole days volunteering work tog et through first....it was atually quite fun today! The sun was out and was really hot......we were all working in small tops and tshirts and sunglasses......a bit of heat makes soooo much difference :)
We were maintaining the tourist walkpath around the wildlife park today.........we actually came across a Death Adder (the 5th most dangerous snake in the world) and a Wolf Spider (another deadly bug)......it made me feel really wary picking up rocks and shovelling dirt and moulch (woodchippings) but it was interesting too......we also came across an Emu male who had been sitting on fertillised eggs for 12weeks.....they sit down and dont move until the eggs fertilise 6-12 weeks after the mother has planted them....they dont even move to go eat or drink so lose loads of weight!
Today was fun because me and the girls were just crazy excited for Sydneeeeeyyyy :)
We are catching the 5.06pm train after we finish work at 4pm and will be getting to Sydney at 6.30pm ish! I have arranged to meet my 2nd cousin Pru in the Wake Up Sydney Central Hostel bar for a few drinks then head to grab a bite to eat and got a bottle of wine to enjoy back at her flat! She's soooo nice......definately abit of a party animal like me :) \
Me and Lou are staying with her tonight then moving to Wake Up Sydney hostel tomorrow night fo our night on the town wooohooo :) We are having a touristy day of sightseeing and explorign around Sydney and may even go skydiving if we have enough time....maybe we'll save that for Cairns though!
I'm alittle bit drunk now so better go to bed as im hogging Pru's laptop in her flat at 1am and everyone has just toddled off to bed soooo good night :)
Day 5......Thursday 29th July....
Today i woke at 6.30am to shower as usual....i like to take my time in the much sought after only decent shower so i wake an hour earlier than everyone else just so i can chill and take my time! We were working on the fence again tday and making little rubber spaces to stop the electric fence from short circuting!abit monotmous but was a fun task getting to know the irish guys better and we all shared funny drunk stories and dirty jokes to pass the time!Dave the irish boyfriend of irish danielle opened up alot more and is actually quite funny!
It rained alittle bit today but it was still hot work......
Tongith it was my turn to make dinner for everyone......our leader Alicia is vegetable mad and makes us cook about a million vegetables in every meal....so i made pasta...bolognese with tomato sauce and cooked vegetables.......she puts garlic and onions in everything which i cant really eat so i made a separate little bowl of plain pasta...tuna and raw vegetables for myself (because the cooked ones had garlic and onion al over them).
Im eatting sooooo much chocolate out here...literally like 2 bars a day on average....im going to come home like 4 stone heavier i think hahahaaa! plaus i drunk like 3 times in one week this week ooooops!
I cant get over what a great experience this is already....iv met some amazing friends in the last 5 days.....lived out the 'woopwoop' (back of beond)....and worked my socks off for the benefit of the nature park and wildlife yet am still enjoying every second!
Tonight we just sat round the fire indoors and chatted about aboriginal culture and our experiences of australai so far and what we've learnt....what we want to get out of our trip and what we hope to learn.
Went to bed ast 9ish to get a good night sleep before sydney tomorrow woohoooo :)
It rained alittle bit today but it was still hot work......
Tongith it was my turn to make dinner for everyone......our leader Alicia is vegetable mad and makes us cook about a million vegetables in every meal....so i made pasta...bolognese with tomato sauce and cooked vegetables.......she puts garlic and onions in everything which i cant really eat so i made a separate little bowl of plain pasta...tuna and raw vegetables for myself (because the cooked ones had garlic and onion al over them).
Im eatting sooooo much chocolate out here...literally like 2 bars a day on average....im going to come home like 4 stone heavier i think hahahaaa! plaus i drunk like 3 times in one week this week ooooops!
I cant get over what a great experience this is already....iv met some amazing friends in the last 5 days.....lived out the 'woopwoop' (back of beond)....and worked my socks off for the benefit of the nature park and wildlife yet am still enjoying every second!
Tonight we just sat round the fire indoors and chatted about aboriginal culture and our experiences of australai so far and what we've learnt....what we want to get out of our trip and what we hope to learn.
Went to bed ast 9ish to get a good night sleep before sydney tomorrow woohoooo :)
Day 4....wednesday 28th July!
Today we continued working on the electric fence around the boundary of the park.....we were working on erosion control by the perimeter because apparently some wild dingos (dogs) and foxes have been getting inot the park and killing some of the wallabies and baby kangaroos!
Some of the jobs can be pretty monotomous especially when it is pissing it down raining all day which is what it did allllllll day today! we still managed to keep our spiris up though and even took like a 2 hour lunch break to be spoken to be some other park volunteers about other voluntary projects they do with Gibbon monkeys in Borneo which was interesting!
Me and Lou are getting on realllly well with a coupe of the americans Briana and Bridget and we are all going to Sydney together this weekend to party....be tourists and generally have a laugh woohooooo! I'm arranging to meet my 2nd cousin who i have never met and she has offered us a bed to sleep in for free which will be sooo handy for 1 night at least :) She's called Pru and 23 and i have never met her before because she has lived in Oz all her life! Its crazy that i have relatives in Oz that i have never met!
Tonight we had chicken fajitas for dinner after we had dried off and warmed up and then we headed to the nearby town of Gosford for kareoke! So it turned out we actually frequnted the dogiest bar in town but enjoyed a few vodkas and even had some ex-convicts who had served 7 months in jail hitting on us....hmmmmmm no thanks! I sang Robbie Williams Angels with one of the irish guys and we all took on different identities.....i was Tallulah.......Darragh was Bunty.....Louisa was Jezebel....Bridget was Betty and Briana was Penelope hahaaaaa! I won the raffle too and won a few free beers for the group :) Me louisa bridget and briana did beyonce bootylicious aswell and then realised we actually didn't no much past 'kelly can you handle this...michelle can you handle this....beyonce can you handle this....i dont think you can handle this wooooo'
it was soooo fun though....funny night!
Some of the jobs can be pretty monotomous especially when it is pissing it down raining all day which is what it did allllllll day today! we still managed to keep our spiris up though and even took like a 2 hour lunch break to be spoken to be some other park volunteers about other voluntary projects they do with Gibbon monkeys in Borneo which was interesting!
Me and Lou are getting on realllly well with a coupe of the americans Briana and Bridget and we are all going to Sydney together this weekend to party....be tourists and generally have a laugh woohooooo! I'm arranging to meet my 2nd cousin who i have never met and she has offered us a bed to sleep in for free which will be sooo handy for 1 night at least :) She's called Pru and 23 and i have never met her before because she has lived in Oz all her life! Its crazy that i have relatives in Oz that i have never met!
Tonight we had chicken fajitas for dinner after we had dried off and warmed up and then we headed to the nearby town of Gosford for kareoke! So it turned out we actually frequnted the dogiest bar in town but enjoyed a few vodkas and even had some ex-convicts who had served 7 months in jail hitting on us....hmmmmmm no thanks! I sang Robbie Williams Angels with one of the irish guys and we all took on different identities.....i was Tallulah.......Darragh was Bunty.....Louisa was Jezebel....Bridget was Betty and Briana was Penelope hahaaaaa! I won the raffle too and won a few free beers for the group :) Me louisa bridget and briana did beyonce bootylicious aswell and then realised we actually didn't no much past 'kelly can you handle this...michelle can you handle this....beyonce can you handle this....i dont think you can handle this wooooo'
it was soooo fun though....funny night!
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Day 3.......Tuesday 27th July
Woke ast 6.30 again to shower before work! Iv been eatting porridge with dried blueberries, honeyand sultanas i bought for myself as a home comfort every morning...which tastes LUSH ......especially in the cold morning mist.
Today we were working on the fence and clearing more of the trees we cut down yesterday from the fency path.
Again it was pretty strenuous work but hopefully i'll come home skinny or at least pretty toned!
We are going out for dinner tonight with the park rangers to a nearby restaurant so we get to know the staff better but us ISV people are firm friends now....only 3 days in :)
Wea re all arranging to saty in Sydney this weekend to explore the city and be typical tourist as we get the weekends off voluneering :) Im going to meet up with my relatives who live there who i've never actaully met so that should be amazing :)
And of course have a fair bit to drink as ISV are pretty strict about not drinking during the week while volunteering!
We are all keeping pretty amused by the slang words each person from each country uses...of course i have introduced LUSH and Cwtch.....which they had never heard of!
Im still loving being here and taking every moment as it comes...im not missing home at all (sorry!) as im loving the oz experience sooo much :)
speak soon xxxxxxx
Today we were working on the fence and clearing more of the trees we cut down yesterday from the fency path.
Again it was pretty strenuous work but hopefully i'll come home skinny or at least pretty toned!
We are going out for dinner tonight with the park rangers to a nearby restaurant so we get to know the staff better but us ISV people are firm friends now....only 3 days in :)
Wea re all arranging to saty in Sydney this weekend to explore the city and be typical tourist as we get the weekends off voluneering :) Im going to meet up with my relatives who live there who i've never actaully met so that should be amazing :)
And of course have a fair bit to drink as ISV are pretty strict about not drinking during the week while volunteering!
We are all keeping pretty amused by the slang words each person from each country uses...of course i have introduced LUSH and Cwtch.....which they had never heard of!
Im still loving being here and taking every moment as it comes...im not missing home at all (sorry!) as im loving the oz experience sooo much :)
speak soon xxxxxxx
Day 2.......volunteering
Woke at 6.30am today to be first in the shower.......im still waking once or twice throughout the night with my jetlag but its not too bad now.
We were clearing and cutting down treees all day today to maintain the path around the electric fence...its made that while we work kangaroos are just hoppnig around us!
It was quite hard work during the morning but then in the afternoon we just went on a bush hike all the way around the park with the animals for company all the way round.
We are all getting closer to eachother now as we spend 24/7 together and i've finally learnt everyones names after all the name games which made me look like a typically dull welsh blonde hahaaa!my memory is shocking!
We make our own lunch from our food supplies that ISV paid for i've been making sandwiches for lunch everyday and bought some chocolate for myself as i cannot live without my daily dose of chocolate.
We were all pretty knackered fromt he mornings activities so we collected loadds of fire wood and planned a campfire for that eveniong to chill, share more about ourselves and generally chill out!
The camp fire was amazing....the irish had cooked us sausages mash and baked beans for tea so we were all full and happy! we stayed out for about 2/3 hours while the fire was literally the best heater ever out in the bush. I'm still pretty jetlagged so me and louisa went to bed about 9ish slightly before everyone else but they followed soon after.
The volunteering work can be abit hard or tedious but im just sooo positive at the moment that even the most boring task i grasp byt he balls and enjoy it.....hahaaa maybe i am an outdoorsy person after all! All though everyone wasn't surprised at all by my bright pink flowery jacket i wore today! I even painted my nails pink during the break!
Until tomorrow :)
We were clearing and cutting down treees all day today to maintain the path around the electric fence...its made that while we work kangaroos are just hoppnig around us!
It was quite hard work during the morning but then in the afternoon we just went on a bush hike all the way around the park with the animals for company all the way round.
We are all getting closer to eachother now as we spend 24/7 together and i've finally learnt everyones names after all the name games which made me look like a typically dull welsh blonde hahaaa!my memory is shocking!
We make our own lunch from our food supplies that ISV paid for i've been making sandwiches for lunch everyday and bought some chocolate for myself as i cannot live without my daily dose of chocolate.
We were all pretty knackered fromt he mornings activities so we collected loadds of fire wood and planned a campfire for that eveniong to chill, share more about ourselves and generally chill out!
The camp fire was amazing....the irish had cooked us sausages mash and baked beans for tea so we were all full and happy! we stayed out for about 2/3 hours while the fire was literally the best heater ever out in the bush. I'm still pretty jetlagged so me and louisa went to bed about 9ish slightly before everyone else but they followed soon after.
The volunteering work can be abit hard or tedious but im just sooo positive at the moment that even the most boring task i grasp byt he balls and enjoy it.....hahaaa maybe i am an outdoorsy person after all! All though everyone wasn't surprised at all by my bright pink flowery jacket i wore today! I even painted my nails pink during the break!
Until tomorrow :)
Day 1.....Sunday 25th July
Day 1......
I woke about 4/5 times during the night every 3 hours or so......technically our night time is british day time so i just wasnt tired during the night!
We had an orientation into the park day today. 9am we met Nick the ranger to have a safety talk above some aboriginal cave paintings overlooking the entire 100acre park. We were taught what to do if we get bitten by anythnig poisonous and other saftey advice...we then played a few name games to learn everyones names. The people im with seem sooo nice, i'm getting on especially well with the americans which will be good for future holidays hahaaa!
We spent the whole day learning about aboriginal history, feeding and touching the kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, billabies and other park animals and being general tourist amongst our own park which was fun.
We take it in turns to cook for everyone in 3s every night...i cooked last night pasta bolognese with vegetables and tomato-y sauce but didnt actually eat much myself....i'm either going to come home tiny or massive from eatting crap or not hardly eatting at all hahaaa!
Tonight the cooking team made rice with chicken teriyaki sauce with was nice...i only had a little bit though.
Iv been gonig through my chamomile tea like theres no tomorrow as the mornings and evenings are really cold here but it gets really sunny and warm during the mid part of the day!
Tomorrow we start volunteering 8am-4pm monday-friday.....the work seems quite structures and involves alot of manual labour to help preserve and protect the animals within the park and maintin the electric fence to keep out unwanted dangerous animals from the park.
Night Night :)
I woke about 4/5 times during the night every 3 hours or so......technically our night time is british day time so i just wasnt tired during the night!
We had an orientation into the park day today. 9am we met Nick the ranger to have a safety talk above some aboriginal cave paintings overlooking the entire 100acre park. We were taught what to do if we get bitten by anythnig poisonous and other saftey advice...we then played a few name games to learn everyones names. The people im with seem sooo nice, i'm getting on especially well with the americans which will be good for future holidays hahaaa!
We spent the whole day learning about aboriginal history, feeding and touching the kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, billabies and other park animals and being general tourist amongst our own park which was fun.
We take it in turns to cook for everyone in 3s every night...i cooked last night pasta bolognese with vegetables and tomato-y sauce but didnt actually eat much myself....i'm either going to come home tiny or massive from eatting crap or not hardly eatting at all hahaaa!
Tonight the cooking team made rice with chicken teriyaki sauce with was nice...i only had a little bit though.
Iv been gonig through my chamomile tea like theres no tomorrow as the mornings and evenings are really cold here but it gets really sunny and warm during the mid part of the day!
Tomorrow we start volunteering 8am-4pm monday-friday.....the work seems quite structures and involves alot of manual labour to help preserve and protect the animals within the park and maintin the electric fence to keep out unwanted dangerous animals from the park.
Night Night :)
G'day Australia
Well I'm here :D
The 21 hour flight wasnt quite as horrendous as i expected......it was long but i just slept alot (as best as i could being sat in the middle of 2 strangers) and woke up just to eat and obviously dismount in Bankok when we re-fuelled.
ISV for some reason had sat us all separately around the plane so i basically flew on my own for 21 hours but it was fine i watched a couple of films and read my magazines so was happy!
When we arrived in sydney airport we were greeted by our leader Alicia and waited for the LAX flight to land 30mins later until we all went off in our volunteer project groups.
I'm with 12 people all together, 3 irish, 4 americans, me,louisa and 2 english and the leader.
Our leader accidently drove us the worng way over sydney bridge but luckily it was being constructed on so we werent killed by on-coming traffic......hahaa that would have been a good start to the trip!we saw the opera house from the bridge then drove off into the hills to Walkabout Wildlife Park in Calga.
When we arrived at the park we were greeted by Nick, one of the park rangers and given muffins and a cuppa tea. Its pretty cold up here in the hills at the moment but it is warming up gradually each day.
We were greeted by free ranging kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos straight away...it was crazy that within an hour of landing in Oz we were patting and mixing with these amazing creatures! Nick brought the koala out for us to have photos with and pat aswell....they are soooo cute!
We were then shown to our living quarters which isnt tooooo bad....its basically a concrete building with bunk beds and basic kitchen and a bathroom with 1 shower.....then 4 porta-showers outside!i'm gonig to try my best to avoid the porta-showers while staying here its waaay too cold to run half naked to theme from the room!
All 9 girls shared the big bedroom the 1st night and the 2 boys had 2 bunk beds in the kitchen because an emu chick, some snakes and some endangered mice things were being kept warm in the other smaller bedroom.
We all were pretty jetlagged so were in bed by 6.30pm the first night.
Its amazing here....i'm in awe of all the wildlife just hopping around by our feet and have been reassured that because its winter here at the moment most dangerous snakes and insects will stay out of the cold and out of our way....hopefully!
The 21 hour flight wasnt quite as horrendous as i expected......it was long but i just slept alot (as best as i could being sat in the middle of 2 strangers) and woke up just to eat and obviously dismount in Bankok when we re-fuelled.
ISV for some reason had sat us all separately around the plane so i basically flew on my own for 21 hours but it was fine i watched a couple of films and read my magazines so was happy!
When we arrived in sydney airport we were greeted by our leader Alicia and waited for the LAX flight to land 30mins later until we all went off in our volunteer project groups.
I'm with 12 people all together, 3 irish, 4 americans, me,louisa and 2 english and the leader.
Our leader accidently drove us the worng way over sydney bridge but luckily it was being constructed on so we werent killed by on-coming traffic......hahaa that would have been a good start to the trip!we saw the opera house from the bridge then drove off into the hills to Walkabout Wildlife Park in Calga.
When we arrived at the park we were greeted by Nick, one of the park rangers and given muffins and a cuppa tea. Its pretty cold up here in the hills at the moment but it is warming up gradually each day.
We were greeted by free ranging kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos straight away...it was crazy that within an hour of landing in Oz we were patting and mixing with these amazing creatures! Nick brought the koala out for us to have photos with and pat aswell....they are soooo cute!
We were then shown to our living quarters which isnt tooooo bad....its basically a concrete building with bunk beds and basic kitchen and a bathroom with 1 shower.....then 4 porta-showers outside!i'm gonig to try my best to avoid the porta-showers while staying here its waaay too cold to run half naked to theme from the room!
All 9 girls shared the big bedroom the 1st night and the 2 boys had 2 bunk beds in the kitchen because an emu chick, some snakes and some endangered mice things were being kept warm in the other smaller bedroom.
We all were pretty jetlagged so were in bed by 6.30pm the first night.
Its amazing here....i'm in awe of all the wildlife just hopping around by our feet and have been reassured that because its winter here at the moment most dangerous snakes and insects will stay out of the cold and out of our way....hopefully!
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