Good Times in Oz!

RANDOMS

2008-05-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

HEHE SORRY KEVY THIS ONES JUST FOR YOU...
THESE ARE MY ONLY SHOTS OF HAWAII, CANT WAIT TO GO BACK SOON!!!

THIS IS WHITSUNDAY MAGIC, THE BOAT I WORKED ON FOR A FEW MONTHS. AND JUST A FEW SUNSET SHOTS

CRISSY AND NEW YEARS

2008-05-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

THIS IS CAMPING ON NEW YEARS, WE WENT WITH SOME FRIENDS AND THEIR 2 KIDDOS!! CUTE EH?...

THIS IS PAULS BOAT-IDLE TIME- AND THIS WAS WHEN THE STORM HIT.ITS ON THE BOTTOM THERE, LUCKILY NOT TOO DAMAGED, ABOUT 20,000 WORTH. SHES BACK IN THE WATER NOW

THESE WEREW JUST A FEW OF THE BOATS THAT GOT WASHED RIGHT UP ON THE BEACH AND ROCKS...NO GOOD
THIS WAS CHRISTMAS EVE, JUST CHILLIN WITH A REALLY COOL TREE FROG!

JUST RANDOMS

2008-05-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

THIS IS PAULS NIECE TAHLIA AND BELOW IS MY MATE EL

THIS IS OUR MATES PUPPY WE HAD TO PUPPYSIT ONE WEEKEND...HOW CUTE IS SHE... AND BELOW IS CEDAR CREEK WATERFALLS

This was on our drive from Brisbane to Airlie. Saw Kevy in Brisbane...hes a nutter!!

2008-05-09T05:18:00.000-07:00

fishing/sailing trip easter long weekend, thats my first coral trout, yummmy

2008-05-09T05:07:00.001-07:00

Allright GAME ON!!

2008-05-09T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hello hello, wow i am realllly bad at this. Ive been pretty bad at keeping in touch at ALL latley..lots going on here. Well Im back in Airlie Beach and living in a nice little 2 bedroom unit with a aussie chick named Carla. Its going really good. Just started a new job working at a pub so that suits me quite well!!! The pubs called Jubalee Tavern, its very much a local pub so we dont get many backpackers there. The weather was pretty bad here for a while, really rainy so much that it flooded everywhere and the winds pused a buncha boats of the moorings and wrecked quite a few... Ill add some pics of the distruction. Now thats its May the weathers getting so much nicer, its cooled down to a reasonable 20 degrees and no more rain!!!! I started playing soccer for the local womens squad and we had our officail first game tonight. We lost 5-3, but it was still good fun! Theres only 3 teams in our comp, so i can see it being a rough season. And I thought that winfield had it bad with only 12 teams.....Anyways now that im working heaps Ill be able to afford to call home more and im back on msn lots, so hope to chat with anyone on there!! Take care, let me know whats new in your lifes....Miss ya tons
Love Shawna

About time...Sorry guys

2007-10-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well first off I want to apologize to anyone who reads this cause I have been soooooo slack. Lets see the last time I updated this thing was.......march whoops.....I was havin waaayy to much fun I guess. Well anyways Ill do a quick update and let ya in on my new plans!
So I headed up to airlie beach from Heron and did my first real hostel thing. It was alright, but it got to be really expensive. So I found a job with a sailing company so I would have free room and board for half the week, that turned out to be suuuuch a blast, and the whitsundays are sooo beautifull!!! So I lasted in Airlie the remander of my first stint in Aus and durring that time lotsa fun stuff happened. I met a guy (of course) his names Paul and Kevin came up about a month or so after I got there so I got to hang with my hommie again which was fun!! Marie also came up for a couple months! So there were heaps of people to chill with and lots of new people to meet!
Anyways Ill skip ahead to now October! I am back in Canada and have been back for almost 2 months. Its been really nice to see friends and fam, but im really excited today cause i just booked my ticket back!! I headin to calgary nov 9, flyin to honolulu then to sydney nov 12th!! Im meetin paul in Sydney and were flyin up to brissy to buy a car then driving back up to Airlie Beach! Were thinkin of heading down to Melbourne for a bit...And I also really wanna head up to asia and the close surroundings.....
well i guess its the start of another adventure for me, hope to get wayyyyy more pix up this time. Ill add a fwe from last year first!! well cheers and wish me luck...(again)
Shawna

Makin tracks up north

2007-03-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hello hello, again I apologize for such a long space between blogs, but its hard to do when you have to pay for your time on the net, and theres so much else that needs doin... Anyways quick update, I have left the great Heron Island, I was there for over 2 months, so that was good enough for me! I got some amazzzing photos and when they get home to jess ill get her to add them on! So I took a 8 hour bus ride up to Airlie Beach, which is kinda like the Banff of Australia, except its on the beach, beautifull white sandy beaches. Its also the gateway for the Whitsunday Islands, which is famous for its sailing trips. I have a job interview lined up for some childcare work, so hopefully thatll work out, if not I may head back down south and meet back up with Marie and do some fruit picking for a month or so...who knows, plans seem to change weekly for me as most of you know! Well times almost up so I hope everythings good with everything, send me some emails with some updates on your lifes..im missin ya guys!!
take care!
shawna

lovin the island life

2007-02-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

Hey there everyone, hope alls well! I am doing great and having a BLAST on this tiny island I call home! Its sooo cool here. For the most part everyone is super nice and friendly and its kiunda like one big happy family with alcoholism...hahahaha. I have done a few other things then drink too, like snorkleing, which was amazing. It was like swimming around in a tropical aquarium, sooo cool. And theres tons of sharks and eagle rays at the jetty, where we go for our daily swim after work. The turtles are sooo cool here to, theres sooo many of them and the mommas are masssssiivvee, and the babys are soo cute while they try and make the dart for the sea. Im getting used to the birds now, and Ive moved into a new place thats not quite as mainstream as my last one was, so hopefully that may curb the drinking...we'll see. Oh I guess a big thing thats happened is that Kevin has been voted off the island...haha...we pretend that its a reality tv show and all of you guys are watching and pickin people off...anyways ya they have this thing called an NBO which is Next Boat Off, and if your cought doin somthing they think is worthy of it they will nbo you...me and kev had a bet that OF COURSE itll be me first, but looks like i won that one. Hes gone as of 2 days ago, now its just me...owell ill survive and once he figures his stuff out he'll be good too!! In the mean time I guess Im gunna stay here till at least may and save up some cash then head to meet up with kev and ash somewhere... Australias been pretty good to me so far..(knock on wood) and I am loving it!
well like i said hope everyones good and ill try and uppdate this again a bit sooner!!
Shawna

im off!

2007-01-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

well all i can really say is how excited and ready i am for this new adventure!! I will let you know as soon as i can if its as good as were expecting!
have fun in the SU>>> i mean SNOW!!!!

Finally my plans are solid

2007-01-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

Alright, so sorry I havent put up any pics of new years, I dont really have any good ones, so I'll have to get them from my friends sometime...
Anyways I have got a ticket BOOKED!! Im leaving Sydney on Jan 20th!!!! YAHHHHH Its works perfectly as the new nanny will be flying in that morning!
So yuour probally wondering what my final plan of action is....and belive me its alot better then fruit picking!
Me and Kevin will be flying 4 hours up the coast to a town called Gladstone, its an industrial town with not much to do ...but... then we will be getting on a catermeran for a 2 hour ride to here http://www.heronisland.com/. Heron Island is a72 arce resort Island. Its soo small that there is only the resort and a national wildlife park.
I found out about this job one week ago while reading a book about fruit picking/working in Australia. I applied oinline last wed and the hr lady phoned me on friday to set up a phone interview! I told her I was going to be traveling with a friend and she said no problem, ill interview him at the same time!
So Kev and I had to put off planning anything for a couple days, which was nice, to wait and see how the interview would go on Sunday. She rang my mobile at 930 and offered us both jobs by 945! I will be doing housekeeping, thank god for an 8-5 job and a break from kids!(no offense miss hairy eyeballer)Kevin also lucked out big time and will be bar tending and serving, which he really enjoys, so we are SET!
I still dont have too much information about it, but I will def keep you updated to how its going!
Hope everyone is having a great new year and is VERYYY jealous hahahaha!
luv ya
shawna

New Years

2007-01-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, bcause im lazy and hate typing, and we did the EXACT same thing im just copying kevins new years post, enjoy!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everybody! I hope everyone had a fun-filled New Year's Eve, as I know I did (from what little I remember). New Year's Eve is a pretty big thing here in Sydney, seeing as it's one of the first major cities to see the new year, so they like to do it in style. Basically, we were told they would be lighting fireworks off the Harbour Bridge and to see it, you can find a park around the harbour (of which there are many) and just hang out. But, of course, everyone else has the same idea, so we wanted to get there early. We started the day off at 2pm, and it all went downhill from there... As we were taking the ferry from Circular Quay to the park we had chosen (at Cremorne Point, about 2km away from the bridge) 3 WWI bi-planes flew overhead. I thought it was pretty cool, though I'm not sure why they chose to fly those instead of something a little more 2007..I also decided to take a picture of the Harbour Bridge before it was lit up and I got too drunk to know what was going on. If you click to zoom in on the picture, you'll notice that there's an outline of a coat hanger on the side. We were all baffled as to what this meant, so Kevin asked one of the guys he works with at the restaurant, who is an Aussie and has lived in Sydney for 22 years, and he told him it's because the Harbour Bridge was initially designed using a coat hanger. "That's one enormous coat hanger," Kevin exclaimed. It was then that he pointed out that it was just a model, and that kev should lay off the glue. kevin agreed.This is the view we had of the bridge from our spot at the park. There were approximately 4 billion people in this park, but we were able to bribe and execute enough people to get this spot.Shawna was smart enough to pack this flag, which we hung on the tree just above our heads. This proved to be a wicked smart move, as people would walk by, and just say, "Hey, you're from Canada!" or just randomly shout "CANADA!" to which we would all go "WOOOO!". Keep in mind that this went on all night, and we were about 10 meters from peoples houses, so we really kept the property values way down if anyone happened to be doing any house shopping on New Year's Eve. But really, you don't want those people moving into the neighbourhood anyways, bunch a party-poopers!OK, so it started off with just 3 of us at this event, Kevin, Shawna and Ashley (who is actually from Winnipeg! NOBODY from Winnipeg goes anywhere! Hi Ashley!). A buncha of other people just decided to join us because we had the Canada flag hanging, and they're all Canadian, from various cities. We seriously had about 2 dozen people just stop and chat with us because we were Canucks. Some joined us, some ran away in fear. It was good times.

wow that was alot easier then tping, maybe ill always do that, hehe.
Well happy 2007 and Ive only got 3 weeks left in Sydney!!!!!!YAAAAAA
Shawna

Time to start savin my moolah...

2006-12-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that i have been here for almost 6 months!!! CRAZZZY!!!! Time has just flown by, working soo much and staying out wayyy to late...Owell its been a fun ride so far!
Xmas turned out to be pretty alright (sorry jess and friends whom i drunkenly woke up at 5 and 7 !!(hahaha)I went out with my friend Ashley on Christmas eve, which is a very popular thing to do here as the pub we went to had about 1200 people there!The police even had to gate off the streets! But being xmas it closed at 1, so we were in bed nice and early, nice for a change!
The next morning I woke up to nothing christmasy, no tree, no stockings, no presents...owell we drank a cup of tea and listened to Christmas carols on the radio.
I hung out with Ashley till around noon then went to met Kevin at his hostel. I gave him his presents and we hung out till we decided to go find somewhere to eat. We wandered aimlessly for quite awhile then one of us (I do believe it was me) came up with the brilliant idea to go down and check out if anything was open down around the harbour, so we headed down there and it was packed with people. So for our Christmas day dinner Kevin has a steak and I had a burger...haha a little dif then a turkey dinner, but it was good!
So after that we headed back to the hostel and pretty much fell asleep on the couch's for a few hours. We woke up around 730 I think and the first thing Kevin said was "want some wine" haha so that started our long night of drinking goon!
So the next day was pretty much a write off as we slept all day, then Kevin had to work at 7, so I went to see a movie, The Prestige, which was pretty good. Then after 3 long nice days off I returned home to the crazziness, no it wasnt that bad...
All in all it was a great xmas, but it will be nice to get back to a snowy one at some point.
My plans for new years are to go see the fire works from the bridge, which should be good, check out the link for more info on it...
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nye/default.html
As for saving my money, I really only have about 3 more weeks with the Galpers here in Sydney, then hopefully (the plan keeps on changing I know) but hopefully me and kev will have found a car by then, and we will leave Sydney around Feb 1st! The plan is to head down to Canberra and hang with Kevins friend for a couple days, then head 6 hours west (inland) to a town called Mulldura. We plan on staying there for a month or so fruit picking and saving more dollars for the rest of our trip...Kevin i think we should enter you in as many competions we can find ( I get 50 % profit, being your booky!!)
Well thats where I stand as of whatever day it is today!
Luv ya guys
Shawna

Happy HOHO

2006-12-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

well merry xmas to everyone , hope you have a white one! (even you guys down in the south!) I deffinatly will NOT be , probally rain though...its pretty funny that people hear still sing all the same xmas songs, like let it snow and frosty the Snow man hahaha weirdo's!! So it doesnt really feel like xmas at all, but ive got a couple friends to spend the few days with, so it will be nice..and i just recently talked to some old friends from home, so that was nice !!

I had my first "Date" in sydney last night, with an english guy...it was pretty fun and i got home early and had a great sleep!

today im going up to north sydney to meet my friend ashley, then kevin will prob come meet us later.

So ya thats my xmas down unda! Thank-you SOOO much to everyone who sent me xmas cards, its very nice to hear from loved ones as much as possible!

Well like i said merry xmas and have a fun new years (lay off the booze mom!) haha

luv ya

Shawna

Im goin travelin with this guy???haha

2006-12-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Haha so this is my friend Kevin, the one I'm gunna be traveling around oz with (yikes)!! Kevin is also from Calgary, I met him about a month before coming to australia. We are planning on buying a car and touring around. We're both pretty low on cash, so were gunna spend some time fruit picking (which Im actually looking foward to)! I think I know him pretty well, but if you dont hear from me for over a month at least you've got his picture to give to the coppers!!haha no its all good, we are going to have a craaazy adventure( starting in Feb) and I will be sure to keep you updated as much as possible...

Thats all for now

Cheers!

Tobys bday

2006-12-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Theses are some pics from tobys 3rd bday on the 14th!

Doesn't even compare!

2006-12-13T00:33:00.000-08:00

The Zoo is what Im am talking about, sydneys Tangora Zoo is absolutley breathtaking! First of all you take the ferry over, so you pass by the bridge and the opera house...then you arrive at this gorgeous green hillside, where everyone unloads and walks up to where theres a gondaola to take you up to the top. The ride up itself is worth the 22 bux or whatever it is! You get to go right over the zoo and see most of the animals from the above view, if your luckey one of the gorillas may wave haha! So you unload at the top and start your trek down. The one thing that I found difficult about it (other then keeping toby in my sights) is where to go to see what, its not labeled or designed quite good enough, youve got to double back at least once if your gunna see everything, but belive me its soo big you may wanna take 2 dayz!

The view from the many view points its so beautiful!Like I said the walk down takes pretty long, especially if you wanna stop and look at the animals, which toby's not to interested in yet.. So ya give yourself at least 3 hours to make it back down to the ferry dock! I saw my first platypus...very cool lookin!Well thats about it, feel free to add comments, its always nice to hear from my homes....

talk to ya later

2006-11-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

Blue Mnts cont.

2006-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

allright, sorry about that folks! anyways where was I.. o ya i was laughing at how small the waterfall was... but the hike through the rainforedt was nice! Alot like Vancouver (temperate rainforest).

After checking out the waterfall we hiked back up for luch, which was aight, then hopped back on the bus to go check out the 3 sisters in Katoomba.

Katoomba is a very cute little touristy town, really reminds me of winfield...very peacefull compared to the city.

THe statues represent the aboriginal story behind the 3 sisters. The father was a magician and he had a magic kangaroo shin bone. One day the family were down on the rainforest floor when the father decided to do some hunting, he told his daughters to wait up on the hill quietly so they wouldn't wake the great beast that lived down there. So as the father was hunting he noticed that the girls were being very noisy up on the hill and suddenly the beast came out of the forest and was headed towards his daughters.The dad used his magic kangaroo shin bone to turn his daughters into stone so the beast couldnt hurt them...the beast got mad and went after the dad... he used his magic shin bone to turn himself into a parrot, but in doing so he dropped the shin bone, and that is why his daughters are still stone...or it was evelution...take your pick!

After getting some nice shots (i came back at sunset to get more) we headed down to senic world, which is a touristy type attraction.http://www.scenicworld.com.au/attractions_railway.asp Check out this link if ya wanna know more...

We walked down 1067 steps, and they were steeep im surprized i made it out alive..haha

well after we rode the train back up (thank god) we headed to the hostel, where the bus dropped us off and we all checked into the beautifull hostel. I didnt get a pic of it but it was reallly nice!! After that I unpacked all my stuff and took alittle walk around to see wat katoomba was all about. At aboput 7 i headed back down to the 3 sister look out to catch the sunset( about 20 min walk) Durring my walk home i went past a house that had a few people my age outside drinking some wine, so i stopped a poked my head over the fence to ask them wat there was to do in this town at night...Thats when i got my face almost licked off by their 4 dogs..awwwww charlie.....anyways so they invited me to have supper with them, which was gourmt garlic prawns!!!mmmmmm, so i stayed there and hung out drinkin some wine with them untilll about 1 am!Then headed back to the hostel!! I slept in on sun!!! whhich i needed !! then just toured around some more, the bus picked us up at 5 and i was back in the city by 7!

thats all for now

later

The Blue Mnts

2006-11-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well I had a very nice and relaxing weekend out in the Blue Mountains. This is a shot from one of the look-outs! Unfortunatley it was really smokey out there because theres a huge bush fire burning..

My day started off nice and early as I causght the bus at 6 so i could be in the city by 7 to get on the tour bus. So I made it there and loaded up with about 9 others and started out trip outta the city. We drove for about 45 mins to the Blue Mountains National Park, which has wild kanagroos wandering all about!! My first experience with wild (well very tame) kangaroos was pretty cool!

This is a momma roo, with her joey in her pouch! Their enjoyin a nice grass breakfast!

And heres some others!

I watched this little guy climb right on into mammas pouch!

After the national park we loaded back up on the bus and drove another 40 mins to Wentworth Falls, which was a really nice hike down through a rain forest, butt I was quite dissapointed with the waterfall...compared to some of the falls ive seen up in the rockies this was nothin!! try and see if you can even spot it!!

These are some from our hike to wentworth falls.

Thats all for now, have to work Ill finish this up later!

Back to normal round here!

2006-11-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

Well things are strating to look up!! Now that the dad is back from the states I'm getting plenty more free time!! Plus the weather has been beautifull again, not to hot not to cold...perfect!! I have this whole weekend off..wow.....so Ive booked myself a tour to the blue mountains! Its only about 1 1/2 hours from sydney, and we'll be stoping at diferent sights(waterfalls) along the way!!So there should be tons of pics to come! Hopefully the fires that are happening there right now wont dissrupt it too much...ill letcha know on sun how it goes!!
peace

my new blog!

2006-11-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well I have figured out a way to share all my thoughts/pics with everyone, not just fellow msn users...Mainly for all my Aunts!! Well maybe ill just copyy my other 2 posts onto here so everyones updated...
sept.18
Well I made it through my first week with EASE!!!It is sooooo beautiful here, def the most beautifulcity Ive ever been to. My flight over was pretty goodnot too full so that was nice... The family Im living withare very nice, and the kiddos are so cute, as you can see in the pics!!The house Im living in is really cool, and were only a 10 min walkdown to Bondi Beach, which is a very trendy little area( famous forits beach of course). I went out on Sat night and watched a really goodband play at a local pub..very cool. Downtown is pretty crazy..BIG!!I took a ferry over there and it was a very cool ride. I havent really meet anyone yet,but I figure Ive got plenty of time for that later on!!Well I hope that theres people reading this (other then my mom!!!)Ceers, talk atcha later!Shawna

good day/ night out

2006-11-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

This pic is me on coogee beach, b4 the wind came up and we had to search(not too hard) for the nearest pub...

and the pics above it are the night that follows!!

Some of my early pix!

2006-11-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

So lets see what we got..the first is a shot of Bondi beach, it was still fall here, hence thats why there were only me and a few others brave enough to bare the 20 degree weather!!

That is a pic of the city from the ferry.

This is Marie, the english chick Im travelin with in feb, and Lisa, also from england.

This last shot is off of our balconey, its so nice and green here..I love it!!

more updates

2006-11-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

sept.25
there was a big shark thing down at he beach on sat. The lifegaurds had to call everyone out of the water as a shark was spotted 50 ft away from a swimmer... There were helicopters and eveything, it was a pretty big deal!

oct.9
Hello Hello
Well just as I suspected time has flown by and ive already been here a month!!!!I cant belive it!! Lifes great here and Ive now made some really good friends(check out the pics....sorry marie!!) I have been working lots and the family is really great, they give plenty of time to go exploring. On sat night i stayed at the hostel with marie, that was interesting, people from all over the world!!! Ive gone out lots and gotten right hammered a few times as well(maries a bad influence) haha, as am I...Um wat else to say....its been pretty cold here, it gets really chilly at night. I havent really been saving much money cause i always go out durring the day then staying out for the night and end up having to buy myself a hoodie...um ya hope all is well with everyone and I miss everyone!!

nov.17
well it has been 2 months now and I am still kickin!! Not much new too write, though because I stil havent left sydney...I guess a big thing is that Marie and I have set our plans in motion and have been looking at campervans, and will proballly be buyin one in the next couple weeks! Our plan is to head out the beggining of feb! Where too...were not quite sure, we'll probally drive up the coast tilll we find a nice little town(and work)tyo settle down in for a month or so...we dont wanna stop somehere for more then a month so that we experience as many places as possible!A couple of my friends from canada, kevin and tyler are leaving sydeny tomorow because they couldnt find work...so tonights gunna be a good one! okay well im gunna go swim in the pool!
Cheers
Shawna
Hope all is good with everyone!, and stay warm!

Ok so now your updated i think..now ill add a buncha pictures!!