Cairns and hervey bay

So, done with the safari. This is the 21st Of May

So the reason I only did diary for half of the Safari trip was a) I'm lazy. B) a picture can say more than a 1000 words.  Well, we started with packing up our stuff and then we headed to the airport. At the airport there was a small goodbye. The rest of the safari group would be heading home to Sydney, while I would stay in cairns with my old host family. This was the last time I would see Kate again as well. Since she is going home early, and I won't be back before that. So we had a goodbye and wished everyone the best.

They then went past security and I was alone once more. So I started with looking for a free bus to go to cairns, the cheapest one was 35 dollars with return. Which is ridiculous.  The reason I wanted to go to cairns was because I have 8 hours before my old host family would pick me up. At the airport. So I thought that I might as well go to cairns I'm the mean time. Anyways I didn't want to that stupid amount of money and went and took a nap instead. After an hour or two I woke up, really bored with limited cell phone battery. I googled free bus to cairns. And I went back to the bus stands again asking for an "Airport Connect". This time they gave me the free bus location and time table (why didn't they do that before.)  so I went on the bus to cairns, very hard to get there but I managed. In cairns I had a grilled healthy burgers. And man those a good (and expensive :-( ) and looked for scuba licensing. Because, what place would be better than the Great Barrier Reef. Very few of them was under 700$ so that was a set back.

After some relaxing I went back to the airport and met David for the first time in 2 years, so weird, he works in a bus company so he picked up his clients and went around to the different hotels. After a while we picked up Francetta. And then went back to their house, I had a long shower and relaxed at The couch where we caught up with what we had been up to.

22nd of May. Friday 

So, holidays have begun eh?

Today I went to cairns city to relax, and look for a place to repair my camera as well as finding something to do for the upcoming week. I thought I would consider getting a divers certificate.

Otherwise I just went through the memory train.

23rd of May Saturday 

Went to cairns again, looked for a camera and looked into scuba diving options. In the event Francetta helped me look for options to get a cheaper price since most of them were around the 800 dollars, which I was not ready to pay for.

She found one, and got it down to 490 which really isn't bad...

Sunday he 24th of May.

Did nothing I the day time, in the evening I went to a barberque with Fran and Dave through. They had some friends at a nearby camp and I just tagged along. Palm cove is beautiful at night.

Monday the 25th of May

Got up real early to go to scuba diving training. Like 5 am. So I went to cairns and learned about scuba diving. And met my team members. 1 from Denmark, 1 from Israel, 1 from Hong Kong, 1 for holland and 2 from Australia. We watched 5 hours of movies and did test and then finally dove I. Which was an unique experience.

I was however reallll tired that night. 

Tuesday the 26th

Same routine as yesterday. Still in the pool.

Wednesday the 27th of May

Today we went in osprey V7 to go to the Great Barrier Reef to learn scuba diving. We did a lot of skills as usual and then went on a small cruise around the reef. And believe it or not, WE SAW A SHARK, how cool was that? It was rather small, but still! Really cool. Like around a meter in length. I should also mention I saw a turtle at the reef when I went with rotary, it was rather deep below, but I got to pet its head when I went for a deep breath, soo cool!

So we got up from scuba training and got some lunch and later went for another dive. No turtles or sharks there though.

Thursday the 28th of May

Same routine as the day before nothing special at the reef sadly. I did fell and Got a quite badly, quite a deep cut.  But at the end of the day I am a certified diver! I went back to francettas and David's house for one last time. Again..

Friday the 29th of May 

Today I got to say my final good byes and then I went on the "The Queensland Spirit". Af train going  from cairns to Brisbane. I stopped in maryborugh through. The day was spent in the train  watching bad movies (with an exception of interstellar), which I am still a bit confused about. The planet that made hours til decades were weird, and I'm not sure how it's possible in real life.  Also spent a lot of money on the luxurious food (it wasn't) and I slept gracefully in the seats at night (it was terrible and cold).

Saturday the 30th of May

So, woke up at 4:00 am after a terrible, terrible sleep. (If you could call it that).

And got off the train after 1414 Kms from cairns to maryborugh to get on a bus to maryborugh terminal, after that I would have to find a bus to get to Hervey Bay to get picked up. In the very early morning by my new host parents. (To the 4th of June.) so I got to maryborugh terminal, but then I was basically lost. I was in the middle of nowhere with everything closed and no where to ask for help. So I waited, for a while, thinking about unpacking my pack and get my sleeping bag to get some sleep. 

But, the. A friendly bus driver showed up. I asked for help. He told me I could do this and this to get there, or just jump In. I jumped in, relieved and tired I went to sleep, and slept like a rock til 7:15 where I got the bus and shortly after I got picked up by Ian. 

I got some breakfast when I got to their house as well as an assigned room, got some, more sleep And then went to town. To see what I could do on the famous Fraser Island. And generally relaxed and saw a bit of the city. I also tried to contact 3 other students that were supposed to be around here.  But I was not allowed to contact them for some strange reasons.

Sunday the 31st of May.

So, I went to the pier with Barbara and got to see the surroundings, it was quite a beautiful country for sure. We even saw some kids fish up a shovel head shark. 

We got a call from the club president if we wanted to meet up. I had sort of given up at meeting up with the students at this point since she didn't give me any details about the, when I asked her and she didn't give me much detail. So it was quite a surprise, I met up with them, Seraina from Switzerland, Contanze from France, and Gouvan? From Flemish Belgium. 

And the club president Elizabeth and bob her husband. They were having lunch and basically just talked p, Apparantley the reason I could talk with the students were because I was not supposed to make them excited about a camping trip to Fraser Island. Instead, I could join them (which I did, but, stuff happened so the plans changed and were not as good as they normally were) 

Monday the 1st of June.

Went for dinner at the club presidents house, taught the students the betting game.

Tuesday the 2nd of July.

Today I went to Fraser Island!

I might as well add a list of the things we saw.

- We got to play the card game fish with the ship cat.

-we saw planes landing on the beach all the time

-the never ending beaches, seriously, it looks insane!

-big ass turtle being eaten by a dingo (the turtle must have been old and gone to the beach to die)

- Eli Creek, seriously. It was like magic, water that clear. And so fresh, you could just drink as if you were swimming in a glass of water! It was crystal clear, and because it have a stream. You could just float and let the creek bring you to its end. Amazing, can't recommend it enough.

-S.S hard name I can't spell. A famous floating hospital that crashed into Fraser Island in the. 1950s.

-Mckenzie lake. Crystal clear water once more. And I mean, when I say crystal. It's not like crystal. It's like air.

-And up close to a dingo that snakes up behind me, magnificent and deadly creatures.

Wednesday the 3rd of July.

Was supposed to go to rainbow beach, but was cancelled 

Thursday the 4th of July.

Today I said good bye  Barbara and Ian, and went back to the cold mountains.

Good to have enjoyed the heat before it lasted.

Not really doing good with this blog

Saturday the 9th of May.

So we got up early and Went on the bus for a longer drive to Alice springs. On the Way there er stopped for a ride on Some

Camels. After a short stop we then went for the trip to Alice, e jumped out of the bus , unpacked our tent and was on our way to Alice springs malls. We went around went for a little shopping and went back to the camping grounds.  Some boys and I went for a swim, it was a tiny bit cold. In Alice btw, we also saw quite a bit of the native population. 

After the swim we

Had dinner, and shortly after that we had a reptile expert come out and show us some snakes and lizards, from Blue-tongues, bearded dragons, to Brown kings (2nd most dangerous in the world) and olive snakes (gets like 4 meters long), we got to hold all the animals but the King Brown afterwards. Good fun. 

We then got ready to bed, and prepared for a cold night.

Around 30 minutes after we went to bed, We heard a howl, that sent chills through you spine, the dingoes were out again.

Sunday the 11th of May.

In the morning we Went to Simpsons gap to look for Rock wallabies. Its was beautiful, but No rock wallabies.

Agter that we Went on a walk up one the hills to see the big macdonald ranges. Also very beautiful.

We then went on another walk somewhere a bit further away, which I have gotten the name of (Stanley gasp maybe). First we climbed a hill, and then we went and looked at the gap. Amazing once more. The colors and the sun made it special. 

We went ahead and went to Alice Springs Desert Zoo to see the Bird Show. The birds show were great with these highly trained animals. They came to the zoo keeper with simple sounds and gestures. THe rest of the zoo was "meh" sadly. I think we then drove back to camp and played a music quiz Louis made, which was really good

Monday the 11th of May.

This day was a bit weird. First, we went to Dreamtime and BushTuckers. Where we got aboriginal food, including grubs (which really isn't that bad) as well as kangaroo, and few others really weird stuff, like berries which exist nowhere, and I can guarantee that not many people will ever taste it. One thing all the things had in common was that they were really spicy.

royal doctors services HQ in Alice. We watched a movie and and saw the museum. Sadly I dropped my camera, so I can't use it now at all. ITS BROKEN.

We then went to the School of Air to see how students go to school in the bush. They go online from year 1.

We then went ahead and went shopping In Alice spring once more, I had to get my insurance checked for my camera.

We then went to Alice Springs park, and looked at Alice springs, it was an upside down river, meaning no water visible on the ground.

We then went and played boomerang,it got stuck in the tree. 4 of us took our shoes off and shot them at the tree to get it down.

First Pedro got his shoe stuck.

After a while I had tried to get his shoe my shoe got stuck.

5 minutes after we got them both down, but I can't explain it, the panic was fun, since we got a few minutes

Late for the train.

We got on the train and went to the earth sanctuary to look at stars, we went for a small wak, made som Damper. And then found our "swag", basically a giant sleeping bag. Our night was made of clear stars and shooting stars with great star formations, my favorite being the giant emu. 

Tuesday 12th of May

We woke up early, like 5 am, where about our usual is 6 am.

We packed up our Swag while though the stars were still shining bright. We went on the bus and we went driving. 12 hours later after a few stops at Devils Marbles and other small stores and parks to get food at as well as using the toilets, we ended up in Daly Waters even though this was definitley not desert, it was not rainforest either. The sand was red, but the leaves were green. Daly waters is a town in the middle of nowhere, literally. However it got a rather famous pub for some reason. And we had dinner there,( I had Beef burger btw). And then we had quite a bit of spare time where we went around the pub. It was a special pub, everywhere there were clothes, cameras, IDs, underwear, money notes, coins and shirts and flags hanging everywhere. Really cool. Not to mention their flip flop

(Thongs) tree. Really cool, the night was spent playing with cards as well.

Tirsdag the 12th of May

Woke up early once more of course. Went on our bus Katherine. Took a few hours as usual. At Katherine we could go for a walk through the bush to go to a waterfall and have a swim. It was like a 1,5 hour walk and very unusual environments we came through. After the walk we finally had a refreshing swim in the waterfall. We were however not allowed to jump from the rock for some reason. One of our leaders are becoming really strict. 

Wednesday the 13th of May

Woke up in Katharine once more, this time we went for a cruise on the kathrine gorge, where the movie rogue was filmed very interesting and beautiful 

Thursday the 14th of May

Lucas stolen gopro

Friday the 15th of May 

Today we woke up In kakadu once more. Today the plan was to go on multiple different hikes around, basically everywhere. First we went to a crustal center and then on the walks, they were all alright. But none of them were amazing. At lunch It was so hot, and we had drunk all our water and everyone was grumpy, when the "leaders" decided we should go back to the camp site. So we did. We had an hour to go swimming in the pool which was really nice. After the pool we went for another walk with more Aborignal paintings. And finished the day at a cliff to see the sunset: however, they had been bush burning all day and the smoke was thick. So thick that the son just dissapered in the air. To bad really. We went back to camp and played wolf till sleep

Saturday the 16th May

Lots of golden orbs. 

Safari

SAFARI

6th of May. Wednesday.

Finally, what I have waited and stayed for in the past 8 months for. I'm so excited!

I stayed overnight at sues place to get easy access to the airport In the morning. At 8:30 the next morning we were in the  domestic airport getting ready to board our flight to ULURU, aka Ayers Rock. It's very south in the Northern Territory. In the desert. With almost no rain. Life can barely sustain, for humans at least. (However the aboriginals survived).

The flight was a  bit over 3 hours, and as were about to land, we saw the huge rock. IT WAS MASSIVE, much bigger than you would

Have guessed. Around 300 Ms tall. And like 1 km in width.

We landed and went to our camp, set up tents and then we went for a beautiful sunset!  (Which I got in timelaps.) at Uluru, with the sun facing our side of the rock. 

We then went back to camp and to our surprise, there was a other rotary safari trip for another district, which was unknown to us.

We are 18 from our district, and they were 41 from 5 different district.

So, they must have had some danes, is what we thought, and they did. What was surprising was that I knew them all from Denmark. Maria, from our district.

Frida from Jylland. And Victoria from From there as well.

I met them in Bjerringbro, for our Camp. And i had dinner with Them often. Really Nice People.

Victoria was In Melbourne, and Frida was In Brisbane. So the fact they were together was surprising as well.  But the fact that we just met up with them randomly was even more surprising.

So we quickly fell in chat, and it was great. The other exchange students started a campfire and we all gathered around it and had a few songs and chats. It was soooo good.

Definitley, Best Night In a long time.

Sadly, They were leaving for Alice springs In the morning, While we have a Day more here.

So we ended with hugs and cheers at 22 Pm When the neighbours complained about the noise and we were sent to bed.

Thursday the 7th of May.

We woke up early to go to Uluru once more. To see the the sunrise. Due to aboriginal law, we were not close, but even from 10 km distance it was still BIG. It was not as colorful as last night but still

Good. 

After this we went to Ururu and walked around. Knowledge about their ways are very limited, since we are worthy (grown up) enough to see their ways. It's quite unique, but we were

Allowed to see a few wall paintings. Uluru belongs to Anangu, a tribe that haves lived there in thousands of years. And their important stories are  painted with clay and blood on the walls of Uluru. We even got to see the story of the first plane. THE FIRST PLANE the Anangu saw! How cool is that? A lot of places in the desert were unknown till we got better transport in the 19th hundred. And though they saw wheel tracks and planes from a distance they didn't see white people for a few more years. Crazy huh?

Very interesting and beautiful rock indeed. We walked all 10 Km around it. And while we did in the very dry desert heat, we saw a snake, (Rule of Australia, it's always deadly till you know what it is) we don't  know what it  was, but it was tiny and we a got some pictures.

We finished the walk and got some afternoon tea. And went along to the Aborignal centre where we could ask the guides about everything, there was even an aboriginal making paintings for sale out front. Uluru, is a World heritage site In culture as Well as Nature. So, the counsellors for the park found it important to let the aborginals decided a lot. So on the counsel there are 4 whites, 4 black fellas (male) and 4 black fellas (female). So Uluru still got a lot of beauty, and we didn't climb the rock

Because there were not enough time, as well as it would

Be immoral and dangerous (38 people have died).

We had lunch at the culture center and went  to another big rock  (whichyou could see from Uluru) katatjuta, and went for a climb. A few had to turn back because it was rough, and it was, but it was soo worth it, the view was amazing.

The sky was another shade of blue, and thr valley of winds is a must go place if you are out here. 

We went back on the bus and went to camp, and enjoyed the sunset Looking at Uluru again, this time from a distance of 21 Ks. 

Short after sunset Mercury and Venus arrives in the sky before the stars, shortly after we had dinner continues by a camp fire, and a few games

Of wolf.

We then went to sleep and again it became freezing cold

Friday the 8th of May.

This night it was a but Warmer after I had covered my self in Jeans, Jumper, Shirt and the sleeping bag, but still far from great.

We woke up, packed our tents down and went on the bus for a 4 hour drive through the desert.

We had a quick stop at a bush range of the size of Singapore, where literally sold shit in small plastic bags.

We then went for another hour and stopped quickly for a lookout for Mount Connor and then went on the road again.

We were supposed to pick up firewood. But first. We had to get little story about a special Australian wood type, I forgot the name of it. But basically, it's as hard as steel if sharpened, so they used it for hunting, but not just for that. There was poison it, so it would

Also paralyze the animal. So if we got a splinter in the bush, we had to tell them ASAP so they could get it out so we wouldn't get numb.

We then had a very exciting moment. We turned to the left. 

That's it, we had not made a single turn for 300 kms, just pure straight road. Cool huh?

We got the bus range and packed out our tents and went on the bus. Now going to King Canyon. An oasis in the middle of the desert. On the way there use and ray saw a dingo and Clara and Swida saw a camel. 

The kings canyon was amazing, within the first few minutes we saw a Kangaroo and an eastern grey wallaby. Very nice, we then climbed the Heart attack Steps and went around this beautiful canyon with amazing rock formations. We even got to the oasis. Seeing water in such great amounts was crazy, it was not even a lake, just waterhole, but in this desert it was heaven, which. Is also why it's called Garden of Eden. We finished the 4 hour long walk and went back to camp. We

Took a awesome shower and had dinner, and afterwards, looking at the sky. A sky you don't get in Denmark, guranteed, you could easily see the Milky Way. It was gorgeous, so clear.

We lit the camp fire and played wolf once more.  In the middle of the evening some eyes were following us, ray noticed first, and made it go away, I still got a good look at it. It was a dingo looking for a meal. At out camp, which was scary and cool at the Same time. After a few hours we went to bed

The bunch 2

29th of March -11th of April

Because of some problems, my counsellor, David, had to drive his mother back home to Bribie Island near Brisbane. It ended with him asking if I wanted to join him for some fishing and surfing! I Of course said yes. 
So we drove up there, around a 16 hour trip, and got to stay there for almost 2 weeks for holidays. Sounded great if you asked  me. But I went FULL into "holiday" mode and didnt maintain the blog nor took many photos. Oh well. I have decided to write the most important short stories from the weeks.

I went fishing each day, I however only caught something the first and last day, So I caught 2 fish, less than 10 cm each. and definitley not edible.

 I went to the beach each day, surf was only big the first couple of days, sadly. On the first day I went swimming with David And James, (his brother). and as a wave hit us. Dozens of small fish jumped out of the wave into our face. My best guess would be that a 7 meter great white shark was chasing them! (No, not really).

I was supposed to go to  stewe Irwin's zoo, but for reasons I had to stay back.

Caught some great waves with the Body Board..

Went crab hunting, caught 6.   However it was early in the morning when we went and got the traps. Not fun swimming in less than 10 degrees
, 1 big female mud crab (however you are not allowed to eat females in QLD) and 5 sand crabs. We ate one of  the Sandies them, It was real tasty.  
Saw HUNDREDS of solider crabs. In those numbers you can hear these tiny crabs marching on the beach, very interesting.

David's half brother is in parliament.(Hugh, not James)

Saw some eagles.(Sea eagles mostly)

Had to move from the mothers house because it was"overbooked"

Had a surprise in my sleep.

Another of David's brother had bought a motor bike, but didn't want to tell his mom. (James)

After.

Went to the cinema with Louis, and on the 14th of April I went to Ben and Jerry's Brithday party at Bondi, so I had a relaxing day at bondi with a few other exchange students.

Met another minister and got a Aussie flag.when I went to Windsor with David one day.

24th-27th Dubbo trip.

I was picked up by Paul Wynn, Jakob's host father, after school, Friday. To go on a road trip through the New South Wales outback.

We started with going through and slept at a motel in a small town. We didn't do anything there. The next day we however went to parkes the next day. Where we got to see Parkes observatory which helped with the moon landing in 1969.
It was HUGE and it was really interesting. Afterwards we went through the museum and the on our way to Dubbo. In Dubbo In the evening we went to the local swimming centre for a swim.

The next morning we went for the dawn service for Anzac Day, so, up at 5 and for the formal service of the 100th anniversary, it was freezing.

We then went back to the motel for a nap. A very refreshing one even.

The next morning, we first went to Dubbo zoo. It's a special zoo, you can rent a bike and go all the way around it. I was quite enjoyable!

After a few hours of that we went to Dubbo jail where we learned about its dark history. We then Went to town just outside of Mudgee, not Much to do there(Except drinking) The next morning we Went to Mudgee off breakie, and we then turned around back to the mountains

Tuesday the 28th

Had a speech at Katoomba Sunrise


Wednesday the 1st Lithgow 

I went to Lithgows Wildlife Sanctuary to Vovlunteer where ever it is needed.  I had tried to get there the past 5 weeks, but it was cancelled each time due to weather, but I finally got there.At the sanctuary they had abunch of native Animals, Kangaroos, emus, wallabies, Quolls, turtles, you name it. Basically I moved rocks for 6 hours, but it was relaxing and still a lot of fun. In the afernoon I had a small guided tour in the sanctuary. (10 Acres). And in the back of the block. There were ruins of a old house that had been there from the old coal mines. really beautiful. And the water in this area. More than Crystal clear. Just magnificent. After the tour we headed back and fed the animals. At the feeding my guess would be that there was 30 Wallabies. And Skippy, the horny Kangaroo. (He for some reason really liked Sticks) ((Like too much)).


Friday the 3rd, after school I had some
Afternoon tea with Meg and Laura, just to catch up
And it was rather nice.

  

So guys, this is what happens when I don't pay attention to what I have been doing the last month... Not very much text. SORRY!

The bunch

Saturday the 7th of Feb.

Had a sick day today.

Sunday the 8th of Feb.

I went to Colour run withfrederik  Pedro, Julia, Sara. The Colour run it self was alright, what really was good was the festival after wards with Colours flying everywhere. It was so,e really good fun, would love to do it again. Fun story, for some reason you couldn't wash the pink Colour of you face easily, and Julia, the new exchange, literally had her whole,face covered in pink, on the Monday, her first school day,

Friday the 13th of February. We went to Rotary Rebound dinner, where all the reboundw now where back in Australia, there I met Charlie, a guy that had spent a year on Fanø. Laura went på course AS Well. I went straoght from school so I still had the school uniform on when I got there. It was about a 3 hour trip as well. Not uncommon for me anymore.

Saturday, the 14th I went with Charlie, Louis, Astrid and Lina  To manly to see the surfing festival at manly. So we just went around the festival with markets, getting some good food, and a lot free stuff because of all the sponsors. In he evening there was a concert worth "Vance" I Had to go when it started however.

Sunday the 15th of Feb.

Forgot what I did today, whoops. Also forgot to. Mention the terror attack happened in Denmark this weekend.

Friday the 20th of Feb.

Skipped school so I could go to Umina. It is around a 4-5 hour trip. So it wouldn't be worth to go to,school. So today I spent in a lot of transport and in the evening we went to Shane's house (Denmark and Sweden only, we slept there). This is the infamous Umina weekend where so much happens in such a short period of time. Well, we stayed at Shane's house, got some refreshment. And, again another moment where you just had to be there.

Astrid, had just gotten a bottle of water, and had just opened. She was walking around the Kitchentable when Shane's threw a pear to her, in lure reflects she tossed the bottle of water out of her Hands so she could catch the pear. Meaning water flew across the room and the floor got wet. Really funny. They all also got to taste the Mega sour fizzy bombs. Which is sour candy which  literally hurts your tongue when you put it in your mouth. 

We then went to some Rotarians house where we met up with Kate and Erii as well to get some dinner (Pizza ohh yeah) we also got to go for swim in the pool that got extremely crowded later on because ewe all joined in.

We then went back to Shane's house where we proceeded to play video games all night.

Saturday the 21st of Feb. 

We started out with going on 2 sailing tours around Umina, taking around 1:30 hours, there was some really interesting houses, too bad it was raining.

We then went to another Rotarians house where we had a reptile expert come in and show us some animals. Again, another moment where you just had to be there, so there we were, talking about everything that could kill you in Australia, and the expert tells us he want to show us one. He proceeds win opening a box and as he opens it, a dangerous animal "escapes" and flies towards Pedro. (He threw a toy after Pedro). The whole room had a second of scream, and the. It continued with laughter, the guy was really funny and had some great jokes. 

We then then got lunch and went to Umina beach.

There we had 30 minutes of learning CPR. And then we went to the actual beach.

We then divided into 4 teams, and each team did the following. 1) Flag Tag, Surf, relax on the trampoline, and feel the surf on the motorboat.

We first did the Surf, my team being Jakob, pierreck, Clara,  and Pedro  

It was alright, nothing to special, the waves were quite small.

Then the flag tag. Which is a game, you put 4 flags at the beach, we then g to thigh high water, and on the go, we run, and the ones that get a flag are secure and those who don't gets eliminated.

First went Clara.

The went Jakob.

Then went I. Why? I was clearly In front, and there was no way I could not win, they were both fairly far behind me, and I didn't have to run extremely quickly. As I got to the flags, I missed one of them, and pierreck got the one I wanted. I then thought I must have had lost. Because no way Pedro had not found one yet. But I was wrong, he flipped me over, and took the flag I unknowingly had been sitting on since I had thrown myself I the first attempt of getting the flag. 

God dammit, it ended with Pedro winning it all.

We then went to the trampoline, which is a blown up thing, that got a waterslide connected with it as well. So we were brought out with a boat, and the. We had 15 minutes where we just cruised and relaxed for a good time.

We then back and jumped on the motor boat. And this guy was not kidding , the boat sailed up the waves at around 70 degrees, some really fun with the speed as well. He the. Turned quickly and we all fell in the water..

We the. Went back to Shane's again with  macdonalds till we had bush dance.

All the exchange students had expected we were having aboriginal food in the evening and were taught some sweet Aboriginal Dance moves as well around a camp fire or something. Since on our plan. All it said was "Bushdance". But no, it was not as expected. We went into a big hall where there was two old people sing folk music, and then we had some Australian food, like average food. Then we were all asked to come up and dance for 2 hours, and it was folk dance, not aboriginal as expected, so quite a disappointment really. But still alright. Hah

We then again went back to Shane's and caught a movie and watched "Buried"

Very angry ending it got.

Sunday the 22nd of Feb, 

Got up semi-early, to got rally racing. I teamed up with Jakob and Louis. The rally race was with a Rotarian, and our purpose was to follow a guide and answer a lot of question, as well as collecting samples, taking photos and going to the museum. It took 3 hours and we got on 4th place. Because everyone above us cheated and used google...

We went back to the garage, got some lunch and then headed back. I had a story on the train that I'll share later, and I got picked up by meg.

Umina weekend

Saturday the 29th of Feb. 

Today I went to Chatswood to meet up with Jakob, since we were going sailing the next day. With all of the exchange students between Avalon-Umina. 

So I met up with him to go watch "American Sniper" in the evening as well, the movie was alright, it was about the American Sniper "The Legend" that got estimated 160 kills against the Taliban. I try to stay critical against these kind of movies, because the USA tends to Americanize it with "Freedom" written all over the movie. But there were some point the definitely tried to do it, but it was quite obvious. I didn't know it was a true story before after I had watched it. Jakob and I both agreed that It was alright, but not a must watch.

After that we went to eat some Korean. And wow, they make some good food.

Then we went home to his host family and watched big hero 6. Oh yea, we watched a lot of movies.

Sunday the 1st of March.

Today we went sailing! Sponsored by a rotary club I have forgotten the name of!

At the Harbour we could chose to either 

A) Go racing

B) Go relaxing

So I chose relaxing, and got matched up with Lucas and Felix(France and Switzerland).

And we got the best of the best boats! It was a 1.5 MILLION dollar boat! 

I forgot the name of the kind, but it's a sailing boat that got a huge gap between the floating parts, so there is water below you most of the time. So we got some "sacs" to sit on in the front, with the "trampolines", and it was great trips! We sailed though calm waters, With plenty of sun. And saw houses where its worth was estimated to above 5 Million dollars. (25 Mil, kr.)

So we sailed around for quite a bit, and finally reached a calm Beach, he and I decided to jump in. (Him being Olympic swimmer was quite a bit quicker as well) to go snorkeling. It was rather deep. But we did see a few fish and "Wizers". We then went to the beach, and I had seen many similar to it, and I thought that most likely. There would, be the freshwater drainage to the sea behind it. (If it rains and overflows it gives freshwater to the sea' and vice versa). So went through the bush. And found this huge river, we decided to walk through it, maybe go for a swim.  We walked through it, and both agreed not to be worried. Other that the water snakes and leeches there might be there, we even got lucky and saw a golden orb spider. I should not mention this, but I have actually been closed to being getting stung/bitten by 4 venomous animals in the past year. (2 Redbacks spider , 1 White tail spider , 1 Spiked starfish)

Anyways, the waterway was full with fish, and every few second a fish would jump, out of the water and land again with a big "sploosh". Nice sized fish as well, and there were a lot of birds and other fish as well! But that was not the most surprising part. The water it self. Was around 40 degrees Celsius ! Wow, crazy huh? I mean the air temp. Was lower than this water temp. It was too amazing and we decided to swim the loooong way back to the boat to get out cameras. However when we got there we were told by the boat owners that we had to get back soon and we wouldn't have time to go back, because of an incoming storm. So we went back to the Harbour and said good bye and went on my good loong trip home. 

And the storm hit of course! With plenty of rain haha

7-8th of March

This weekend I decided to stay home, I couldn't remember the last time I stayed back and just hung out with the host family.

I did also go out with Laura one of the evenings this week.i

14th of March Saturday.

I stayed home, I believe I went out with Laura, but im not really sure.

15th of March Sunday.

Today I went to Jenolan caves! Wooohooo. I was really excited because everyone made such a big deal about it and I was one of the few exchanges student that had not seen it, even though I lived closest. So meg Allen, Laura and I went all on our adventure early Sunday morning. And it did take a few hours to get there as well. In my head, I had imagined the place just to be a small mountain surrounded by buildings, that were the entrances for the famous caves. But nooo. To get in there, you had to drive THROUGH a cave, there was a huge rock structure with a hole in the middle that we drove through. And when we got past it we were surrounded by moutains, and I'm the middle of it there was a huge yellow building. It was a very surreal location. 

We went in a guided tour to the Temple of Baal,  so we were guided through the moutains and got to see the amazing rock formations. One of the early ones were an experiment, someone put a glass bottle of Orange soda just below on of these dripping rocks (can't spell the real name). Over times the bottle had crystallized and had grown in size. Really cool. Then there was a crystallized wing, called Michaels wing or something (An angel).  Really beautiful big white wing like structure. And then the last good one was Baal. It was a structure that looked like a person, and wherever you went he looked at you. Very weird and scary. He even had a throne. Very strange. But the trip was also very enjoyable, so THANKS MEG AND ALLEN!

Friday the 20th of March

Today I skipped school so I could go to the Rotary District Conference. David and Maralyn picked me up at Megs and David's house and took me to Hunter valley where we stayed at a very fancy resort. The only job the exchange students had were to be nice and carry some flags up to the opening of the conference, so we did a practice run on Friday afternoon and then we were free to go for a few hours. We played some soccer and caught up. We then went to the "Welcome Speech" and there were some aboriginals dancing there. We then went inside for dinner and a few speeches.  Later at night people had to go to their motels. But I was staying at a villa not far from the hotel. Walking distance, so we spent the rest of the evening playing chess and other games. It was around a 4-5 hours drive.

Saturday the 21st of March,

So today we carried the flags to the opening of the conference, And I had to carry the Turkish flag since or Turkish exchange student had gone home. So we did it, no problems and then we just had to listen to the speakers and some of them were quite interesting. And if you ever see Mira Silva at any point of your life, I can tell you I saw her first. She is a very interesting woman and she is bound to become prime minister or something like it. There was also a speech contest for kids in New South Wales, and the winner was a good speaker and very fun. Later we got lunch and then we were sent out to do what ever. As usual we just chatted and played till the evening where we had a Gatsby Dinner. Everyone had dressed up nicely, also the exchange students. Louis had a top hat and a fake beard 10/10.

After the Gatsby party we got free and spent the evening playing pictionary, until a lady came pass us, and told us to shout "Congratulation Ben and Jen (Jennifer)"! They just got married and some of the guest wanted us to cheer for them. I suggested us to shout "Ben and Jerry's" but, they were not amused. Anyways, Ben and Jerry walked past and we cheered on them, we then got to talk with the groom, and he suggested us to come down to the bar and celebrate with them! We sadly had to say no. Rotary would not allow us to go any where near the bar. We were not allowed  to play billiard either, because it was located at the  bar. 

When some of us went to go play it, some Rotarians told our counsellors and we got in trouble.

Some Rotarians are very conservative, and here we are in hotel full of them, there was bound to have been one. So we were not allowed to go to the bar sadly.

Oh well, more pictionary, and these one by one the exchange students left to go to bed. 

Sunday the 22nd of March.

Final day of district conference. There were a few speeches, some delicious food and lunch, and then we packed up and left for the mountains once more. On the way home we saw the Australian army having a practice, with armored cars and guns. Really cool. As well as a wedged tail eagle, I might got the name wrong, but it sure was big.

23-24th of March, school as usual

Wednesday the 25th of March. 

David took me to Lithgow, because I wanted to do some volunteer work at a wild life sanctuary. And we were heading there to talk with one of the leaders. On the way we saw some kangaroos and some Emu's! How cool is that! So when I went to pose for a picture with it, it pecked me on my shoulder. They are funny big birds.  Their skulls got a funny form, and their ears are basically just a big hole into their skulls. 

After a while we got to Secret Creek, as it is called. But it was closed due to maintenance, so the person we wanted to talk to was not there. We went and looked at the animals from the outside of the sanctuary, and there were big kangaroos as well as dingos. Quite cool if you ask me.

We then headed home, and I got a day of school. I was quite happy with that.

Thursday the 26th of March. 

I was invited to go canyoning today with wilderness Ed from the school. Of course I said yes, and I was supposed to help Cairo with controlling the year 8s. So we went into the bush near the Zig Zag Railroad at Sheeps dip and went canyoning. The water was of course very cold, near the 5 Degress. We had our wet suits which helped. But was still cold Nonetheless. The canyoning took about an hour and I footage of most of the trip. The less fun part was walking up from the canyon. It was beautiful nature out there In the bush which helped. It didn't help entirely though since it was still tiring. 

Well we up there and had to prepare for the next group, yep I was supposed to do it twice. But I had felt sick the past few weeks, and doing again was pushing it, so I waited that one out.

Friday the 27th of March

Was supposed to go to sheep dip again today, but cancelled I became sick. (Well, more sick that I already were)

Saturday the 28th of March.

Today I went bridge climbing with Laura! Meg and Allen decided it to be my good bye gift. How sweet of them! So yeah, we climbed the harbor bridge. It was around a 4 hour trip. And it was beautiful and you could see quite a lot! From beaches to high rises. Sadly we were not allowed to bring our camera. And the physically copies you could buy did not come with a file, as well as they were expensive (but not nearly expensive as the climb it self OC) 

But hey, we got a free hat, which was nice!

We then went back to the mountains and got dinner at he local Chinese restaurant.

District conference.

Bridge climb

Jenolan caves 15th

7th, stay home 

Saturday

1st of March Pittswater