Today, I went skydiving. I jumped (well kinda fell) out of a plane at 14,000ft in the air!

I had been planning on doing this for about a week, the goal was to do it on my birthday but it was too windy. On our third go we finally got to do it. I am somewhat afraid of heights so over the past couple of days I have been trying not to process what I was about to do. When we get to Redcliff, where we are going to do the jump, Maria and I are there for approximately three minutes and they have us in harnesses explaining put your body like a banana, hands on harness until I tap your shoulder and then hands above your head, five minutes later they have us in a plane. I don’t even think if finally sunk in what we were about to do until we were leaving the ground.

The flight up was really something interesting, at about 3,000ft all I could think was that I was going to die, for some reason at about 7,000ft the feeling leveled out and I was excited again. There was a video but I couldn’t really warrant spending $100 on it. I was smiling until I essentially fell/jumped with dude out of the plane. Then there was an elaborate stream of curse words. Fortunately in free fall you can’t hear anything, so I didn’t offend the guy that was keeping me alive. I would explain that minute of free fall as the longest minute of my life, crazy invigorating, but horrifying at the same time.

Once the parachute was opened he let me hold the handles and steer for a while, very cool. We did all kinds of spins, got to see a lot of landscape, and showed me the cross on the beach where we would land (he did the steering to land). It is kind of surreal that I even did that today, it was such a rush I can’t fully comprehend it. Great way to start off my 26th year… even if it is five days later.

Brisbane

For a little under a week I have been in Brisbane, I am trying to figure out where exactly I stand on the place. It is the first place I have been to that doesn’t have a beach…which caught me a bit off guard…probably could have done a bit more research. However they do have a man made lagoon… not really the same feel but a good substitute.

On a whole there isn’t a huge amount to do here, most things close at six and unless you are going drinking or fine dining it seems like the city comes to a bit of a halt. On the other hand the people here are the friendliest I have met so far. I have had a bunch of people ask me if I need to be shown around the city, they are really interested in why you are here, and just appear to want to randomly chat with anyone. The nightlife seems to have a good vibe as well.

I had a really great birthday that involved a piece of gluten free cake from the girls and then a bunch of us went out for the evening. It was probably my first time really drinking since I have been here. It was such a fun night, Kirstie and Andrew that I met in surf camp came out, Maria who I met in Sydney, Emma and Joe who I met in Byron Bay, Dean who I know through Maria, and some random guy my hostel that had no idea what he was getting himself into. It was really great to have a group of people come out after only being here for two weeks.

Newsworthy

Since it looks like I will be settling in Brisbane for a while, I anticipate a slowing down of interesting things to write. However, I am in a pretty interesting spot, with some pretty interesting news, so maybe it wont get too boring :)
Here are a couple of classy reads about Australia:

Fattest Country - this blows my mind, it is so nice I would have thought people would be more active... portions are out of control here, much like the States. Sydney was pretty skinny but since I have started traveling you can kinda notice.

Man Drought - I think this is hilarious. You can't really notice on the coast (or I haven't anyway). I also hang out with a lot of backpackers so that wouldn't correspond with the statistics very well.

Ugly Women should head to the outback ... and I thought Andy was an interesting cat...

I would highly recommend it. They took us to some random farm with cows all over the place and pushed us down the hill… doesn’t get much better.

Mixed Frisbee Nationals!

I am going to get to play Frisbee mixed Nationals next month!!! Super pumped. My friend Jenn hooked me up with her team, Tasmania. They needed an extra girl and I was passing through Brisbane (my next destination)at the right time so they asked me to play in nationals on October 18th-21st. I super miss playing so I am pumped to get back at it. It will also help me make contacts for the summer leagues in January, maybe help me decided where I want to live. I am also a little sick of moving around so this will force me to rent a place for a month and finally empty out my rucksack. All good things!

Over the last several days I have been making an attempt at learning to surf, incredibly hard but very fun. I don’t think I have any natural skill as a surfer but I can get up by myself, however it’s often short lived. It reminds me of golf in how when you are doing poorly it is entirely frustrating but when it does go right it is great fun. On my first day surfing there were heaps of dolphins swimming next to us, there were about six within 15 feet of me at one point.

The surf coaches are horribly dodgy, hilarious and aged from all of the sun. I find a lot of people from here seem to age rather poorly from all the sun.

I really like Byron Bay, it is really laid back and more what I expected of Australia. It is kind of a hippy surfer town. I can’t imagine anyone here having a serious job, even though I know people must. The strangest thing about this place is the mass quantity of people that don’t wear shoes… I find that mildly disturbing. The nightlife here is pretty good I went to see a battle of the bands with the girls I met in Sydney and the couple that I surfed with on my first day. I also went to a dodgy backpacker bar called the Cheeky Monkey with the two Canadians and two guys from Switzerland that I also met surfing. It feels like I haven’t stopped doing stuff since I have arrived in Australia, I am really looking forward to Brisbane. It looks like I am going to up settling there for a month or so. They have all kinds of Frisbee pickup games, so I can’t wait to get back to playing a sport I don’t suck at.

Yesterday I toured the Blue Mountains, went on a three hour hike, saw the Three Sisters (rated one of the top things to see in Australia) and had the best sandwich of my life. Yup, that’s right, one of the highlights was the sandwich. They actually had gluten free bread that tasted normal, I haven’t had bread that was normal tasting in over seven years. Oh how the simple things in life is really what makes it worth living.

But back to the mountains, they were beautiful. I especially liked the part of the hike where we got to go on our own. I love hiking and outdoorsy activities but I find them horribly boring if the pace is slow. Because a couple of the people on the tour were older it felt more like a lazy walk at times. Of the things that I have done so far I wouldn’t rank it that high on my list of things to recommend. Speaking of my list, this is my current list of things to see or do in no particular order (I am sure that it will expand over the next several months):

- Bungee jumping
- Hold a koala (not going to happened, but got as close to it as I could)
- Visit Tasmania
- Visit Uluru (Ayres Rock)
- Go to a movie by myself (it has been on my personal to do list for a couple of years now)
- Get a picture of a wild kangaroo
- Sky diving
- White water rafting
- Learn to surf (will have done that by the time this is posted)
- Play in an Australian Frisbee league

I am up for suggestions if anyone can think of something that I should try while I am traveling and working here.

Somehow days keep getting better in some strange way. I got to meet Brett Dennen at his concert a couple of days ago, super exciting. If you don’t know who he is I strongly suggest you check him out. It was strange because it was the first time I have ever gone to a concert by myself. I had going to a movie alone on my to do list, so I figured this was close enough. It turned out really awesome, aside from meeting Brett I also met two Americans from L.A. that are good friends with him and I may meet up with them when I pass through in L.A., really sweet people. It is really neat how doing something that is somewhat uncomfortable seems to work out really great.

Yesterday the girls and I visited Bondi Beach, the best part of Sydney, too bad we realized this so late in our stay here. We went to a tapas bar and then another bar; it was just a really simple and fun night with a beautiful view of the beach. It really makes me look forward to heading up the coast.
Tomorrow I head to the Blue Mountains for a hike and to see some of the best landscape in Australia. After that I head up the coast for surf lessons and to go zorbing before I make my way to Brisbane to meet up with Jenna and Maria again for my birthday. Right now I think I might stop in Brisbane for a while, I have a hop on and off bus ticket up the coast so I can take as long or short a time as I want to do it. Right now I have planned a total of seven days ahead… bit of an improvement.

Such a great day!!! For the record I am a HUGE fan of zoos. Today I visited the Taronga Zoo one of the best zoos in the world. I paid extra and got a personal tour around the Australian animal exhibits where I got to feed and pet all kinds of cool animals. The only down side was that I will not be holding a koala on my trip down under because it is illegal in most of the country and really bad for their health. Upsetting, but I will live.
I don’t know what the best part was… some of the better things were getting my picture with a Koala, seeing a new baby koala two days after it poked its head out of the pouch, seeing platypus’ mate (it was just kind a cool/weird water dance), feeding an emu, feeding and petting a bilby, touching a short-beaked echidna and I really liked seeing the elephants (but they are always my favorite).

Half way across the world!?!

I have been in Australia for only two days but it feels like I have settled right in. I have decided to extend my stay in Sydney for at least three or four days. I have seen Darwin Harbour, the Opera House, Sydney Bridge and visited a couple of pubs. Nothing overly exciting but I am hoping to go to the Zoo and visit the Blue Mountains in the next little while.

Sydney really feels like it could be any big city, sometimes I forget that I am half way around the world. It is your typical city but every now and then I hear the cool accent. My plan for the moment is to head up the East Coast and eventually make my way to Melbourne. I hear that the West Coast is amazing so we will see if I can make it there. The plan changes daily but I definitely see a lot of moving in my future.

After my first island I spent two nights on the Waniki Cruiser that was stationed off of a different set of islands. It was okay but not nearly as enjoyable as lying on the beach all of the time… hard life I know. I did get to go on a beautiful hike (although it was a bit short), attempt to see a manta ray and finally even out my tan.

On the final day of resort hoping I went on an all day sailing trip to several islands. We visited the island where Castaway was filmed and got to go into a Fijian village where there ware a traditional Kava ceremony. It was pretty cool. Kava is the drink of Fiji and apparently causes you to get sleepy and stoned, however in order for it to take full affect you would have to drink upwards of 30… it tastes and looks like muddy water… I didn’t drink 30.

The trip overall clued up on an extremely small but cute island. I have the option to stop into Fiji again on my way back from Australia and I am seriously debating taking it. A year is a long way away so I don’t want to make any solid plans… I don’t seem to be planning more then 3 days ahead these days…

Bula!

After 22 hours flying, 13 hours in airports, and a five hour boat ride this was my first sight when I finally got to relax… well worth it. It feels like forever since I read a book in the middle of the day, highly enjoyable.

After some slight nervousness about traveling to a tropical location by myself I quickly realized that half of the people at my resort were doing the same thing. I picked a table for lunch and had five instant friends. Funny how in two days traveling with people you know an overwhelming amount about them, but in a good way. It was quite sad to separate from them when we all moved onto different islands. I see a lot of goodbyes in my future and too many facebook friends to count.

Fiji seems to alternate between a lot going on to essentially nothing. So far, I have been on two hikes, explored a cave, played volleyball and went snorkeling. I have two days left and hope to see Manta rays and officially get rid of my ankle brace tan line.

For a little bit more factual information I am traveling through the Yasawa Islands, which are a group of 20 ancient volcanic islands. I am staying on two islands and visiting two others.