One island down, one to go...

Good grief! It has been forever since I have last been on this wonderful thing called the internet. So I'll give you a brief update on where I've gone (and haven't gone) since Auckland.

The Bay of Islands... we spent a grand total of 5 hours there. Way too little time. This place deserves it's own couple of days at least. It is near the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand, approximately 3 hours north of Auckland. We took the slightly overpriced day trip offered by a company called 'Kiwi Experience'. It was fun and somewhat informative, but they bombarded us with expensive activities and sold them really well. Somehow they were able to convince us that the ONLY way to see the best parts of the Bay of Islands is in fast forward on a 2 1/2 hour cruise aboard the EXCITOR. Right so this thing really is fast. It was going around 35-40 knots most of the time so most things blurred by us. We were able to stop and go through the infamous hole in the rock, which our boat just barely fit through. We were strapped in most of the time but could jump to our feet when the boat was idling. Fair enough, the water was full of sharks and we could see pools of pirhana teaming at the water's surface so I wasn't too hot on falling in anyways. On our way back from the impressively large only visible with large amounts of money hole... we ran into a pod of dolphins! They are completely wild and were jumping out of the water and surfacing really regularly. They came so close to the boat we cold almost reach out and touch them!
That was basically the day there. We spent the night trying to plan the rest of our 2 weeks here and ended up talking to a couple of lads from England for a good couple of hours. Funny guys, one was learning french to pass the time!
Ok time's up, I'll post more tomorrow kids.
Booth

Yes folks that's right, I have now made it to the final coutry i will visit on my trip. Which means more money (it's plastic!) and I have more variety in bills than a set of monopoly. But first... our final day in Sydney.
Forget everything I said about Bondi being so incredible, I lied... Manly is hundreds of times more chill. It has everything, restaurants, stores, beachs (some rather secluded and out of the way), and hikes. I'm a little confused as to why the entire world doesn't live here. The weather was perfect, the beach was perfect, the entire area was perfect. It's so close to the city yet feels like you're in the middle of your own private paradise! Who knew such a wonderous place existed? It was so good that Manly was an entire day trip. We just wondered the beach did a little discount shopping (something can be said about nothing over a dollar shops, I got vietnamese Colgate for only $1!), and took a casual walk up to a secluded ocean side cliff and stared off into the south pacific. That night it was packing efficientlyon the must do list, and as some fo you may know packing properly at any great speed is NOT a talent of mine, so this took a while.
We caught the train into the airport at 6 am this morning and checked in with minor delays (we were at an airport afterall). The flight to Auckland was smooth, and the food was incredible. I'm not jokig here, we both agreed that this was the absolute best airplane meal we had ever had! Took a taxi/van like thing into the city which only cost us $13 each and dropped us right off at our hostel's door. It was a long trip and we saw a bit of the outter edges of the city. This meant that we missed out on our planned trip to the zoo. No summer is complete after at least one trip to the zoo afterall. So hopefully we can fit that in before we leave.
We're staying at x-base backpackers right downtown and it has just about everything a girl could want, fluffy duvets, pillows and towels, free hair products, a sauna, spa, a bar, and lots of international boys ;P lol. Well with that I'm off to bed, more to come later. It's an early morning tomorrow, we're off to the Bay of Islands on a day trip.
Love ya all,
Booth

3 more days in Sydney

Hey guys!
Here's the update for what we did the past 3 days. Please keep in mind we slept in a couple times so our days were cut a little short.
Ok, day 2; slept till the heveanly hour of 10 am, ahhhhh so well rested. Our original plan for today was to head off to Bondi Beach and chill near the waves for part of the day. But it was raining so we had to resort to plan B, Darling Harbour and the aquarium. Took our first public ferry, I don't know why that's exciting to me... but it is! The aquarium was great. We saw our very first platypus! They are really much smaller than I thought they would be, but then again, I never really thought that hard about how big one might be. They were swimming the entire time and foraging like crazy. Out of all of the uber big fish there, the most impressive of the large animals were the crayfish. Now I'm not saying this because I have a few as pets and therefore am partial to them. These things were as big as Mel, she may be a bit on the petite side, but hell... that says something! The salt water crocidile was a bit hefty too, definitely would NOT want to stumble into one of those things on a walk... it would probably turn into something more like a run. Haha the poor thing too, please note that my camera flash blinds everything, including very large reptiles. The were a couple of underwater tunnels which went underneath aquariums with seals, sea turtles (huge beyond belief), and sharks. Tres cool, I took a number of videos and lots of pictures throughout the whole thing I'm now just working on how to get them off of my camera and onto this webpage... I'll keep you posted on that one.... haha get it? I'll keep you posted with a post! Ahem, anyways....
We spent so much time at the aquarium that that was really the day, had dinner on the harbour at the cheapest yet decent place we could find (really tough to do around here) and passed out in our comfy bed.
Day 3; Oh yes this one's packed, but I'll keep it short and sweet for you. Blue Mountains day, and we actually went on a tour. No sleeping in for us, the bus left the Quay at 8:20 am, good lord. The bus didn't actually leave until almost 9 whic would be the start of a trend for the day. Being tourists ourselves we should be understanding of all other tour groups, but a specific crowd has started to hit a nerve with us. The group we were waiting for on the bus was that of some Japanese tourists (peace). I hate to generalise but... they travel in very large groups always push and shove other people out of the way and as we learnt are consistently late. Ok now that I have that off of my chest, let the post continue. Our stops included Featherdale, a wildlife park that has Australian wildlife running around in and out of pens. We pet wallabies and koalas, and saw plenty of really bizarre animals, like emus, wombats, some lizards, etc. No kangaroos! What on earth is an aussie wildlife park without kangaroos?! I do feel a little cheated :(
Next stop, into the Blue Mountains and at the Three Sisters, a rock formation that looks like three people just hanging out and chillin'. Mom that's where I called you from. We then took a ride down a crazy train (the steepest in the world), to the bottom of the valley at Scenic World (yes I too think the name reeks of badness). This train ruled, it was so much fun! Even the elderly Irish couple beside us loved it. We honestly just could have riden it for the rest of the day. With the 30 mins we had to walk through the temperate rainforest we sped through the longest walk we could fit in. Stopping a couple times and relying on a few guys we met from Guam to keep us from getting lost. A ride back up to the top on a gondola and we were off again. This time to a 'world famous' candy shop. It was really small and cramped, and incredibly overpriced, but they had rather random candy that neither of us had seen in a long time. Yes we both bought candy, I got some chocolate frogs (mmmm, chocolate) and Mel got the longest pixie stick I have ever seen in my life. The day ended with one more stop in the mountains, and a quick jog up and down a path, a photo stop at the main Olympic park (impressive) and a 'free' tour of the waterfront down to Darling Harhour. And that's about it for day 3.
Day 4; No worries, this is short. Slept in again. The day was beautiful so it was time for Bondi! The beach was gorgeous. No jokes here. I truly wish I was going to be here for their summer, because I know exactly where I would spend all of my spare time. The water was blue and clear the sky was even bluer and just as clear, and the entire feel of the area was of any beach vacation paradise. It was too cold for a swim so we spent our time just sitting on the beach chatting, people watching and listening to the waves. Once it started to get dark we left the beach and trained it to the Kings Cross area. A must do at night. My best comparison is Ste Catherines in good old Montreal. The area is a mix of nice restaurants, pizza joints, clubs, strip clubs, and a mix of really seedy people with the well dressed visitors. This is for my dad, the Bourbon & Beefsteak still exists (just called the Bourbon now) and it has been renovated into a rather nice steak house at the fountain. There is now a dance club above it. The end of the night was back at the boys' place. Al (one of 2) made a lamb roast with lots of great sides. It was a night of good old fashion food, wine and friends.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Booth

Long over due post

Ok so here we are in Sydney... First of all my appologies for not posting anything earlier. I had typed a large post our first day here, but then managed to erase it without publishing, yes I truly rule.
So the first day, the 19th. As you may have read, our plane landed early (6 am ugh) in Sydney Airport. The first surreal experience of the day was being sprayed by a 'completely harmless' insecticide before we even exited the plane. After knowing way too much about chemical control methods.... this was a little unnevering, we both closed our eyes and held our breath.
Once off of the plane we headed straight downtown to stow our luggage in some storage lockers for the day and soak in the sights of the city. Almost the entire day was spent at the Circular Quay (pronounced Key). This basically Sydney Harbour. Here one can find Sydney Harbour bridge (so enourmous that it has 8 traffic lights! Although I'm not entirely clear on why a bridge needs more than 2), the Sydney Opera House (aka Nun's scrum), the main docks for the public ferries, and part is bordered by the Royal Botanical Gardens (and yes some call them the RBG!). Most of our time was spent at the RBG wandering the grounds and watching the wildlife, too many cool birds to count, we were dumb struck (it may have been also due to the lack of sleep). On the RBG grounds is the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW), where we spent a good amount of time looking at art by native artists. Definitely some really neat stuff, I recommend it as a definite stop (plus it's free!). Finally, just when we thought we could go on no further we ended the day with a 2 hour cruise of the harbour and area. It would have been interesting but we were so tired we just kept on falling asleep.
Trained it out to Merrylands where we are staying with some very gracious hosts and passed out in bed. So ended the first day.
More to come later, I'm off to bed for now! Thanks so much for the comments, keep them coming guys!
Booth

Oz.... here we come!

So here's the plan, instead of me sending mass emails and most likely consistently forgetting some very important email addresses, I am blogging it. Forgive me if it's a little lame at times (I'm new to this technological wonder), it will get better! Please spread the news to anyone you think might be interested in my travels, or anyone who is just looking for time to kill.
I leave Toronto tomorrow around 3 pm and meet up with my travel buddy (the wonderful Mel :)) in Vancouver. We'll spend an hour or so soaking up Honolulu during a brief stop then get into Sydney around 6.30 am, that time!
A few helpful hints, if you don't know what time it will be where ever I am and care to know go to www.timeanddate.com , (I'm still having issues with the massive time change thing).
And finally before I end my virgin blogging experience, if you want a postcard... email me your address! (sara_a_booth@hotmail.com).
See ya on the flip side,
Sara