Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Cairns --> Sydney road trip 09

5 of my friends and I rented 2 camper vans, and ventured through the east coast of Australia. It takes 36 hours to get from point A to point B, but we decided to do it in 6 days. It was the best trip I've ever been on! These people are golden.

Highlights
Rebekah(Vancouver, Canada), me, and Lisa(Jersey)
Our home on the road.



The boys.
Danzo(Florida), Alf(Germany), Carson(Edmonton, Canada)

July 16th- flew to Cairns
-The sweet waterfalls that I was too sick to go in and enjoy
Milla Milla Falls
---Milla Milla Falls (where Bekah proved her womanhood)
so cold. How did they get in?!

Tarzan. aka Danzo


Rebekah proving she isn't scared.


---Zillie Falls
---Ellinjaa Falls (me & Carson explored the forest)
Carson exploring
---Found Coconuts on the side of the road to EAT!
Alf and Bekah enjoying fresh coconut

Pretty Lisa
July 17th – still in Cairns
-Free breakfast at a really nice hotel thanks to Mr.Hargis
-Great Barrier Reef
If only I had an underwater camera. It was incredible!
---Lisa, Rebekah and I snorkelled and took a submarine thing to cool parts of the reef
me and my gear


In the semi-submersible boat


sunshine. mmmm.

jump in!

poking sea cucumbers

What a tiny starfish!
---Carson, Alf and Danzo scubaed all the way to the depths of the reef...which isn't that far down
Carson.

Alf is stoked
---8 hour cruise with BIG buffet lunch
-Boys locked the keys in their camper, and then proceeded to retrieve them. I went on a road trip with McGiver.
found the key!

the Savior! A Hanger!
-12 hour drive to Bowan- lots of energy drinks
July 18th – Bowan
-Saw the sunrise beachside-- and then went to bed.

Please note Bekah's foot wear
-Chilled at Bowan beaches all day long.
---Tanned on top of sweet rocks
---I dropped our camper keys between 2 very large Australian-been-there-forever rocks.
---Rebekah dove down(because she was the only one who was in the water) and saved the day!
---She got all scratched up!
---She saw an orange and black eel!
---It was scary!
-Drove to Airlie Beach
Bowan's Big Mango
sugarcane! Heaps of it!
Lisa liked driving the most.
Airlie Beach! We missed the other college crew by like. an hour. so crap.
---road games
---LOTS of dead wallabes and kangaroos
---we made pancakes at Airlie
July 19th – middle of nowhere
-the boys almost ran out of gas and we had to wait til daylight for anything to open
woke up on the side of the road.
the gas station.
-Peed in a nasty nasty toilet on the side of the road. It was awesome.
-Drove to a park and had breakfast together
wrong side of the road, wrong side of the car. bring it on.
-Went to Tannum Beach (pretty! Go back!) also in the middle of nowhere. We spotted a little beach sign, and decided it was the last warm beach we would go to for awhile, so we took a little detour.
-Started our drive to Sunshine Coast
goin a little crazy
-midnight- we made soup and toast for dinner, and fell asleep beachside.
July 20th – Sunshine Coast
- Woke up to a man BANGING on the campers telling us to leave or there would be a fine. Oops.
-Hung out in Noosa Heads all day
showering where we can

al merrick's surf school
Noosa. pretty touristy, but still beautiful.
welcome.

---Went to 2 different beaches
---Saw crabs and hermits hanging out on the rocks I was reading on.
---Subway. Mmmm.
-Brisbane (really lame)

-Surfer's Paradise (would have been fun if we weren't DEAD tired. No photos, too tired to take them)
-Slept on the side of the road in Byron
July 21st – Byron Bay
-Woke up at 6:30am to viscious knocking and a warning to get off the side of the road.. haha. We can't win!
-Sightseeing in Byron Bay – little hippie town. I'll go back.



---Chilled at Byron Bay Sanctuary Beach
---Had the best burger of my life at Railz Pub
this is not a burger. I don't really know what this is. The question is: do we eat it?
Twilight
Some of the heroes on this statue have inappropriate names. If you zoom in...
July 22nd – DRIVING---my camera died...
-The Big bananna- tobagging at a kids theme park for $3
-shopping at used books stores and music shops
-stopped in lots of little cities.
---Drove a lot! So good!
---Drove in Sydney!
-Came home!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

end of last semester.

conference 09!! I was sick, I was tired, I was worn out. We'd get up at 5am and get home at midnight. or 1. or 2. BUT God still moved through me and the other 4,000 volunteers to make this golden week happen.
I love when our church makes events like this happen. This is just a local church. A body of believers who love Jesus and creativity and are committed to building His kingdom. I'm now becoming 'part of the furniture', and I'm really making this church my family. I love watching these youtube videos and watching people I do life with everyday. I love knowing these people aren't on that stage in front of over 20,000 delegates because they're talented. They are there because week in and week out, they serve wholeheartedly for the cause of Christ.


Check out these amazing highlights! (PS I may or may not be in a big puppet version of me at the end of this video...)