tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4262519248053486722024-03-13T10:16:42.342-04:00FROM CINCY TO SYDNEYCHASING A DREAM 9,371 MILES FROM HOMEAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-36086608382821309392011-06-18T12:34:00.002-04:002011-07-06T20:32:25.899-04:00Goodbye: From Sydney to Cincy<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saturday morning came way too fast. Like the night before all my friends left Sydney, I didn't get very much sleep. I just laid in bed thinking about all the great times I had over the past four months. Just like that with a blink of an eye it was all coming to an end. Time really does fly when you are having the time of your life. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We left the Meriton apartment at 10am and took the cab to the airport. I remember sitting in the cab quite as can be just staring out the window, wishing I could stay longer even if it was just a month, week, day or even another hour. We got to the airport and had plenty of time to waste, so we messed around on ipads for an hour and then went to the gate.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was a crazy feeling boarding that plane. There was 3 flights and 24 hours standing between me and home. As we took off we flew over the Sydney Harbour which was fitting because my first glimpse of Australia was the opera house and harbour bridge on my flight in. That same glimpse would be the last I would see of Australia. I was so excited to go home to see my friends and family but I knew after a couple weeks I would want to head right back to Australia. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had done so much in Australia but it was just a glimpse of everything the country had to offer. There was so much more for me here to see, so much more to explore. But like they say all good things must come to an end, and to an end this great thing came. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Going to Australia was o</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ne of the best decisions of my life. This experience has changed my outlook on life. It has opened up a whole world of opportunities for me in the future. I now have friends from all of over the United States, Australia, and numerous other countries. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It has inspired me to one day backpack around the world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Everybody dies but not everybody lives. Everyones take on living is different. For me it is now getting out of the comfort zone and traveling the world. Most people eat, sleep, work, then eat, sleep, and work. Life is too short to live in a rut. God created such a beautiful earth, not for us to stay in one plus but for us to travel and explore it. Life is all about doing what you love. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to thank everyone for reading my blog. I had over 2,500 clicks on this website, which is way more than I had ever imagined. It was tough at times to write this thing with such limited internet access and hopefully I entertained and inspired you. I want to challenge you all to do something you love, because thats what life is about. Don't let anything or anyone stop you. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hopefully in a couple of years I will be blogging about backpacking around the world, because that is what I am passionate about.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cheers Mates!</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-22566763330594187852011-06-17T10:52:00.003-04:002011-07-06T20:06:53.844-04:00My Top Ten Revisited<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"The world is a book, and those who do</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>not travel read only a page"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The second post of this blog was about the top ten things I want to do while in Australia. I want to revisit those ten things and see what I did and didn't do. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>10) Skydiving</u></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">x</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Having already done this while in Orlando, I put this last on my list. While I thought it would have been unreal to jump out of a plane over the beautiful crystal blue water in Australia, I simply couldn't afford it. It cost about $300 to skydive which is double what I paid in Orlando.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>9) Rugby Match</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Not only did I go to a Rugby game but I went to two, in two different cities. We saw a Rabbitohs game in Sydney and a Rebels game in Melbourne. They have different styles of rugby and these were two different styles which was nice to see.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The game in Melbourne was actually the very first game of their new team, which meant the atmosphere was a lot better than the game in Sydney.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>8) Feed a Kangaroo/Pet a Koala</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't think anyone could come to Australia, the only place to find these animals in their natural habitat and not feed them. I didn't care too much for the Koala's because they just sat there and were pretty boring. The Kangaroos on the other hand may be my favorite animal now simply because they are unlike any animal. If I could have brought anything back from Australia it would be a pet Kangaroo. </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>7) Hang Gliding</u></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">x</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was something that I have never done in my life. I was hoping to get the chance to do it while in Australia or New Zealand but it just never worked out. Still want to do this in the near future. This is toward the top of my bucket list right now.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>6) Ride a Camel & Climb Uluru</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Having never ridden a camel I didn't know what to expect, but it was my favorite thing I did in the Outback. They got a little tiring to ride toward the end of my hour but it was totally worth it and I recommend to anyone that gets a chance to do it. The climb of Uluru was more exhausting than I was expecting. I can definitely see why there have been 30 deaths climbing the rock. I manned up and did it though and was more than happy I did. </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>5) Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rated by Lonely Planet travel as one of the top ten most exhilarating things to do in the world. I don't know that I agree with that as I really didn't get a "rush" while I was climbing the bridge. I think jumping out of a plane or off a bridge is more exhilarating. However it was my favorite thing I did in Sydney and was the best thing I have ever done for my birthday. The number one thing I would recommend to people that go to Sydney. If you leave without doing the bridge climb then you made a big mistake.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>4) Bungy Jump</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was fortunate enough to bungy at the very first commercial bungy facility in Queenstown, New Zealand. This was a crazy rush, that is comparable to nothing. There is nothing like free falling then when you feel you may hit the ground you get pulled up. These kinds of things make me feel so alive, and I can't wait for the next chance I get to jump.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>3) Learn to Surf</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Surf camp was one of my favorite trips, not just for the surfing but because of the lifestyle. While surfing was harder than I had thought, I had a great time with everyone. I did manage to get up a few times and its a great feeling to ride that wave. I wish I would have got the chance to become better but I never bothered to rent a board in Sydney.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>2) Swim with Whale Sharks</u></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">x</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was a very unlikely thing for me to do. There is only a few places in the world where you can do this and Australia is one of them. However, it is a discrete location that you have to take a private plane to. Private planes were not in my budget. My last two weeks I talked to a few people that did this and had nothing but great reviews. If I could do anything in the world this would be it.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>1) Scuba Dive the Great Barrier Reef</u></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">√</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When you have had 13 ear surgeries as a child, they usually recommend you don't scuba dive. I was hoping to get certified while I was there but when I found out that if you have had ear problems you really are a risk to injury yourself badly, I decided it wasn't worth it. So I went snorkeling, which at the Great Barrier Reef they say is better anyway because the coral gets more sunlight in the shallow water. Its one of the 7 natural wonders of the world for a reason. Another must do if visiting Australia.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VHBVOBO-SgU/TftqLWWCweI/AAAAAAAAAQc/f2psGCzdPLI/s1600/225373_1766185560723_1421670250_31772426_327563_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VHBVOBO-SgU/TftqLWWCweI/AAAAAAAAAQc/f2psGCzdPLI/s320/225373_1766185560723_1421670250_31772426_327563_n.jpg" width="168" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think 7 out of 10 is a pretty good accomplishment. I had some great experiences while in Australia and it is such an adventurous country offering numerous crazy things to do. So I may not have done 3 but I definitely did many other things that were just as good if not better. </span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-52153341543795992032011-06-16T17:28:00.004-04:002011-07-06T20:06:14.994-04:00Port Stephens and final days in Sydney<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Travel teaches toleration"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We flew from Ayers Rock in the afternoon back to Sydney. When we arrived in Sydney we rented a car and took the two hour drive to Port Stephens. I had gone to Port Stephens with the CAPA group is February and had a great time. We checked in to our hotel that evening and got ready for bed, as it was a long day of traveling.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The rain that had been following us around, yet again followed us to Port Stephens. It pretty much rained off and on the two days we were there. Almost everything there is to do in Port Stephens involves the beach and water. The bad weather ruined any plans we had. We used these two days mainly to relax. We went to the indoor pool and bounced around between their three hot tubs. We also took advantage of the free wireless internet, a rarity in Australia.</span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We were more than excited to get back to Sydney, as we had some things to take care of. We made a stop Botany Bay, which is where James Cook first discovered Australia. There was a lot of historical significance to Botany Bay, but not much to do. It also happens to be where the Sydney Airport is.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our last day we spent the last of our Australian money buying last minute souvenirs for friends and family. I also wanted to head back down to Circular Quay where the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were. We took a ferry to Watsons Bay to walk around for a little bit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We then took the ferry to Darling Harbour. Passing the Sydney Harbour on that ferry, brought back some great memories over the past four months. I knew this would be my last time seeing the beautiful Sydney Harbour.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We got Chickens Plus, one of my favorite places to eat for the final time. It was becoming such a reality that I was going home the next day and I really didn't want to see all the good times in Australia end. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-9504451118683520772011-06-14T19:58:00.002-04:002011-07-06T20:03:32.428-04:00The Australian Outback<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Australia is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents"</b></span></span><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Day 1</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
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</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We had a wake up call of four in the morning. Needless to say we didn't have much energy this morning. My mom and Rachel had a 6am flight so we said our goodbyes to them and as they headed home, the guys were about to leave for the outback. When people think of Australia they typically think of the outback. I couldn't have been more excited to see what the center of the country was like. Most people inhabit the coast of Australia, despite 80 percent of the country is considered the outback. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our destination was to a small town by the name of Ayers Rock, to see yes none other than a rock. This rock however was not just any normal rock, it was the largest monolith (single standing rock) in the world. When flying in to the town I could see the rock out of my window, which was a crazy view. I was instantly ready to see it up close and personal.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We got our rental car and headed for our cabin at the campground. We knew not to expect much from our cabin and rightfully so, it was pretty cramped. When you are out in the middle of nowhere you don't need to be inside anyway. This just forced us to be outside more during the days. We got into the car and headed toward Ayers Rock.</span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The outback is the home of the aboriginal people of Australia. So this area has a heavy influence of the aborigines. Ayers Rock's aboriginal name is Uluru. We stopped to take a picture in front of the rock then headed to the rock to do a hike around the base of the walk. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The base walk took us about two hours to complete. It was really neat to walk around the whole rock but after about an hour it was pretty much the same thing over and over and it got kind of boring. The worst part about the outback is the heat and bugs. We were lucky that we were there in May when it is relatively cool (in the eighties.) However, the bugs were still bad. We each had about thirty flies piled on our backs during the walk. We had such bad luck with rain while in Australia that sure enough it rained in the outback where it rarely rains.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After doing the walk around Uluru we headed back to the cabin and grabbed a bite to eat. The next thing on our agenda was a camel ride during sunset. This was the best thing of our trip for sure. I had never ridden a camel and it was a great experience. Australia has the most wild camels of any country, and they export the most of any country. I shared a camel by the name of Chester with my brother. Just getting up was an experience, you have to hold on real tight.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Day 2</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
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</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was as equally busy as the previous day. We woke up early and the morning and headed for a hike at the Olgas. The Olgas are a group of 36 large domed rock formations. Their aboriginal name was Kata Tjuta. The hike was another two hour hike but this hike was a lot more interested. The scenery changed more often than the base walk. We even had few difficult climbs to get through. Once again we did another hike without seeing any significant wildlife.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rA9Op0z-9bA/TffyQSbP-DI/AAAAAAAAAPY/DYIKOLXgCGA/s1600/DSCN7876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rA9Op0z-9bA/TffyQSbP-DI/AAAAAAAAAPY/DYIKOLXgCGA/s320/DSCN7876.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Following the Kata Tjuta hike I wanted to go back to Uluru to climb to the top. This was always a goal of mine and the day before, it was closed due to predicted rain. However, today it was open and I started making my way up toward the top without my dad and brother. They say it is a two hour climb. The climb takes you all the way up to the top which is 1,142 feet high. As I started the climb I was regretting my decision to climb it. It was so steep even though there was a chain all the way up to hold on to. I made my way up the hardest and steepest part and stopped to take my tenth break. I looked up at the people walking toward the top and it wasn't much higher but looked like a bit of a walk. So I just took a couple pictures then started my decent down. I felt I had gone high enough and the view wouldn't get much more different.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After my climb we headed back to grab some food then we were headed back to the rock. This time was to watch the sunset. The sunset at Uluru is one of the most spectacular sunsets in all of the world. The rock changes color numerous times during the sunset. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The next day we were headed back to Sydney for another couple of days then it is back home. The outback was a great time, even though I don't think we wanted to spend too many more days there.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Camels regurgitate their food up to fifty times a day and then continue to eat it throughout the day. This causes them to not have to eat very often.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-11916791807458837762011-06-13T13:19:00.002-04:002011-07-06T20:02:40.721-04:00The Great Barrier Reef<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Don't worry, they usually don't </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>swim backwards"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The above quote is the famous last words of the legendary Steve Irwin. He was snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef not far from where we snorkeled and was pierced in the chest by a sting ray in 2006. One of the greatest Australians in history left the world doing what he loved.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was the thing I was looking forward to the most about coming to Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living organism in the earth. It the only living organism you can see from space. The Great Barrier Reef also happens to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Having already seen the Grand Canyon and now the Great Barrier Reef, I have plans of seeing the remaining five.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We woke up early that morning and headed over the Wavelength office and heard a brief overview about our trip on the reef. It was going to be an hour and a half ride to the first snorkel spot, and it was going to be a very, very choppy ride out.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We boarded the boat and were advised to take a pill so we wouldn't get sea sick. After seeing the two people that didn't take it get sicker than I dog, I was more than thankful for taking it. The best part about our trip was that we only had eighteen people, meaning there was some time for one on one instruction. Most groups that go out on the reef contain as much as 200 people. </span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We headed on our journey towards our diving spot and after about twenty minutes of being on the boat we were in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a sight of land anywhere near us. When we reached our first spot I was getting so excited to jump in the water. We were handed all of our gear and given proper instruction on how to wear it. We had to wear sexy suits because of the coral being so sharp, and because it was stingray season! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They advised us that this would be the most choppy of the three sites we were going to be at throughout the day. My brother and I were two of the first people to jump in and we passed on taking the noodle, as we thought we were strong swimmers. That turned out to be a terrible decision. I had never been snorkeling before which meant I have never worn flippers or even a snorkel mask. As I jumped in I felt the flippers taking me toward the bottom and waves were crashing in to my face and I had no clue how to breathe. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Needless to say this was harder than I thought. I then demanded a noodle which made things a lot easier. I realized that I was not thinking about breathing which caused me to skip breathes. It took me all of two minutes to get used to the flippers and the mask. After those two minutes I was swimming like a fish in the reef.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think I will always remember sticking my face under the water for the first time. You see on TV the coral reef and think you know what to expect, but when you see it firsthand it is absolutely stunning. I couldn't believe my eyes, and began making my way further and further from the boat. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Throughout the three stops we saw the brightest coral, hundreds of species of fish, a shark and yes even a stingray! The one thing I really wanted to see was a sea turtle but unfortunately we didn't run into one of them. I don't even know how to describe the Great Barrier Reef other than breathtaking. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So rather than sit here and tell you how awesome it was, I will leave you with some pictures to show you how spectacular it really is.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a must do when visiting Australia. I do plan on coming back to Australia one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) and plan on snorkeling again. They say snorkeling is better than scuba diving because the colors are brighter in shallow water.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">These clown fish became popular in the Disney movie Finding Nemo. After that movie became so popular, there were many people that dove the reef and would take these clown fish out and sell them. Needless to say this is a very rare sight to see a clown fish in the reef. We were lucky enough to see it!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-33074250949085063752011-06-12T16:59:00.002-04:002011-07-06T20:01:35.817-04:00Port Douglas/Cairns<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"We wander for distraction, but </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>we travel for fulfillment"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have now been home for just over a month, and I am still writing about my trip in Australia. Its amazing how when you get back into the normal routine it is so easy to forget the little things. I recently got back from a trip to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, but I am here to talk about my trip to Port Douglas!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My family and I boarded a plane headed for warm sunny weather in Cairns after four rainy days in Sydney. Cairns is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Australia. The reason for that is the Great Barrier Reef. We flew into the Cairns airport and headed for a smaller town by the name of Port Douglas just an hour north of Cairns. The city of Cairns is more of tourist destination and Port Douglas is a secluded local area. On our drive from the airport we pooled the car over to get a picture with a kangaroo crossing sign at my moms request. We were lucky enough to see some roos hopping around in a field a few kilometers ahead. I still think it would be funny to see some Aussies taking pictures of a deer crossing sign in America.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lpve2f3poow/TfFI-P8u8bI/AAAAAAAAAOI/4fcFBH6f9Gw/s1600/DSCN7514.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lpve2f3poow/TfFI-P8u8bI/AAAAAAAAAOI/4fcFBH6f9Gw/s320/DSCN7514.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You sure could feel the difference in the heat as we reached our room in Port Douglas. The heat is more humid in the northeastern part of Australia, pretty comparable to that of Florida. Our hotel was being run by a group of local ladies that were very friendly. They had just taken over the hotel and were making some big changes to the resort. Our hotel was a minute walk from the beach so we spent that first day enjoying the sun on the beach.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The thing I was most excited about doing in Port Douglas or Australia for that matter was seeing the Great Barrier Reef. That next day we took a boat out and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, which I will cover in the next post.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The day following the reef was the third and final day we departed Port Douglas and made our way towards Cairns. Our itinerary for the day was packed full of fun things to do. We started off stopping by the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree is the oldest rainforest in the world. It is believed to be over 200 million years old. We didn't have too much time to waste so we just took a short hike around through the rainforest. It was amazing to think how long that had been there.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We departed the Daintree and headed toward the Skyrail, which is considered the World's most beautiful rainforest experience. The Skyrail is about an hour and a half cable ride above another tropical rainforest in Cairns. Along the way there were a couple of stops that had short walks with lookouts. These lookouts had some great views of massive trees, animals and beautiful waterfalls.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When taking the Skyrail you end up at a town by the name of Kuranda. You then have the option of taking the Skyrail back or you can take a train from Kuranda for an hour and then they bus you to the Skyrail parking lot. We opted for the train ride back. They only run two trains a day so we had some time to spend in Kuranda. We stopped in numerous stores and grabbed a bite to eat at a local pizza restaurant which was very good! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After the pizza we headed toward the train station and boarded our train. The Kuranda Scenic Railway was built in 1882 by miners that were unable to get food due to flooding. It was amazing to think how they built this railway that long ago. It included 15 tunnels, 93 curves, and 12 bridges. I had a window seat for the train which made the experience a lot better as the windows were not very large and hard to see out of. The railway was a need experience but not as good as the Skyrail. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We headed back to our hotel in Cairns for the night and had subway to eat for dinner. After dinner we went to the pool then came back and had to start packing all of our items. For my dad and my brother and I it was on to our next destination which was more than exciting, but it was a little depressing because my mom and Rachel were going to be headed back home after just a week in Australia. I didn't even want to think that I only had another week left in Australia.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The bird pictured above is a Cassowary, which are only found in the northern part of Australia along the coast. They also happen to be the most deadly bird in the world because of their kicks.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-63216564307341584872011-05-20T12:08:00.002-04:002011-07-06T20:00:57.408-04:00Family Visits Sydney!<div style="text-align: center;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The love of a family is life's</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>greatest blessing"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">April 24,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What a crazy day this was. I was dreading this day more than anything but at the same time was so excited. This was the day all my friends I had made from the past three months were leaving, and this same day my family was coming in for a couple of weeks. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I stayed up until three in the morning with half the kids in our program in my room just hanging out and telling stories from the past three months. As the night went on I said my goodbyes with handshakes, hugs and cries. I wished everyone the best of luck and told them to keep in touch. The time we had spent in Australia was unlike any experience any of us will ever have again. We had lots of late nights and early mornings enjoying the limited time in paradise. It felt like we moved in and out in the same week despite accomplishing so much. Time literally flies when you have fun. I did not want this to end. I was literally living the dream.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As I laid my head on my pillow at 3am, I just stared at the sky reflecting on all the good times. Knowing the time was coming to a close, I laid awake hoping to slow time down. I may have got an hour of sleep and woke up at 6am to take a shower. I shared a taxi with my roommate Nick to the airport. With teary eyes Nick and I hugged it out and said our goodbyes. This was a fitting way to end the program as Nick and I had shared a room for three months and had become so close. It was tough saying goodbye to everyone in 505 but it won't be long until we have a reunion.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While it was tough saying goodbye to my family of friends in Sydney, I got to say hello to my family from Cincinnati. I met my mom, dad, brother and his fiance at the airport. We took a taxi and headed off to the same Meriton apartments I stayed at.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They were only going to be in Sydney for a few days so I was in charge of packing as much to see in those few days as possible. On the Sunday I took them to Circular Quay to see the famous Sydney landmarks of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From there we took a ferry to Manly beach where it was a bit chilly, and only the guys were man enough to get into the water. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From there it was back to the apartment where the family got some much needed rest. Over the next few days we trekked through the rain and didn't let it slow us down. We saw an Imax about Australia, which happened to be the biggest movie screen in the world, we went up the Sydney Skytower, saw a rainbow at Bondi Beach, did some shopping at Paddys Market, Ate the best chicken burgers in the world, went to the world famous blue mountains, fed kangaroos, pet koala bears, and the thing I was most excited about, climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb was something we did for my 21st birthday. I don't think there was anyplace in the world I would have rather been then on top of that bridge. What an experience that was. The Bridge Climb was rated by lonely planet travel as one of the top ten most thrilling things to do in the world. The tour lasted a couple of hours and we had to fight some storms on top of the bridge, but we fought through them and had a great time. Our guide, Mitch even had the group sing happy birthday to me while on the bridge. What a great birthday it was!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact: </b>The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest single arch span bridge in the world.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Next its off to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-67813909473234074592011-05-16T13:03:00.002-04:002011-07-06T19:57:22.691-04:00Internship: GOLF Link<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Find something you love to do and you will never </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>have to work a day in your life"</b></span></span><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">G'Day,</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am back in the United States after four week hiatus from the blogging world. While I will get into all those travels in the coming weeks, I want to focus on the reason for me going to Australia. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That reason was the internship opportunity. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Amazingly enough I had never previously thought of studying abroad, but when I heard there was an opportunity to do an internship I was sold. As the process went I filled out my three areas of interest on a form (1. Marketing 2. Sports Marketing 3. Advertising) and CAPA was going to place me in one of those areas. The hardest part was committing to the program without knowing where you will be working until two weeks prior to the start.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I got my placement about a week before leaving for Australia. I was doing marketing for a company called GOLF Link. While it was sports related but very business driven I was more than excited for this opportunity. </span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cGwKrXC1Snk/TdFKTPbJC5I/AAAAAAAAANY/-XblzGj_zog/s1600/GL2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cGwKrXC1Snk/TdFKTPbJC5I/AAAAAAAAANY/-XblzGj_zog/s1600/GL2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Essentially GOLF Link started in 1999 as the universal handicapping system for golfers in Australia. GOLF Link is used by roughly 1,100 golf courses and over 400,000 members across Australia. There wasn't much money to made in this business however, so about a year ago the company hired a new CEO to turn the GOLF Link name into a money making business.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This money is made via their website. The GOLF Link website now offers golfers the chance to buy discounted tee times, vouchers, and travel. This site also includes something called GOLF Link Mates which is essentially a Facebook network for Australian golfers. You can keep track of where your friends have played and how they played. They have also ventured out with a wine club and a new iphone application that includes a handicap predictor.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The GOLF Link website is the number one golf website in the country and one of the top ten in sports according to number of visitors. This allows great opportunities for revenue from advertisers.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I spent most of my time on two big projects during my three months. The first was doing the weekly newsletter called THE LINK. I used a program called CMS to design the newsletter. The newsletter went out to over 50,000 golfers across the country. It featured special offers on tee times, vouchers, open days, and an Australian Golf Digest article. I also worked with companies that were paying for ads on what they wanted to feature in the newsletter. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Click here to view full newsletter:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.golflink.com.au/newsletter/NL0032.html"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vqujTmkMclM/TdFRPaIHI7I/AAAAAAAAANk/igSSt9eLVew/s320/2.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The job didn't end with just creating the newsletter. I used a program called campaign monitor to send it out but also to monitor the progress of the newsletter. At the end of the week I would take the statistics of the newsletter from campaign monitor and present them to the CEO.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The thing that was interesting about the newsletter was that we only had 50,000 subscribers, yet we had over 400,000 members of GOLF Link. So the company decided to do a promotion to increase subscribers. The promotion was a seven night Whitsunday Golf Cruise for two people. I fortunate enough to promote the giveaway for a while. The promotion was off to a great start, but I left before the end of it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwrzVW_QYUM/TdFTqaeSamI/AAAAAAAAANs/bbuvRCREzI8/s1600/GL1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="97" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwrzVW_QYUM/TdFTqaeSamI/AAAAAAAAANs/bbuvRCREzI8/s320/GL1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The next big project of mine was something very important for the company. I had to reach out to most of the clubs in Australia and gather information about their course. Then I took that information and built a course profile for the course. GOLF Link is changing the whole layout of the website in the near future to accommodate my work. Their goal is to have a course profile for all 1,100 courses and get them to list tee times on their site. This would make GOLF Link the one place to go to information about any course in Australia.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-riU-QjQZ09M/TdFUudEVOnI/AAAAAAAAANw/Bo3vZw-X5jY/s1600/Profile1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-riU-QjQZ09M/TdFUudEVOnI/AAAAAAAAANw/Bo3vZw-X5jY/s320/Profile1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Doing the course profiles was pretty repetitive and redundant. Doing a whole seven hours a day of calling courses was not very much fun, it is definitely intern work. I gutted it out for the rest of the time I was there.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This internship like every other internship is only beneficially to you in the terms that you get out of it what you put into it. While only working 20 hours a week, I was not able to be as active as I had hoped I would be, I was proud of the work I had done. The company felt the same way. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was my first time working in an office and I made sure each day to observe what was going on around the office. Having a desk right across from the CEO made things a lot more interesting. My thing I will ultimately take away from this internship is to find that one thing I love doing and pursue that to the fullest. </span></div><br />
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</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-37861447412302933642011-04-18T22:31:00.002-04:002011-07-06T19:56:20.262-04:00International Business and Trade<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">"Laughter is America's most </span></strong><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"><strong>important </strong></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"><strong>export" </strong>- Walt Disney</span></div><div align="center"><br />
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</div><div align="left">Before coming to Australia I had many meetings with my advisers at school about which classes to take while here. When looking at the list of eight classes to choose from this one stood out from all the others for obvious reasons. Being that I am a business major and this was only one of two business classes offered I figured I should take it. When I found out that it would be counting as required International business class it just made this trip even better.</div><div align="left"><br />
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</div><div align="left">While I enjoyed the exploring the global cities class a lot because of the field trip, I loved this International business class. My teacher was once again a local Australian named Murray. The first day he walked in everyone was shocked, he is like 6' 10'' 160 pounds and bright red hair. We knew from the start he was going to be interesting. He is only 28 and is by far the smartest Australian I have met. </div><div align="left"><br />
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</div><div align="left">To continue with the first day of class, Murray had all of us go around the room and say our name, school, major, and one interesting thing about our self. He was wanting something completely different than your usual I play video games, or I like watching movies. I said Hi I'm Aaron, a marketing major from Marshall University and I can dunk. He tried recalling everyones name after going around the circle and referred to me as dunker (dunkah in the Australian accent.) So my nickname while in Australia has been dunkah. </div><div align="left"><br />
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</div><div align="left">I have gotten more out of this class than I have most classes in my college career, and a lot of that is due to the fact of Murray's unique teaching style. He just uses a powerpoint presentation to present the course material but he is so knowledgeable, and uses great examples to put everything into perspective for us. Since we are in class for three and a half hours he knows the class drags on so he uses his famous "boredom slides." This slides are basically some of his favorite funny youtube videos. This is an excellent tactic that more teachers need to do, especially in such a long class.</div><div align="left"><br />
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</div><div align="left">I don't want to bore you with sharing what I have learned from the class because I know you guys don't really care. So I am going to share a field trip we had for the class. Murray took us to Lunar Park, which is the only amusement park in Sydney. This park started in 1935 and was started after Lunar Park inside of Coney Island in New York. This is your typical "old" theme park with lots of carnival type rides. The location of Lunar Park is awesome, it is right on the harbour across from the Opera House.<br />
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</div><div align="left">We sat through an hour lecture with the manager of Lunar Park about how it got started, how they go about doing business, and how they make money. It was a very interesting lecture as my first day of my internship with Disney I had the same lecture. Obviously the lecture with Disney was on a much bigger scale and better. After the class we got free wristbands to ride all the rides at the park and we were able to stay for as long as possible.<br />
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</div><div align="left">Most of their rides involved spinning of some sort. I'm more of a roller coaster guy myself, so these rides did not excite me as much. I still rode quite about all the rides. The last ride I rode we all got in and put our backs against a wall and it started to spin faster and faster. Then next thing you know the floor drops out and you are still against the wall with your feet touching nothing. I was so glad when this ride was over with and most of the group decided to leave after it for good reason.<br />
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<strong>Fun Fact: </strong>It cost $52 for a day at this park... much more expensive than the average theme park in the united states which have huge multimillion dollar rollercoasters.</div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-53336783074192868602011-04-13T06:00:00.002-04:002011-07-06T19:53:31.461-04:00Exploring and Analyzing the Global City of Sydney<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Sydney is a vibrant, dynamic and accessible city</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>waiting to be explored"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After being in Sydney for almost 3 months I am finally writing about my "education." Most of you know that I am doing an internship while abroad in Australia. I get 6 credits for the internship and another 6 credits for taking two classes. When applying for this program I was able to select what two classes I wanted to take (there was only eight to choose from.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The main reason for me taking the exploring and analyzing the global city of Sydney class was the ability to learn in depth about Sydney. The best part of the class was that we took three field trips around the city. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My teacher is a local Australian named Cameron. He was a geology major and has done lots of work in the Sydney area. He has taken part in many multi year research projects that have resulted in many scholarly newspaper and magazine articles and journals. He explained to us that his wife is in the entertainment industry and was in charge of most of the opening ceremonies at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He even got to help on the project which sounded like it would be an awesome job.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This class was a huge help for a student who was studying and living in a foreign country. While I learned so much about Sydney's past and have taken looks at their plans for the future, I wan't to highlight my favorite parts of the class.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those favorite parts are the field trips of course. The first field trip was a walking tour that started at the oldest part of Sydney known as The Rocks. This area is adjacent to the area most of you would think of: The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. There was a huge cruise ship in the Harbour and he explained to us that 27 out of the 28 days in February were to have cruise ships take off from there.</span><br />
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</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We continued on to a museum where we learned even more about the history of Sydney. We continued on to what was called the Sydney observatory which had views unlike any other of Sydney. </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0ncq6QdHOCs/TaVsA_cNHPI/AAAAAAAAAMg/ipHV77poL1E/s1600/DSCN56271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0ncq6QdHOCs/TaVsA_cNHPI/AAAAAAAAAMg/ipHV77poL1E/s320/DSCN56271.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We continued walking (yes we walked alot!) to a place called Darling Harbour. This could be my favorite place in Sydney, it just has a great feel to it. While there I made a friend at the LEGO park (he wasn't made out of LEGOs.) I also found the location for my boat in the near future. We finished the field trip there as we had to get back for another class.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q80cuC9k7Q/TaVtT8nNxzI/AAAAAAAAAMk/pd-RClByllo/s1600/DSCN56831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q80cuC9k7Q/TaVtT8nNxzI/AAAAAAAAAMk/pd-RClByllo/s320/DSCN56831.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn_p6TwKpHw/TaVtg4OR0dI/AAAAAAAAAMo/q5f5j_79yLY/s1600/DSCN56931.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn_p6TwKpHw/TaVtg4OR0dI/AAAAAAAAAMo/q5f5j_79yLY/s320/DSCN56931.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s6nh92DxwS0/TaVttZtRekI/AAAAAAAAAMs/vBvyaMwAlhI/s1600/DSCN57031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s6nh92DxwS0/TaVttZtRekI/AAAAAAAAAMs/vBvyaMwAlhI/s320/DSCN57031.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The next field trip we took was to the more inner-city of Sydney. This was mainly to get us out of our element for a change as well as to look at some graffiti. My instructor Cameron had done a two year research on graffiti in and around Sydney. This was the most prominent place in Sydney with graffiti. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They had problems with graffiti being used as vandalism in the past and they knew they would never be able to stop it. So what they did was hire professional graffiti artists from all over the world to come in and paint so it would look "cool." We actually got to see some people paint that day which was pretty cool. That being said here are some pictures:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NCfvBKDnrS8/TaVx9q_VOjI/AAAAAAAAANA/8fG_8CPtUKc/s1600/DSCN7318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NCfvBKDnrS8/TaVx9q_VOjI/AAAAAAAAANA/8fG_8CPtUKc/s320/DSCN7318.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The third and final field trip was out to a place called Cabramatta, which is mostly an asian population. I think during the hour and a half we were there I didn't see but three Caucasians not in my class. Anyway it was chaotic getting there as some of the buses were down, causing us to be delayed. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Part of the deal for going there was we were getting free food. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant. This was my first time at a Vietnamese restaurant and will be my last. He ordered all the food for us so we didn't have a choice. We each got a beef salad and a beef soup. The beef salad was shared by the whole table and was actually not too bad. However the beef soup was terrible. It came out in a huge bowl and I ate one bite and was done. Cameron came up to us right after my first bite and said the beef that was in there was tendons. I about threw up on the spot, luckily I didn't. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Despite the bad food this class was a great experience. I loved the field trips and the class lectures were interesting as well. My next post will be about my International Business class. Only a week and a half left in my program. I can't believe how fast it has gone.</span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-15085679643068601782011-04-06T23:08:00.003-04:002011-07-06T19:52:54.406-04:00Watsons Bay & Sydney Kings<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"You miss 100 percent of the</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>shots you don't take"</b></span><br />
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</b></span></div>This past couple weekends have been spent in Sydney as will the next couple weeks. By now most of us had spent a lot of our money and are trying to live as cheap as possible. A group had gone a couple weekends ago to Cairns to visit the Great Barrier Reef. However, I will be seeing the reef with my family so I passed on the trip.<br />
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This past weekend we went on a field trip for class to the local amusement park here in Sydney (I will explain more about this in a future post.) My roommate Tarik works for the Sydney Kings, and got twenty five tickets for their final regular season game. So a huge group of us went to the game which was a great time, as I have a love for the game of basketball. Tarik even got some of us free t-shirts.<br />
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The game of basketball internationally is different than the NBA we are used to at home. The one rule that gets me is that here they can play a ball that hits off the top of the backboard, which you cannot do in the states. Also the players here get paid a lot less money. Only one player on the team makes over $100,000. This is because basketball is not that big in Australia, if a player wants to play internationally they can easily make more money than that in Europe. Only two of the players played college in the states and they were both from division two schools.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nMiWm2imxT4/TZ0nneDH71I/AAAAAAAAAMA/tAyyIOv4y2w/s1600/180953_1572744210597_1595280063_31214484_3314480_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nMiWm2imxT4/TZ0nneDH71I/AAAAAAAAAMA/tAyyIOv4y2w/s320/180953_1572744210597_1595280063_31214484_3314480_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">The weather here lately has gotten a little bit more chilly which means it is getting darker earlier. I have also been wearing my only sweatshirt a few times now. We still went to the beach on Sunday as it was the only good beach day of the weekend. We went to a beach we had never been to before called Watson's Bay.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8rynQmvkEA4/TZ0pgj1CdVI/AAAAAAAAAME/jdVOWaSE_Ow/s1600/DSCN7279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8rynQmvkEA4/TZ0pgj1CdVI/AAAAAAAAAME/jdVOWaSE_Ow/s320/DSCN7279.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">This area is a really neat area as it is more residential and full of locals. We ended up taking a little walk around and found out that this area had bunkers from the war in the 1850's which was really neat to see. The water was a little chilly but was still refreshing after our walk. The view from the beach was the city skyline.<br />
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</div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-17378538154095827322011-03-25T00:05:00.002-04:002011-07-06T19:50:22.774-04:00Gold Coast & Byron Bay<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Life is to short to live in a rut"</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This past weekend I joined a couple of friends on a short trip to the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast is considered the Miami of Australia. We really had no plans on what to do while there, we just wanted to check it out. We arrived on St. Patricks Day and managed to get some free St. Patricks hats, which we looked pretty good in. We stayed in a place called Surfers Paradise which is one of the most famous places in Australia. Our hostel was only a block from the beach which was really nice. We spent most of the evening just walking around and planning what to do Friday and Saturday.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RHKwZam-5f0/TYwNVaNOXyI/AAAAAAAAALg/7gj-x99LPmM/s1600/DSCN7207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RHKwZam-5f0/TYwNVaNOXyI/AAAAAAAAALg/7gj-x99LPmM/s320/DSCN7207.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since doing the internship with Disney, I had become a theme park enthusiast. The Gold Coast is the only place in Australia with theme parks and we decided on going to the Wet N Wild Water Park. There are only three Wet N Wild water parks in the world (Orlando, Greeensboro, and The Gold Coast.) I went with my dad and brother to the one in Orlando and it was the best water park I had ever been to.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We spent most of the morning/afternoon at Wet N Wild and rode every water slide there except for the one that was closed. The one that was closed was a water slide that did a loop (I wonder why it was closed.) There slides were awesome but not anywhere near as good as the one in Orlando. </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One thing we were so excited about was that our hostel had a grill. We have not used a grill since we have been in Australia. So we went to the grocery store and bought some burgers to cook for the night. After this we went to the bowling ally to bowl for a little bit. The rest of the evening was spent roaming around on the beach.</span><br />
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</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saturday we ended up renting a car and going to Byron Bay which is an hour south of the Gold Coast. Byron Bay is a popular vacation spot for Aussies. This turned out to be a great idea as it was to rain all day in the Gold Coast, and only rain in the morning at Byron Bay. Since we had to be at the airport at around 7 in the evening we did not have much time to do much other than explore.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We ended up taking a hike to a light house which is a popular thing for tourist to do. This was a really neat hike. One of the highlights of the hike was that we were at the most easterly point in the mainland of Australia. We had our picture taken there a took a tour of the light house.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X1Ls_yy4pVI/TYwTBIB-FdI/AAAAAAAAAL0/1rqFXqI01mo/s1600/DSCN7242.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X1Ls_yy4pVI/TYwTBIB-FdI/AAAAAAAAAL0/1rqFXqI01mo/s320/DSCN7242.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After the hike we took a swim in the ocean and then got back in the car and headed to the airport. This was a short trip but that face that it was just a few guys made it easier to make decisions and we had a great time. Australia is a beautiful country and it is so much fun to just check different places out.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact: </b>Australians add an "ie" or "y" on the end of almost every word... They call board shorts "boardies"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-45336028728234711382011-03-24T23:34:00.002-04:002011-03-27T01:29:45.239-04:00Swing Video<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">eoI have hardly had the time to upload any videos, so I uploaded the swing and bungy videos from New Zealand. This swing video was taken with my hand held camera and is a point of view video...</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wFsKgWqqNn4?fs=1" width="480"></iframe>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-72604814326387368302011-03-24T23:01:00.000-04:002011-03-24T23:01:57.772-04:00Bungy Jump Video<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9W8ebL3rfuc?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-41392668814832782112011-03-16T20:03:00.003-04:002011-07-06T19:49:44.671-04:00Auckland<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">"All people who live, die. But, not all </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">people </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">who die have lived."</b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 6 – Friday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Today was sad day for us as we all had fallen in love with Queenstown, however it was time to leave the south island of New Zealand and head to the north island. We boarded a plane in the morning for Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. We really didn’t have any plans for anything to do while in Auckland like we had in the other cities.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we arrived we noticed a huge change in climate and were very happy that we could actually wear our shorts and t-shirts that we had packed. We took a shuttle to our hostel and put away all of our stuff and proceeded to walk around the city to explore. <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We found out quickly that there was nothing to really do in Auckland. We did run into a Wendy’s and we ended up eating there twice during the two days we were in the city. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">That night we ended up going to a casino because they were giving away $20,000 to one person that night. This was my first time in a casino and I really don’t know too many of the games, but Nick was helping me out on roulette as this was “his game.” I ended up catching on really quickly and turned my $40 into $205 in a matter of an hour. I got out of there as fast as I could. I was pretty excited to have won some good money.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 7 – Saturday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The only thing we had planned for today was to go to the zoo. Spenser’s friend from school is doing an internship in Canberra, Australia (the capital of Australia) at their zoo, so he was keen on going to the Auckland Zoo. This zoo is considered one of the best in the world and even has a weekly TV show on Animal Planet called Zoo (how original.)<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-b1iVn_MXu_Y/TYFOiGyAPJI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/2tPjSTjBhFE/s1600/DSCN7165.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-b1iVn_MXu_Y/TYFOiGyAPJI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/2tPjSTjBhFE/s320/DSCN7165.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">This zoo was really nice and they had some neat animals. However their was a festival going on next to the zoo which meant that none of their shows were going on because the animals were startled. We ended up going to this festival. The festival was for people of the samoan decent and had all different countries represented. It was pretty cool to walk around and see what kind of food they served (none of it looked any good.) We also saw lots of U.S. sports apparel. I saw 8 Cincinnati Reds hats.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Day 8 - Sunday</b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Today was departure day. We had a 4pm flight and just wanted to relax most of the morning. So we went and saw a movie at the theatre. Its funny because all the movies in New Zealand and Australia are the same ones we see in the states. Auckland did not seem like it had much to offer us, but that could be because its hard to compare any city to Sydney.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">This trip was one of the best trips I have been on in my life. It was sad to leave New Zealand but we were ready to be home in Sydney and get back to the usual life. This trip has confirmed that one of my greatest passions in life is traveling the world. Its amazing how much you can learn from different cultures. I hope to one day come back to New Zealand, especially Queenstown. </div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-42922971799729234342011-03-16T19:17:00.001-04:002011-07-06T19:47:42.779-04:00Queenstown<div style="text-align: center;"><b>"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>the thing you think you cannot." - </b>Eleanor Roosevelt<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 4 – Wednesday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">This was another big day for us. We woke up early and packed the man-van and headed back to Queenstown. This was only a three-hour drive and was another exciting drive. When we arrived at our hostel we checked in and got ready for our whitewater-rafting trip we had booked earlier in the week. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">As we got to the rafting place we waited a few minutes then boarded a bus. We had a five-minute bus ride to “camp” where we received all of our gear, which was very similar to that of the kayak trip. This time we got helmets instead of hats. We then had a forty-minute drive to the top of the river where we were to start rafting.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">As we started driving on this gravel road we realized this was the only road that we were not allowed to drive our rental car on in all of New Zealand. Just as we realized this our bus driver told us this was the 17<sup>th</sup> most dangerous road to drive in the world (I don’t want to see the other 16.) While I am not one to scared of these kind of things I was a little bit worried on this road. At one point the front wheel of our bus was off the cliff and it looked like we were going over.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">It was nice to arrive safely and get ready to hit the water. We had some instruction and then got in the raft. I have been rafting in North Carolina at the Olympic Kayak Training Facility where there was lots of rapids and a couple times down the Little Miami river in Ohio and it was terrible because there were hardly any rapids. We were expecting big rapids and were really let down on the rafting as it was more like the Little Miami.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OK8_o5kOR54/TYFV7I4mViI/AAAAAAAAAKg/VfNelSTvHVw/s1600/102_0107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OK8_o5kOR54/TYFV7I4mViI/AAAAAAAAAKg/VfNelSTvHVw/s320/102_0107.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">We spent a bunch of money on this rafting trip and were not pleased with the result especially since three of the guys had never been rafting before. Regardless we made the most of it as we always do and had a good time. After rafting we headed back to the room and relaxed as we had an even bigger day ahead of us for Thursday.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 5 – Thursday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bungy Jump Day! This was the thing I was most excited about doing in New Zealand and was one of my main motives of going here for spring break. After all this was the number 3 thing I wanted to do while in Australia. We woke up at 9 (the latest we slept in all break) and walked down the street to visit our friends at AJ Hackett Bungy. We signed up to do our bungy jump and some of us signed up to do a canyon swing as well.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I along with Spenser and Jason signed up for the Kawarau Bridge bungy. The reason I signed up for this one was because it was the site of the first bungy jump in the world. It is also the only bungy jump in the world where you can get “dunked” in the water. This bungy was 43 meters high (141 feet.) Jeremy, Nick, Eddie and Rob chose to do the Nevis bungy which is the third highest in the world at 134 meters (439 feet.) While this bungy looked really cool, I felt getting dunked in the water was cooler than the extra 3 seconds of free fall.</div><div class="MsoNormal">We showed up to the bridge and walked through the building and they took are weight and sent us right to the bridge. It was until this walk that the nerves set in. Having jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet you would think I would have no fear but I definitely had some butterflies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We got to the bridge and they took Spenser and I and started attaching everything to our legs. Luckily they had some rap music blasting really loud, which put our game faces on. When they called me up I had to waddle to the edge like a penguin. Once I got to the edge the guy told me to turn to the camera and take a couple pictures for Cincinnati, which put a smile on my face. He then told me I was good to jump and gave me a 3,2,1 and I spread my arms and jumped off a perfectly good bridge. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GK-g7s_heSU/TYFUFDbXO5I/AAAAAAAAAKE/D4_cDb_tupU/s1600/199103_1638552049965_1421670250_31637216_2549404_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GK-g7s_heSU/TYFUFDbXO5I/AAAAAAAAAKE/D4_cDb_tupU/s320/199103_1638552049965_1421670250_31637216_2549404_n.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Those four seconds of free fall was one of the greatest feelings I have ever had in my life. I ended up getting dunked to about my stomach, which made the jump even better. Bungy jumping wasn’t anywhere near as scary as I thought. I got a great thrill out of it but its really not an extreme sport, its more of a mental leap. <br />
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</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyone can do it, its just a matter that you believe in yourself, have faith that you’ll be able to defy gravity and do whatever it takes to end up safely on your feet. The chances of dying are one in a million. You have a one in 6,000 chance that you will die in a car crash in any given year. So I will challenge anyone that reads this to take a leap of faith and go bungy jumping in your lifetime. Don’t make any excuses, it will change your life forever and I will guarantee it. I am going to make sure my dad and brother bungy jump while they are in Cairns!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">After this we headed over to the other bungy that the other guys were doing. This was also where the swing was. I ended up doing the swing in a tandem with Spenser, so we would go even faster. This is the tallest swing in the world and it goes across a canyon. You start at 109 meters up and drop 70 meters then your “arc” is 300 meters across the canyon.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I was actually more nervous for this swing because of the entrance. There is a tiny bridge that leads you to the ledge and I took one step on that bridge which is 109 meters above the ground and the whole thing shook. The wind was shaking it as well. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Tva_DanQfN8/TYFVUczPMmI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/uywSq5NCJwo/s1600/190102_1645139374644_1421670250_31647122_3092291_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Tva_DanQfN8/TYFVUczPMmI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/uywSq5NCJwo/s320/190102_1645139374644_1421670250_31647122_3092291_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The scariest part about the swing is that they just put you in a harness and they told Spenser and I to sit back which means we basically sit down off the ledge, which really made my stomach drop. Once we were off the ledge and in the air I was more than ready to go. The drop was crazy fast but after that it was just swinging back and forth and was kind of boring. A lot of people prefer the swing more but I prefer the bungy a lot more.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ji1A7XqP-U4/TYFVazdWwRI/AAAAAAAAAKU/RF6wS0E6rgM/s1600/190481_1648417456594_1421670250_31650848_557674_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ji1A7XqP-U4/TYFVazdWwRI/AAAAAAAAAKU/RF6wS0E6rgM/s320/190481_1648417456594_1421670250_31650848_557674_n.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ICQ6LqSxz1U/TYFVbrH708I/AAAAAAAAAKY/vAK2WW5x_x8/s1600/199049_1648417856604_1421670250_31650849_1097541_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ICQ6LqSxz1U/TYFVbrH708I/AAAAAAAAAKY/vAK2WW5x_x8/s320/199049_1648417856604_1421670250_31650849_1097541_n.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZROYcLYWuBQ/TYFVcJ7OSII/AAAAAAAAAKc/FCmNArB_vWE/s1600/199761_1648419376642_1421670250_31650855_6402065_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZROYcLYWuBQ/TYFVcJ7OSII/AAAAAAAAAKc/FCmNArB_vWE/s320/199761_1648419376642_1421670250_31650855_6402065_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div>After the full day of activities we went to the ice bar in the evening. It usually is $32 to go to the ice bar for an adult. We found a deal for $10 and it included a free drink. They gave us coats and gloves and we headed in. When we first got in we were like kids in a candy shop we thought it was awesome. We got our free drink which came in a cup that was made out of ice, and hung out in what we called the ice box (it wasn't very big.) After about fifteen minutes we were ready to go. It was a neat thing to do but as we had heard it is very overrated.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kvwFeV49qWA/TYFW1avpc1I/AAAAAAAAAKk/MbDM3qM-SZc/s1600/188833_1645051772454_1421670250_31646729_4750492_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kvwFeV49qWA/TYFW1avpc1I/AAAAAAAAAKk/MbDM3qM-SZc/s320/188833_1645051772454_1421670250_31646729_4750492_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Queenstown could be the coolest place I have ever been in my life, and I feel like I have been to a lot of places for a 20 year old. It was very much a ski like town but with loads of adventurous activity. I definitely want to make it back to Queenstown.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cS35LjTsWtY/TYFW84Pz9iI/AAAAAAAAAKo/g7RVMbDCzMg/s1600/197059_1645059612650_1421670250_31646769_2794638_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cS35LjTsWtY/TYFW84Pz9iI/AAAAAAAAAKo/g7RVMbDCzMg/s320/197059_1645059612650_1421670250_31646769_2794638_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-56790336321654375412011-03-16T19:16:00.001-04:002011-07-06T19:46:47.842-04:00Milford Sound<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">"On the road to self-discovery, throw</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">away the map"</b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 3 - Tuesday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Another early wakeup call with another full day of activities. We headed out to the water for a 6-hour kayak trip. I have been in boats, jet skis, rafts, and canoes but have never been in a kayak. This was neat as it was a first for me. We were kayaking around what is known as the “eighth” wonder of the world. This spot is being used currently for the new movie called The Hobbit, which is part of the Lord of the Rings series.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We took a five-minute bus ride from our room to the kayak place. After getting some instruction they gave us layers upon layers of clothing to keep us warm and dry during the 6-hour trip. The top layer of jackets were pink, we looked like a big group of bundled up flamingos. I was one of the few people that chose to wear one of the provided hats (I thought it was cool.) I then paired up with my roommate Nick and we hit the water in our two-person kayak.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-tvI-W9f_VtE/TYFYgfQiMxI/AAAAAAAAAKs/TnP2LOC0h0w/s1600/188571_1644995371044_1421670250_31646457_4834297_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-tvI-W9f_VtE/TYFYgfQiMxI/AAAAAAAAAKs/TnP2LOC0h0w/s320/188571_1644995371044_1421670250_31646457_4834297_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal">I never knew that kayaks have pedals in the inside that controlled a rudder in the back to help control it. I was in the back and was in control of where the kayak was going. Nick was in the front and was in charge of letting me know where to go. We had four kayaks out there and Nick and I worked the best as a team and were the only ones that actually had control of our kayak.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We kayaked around the water and saw lots of planes and helicopters flying in. Turns out this is the most used airport in New Zealand with over 200 flights departing every day. Nick and I chose to go close to the edge of the water and there were seals swimming right next to us in the water, we got so close we could have touched them. We stopped to eat our packed lunch half way through and on the way back passed a huge waterfall. This kayak trip was one of the coolest things I have ever done, mainly because it felt like I was living inside of a postcard, that’s how awesome the scenery was.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2mVEdkx_7xE/TYFYunx26VI/AAAAAAAAAKw/ZFCRheLVqck/s1600/195903_1645005131288_1421670250_31646504_1749859_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2mVEdkx_7xE/TYFYunx26VI/AAAAAAAAAKw/ZFCRheLVqck/s320/195903_1645005131288_1421670250_31646504_1749859_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-84i6u8C-P84/TYFYvKAYYdI/AAAAAAAAAK0/n2YmeJMxPaU/s1600/199999_1645007491347_1421670250_31646518_5202208_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-84i6u8C-P84/TYFYvKAYYdI/AAAAAAAAAK0/n2YmeJMxPaU/s320/199999_1645007491347_1421670250_31646518_5202208_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After kayaking we were all pretty wore out so we went back to the room and got all cleaned up and then just rested most of the evening. Later on that night we chose to go on a hike to see some waterfalls. This was a short hike but was really neat. We ventured off the path and managed to make our way to the bottom of the waterfall where a couple of the guy’s cliff jumped. I did not end up jumping because the water was way too cold for me, and I was in charge of taking pictures!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-IKhin5Jrg5o/TYFZCeBGtuI/AAAAAAAAAK4/d8tNcNRK__c/s1600/195831_1645035772054_1421670250_31646656_1688871_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-IKhin5Jrg5o/TYFZCeBGtuI/AAAAAAAAAK4/d8tNcNRK__c/s320/195831_1645035772054_1421670250_31646656_1688871_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span></div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-8026938298583339542011-03-16T19:11:00.001-04:002011-07-06T19:43:11.108-04:00Spring Break in New Zealand!<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"Life is either a daring adventure</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>or nothing at all"</b></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boy it was an adventure just writing this post. I think it was over 3,000 words. Took up like seven pages on Microsoft word. Regardless I broke it down into multiple posts based on our cities we went to so keep going down to see the whole trip! You guys are going to love it! </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
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</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">DAY 1 - Sunday<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Last week was our “spring” break week, despite it now being fall in Australia. A group of 6 guys and I had purchased plane tickets to go to New Zealand. We were going to go to Christchurch, Queenstown, and Auckland for a few days each. However, a week before we were to depart there was an earthquake in Christchurch and it destroyed their city. This was a reason for concern and caused us to change our plans. If it weren’t for the earthquake our trip would have been completely different and quite frankly nowhere near as good.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We still flew in to Christchurch and decided instead of flying to Queenstown we would drive and make a few stops along the way. Once we arrived in Christchurch, we all realized we did not pack enough warm clothes. We picked up our rental car, also known as “the man-van.” The airport is only 10km away from the city and it wasn’t even affected by the earthquake. It’s hard to imagine that a city can be destroyed but just down the road there was no damage. We tried going to see the city but they said all the roads were closed.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We started the drive toward our first destination, Mt. Cook. This was about a four-hour drive and is home to the tallest peak in New Zealand. The drive was the most beautiful drive I have been on. Everywhere we drove we were surrounded by sheep and mountains. After being in the city for so long it actually felt good to be in the country. Many places along our drive were places they filmed The Lord of The Rings trilogy. We stopped a couple times along the way, as we had to grab food because there were not any grocery stores near by. We also stopped and put that self-timer function on my camera to good use. This lake we stopped at felt like we were living in a postcard since it was dusk out. <br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pQ7zzbPu_U8/TYFZ_2qeJTI/AAAAAAAAALE/yAyWNd7WIjo/s1600/199557_1644944609775_1421670250_31646234_3039729_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pQ7zzbPu_U8/TYFZ_2qeJTI/AAAAAAAAALE/yAyWNd7WIjo/s320/199557_1644944609775_1421670250_31646234_3039729_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As we continued on the road we saw a sign for cow crossing. Even though I go to school in West Virginia I have never in my life seen a sign for crossing cows. What makes it even funnier was that it was really dark out right before we reached our hostel and sure enough we almost ran into a herd of 6 cows just hanging out in the middle of the road. Luckily I was sitting in the front seat as co-pilot because if it weren’t for me Spenser would have run right into the cows.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 68.0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 68.0pt;">We checked in to our hostel at about 9 in the evening. This hostel was way different then the ones we have stayed at as it was built in the early 50’s and had a great country feel to it. There were deer and moose heads on the walls. We explored around a little bit and then headed to bed as we were waking up for an early morning hike.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 68.0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 68.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 2 - Monday</b><br />
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</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 68.0pt;">The alarm rang at 730 and we grabbed some brekky real fast and put our bags in the van and headed out for a hike. No need to shower since we were all country folk for the week. This hike was mostly steps and lead to the tallest peak you can hike to, despite taking us only an hour to reach the top. Upon reaching the top, all of our legs were “dead” tired, so we took about a half hour rest and took in the beautiful views of tallest peak in New Zealand: Mt. Cook.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LU7gvxdA9x4/TYFaI7YtI5I/AAAAAAAAALI/xQTV_G_P4Zo/s1600/199773_1644970330418_1421670250_31646344_1877122_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LU7gvxdA9x4/TYFaI7YtI5I/AAAAAAAAALI/xQTV_G_P4Zo/s320/199773_1644970330418_1421670250_31646344_1877122_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1VU8s5xqXWk/TYFaU7JMzOI/AAAAAAAAALM/d1Zuf597RnY/s1600/195837_1644955690052_1421670250_31646290_2936625_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1VU8s5xqXWk/TYFaU7JMzOI/AAAAAAAAALM/d1Zuf597RnY/s320/195837_1644955690052_1421670250_31646290_2936625_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gVXgcoE0XlY/TYFal5FDyEI/AAAAAAAAALU/6ID3HUc2yA0/s1600/197993_1644969930408_1421670250_31646341_2521711_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gVXgcoE0XlY/TYFal5FDyEI/AAAAAAAAALU/6ID3HUc2yA0/s320/197993_1644969930408_1421670250_31646341_2521711_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal">We headed down and got back into the man-van and headed for our second hike of the day. This hike was to see the largest glacier in New Zealand. We had about a twenty-minute drive that consisted mostly of gravel roads. This hike was only twenty minutes but was more about the views than the hike. I have never seen glaciers like this just sitting in water. We were told that the earthquake in Christchurch had broken off lots of these glaciers, which made it really cool for us to see.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We stayed here for about an hour because the views were that stunning. Just as we were about to leave we heard a big rumble and we looked toward the water and sure enough a big piece of one of the glaciers had broken off and fallen into the water. We were amazed and this was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. After staying for a few more minutes we departed Mt. Cook and headed for Milford Sound.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-eStmOn6nxGU/TYFay2ZV7nI/AAAAAAAAALY/BWRo6i5wh9o/s1600/197529_1644961850206_1421670250_31646317_8291917_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-eStmOn6nxGU/TYFay2ZV7nI/AAAAAAAAALY/BWRo6i5wh9o/s320/197529_1644961850206_1421670250_31646317_8291917_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">We left Mt. Cook at noon, as Milford Sound was a seven-hour drive and we knew we needed to make good time. Driving at night on the wrong side of the road in the country is not a good combination. Along the way we passed Queenstown, which we headed, to just a couple days later.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We had to stop about two hours from Milford Sound in a town called Te Anu to eat dinner and get more groceries, as this was the last town until Milford Sound. A couple the guys ate Chinese and the rest of the guys and I ate at this place called The Ranch. As we sat down I heard a familiar noise coming from the speakers. It was John Denver’s Country Roads playing. I never in a million years would have thought I would hear a West Virginia song playing 10,000 miles away in New Zealand. It blew my mind.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">We arrived a Milford Sound at dark and checked in to our hostel. We explored the hostel further and discovered there was a ten-minute glowworm hike. At ten in the evening we headed outside and hiked in the dark. The only thing lighting up the walk was in fact the glow worms. It was a neat hike but we were eager to head to bed, as we had to be up early yet again.</div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-72545287139916184392011-03-04T18:55:00.004-05:002011-07-06T19:41:27.322-04:00Bondi Rescue<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>"Life is one big adventure, Jump on in!"</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
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</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This past weekend was not spent traveling around the country but rather staying put and further exploring the city of Sydney. One of the biggest attractions in Sydney are the beautiful beaches. Being that most of us do not work on Friday's we took a trip to Manly Beach to play some beach volleyball. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you watched the season premier of The Amazing Race on CBS a couple of weeks ago you would notice that they flew to Sydney and their first task was to take the ferry to Manly Beach. The ferry is the best part about going to Manly Beach. The views of the harbour bridge and opera house are phenomenal. We had a four on four beach volleyball game and my team won 2 out of the 3 games so we won the series!</span><br />
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</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The next day we went to the world famous Bondi Beach. We spent the first hour or so playing a four on four football game on the beach. My team won the football game behind my great Chad Pennington like quarterbacking skills (and no I did not hurt my shoulder.) After the football game we took a walk further down the beach to check out some of the rocks. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As we were walking towards some of the rocks we noticed an emergency employee down on the rocks with a person that was injured. Then we heard a helicopter come around and eventually a rescue person came down from the helicopter and they managed to take the injured person up into the helicopter and take him away. It looked like the guy had hurt his leg pretty bad. It was neat to see a rescue like this and it looked like the injured guy will be alright!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pI9_KCuefSQ/TXF7SLmwG9I/AAAAAAAAAJs/9nKyFDR-ZA4/s1600/DSCN6475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pI9_KCuefSQ/TXF7SLmwG9I/AAAAAAAAAJs/9nKyFDR-ZA4/s320/DSCN6475.JPG" width="320" /></a></div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-82748284412931842312011-02-26T18:50:00.003-05:002011-07-06T19:29:07.379-04:00Melbourne Day 3Beep Beep Beep… It was 7am and time to get ready. This was one of the most excited we all have been in Australia. We were about to rent a car! We got ready and headed down to pick up the VAN. My roommate Nick and our friend Paul are both 21 and they signed to be drivers of the van. We already had most of the paper work ready to go so Nick picked up the key and off we went.<br />
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</div><div>While we were nervous at first about driving on the left side we felt comfortable with Nick driving as he caught on real fast. I told Nick that if he saw a kangaroo crossing sign we should get our picture taken with it. About 30 minutes into the ride Nick pulled over real fast and caught us off guard but we quickly realized it was to get the picture.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6PlDBGqNxZw/ThToS9-CivI/AAAAAAAAARE/-5hdFD8HR9o/s1600/DSCN6282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6PlDBGqNxZw/ThToS9-CivI/AAAAAAAAARE/-5hdFD8HR9o/s320/DSCN6282.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>It was about a two-hour commute to the Great Ocean Road. Once we got on the road it was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in my life. The whole stretch of road about 3 hours worth is along the ocean.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>We went about an hour and took a pit stop for a couple hours. We went on a hike to Sheoak Falls. It was about a thirty-minute hike to the waterfall. This was a great chance to get out of the van and explore more of the country. The country here is so pretty. Once we got to the waterfall we all took our shirts off and sat under it for a good twenty minutes. We then proceeded another 5 minutes to the top of the waterfall and a cave. Talk about the life!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oikPO_D5eVA/ThTojFTtc6I/AAAAAAAAARI/Uu9rUBxaL_A/s1600/DSCN6309.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oikPO_D5eVA/ThTojFTtc6I/AAAAAAAAARI/Uu9rUBxaL_A/s320/DSCN6309.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div>After touring this we stopped to get some food and keep on driving. About another hour into the road we stopped at the most famous sighting along the Great Ocean Road; the Twelve Apostles. These “Apostles” are rocks in the ocean water. There is only eight remaining now as 4 of them have crumbled. This is one of the more breathtaking views in all of Australia. This stop made the day for all of us.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ePtHeaWFN7A/ThTo-nN7jYI/AAAAAAAAARQ/OwaNfqsRMsA/s1600/DSCN6358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ePtHeaWFN7A/ThTo-nN7jYI/AAAAAAAAARQ/OwaNfqsRMsA/s320/DSCN6358.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div>After this we stopped to see London Bridge. It was a rock bridge that broke off in 1990 and fell into the water. This again was an astonishing view. After seeing London Bridge we decided we would grab some dinner and then head back to the hostel. We dropped the van off and were glad we all survived. Despite not having a room we still walked into the hostel and took showers and then hung out in some friend’s room for a while.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>We called around about getting to the airport and the taxi company told us it would be $65 to get to our airport. We decided to just go with a taxi instead of a bus as the buses did not run this early in the morning. We got in the cab and after going a little while the driver told us that it was going to be $120 to the airport. We got into some arguments about it and tried talking to the person we talked to earlier and they were not buying it. It was a bad situation and we think they may have taken advantage of us because we were American tourists.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>The trip did not end like we had hoped but we had a great time in Melbourne nonetheless. I will still take Sydney over Melbourne any day!</div><div><br />
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</div><div><b>Fun Fact:</b> When driving on the left side of the road the right side is the passing or “fast” lane.<br />
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</div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-19606659219216762122011-02-26T18:38:00.000-05:002011-07-06T18:50:23.594-04:00Melbourne Day 2I was in charge of the early morning wakeup call for our group of 8. I woke everyone up at 8 and we got ready to start our day. Since we had absolutely no plans for this trip, we went down to look at some brochures. One thing that caught our eye was the world famous Great Ocean Drive, which is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Right next to that was a brochure on renting a car. Now in Australia not only is the steering wheel on the right side but you drive on the left side. We had some people in the group doubt we could rent a car.<br />
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</div>We spent that morning organizing the 8-person van for the following day. All you needed to be was 21 and a driver’s license. The remaining people from our group of 32 were scared for our lives. You could organize a day trip as a group and it would have been $100 a person. While renting a car including gas and mileage it cost us about $50 a person, and we could stop wherever we wanted.<br />
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</div>We already had the rugby game planned for 730 that night, so we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city. We took a free trolley around just to see the city. The trolley driver stopped and said he wouldn’t move until its departure time in 13 minutes. We proceeded to get off the bus and the Parliament House was right off the bus. We went up and ended up taking a tour of the Parliament. Before taking the tour we got to put our backpacks in a closet and I managed to put my backpack on the top shelf. The guide told me I was the first person to ever do that, so my name went down in history in Melbourne. It was a really neat tour and the tour guides were really nice.<br />
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</div>We proceeded on to a Chapel and walked in to see what it looked like inside. This place was huge! It reminded me of one of the ones I went to during my 8th grade Washington D.C. field trip. After this we went to a bar in this building just to go to the bathroom. Our tour guide from the parliament recommended we go to the bathroom up there on the 32 floor. Being the explorers we are we indeed went up there and walked in the bathroom and we were blown away by the view.<br />
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</div>After this we explored some more around the city and then went to the rugby game, which again was awesome. After the game we were so wore out and tired from so much walking we decided to just go to bed as we had another early morning and a big trip to the Great Ocean Road.<br />
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</div><b>History Lesson:</b> There are six states in Australia: New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), Queensland (Cairns), Western Australia (Perth), South Australia (Adelaide), and Tasmania (Hobart.) Some people commonly mistake the Northern Territory as a state but it is indeed a territory.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-73182436450616120172011-02-26T14:40:00.000-05:002011-07-06T19:26:03.188-04:00Melbourne Day 1<b>"Letting go of the handrails, taking off your tie and swerving off that predictable road you've been following for years onto a strange and bumpy path just might, with a bit of luck get you lost"</b><br />
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Last weekend a group of 32 of us boarded a plane for a trip down south to Melbourne in the state of Victoria. This trip was strictly planned by us as a group, no travel agents involved. We flew a budget airline called tiger airways for only $90 roundtrip. Melbourne is the next largest city to Sydney. There is actually quite a "rivalry" between Sydney and Melbourne that dates all the way back to the gold rush in the 1800s (Yes I have learned a little bit while here.)<br />
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We thought since this airline did not get very good reviews we needed to get there really early. The roommates and I took a taxi to the airport, as this was cheaper than taking the train. We arrived about 2 hours early and were expecting to wait at security. However, their domestic security in Australia is not like America's As my backpack was going through the x-ray machine I don't think the guy even looked at the screen. They also never checked my ID once. Needless to say it took us about 5 minutes to get through security and to our gate.<br />
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Melbourne has some cooler looking buildings than Sydney but Sydney is cleaner and has much nicer beaches (always a plus.) Upon landing had an hour drive from the airport to the city because this was the cheaper place to fly into. We organized a bus to take us from the airport to the city for only $12 a person.<br />
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Upon arriving to our hostel we were checking in and they said that we had to be paired in groups of 8. We quickly had our 8 and were ready to go, however they had booked us for 3 nights. Most of the rest of the group booked their return flight from the city airport and only had a 15-minute drive, but we just booked the same airline. Since our flight was at 530am on Sunday morning and an hour drive we decided we would only pay 2 nights and just stay up all night and sleep at the airport and on the plane.<br />
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We were pretty tired upon arrival and most people went to bed. A couple of the guys and I decided we wanted to walk around a little bit and see what the city was like. We ran into a few sketchy people around the city and even had one guy try to fight us because we wouldn't give him two dollars. Lucky for him he had a friend come hold him back before he could touch us. We knew we were in for an interesting trip.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-47818917588238520142011-02-23T21:02:00.005-05:002011-07-06T18:06:52.715-04:00Rugby Games<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>"Rugby is great. The players don't wear helmets or padding; they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that" - </b>Joe Theisman</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The number 9 thing to do on my top ten list was go to a rugby game. In the past week I have been to two rugby games. The first one was the Sunday we came back from Port Stephens. This game was a charity pre season game for the Sydney Rabbitohs. The game was at the Sydney Olympic Park which is where all the venues are that held the Olympic Games in 2000. After the game I had a better understanding of rugby.</span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since we had such a great time at the rugby game we chose to go to one on Friday night while we were in Melbourne. There are multiple variations of rugby and this game was a different variation that was supposedly the best kind. The Melbourne team was a brand new team and this was there first game. There was a lot of excitement around the city for this opening game. The team they were playing happened to be the Sydney Waratahs. Guess who we rooted for? The Waratahs of course. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<b>Sydney Slang</b>: They say how are you going instead of how are you doing</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-84499806159559383142011-02-16T21:05:00.006-05:002011-07-06T17:54:51.165-04:00Port Stephens"College is the longest vacation you will ever take"<br />
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Whats up everyone,<br />
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Last weekend a group of 53 CAPA students went on a trip to Nelson Bay in the area of Port Stephens. It is about three hours away from Sydney. Our tour guide set up this trip and we left Friday evening and this time we all got to ride on the nice charter bus. We had activities planned for all day Saturday and Sunday.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Saturday we woke up at 830 and boarded the bus to feed sharks and stingrays. Upon pulling up to this place I instantly thought of Gatorland in Florida. It was basically a hole in the wall place that gave you the chance to interact with extreme animals in a way no other place can. We put on our “sexy” suits, which were basically fly fishing suits. I was expecting when we came here to be submerged under water and feed them, but that wasn’t the case.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">They had sticks for us to put our “food” on then we proceeded to get into the water. There were four pools that we could get into to feed the sharks and stingrays. I only ended up getting in two of the pools, as this was where most people were. I took my underwater camera and got some good videos off all the sharks and rays. My favorite was they had a stingray that was about 6 foot wide and was by far the biggest stingray I had seen much less got to stand in the water with. While the experience was neat, I was expecting more. Worst part was all 53 of us were going to smell like fish the rest of the day.</span><br />
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</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">We left the shark feeding and headed to the most popular attraction at Port Stephens. We showed up to the beach, which had what seemed like endless amounts of sand dunes. We split into three groups and boarded a 4x4 bus that led us further into the dunes to go dune boarding.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Once we arrived they didn’t say anything other than grab a board and climb the hill. So a group of guys and I grabbed a board and got to the top of the hill as fast as we could. Once we got to the top we sat down on the boards and slid down the dune.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">While this was a thrill we decided a thrill with some more risk. We started going down the dune standing up on the board (which they suggested not to do.) Needless to say this was more fun despite the bad falls a few of us had. We now smelt like fish and were covered in sand for the rest of the day.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ByraVXO2qKw/TVx_BElBVWI/AAAAAAAAAGM/H0fgJsVtQjo/s1600/DSCN5828.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ByraVXO2qKw/TVx_BElBVWI/AAAAAAAAAGM/H0fgJsVtQjo/s320/DSCN5828.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The next thing we did was grab some lunch and then we boarded a boat for a dolphin watching cruise. I have been on a few dolphin cruises before when I was younger and loved them. Dolphins are one of my favorite animals. However, once you actually swim with dolphins, seeing them from afar is nothing. The views from the boat were amazing and we even got on a net that had a slide on the back of the boat while it was going.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">After the dolphin cruise we went back to the room and showered off the sand and stench from the shark tank. We left for a brewery for wine and beer tasting (Yes the drinking age in Australia is 18) We tried a few beers and wines and had dinner. After dinner we boarded the bus and headed back to the apartment to relax and sleep for the next days activities.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Sunday was a day full of wine tasting. We went to 4 wineries in the Hunter Valley Vineyard area which is one of the most popular vineyards in the country. All the wines tasted the same to me. The only difference was drinking red and drinking white. Other than that they all tasted about the same. </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The wineries were neat but 4 was too boring. We were ready to leave as we had a rugby game to catch. On our way back to Sydney we were driving on the road and passed kangaroos in the wild which was awesome!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">I am off to Melbourne this weekend and will have an update soon!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div></b></span></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426251924805348672.post-4018599207110014762011-02-10T20:23:00.003-05:002011-07-05T22:54:47.100-04:00Happy Chinese New Year<div style="text-align: center;"><b>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The fireworks begin today, each </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one of you is a fuse"</span></b><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">G'Day,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On Sunday we attended the Chinese New Year parade and got to see fireworks. Sydney has one of the biggest asian populations in the world since they are so close. Therefore the Chinese New Year here is one of the biggest celebrations in the world. I know very little about the Chinese New Year but it was a really neat night. I do know that the Chinese invented the firework and managed to see an awesome firework show. This year is the year of the bunny. Check out the pictures:</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fun Fact:</b> Aussies don't say college they say uni. So I am </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">considered a uni student while I am here</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14765888805039029076noreply@blogger.com1