GIRRAWEEN!: four of the most breathtaking, painful, and smelliest days of my life

This was exactly what the title of this blog says.  It was incredible, painful, smelly, beautiful, interesting, hilarious, scary, and wonderful all at the same time.  This was the second trip for my outdoor education class and we went to Girraween National Park.  This trip was much trickier than the first trip because the instructor did not help us at all! My group had about 10 of us and the purpose was to hike around the entire national park in the four days. We had a starting point and an ending point.  We would walk and walk and walk until we got to our new campsite each night.  All together I think they said we hiked about 35 miles in the four days. Yah may not sound  that bad... but imagine doing it up mountains with a 30 pound pack on you.  It was very difficult! The instructor did not come with us on our hikes so we had to find our way the whole four days by just a map and a compass.  this was not easy! My group did get lost (so the girls would say). We had two boys in our group who would never admit we were lost. But we definitely were. Boys will be boys I suppose.  We walked so far out of the way our radio lost reception so we couldn't talk to our instructor. We had to walk back about 2 miles just so we could talk to him to figure it out. One day my group went a little out of the way and we ended up in about a half a mile of thrown bushes!!! this was no fun!! had to scrape our way out of there. I had a million cuts on my legs and still one huge across my shin that will probably scar!

On this trip I of course saw amazing things. Sunrises and sunsets, 100 kangaroos in a valley, watering holes to swim in, and went caving.  I'll describe some pictures below so you can get a better idea of everything!

When we were hiking one day we saw sooo many kangaroos just hoping along! Incredible!

Just a fun pic when we were on top of a mountain one day watching the sunrise!

One morning we got up at 4:15 AM to do a hike up Mount Norman which was the tallest one there and we brought our sleeping bags so we could sleep until it rose. It absolutely sucked waking up and doing that our last day when we were in so much pain. But once we got to the top and watched it rise it was incredible and cold! :)

My group! HAPPY HIKERS!!!

Every night we would set up a new camp. We had the same stoves as the last trip. We couldn't have a big bon fire in the National Park so my group decided to use our stoves to have a nice little fire :) We made warm jello this night. Just mixed the jello with hot water and it was a nice little treat for a hard days work :)

Caving was pretty cool. Although it was not what I expected. They weren't really actual caves... it kind of just ended up being a bunch of huge rocks that were piled on top of each other and we had to squeeze our way through!! It was very difficult sometimes and I didn't think I'd fit sometimes but we always managed to squeeze or way through! My body bent in ways it should never bend...

Just crawling up a rock. Almost fell... no good... But i survived :)

Hiking, hiking, and more hiking....

Long way down after a long way up... I swear it was steeper than it looks! Sometimes walking back down the mountains was worse than walking up! My toes started to hurt so bad because they were pushing against my shoes on the way down. 

A pretty watering hole. Some people jumped in but not me... way to cold and sore :)

Well thats about all I can think of about it right now! Hope you enjoyed! 19 days left! YIKES!

Pictures from fishing!!

My first fish! I told you I got some dad! I got 5 but we didn't get pics of all five!

My Manta Ray! Soooo hard to reel in! But I was sooo excited once I got it in the boat!!

Getting ready to reel in another one!

Yup I got scared. Weird. ha

The boat. Had a grill on it! What a great day!

One of my fishes!! ugly one!! looks like its pregnant but it wasn't!

Well thats all I have! Didn't get a pic of the one we cooked and ate but it was good!!!!

Race Day! May 1st 2010

Race day was sooooooo much fun. It's a day where we all get really dressed up and go to the Lismore race track. Of course I ended up being really sick the day before so I stayed in bed the whole day before so I could be ready for race day. I was still stuffy on race day but I survived. There was no way I was going to miss it. Everyone said it was the most fun day of the year, which it was definitely up there. I didn't end up betting on any of the races... I know BIG SURPRISE! haha but I was to scared to bet because they do it kind of different. All in all it was a great and very long day!! Pictures below!

Regina and I

The guys-Wade, Ryan, Stevo, Bryce, Connors,

Matt, and Greg.

Matt and I

Sarah and I

Noah and I

The girls

jess and I

Emma, Matt, me and Kelly

Just going to sum up the last week or two...

So I know I have been pretty bad about writing on here but it's because the internet is no good here. So here it is... we went to Brisbane and we went to a casino!! haha It was really sweet inside but definitely not as big as Mystic Lake (oh how I miss those girls nights at mystic) I actually didn't end up betting any of my own money!!! wow I know... ha funny story-- I actually didn't even get into the casino on the first try because I was wearing flip flops! So I had to go to a store a few blocks away and bought 6 dollar shoes... They say it is a safety thing... lame. Well then I went back and got in :) I went with some friends and none of them had really ever played black jack before! they usually stick to slots so I told them all the rules that I knew. Matt gave me some money and wanted me to play instead of him. I ended up winning him 70 bucks on a 10 dollar minimum! I was so proud of myself :) then I wish I had actually played with my own money.. ha

After the casino we went to a professional rugby game. The Queensland Reds vs South African storms. It was a lot nicer of a game than I saw from the lismore vs coffs harbour game, but still brutal! The reds won so the guys were pretty excited about that. I am starting to understand rugby more and more, but still think its crazy and kind of hard to understand. Lots of rules.

Another day we also went to Ballina which is about a 25 minute drive from Lismore. We rented a boat for 135 dollars. It was really cheap because we just split it between 7 of us. I ended up catching the most fish!! and I was the only American on the boat!! I caught 5! And one Manta Ray (sting ray) wow those things are tough to get in! My friend took pictures of the fish I caught so I am just waiting for her to put those up then I will put them up on here for you.  We actually ended up keeping one of them and cooking it on the boat because we had a grill on the boat. It wasn't that big of one, but just cut the size it needed to be to keep it. I acutally caught a much bigger one of the same fish but when my friend started to pull it up by the line when I got it close to the boat, the line snapped and we lost it... Would have been yummy!  Well that ended up being an awesome day and I hope to do it once more before i leave!!
Pictures of the fish will be up soon! love and miss you all! :)

Lismore VS Coffs Harbour in Rugby match! April 17th 2010!

Coffs harbour and our Lismore Wolfpack have a game once a year in rugby where they pretty much just kill each other. It was the first rugby match I have seen and 3 kids from coffs harbour ended up going to the hospital. It was insane. The guys here always say how American sports are so easy and the players aren't that tough because they have padding but I think these guys are insane for playing rugby without padding. Anyways the wolfpack (my team) ended up killing coffs harbour. Then after the game we all went out and partied together :) Good time!

Cartoon Character theme night!

It was one of my good friends 21st birthday so she put on a theme at the Uni bar. It was a cartoon/superhero theme. It was a great night as you can see from the pictures below :)
FYI I was not a play boy bunny! I was Babs Bunny from Space Jams! haha just want to clarify that mom and dad :) I didn't want to spend money on a costume so I bought those ears for 60 cents :)

Transformer, Dorthy, Spongebob Square Pants, Babs, and a cat :)

Wade (my RA) and I 

Bob the builder and Babs :)

Transformer Matt and I

Mario and Luigi

Sarah the cat and I

Momo's last day in Australia- Byron Bay with her and Matt!

For Mom's last day in Australia I took her to Byron Bay which is probably one of my favorite places in Australia. We went to some of the local's beaches instead of the touristy ones because they are much better. We walked up to the lighthouse which was my first time as well! We also saw dolphins when we were up at the top! we also went to the most eastern point of Australia. Pictures below :)

Walking up to the light house

Mom thought I should try and get down there haha

Mum and I :)

Matt and I

Again

Mummy!

Mum thought these rocks were really cool in the ocean!

Momo's last picture in Australia- the most eastern point

Matt and I at the same place