I'm still here! I've just fallen behind on my posting...

eh voila: a whole album's worth of new photos from New Zealand!

I've moved back down to the South Island, back on the Stray backpacker bus. Today I went hiking on a glacier, you get to wear super cool spikies on your feet called crampons...

Enjoy the photos from the last two weeksish and tune in again!

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing Epic Adventure

New pictures here!

Hello again faithful readers! I write to you no longer as merely Mara, but Mountaineer Mara. I have traversed the Tongariro National Park, braving freezing cold, 60 km/hour winds, steep climbs up volcanic rock and really goofy looking over-trousers.

To back-track, the last time I wrote I was in Rotorua. I loved Rotorua, obviously we went to the main museum, it used to be a popular spa vacation place in the 1800's. Rotorua was also the home of the Pink and White Terraces, known as the "8th wonder of the world" at the time. They were limestone and silica natural terraces that held hot springs and Victorians came all the way to New Zealand to visit them. They were destroyed in the 1880's though by a massive volcanic eruption. Apparently New Zealand lies right on top of a fault line, the same one that goes through LA. It's a hotbed of volcanic and geothermal activity. Which has become somewhat of a joke, cause I don't fully undertand geothermal activity--the answer to any question I don't know the answer to is "um, geothermal activity?" I did learn how a geyser works though. We saw one at this place Te Puia, a Maori culture center that is also a home to a craft school that teaches Maori carving and weaving techniques, in the hopes that the traditions won't be lost. For nerds who are into museums and learning centers, it was an awesome place. they also have a house to breed kiwis so I got my first glimpse at New Zealand's national animal. Anyways, Rotorua was very cool, there are hot springs all around town, in the hostels, there are even little pools you can put your feet into while you're waiting for the bus. On the way out of town, we stopped at an energy plant that uses the heat from deep in the ground. It's very cool.

Anyways, from Rotorua we went on to Taupo, which is known for having one of the cheapest skydives in the world. I was going to do it with our bus group, but it was raining and then the next day I was just totally mentally unprepared. So I haven't yet taken the plunge but I may do it in the South Island, just to say I did. Even though I might wet myself on the way down. So basically the only memorable thing I did in Taupo was nap and buy some new underwear...but that's important, right?

So the Tongariro National Park is located in the middle of the North Island, just below the southern end of Lake Taupo, which is by the way the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere. The Tongariro Crossing is known as the best one day walk in New Zealand, and is rated in the top 10 walks in the world...by whoever it is that rates these things. The weather has been iffy lately so we couldn't go for a few days; because the weather in New Zealand can change dramatically and very quickly, even when it is allowed to do the walk one has to go very prepared. The crossing is roughly 19 km and it takes somewhere between 6 and 8 hours to complete. We started out at 8 am with all the other hikers in a cold, misty drizzle. For about an hour the walk was nice and easy, only mildy uphill and with beautiful grassy hills that English Lauren said looked like Scotland. It started getting steeper about 2 hours in and the terrain changed to more volcanic rocks, and we could see the snow-capped Mount Tongariro through the fog. Eventually we were climbing steep rocky ground covered in volcanic ash and it was starting to get really cold. They warn you before leaving that you must bring wind- and waterproof gear; it's easy to think it's just overcaution until you start to reach higher altitudes and it gets really cold and really blustery. I rented some waterproof pants to wear over my pants and I don't think I could have made it without them. If you are wearing cotton clothing and it gets damp, combined with the wind hypothermia becomes a real risk.

The going got easier for a while as we walked through the South Crater. The relatively flat ground and intense fog made it seem like we were walking on the moon. If you're ever so lucky, you might see a video Lauren made of me doing a horrible Michael Jackson moonwalk. Eventually we uphill again, along the side of Mount Tongariro and it was COLD. The wind was blowing so hard, if I stopped walking it felt like I might blow over the side of the mountain. Which apparently has happened before.... We all had to wear socks over our hands to keep warm, and I was actually getting kind of scared for a while. But we made it and were rewarded with the clouds blowing over to reveal a spectacular view of the Red Crater and the Emerald Lakes, three sulphur ponds in a gorgeous shade of turquoise. The lakes were quite possibly the most amazing view I've seen yet--it was the combination of volcanic terrain and brilliant color of the lakes, I've never seen anything like it before. The amazing thing about the park is that there are so many different terrains in such a small area. On the way down the hills were covered in sandy colored grasses and occasional little streams, and the final hour was through thick forest with a babbling river running through. By the end I was absolutely exhausted and my legs felt like jello, but it was amazing. Fortunately the hostel has a free hot tub!

So now I'm just relaxing and massaging my poor muscles, and sharing stories of the day with other climbers. Enjoy the photos and laugh at me looking either dorky in my alpine outfit or absolutely miserable in the cold! Tomorrow we should be heading back to Wellington and making a game plan for the South Island. LOVE!

sorry again!

the link to the photos is here

photos

Sorry! here's the link for the photos here...

In other news, our new English friend Lauren who we tricked into traveling with us has just figured out our true natures... "You two are properly mad."
I think she likes us.

Live from Rotorua

Hello family and all! I know you must all be thinking...where the hey is Mara? She never writes anymore! Well, I'm still here. In New Zealand. Not cyberspace. Right now I'm in Rotorua, about in the northern middle of the North Island. Since the last time I wrote, Lauren and I have started our bus passes, we travelled from the South to the north, spent two days in Wellington seeing my old co-counselor and buddy Caitlin and exploring Te Papa Tongarewa, the awesome national museum. If you're into that kind of thing. Which I am. From there we powered up to Auckland and managed to see nothing, and went up for one day to the Bay of Islands. It's on the northern tip of New Zealand, and very beautiful. It's also the home to the Waitangi Treaty grounds, where (duh) the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. Basically it was a treaty signed between the Maori and the English to prevent the French from taking control of New Zealand. The Maori thought they were just getting protection from England and the English kind of thought they got to take Maori land; it caused a lot of problems and is still very controversial today. Forgive the history lesson, but it's important!

We came back to Auckland for one night and left the next morning for Hahei, on the Coromandel Peninsula. When we got there it was pouring rain and the whole bus group tried to trek out to Cathedral Cove, the famous beach in Hahei. At one point we lost a girl and then the group split up on the trail and encountered a huge man in a poncho in the pouring rain....I kind of thought it was the start of like a backpacker horror movie...but alas, nothing so interesting. The next day, most of the bus continued (its a hop-on, hop-off bus so you constantly meet new groups of people...It's both really cool and really sad to get to like people quickly and then leave them) but a few of us stayed behind to see the Coromandel on a good day. it was definitely worth it. We went down to Hot Water Beach, which is known for a geothermal phenomenon that allows one to dig into the sand near low tide and get hot water from underneath. Sometimes it works, we were mostly sitting in scorching hot sand while the cold waves came in. It's pretty cool though. I did a kayak trip in the afternoon to get out to Cathedral Cove and explore some of the bays around it. There are pictures on facebook.

Let's see, from there we went on to Raglan, New Zealand's best surf spot. I didn't surf but the hostel was kind of awesome, they had a free ropes course and zip line that gets increasingly more fun after a few beers. From Raglan we went on to Waitomo, which is known for its caves, and its glowworms. Glowworms are actually the larvae stage of a kind of fly that has glowing kidneys to attract other bugs to eat, which is kind of gross but they look beautiful in a dark cave, like looking up at a night sky. Later that day we drove on to Maketu, supposedly the first place that Maori ancestors landed some 1000 years ago. They do like a cultural night in a Maori marae (meeting house) and you sleep over there. Like most things that attempt to teach you about other cultures through tourist attractions, it feels kind of weird. All the people were super nice and we all learned some songs and dances together, but I don't know how much I learned. It is significant though, to compare how New Zealand and Australia treat their indigenous cultures. There is much more respect and integration of Maori culture in NZ than Aboriginal culture in Australia.

Anyways, I realize this blog post is extremely boring, but I had to catch up! Today we're in Rotorua, famed for its volcanic hotsprings and mudbaths. It smells like sulfur everywhere here. So I'll leave it at that, enjoy the photos, and keep on keepin on? LOVE, Mara.

It's all fun and games till someone vomits on the dolphin spotting boat...

Hello! So apparently I've been wandering away my time on the internet and now I have five minutes left, so the longer explanation of what I've been doing will have to wait till tomorrow. I did manage to get a few pictures up though, you can see them here. Yes, I got seasick today, and I puked on the boat taking us out to swim with dolphins. Was it embarrasing? Yes. But did I manage to make it in the bucket! Of course! Though I felt like crap all day, I did get to do a bit of swimming with the dusky dolphins; it was amazing. There were so many of them everywhere, and they were totally wild, not trained to come to humans. You can see a gallery of what the swimming looks like here. We even saw a few orca (killer) whales on the ride back, which doesn't usually happen. Lauren cried again. I was moved, but also preoccupied with not losing more contents of my fragile stomach. Tomorrow we're heading north and taking the ferry from the South Island to Wellington, from there we'll explore the North Island. Christchurch was an adorable city, very English (or that's what they say). I'll write more tomorrow when I get a chance! Lots of love....

Even Further in the Middle of Nowhere...

Not actually...I'm in New Zealand! Christchurch to be specific. I just realized that I'm ten days behind on my blogging, so you must all be on the edges of your seats. The first two days we were in Cairns it poured rain, but then it was true Cairn weather: hot and steamy. Cairns is part of the area they call Tropical North Queensland, northern Australia is close to the equator and largely tropical. I am not genetically made for the tropics. I sweated my brains out for roughly the whole week. There are new pictures here.

We went up to Cape Tribulation, named back in the day by Captain James Cook, who apparently didn't love it there. It was very beautiful being in the rainforest and Cape Trib is still mostly undeveloped, just a few hotels and a grocery store. It's significant as the one place in the world where two World Heritage sites meet up, the rainforest (the one around Cape Trib is the oldest in the world) and the Great Barrier Reef. Mostly we just walked around, went to a lovely swimming hole, spent time in the hostel pool and took a night walk through the rainforest with a guide. You get to see the nocturnal animals come out, like enormous spiders, saw one snake and a few lizards. And sweated. It was a great trip.

Back in Cairns, we got to hang out again with some of the people we had met on the Fraser Island 4WD tour. It's nice to be in a new place but still get to see some familiar faces, even if they are people we only met recently. There was drinking, there was dancing, there was swimming in the Cairns saltwater lagoon (Cairns has no actual beach). I stopped by the Regional Gallery, obviously. Oh! and I bought a new camera. I was really sad that the screen was broken on my old one so I took the plunge and bought the one I had been looking at at home. (This is really only for Dad, who cares about these things. I got the Canon A590, and of course a proper case to put it in. I'll try not to break this one.) We met a fellow American, Gayle, in Cape Tribulation (there were so many Americans there, it was really strange) and she had the idea to rent a car and do a day tour of the area south of Cairns called the Atherton Tablelands. There are lots of little towns and waterfalls to look at, and a place called Paronella Park where a Spanish emigrant to Australia built a castle for his wife in the 1930's. Its a whole compound really with the main castle, picnic areas, a hydro-electric dam and a lover's lane. Unfortunately I spent a chunk of the day passed out in the car with heat exhaustion.

The day before we left we took a day trip out to the reef to snorkel one more time, it was lovely. It was a great day to go, very sunny so the colors of the water and the fish were so vibrant. I bought a disposable waterproof camera so once I get the photos developed I'll scan them and put them up. Lauren scuba dived (dove?) for the first time and was not a huge fan. That night, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at our hostel that was quite lovely for a makeshift holiday, we made some veggie chilli, mashed potatoes, stuffing and had traditional Australian Tim Tams for desert. Then of course, the next day we flew out....It was a little sad to leave Australia because it's always strange to go to a new place where you don't know anyone, but the adventure continues. And we're going back to Melbourne. So thats it for now, check out the new pics and hoping everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!

Whitsunday Sailing

Pictures from the Whitsunday Islands here
And see our debut on Aussie television! Click here to see the show we were in the audience for in Sydney...it's not really that interesting, I look SO bored the whole time! Its the video called "Sex and Sin"

So I'm a bit behind...and lazy....so we went on a sailing trip through the Whitsunday Islands a few days ago, and it was amazing. They leave from Airlie Beach, and the trips are another of the must-dos for backpackers. Our boat was called the Condor, a former racing sailboat that apparently has won all the possible sailing races in the world at least once. The first day we sailed out to Hook Island and did our first snorkeling, complete with full suits that keep you warm but also protect you from jellyfish stings. Eek! Then at night we dropped anchor and slept in the boat, the "sleeping quarters" were hilarious. It was like what I imagine it would be like to be in prison at sea! There were "double beds" above benches and above those beds were like mini hammocks another person would sleep in (please see photos). I told Lauren she could always have the bottom bunk in any hostel we stayed in if I could avoid sleeping under that hammock.

Basically all you do on the boat is chill on the deck (I managed not only to not burn but I have a tan! A real one! Well, a Mara tan) and get off to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was amazing, the Whitsunday Islands have fringing reefs off the Great Barrier Reef so there are some pretty amazing things to see. There were so many fish and one really large fish that was biting the coral and I could hear it underwater. They also take you to Whitehaven Beach, which is one of the most photographed places in Australia. This beach is unreal, pure white sand and the water is in like ten different shades of turquoise. We snorkeled again twice including an area called Blue Pearl Bay that is nicknamed "The Aquarium." I think I could snorkel all day. And the best part is that every time they hauled us out of the water, the crew had prepared tea and cookies! I loved being out on the boat all day, it was just so nice and peaceful. Definitely my favorite thing we've done so far.

So now we're in Cairns after another overnight bus, planning on snorkeling some more and getting up to the rain forests of Cape Tribulation. We bought tickets to New Zealand for November the 27th, which is only about a week away! The rough plan is to go to New Zealand then come back into Melbourne and visit Tasmania as well. Also, our friend Manessah who we met in Byron Bay is coming to visit us before we go which is very exciting!

A dingo took my veggie burgers!

Hello again! I know I haven't written in a bit, I apologize. It's hard to get internet sometimes, and I read in the newspaper that Australia has some of the slowest internet for the developed world. So it's not just my imagination!

Anyways, Fraser Island was awesome. I ended up not driving at all cause the "roads" were just dirt ruts and I thought I'd probably end up killing us all if I attempted it? One guy Tobey ended up doing all the driving and even though he's experienced there were some hairy moments; it's really fun though, bouncing up and down and getting stuck in the sand in the beach. You have to wade through water channels on the beach to make sure they're not too deep for the van to get through. We took a ferry with everyone's vans across to the island in the morning. It's interesting to think about how many vehicles are on the island, you can access it any day of the week, yet it's a World Heritage site. It's protected but it still seems pretty bad too let so many people visit, although there are restricted areas for regeneration. When we got there (we were two vans of 8 people and 10 people from the same hostel) we drove to Lake McKenzie, a gorgeous freshwater lake with white sand and the water is in several shades of turqoise. It was really beautiful, and I love lakes so much more than the ocean. We camped that night in a fenced area because of dingoes (wild Australian dogs) and I saw a dingo try to steal a pack of toilet paper from some guy's car! I didn't know dingoes used TP.

The next day we drove all the way up the eastern beaches (and got stuck in the sand), and saw an awesome shipwreck from 1935. My group was really good, as was the second group although at the end of the second day there was a big argument about where to stay and very funny yelling: "God, I'm sick of you wingeing all the time! Wingeing is Australian/British for bitching. That night we all hung out around a fire and actually played Truth or Dare, which I don't think I've done since I was age 16? It was very funny. Some people even went in the ocean a little even though you're not supposed to because it's a breeding ground for SHARKS! I put my feet in but was crapping my pants. We left one of our coolers out overnight--with the lid locked in place--but somehow dingoes managed to get in and took all the leftover meat plus all our veggie burgers and like 5 packs of stirfry mix! They are crafty little bastards.

When we got back to the hostel that night everyone was still hanging out and reminiscing about the trip, it was really nice. We saw a bunch of people from our trip when we got to the Town of 1770 because we had to make an important exchange: Lauren forgot her passport in Hervey Bay and we accidentally took the Swedish girls' entire pack of travel vouchers! I wish I could laugh, but is absolutely only a matter of time before I leave my passport somewhere...you know it's true. 1770 was beautiful, a little farm town that apparently only got electricity in 1998! It's becoming a more popular tourist spot for surfing and diving. We did the scooter tour that some Israelis told us a while was a must, and it was so much fun! I was really scared as a result of a bad burning incident on a motorbike in Thailand, but I got back on and it was so awesome to cruise through beautiful country on my own little scooter. (See above "sexy scooter" pic Lauren made me take). Lauren unfortunately had an accident and has colorful bruises to prove it, so near the end of the ride we rode together on my bike and I managed not to kill us! Yay! Although at one point I was on the totally wrong side of the road. Part of the tour is watching the sunset at the marina which was lovely.

Now we're in Airlie Beach after a 10 hour overnight bus ride, we get on a boat this afternoon at 2 to sail the Whitsunday Islands, should be fun! Lot's of love to all!

i'm back

There's a few more photos from the koala sanctuary on the last page here...
And photos from Fraser Island are here
The trip was pretty awesome, I'll come back and describe it later, the internet here is soooo slow and we have to catch a bus soon. Today we're heading to the Town of 1770. Yes, that's its name. Enjoy pictures!

i might get kicked off the island...or instead i'll kick the two german girls off instead...

Hello! Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be MIA until Sunday night. I'm going on a camping trip to Fraser Island this weekend. The island is one of the World Heritage sites and basically a place that you can't skip if you want to say you backpacked in Australia. It should be pretty fun, the tour operators group you together with other backpackers and you get a 4WD van and have to buy food. My only concern is that we went with these two bossy German girls to buy food and not only did they lead us all the way out of the way despite there being a supermarket right where we were dropped off, but they kept checking off food from the list because they don't eat it and thus figured we didn't need to buy it. Other things they didn't think were necessities on an uninhabited island: garbage bags and matches? We split up in the store so I don't know what they bought....I might starve. But in all seriousness, I think it's going to be really fun and I'm going to try my hand at driving a 4WD on the other side of the road...oh, and it's manual. This should be funny! Updates and photos to follow!

Ps. Lauren insists that I have to stop joking about how the German girls are dictators in my fake german accent. But it's not like I do it in front of them....and it's FUNNY.

Pps. Fine, what she really objects to is that I joked that they read Mein Kampf to each other at night. Alright! I'll stop. Really, I love the Germans. They're awesome. Just not these two.

Maybe it's been overused....but YES WE DID!

Obama won!

I managed to get a absentee ballot in a few days ago, thanks to overseasvotefoundation.org,
which offers the Federal Write-In Ballot for people who haven't received their absentee ballots in time to vote. I found this out because I was googling for places we could go to find events surrounding coverage of the election, like at a bar or something. I really think there should be more of an effort to make every option known to US citizens so they can vote...regardless though I think the turnout was the greatest in history! It's truly amazing. Lauren and I ended up watching the votes come in from our hostel in Noosa (one girl came by and was like, "Can I change the channel and see if Oprah is on or something?" I think she understood immediately from our faces that we were not changing it!) My faith is renewed that Americans won't keep voting against all logic. I feel like we've redeemed ourselves both nationally and internationally, and that I shouldn't have to feel sheepish anymore whenever I tell fellow travelers that I'm an American. Yay!

It's also really interesting to see how the election was covered here, because the international community truly was invested in this election. Australia is currently undergoing their own financial troubles (as is the rest of the world) and I think the majority is happy with the outcome. Anyways, now to have a drink and celebrate!

Pictures

Pictures from Byron Bay (with a little help from Lauren's pics) here.
My camera still works, but the screen is broken...
We're in Noosa now and there's a long line for computers that close in half an hour! Love!

Oh god, I'm a tourist

So this picture is a bit crap, because it's a picture of a picture...the one I paid 15 dollars for...but the money goes to help koalas! Let's backtrack....Lauren and I left Byron Bay (although I couldn't have stayed for a lot longer, it was so nice) and hopped a bus to Brisbane. This will be the fourth night in Brisbane, we spent two nights on the western side of the city and then we moved into the city center. The Brisbane river meanders right through town like a big squiggly line. It's sad to be in a place where we don't know anyone, although we did make friends with this guy at an Indian place who recently came back from traveling the west coast of the States and Canada. Lauren ran into him today at the state library and we hung out this afternoon, it's pretty cool how that stuff happens.

Anyways, we've been to the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (obviously), wandered the city and of course the highlight: the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I swear I didn't know I loved koalas until we got here, but I do! They're just so damn cute. At the sanctuary you can (pay to) hold a koala and feed kangaroos in this huge enclosure. Obviously the kangaroos are used to humans, but it's still exciting. And let's just say we witnessed the potential creation of new kangaroo life. For the dense, we saw kangaroos having sex. I wish I could say I were more mature and didn't giggle, but I did. The koalas were adorable, I pet a few and took lots of pictures. As a side note, it turns out my camera still works, but the screen is completely broken.

We'll be here a few more days and then up to Noosa. We're desperately trying to put together a plan to watch the election results come in--don't forget to vote! By the way, Mom and Dad, I discovered on the internet there's an emergency absentee ballot one can print off if in the event that the original doesn't come soon enough (or you got sunstroke and kept forgetting to tell your parents where to send it). So I'm going to do that. That's all for now, because my internet card is almost done. More to follow, as well as pictures!

My other website

I just thought I'd share this because it's funny. Lauren discovered if you accidentally miss a letter in the url for my site, you get a bible prohecy site:

wheresmara.blogpot.com

Whales! And why there are no pictures.....

Hello again! I apologize for not writing for a little bit, although I guess it's a good thing to realize I haven't been on the internet in a few days as a result of actually doing things. Its been a little over a week total that I've been in Byron Bay. So let's see...

Lauren and I have actually (believe it or not!) made some friends at the hostel we've been staying at, in addition to the people we met through Liat, so it's been really nice to have other people to hang out with and do stuff with. I sort of feel like during this time in Byron Bay is when I really started to feel in the traveling groove, so to speak. When we first got to Byron I was so overwhelmed because it was a Friday and the hostels get packed with people coming to party for the weekend, but its much more chill during the week. And it's easy to start conversations with people at a hostel, because everyone is doing the same thing and just looking for people to hang out with. It's pretty cool.

Anyways, last week we went on a day tour to Nimbin with some friends from the hostel. Nimbin is known as the marijuana capital of Australia, basically there are tours you can take to the town (population 400) to buy weed cookies or whatever and the guide plays trippy music and talks about the counterculture history of the area. Before you get too concerned--I didn't take anything! It turns out that Nimbin and Byron Bay kind of became known as a hotspot for alternative lifestyles when loads of American draft-dodgers came in the 60's. They have this hilarious "museum" that has a few rooms just filled with random stuff, Aboriginal artefacts and quotes about spirituality. I actually wish we had more time in the town because they have some good agricultural and alternative energy initiatives going on, but it seems to get lost in the tourist hordes who come to just get high. The bus driver told some awesome stories about people who went overboard on the "space cakes" and totally freaked out on the tour, but fortunately everyone was pretty mellow, except for some guys who couldn't stop laughing while they cracked macadamia nuts. Ha. And there were some really annoying California boys who got really high and were just generally kind of asses, the kind that give Yankees abroad a bad name. One of them started talking to me at the hostel and revealed how he tricks other people into buying him drinks at the bar, despite the fact that he has his own business and is still getting paid while he's away. Not quality people.

The next day I went bodyboarding with an Irish guy I met on the Nimbin tour, it was really scary! The ocean is so strong, and we kept getting swept to the next beach over. The day after that Lauren and I actually managed to get up before noon and we went on a kayak trip at 8:30 in the morning. I thought it was a little expensive but it turned out to be more than worth it--we saw 3 humpback whales! Up close! I was in the kayak with one of the guides and at one point we were seriously like 10 meters away from them--two were swimming around and the third was a huge one (roughly the length of four of the kayaks put together) that was on it's back and slapping its fins around. It was truly amazing, to think that we were so close to one of the biggest animals in the world, and something that I'll probably never experience again. I think on the tours the whales don't usually get that close, so even the guides were in awe. I don't want to sell Lauren out, but she might have been moved to tears..... After the amazing whales, the guide with me goes "Let's go see some gay little dolphins!" Normally I would object to the use of gay to describe something but it was true, after the whales the dolphins were significantly less impressive. Though very cute.

Let's see...what else? Lauren is known as the reigning Connect Four champ in the hostel (despite the fact that our friend James has beat her a number of times while intoxicated, but no one remembers that), I've given away a significant amount of money to the local pie shop in late night runs, I burnt my back at the beach (and my bum), and we continue to offend Israeli backpackers with our atrocious Hebrew.

Last night, we planned on going out dancing with James (English) and our Canadian friend Manessa, and accordingly bought a box of "goon:" cheap terrible wine. Unfortunately once everyone was ready we discovered that all the bars had closed so we got some pie and I came up with a crackpot idea to take our sleeping bags up to the lighthouse (one of the only still funtional lighthouses in the southern hemisphere, in case you cared) and wake up for the sunrise. The lighthouse is located just above a point that is the farthest east you can get on the Australian mainland. So if you watch the sunrise there you're one of the first on the mainland to see the sun come up. Pretty cool. You have to walk along the beach for a while to get to the stairs up to the lighthouse, and we did this at like, 2 in the morning (thanks for the headlamp Shana and Daniel!). We saw lots of little sand crabs scurry away from the light. The lighthouse itself is really beautiful, it just seems kind of magical in the night. I was entranced by it. I'm adding it to my list of things that really excite me: lighthouses and koalas in the wild. Anyways, we slept for about 3 hours on a little patch of grass (I don't think you're really supposed to sleep there) and watched a beautiful sunrise.

Oh! and the reason that there haven't been any pictures is because I pulled another Mara and didn't seal my water bottle properly in my backpack and it leaked all over my camera. So when we get to Brisbane (we're leaving Byron in 2 days) I'll try to get it fixed. So that's all for now, this is the longest post I've ever written I think! Lots of love to all.....

Byron Bay

Hello faithful readers! I'm in Byron Bay. Its a small city on the east coast, a 13 hour greyhound ride north from Sydney and just below Brisbane. Its known as a hippie/surfer town, although the locals would say it's changed over the years. There's only a few streets in the main section of town, its very cute. We got here last Friday on an overnight bus and have just been hanging out since. We met this girl Liat through the Chabad here and had Saturday lunch with her and her Israeli friend, who then invited us to a birthday bonfire on the beach. It was lovely to hang with people who actually live here, and it was so much fun. Mostly what there is to do here is drink, go to the beach, surf, and I'm going to try to sign up for either a kayak or mountain bike tour. I feel like this is a really boring post! Oh well, just know that I'm good, a little burnt, I now have fresh laundry and all is right in the world. Lot's of love to all, and I'll write another post later when I've regained my creativity!

Open Caption Contest

I think we're IN a cloud!

First I'd like to say thank you to the fam for calling me! That was so sweet and I apologize for only being semi-coherent. It's pretty awesome you thought I would be out partying when really I was curled up in a bunk bed snoring. Figures. Anyways, I miss you all very very much and would it kill you to write? Ha.

So now I'm writing to you from a hostel in Katoomba, a small city about 2 hours west of Sydney. Yesterday we went to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney before leaving and got pretty close to some wallabies, including one with a baby in its pouch. Wallabies are pretty much like mini-kangaroos. The zoo is on the northern shores so one takes a ferry to get there, it's very beautiful. After we got back from the zoo, something funny happened. We were cooking dinner in the hostel before going to the train station and there was a guy from LA in the kitchen. We were excited to speak to him, but he didn't seem so into us. Then, just as we were leaving, he says slyly, "So, I hear you thought our room smelled like an Istanbul toilet?" My first thought was, "Hey, how'd you know we went to Istanbul?" Actually what he meant was that word got around that we were blabbing about how filthy the 10 person dorm was! So then I realized that for like the week that we stayed there, we were known as those girls who kept talking about how gross the room was! I felt momentarily bad that we had been talking about them, and that they had found out.....but seriously, they should be ashamed of themselves. That room was FILTHY. And we got our Manchester buddies to swear they would take our side if there was a rumble....

Okay anyways, then we left and came to Katoomba, which is the largest town in the Blue Mountains region. They're called the Blue Mountains because oil from eucalyptus trees in the air makes a kind of blueish haze. Its beautiful here. The hostel we're at is really adorable, it's like staying at someone's house. Someone's house with velvet wallpaper in the dining room. I love it. It's much cooler here (mountains, duh). Anyways, the things you do here are pretty much admiring the beauty. There's trails all over the place; after it finally stopped raining today we walked down to Echo Point which overlooks a valley and the mountains, and you can see the Three Sisters, three huge jutting rocks that aboriginal legend says were sisters turned into rock....and something else. I don't know, I can't remember. We stayed to watch the sunset and like a minute after the sun disappeared the whole area was enveloped in fog. It was crazy, one minute I was looking into this beautiful valley and then there was just white. Lauren kept insisting "We're IN the clouds!" Pretty amazing. So that's all for now, sorry if that was rambly. Lauren said it was rambly. I said it was detailed. Thoughts?

PS. you can leave comments if you use Gmail...just saying

Mara and Lauren become Australian tv stars

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But we were on tv. And Lauren sat next to a famous Australian comedian and didn't even know!

So last week we were at the mall in Bondi Junction when we were approached by a woman who asked us if we would like to be on a show where young adults discuss issues important to them. We said sure! Why? Cause it's funny. Anyways, we almost missed it as we had been wandering through the King's Cross neighborhood in Sydney and decided to use a drink ticket. We lost track of time and had to book it to the Australian Broadcasting Company. As a side note, if you live with your parents for several months and cease drinking socially for an extended amount of time, one drink alone can make you fairly tipsy! Anyways, the way the show works is that there is a host who interviews a few preselected people and then they get fillers to sit in and chime in with comments if they have them. The topic for this episode was "Sex and Religion;" the preselected people included an 18-year old Christian who has decided to stay a virgin till marriage, a young Christian couple who are also saving themselves, a gay Pentecostal who had gone through 3 gay-to-straight classes before accepting himself, a Catholic gay man who alluded to the fact that he is celibate because he believes it's wrong (but wouldn't really confirm or deny) and a man who has been dating his girlfriend for 7 years (!) without sex, oh and a young married couple who also waited. There was also a token Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu but basically it became a show about really Christian people who think sex before marriage is really evil. It was VERY strange. I was sitting in the front row so I think I show up a lot on the tape, but Lauren is for sure on camera a lot since she was sitting next to the comedian Chris Taylor who provided a heathen voice. Apparently he's really big here and we had no idea!

The filler people were invited to comment but I didn't because I have terrible stage fright. Honestly though, I wish I had made a comment because the discussion was so intense. Since they were interviewing a lot of young religious people the main message that was being conveyed was that basically your options are that you absolutely abstain from any kind of physicality before marriage or that you are a total slut. For a show that is supposed to present the opinions of average Australian young people, I felt it was totally off. But I guess that's what makes for interesting television. There were a few moderate voices but the discussion was dominated by people talking about sacrifice and suffering in the name of love. I just wanted to shout out "Everybody needs to chill out!"

Anyways, I didn't mean to ramble about it but it was a truly fascinating experience. And just really funny, cause we were on tv! You can watch the video online probably in November after it airs here. After the taping Luaren and I snuck into the crew after-party (it was their last show of the season) and got to speak to some of the people interviewed. We also STUFFED our faces with the free food that was there because we are shameless and cheap. They kept telling us we had to go, and then we were basically (nicely) escorted out of the building. Ha.

This is the website for the show if you want to see what it's like: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/default.htm

Addendum to yesterday's post....

We spoke to a reliable witness last night that there is but one housecleaner for the entirety of the hostel. If there is still a person in the room, it does not get cleaned, only receives new sheets when a guest leaves. So it is entirely plausible that the 10 bed dorm has NEVER been cleaned. Ew.

In other news, we're staying in a different room which is much better. Latest highlights of Sydney have included the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, originally built in the early 1800's as a place to house convicts in the new Sydney settlement and later used as a holding place for newly arrived single women immigrants. It was very cool. Yesterday was the Manly Jazz Festival which was really nice, today we are aiming for the Sydney Jewish Museum, and perhaps use of a few more of our free drink tickets?

Oh, and yesterday a total stranger shoved Lauren aside on the street. And no one cared. She kept shouting back at him "That man pushed me!!" And no one even acknowledged it...it was kind of funny. Oh, and a man waiting in line for the ferry dropped his sleeping bag on her head. It was also kind of funny. That's all!

And now a word on public sanitation from Lauren and Mara

G'day mates!
This is Lauren, here to assist Mara in accurately describing some pretty horrific events that happened to us today.
It all happened when we saw a sign advertising a new "boutique" hotel, with beds starting as cheap as 20 dollars. That was enough to send us running! Sign us up!
We enter the "hotel" wide-eyed and eager. Innocent, if you will. We soon lost our innocense.
20 dollars a night, a dorm of 10. We should have known something was fishy when the receptionist refused to show the room to us before we paid.
We climb up the rickity stairs. We are used to dorms. We do not have high expectations. But we were not prepared for dorm room 204. It is 10 am.

Mara enters first. Lauren quickly follows suit. People are still sleeping, so the room is dimly lit and it is hard to see. Once the door closed behind us with a bang, we recognize the stench. Mara's nose hairs stand on end. It smells as if 10 boys have been locked in this room for weeks on end-- eating, sleeping, sweating, belching, farting. Our eyes finally adjust to the dark, and we begin to see where we are. Our eyes frantically look around the tiny room, crammed with 5 bunk beds. The only available bed for Mara has complimentary two half filled soda bottles and suspicious looking sheets. We see every manner of refuse. The trash overflows. Ramen noodles crunch underfoot. Mara keeps tripping on someone's plate, whilst groggy backpackers, wasted from the night before, roll over, groan, and go back into their smelly stupor of sleep. What looks like weeks of dirty laundry carpets the floor, leaving only a small circle upon which we dump our bags. We realize, with horror, that there are no windows to be found, and it is likely that the last time this room received fresh air was somewhere around 1905. We just may suffocate. At this point, we are focused on survival. We need to leave the room as soon as possible. We bolt, abandoning our packs like downed men in a battlefield, taking only the necessities. Money, passport, hand sanitizer. We gasp for air in the hallway, not sure where to begin, how to describe our experience. What to do next.

Mara: (look of utter horror)
Lauren: (Shock. Confusion.)
Mara:...So.
Lauren:...Yeah.
Mara: That place smells like dirty ass.
Lauren: (laughter)...I am in shock. Still.
Mara: Ass. It smells like ass.
Lauren: Focus. What are our options?
Mara: Ass.
Lauren: Get yourself together! We can't stay in there.
Mara: I feel so bad for our bags. We just abandoned them in there. How can we be so cruel?
Lauren: You have a ramen noodle stuck in your hair.

After a few moments of somewhat less-toxic air filling our lungs, we were able to rally together to demand a change of room. A man who escaped from the Room Where Cleanliness Goes to Die sees us changing rooms, and whispers to the receptionist about us: "They were terrified."

When we went back to retreive our bags, we hold our noses before entering the heart of darkness once more. Mara whispers: "I feel like we are on a rescue mission."

We are currently working on our expose of this hostel, working on backpacker unionizing and rights, and worrying that we still retain remnents of dirty ass smell on our clothes. Pictures soon to follow.

The moral of this story is that if you find a hostel that is suspiciously cheap, it is because it is a public sanitation nightmare. Backpackers--UNITE!

A Sydney Update

New photos from Fiji here (go to the 3rd page)
Photos from the first few days in Australia here

I'll try to write this post with better punctuation (MOM) but no promises! I'm worried my internet card is about to run out. So Kran and I are now in Central Sydney, kind of like the downtown. It looks so much like Toronto, it's crazy, Sydney Tower looks like the CN tower, the streets and architecture are very similar. I guess it makes sense. Bondi Beach was very different, it kind of reminded me of Tel Aviv, very beach culture. Bondi is Sydney's most famous beach but as we learned on the walk south from Bondi (which is one of the eastern suburbs) to Coogee beach, there are lots of little beaches that are just as lovely. Unfortunately it was really windy when we were there so we didn't swim but did find time to go to synagogue twice for the holidays, eat good food, walk a lot and leave my wallet on the bus. HA! You knew it would only be a matter of time before I did something that could be classified as "pulling a Mara." Fortunately Syndey society seems to be functioning well, Lauren called the bus company for me immediately after (I was too pissed off and whiny to deal with my own mess), someone found it and I picked it up the next morning. What will I do next???

Anyways, so now we're sharing a room with a French dude and a guy from Manchester who I CANNOT understand. We've been to the lovely Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hyde Park, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Harborfront (going back when it's sunnier for better pics), and a nutty enormous market in Chinatown. Tommorrow we're going to one of the northern suburbs, Manly, for the Jazz Festival. We'll take a ferry to get there, yay! Anyways, thats the update for now, I'm sitting in the lobby of our hostel on the internet, they are constantly blasting music, I suppose to give a "party air" but it's really annoying when you're trying to write! Speaking of partying though, we got 15 drink tickets each in a little packet when we came to the hostel--seriously--so we're going out to redeem some of them tonight. Although in actuality Lauren and I are kind of like old ladies, we're going to pretend for now that we are WILD party animals!!!!

today's sampling of funny quotes from the road....

Last night we had dinner with a family from the Central Synangogue in Sydney, we were talking American and Israeli politics...

The Dad: "Do you know what's the difference between Natan Sharansky and Ehud Olmert?"
Lauren: "Lipstick?"

And in Fiji, our guide on the islands, Levi (a Fijian who had served in Israel as a peacekeeper) got us coconuts from a nearby tree....

Lauren: "Are there a lot of coconut trees in Fiji?"
Levi: (looks at her like she's an idiot)....."Are there a lot of olive trees in Israel?"

I write from a Land Down Under....

Hello from Bondi Beach! So here I am in Sydney Australia, crazy! Lauren and I flew yesterday from Fiji and we're currently staying in Bondi Beach. We're here because 'Rosh Hashana starts tonight and we'll be going to shul and having meals with some people the rabbi set up for us. Otherwise I might not stay here...I'm basically the exact opposite of a surfer chick and Bondi is like the hot spot for people to go to the beach. Its nice though, it reminds me a lot of Tel Aviv but bigger. Yesterday was SO crowded because it was Sunday, its a little more chilled out now. I think we're going to head to the beach once I get my internet fix. We're in a hostel that looks out over the ocean, and we're sharing a room with four British dudes....it seems that the entire population of Brits in their 20's is backpacking, I don't know who's left in the country! Still the only Americans, and a Serbian guy this morning told us we were the first Americans he had met traveling (besides when he was in America). I feel like we've been spoiled so far because in Fiji we often had the dorm rooms almost completely to ourselves and now we're in a proper hostel, I'm sleeping on a top bunk, it's like a bizarre summer camp :) But its all good and we're still having a great time. Sydney so far looks just like an American city except that everbody has funny accents.

I think that's it for now, more details and pictures to follow!

oh yeah, i got to use my medical kit....

I forgot to mention, I saw Hillel left a comment on one of the photos of me petting a cat saying not to touch them...that cat was lovely! However, there's a cat at the Nadi hostel we're staying at that I was petting; I thought we were getting along great and he BIT me! I now understand Hillel's desire to dropkick a cat....

It's Friday here, which means its Thursday by you

I'm here in Suva, Fiji's capital city at an internet cafe full of dudes playing weird warcraft games. Just an average evening! We just had dinner at a yummy curry house and found this cafe next door. Half of Fiji's population is Indo-Fijian, descendants of Indians who came here as indentured servants in colonial times. I believe the political tension here is due to the split population thing but our book says not to ask anyone about it because apparently its TOUCHY....so I have no insights. Its interesting though, there are many places in Fiji renowned for Indian cooking and you can see both Hindu temples as well as Indian mosques around.

Today we took a very touristy tour from Nadi along the one road that goes along the southern coastline, we were taken on a longboat to see some waterfalls and went far up the Navua river to see a "traditional" Fijian village. It involved singing and dancing, welcoming ceremonies and many thoughts on my part on the notion of authenticity. I'll spare you the bulk of it, but it is endlessly fascinating to me how not only tourists view locals, but how locals choose to "perform" their culture for tourists. We also had a kava ceremony which is done whenever someone enters a village and is still done in most communities, not only for tourists. Kava is a root that gets crushed up and mixed with water to form a drink, its supposed to make you relaxed and can numb your tongue and lips. We didn't see the rest of the village, it was basically like they take the tourists to this one building to do all the stuff and then send them on. Although we did get a look at the medical clinic which receives donations from tourists and serves around 20 surrounding villages.

When we got off the river Lauren and I arranged to catch a local bus the rest of the way to Suva instead of heading back with the rest of the group. Tomorrow we'll see the Fiji Museum and some of the city before heading back to Nadi, we fly to Sydney Sunday morning. So far we're having a great time and lots of fun....Lots of love to all!

In which i almost pass out on a hike up a hill because i'm wildly out of shape

Bula from Fiji!

SO finally here is my update. Lauren and I have just spent two days on Malolo Island, about an hour's ferry ride from Nadi, where we flew in. It was a nice beach resort, kinda quiet but a good place to start. A few families, us, a British girl, and obviously, an Israeli who insists he made a 5 figure fortune in New Zealand by selling paintings door to door. Hm. Anyways, we slept, we swam, we drank coconut juice, we had amazing Fijian fish cooked in coconut oil, we made numerous Sarah palin impressions. Also, we hiked with a guide up to the highest point on the mountain, and it turns out if you only drive places for several months, hiking is harder than it used to be. I actually got really dizzy and almost barfed (it was also really hot out) and it was generally fairly embarrasing.

So...today we took a tiny little plane back to the mainland cause it was only 5 dollars more and seemed like fun. Fiji is NOT a cheap place. You have to book all your island stuff in advance and once you get there you have to eat their food...but live and learn. I figure this is the only time in my life I'll ever be here so I may as well have a good time. But anyways, the plane was hilarious, it was like being in a van in the air. Tomorrow we are going on a tour to some waterfalls and will be spending the night in Suva, the capital. I'm going to wrap this up because I only paid for a half hour of internet....but pictures are here!!! More to follow...

it's a real place!!

Me in front of High Voltage Tattoo in LA,  site of TLC's show, LA ink.....and Kat Von D giving someone a tattoo!  Don't worry, I didn't get one, they have a $200 minimum...

Live from the capital of the US of A...

Okay, okay, Mom...here is my new posting. I'm not yet in the habit of posting stuff cause I still have my cellphone and thus feel still somewhat connected to the world. This week in Washington has been lovely, I got to see my besties AND really cool art (the photo is a piece from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, its made of license plates, see if you can read it). I also visited the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of African Art, a place i feel is often overlooked but was very impressive. Good food, good drinks, good people, this is kind of a great town....parents, consider saving some pennies for me to go to school here? Anyways, tomorrow I'll be saying goodbye to DC and flying to LA to see Hillel and Keren. Lots of love to all!

Update from TO

So obviously I haven't left on the actual journey, just the pre-journey. But I wanted to try out my journal...and pimp out some photos of Joseph. I'm currently in Toronto at Shana and Daniel's place, and I just spent the week with the cutest baby alive. I'll be here for another week, then Fayetteville, and then things will get pretty interesting after that....
Click for new photos of Baby J here.