Alright so after Alice Springs we headed over West to Perth. It is the last major city that we planned on visiting that we hadn't yet (that means that soon enough it will no longer be a WE in these sentences :(. ) . We arrived in Perth on the 13th and for the most part our trip to this city ended up being more of a reunion with some old faces. We first went out for lunch with our friend Nozomi, who we met in Mooloolaba. She took us out to a Japanese restaurant and Amanda tried tuna and sushi... pretty big day. Then later on in the week we met up with the Scottish girls a couple of times... even squeezed in a movie night... little things that you take for granted at home. On one of our last nights we went to one of the many Karaoke restaurants in the area and I sang a duet (which means I actually sang into a microphone! Let me just say that that took many months of preparation for me to actually do it... luckily no casualties and therefore no regrets). The next day Amanda and I took the train to Fremantle, which is a city close by, so that we could check out their market (which was decent, but we weren't overly in the mood to do any serious shopping - the town itself is very beautiful and looks like a classically restored town). Aside from that Perth was just a quick stop in our tour over here... although we did begin training in Perth. And Michelle you had better watch out because we are both planning on entering the half-marathon this year.
Miss you all terribly. Take care, Amanda & Ryan
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sorry about the delay!
Hey Folks,
I apologize for not posting pictures or updating lately but internet has been super expensive lately. I am presently trying to load pictures but I only have 5 minutes left and it is about half way done. Hopefully they all load but I doubt it. As soon as we can find some cheaper internet we will give you a more detailed report on our travels as well as some more pics.
Take Care,
Amanda
PS We are OK and travelling to Margaret River today.
I apologize for not posting pictures or updating lately but internet has been super expensive lately. I am presently trying to load pictures but I only have 5 minutes left and it is about half way done. Hopefully they all load but I doubt it. As soon as we can find some cheaper internet we will give you a more detailed report on our travels as well as some more pics.
Take Care,
Amanda
PS We are OK and travelling to Margaret River today.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Alice Springs
Well for those of you who follow our blog religiously you are in for a treat! Two posts in the same week!! Crazy I know. Well we are now in Perth and figure that it is time that we back track and update you on our tour through the Red Centre (literally the sand is red). We flew in to Alice Springs on the 8th and were immediately hit with the heat (at this time of year it gets up to 40 degrees on average) and also literally hit, mostly in the face, with FLIES! I have never been so close to going crazy in my life as I was constantly swatting flies from my face and anything else they fancy. The next day we took off for our tour at 5:45am! (We actually woke up early enough for that pick up)
This portion that explains the trip is pretty much from the brochure with a few personal insights.
1st Day - Kings Canyon - spend the day hiking (a good couple of hours up and down) the canyon, with plenty of time for the north and south walls, and a swim in the Garden of Eden waterhole (slippery rocks as you try to gracefully slide your way in to the cold/hot water that is home to many tadpoles). We have dinner (pasta & meat sauce) while viewing the sunset over the ranges (personally we enjoyed the sunset at Carlo Sandblow better). Then we slept under the stars on top of our swag (essentially a bigger version of a fully body sleeping bag with a mat inside) in our own sleeping bags (I woke up to the sight of a bull about thirty feet away from me - making a lot of noise I may add).
2nd Day - The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) & Ayers Rock (Uluru) - the morning's spent on a rewarding hike through the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta. After lunch it's off to Uluru for a leisurely guided base walk around the rock and visit to the informantive cultural center. Then we watched the sunset on the rock.
3rd Day - Ayers Rock (Uluru) - did a 9km walk around about more than 3/4 of the rock's perimeter. Amanda and I did it in an hour and a half much to the surprise of our tour guide. Woot Woot! And we still managed to take about 40 pictures of the massive rock. We will be sure to post all of them soon.
After our tour was done Amanda and I spent an extra day in Alice Springs so that we could do a tour of the School of Air, which is essentially a centralized correspondence school that allows students in isolated areas of the Northern Territory to receive education. Everything is done through a live feed. The teachers teach lessons from the studio that we visited while their students follow the lesson on a computer answering/asking question over microphones, head sets, and chatrooms. It was incredibly interesting to learn about and even more refreshing to hear about how engaged the students are in their own learning - no behaviour problems and no late assignments. I may just have to come and teach here...ha. The students also have a home tutor that can be hired or just a parent that will retain weekly contact with the instructor to make sure that the student is on the right page. Really an interesting concept.
That is all that I can think of for right now off the top of my head. Hope to talk to you all soon again.
Ryan and Amanda!
This portion that explains the trip is pretty much from the brochure with a few personal insights.
1st Day - Kings Canyon - spend the day hiking (a good couple of hours up and down) the canyon, with plenty of time for the north and south walls, and a swim in the Garden of Eden waterhole (slippery rocks as you try to gracefully slide your way in to the cold/hot water that is home to many tadpoles). We have dinner (pasta & meat sauce) while viewing the sunset over the ranges (personally we enjoyed the sunset at Carlo Sandblow better). Then we slept under the stars on top of our swag (essentially a bigger version of a fully body sleeping bag with a mat inside) in our own sleeping bags (I woke up to the sight of a bull about thirty feet away from me - making a lot of noise I may add).
2nd Day - The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) & Ayers Rock (Uluru) - the morning's spent on a rewarding hike through the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta. After lunch it's off to Uluru for a leisurely guided base walk around the rock and visit to the informantive cultural center. Then we watched the sunset on the rock.
3rd Day - Ayers Rock (Uluru) - did a 9km walk around about more than 3/4 of the rock's perimeter. Amanda and I did it in an hour and a half much to the surprise of our tour guide. Woot Woot! And we still managed to take about 40 pictures of the massive rock. We will be sure to post all of them soon.
After our tour was done Amanda and I spent an extra day in Alice Springs so that we could do a tour of the School of Air, which is essentially a centralized correspondence school that allows students in isolated areas of the Northern Territory to receive education. Everything is done through a live feed. The teachers teach lessons from the studio that we visited while their students follow the lesson on a computer answering/asking question over microphones, head sets, and chatrooms. It was incredibly interesting to learn about and even more refreshing to hear about how engaged the students are in their own learning - no behaviour problems and no late assignments. I may just have to come and teach here...ha. The students also have a home tutor that can be hired or just a parent that will retain weekly contact with the instructor to make sure that the student is on the right page. Really an interesting concept.
That is all that I can think of for right now off the top of my head. Hope to talk to you all soon again.
Ryan and Amanda!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Melbourne...still
Okay so while we are no longer in Melbourne we figured that we should conclude our update on all of the activities that we took part in while in Melbourne. First off on the fourth we took a day of rest after having a bit of a busy weekend with Mattea, Tim and his family. The only thing I did that day was meet up with RJ, the son of one of the teachers that I taught with in my short stint in Vibank. It's crazy how seeing someone who actually knows where Saskatchewan is can make your day.
We at some point visited an art gallery that spanned three stories and included Aborigional artwork along with some other not quite as professional artwork (or at least that is my non-educated opinion). I just can't justify hanging artwork that looks like a pile from the junkyard scattered around the floor or on a wall I guess.
We also got a chance to catch up with some of the most fun travellers that we have met to date -- the Scottish girls (who we plan to meet up with in Perth as well). Aside from meeting up with all of these people we also made it to the Queen Victoria Market, where we bought some souvenirs. However, the most exciting bargain were the strawberries and the mangoes (Amanda picked up a container of strawberries for $2 and I the thrifty shopper walked away with 20 mangoes for $5 - of which we could only eat four before feeling full -- don't worry we passed them on to the Scottish girls).
After the market we headed over to the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail) where we got to go on several tours that landed us in the same jail house as Ned Kelly (Australia's Billy the Kid), the reenactment of his court case, and even in a padded room (more Amanda's thing I suppose). Quite and informative day if I do say so myself.
That pretty well wraps up our experience in Melbourne - very cultured, very educational, and very beautiful - one of our favorite cities to date!
We will catch you all up on our adventures in Alice Springs another day, as we have both been catching up our journals like mad this last week and are going to do our best to condence it all when our brains are functioning again. Thanks for reading!
We at some point visited an art gallery that spanned three stories and included Aborigional artwork along with some other not quite as professional artwork (or at least that is my non-educated opinion). I just can't justify hanging artwork that looks like a pile from the junkyard scattered around the floor or on a wall I guess.
We also got a chance to catch up with some of the most fun travellers that we have met to date -- the Scottish girls (who we plan to meet up with in Perth as well). Aside from meeting up with all of these people we also made it to the Queen Victoria Market, where we bought some souvenirs. However, the most exciting bargain were the strawberries and the mangoes (Amanda picked up a container of strawberries for $2 and I the thrifty shopper walked away with 20 mangoes for $5 - of which we could only eat four before feeling full -- don't worry we passed them on to the Scottish girls).
After the market we headed over to the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail) where we got to go on several tours that landed us in the same jail house as Ned Kelly (Australia's Billy the Kid), the reenactment of his court case, and even in a padded room (more Amanda's thing I suppose). Quite and informative day if I do say so myself.
That pretty well wraps up our experience in Melbourne - very cultured, very educational, and very beautiful - one of our favorite cities to date!
We will catch you all up on our adventures in Alice Springs another day, as we have both been catching up our journals like mad this last week and are going to do our best to condence it all when our brains are functioning again. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Melbourne
Wow, this seems a bit weird. I haven't wrote on the blog since Ryan arrived. I am a lot less descriptive than Ryan so I will apologize ahead of time to both our mothers for the short blog entry.
After a rough flight due to a bit of turbulence and interesting shuttle ride we arrived safe and sound in Melbourne on the 29th of December. We have been keeping busy by visiting the different museums and art galleries in the city. On New Years Eve we walked to Federation Square to take in the festivities. Arriving at Fed. Square around 9pm we watched some traditional live music, firethrowers and acrobats. When 2009 hit there was a beautiful fireworks display which I tried to capture on my camera but it definately does not do it justice. On the way back to our hostel we ran into a bit of pepper spray. Fortunately we felt the effects early enough and got out of the area immediately. No harm done though just some runny noses and burning.
On the 3rd Mattea and Tim took us out to Inverloch to spend a few days at the beach. We stayed with Tim's family, which was so amazingly hospitable! Great ambassadors for the country! While there we watched the penguins walk up the beaches back to their burrows for the night. It was quite surreal to watch these penguins waddling up on the beaches of Australia.
We will be in Melbourne until the 8th of January before we fly to Alice Springs to do an Ayers Rock tour.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Ryan and Amanda
After a rough flight due to a bit of turbulence and interesting shuttle ride we arrived safe and sound in Melbourne on the 29th of December. We have been keeping busy by visiting the different museums and art galleries in the city. On New Years Eve we walked to Federation Square to take in the festivities. Arriving at Fed. Square around 9pm we watched some traditional live music, firethrowers and acrobats. When 2009 hit there was a beautiful fireworks display which I tried to capture on my camera but it definately does not do it justice. On the way back to our hostel we ran into a bit of pepper spray. Fortunately we felt the effects early enough and got out of the area immediately. No harm done though just some runny noses and burning.
On the 3rd Mattea and Tim took us out to Inverloch to spend a few days at the beach. We stayed with Tim's family, which was so amazingly hospitable! Great ambassadors for the country! While there we watched the penguins walk up the beaches back to their burrows for the night. It was quite surreal to watch these penguins waddling up on the beaches of Australia.
We will be in Melbourne until the 8th of January before we fly to Alice Springs to do an Ayers Rock tour.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Ryan and Amanda
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