Still alive!

Hi all, just wanted to drop a quick little blog and say that I am doing great, starting to peel from getting sunburned, and having heaps of fun so I don't really have time to write a bunch (as it should be :) But lemme run down some highlights of my trip up the coast so far. Right now i'm in a quaint little town called Rainbow Beach, which consists of 2 hostels, 2 tour companies, a sweeeeet beach, some overpriced shops (although i managed to buy a bikini with the australian flag design on sale) and, most importantly, an ice cream shop. I'm catching a greyhound to Hervey Bay, and from there I'm going on an 8 man adventure safari to this crazy island called Fraser Island. Its a 3 day, 2 night self-guided 4x4 camping trip. The best part?? Its absolutely free to me, because I won it in a raffle at a bar a week ago!

My favorite place so far? Byron Bay. Reminds me a bit of Homer. It's touristy, yet laid-back with plenty of international backpackers and random surfers. I went surfing once and caught a few waves (daddy mcfish would've been proud!). Started traveling on the ozexperience bus a week ago and I quickly met a group of quality people: 1 canadian named Rheanne who is going with me to do an 80K hike in Tasmania in 3 weeks, a german girl named Julia, and a few crazy blokes from England that i'm pretty sure never stop drinking. So I haven't been too lonely, although I really miss everyone from home (besides maybe extra caramel sauce buying/bathing lady from Starbucks, I never particularly cared for her...) At our hostel desk, the girls and I inquired about Zorbing (the human hampster ball rolling down a hill thingy). The front desk worker found some super shady company that could take us in---10 minutes only---. So this rickety van pulls up with an even ricketyer looking aussie fellow. We're told to buckle up-it would be a rocky ride to our Zorb. We get to the place which is just a small hill covered in cow pies! In fact, cows are at the bottom of the zorb track, just grazin away. There aren't any other staff around, nor any buildings, but ther is a rickety "launch pad" composed of an old mattress and cheap covering material. No wonder this was the cheapest zorb company!... So being the adventurous one, (and the one that got us into this mess) I awkwardly manuever myself into the zorb. Its HOT in there! strap myself in...1..2..3..push! I go rolling backward down the hill and quickly realize that I am not alone in the zorb! I have a large arachnid directly opposite me!! I'm pretty sure it looks exactly like the most poisonous spider in the world (which i saw ealier that week at the taronga zoo) This is where the screaming begins. in a ball that i'm strapped into rolling quickly down a hill! I prayed that this spider wouldn't take a tumble as the zorb randomly quished over cowpies. Long story short, I ended up surviving and the spider hung on for dear life too.

I only have a few more minutes so I'll end with synopsis of the town of "Surfers Paradise," which I stayed in for only one day. First of all, it is neither a paradise nor did I see many surfers. It's like the vegas of Australia. stay away from it unless gawking at picture-taking Japanese tourists and meatheads with tribal arm bands of conflicting ideologies is your cup of tea...

cheers!
I'm off to catch the bus!

Missed the bus

Darn stupid technology. I love it and I hate it. I thought I had set my cellphone alarm last night to "5:40am" so I would be on time for my early morning ozexperience bus departure today. I suddently awoke this morning and quickly realized that something was terribly wrong. Checked my phone and i'll be darned if it wasn't 6:44am. The bus up to Byron Bay, that I had prebooked last week....had left 15 minutes ago. There goes my plan for the day. Turns out my cellphone alarm was set to the wrong day or something, idk I can barely work technology.

The silver lining in this situation became almost immediately apparent. One of the reasons why I'm traveling in a foreign country alone is to work on some aspects of my personality. One of those aspects is always needing a plan and being unable to cope to my meticulously groomed plans fall through. Well guess what Holly, your plans fell through, sweetheart. whatcha gonna do now, huh huh? I'll tell you what I did. I thanked God for helping me out with my personal mission, rolled over...and fell back asleep until now. Even though I got up at 9:30am I was still the first one up and out of bed in my 8-bed hostel dorm room! These people can sleep! Then again, these people also travel with multiple suitcases, cologne, hair straighteners, and computers...and their favorite tourist activity consists of getting sloshed at the local pubs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just don't feel comfortable drinking expensive and shitty beer (haven't found ANY IPA's pale ales, stouts, or porters! A case of MGD in the grocery store is almost fifty bucks!) in a foreign place with carnal strangers. My preferred mode of opperation is to buy a ten dollar box of shiraz, kick back with Fred and his roomies, cook dinner and then pass out, only to realize the next morning that the little box held 2 liters of wine which was consumed entirely by Fred and I. I'm slowly getting used to the metric system but thats the equivalent of about a bottle of wine apiece. oops. go Alaskans. runs in the McCune genes I guess :)

So anyways... i'm up now and had to check out of the hostel. I've got a huge pack that I would like to dump somewhere while I explore the city. I've now got people to stay with in Manley(north sydney)for the night and i'm heading to Darling Harbour to see what that's all about.

Oh I almost forgot to mention a great thing! Last night i took a courtesy shuttle bus from Sydney central to Hillsong Church. As I was deboarding, I noticed a young woman with a tattoo on her ankle, which upon further inspection turned out to be the big dipper constellation. Now my curiousity was piqued. Why on earth would anyone from any place other than Alaska have a big dipper tattoo. So I did what I usually do when I'm curious--I tapped her shoulder and asked, "Hey, are you from Alaska?"
I'll be darned if she wasn't from Palmer and only 2 years older than me! She had been travelling around New Zealand and Australia for a year on and off and her little sister goes to Changepoint. I actually felt tears well up as I conversed with this stranger, who had more in common with me than anyone I had met so far. She actually had a jesus fish tattoo on her other ankle, kinda similar to mine. And there God placed her, right at the entrance to my first night at church, a little reminder that the world is simply not as big as it seems on nights when you are tired and sick and checking into lively and intimidating hostels. As my journey progresses, he keeps putting people right where I need them. The message that night could even be applied to my trip. The pastor spoke on Jesus' encounter with the samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and how Jesus could have just walked right by but he was never too busy for people. He phrased it like this: In Jesus' walk upon this earth, "It was the stops and distractions along the way that caused lives to changed forever." May I never underestimate the value to my random stops and distractions and...well...missed busses too.

hollyout!

Support Crew

Oh what a day! At 6:30am Fred knocked on my door, sharply awakening my slumbering bliss. "um...so we have a bit of a situation...Is there any way that you could do a bit of driving for my multisport thingy today?" I'm pretty sure I was still sleeping when I said something along the lines of, "huh? uh okay...*wipe the crust from my eyes*..sure. whatever you need." So I jump out of bed, shovel in some toast, and hop in the passenger side of Fred's car.

So Fred apparantely is part of this gang of hard core dudes who find it fun to plan multisport adventure treks on the weekend. These things consist of kayaking, mountain biking, running, kayaking again, maybe another bike again, etc...they are not official races or anything, just "fun". These races necesitate a "support crew" that drives to each transition point with the appropriate gear and snacks for the next leg. Well, today I needed to be part of this crew which consisted of me and the 2 wives (Claire, a Scottish woman who ended up saying "blimey" a lot during the day, and Sally, an Australian lady who had just about had enough of the support crew business) of the other dudes. The deal was, I needed to drive Fred's car and I would just follow the other 2 ladies around from point to point. There were 3 kayaks and not all of them plus gear would fit on their car, so I got to drive with 2 HUGE kayaks on the roof. cool. oh wait, definitely not cool! Fred's car, like every other car in Australia, has its steering wheel on the right. Did I also mention that they drive on the left side of the road here? Did I also mention that his car has a manual transmission?? Oh yeah, and I should forget to tell you that most of the driving involved dodging a bloody CYCLING RACE in the middle of a winding national park road??! Well I actually got through that part just fine. I put on the Alaskan woman tough exterior and made it up until a lovely lunch in a charming little cafe with the other ladies.

We then set out on what we all thought was the correct direction towards the next transition point. I began to get a little nervous when the area quickly became urbanized...then we were on a freeway....then i started seeing signs "Sydney Olympic Stadium 3k", "Sydney Olympic Stadium 1k"...And then there was a bunch of traffic and I was stuck in the middle lane, desperately trying to stay right behind the ladies as cars randomly darted in front of me with reckless abandon. fuck. At least the horn worked on the vehicle, because the air conditioning most certaintly did not. The temperature kept on getting warmer (because we were headed west, towards the outback, as I later learned), but i'm honestly not sure if I was sweating on account of the weather or stress. probably both. anyways, it became apparent that we were going the wrong way, so we all pulled a u-turn. Pulling a U turn is not easy with large kayaks on your car. Then I heard a rumble and grumble from beneath my feet. The engine started sputtering. the car stalled. The ladies kept on driving in front of me, turning right into the distance, while I calmly reassured myself that it was just the clutch, I just needed to take a breath and start the car again. So I did just that, but something didn't feel right. I decided to turn left down the quiet street instead of trying to turn right onto the freeway. I managed to get the car a few meters to the side of the quiet road when it completely died. Thank God I didn't turn right.

So here I was, no cell phone, no way to get ahold of ANYONE, in the middle of flippin ghetto western Sydney and the weather was approaching 90 degrees. I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed. Prayed for a cute Aussie automechanic to randomly cruise by on his day off, prayed for the girls to return to my exact spot, prayed for a cold beer, anything but THIS. Prayers were answered when the girls came back, rushing to my aid. Surprisingly I wasn't even crying (think i was too dehydrated for tears to form). Claire, the car-savvy Scottswoman, took a look at my engine temperature gauge. All the way past "H", We popped the hood and cautiously unscrewed the cap for engine coolant. yup. Tank was so dry it was brown and crusty. I had been driving for god knows how long with little to no engine coolant. It was by the grace of God the thing didn't blow up on the Freeway!

So...to end the saga, we ended up leaving the car and the boys eventually came back and diagnosed the problem. Large hole in the radiator, which apparently started off as a small hole weeks ago, according to Fred. It's amazing how people can pull together in a stressful situation like the girls and I did. If it weren't for the "support crew drama" I wouldn't have found out the Claire was a Christian and goes to Hillsong---so now I have a church date for their Thursday morning women's service.

God is good....but sometimes in the most random ways! Ocean water has never felt as refreshing as it did that evening during my swim. And the Holly lives on!

Awakening '09

What have I done for the last couple of days?
well...... the dude that I am staying with for this week (Frederick) goes to a particular church called C3 in Oxford Falls (a suburb of Sydney). Just so happens that his church was having a rather crazy big conference called "awakening '09". Basically a gathering of young people 18-30 and some phenomenal pastors/speakers/worship band stuff/God stuff. God laid a lot on my heart this weekend. It was so intense I can't even begin to convey the awesomeness of it all in a blog. But lets just say....there are no accidents. I stumbled upon a 3 day festival at the very begining of my trip and it really helped me sort out my own mind, as far as my goals and priorities and whatnot for the next 2 months are.
And guess what guys and gals?
I'm flippin pumped. so so so excited for whatever may lay ahead, because absolutely nothing that God leads me to during the next couple of months will be too difficult. yeah...sweet as.

Other exciting things that i've done include getting my butt kicked by waves while bodysurfing. I learned that it is a good idea to buy tighter fitting bikini bottoms. I have also been drinking my way through this town (espresso, that is). Australia has not lost the art of espresso, which is wonderfully refreshing for me to experience. I have gone running once so far, but only for twenty minutes which was enough cuz its sooooooo hot. Getting used to the heat slowly but surely. I don't think my skin has ever been this clear due to the fact that walking outside is like a steam bath. My big plans for the next couple days consist of getting as much sun as possible, hanging out, and taking some busses into the city center to begin my exploration there. But for now, I'm off to slumberland. Cheers!

p.s. aussie term for the day: "heaps", as in "I'm heaps tired" which means, "i'm really really tired."

Would you like a cup of dinner?

Hey all!
I successfully made it to Sydney. I had 2 seats all by myself on the 10 hour plane ride, making it a lot easier to relax and kick back. Hawaiian Airlines was great, the staff was awesome, and I would definitely recommend it for travel to Oz. I rented that DigEplayer thing, and ended up actually staying awake for 3 movies! Anyone who knows me well knows that I struggle just paying attention in one movie. The landing was really scary cuz on my side of the plane all I could see was that we were flying over water...and descending...closer and closer...then all of a sudden the wheels went down and we landed and land magically appeared.
I have already encountered two cultural differences. My friend Frederick picked me up at the airport and I went to get in the passenger side of his car. Then he sheepishly laughed and said, "Um, holly...that's my side." Yeah they drive on the left side of the road, its pretty trippy! Then I was chatting with Fred's roomate who mentioned something about getting "Tea" and I was kinda confused because it didn't sound like she was talked about "tea and crumpets" kinda tea. Apparently "Tea" means "dinner" over here.
In closing, please throw up a little prayer for this Alaskan girl who is about to go outside and face 40 degree celsius temperatures! (104 farenheit) More coming soon....