On the Gold Coast

As life is always an adventure with us, plans change and things take longer than expected sometimes.. the other morning we drove down to byron bay for the day..and jeds car overheated... so after filling it up with creek water a few times, we finally made it! byron is just as i left it a year and a half ago.. we walked around town for a bit and then jenna, jaqi and i walked up to the lighthouse and out to the most easternly point of australia and waved home to california.. dont think anyone could see us, but it was worth the try :) we all stopped back in town with jed to have a beer in a nice little pub overlooking the beach as the sunset before heading to jed's parents house for the night where we were supposed to wake up at 3 am to hike up mt. warning so we could be the first to see the sun in australia for the day.. we decided 3 am was too cold (yes its winter) anddd the mountain would stil be there at 9 or so :)

so as we drove the 5 k to the base of the mountain jeds car failed for life.... and so we had another short adventure before we got to the mountain. the hike took us less than 4 hours, but towards the top we literally had to mountain climb straight up over 100 meters... it was fun but quite the work out. and theview from the top, although overcast, was quite amazing.. we could see all the way to byron bay (about 40 mins away) and to surfers paradise (another 45 min drive) in the opposite direction. the day continued on after we got back to the gold coast as we went out in surfers for the night.. catching up with lots of friends and showing jaqi and jenna the old stomping grounds. we had too much fun and didnt even realize how fast the time flew by until 5 am! oops! only in australia!

we slept in for a bit the next day, and headed out to 'the spit' which is a beautiful beach with white sand and dark blue water. we took jaqi back to the airport, and then jed drove us and a couple of friends into brisbane to see transformers in the imax. this was the first movie ive seen in an australian movie theater, so kinda cool? ha. it was pretty good..

and finally yesterday we spent the day on a little island in the broadwater.. a uni friend had a little boat that he took us all out in ... and i spent the evening around a bin bon fire in drakes backyard catching up and having a great time!

today is a laundry day and organizing day, maybe a little beach action later on, and the tomorrow jenna and i are going to head up the coast to the sunshine coast and see some lookouts and stroll through a few more beach towns.. hopefully its a bit warmer up there! alrighty! gotta go!

Made it to the Goldie!

Last night we rolled into the Gold Coast a little earlier than planned in our wicked van and surprised all the boys as we drove up to their house! Let me tell you, getting here was quite an adventure...lets just say I very quickly learned to drive a manual van during our 2 day- 12 hour drive from Sydney up north to the Gold Coast!! I stalled probably 30 times overall.. but he car is still in tact and so are we :) its quite the stunning beauty as well.. our drive was very nice.. we stopped in Newcastle for a late lunch and asked around where we should go for the night.. we were directed to Port Maquaire for the night which was a cute little beach town.... we stayed in a very nice hostel due to a plea from jenna to not sleep in our van..(that is well equipped with sleeping quarters) so mom be proud i gave in to that one! So then we had a nice little chat with the hostel man in the morning and continued to head north... and got distracted by a small sign in the ground pointing to the pub with no beer... so we followed the rickity signs for 30 kms through a maze to the middle of now where.. aka Taylor's Arm... and we were glad that the pub with no beer actually had beer by that point! After that large detour.. we basically just kept driving.. we saw tons of kangaroos and wallabies towards the end of the drive during sunset.. and we refilled the oil and checked allllll the liquids on the car :) yay for us! So we got into the Gold Coast around 6 and surprised Jed and the boys.. and then I had to turn around and back track 30 mins to go get Jaqi from the airport.. i only got a little lost and a little freaked out manuvering the van by myself.. i wasnt tooo late picking her up at 8! We met everyone back at the uni bar on campus for the state of origin game...(basically their rugby super bowl) new south wales lost. queensland won! yay? and now were getting ready for a day trip down to byron bay and nimbin and then jed's parent's house for the night so we can hike mt. warning in the morning and be the first to see the sun rise in australia! cooool beans. k. got to go because the demand for the computer is increasing and jaqi is getting antsy.. typical! alrighty! byEEEEE

Day 1

Well, we made it to Sydney nice and early this morning after our lonnng ass plane flight.. and i realized that paying the extra 20 bucks or whatever for the quantas flight would've been better... better food, free drinks, and your own tv with games. o well. we made it!

At the airport, opal the quanantine dog sniffed out this biscuit that i threw in my backpack from our lovely breakfast this morning... i think it actually worked to our advantage because my entry card got tagged with opals name and we got a kinda fast pass through the quarantine line... just so we could wait in line forever for our taxi! where we met our really special cab driver... he was very nice and helpful and didnt charge us for driving us all over sydney since we had a communication error and ended up on the wrong king street in the wrong suburb. Perfect start to the day! driving down the main stretch at 7 am and see all these wasted people in the clothes from the night before because they thought the party was still going was the highlight of my day!

We eventually found Jaqi and stopped by her simple, little smelly apartment before walking the whole city, see darling harbour, the sydney harbour with the bridge and the opera house. We then went to Pancakes on the rocks where we devoured our first meal.. chocolate pancakes with ice cream!! yesss. and strawberries! we then headed to the paddy markets where we found all types of neat cheap things before we went to jaqi's uni... aka hogwarts! the university of sydney is straight out of harry potter for sure. and we wandered over to the oval and caught a half of a rugby match.. footy rules we decided. and we caught on to the scoring method! and now were all very sleepy and taking over the computer lab in the study room? or whatever this may be...

So, nothing over the top exciting, but a solid good first day :) tommorrow were going to hoochi mammas for breaky and later to susans to visit with her in bronte beach, where we can walk to beautiful bondi along the water.. on tuesday its off to find our wicked van and head up the coast! whooo! gotta find the rtma for our free map first though! wherever in the world that may be! k were safe and good! and my phone is working if its an emergency for a low cost of 1.21 a minute or something crazy like that! hopefully ill get up pictures soon too :) adios!!!!

ready to go!?

Who is ready to follow us around the world!?

In 10 days, Jenna and I will kick off our world travels by heading down under to see my sister and visit some friends in Australia! Were then off to Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Italy, and England over the next two full months. My adventures will continue to Germany and Greece, and unplanned destinations until December when I plan to return home... money and time permitting :) 

 I would love messages from everyone at home to hear what is going on, or if you have pending questions about whatever the heck were doing! 

my email while im traveling will be aahemmen@gmail.com 

Whooo! Yay! Here we go!