7/03/01
Hi everyone, haven't signed in for a while. Just got back to Queenstown last night. Took the bottom bus and explored the very south. It was a great trip. It was very off the beaten track. There are beautiful beaches, waterfalls, and animal live just everywhere. Everything is so natural. I loved all the native bird and plant life. I love Ferns, and NZ has over 100 different types of ferns in their rainforests. So big and beautiful. Today I tried snowboarding for the first time. I fell on my butt sooo much, but it was fun. I think I will try it more when I get home. I finally got over my cold, yeahhh... Its still absolutely freezing here, but I think I am getting used to it. Tonight will be my last night in Queenstown. Tomorrow I will head back on the bus towards Christchurch. It is so funny being told that I have an American accent, and could i please repeat what I said?? It's something that I never really thought I had, but I guess we all do. Everyone argues about the correct way to say things. It makes for some pretty interesting conversation I have to say. Well, I better sign out..

7/07/01
I'm in Taupo at the moment. I have been travelling north to Auckland these past few days. I have decided to go to Bali for 9 days. I leave on Wednesday, so I am excited. Getting airline tickets and accomodation was quite cheap and I am hearing food is quite cheap as well. I will be there for 9 days and fly back to Auckland to meet up with Ken on the 22nd. I can't wait! ( Only 2 more weeks sweetie!). I can't wait to get back up to Auckland. I am sick of travelling on the bus now, and the group of people I am travelling with are quite young and annoying. I have one more day on the bus, thank god. I can't wait to get into some warm weather!!! I think I will try and go to the Cinema tonight. Shrek is playing.. : P I am surprised with how much American influence there is out here. Almost all the movies, tv shows, and music are all American. It was funny getting off the plane my first day in N.Z. only to hear Christina Aguilera in the shuttle . Seemed so strange. So many people out here assume that Americans act like they do on tv and in the movies. If they only knew.. Anyways, I have a craving for Thai food, so I am off to eat!!

7/10/01
I leave for Bali tomorrow. I am getting excited. I have been hanging around Auckland today just picking up tickets and taking care of last minute things. It is holiday time here in NZ so there are kids everywhere. Saw 'Shrek' today at the theater. It was so funny! Just made some calls home. Its pretty cheap to call home, considering the exchange rates. Not much going on today. I think I will call it an early night tonight and get some sleep early. Well, I am off to get some food!

7/12/01
Well, I finally made it to Bali! After a long 10 hour plane flight I arrived last night in Kuta. The culture shock is wearing off now. It is great hearing everyone speaking in Indonesian, my grandparents language. Memories of my grandparents are all over. I finally understand now why my Oma does the things she does. hehe.. Kuta is nice, nice but touristy. There are vendors everywhere here. On the streets, on the alleyways, and on the beach. They all bug you to buy something: sarongs, t-shirts, beachwear, souiveniers, massages, hairbraids, manicures, etc. Today I explored Kuta, checked out the shopping centers, and shopped of course! Everything is sooo cheap! I had a full course lunch for only $1.50US. It was great! Hey, if anyone wants any software, CDS, PC games, DVDs,etc. email me.. They sell bootlegged software here for about $5-7 US and DVDS for $10US.. and some of the movies haven't even come out yet! Well, just came back from Kuta Beach. I can't believe how many people were on the beach. I felt like I was in Miami Beach or something. Warm weather at last!! Yeahh, it was great to put away my gloves and hat, and put on a bathing suit and shorts I have to say. After a swim, I finally give in to the vendors on the beach and got a full body massage, and manicure by 7 indonesian women. ( Mich, you would have loved it!!)$11 US dollars. ( Hey, I'm still learning to bargain!) It was great! Its been a bit hard trying to communicate, but its been fun trying to get them to figure out what I am saying. Well, I am about to go find a place for dinner. Tomorrow I signed up to do a tour of East Bali to see the rice paddies, temples, etc. I will try and post pictures when I can.

7/13/01
Today I took a tour of North Bali. I saw a lot of hindu temples, rice paddy fields, monkeys, and some nice waterfalls. Bali is very beautiful outside of Kuta. Everything is so green. On a negative note, I am being eaten alive by the mosquitos out here! I look awful! I have like 15 bug bites and the insect repellent does not seem to help much! The funny thing is that no one else seems to really have them but me! Well, the Internet access out here is sooo slow. It takes literally a minute to open a page! I took a ton a pictures but i don't think I will be able to download them until I go back to New Zealand. Well, I am off to go eat some more indonesian food!! I am starving!

7/15/01
Went white water rafting today on the Ayung River. It was spectacular. The river was in the middle of the rainforest, so it was breathtaking. I fell in a few times due to the carelessness of our guides but had fun nevertheless. Went jet skiing after all. I got conned into paying for my driver to go as well without knowing it. He told me the cost was $40 US, and it really was $20. I found out after the fact. However, he ended up flipping over on the jet ski, and I guess he didn't know how to swim, so he panicked and started yelling until someone came and picked him up. Weird how karma works. Anyways, I am going down to the beach now. Til later!

7/16/01
Had the most relaxing day. Went to Kuta beach and just swam and worked on my tan. The water here is so warm, its hard to get out of it. I fell asleep in the sun, so I am sunburn on one side. I guess I will try and even that out tomorrow. Tonight I splurged and went to the Hard Rock Beach Resort (This place is like a palace!)and had a all you can eat buffet. All the indonesian food you can eat..Sateys, fried rice, etc.. plus live entertainment as well. I think I am starting to get a hang of the bargaining now. The first two days I got conned a lot. Now I have figured out how low most vendors will go. I bought like 4 dresses today for only $7 US. I was really excited about that! Well, I am going back to my hotel now. Its late, and tomorrow I will take a beginner surfing lesson. Should be interesting.

7/17/01
Surfing is so much fun! I had my first 2 hour lesson this morning at Kuta Beach, and it was great. It is difficult though, but fun. I was able to stand up at least 8 times. Towards the end though, I started having problems though. Tomorrow I will take another lesson, so we will see how that goes. In about an hour I will go on a tour to Tanah Lot, to see the famous temple and to see the sunset there. Its supposed to be really nice. The indonesian men here are so funny. They know just enough english to get them by, but they sometimes use the wrong words. Its very funny. One guy yelled out to me and a few other girls walking by.. "Please forget me!", when I guess he was trying to say Don't forget me!..hehe.. or 'How are you tomorrow?' instead of today. Everyone seems to have a sense of humor here which is great. They all want to come to America though. Anyways, I am off to my hotel now. signing off.

7/25/01
Well, I forget what day it is today, but I am back in New Zealand now. I left Bali a few days ago and picked up Ken at the airport. I was so happy to see him! He has started off his trip to New Zealand with a sky dive in Taupo, blackwater rafting in a cave in Waitimo, a Maori Concert in Rotoroa, and a bungee jump today in Queenstown. I guess I have been a bad influence! We have been extremely busy! We have hopped on and off of planes so much in these last few days! I am tired! We have covered quite a lot of New Zealand in these past 3 days.. Thursday we will head to Australia starting with Melbourne. We splurged for a nice hotel tonight with an lake and mountain view. What luxury! For pictures of Ken and I in NZ, check out this link: http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.91230/article/108/26/?s=q or check out the pics on the NZ pics page. Well, I gotta go..will write more later!

7/27/01
We finally made it to Australia! This is our second night in Melbourne. I feel like we stick out like sore thumbs out here. We had two people come up to us yesterday asking us if we were lost. Do we have 'Americans' tattooed across our forehead or something?? : P Melbourne is a beautiful city with wonderful night life. Today we took a LONG, LONG tour bus ride to see the Great Ocean Road. It was awful. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, but I don't think we will be taking a tour bus for awhile. I was so utterly exhausted that I was delirous, so we both decided that maybe a bus tour would be good. Wrong. We stopped only 4 times in the whole 11 hour day. It was exhausting. Poor Ken got food poisoning from the lunch we had, so he had a miserable drive back. He's back at the room at the moment trying to get some sleep. I have been wide awake from sleeping on the bus. Tomorrow morning we will take an early flight out to Darwin. Its been a hectic few days. We have plane hopped so much in this last week. However we have seen and done a lot in such a short amount of time. I just want to see as much as possible while I am here. Anyways, I have a ton of pictures to download. Hopefully I can get a few out tonight!

7/31/01
Ahh.. its so nice to be in warm weather again. We are currently in Darwin where the weather is beautiful. Darwin is a neat little place, with some great people. We rented a 4 WD jeep to try and explore some of the outback. Ken and I had fun trying to drive stick on the left side of the road. hehe..It felt so strange to have the gears on the left side! We drove south to Litchfield Nat. Park and had a wonderful day of exploring some of the outback, as well as waterfalls and pools, and swimming in them. I didn't want to leave. It was a beautiful day which made it all the more wonderful. Tomorrow we head to head to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef.

8/01/01
We are currently in Cape Tribulation, 2 hours north of Cairns. This is where the rainforest meets the ocean. So beautiful. We are right in the middle of the jungle at the moment staying at our hostel in the middle of nowhere. The beach is also a walk away. It's great! The dining area is an open outside canopy area with tables surrounded. It feels like we are sitting right in the middle of trees. We were able to take a jungle cruise earlier, and saw mangroves and a lot of crocodiles. It was very neat! We are off to dive the Barrier Reef tomorrow all day. I hope all goes well. I am still a newbie to diving so I am a little nervous.

8/02/01
Today we dived the Great Barrier Reef. It was incredible. I had a little trouble equalizing during my descent, but I finally made it down. This was my first real dive without an instructor so I was very nervous. I think I spent more time concentrating on making sure I had everything right than just relaxing. However, I did it though! I couldn't believe how huge the reef was. We saw a manta ray and so many different types of fish. There was even a reef shark that everyone seemed to see but us. We were behind a group of divers so it swam off by the time we got there. I do think the best way to see the reef is to dive it. I think my dive course paid off! Australia is definitely an incredible place. In regards to the people, I have to say we have come across quite a few rude aussies here. They seem to judge you before you open your mouth. I am getting tired of hearing so many negative comments about Americans. I would have thought the Aussies were a little more open minded. America is viewed so negatively by so many people it seems. Maybe it's just the people we are meeting. In New Zealand I was overwhelmed by niceness, so this is a quite a change. Well, we are going to walk around Cairns a bit.. to get out of our hostel. Tomorrow we leave to fly to Brisbane and to see Fraser Island.

8/03/01
Just got to Hervey Bay. Today was a crazy day. We almost missed our flight to Brisbane. We were told our flight was domestic, but it turns out it was international. We ran to the gate without breakfast and were the last people on the plane. We then rented a car in Brisbane and drove 4 hours north to Hervery Bay. We have been non stop. Right now we are relaxing, and are about to go have some beers. A couple shots sound nice too right about now. What a day! Hervey Bay is a nice little beach type community with only about a handful of hotels and hostels. We got a great rate for a hotel room across from the ocean. $25 a night for a place with a fridge, tv, and our own bathroom. What luxury! hehe.. Esp. after staying in $5- $8 hostel rooms for the last few months. Anyways tomorrow morning we are doing a 4WD drive tour to Fraser Island for 2 days. Fraser Island is the worlds only 'all' sand island. There are no roads, so you must have 4wd to access the land. I can't wait to see it. Anyways, my trip is almost over so I am getting a little sad about that at the moment. I am having such a great time, that I don't want to come home. Anyways, signing out for now!

8/05/01
Just got back from a 2 day Fraser Island adventure. Fraser Island is such a natural wonder. This was definitely a highlight of my trip so far. It's hard to believe places like this still exist in the world. Everything was so natural and clean. The lakes we swam in had a higher PH Balance than most conditioners, so our hair was nice and silky after a swim. The water was so clear and blue. I was just so incredible. Its the world's only sand island, and yet there is this incredible rainforest growing in pure sand. In the last two days we saw breathtaking beaches, did hikes through the rainforest, swam in the beach pools, and just relaxed. We even saw some dingos and some tiger sharks. Tonight we are relaxing, and tomorrow Ken will hit some of Australia's beaches to do some surfing. Tomorrow will be our last day in Australia, since we will be heading to Fiji on Tuesday. : ( Signing out for now.

8/31/01
Hey everyone! Just got back from Fiji today. We are okay! ( For those who emailed!) The place we were staying in Fiji had no phones, or internet, and atms for that matter. Fiji was every thing I thought it would be and more! It was just so beautiful!! We stayed on the Coral Coast at a place called the Hideaway Resort, and it was beautiful. Saw a firewalking and a kava ceremony, and some villages, but most of all layed around on the beach! It was so nice to relax and have a mudslide!..hehe I just love the beer here. It has a very distinct nutty taste, but it is very good. Yesterday we went to Beachcomber Island in the Mamanucas and the water was so turquoise and clear! White sandy beaches.. it was heaven!! Just how I pictured Fiji to look from phots. We went scuba diving with a few other people to see an old plane wreck that had sunk some miles out from the island. This was an awesome dive, and I totally fell comfortable underwater this time.. and since the water was so warm, we didn't need a wet suit. It was really neat seeing parts of an old plane wreck on the ocean floor. Did some snorkeling as well. The fish are so colorful! It was very hard to leave such a beautiful place. The thing I loved most were the people. The fijians are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The national welcome is Bula! and whereever you go in Fiji, people stop what they are doing to come over and say Bula! to you and smile. They are such sweet people. If only everyone in this world had their mentality, this world would be a better place. Ken made friends with a nice fijian guy, and was invited to visit his village to drink kava with him and his family. It was a great experience for Ken. Such a great way of life, although it took some getting used to at first. Everything is done slowly in Fiji. It may take 30 minutes to get you a coke, but you will get it. The saying is, your on Fiji time.. Anyways, we were both very sad to leave the island this morning. We are now back in the cold of New Zealand. We are in Auckland, just hanging out, and enjoying the city. I feel like this is almost home now, not a place I visited. I will always love New Zealand. I know my way around here now, and it feels good. My trip is almost over and I am sad. I can't imagine going back to my life after experiencing such a wonderful journey such as this. I feel very lucky. Anyways, signing out for now.

9/01/01
Hey all, Just got back a few weeks ago. What a bummer to be back here in L.A! I guess I am facing a bit of culture shock. It all seems like a dream or something. I have forgotten so many things! I have never been so scatterbrained in my life! Oh well, at least now I am driving on the right side of the road again. : P That took some time to get back used to. I have just started my classes again (yeeeahhh, last semester!), and I will be soon looking for a job to get back into the working world. I really want to enjoy these last days of freedom for as long as I can. This was an amazing trip for me and I am still feeling that wonderful feeling. I can't wait to get out there and do it again! Thanks to everyone who emailed me so much and read my journal almost everyday. It really meant a lot. I love ya guys!