Back in America!

Well, as you can see, I am a little behind on posting...sorry to all you avid blog-goers who have been deprived the past couple of months. I am back home now...got here December 15th. And one would think, that since I do not have a job (yet), that I would be all caught up with this blog stuff, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Christmas has come and gone, and now I am left feeling that if I do not update now, it may never happen. So, speaking of being home. It has been nice, back in a place where everyone speaks my language, I have a car and can go where I want when I want to (and not be at the mercy of public transportation), around friends and family, familiar stores, and of course real Mexican food (although I have only eaten it once - depressing, I know). I do not have a job yet, nor do I know where I am going to work and when. I figured it would be hard to get something around the Christmas and New Year's holidays anyways, right? I am leaning towards staying in San Antonio at least for a little while, maybe the next year or so. Then either stay here or move somewhere like Austin...who knows. I have enjoyed all the traveling I have been so fortunate to be able to do the past few years of my life, but it is getting a bit tiring. I mean, living in different places is soooo fun, and such an amazing experience, but the "just starting to get used to a place and then picking up and moving stuff" is getting a bit old. I am looking forward to staying in one place, having a real job, being able to go to church regularly, and have a place I can call "home". On to the updates...I am going to go backwards and put from New Zealand on in chronological order. Hope you enjoy!

Tahiti and Moorea...a convenient stop-over

On our way back home to America from Australia, we thought it would be kinda fun to stop in Tahiti for a few days, or more like 6 days. So we did. We flew from Brisbane to Sydney, and Sydney to Tahiti, but not without drama. After sitting in the plane, at the gate, in Sydney for 2 hours, we ended up getting in to Tahiti at 4 in the morning instead of 2. We had booked a hotel right across the street (or so we thought) from the airport, so that we could get a few hours sleep and a nice shower before getting on a ferry to the small island of Moorea at 9 that morning. So after getting our bags (minus the one of Sarah's that got left in Sydney) and going through customs, it was about 5 in the morning. We figured it would a waste to get the hotel after all, since it was so late, but they wouldn't refund us our money. So we got a taxi over there, and for all of the less than 5 minutes it took to get there, the far was about $25...a rip! They said it would be expensive in Tahiti...I guess we had to learn real fast. After getting in to our room, brushing our teeth and washing our faces (a.k.a using water), we try to get to sleep in order to salvage a couple of hours of decent sleep before we have to make it through the whole rest of the day, all while there are wild roosters doing their thing right outside our window (so annoying). We wake up in hopes of being able to take a shower before getting on the ferry, and wouldn't you know, the water doesn't work. I go to the front desk to see what's going on, give them another sad story that we just checked in a few hours ago, desperately wanting to take a shower, and the guy proceeds to tell me that the water in out is the whole city, and they are not sure when it would be turned on. No shower for us =(. This is starting out not good for us. The one benefit of that rip off of a hotel, was that they let us store our luggage for free, so we didn't have to lug it all over with us.

these precious Tahitian men were serenading us as we got off our plane at 4 in the morning...bless their souls!

waiting for the ferry to take us to Moorea

our ferry

finally about to get to Moorea

SO, we had finally gotten over to Moorea after a 45 minute ferry ride, and got into the van that would take us to our hotel, and realized we are in paradise! It was absolutely stunning. Everything was soooo green! We saw what you picture of Tahiti, the cute little bungalows over the water and crystal blue water. Then we get to our hotel, the Intercontinental. We could not believe how nice it was...we got an awesome deal! Our room looked out to the water, there was a dolphin center on the property, and it was fancy schmancy! We were so thankful they let us check in early, as we desperately needed to catch up on some sleep!

the Sheraton Hotel's bungalows

Sarah's ready for a sleep!

the view from our room

Sarah lounging

beauty!

sarah's photography skills

more pure beauty

Our time in Tahiti was very relaxing. We did some awesome snorkeling, I think the best snorkeling I have ever done. I would have to say it was better than Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef. The water was just so clear, the fish were super bright, and there were tons of them! So, in Australia, sting rays are bad. I don't know if Steve Irwin dying has a huge thing to do with it, or if they are just a more dangerous species. But in Tahiti, you can be snorkeling, and they will come up to you so close that you can reach out and touch them. And then you can see them swim all over people as they are scuba diving. No one seemed worried about it, we even asked if this was normal. Apparently so. I don't get it, I just went along. So we also did some laying out, day trips to small islands called "motus", a safari trip, driving around the island and of course eating some good food and a dinner/tour at a traditional village.

The local people were very friendly. I was a bit worried, since Tahiti is part of French Polynesia and they speak primarily French, that it would be hard to communicate. But they also spoke English pretty well, so there didn't end up being too much of a language barrier. Which was nice. We happened to be there in low season, which was good in some ways, and bad in others. It was low season for a reason, because it was their rainy season. It did rain on us a few days, but we were still able to do what we had planned. Low season also meant that with not as many people around, the tours were hard to do, as they required a minimum number of people to be booked, or they would cancel. So we just had to adjust our schedule a bit. The good thing of low season was that it didn't feel super "touristy". It was kinda nice that there weren't long waits at restaurants, and the whole island in general was pretty quiet. So, the dolphin center at the hotel was pretty cool. There were these large "pools", where four dolphins lived. And you could pay (a ridiculous amount of money) to have a one hour session with the trainer and the dolphin, in which you could touch and feel, see him do tricks, and even hang on to his fin as he swims through the water. It looked so fun, but I decided that it would be hard to justify spending that much money. But, we could watch all we wanted, and even when the dolphins were not "working", they would swim right in front of us, and do jumps...they were very cute! There was also a sea turtle refuge at the hotel. This was really sad, I thought, but a good thing, I guess that the hotel had invested in. There was another large area where there were a few sea turtles that had been rescued and were being kept. I think the aim is that they are able to return them to the wild, but the ones they had at that time, were not able to go back because they just stayed floating in the water. They couldn't go underwater, and therefore could not get food on their own. "Tortilla" was really sad. She would try to swim and just go in circles. She had lived there for a few years.

the dolphin center

see him jumping?

"tortilla"

Well, after 6 days of living in paradise, it was time to go back home to America. We had to take another ferry back to the main island of Tahiti, then on a plane that left at midnight to LA. That was another drama. One of the receptionists at the hotel in Moorea had set us up with a cab that would pick us up from the ferry terminal, take us to get dinner, take us to get our bags that were in storage at the first hotel we stayed at, take us to the Intercontinental there, so we could use their transit room to take showers and shuffle stuff around in our bags, then take us to the airport. It was such a blessing to have him, because he ended up being this super nice guy, who actually lived for 20 years in the states, so he spoke English very well, and was patient with us when he ended up having to drive us all over to find a place to eat, and then to find an ATM, which we never found, so he spotted us some cash until we could get to the ATM at the airport. We got his business card, and it turns out he has 2 twin 20 month old daughters, so we thought it would be fun to send him a nice thank-you and something for his daughters. Have we yet though? No...but we will! After getting to the airport, we ended up standing in line for HOURS, as it took 3 hours to check everybody in...insane! We were so ready to get home at that point, looking forward to some sleep on the plane. On the way from Sydney to Tahiti, the plane was so empty, that everyone, if they wanted to, could have a whole row of 4 seats to themselves...it was heaven. This flight, not so much. I don't think there was one empty seat on the whole flight. Another flight was canceled, and so that had to fit everyone from that flight on to our flight...bummer! At least we got home though. Tahiti was absolutely amazing, I think everyone needs to go!

waiting for the ferry

beautiful sunset

les roulottes (a.k.a restaurant out of a van in a parking lot)

view from our hotel

our favorite dinner

Last days in Brisbane =(

After finishing work on the 7th, and needing to get on a plane headed back home to the states on the 9th, it was a mad dash to get everything packed, cleaned, and still do the last minute "this is our last time in Brisbane" stuff. Coming to Australia, I packed everything in a large suitcase, a duffel bag, and a small carry-on suitcase. After accumulating more that just a few things, and not really sending much home in the meantime, I managed to get all I brought and more in the same suitcases, in hopes that I would not have to pay any extra baggage fees on the trips home. So I thought. We got to the airport in Brisbane, and the guy checking us in did not like the idea that the 2 suitcases Sarah and I were going to use as our carry-on, were like 50 pounds. So he made us check them, but decided to not make us pay after we gave him our sad puppy dog face and telling him we were nurses who came from America to work here for 6 months, and now we are headed back home. Whatever works, right? He didn't seem to care too much how much the bags weighed, but we took note. Knowing that Air Tahiti's baggage allowance wasn't as much as Qantas, we figured we would be in big trouble when we went to leave Tahiti. But again, we lucked out and got out of paying hundreds of dollars between the two of us in fees. Thanks goodness!!! The funny thing in all this, is that Sarah thought that after sending one of her suitcases (full of stuff) home with her brother and another one home with her parents, that she would be fine fitting the rest of her stuff in a small suitcase. I thought she was out of her mind from the beginning. She went ahead and bought a big duffel just in case she needed the extra room, and after that ended up not being enough, she used the falling apart suitcase her parents had brought. And still with all that, it was barely enough for her to fit everything. I think she will forever be baffled about that. This is one of the downsides of traveling...all the packing, unpacking, and repacking all the time. Especially when it involves moving everything you need too live for months at a time. But, we ended up getting home to San Antonio with all our bags, in one piece...barely!

on the patio

view from our apartment (a.k.a "flat")

can't leave without taking our trademark pic

queen street mall, drinking our fave...a Boost smoothie

an aboriginal playing his "didjeridu"

view of the city

driving around

royal children's

Last day at work in Brisbane, Cat in the Hat, and Sara and Lauren

Well, after two weeks off of work, going to Melbourne and the Whitsundays, it was back at work for two more days before being totally done. It was a bit sad. Six months was a long time to stay in one place (that doesn't happen very often anymore), and I had really enjoyed the people I worked with, although they did always give me a hard time about the way I talked. My last two days were on day shift, which was nice...I would have been really depressed had I been on nights. And the last day was party day! I like to think they the whole hospital threw Sarah and I a fancy schmancy going away party, but it just happened to be coincidence. Well, Party Day happens once a year, and the entire hospital is involved. Each ward or department picks a children's book, and they decorate, and the employees dress as characters from that book. McConnel Ward chose Cat in the Hat, so, most of us dressed as Cat in the Hat, complete with huge Cat in the Hat hats , bow ties and all. Marnelli and Rachel were "Thing 1" and "Thing 2", Beth was the little girl, and we even had a patient's baby brother wear a goldfish costume (only for a second). Our ward was decorated red and white all over, and it was quite entertaining. We had celebrity judges come by, judging all the wards. They included some guy from Big Brother, a famous football (rugby) player and the fire department, among others. We didn't win, but I sure did think we looked cute. The PICU, where Sarah worked, actually won. They did Animalia, and so they were all dressed as animals with nice decorations all over. It sure did end up being a fun ending to my time at RCH.

me, juan, and marnelli

lucy and me

jo, me, gen, marnelli, and rachel

me and the koala (i think that's what he is) from the fire department

the gang

irene, sara, and me

me with the nice banners sharon and the rest of night shift made me

last time walking home from work...with the scale to be used to weigh my bags

That night, we met up with Sara and Lauren, two friends we worked with when we were in San Diego. Sara was going to be starting a job in Auckland, New Zealand, so her and Lauren had come to do some traveling in Australia and NZ before she started work. We met them for dinner (again at Ahmet's...yummy!), and then walked around in South Bank. It was nice that the timing ended up working out, so that we were still in Brisbane when they made it through.

brisbane river from southbank

sara, me, lauren and sarah

O'Reilley's Rainforest

Our last day to do something with Sarah's parents still in town, we headed to O'Reilley's for some time in the rainforest. We hike to Elabana Falls, a beautiful waterfall, did the famous tree-tops walk, and saw all the crazy lorikeets.

The Absolutely Beautiful Whitsundays!!!

We had to keep Sarah's parents on the move, so just 2 days after they flew across the world to come visit, we got on another plane headed to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays (in the Great Barrier Reef). It was amazingly stunning!!! Hamilton Island is this cute little island, one of over 70 islands that make up the Whitsundays, where you feel like you are away from the rest of the world. You drive around the island on your own private golf cart, and you feel like the whole island is a tiny little quaint town. We actually had a 2-bedroom condo on right on the beach, got to watch kangaroos hop in the field right in front of our patio, and just relax. The one downside we encountered was that there was construction going on practically right next door to our place...we were sooo annoyed. Come to find out, they were doing construction pretty much all over the island. We just had to plan our day around the construction worker's lunch break...and threatening to slash his tires. =) Just kidding. But really, he would do the beep-beep-beep thing and we were about to send him on vacation! Sarah and I got a windsurfing lesson...which was actually really really fun. It was a lot harder than it looked, but once I caught on and was able to stay on for a while, it was sooo fun! And a great workout! We also did some snorkeling right off the beach in front of our condo, saw some sea turtles, a sting ray (which was a bit freaky) and of course some fish. Sarah and I also did parasailing, which was also way fun! Sarah's parents were able to see us from atop a huge hill and take pics of us. All four of us went on a day trip out on a boat, that went to Whitehaven Beach, as well as a couple of other stops for fish and chips, snorkeling, and dodging lightning bolts. Whitehaven Beach is supposedly one of the top 10 beaches in the world, although we weren't able to enjoy very much time there due to the rain and lightning storm that came upon us as we were just getting there. We also got totally rained out of a sunset dinner cruise sailing around the islands. Darn rain!!! Hamilton Island was definitely one of the highlights of being in Australia. It was a good way to end the 6 months.

Sarah's parents visit to Brisbane

Sarah's parents came in for a visit the day after we got back from Melbourne, and were in town for a few days before we left for the Whitsundays (that's another post). As you can imagine, they had just done a lot of travelling, so we took it easy that first day. We went to Ahmet's (our favorite and the BEST Turkish food in Brisbane) for lunch, walked around South Bank for a while, then off to the Botanic Gardens. The Botanic Gardens are pretty amazing, considering you don't have to pay to get in. Too bad we hadn't discovered them much sooner.

ahhh...Ahmets

map of Brisbane

Sarah and her parents

sassy

sarah having a sit

the gardens

pretty flowers

fern

The next day we went to the Australia Zoo, which is always sure to be fun! Unfortunately we didn't get to see Bindi and the family this time, but we did have fun with the kangaroos, koalas, elephants, tortoises, wombats, and lambs!

sarah's parents acting crazy

big turtle...ending up acting real real crazy!

kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

me and the cute lambs

sarah giving one a kiss

i love feeding siam, and boy can he eat!

cute lil' wombat

beautiful cats

sarah playing with the kangas

me kissin' the kanga