surf's up!

I have been in Melbourne for the past week and 1/2 and been loving it! I have had the privledge of having some great hosts! Chris (who im staying with) and Andrew (i met both guys while traveling in Prague in 2005) have been great host...showing me all around melbourne and taking me down the coast on two different occasions. thanks guys!me and chris (you can see melbourne in the background) he lives in a near suburb called Brighton and his house is a very close walk to the beach! how lucky!
me at Brighton beach...the little colorful beach houses in the background go for around $200,000 aussie dollars! they are expensive bc no more can be built on the beach.

Chris's friend Jackie, Andrew and me at the yacht club Chris works at. What a great summer night!

Last weekend chris took me down to his beachouse which is on the "great ocean road"- a beautiful scenic road thats right on the coast. it was built after the soliders came home from the war and needed jobs. it is a beautiful road with breathtaking coatline and tons of places to pull off the road and surf. he tried to teach me to surf and he got a little of surfing in with some of his friends too. these were the waves chris was surfing!
here is my pathetic try at surfing. chris took me out three times (would have gone more but the surf was non existent a couple of the days) I surfed at a place called torquay, which is basically where surfing started in Australia. I was a stud the first day and then it went downhill from there. but i'm not worried...i still have a month in oz to get it right.

(i know pretty bad but hey! it was only my first try...give me a break! its harder than it looks)

ps. sorry it has been so long for an update...i caught a bad case of strep and have been in bed for the past couple of days. i will try to be better and update more. i am leaving Melbourne and heading up the coast on Monday so expect to see more pictures of beautiful beaches and perhaps a kangaroo from time to time :

lil bit of this, a lil bit of that

at milford sound....usually it rains here but we had a gorgeous day! milford was carved by a glacier thousands and thousands of years ago. it was a nice relaxing boat trip and my final time with all my friends at Stray. milford sound, againmilford sound, once more

waterfall, milford sound

another waterfall, milford sound

the girl band @ milford sound

I went to my first rugby game in Christchurch. (ryan/mike I hope you are proud of your cuz!) The match was between the crusaders (won the division last year) and the reds (ozzie team)
this is after the crusaders scored their first tri! (i hope thats how you spell it?)

man, those boys' got some hops

after the rugby match...crusaders win!

good bye...new zealand

hello melbourne, australia!

one "extreme" day (don't think my heart can handle anymore!)

we decided to go "big" and do the thrillogy...three jumps in one day!

the 1st jump....the bridge (home of the first ever jump site-1988)

the view from the bridge

penguin walking to the edge...i told the guy to not let me fall and then realized that is what i was there to do! haha

getting ready to jump....

the three of us after our first bungy jump ever...only two more to go!

i didnt want to get dunked in the water but the guys operating the bungy gave me extra bungy and made me get wet...oh well it was refreshing on a hot day!

the 2nd jump....Nevis (highest in NZ-404ft)

yep folks, thats what I jumped from!

on the mini cable car ride over to the jump car

the three brave souls...what were we thinking?

james (england), sandra (mexico), me

thats the floor of the cable car...made it more intense that you could see through it!

the view from the cable car....the jump is 404ft down to the bottom of that gulley! ahhhhh

and what made it worse was that i had to wait for an hour and watch 20 people go ahead of me.

i had to sit in a wobbly chair so that they can strap/clip me in...the chair was on springs so it made it seem like i was going to fall backwards out of the cable car. it def added to the suspense. i have never been so scared!

me, bouncing along after the big jump.

I survived! That was prob the scariest thing I have ever done, much much worse than skydiving! but it was so so worth it!

the 3rd jump...."the ledge"

thats the view from my last bungy...view of Queenstown

i decided to try something a little different on my last jump...went for a front flip!

the last jump wasn't as scary, which was good bc i got to enjoy it more!

I also have video and dvd's of all the jumps, for anyone that wants to see it when I get home

chillin on a glacier...

I climbed Franz Josef glacier. It is one of the few glaciers in the world that is in the middle of a rainforrest. It was a great experience and even better bc it was in the middle of summer which made it a little warmer.

i dont like the look of those warning signs!

view from the bottom of the glacier....

danger, danger! last chance to turn back!

can i fit?

a view from atop the glacier

you can kinda see the blue ice...its blue for the same reason the ocean and ski are blue...i think it has to do with the amount of oxygen in the ice?

the girls

our guide took us on an adventure through the glacier...here we are hopping over a cravass!

at the end of a long glacier walk...






Other side trips.....

mirror lake...which side is up/down??? who knows?

this is the view from the top of mt. shrimpton...let me tell ya they should change the name of the mountain...it normally takes people 3hr to get to the top (6007feet) but i hauled ass and made it in 1 1/2 hours! Go me! haha j/k it was a great hike and amazing views of the southern alps.