Monday 9th June

I woke up and got ready to get on the plane. It was pretty hectic in the house. Abby and James came and we loaded up the car and went to the airport. My check-on bag is not a check-on bag in Australia so then I had to check it in with the luggage. We got on the plane and I fell asleep. Everybody was making fun of me about how I slept on the plane :). We landed and got our rental car then drove along the Great Ocean Road. I got a little car sick because it was so windy along the Great Ocean Road. We got to the lighthouse station where we were staying - and no we didn't actually stay in the lighthouse, we stayed in the lightkeeper's house. I had three beds in my room so I went to bed. :)

Tuesday 10th June

We woke up and went to the lighthouse and explored that area for a little while - getting pictures and what not. Then we went to the Otway Fly - a high tree-top walk. After that we went back to the hotel, had a lovely dinner, watched Jurassic Park on VHS, stayed up for a little bit more and then went to bed.

Wednesday 11th June

Up late again, another great cooked breakfast (in fact, this is pretty much how our whole week of mornings went :D). James & Abby stayed home to relax, while we three (Neil, Sandy and I) went to Triplet Falls. The walk through the fern rainforest was fantastic, and the falls beautiful. We then drove to Melba Gully, and did another walk through the forest there, just before dark, then waited in hopes of seeing the famous firefly display. These are actually fungus gnats and apparently there are not hundreds or thousands but millions of them at night on occassion. The torch we had brought didn't work, but we ventured into the forest anyway, and waited in there for about an hour without seeing anything. The forest had been almost scary in the daytime, so Neil and I were not too keen on hanging around in the night for too long. Back at the lighthouse the gate was unfortunately locked, and Sandy and I had to find a way over the fence and walk through the dark to get the key. Abby and James had cooked dinner for us when we got home which was lovely.

Thursday 12th June

Packed up and had our last walk and look around the lighthouse area, including the old telegraph office. Very windy up at the top of the lighthouse. We then drove to Port Campbell, where we were booked for the last four nights. It's a little town right on the ocean front. Nice little apartment. Unpacked, shopped, and explored the town a little. Neil, Sandy and I drove out to see 'The Arch', one of the coastal rock formations nearby, which was great. Had to be home by 5pm to watch game 2 of State of Origin, in which QLD trashed NSW 30-0, yay! :) (Bethany is typing this for me, that was her comment by the way).

Friday 13th June

We went sightseeing and went to see Loch Ard Gorge, Thunder Cave, and went back to Melba Gully for a second try at seeing the Fireflies/Fungus Gnats. We bought a small torch and ventured much deeper into the forest this time and eventually saw the little gnats! Sandy scared the beejeebies out of me and I had to go change my underwear.......no need for further explanation there im sure ;). Then we went back to the apartment and played cards - pretty much every night we played cards. My bed in this place was really dodgy, I woke up every hour of the night.

Saturday 14th June

Didn't do too much today. Was a nice relaxing day. :)

Sunday 15th June

Woke up and got ready for church. Drove an hour to get to the chapel and got lost on the way. But we managed to find it because of the spirit ;). I was really surprised by the size 0f the church - I've never seen anything so small before. Our church basketball gym was probably the size of the entire chapel. There was probably about 20 people in their ward/branch. There were three young men. I was very surprised that they didn't have an organist! but I could still feel the spirit and they were fortunate enough to have CD's of the hymns. After church we got changed and went to the whale watching lookout but didn't see any whales in the hour that we were there. Then we went back to the apartment and went to sleep.

Monday 16th June

We packed up to be out of the unit by 10am and went to see all the sights we hadn't been to yet: the Twelve Apostles, the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Martys, the Grotto, and the London Bridge. Then drove all the way back to Geelong and got onto our plane and flew home, where we were picked up at the airport by Bethany and Micky. Then I went straight to bed.

Tuesday 17th June

I woke up, went to school with the Twins and helped set up for their school semi-formal (semi-prom). The school hooked me up with a date for the dance that night. She wasn't too bad looking which I was relieved about because I'd been pretty nervous about that. We danced the night away, took lots of pictures, finished the dance and went home. Dances are way different here than it is in the states. PS - ours are 10 times better :). I came home, talked t0 Bethy and Micky til about 2am in the morning - packing for my next trip and playing the MOVIE!!! game.

Wednesday 18th June

I woke up really early - got about 2hrs sleep - and got ready to go to the airport. Because we got stuck in horrific traffic on the way there (6am) we were late for the airplane and ended up missing our flight. So we got onto our other flight, got into Cairns and went straight to the Tjapakai Aboriginal centre for the afternoon. I was able to throw the boomerangs and throw the spear like a warrior. They told me that I was born in the wrong era and wrong nationality. They said I would have been one of the fiercest warriors and gave me a new name - it means "The One".....just joking :P. But I was pretty good. Then we went back to the apartment - it was way sweet.

Thursday 19th June

We woke up and spent and hr and a half getting the twins up. We were going to go to the Larva Tubes but as it was a 4hr trip each way we decided as a group not to go, but instead when to Mossman Gorge. We started a walk, and it was a river, but there were boulders everywhere. so i had the bright idea to go into the river and see if we could go along the width of the river by only jumping the boulders and not touching the water. But Oliver accidently overshot a distance and fell in the river. It was gold. Then Neil and Sandy travelled to the swimming area by land and we travelled by rocks. Then at the swimming hole there was a rock and we were jumping off of it, having a dandy time. Then we got back into the car and went back to the hotel and slept.

Friday 20th June

We got up. The twins again, took forever to get up so that put us behind a little bit. But we managed to get to SuperSonic, our ship for the day. Then I had to take a lesson on how to scuba dive. I pretty much new everything because I had done it before but it was nice to have a review. Then we went to the back of the boat and got suited up to go scuba diving. When we got to our first reef stop of three we had four people in our group. Two of them woosed out. The reef was way cool - it was the best thing ever. There was heaps of fish, the water was crystal clear, and my diving instructor was cool she let us pretty much do whatever we want. Then we went back into the boat and went to our next site. When we got there we had lunch and then I went snorkling. It pretty much looked like the other reef. Then we went to our third and final sight and I went scuba diving again. This time my same diving instructor took fish with her and we were feeding the fish. It was way cool. Then we raced a boat back to shore and I got my certificate that's valid for 6 months. Hint hint dad: I want to certified ;). Then we went out on the town that night where I bought some secret stuff for family. Then we went back to the apartment and slept.

Saturday 21st June

This day we woke up early again because we had to make the bus to go white water rafting. Long story short (I'll tell all my stories when I get back - too many to write on my blog) rafting was a blast. It was probably the best thing overall on the trip. Then we went back to the hotel and slept.

Sunday 22nd June

Sunday we went to church and it was way bigger than the last one we went to. It had more people and most importantly (this is what made my day), it had an organist! The twins and I doubled the young mens that day. Then we went back to the hotel, got changed, had some lunch, and went to some fig trees. They were MASSIVE and we climbed on them. Then we went home and slept and packed for our flight home.

Monday 23rd June

Ben and I boarded a train up to Kuranda and then we stayed up at Kuranda for a couple of hours. Then hopped on a sky-rail with Oliver and Neil and went flying down to the bottom of the mountain where Ben and Sandy waited for us at the bottom. Then we went and saw the Flying Doctor and looked at that for about 5 seconds before we had to leave to catch our flight. We boarded the plane, came home, and went to sleep.

First Adventures

WEDNESDAY
Woke up Wednesday morning and we decided to go up to Tamborine Mountain. It's a very beautiful place about 45 minutes away from the Munro's house. Ben and I and 'Mum' we went to Cedar Creek falls (on the Mountain), where there are four or five tiers of waterfalls and ponds. In one of the ponds, you can swim and slide down the waterfall and jump of the cliff into the pond. Oliver couldn't go because he was in a Chemistry exam at school. He was very disappointed, but the rest of us had fun :)





Then we had to walk all the way back to the car barefooted because my feet were too wet to put my shoes back on, and it hurt!













Then we went to a rainforest section on the same mountain, where we did a rainforest walk. At one point, we took a detour of the lookout tower and sprinted directly down the mountain. It wasn't one of the smartest things we've done, but it was fun. It was all muddy and fully of slippery leaves, and we had to grab onto vines and trees to steady ourselves. (Ben says 'we didn't grab onto the trees, we just ran into them!').

Then we got to another waterfall that is in the waterfall. We didn't go swimming there because there was a sign there saying no swimming, and because there were leaches and crocodiles ... okay, just joking about the crocodiles. But it was a Platypus conservation area, so we couldn't swim there.

Then we started walking back up and there was a vine that we started to play on.


It was great fun. We got out of the rainforest and we got an icecream - I got boysenberry and mango. I liked boysenberry the best.

We went home and picked up the boogey boards which was more important that picking up Oliver, but since he was home from his exam, we took him along as well :) Then we went down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, and started boogeyboarding in the surf. The sand was way better than Cabo. Then we went into the shops and stuff and had some gelato (that's for you Celeste!) and then we went home.

In the evening I had a new experience and went to Institute with Micky and Bethany. It was a fun experience I guess. It was kind of weird, because we don't have institute in our home stake. Then we came home and went to bed.

THURSDAY

I woke up on Thursday and we were all going to the funeral of Neil's mother Margaret who died on Monday. There was a couple of things different about the gravesite service part (The coffin shapes are different, they lower the coffin directly into the ground while everyone is there, and they don't put the coffin into an airtight container first). But everything else was similar. Then we went back to Neil's Sister's house and we all hung out.

Then on Thursday night after we'd driven back (it was a few hours away), most of us (Neil, Jonny, Micky, Ben, Oliver, Bethany and I) all went up to the chapel for a ward activity night. We played basketball and volleyball. Then me Beth and Micky went up to Cold Rock (It's exactly the same as Cold Stone, but it's called Cold Rock). Then we went home.

FRIDAY
I woke up (like usual) and Sandy already had my dan planned out :) I hung out with a guy who just got home off his mission. His name was steve, and it turns out that he was mission roommates with a guy from Rigby named Zan. We hooked up iwth his brother Ryan and went to the beach again. This time we went to Burley Beach, which is pretty close to Surfers Paradise (it's also on the Gold Coast). For lunch I had my first taste of real Aussie food - Kababs. They were so good - I could have had three! (Tammy just told me that Kababs are actually Turkish!). Then we went home and me, Oliver, Ben and 'Mum' went to Southbank to the night markets. I was involved in a magic show, but I left because they took forever to do it. At Southbank there's a man made beach, and there was a guy who was building sand sculptures on the beach. He was building a car that was pulling a trailer - completely out of sand. He had headlights and tail-lights and everything.
Then we went back to our parking spot (which was up on the cliffs at the temple) and we drove to Jonny and Jessima's house, and we watched football there. I fell asleep in the most exciting part. Neil lead the others in throwing pillows at me, but I didn't wake up. At the end of the game we went home and went to sleep.

SATURDAY (TODAY)
I got woken up by Ben and then we had a big pancake breakfast. Everyone was there. Then we went to see a movie 'Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' and that was an alright show. Then all the boys in the family went to go get a football tee so they could teach me to kick the 'Footy' (Football). Last night as we watched Footy (football) on TV, I was making fun of the players because none of them could make a sidekick, so they got the ball and we went to the park so that I could show them all :) I did pretty good. We played horse, and I was 3rd. Then we went home, had dinner, and that's it.

My way down under

I got into salt lake, and recharged my Ipod because it took forever to get onto the plane. Then I finally got on the plane, got to LA and found out that my flight got cancelled! So they gave me a hotel room and I spent the night in LA at the Western. It was really nice - for a teenager all by myself, it was really very nice :) What stunk though, is that I was by myself... I should have had a party!

They said to check out at 6:15am the next morning, but I woke up at 5 - way too early. It took forever to get the plane prepped and ready to go. We finally left at 1:15pm. We were in the lobby all that time. I was scared because there was no one next to me, but I was happy to find out (when we were taxing out) that I had a whole row to myself so I could stretch out and sleep and enjoy my flight.

I never finished a movie - I started six! None of them were exciting to me at the time. The food was alright, no, it was disgusting. Um, I arrived in Brisbane at, I don't know what time, I think it was at about 8pm. Neil Munro had a video camera on me as I walked out of the gate. It scared the heck out of me and I was speechless and camera shy! He caught me off guard.

Got back to the house and met the family. They loved all their gifts (Sandra says thank you very much!) . Went to bed, woke up earlier than anyone thought I was going to wake up. Ahh, looked around at the school - I wish our school was like that (John Paul College) and then we went to the Koala Centre and saw some koalas in the centre, and they looked uncomfortable. I would have liked to hold them. Then I saw some wild small grey kangaroos outside the centre. They came up to me to see if I had any food. We went to Mutual. There are a lot of Samoans - they're very nice people, but a little intimidating if you don't know them.

This is a sideways picture of the recharing station in the Salt Lake airport where I recharged my Ipod.

Here's a photo of the Western (where I stayed)

This is my plane - the one that actually came!

I had the whole row to myself, and it fit me like a glove with four pillows and four blankets!

This is a video I took when I got the hotel vouchers.

And that's it!

i'm here

hey i made it i'm ok can you get me your e-mail and mom

Good Bye America

Hey I'm headed today to go to Australia. I'm really excited. The first song on my play list is for what I say to all of you. C-ya in a month.