Phillip Island

The Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley

Phillip Island

A Few of the Twelve

Along The Great Ocean Road

Along The Great Ocean Road

Melbourne Train Station

Opera House At Night

Opera House

Sydney Cityscape

Harbor Bridge

A Trip Down South

Well Kylie and I just got back from an 8 day trip down to Sydney and Melbourne. We flew down to Sydney and stayed there for 3 days. We visited the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. We also went through the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Museum. On Sunday we caught a bus from the city and went out to Hillsong for church. We then rented a car and drove down to Melbourne with a stop in Wagga Wagga for a night. In Melbourne we stayed in St Kilda right across from Albert Park. The first day in Melbourne we walked around visiting shops and we visited the Victoria National Art Gallery. Melbourne really has a lot of culture and very English feel to it. They have trams that run all over the city making it easy to get around. On our second day in Melbourne we got up and headed east along The Great Ocean road. We just spent a few hours driving along the road enjoying the view. We made it to the Twelve Apostles which was an impressive sight. The next day we headed west into the Yarra Valley where the wineries are. It was beautiful day and we visited a few wineries for some tastings. We didn't stay to long in the Yarra Valley because we wanted to make it down to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is the home of the 'Penguin Parade'. Every night at dusk about 1500 small penguins come out of the ocean and make there way up the beach to sleep for the night. We were able to see groups of them wash ashore and then scurry up the beaches in little clusters. It was a fun and awesome sight. Our last day in Melbourne was spent wandering around Chapel Street shopping. Well Kylie did most of the shopping I was just a long for the ride :) It was a great trip and I am glad I got see more of Australia. Seeing it with Kylie made it that much better.

Thank You all for your comments. It is great hearing from people back home. Here is a picture of Kylie and I, since a few of you have asked :)

Back In The Land Down Under

Well I am back in Australia. I really enjoyed my time in Guam. I ended up driving around the island picking up kids so that they could come to church. It was fun and I got meet some great kids as well as see the island. One thing I really I enjoyed on Guam was that they had a Taco Bell, they don't have that in Brisbane so it was great to get something from home :) I was able to get the Kalaus started on their scanning project, we scanned in over 1000 slides. It was interesting to hear about the history behind many of the pictures.

As of right now I plan on staying here in Brisbane through the holidays. I will have my first summer Christmas :)

Pictures From Around Guam

War Memorial


Lagoon


Spanish Bridge


Waves


Flowers


Lookout

For Those Wondering... I am Alive and in Guam

So I am in Guam. I left Brisbane, Australia on Sunday the 9th at around 7:00pm and flew up to Cairns. From Cairns I hopped on a red-eye to Guam arriving here at 5:00 am. The first couple days it rained and I didn't do much other than work on the computers at the PMA Haus. I am staying with Kalau's, the founders of PMA. My main job here is to help in scanning, organizing, and archiving about 11,000 slides that Edmund Kalau has.

Sorry all for not updating my blog more often. I definitely have a few things to post but without a fast internet connection it is hard to put some of the photos up that I want to. Some of you maybe wondering why I didn't update my blog more often and I am sure the speculation ran wild, so I will tell you all. I met someone special in Australia :) Her name is Kylie and she is a chaplain at a school in Brisbane. For the curious a chaplain is like a Christian counselor for schools. She pretty much distracted me from updating my blog :)

Future Plans: As of right now I am going to be in Guam until about the first week in November and then I am going back to Brisbane. I still need to make it to Sydney. Also New Zealand is high on my list of places to visit.

God definitely has made my trip interesting and challenged me at the same time. Please pray for me while I am in Guam and then as I head back to Australia. Thank You.

Hervey Bay: Fraser Island

I was told to visit Fraser Island by just about everyone here. So I booked a day tour as soon as I arrived in Hervey Bay. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It is a very diverse island with rain forests, pine forests, as well as large sand dunes.

I was again picked up in the morning from the hostel and taken to the harbor to get a ferry to the island. Once on the island I found my tour bus. Now this isn't your normal bus this is a 4x4 bus that can offroad. Almost all the roads on the island are sand so you have to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get around.


Our first stop on the island was a small lake called Basin Lake. A few of us on the tour waded into the lake to check it out, it was quite pleasant. We were told the water was good for your skin. Essentially the water is just rain water, the lake isn't fed by any river.

After visiting the lake we headed back to the bus and drove to Central Station. Central Station used to be the main logging site on the island when logging was allowed. Now it is where you can start a hike through some of the rain forest on the island. We hiked through the forest and along a creek there. When I first saw the creek I thought why was the water so white but after looking closer I realized the water was so clear that I was seeing the sand below the surface.



When we finished our trek through the forest we headed to a hotel on the island for lunch. Following lunch we hopped on the freeway to the take us to our next location. The freeway on the island is the beach. It was quite fun to cruise on the beach.

We headed up to the Maheno ship wreck. The ship was wrecked when the Japanese were towing it back to be scrapped and it was hit by a cyclone. During WWII it was used as a bombing target as well, apparently they only hit it a few times because it was largely intact. After visiting the wreck we headed up to place that has colored sands. Our last stop was Eli Creek which is a creek that runs right into the ocean. The creek is shallow so we were able to wade down almost all the way to the ocean. I wanted to go swimming in the ocean but apparently you don't do that because there are a lot of sharks in the water. After leaving the creek we had one more stop. Our last stop was some of the great sand dunes on the island. These were an awesome sight because they essentially cut straight through the forest.

Fraser Island was a magnificent place and you definitely need more than one day there. If I get a chance to go back I would.

Hervey Bay: There Be Whales Here

Last night it rained heavily and today I woke up to a grey cloudy sky, not the greatest weather to go whale watching. I said a prayer asking for a great day and some great whales and got up out of bed and got ready to go. I was excited to be going out on the ocean whether or not I saw whales. The bus came and picked me up about 8:00 am and we made it to the harbour about 15 minutes later. I booked my tour on a ship called the Tasman Venture. It is a large catamaran. Everybody was aboard by about 8:30 and we were on our way.

It ended up being quite windy once we made it out into the open ocean so it wasn't the smoothest ride and it was cold. I sat up on the bow of the ship and just took in the view. At about 9:30 or so we spotted our first whale, whales actually. There were two out in front of us fin slapping. The captain of the ship moved us in closer to get a better look. They were both adult humpback whales. They were about 13m to 15m in length and dark grey. It was an amazing sight. After watching these two for a while the captain decided to move on see what else we could find.

A few minutes after leaving the two we spotted another whale. As we got closer the crew aboard the ship started to wave their arms and make noise. They encourage us to do the same. Apparently whales can be quite curious and lucky for us this one was. She wasn't quite an adult yet but still about 11m to 12m in length. She did have a lot of white coloring making her quite easy to see in the water. For whatever reason she really like our boat and put on a great show. She would poke her eyes out of the water and take a look, she would roll on her back and swim underneath the ship only to come up on the other side. She was such a gracefully creature. Another boat noticed all the attention the whale was giving us and moved in try to steal it away, however 2 other whales moved in and ended up taking our little white one away with them.


We headed out again and saw a few more whales from a distance but none as close as the little white one. With about a hour or so left on the tour we started to head back in. On the way back the little white whale met up with us again. However this time two other adult whales were with her and instead of taking her away all of them stayed around the boat. So now we had three whales we could watch. Pretty much where ever you were on the ship you could see a whale. We stayed here as long as we could but eventually the time came when we needed to leave, we all waved good bye and started back to the harbor. As we were heading back to the harbor I took a look back and as I did I saw two whales jump out of the water. That pretty much made my day. My prayer in the morning was definitely answered, I had a great day and we meant some great whales.

Hervey Bay: On the Way

Went up to Hervey Bay today aboard the Tilt Train. The Tilt Train runs from Brisbane all the way up to Cairns. It was supposed to take about 4 hours to get there but a train broke down in front of us, so we were stuck in town called Gympie (pronounced gimpy), appropriately :) Arrived in Hervey Bay and made a quick phone call to the hostel, the Aussie Woolshed, where I will be staying. They quickly came and picked up and after about a 10 min drive I was at my accomodations. The Aussie Woolshed is located in a neighboorhood with other homes and hostels and is about 10 min walk from the beach. Once there I got my room and proceeded to wander around the property. The property is quaint with cabin like buildings that contain dorm rooms and a woolshed that is used as a common room. I wandered over to the common room to meet some others but there was only one couple from Germany and they didn't speak much English. After walking around the hostel for a while I decided to walk to down to the shops and grab some dinner. It was about 7:oo pm and dark. As I was walking I could hear the waves crashing on the shore so I found a path down to the beach to take a look. Once on the beach I was presented with a great of view of the stars and the sand. After staring at the stars and watching the waves I headed back up to the shops. It was getting late so I walked back to the hostel because I had an early start in the morning, whale watching.

Riverfire

Every year in Brisbane they have a river festival and on of those days they have a huge fireworks display called Riverfire. Last night was Riverfire. It was an awesome display, there were 6 or 7 barges along the river that were used as platforms for the fireworks. It also looked like fireworks were set off from the tops of some of the skyscrapers nearby. What also was cool was they had a F-111 perform a dump & burn over the city. It pretty much flew over with full after burners on. There were few hundred thousand people on hand and we had to do a little creative parking to be able to get a good view. We ended up with a great view with one of the barges right in front of us. The fireworks display lasted for about half an hour. After the display we drove up to Mount Coot-tha. The lookout point on the top of the mountain offered a spectular view of the city at night.

Book Review: The Heavenly Man

I just finished reading a great book called 'The Heavenly Man'. It chronicles the life of Liu Zhenying, known as Brother Yun, who is a Chinese Christian. Brother Yun was put in prison multiple times and brutally tortured for his faith and love in Jesus Christ. He also experience many miracles while in prison, including an incredible escape. Brother Yun talks about how the Chinese church grew under persecution and how his time in prison helped him grow closer to God. It was amazing to read how God works through those that surrender themselves to Him completely. It also made me realize how much we take our freedoms for granted and how our freedoms sometimes can lead us away from God instead of to Him. Brother Yun's story is inspiring, challenging, and definitely worth the time to read.

Youth Alive Queensland

I went to Youth Alive yesterday night. It was large Christian concert/conference for the youth of the Queensland. I ended up riding on bus with a bunch of local high school and jr high kids. I was asked a lot of questions and told to say a few different words :) There ended up being about 9 or 10 thousand people at the concert. There was a great worship band and they had a hip-hop group called the Nubian Gents there that danced. One of the speakers there was a guy named Nick Vujicic, who doesn't have any limbs. He told some funny stories and gave a great testimony. The kids really seemed to love him. I ended having a great time at the concert listening to music and hanging out with some of kids.

A Night at West End

Went to a part of Brisbane called West End last night. It is an older area with a lot of little cafes and boutique style shops lining the road. I was told it was place you don't want to wander around at night by yourself. Seemed pretty safe to me. I had to catch a train to West End and it was packed, apparently there was a rugby game being played last night. Riding the train was an experience in itself. I ended up talking to these two guys on their way to the game just due to the fact that I was standing right on top them. Once I got to West End we ended up eating at a little coffee cafe called 'The Three Monkeys'. They served largely Italian style dishes and of course different types of coffee. One of the interesting things about restaurants here is that they are B.Y.O. which means you can bring your own alcohol in. So people were wandering around the restaurant with bottles of wine. I had a pretty good little pizza and great mocha. After dinner we walked to a place called the 'Pavallion'. It was a pool hall/bar/resturant which had a live band playing. The bands name was 'Jabba' and they weren't to bad. Played a game of pool and found out they play a little differently over here, so I got a few funny looks and was kindly told the correct way to play :) After the game we called it night.

A Walk Downtown

I spent most of the day Wednesday wandering around downtown Brisbane. I visited the Queensland Museum and Queensland Art Gallery. I also walked down Queens Street which is a huge shopping area. There is botanical garden that runs along the north side of the river which I walked through as well. The Parliment House is near the botanical garden so I walked over to take a look, however there was some sort of protest going out front making it difficult to a good look.

ANZAC Biscuits

Tried another Australian culinary favorite today. ANZAC biscuits. These are an army biscuit and are quite hard. They are pretty good though. It is best to have them with something to drink. Hit this link for a recipe. Enjoy!

Bike Around Brisbane

Rick picked me on his Ninja tonight to take me for a ride around the town. I haven't been on a motorcycle in who knows how long and to be honest I was a little nervous, but it ended up being great fun. I may need to get bike when I get back. I spent the night hanging out with a few of the guys I met at Garden City church.

Mount Coolum

There are a few mountains in the area, most are old volcanoes. I hiked up one called Mount Coolum today. It only took about 30 minutes to make in to the top, but once there you get a great view of the area. Mount Coolum is only a few km from the coast so from the top you can see the ocean and beaches for miles. On the other side of the mountain you can see the river snake through the country side. It was quite an impressive and beautiful view. Today is the first day that I am finally feeling better

Pavlova - The Great Australian Dessert

Tried a favorite dessert of Australians today. Pavlova. It is a meringue cake made with fresh fruit. Crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. Here is a link to a recipe for all those that are curious. It is quite tasty.

Eumundi, Noosa Heads

Every Wednesday and Saturday in a town called Eumundi there are markets for people to sell their art, so Dave and I headed down there. Eumondi is little bit of a hippie town. It was very quaint and built up in the hills. The market was packed today with people. We wandered around here for a little while looking at the art and listening to people play music. I got a bit of breakfast as well.

After the markets we headed to down to a costal town called Noosa. The beach at Noosa was great. The sand here is very fine and quite soft to walk in. The water was still a little to cold to get in and it was breezy and cool so I didn’t swim I just waded in a little. There was national park nearby so we drove up there and walked up a path to point where you can look out across the ocean.

Australia Zoo - Home of the Crocodile Hunter

Got up early today and got all packed up to go spend a few days up north. Luke dropped me off at a hotel in Brisbane and a bus going to Australia Zoo picked me up. It took a little over an hour to drive up to the zoo and along the way which watched a video of Steve Irwin’s life.

The zoo was pretty good. There is a large arena called the Crocoseum where they hold the animal shows. The first show was about snakes. The second show they brought out the tigers and basically played with them. The third show was a bird show where they brought out some of the tropical birds from the area. The birds just fly free and come within inches of your head sometimes. The last show was the crocodile show. They brought out one crocodile and feed him. They did manage to coax him into jumping out of the water a few times. After the shows I wandered around the zoo. There are two large areas in the zoo where kangaroos roam and you are able to pet and feed them. There are also a couple of areas where you can pet koalas as well. I saw some dingoes, emus, cassowaries, Tasmanian devils, a large coastal hawk, and some wombats. There was also a large display of Australian snakes. It took a few hours to see the zoo and by about 4 o’clock was I ready to go.

Another Day Down Under

Didn't do much today. Headed over to the Hyderdome to due a little shopping. I will be going to the Australia Zoo tomorrow. Luke arranged a bus ride up to the zoo for me. A friend of Lukes, David Allan, is going to pick me from the zoo and show me around the Sunshine coast for a few days.

Church and New Friends

Woke up and took a little walk down to the park where I read and relaxed. I am still not feeling all that well. I came back from the park to find Luke and the family back from church. I watched my first AFL (Australian Football League) rugby game which uses Australian Rules. They refer to it as ’footy’ over here. It was Brisbane against Sydney and Sydney destroyed Brisbane. One of the players on Brisbane ended up with a broken leg. After the AFL game we watched another rugby game that uses the ‘Rugby League’ rules.. This game was not as fast paced as the AFL game but it is definitely more fun to watch than an NFL game. Of the two I enjoyed the AFL game the most.

Luke got a hold of a couple that he is doing marriage counseling for to see if they could take me to church tonight. Their names are Rick and Kristy. Rick is really into bikes and works at Tyco. Kristy is a fully time student studying to be social worker. I met their friend Brett before church started. Brett is also into bikes and he runs his own barber shop. I enjoyed the service at Garden City Church, I even knew most of the worship songs. The pastor spoke about going past our limits and really talked about the church going out into the community. About midway through the service another friend of Rick and Kristy’s showed up, her name was Kylie. I talked with Kylie after the service and found out she is a school chaplain. Apparently over here at the principals request schools can have a chaplain. It is sort of like a counseling position, but they can talk about God. All in all a good night.

A Day of Recovery

Took a walk down to the park along the Logan River. The park is called Riverside. It had walking track all around the park, with benches where you can stop and sit and enjoy the river. It was a pretty nice day, warm with a breeze. I met Luke and Tiffany's oldest daughter Ellen today. She was staying with her grandparents yesterday so I didn't meet her when I arrived. Took a walk with Luke and the family around the neighborhood later in the night. I think I am coming down with a little cold and I still haven’t really recovered from my flight.

Arrived In Brisbane

I made it to Brisbane. I am officially in the land down under, Australia. The flights over here were pretty uneventful. The flight from PHX to LA was packed. Upon reaching LAX I just had to exit terminal one and walk down to terminal two. Not having any checked bags makes it pretty easy to move from place to place. I found the Air Zealand ticket counter, got my ticket, made it through security, and proceeded to wait for 1.5 hours. Upon boarding the 747-400 I found my seat and it was on the aisle toward the middle of the plane. I didn’t have anyone seating to the right me so I was able to spread out a little. Pretty much right after take off they shut the lights off and people started to go asleep. In the row in front of me there was a mother with a baby and small little girl. Surprisingly the baby didn’t cry to much. There were a lot of Australians and New Zealanders on board. One thing I noticed was that they are a pretty helpful crowd. People came up and offered to hold the baby or take the little girl for a walk around the plane. Watched a few movies and got a couple hours of the sleep. The total flying time to New Zealand was about 12.5 hours.

Arrived at the Auckland airport and it was gray and rainy outside so I didn’t get to see much of NZ. I walked around the airport a little since I had about 2 hours to kill. The airport itself is not very big but they have a huge mall you can walk through, most of it is duty free shops. The plane we are flying to Brisbane on is the same one we flew over to NZ on. I got on board and found my seat, it was right across from where I was sitting before, the only difference was I had the whole row to myself. Read for a little while and took about an hour nap.

Arrived at the Brisbane airport. Walked down to the Customs line. I should have asked Luke for his address since they wanted to know where I was staying. Luckily I wrote down Luke’s phone number and that was good enough. A custom agent came up after I finished showing my passport and proceeded to ask me questions and escorted me to get my bags searched. She was very nice and it didn’t take long to search through my two bags, in fact I think it ended up getting me through the security checkpoint quicker. I had nothing to hide :) After repacking my bags I walked out of the terminal and began looking for Luke. About 5 minutes later he found me.
We swung by the place where Luke’s wife Tiffany works to pick her up. It ended up being a bridal shop. Luke youngest daughter Teaghan was also was there. While waiting for Tiffany to finish up, we took a little walk through Stones Corner which is shopping district. While we were out walking Luke had a key made for me so I could come and go from the house.

We ended up going to lunch out at the Hyperdome. The Hyderdome is essentially a mall. After lunch we headed back to their place. I have my own room with a nice size bed and plenty space for all of my stuff :) I managed to stay up to about 9:30pm before deciding that it was late enough and I could go to bed.