We're home!!

we made it home! after four flights and a 10 hour lay over! but it feels great to be home!!! finally!!!
we had a great time!
B and C

White Water Rafting!

What a Blast!!!! We hit the rocks today and we hit them hard!

at one of the rapids it was a really steep drop and there was a rock in front of the jump so you had to hit it on the way down! and as we were going down i lost my place on my seat and slammed into Daniel who was sitting in front of me! my jaw still hurts from it! we have pictures that actually show me in slow motion hitting him! it starts with me with my mouth open screaming then the next shot is my face realizing what is about to happen and then finally the connection!!! awesome pictures!!!

we also got to float down the river in our life jackets and go down baby rapids in our life jackets which was really fun! you got taken under the water and then pushed back up and in other spots there would be rocks only just below the water and your butt would catch on it and you would be stuck like a turtle upsided down!!! it was so funny!! catie got stuck for like 4 minutes before she realized she could turn over and push off of the rock!!

after the rafting and swimming we loaded the boat onto land and the guides told us to change into dry cloths and they were takin us to a brewery here in town and we got free potato wedges! unfortunately me and catie didn't think to bring extra cloths.. so catie came up with a brilliant idea to take our wet shorts off and hang them out of the windown while the bus drove!! WIND POWER!!! anyways we looked absolutely ridiculous! and everyone laughed at us but it worked a little bit!!!

it was a great day!!!

At the GREAT BARRIER REEF!!

What an amazing day!! We went both snorkling and Scuba Diving at the great barrier reef!

our day started nice an early! we had to be at the boat by 8am before we headed off in the direction of the reef! It was a nice bumpy ride! beautiful water and sun amazing! Catie however couldn't wait till the boat stopped! her poor motion sickness got the better of her this time! so she spent most the ride looking into a paper bag. poor girl! went we finally got there it was so beautiful! we started off by snorkling! we throw on the flippers grabbed the masks and hopped into the water! its alittle disorientating at first until you realize you can breath with your head under the water! then its so cool! and the view once you put your head under the water was breath taking! with the sun shinign through the water you see the reef and all the colourful fish that live there!

and then as we were looking at this particularly colourful fish we saw him!! a reef shark! it swam right under us! it was so freaky! we froze in our tracks! so beautiful! so deadly!! after that we kept snorkling and found nemos and dorri! and so many cool looking fish it was unbelievable! i saw a fish fight another fish! or maybe they just ran into each other i dunno, but so cool!

then everyone hopped back onto the boat and we moved to another part of the reef were we got to do our first dive!!! we got all the instructions about how to equalize the pressure in our ears and to watch the gauge that tells you how much air you have and to make sure you never hold your breath!! your lungs could expand and you could die!!!!

then we put the gear on and jumped in the water! its such a weird feeling being able to put your body under water and still breath properly! well i was apparently not breathing properly, i was taking in more oxygen then everyone else so i was the one who ran out of oxygen first! well there is actually a red zone on your gauge and if you get in that red zone you have to go back to the boat. so i showed the instructor and he started leading us back to the boat, i don't think he realized how deep i was breathing cus i was running out of air faster than he thought i was. by the time i was half way up to the boat i started sucking the air in deep, (cus there wasn't much left) adn that made him move me faster! i was pushed to the top and had only a fraction of air left!! close call!!!

Naturally we did a second dive after that!! even though i ran out of air the first time the experience of being in the water wiht the fish like that is amazing! and apparantly i was a real natural at it! the instructor said so!! i caught on so fast and was swimming really fast! so fun! so the second time was even better because we didn't have to do all the safty stuff first! we knew the drill! and when we were down there was saw turtles! like in finding nemo!! we found Crush!! and we saw sting rays!! so cool looking! and the way they move is insane! and we saw huge clams! and we got to touch it!!! and it moves when you touch it! so crazy!! and then when we were heading back to the boat we saw another SHARK!!!! i saw it first out of the corner of my eye! so i started pointing to it and making the signal of HOLY CRAP THERES A SHARK! and then everyone else saw it and we just stayed perfectly still! and it got closer and started to circle us! and then as it got closer to me it turned so that it was facing me dead on and swam closer before quickly turning and swimming away! it got so close to us! it was unreal and really scary!!! once it was gone we worked our way back up to the boat. once on the boat and everyone had their masks off i looked over at one of the girls who was diving with us and she had a BLEEDING NOSE!!! no wonder the shark was circling us!!! holy crap!!!

but what an experience!!! after that we did one more snorkle and then headed back to shore!

What an amazing day!!

i can't believe we are actually doing all this stuff!!!

ATVing fun!!

we just got back from ATVing and it was so much fun!

they took us up in the mountains! and if you are thinking like the rocky mountains you are sadly mistaken! they are the complete opposite! no snow!! its all beautiful Jungle!!!! and the ride up the mountain alone was fantastic! finally when we got there they broke us off into groups and showed us the basics of what to do. and finally we were on our way!!

it was so much fun!! we got to go really fast! and kick up the dust and they we got to go up and down really steep hills and bounce on the rocks! it was so much fun! then it started to rain making it all muddy and creating puddles which were so much fun to ride through! we are so dirty now! its so much fun getting muddy and dirty!

a great day over all!!

WE'RE ALIVE!!!!!!!!

WE DID IT!!! WE JUST COMPLETED SKYDIVING!!! and it was AMAZING!!!

i still can't believe we actually went through with it!!

ok now for the play by play!

the bus picked us up at 12:30 sharp and took us over to the office to sign the papers saying we can't sue if our chute didn't open! no big deal!! then we got to meet our partners to go for the jump and they were great! Caties guy was named Ben and my guy was named Chopper! sweet name rigth! they really got us pumped up for the jump! there was seven people in total doing the jump! everyone doing it tandem!

then we all filed into the bus that would take us to our fate! and as we were sitting in our seats contimplating life and death i looked over and glanced at chopper and saw that he was drinking a beer!!! omg can they fall if they are drunk!! lol nah he said he always has a drink before a jump! luckly i was his first jump of the day! can you imagine being the 5th jump of the day!! they say they do sometimes 8 jumps in a day!! crazy! i wonder if you could get bored of jumping out of a plane?

when we finally got to the airport and saw all the little airplanes we were getting so excited jumping up and down! and finally the moment came! getting into the plane! we had to sit in the between the legs of our partners and can you believe it but CATIE WENT FIRST!!! she is crazy!!!!! so she sat by the door with Ben (she hit her head getting in haha) and then we took off! it was so cool one minute we were horizontal and then the next we were at 45 degree angle shooting into the sky! it was the best plane ride i have ever been on! and the view was great!!!

and then all of a sudden....THE DOOR OPENED!!! and i was thinking "are you crazy!!!" then Cate and Ben stuck there legs out teh door and 3 2 1 SHE WAS GONE!!!! omg that was the freakest thing i have ever seen! and then all of a sudden it was my turn and in the rush to get to the door my foot got caught in the mat on the floor of the plane so we were stumbling trying to get to the door, finally i stuck my legs out and then 3 2 1 HOLY SHITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was amazing!!! the initial fall out of the plane made my stomach have huge butterflies but then it just felt like we were floating in the air! cus it didn't seem like the ground was getting that much closer! it was so cool to see the earth from that angle! it was just so cool falling through the air with the greatest of ease!!! and then he opened the chute and all my fears were gone!!! MY CHUTE OPENED! IM ALIVE!!! it was so nice just floating down to the ground! seeing everything oh so amazing!! and finally touch down!!!!!! smooth landing!!!

We still can't believe we did it! but we are so happy!

We got a dvd each!!!!!

and we are trying to load it to facebook but we got pics up!!!

WE DID IT!!!!

a little fun in Cairns

we have had a great couple of days here in Cairns, exploring the town and shopping mall and beach! its so wierd here not only do they drive on the left hand side of the road but they also do not give pedestrians the right of way! something you have to get use to very fast! its scary trying to cross the road! definatly a luxury in Canada!

OH DADDY! you will like this! today we were walking down to the beach and only the way there was a whole bunch of trees that spilled over onto the side walk, and at first i just thought it was really pretty but then all of a sudden we heard it! a squeaking noise coming from above us and thats when daniel said "oh hey look at the bats! " OMG! gross! there was so many of them! i couldn't believe it! they were all just hanging upside down talkin to each other like nothing was up, or in their case down! and instantly i thought back to the time when we "caught" one in the fence! remember daddy!! gross!!! "eck eck eck!" so freaky! but other then that our walk was fantastic!

its been good fun! but we are getting kinda nervous to go sky diving now! its coming up so fast! we do it on this thursday!! (wednesday for you guys!) so keep your fingers crossed that day!

airport mayhem!

what a fun morning!
today we flew from Coolangatta to Cairns! and since we have already made the flight from calgary to sydney you would think we are pros at traveling by plane so today really should have been a walk in the park for us, sadly it was a whole other story!
it all started with relatively smart thinking! we should lock the laptop bag just in case, cus you never know at the airport! and put the key somewhere safe so that it is not in the same place as the laptop bag! naturally we put it in our big bags. then we checked in, easy enough!, and finally it was time to go through security! yaya we know the drill! shoes off, belt in the bucket and take laptop out of bag and put in seperate container!.... wait a minute.... we locked the laptop bag!!! and worse of all we put the key in the other bag which at that very moment was being loaded onto the plane!!!
we successfully locked ourselves out of the laptop bag!! crap!!!
so that left us running all over the airport trying to find a security guard who might have somehting to break open the lock! naturally when you are looking for a security guard you find none!! how is that always the case! sheesh we must have looked for some one for 10 minutes, constantly asking people who work there were they can be found and constantly being pointed in the different direction! finally we went back to the security gates and asked one of the people working at the metal detectors, turns out they don't like being asked if they could open your bag for you, i guess they think we might have somethign fishy in there like a bomb! well next thing we know we are being pushed into a small room off to the side and sat in front of a table! three huge security gaurds come in(well we found them at least!) and just look at us... we jsut started sweating bullets! then catie tried to speak saying we accidently looked ourselves out of our bag but the first big bad security guard stop her just by holding up his finger. then the second moved around the table and nelt down in front of us, and said "we can do this the easy way or the hard way!" i kid you not! it was like out of the movies! so i said "easy! easy!!" the third big duffes just laughed and then opened the door and 2 security dogs were brought into the room! then took the bag from catie and held it out to the dogs the first dog sniffed it and looked away but the second dog sniffed it and started barking!!! oh shit!! the weed! nah just kidding catie desided she was hungry and stuffed a beef jerky in the bag!!! so the dog must have been really hungry!!! but the security guards thought it was something else so they brought in the bomb squad and took the bag into another room leaving us alone with the three security guards... awkward!!!!!!
i tried explaining again but the damn first security guard held up his finger again so we just sat in silence....
finally the bomb squad come out and whispered in the third security guards ear then left...
they brought the bag out and put it infront of us. "your free to go" thank god!!!!!
thank god we were early for our flight or im sure we would have missed it!!!!!!!
good times at the coolangatta airport


so at what point during that story did you realize i was lying? the security guards in the room? the security dogs? or the bomb squad?
to be honest we didn't get taken anywhere the security girl by the metal detector had a nail file that she stuck into the zipper and made the bag open! easy as that! but wasn't the first story better!!!
anyways we are now at cairns and staying at the nomads beach house which is so nice! and it is so hot here! unbelievable!

B and C