we put the 'holiday' in working holiday visa

indddddoooooooo!!! these last few weeks have been so epic. i've finally gotten my first taste of asia, and let me tell you, it tastes damn good. besides all of the beautiful beaches, rolling waves, badass scooter rides and serious shopping, there was some of the best food i've ever eaten in my life, and cheap to boot. i will never look at rice the same way again after having eaten nasi goreng (indonesian veg fried rice) so many times. we ate amazing seafood and fish that was literally caught 3 hours ago in the bay right in front of us. indo is also a veggies best friend with so much tempeh and tofu on the menu. i am obsessed with tempeh, it is so good, and although its not a really popular food in western culture, i definitely encourage everyone to try it.. so tasty! we also ate this stuff called water spinach, im pretty sure its a distant cousin of regular spinach that was delish as well. standard dinner was rice, veggies and tempeh or fish. i could really eat like that all day everyday. then for dessert, it was either a coconut smoothie, or a pineapple cut so that you could literally just eat it like a popsicle just holding the stem! i was in heaven. all for 5 bucks or less depending on where you went! 

so typical of me to start off a story with a description of the food bahaha we left margs on march 23 and flew to denpasar, bali. we left the next day and flew to labuan bajo on the island of flores. bry did 4 or 5 days of some serious scuba diving, and i did 3 days of snorkelling. it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. the corals were massive and colourful, i literally felt like i was in finding nemo, especially when a family of clown fish (Marlin, Coral and Nemo) came out of the anemone right in front of me! i saw beautiful parrot fish, trigger fish, rainbow wrasse, about 8 or 9 turtles and a black tip reef shark! i had such a blast and there were many laughs to be had, especially by the second day when they gave me a snorkel guide who couldn't swim and could barely speak english lol we pretty much stayed in LBJ not really exploring that much, as you basically just go there to dive. One of the days we went to Rinca Island in Komodo National Marine Park and got to see komodo dragons! It was super cool and I'm so happy that we made it there :) 

Then we headed back to Bali to meet up with Emma and Christina and some of our other friends from Margs were there as well so we all went out for dinner and drinks and it was so fun! one of the days we were there it was Hindu new year called Nyepi. They had a ton of these really big floats shaped like different bad spirits in the streets the day before and we went to look at them.I took tons of pics on my phone but it broke so i lost them all booo! anyways the next day, they took all the floats down to the beach and burned them,which is supposed to ward off the bad spirits for the upcoming year. We didn't get to see any of that though, because another tradition of nyepi is that you aren't allowed out on the streets. we were all locked in the hotel and served one meal that day. at night, we had to turn off our lights and they brought us this one tiny little candle to use, so we all sat in bed and watched pretty woman lol it felt like a high school sleepover bahaha 

then we headed to lombok on the fast boat. i was pretty hungover for that journey, so it wasn't the most enjoyable, but i knew a bed was in my immidiate future so it was ok haha then we got a drive to kuta beach where we were staying and found a little guesthouse run by this cool dude named jerry. we rented scooters and drove them all around, to the surf breaks, random beaches, drives into the countryside. i was getting pretty good at driving, but then had a mishap going down a dirt road after a massive rainstorm. mud + scooters + potholes = not good. i wasn't super confident after that but i didn't let it stop me. my friends from toronto alex and britt who are travelling asia together met up with us for a few days too! it was so cool to see them again, and we had a really great time together. I tried surfing a few times, saw a dead seasnake, manouvered my scooter around herds of buffalo on the road, saw rice paddies and made friends with a cute little guy named tom who was selling bracelets to save money for school (so i'd like to believe) we were in lombok for 10 days and i absolutely loved it! definitely reccomend everyone who goes to indo for holiday to take the boat to lombok, it is awesome. especially if you're looking for a more exploring/off the beaten track type of holiday. 

emma flew out of lombok, while bry, christina and I headed back to Bali to fly out the next day. By coincidence, our friend from high school and Bry's long time next door neighbour Kail was in Bali with his friend. They changed their boat to the gilis for one more day so we could meet up. we got dinner and ended up having one more night at skygarden in kuta. this place is nuts, it's like 8 nightclubs in one building. they played really good music and we had so much fun dancing and getting caught up on the last few years. we got home at 5:30am and the guys had to get up at 6:45am for their boat to the gilis! i slept until the last possible minute and then we headed to the airport. they put christina on an earlier flight so we had to say bye to her right away which was sad. i'm so happy she came on the trip with us it was great to meet her :) 

now bry and i are in darwin, living at a hostel on the main street downtown. it's weird to get used to, but i'm liking it so far. i managed to get a job at a restaurant, making the drinks and i just had some waitress training today. it's pretty intense, hopefully i don't mess up too much! i really like darwin so far, it reminds me of halifax actually so that's pretty cool :) 

anyways that is my massive update on the last few weeks of life so far! everything's good, i'm stoked that i've been to asia, glad to be back in aus :) 

up, up and away!

hello all! i know it's been a long long while since i've written. i seriously haven't been doing anything except working. my tan is fading, i haven't dipped a toe in the ocean in probably about two weeks, and i'm living off rice crackers. but, all for good reason because we are going on HOLIDAYYYY!!!!! bry and i are heading to indonesia for three weeks on sunday. our friend emma is meeting us there and bry's friend from germany is coming as well. it's going to be an amazing time, we will be chilling in bali, komodo national park (aka i'm going to see real life komodo dragons!) and lombok for some epic surf. i couldn't be more excited! it's been quite the process getting ready to leave, and with working so much and everything, i managed to give myself a stress rash, went to the doctors twice in two weeks, was put on antibiotics etc etc but i'm all good now! i sold my car (steve foreverrrrrrr <3), am sending a massive box of stuff home today, and we are having a garage sale at our cabin, affectionately known as our "porch sale" since we don't actually have a garage hahaha. we are both wrapping up all of our loose ends here in margs, which is both an exciting prospect and a sad one. i've been here for about 6 months and have really grown to adore this beautiful place. i've made some awesome friends and seen many amazing things, but i feel ready to move on and see more of australia. after indo, we are headed to darwin where bryanna already has her job lined up, and i will be looking for a new job! NT is going to be such a different setting than western australia, so i'm seriously stoked to see that part!

last weekend, bry, myself and our friend hanna were invited up to narrogin to go gliding with a member of the district club where the girls work, humphrey. he is a really cool guy who has been flying and teaching people how to fly gliders for about 15 years now. a glider is essentially a plane without an engine, which uses thermal columns of hot air rising from the ground to fly on. i went first and honestly i was pretty scared! you get towed up on a string behind a power plane and once you are high enough the rope lets go and you are on your own! the plane drops you in a thermal, and then the pilot uses the rising hot air to go higher and higher! humphrey is such an amazing pilot, and as we were going he pointed things out to me and told me how everything worked. we got up to 5,300 feet and it was such a beautiful experience! the girls enjoyed their time in the sky as well, and after we took humphrey out for dinner and a few beers and then hung out at the gliding club, and stayed the night in one of the caravans they have set up there. we had so so much fun and you could tell that humphrey is so passionate about flying and loves to share his knowledge and experience with others. it was AMAZING! now, we are all hooked on flying and want to become pilots :) here are a few photos:

all in all it was actually the best couple of days ever! we all had so much fun and we are so lucky that humphrey shared his passion of flying with us!

anyways i am at the library now and my internet is about to run out, but just wanted to let everyone know i'm still alive and kickin'! i've just posted some new photos on facebook, and hopefully in indo we will have good wifi so i can keep everyone updated on the adventure!

loving and missing you all very much! hope spring has sprung... and a shoutout to my mom on her 50th birthday! love you lots momma xoxoxo <3

soph

Holy effin' brown snake!

Hello all! Everything is going so great over here in WA! I've been working so much and saving up for the next leg of our adventure... INDONESIA! We are headed to Bali end of march and then going to spend some time in Lombok and maybe some other random islands surfing, eating coconuts and chillinnnnn! I'm so excited! And our friend Emma is coming too, I know we are going to have a great time all together!

Bry and I have been going on some awesome adventures lately, including Hamelin bay to see stingrays and a random beach with some day time skinny dipping bahaha the beaches here are nuts because some are so remote and deserted you feel like you are on your own beach island! 

Today we headed to canal rocks which is this beautiful rock formation by the seaside that was formed millions of years ago when the super continent of Gondwanaland (I can't even make up a name that wicked lol) broke up and australia smashed into India and all this rock and lava was pushed up from kilometres down in the earths crust and made these sweet rocks! Then with the tides pushing against the rocks, it eventually carved these canals where the water flows through. It is soooo beautiful! It was great weather too, not a cloud in the sky and we were keen to do some exploring. 

We head off the beaten path, literally. Bry was walking ahead of me down a little hill in a rocky area. I look over to my right where the rocks meet the ocean and I see it. This snake head poking out of the rocks. I freeze and yell bryyyaaaannnnaaaaaaaaaa snaaaakkkeeee!!! At this, she turns around and I watch the snake slither out of its rocky hiding place. It just keeps going and going. It's about 1.5 metres long, and instantly I recognize it's species. It is an Australian brown snake, the second deadliest snake in Australia, and it was moving FAST. Bry starts running up the next little hill, while I stand there frozen to the ground and literally shaking im so scared. And the snake follows her! I turn around and start running away because literally all I can think about is getting back to the car. Talk about fight or flight response. Bry yells at me not to leave her there and I snap out of it! She stops at the top and the snake goes off into the bush on the left sort of blocking her path so she does a huge detour around, running through the bush where there is no path and as soon as I see she's out of its way I turn around and run towards the car park. 

I had some serious adrenaline going through me! I was shaking and couldn't really talk for a few minutes lol we ended up going to the beach right after, but I was seriously still so on edge I didn't want to go too deep in the water and was just looking around everywhere haha 

We googled the brown snake and it turns out they are active during the day, very aggressive and territorial, and when it's pissed, it moves with its head and top part of the body off the ground and mouth open. Check check and check! Greeeeat! Turns out canal rocks is pretty well known for snakes which we didn't know, so I think I'll be avoiding that area from now on! 

We ended our day with a beauty swim at smiths beach, amazing woodfired pizzas and yum desserts at samudra, and a visit to the sand bar at the beach in dunsborough! What a day! There is actually never a time that we do something and it doesn't turn into an epic adventure :) never a dull moment with us! 

So that's what's new with me! Doing lots more exploring now that we know we are leaving soon. Thinking of going to see some of the caves next weekend, but we all know that we will probably end up at another beautiful beach! Life's tough. 

Missing everyone at home! Sending lots of love :) xo

Two broke girls

Sooo if my life was a tv show, (sometimes I think it should be!) yesterday would have been a really funny episode. In the morning, we picked up a few of our friends and headed down to meelup beach to be a part of the rally against shark culling that's going on in WA. There were other rallies happening across the country on the same day and time and it was cool knowing you were part of something like that. There was a great turnout of people and some very interesting speakers as well. It was well organized and I'm so stoked that we went! We also were part of this huge group photo spelling out "no cull" on the beach. We brought down bryannas crazy surf board she painted as a shark as part of the event and it was a hit! 

On the way home from there, the plan was to stop by my car, abandoned on this sketchy dirt road with a flat tire, do a quick tire change that I had learned at the wrecking yard the day before, and I would be on my way. Did it happen like so? Nope. 

We got to the car, which I was surprised was still there to be honest, and got all our "tools" ready. I took out the new tire, the jack and the tire iron which to me, for some reason, I felt very gangster carrying around hahaa I went to go loosen the bolts a bit before putting the jack on the car, but it didn't fit! The bolts were too long! The solution was the tire iron that actually came with my car, that was currently in our friends car in town half an hour away! Curses! 

So we drove into town, dropped off our two friends and went to pick up the right tools. ROUND TWO! we drove the half an hour back to Steve, just me and bryanna this time, and got to work. Needless to say, after much huffing, puffing and ganstster poses with our tire irons, we successfully changed a tire in my abandoned car in the Australian bush lol I was so stoked! It's such a great feeling to know that you can figure out your own dilemmas and do things on your own without help from anyone (except a few good girlfriends!) #independantwomen 

After that adventure we went home and had food and got ready for work. I had my first day as a cleaner at the caravan park which went well, and my first day at the pizza shop the night before, but today was the first time we worked together. Hilarity ensued because we basically ended up running the shop ourselves towards the end of the night. Bry was a great pizza teacher, showing me stuff I had forgotten from the day before, and we totally had a great night! We laughed so much, listened to bob Marley and the black keys and made pizza sauce, crust and cut up lots of ingredients in the massive industrial chopper haha halfway through the night when I looked at us in our oversized sauce stained work tshirts, I had a good laugh when I realized our life was just like that tv show two broke girls. It's crazy, loud, poor and topsy-turvy, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) 

We are working together again tonight at the pizza shop, let's see what kind of shenanigans we get up to tonight! 

Broke and happy!

I've been home from my east coast adventure for about a week and a half now, and I've been in a bit of a post vacation slump. I had so much fun and met really cool people, so it was bittersweet to be back. 

.... Buuuuut then I came home to my crazy, broke, silly, loud life in the trailer park and I realized how happy I am here. I don't have a lot of money, I've been everywhere handing out tons of resumes with no luck, and my car tire popped today (not the spare) on a random dirt road with barely any cell reception. I basically freaked out and called Sarah and she dropped what she was doing to come save me. Now that is an amazing friend! When we were driving back I realized who the heck cares about the stupid car and my job situation and all that crap bringing me down, I have these amazing girls in my life, we have the best times together and I know that they'll do anything for me and I'd do anything for them. While I may not be living in a wicked cool apartment with lots of clothes and I eat rice and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner, I start my day off in the ocean almost every day, I feel the sun and I buy local veggies at the farmers market weekly. This life is definitely different than how I would be living if I had stayed in Toronto, but I love it so much and I'm the happiest I've ever been! To everyone here in Australia that has made my experience amazing so far, a big thank you! My life is so much better with you all in it :)

And... To make things better, I have a trial  as a cleaner at the caravan park on Friday! Don't need a car for that haha 

Lovin and livin life to the fullest xoxo

Soph 

P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way SYDNEY

Sydneeeeyyyy! What a beautiful place! We had so much fun livin it up in the big city. We stayed at holiday inn in kings cross and the red light district haha 

The first night, we got all dolled up and taxied over to the shangri-la hotel and headed up to the bar on the 36th floor for sunset. It was soooo fancy! The view of the harbour was stunning though, and worth the $21 drink which was so yummy haha! I felt like I was in gossip girl lollll

The next day we went to manly beach. It was so beautiful and there were people surfing but the waves were pretty intense and they actually closed the beach for swimming because the currents and rips were too strong booo :( it was still a fun day hanging out with everyone! I also jumped on this really cool bungee thing that I thought was only for kids but turns out it's not! I looked like I was 5 years old hahaha 

We headed back on the ferry and had epic views of the opera house and harbour bridge. Then we got ready for our last supper and it was pretty sad :( after dinner we headed to this cute little low key chilled out bar playing 50s music and it was so fun! We called it an early night because we were going to the blue mountains the next day.

The blue mountains are about two hours from Sydney so we had a good snooze on the way there. Once we got there we went on a beautiful hike up to a waterfall and through these rock passages. It was so mind blowing! The reason they are called the blue mountains is because of the gas the eucalyptus trees give off mixed with the fresh air makes a blue tinge to the air. Very cool! Then we headed to see the three sisters rock formation. I was really excited to see this because on the way to my aunt and uncles house in Carleton place, there are these three bumps in the road that everyone calls the three sisters so it kind of reminded me of home haha as usual, the scenery didn't disappoint! 

The bus ride back was pretty sad because it was our last time on the bus :( they played the day song again and we all rocked out one last time all together, and then they started playing sad songs all about saying goodbye. I may have shed one or two tears lol 

When we got back we said goodbye to mark our tour manager and gaz our bus driver. Most people were staying on in Sydney for a while so we all hung out for a bit. All the girls piled in to one hotel room and we got ready for our last night out on the town together! We went out to a few bars that night, but the most memorable was the one where the guy juggled vodka bottles that were on fire, and then he spit fire it was actually SO intense! 

Then we went to a bar with a live band and they were soooo good! They played black keys and white stripes and lots of old classics. I was so stoked but so ready for bed! I went to sleep at 330 so I got about 1 hour and 15 mins of sleep before I had to get up to catch the shuttle to the airport! At 515 I was in the hotel lobby and there were girls just coming in from the clubs! They are open til 5am in Sydney and some are 24 hours a day! 

Then I had a full day of travel and got home to Margs at 630 and went straight to bed haha it was so great to see Sarah and bryanna again! I missed my gals so much! Sunday I did laundry and puttered about and then we went to the fat Freddy's drop concert in dunsborough which was so awesome!! 

Today, back to real life hitting the pavement with my resumes. Reeeeally need a job! Got a ton of DVDs from the library so I'm having a movie night tonight. Ready to get working and back to the beach to work on my surfing :)

All in all I had an amazing time on my trip! I met the coolest people who I know I'll be friends with for a long time, saw beautiful things that just blew my mind, ate yummy food and drank yummy drinks and just chilled out and enjoyed the moment. For anyone considering a contiki tour, DO IT! it was fantastic! I can't recommend it enough! 

Missing my contiki family! Reunion contiki  2015 haha 

Love everyone and sorry for the rambling and bombarding of photos with various wildlife lol xxoo 

Hippie town

After surfers paradise, we headed to the currumbin wildlife sanctuary. It was about half an hour away and it's a not for profit wildlife centre. I was seriously so excited to see lots of cool animals like koalas and kangaroos! 

The first thing we did was hold a koala and get our photo taken with him!! I actually cried I was so happpppyyyyy! My pic is pretty cute and the girls got some photos of me on my camera as well which I'll post when I get home. There were trees full of koalas, they were seriously so cute and soft I wanted to cuddle them all!

After the koalas, we went to the kangaroo area. We got right up close to them and got to feed them right from our hands and pet them! There were really big ones and really small cute ones. Tere were also some emus which were kind of scary close up, I thought they were going to attack me hahaha there were even some mama ducks with their babies all in a row! It was so sweet. 

Then we went to see some crocodiles and man they were HUGE! there was a 5m one it was so scary! We also saw a cassowary, endangered tree kangaroos, a dingo, lots of lizards and an echidna! 

It was really cool because part of the sanctuary is an animal hospital where they help thousands of animals a year get better and you could walk through and see if they were working on any animals. They weren't at the time but it made me happy to know that the money I paid was going to a good cause! I love animals so much, so I'm happy to support a cause for them! 

After the wildlife sanctuary (I could have stayed there all day!) we headed to Byron bay! I've been waiting to go there for almost a year now and had it so built up in my head. It's a hippie surfing town and we were staying in nomads hostel there. I was a bit underwhelmed. It was very beautiful though! We stopped at the lighthouse before we checked into the hostel and saw the most easterly point of mainland australia, and just before we were leaving we saw a huge pod of dolphins!! It was amaaaazing! It was just the town itself that was kind of meh. There were tons of cool shops, even a tie dye shop! But they were so expensive! The food was really good though haha I had an epic wrap and some amazing Mexican food lol all in all, a beautiful place to visit but I don't think I'd want to live there. I did get to see spell which is a store I've been following online for a long time! The clothes are gorgeous but I can't spend that money right now!

(STEVE)

after Byron we headed to Coffs Harbour for surf camp!!! This place was unreal. We stayed in these shipping containers they had converted into rooms with two bunk beds and a tiny bathroom. It was like a chill little village with surfboards and sand everywhere right on the beach with a little fire pit and picnic tables. I was really in the zone haha I loved it! An hour after we got there it was time for our lesson. We used 8foot foam boards so a bit taller than the big pineapple which was good! 

I had so many epic wipeouts washing machine style haha at one point my bathing suit top came off under my tshirt that's how smashed I got haha! But then I got a really good wave! The guy helped me by giving me a little push and I stood up and rode the wave all the way into shore!!! Longest ride I've had so far and it felt friggin great! After lessons we showered and got ready for dinner. I was so tired and while everyone went to drink and play games after, me and the girls headed to the beach. We stargazed and chilled out. I ran around and danced and watched the tide come in. It was a full moon and the watching the reflection of the moon on the ocean was absolutely beautiful! We saw the southern cross which is the constellation on the Australian flag. One of the sweetest nights on this trip for me for sure! It was so chilled out :) then we went to bed as we were leaving at 630am the next day! 

Woke up, had some brekkie and hit the road to Sydney! We are about an hour out from the city now and I'm pretty excited to see it! Then I'm headed home to Margs on Saturday. Back to reality, but I think we are going to start a new adventure soon! Don't know all the details yet but I'll keep everyone updated! Lots of looovvvveeee xx

Happiest day of my life lol at currumbin wildlife sanctuary