Krista Whitney

Hello Everyone!
It's been a while since I've filled you in so this one I'll have to try and condense. I left Canberra on Oct.21st and headed to Sydney where I was leaving for a surf trip up the coast. I didn't get to see much of Sydney as I was only there a day, and decided to spend most of it at the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World..I know..surprising! I did shop a little but couldn't buy anything for lack of pack space so it's not as fun as it sounds. The aquarium was amazing...one of the best in the world apparently. Wildlife World was nice as well. Here are the few pics I snapped while in Sydney:

Beautiful Jacaranda tree with Sydney tower background

Giant stingray above tunnel at aquarium

Koala at Wildlife World

Hopefully I'll get back there before the end of my trip..it's not a very fun city when you're alone.

The morning of the 23rd (monday) I boarded the Surfari Bus for a week long surfing trip from Sydney to Byron Bay. There were 6 others leaving from Sydney and 8 already waiting at our first destination. We surfed for the first 2 days at Point Plomer park and then packed up Wednesday for the second spot in Yuraygir National Park. Both spots were like nothing I'd ever seen before. We'd wake up around six, eat breakfast, do some yoga, a lesson on the beach and then head out into the waves for an early morning surf. We saw kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies, bilbys, lizards, dingos, whales, and my most memorable..dolpins playing about 4 feet from our boards..it was the most incredible thing!! The entire trip was amazing. Our tents were set up close to the beach and our guides cooked us great meals at night. I met a lot of great people and am still travelling with one...a girl from Van. Island. I don't have many pics since it's hard to take them when you're in the water all the time. One of our guides was filming the whole trip so I have a great video of the week. Pictures from the trip:

Goanna lizard that came trekking through our site. They climb trees and steal eggs from nests.

These are both of Point Plomer Beach where we spent the first two days.

One of the many Dingo's we saw while on the beach.

We spent most of Wednesday driving to the second destination and preparing for talent night. The instructors made a huge batch of Sangria and by the time it got to the talents everyone was a little wobbly...
The English and their 'Weakest Surfari Link' game show

The Irish singing their version of Surfin' USA...hilarious. Unfortunately no one got pics of my magic show but someone did get one of me feeding the Bilby that ventured into our camp...there kinda like a rat-kangaroo. It's dark but I've pointed him out for you.
The beach we surfed at on Thursday was called Pebbly Beach..no sand...just pebbles.
Relaxing after a long morning on the waves.

This was Fridays beach...where we saw the dolphins.
Packing up after our final surf.
And now for the best part...the trek back to camp is about 20 minutes on a sandy path...and lucky for us we came across this great deadly snake!This wasn't a picture I took...by this point I had already dropped my board and was screaming, crying and running back to camp.

We landed in Byron Bay on the evening of the 27th, and stayed at the Arts Factory Lodge. It's a hostel with everything we could want. Byron Bay is a beautiful beach town full of backpackers and lots of nightlife. The Surf trip party was Sat so we all headed out for dinner where we got to watch the video and then hit the town to reward ourselves for the long week of hard surfing these ones don't really need any explaining...

Monday one of our surf instructors picked us up and took us to his place in Evans Head. He runs a small hostel right on the beach. There's only 3 of us staying here so it's nice and relaxing. We've been surfing, kayaking, and just beachin' around for the week. Saturday it's back to Byron for the night and then to the Gold Coast on Sunday to meet up with some more friends. Here are some pics from the past few days:

This morning Nici, Dave and I headed out to the Batemans Bay on the coast. It's about a 2.5 hr drive from Canberra through the Great Dividing Range. It was mostly a country drive with lots of fields and livestock....so of course, I was quite content. It was another beautiful sunny day when we left Canberra, but unfortunately by the time we arrived at the coast it was cloudy and too cold to swim(15C) so we just took a stroll along the beach. Although the weather was crap, it was still as beautiful as I imagined Australia beaches...sorry, I didn't have my camera, but I'm sure I'll get more. In the end it wasn't such a bad thing that we couldn't stay at the beach because just as we were about to head home I noticed a sign for the Birdland Animal Park. I insisted we go, and it turned out to be the best part of my trip so far! There was hardly anyone there so the staff were sooo nice to us...letting us get close to all the animals. This place is nice because it's not a zoo, it's a rescue centre, and most of the animals are released back into the wild if possible. I had soooo much fun! I'll just let the pics explain:


This is an echidna...they're native to Australia, and are part of the porcupine family (if you couldn't tell), but closer to a hedgehog.

Wallaby's are a small version of kangaroos...look closely and you can see the baby in her pouch!

I was shocked that I was finally getting up close with a roo! They were very friendly...mostly because they were hoping to get fed.


This is Arthur..the reindeer that lives in amongst the kangaroos..not really sure why. Arthur's on the right if you couldn't tell

Nici convinced me to hold the snake (yes...me with a snake!) by holding it herself and looking totally relaxed. Although I'm smiling in the pic, it was more of a nervous fear as I'm yelling, "take the picture, QUICK!!!", and the snake was moving up my shorts.

This was the talking cockatoo...I have a great video of the conversation he had with Dave and I, but unfortunately can't put it on this site. Mostly he just said, "Hello Cocky".

Now for the wombats! They are the coolest animals ever!! The park rescues them from their mothers pouch when they've been hit by a car and hand raises them until they can be released back into the wild (about 18ms). Until about 1 yr they're very friendly and love attention. This is Gus...he's 10ms.

Wilma was hands down my favorite! She's 7ms and is super cuddly...she loved being scratched behind her ears and snuggled in close for a pic. Definately my highlight of the day!!

Today was the long-awaited zoo trip where I was supposed to see all the native Aus. wildlife...notice how I say "supposed to"! Believe it or not these animals were in small enclosures where the public can go in and veiw them, and somehow they still managed to find whatever hiding place they could. I did catch the koala climbing down from his tree but just as I walked up he decided to freeze so all I got was a hind view. And again...all the aussie's say they just don't understand.."koala's don't normally do that". .

The kangaroos and wallabies were hiding out in the shade of course, the wombat was in his burrow, and the tasmanian devil was lying behind a bush...figures! Even the penquins wouldn't pose for me. On a positive note, the emu emerged to say hello and snap a quick one, and the CANADIAN grizzly put on a good show for all the tourists. The baby zebra was very cute...well his ass was anyway. It was a very hot day so most animals were lounging in a cool place or monkey'ing around!

The main attraction of the day was the king cheetah. Pam won tickets for her and Hollie to go in and pet him. I didn't know this but cheetah's are very docile animals and love attention. In efforts to raise money, the zoo has started selling tickets for the public to go in the enclosure and pat them. At $200 a pop, I wasn't about to do it, but I enjoyed standing by with the camera.

Well, I'm off to the Sweaney bbq for what I'm sure will be a good time! Hope things are well back in Canada..I'm thinking about each of you as I bask in the 30 degree temp's

I met the greatest family on Tuesday. Pam took me into work with her and introduced me to her coworkers. I barely had "hello" out of my mouth and her boss (Gail) was inviting me out to a pub with her family. Her 4 kids (2 boys/2 girls) are all around my age and her nephew was down from Brisbane for his birthday. This family is hilarious...they're super loud and love to have a good time. I only planned on staying Tuesday night and I just got home now (Thurs morning)! I got along really well with David (nephew from Brisbane) and since he was on vacation he took me all around Canberra Wednesday to show me the sights. We went up the tower and got a great view of the city, and then spent most of the day at the science centre...a little geeky so of course, I loved it! They insisted I stay for dinner, which was definately 5 star and involved more drinking. After dinner we all got handed instruments and had to strum a rythm while dancing and singing around the living room...it was hilarious! Saturday they've invited me to a huge family bbq, and then out to a pub afterwards. I'm looking forward to it. It's been really nice spending time with some people my own age.

Today Pam took me out to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. It's about a 30 min drive from Canberra and is home to lots of unique plants and animals including: koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, lots of birds, and even snakes. When you arrive there's a visitor info centre and they'll give you a map and tell you where most of the wildlife has been spotted that day. My main interest was in finding some roos! According to the locals they're everywhere, but as soon as I show up they all disappear...even Pam and Steve are finding it a bit weird. So we set off for the koala trail first. It's an hour long hike where you're staring up into the trees hoping to spot some. I had a little trouble with this b/c I was sooo worried about snakes on the path that I spent most of my time looking at the ground. Well..we didn't see any koalas, and it only go worse after that. We hiked for 2 more hours, and headed to the places where we were almost gaurenteed to see some roos, but nothing!..not one!!...3 hrs in 30C weather and not one roo, not one wombat, not one wallaby, and not even a snake!! The only wildlife we did get to see were some more birds...mostly ducks, but I did get a nice pic of a pelican floating along...they're huge!

I was a little disappointed as we headed back to the parking lot but was still happy I got to see some of the bushland and spend some time with Pam. But then, just as I was about to get in the car we looked up and lying under a tree, about 20 feet from the car was a mother kangaroo and her baby! When we got closer, we looked just over the hill and there were tons of them! I couldn't believe it!! 3 hrs treking deep into the bush and they're right next to the parking lot the whole time!! I'm sure they were laughing at us! I mangaged to get a nice pic of the mother and joey just before they ran off. Believe it or not the joey (on the right) can fit in his moms pouch (on the left). So in the end it was a pretty good trip, but a very long day.