University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Down Under - Harper/Ohm Journal
5/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
A Trip Down Under With Zoe and Katie
Journal Entry #1
G'Day Mates, We finally made it!!!! We began our trip Friday morning, the 15th, taking off to Chi town at 11:40am. Both of us were really excited but not exactly looking forward to our long plane ride... From Chicago we flew through to LA, where we struggled trying to find the right Terminal we were leaving from.. In LA we had a 6 hour layover before another long plane ride to Sydney, Australia. During our 6 hour stay at the LA airport, we walked around and found a place to eat dinner, where we were taken by surprise at how expensive the food was... A sandwich that should have probably cost around $5, cost $13, however we couldn’t find another place to eat so we were stuck paying for the expensive bite size sandwich.. We finally left LA and boarded our plane to go to Sydney at 9:45pm the 15th...
During our 14 hour plane ride, we each watched 3 movies and slept in our comfortable economy exit row seats.. Oh and did we mention that our plane was brand new, so it was pretty nice and the service was amazing.. When we made it to Sydney we went through customs, found our bags and no we didnt loose any luggage, unlike in Italy... Aunty Christine picked us up and drove us back to her house where we will be staying for 4 days... Anyways that’s about it for today, see ya later alligator...
Journal Entry #2
G'day! So we began our day 2 at 6 am going with Auntie Christine to what she calls "boot camp." The sun hadn't even risen yet and we were outside working out. The work out involved a number of cardio/boxing/core drills.
Both of us worked up quite a sweat throughout the session, but we definitely had a lot of fun doing it. A few hours after that, we headed into Sydney to do some sightseeing. We walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and around the Opera House; it was pretty amazing! (fun fact: over a million tiles (1,056,006) were used to make the roof) From here we walked around downtown Sydney. We went to the center point tower where you can go up the top and see all of Sydney! This tower is just as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, so it was a pretty sweet view! Lastly, we caught the train back home! And we didn't even get lost all day, but I’m sure we looked like tourists :)
More excited adventures from Syndey to come tomorrow!
Journal Entry #3
Hello again from the land down under!
For the past two days we have had a great time seeing the rest of Sydney!
On Tuesday, Auntie Christine took us along the coast to Bondi beach. In Sydney, it is very cliffy and has several beaches between the cliffs (This is unlike Perth where it is stretches of beach). The coast line is absolutely gorgeous! So we went along a path along the cliffs for about 2 or 3 miles. We stopped at Bondi beach to have lunch at a cafe. We also walked around in the shops along the beach and sat down on the beach and took in the ocean view. We also went to a couple of parks, were we could see all of Sydney and the vast ocean.
On Wednesday, it was pouring outside for most of the morning; so we decided to go to the aquarium located in Darling Harbor. We saw so many things that Minnesotans would not see back home. They had underground water tanks, where we could see sharks and huge turtles up close! Katie thought it was awesome, but Zoe has seen all of these before! After this, we eat lunch by the harbor and walked around and shopped for the rest of the afternoon.
Lastly, we went to a place called Max Brenner's, its chocolate cafe and it was amazing! We do not have places like that in America.
I think that sums up our time here in Syndey! We leave today for Perth. Zoe is very, very excited to see her family! Have a great day back in Minnesota!
Journal Entry #4
G'day from the land down under! Sorry its been a while but we have been internet less for hte last couple of days as we have been traveling. We have traveled south to a town called Busselton where we are staying in a resort on the beach. On our first day here we went to Margaret River, where some of the best surf can be found. Here we looked around the town and ate lunch by the ocean. Margaret river is also known for its wineries. So the scenery as we drove was all fields of grapevines. Last night we cooked on the barbie (aka "grill"); it was delicious!
Today, we hit the road again and traveled to Pemberton. Here, we climbed a huge kari tree called the Gloucester tree, which was 61 meters high. Well, Zoe did not climb it because she was afraid of heights but Katie and Baden (Zoe's dad) climbed it all the way to the top. It was beautiful all the way at the top because we could see everywhere. Again, we had a picnic and returned back to Busselton. Tonight we are going fishing; so we must say goodbye!!!
See ya all soon,
Journal Entry #5
Hey!!
Hope everyone is well!! So the fishing expedition didnt quite go as planned. We sat out on the Busselton Jetty for around 2 hours and didnt even catch a thing, other than a cold!! The two of us didnt even cast a rod out but we enjoyed just sitting on the dock watching the sunset and catching up on the latest goss.. Yesterday we went around and saw more of the coastal area of the South West, Including Bunker Bay, and Yallingup..
The beaches were all so beautiful!! We then went to a bakery for Ohm to have her first meat pie, a true australian lunch. She thought it was really good and would definatly have another!! AFter lunch we went to the Ngilgi Cave to tour the cave. We walked through the cave which was harder than you would think.. The CO2 levels were very high making it hard to breath at times and we definatly worked up a good sweat, because surprisingly it was very hot in the cave.. The was one entrance in the cave which required younto climb through a hole on all fours, this definatly proved to be its own little work out. The Ngilgi cave was descovered in the 1900's and was the first cave open in Australia to the public. However, back then the people obviously dressed a little different and the paths were not as good as they are now, so what we did in an hour they usually did in 6 or 7. We both couldn't imagine wearing big dresses, like they did and climbing on all fours through the cave.. After the cave we came back to busso, Zoe and her father played tennis and katie read...
well thats all folks have a good day..
Zoe and Katie
Journal Entry #6
Hi all from the land down under for the last time!
We made it to Albany on Friday and spent the last two days of our trip down south. On friday we went through Walpole and Denmark, stopping along the way at the Tree top walk. This is where you walk amongst the trees along a ramp. The highest point we walked up was about 60 meters high. We also stopped in Demark, where Zoe used to go to primary school and we had lunch by the river. We arrived in Albany that afternoon and went to Albany Primary School where Zoe's mom taught and Zoe went to school; we stopped here to visit with some teachers.
On Saturday, we went to Cheynes Beach. This is where Zoe's family went on Holidays at a Caravan Park. It was another of Australia's beautiful beaches. We went driving along the beach and Zoe almost crashed the car because we were off roading! But it was fun all together!
In Albany, we stayed with family friends; so we had dinner and hanged out with them everynight. Albany is a beautiful city and was the first city to be settled in 1826.
We had a great time in Australia! Katie heads back late tonight and Zoe will be in Australia till July 10th. We will see you guys soon!
Zoe and Katie
