The Pacific, Australia and New Zealand! What an epic year and a half of my life I will never forget!

Even as I sit here now, when I think about it, it’s hard to really believe how lucky I truly have been to have experienced everything that I did, made the friends that I now have and saw so much of this great planet. I will never forget all the amazing people who were so giving and so nice, there truly are just to many to list! To them I just want to say “Thank you”.

I do have the travel “bug” now for sure and now off I go to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand! 

Rugby Game!

Really the last thing I needed to check off the list in Oz was to go see a professional rugby game and I got lucky! There was a home game for the Newcastle Knights vs Townsville Cowboys on my last weekend in Oz! Shane and Pam couldn’t make the game so Timo, my buddy from Shoal Bay drove down to Newy to go to the game with me! The game was close but I still ended up losing my $20 bet to Timo. I did get to see my rugby game though.

Port Stephens, Last 3 month recap!!!

For the last three months I made a commitment to myself to work as much as I possible could to fund even more travels and I did just that while having a great time and meeting lots of new friends. Went fishing a few times with some mates from work, had a few really good parties, had a great birthday!!! and got to play 2-up in the pub on Anzac Day!

I had a really great experience at Fisherman’s Wharf Seafoods while I was there! I must have driven to Sydney between 15 and 20 times between picking up the fresh seafood from the fish market and delivering stuff to the Easter show. I ended up almost putting 10,000 kms on the truck while I was there!!! Had plenty of 12+ hr days and a couple almost 80 hour work weeks which was great for me to save some cash! Although it’s safe to say I will never work in another fish and chips shop as long as I live, I did have fun doing it most of the time!!! Not surprisingly, I did leave that place with the title of “The best backpacker ever to work there” hahaha!!! I told them I would keep in contact for sure to see if I ever lose my title! They doubt I will lose it though!!! Me too!

 After work was done I chilled out for a week or so, Anna, the manager threw me a going away party which was super nice, I got everyone from work to sign one of my work shirts to hang on the wall when I get home. I hung out with Darren for a day and went out to the Tea Gardens which is an hour long ferry ride from Nelson Bay, we had some drinks and a feed and I got to steer the ferry part of the way back as the was really no one but us onboard! Timo, my neighbor and I, went and played golf for the day at a beautiful golf course and I got two legit pars and a few bogies. We had one more small party the day before we both left. Jay was headed to Melbourne to see his mom and I ended up booking a plane ticket to Bali, Indonesia and made plans to stay with Shane and Pam for a few days before I fly out. I will never forget my time in Shoal Bay and Nelson Bay, it was a blast! I had a great last couple months in Australia!

Life in Shoal Bay - a.k.a. - Paradise!!!

I moved right in with Jason and made myself at home while working my butt off everyday until the holidays were over and now then I was on a 5 day a week schedule and even get to drive the delivery truck down to Sydney to pick up the fresh seafood! I’ve met some great locals since I’ve been here and meeting more everyday!

First day at Bub’s “Famous Fish And Chips”! Best in NSW, 7 years running!!!

I started at Bub’s for the last couple really busy days of the school holidays!!! In the days before they were serving between 1000- 1500 customers a day!!! I was thrown right into the belly of the beast! I was right in the kitchen and doing it all! I handled myself pretty well for the first time in a kitchen I figured and received rave reviews from fellow workmates saying how well I did!

Got some work!

Joanne said it would be some labor work moving a restaurant into four shipping containers to be taken down to Sydney for the “Easter Show”. It was quite a mission and six of us got it done in two days. Joanne offered me a job in the kitchen of her restaurant “Bub’s Famous Fish and Chips” and asked me to commit until the end of April and I agreed. As of now I was still living at the hostel and she made some calls and found me a place to live for a few months with another employee named Jason.  Afterward Joanne took me to the shopping center to pick up shorts and work boots for my start in the restaurant tomorrow! She even drove me all the way back out to the YHA and on the way back said she would pay me $18 an hour instead off the the $15 which had already been agreed upon because I was such a great worker!!! I packed up all my gear at the YHA for the last time in hopefully awhile!!!

Port Stephens YHA

After Manly I decided to go up to Port Stephens for a week or so. Pam And Shane had taken me up the for the day and I thought I would go back up there as the hostel there looked amazing! I spent just under a week at the hostel and while there met some great Aussie guy’s on my first night and spent most of the rest of my time relaxing by the pool! I did go to Samurai beach, which was a nudist beach and got a little sun down below for the first time ever. It’s not what I thought when I got there, expecting old people all over! There was NOBODY there!! Except sand, sun and the WIND! I had to find a little place out of the wind and still ended up getting covered with sand! Then after an hour it started to rain so my first nude beach experience could have been more enjoyable, that’s for sure! On my last night there while chilling by the pool they got a call looking for some workers, so I called the number back and talked with Joanne, who said show up the next morning so I said ok. I was planning on heading back up to Newcastle the next day and stay with Shane and Pam for a few days and the head to Asia!!!

Off to Manly!

Back at Chani’s I started to make some new plans and decided to take the ferry to Manly for a few days and just go right back to backpacker mode!!! I said goodbye, probably not for the last time! haha!!! I had a couple great days of sun while I was out at Mainly and got some rays!

Colleen visit’s!!!

Mine and Chani’s friend Colleen we met on the cruise came to Sydney for the night so she came to stay for the night. Even though she was severely jet lagged it was still so great to see her for the night. 

City life just isn’t for me!!!

With a new year upon me I thought I would live in the big city for a month or so and started putting job apps out for the numerous face-to-face fundraisers needed for the numerous charities from cancer to Unicef to Greenpeace! I ended up getting 3 or 4 call backs, I took two job interviews and got both jobs and took the one for Greenpeace! Did a couple days training and already getting annoyed with the public transport! I spent my first day fundraising in the heart of the city constantly bothering people to sign up and support Greenpeace. The job was ok but not great, the environment was terrible amongst the skyscrapers, sirens and all the negativity of people in the city! After work around 4:30, or RUSH HOUR!!! I headed to the subway with the, what felt like, MILLIONS of people all trying to get on this already packed train it hit me like a brick wall!!! City life just isn’t for me!