Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach

For about a week in April, the surfing world tour championships come to Bells Beach, a famous surfing hot spot in Australia about 90 minutes outside Melbourne. The big competition is called the Rip Curl Pro, and each day various surfers compete against each other for the win, and the chance to ring the winner's bell (Bells Beach- get it? but actually the winner gets to ring the bell). The best of the best come to compete- and we got to watch some of them firsthand!

Today Katie and I went to Bells Beach and watched some semi-final and final rounds of surfing- it was awesome!!! Not gonna lie- it was quite a trek getting there and back. We had to switch trams/trains/buses/shuttles about 5 times (not an exaggeration) and as we got closer and closer to the surf competition, our own competition began= the battle for a seat on the bus. It was packed- people from everywhere were coming to watch the Pro and were all pushing and shoving each other to get on the next bus. We had quite a few close calls (I'm talkin, multiple times we chased after buses and shuttles to catch them in time; may have thrown a few elbows at a couple people to make sure we made it on the bus- and by "may" I mean we definitely did), but in the end we had a bit of good luck and made both journeys there and back!

The surfers were unbelievable- watching some surfer dudes catch a few casual waves on the beach was nothing compared to this serious surfing business. They surfed all the way across until they hit the shore, made some awesome moves, and performed incredible tricks! It was so cool.

Here are some pics of the Rip Curl Pro and some of the competitors we saw today:
(forgive me if I've accidentally matched up the wrong names with the wrong people- hard to remember looking at the pictures with their faces so small!)

Rip Curl Pro!

Katie and I, enjoying a fun day at the beach watching the surf!

Jeremy Flores FRANCE

Joel Parkinson (last year's winner- what a pro!) AUSTRALIA

Mick Fanning AUSTRALIA- this was the end winner of the finals today!!!!!!! #1 in the world now!

Joel Parkinson- up close and personal

Lakey Peterson USA

Mick Fanning- WINNER!!! Making his way to the finals... little does he know he is walking into victory

Kelly Slater USA- ranked #1 in the world! But today he was defeated...

Mick, makin a splash in the finals

And the crowd goes wild!

P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way- SYDNEY!!!

This past weekend, 2 friends and I went on a trip to Sydney! It was so much fun! The first day, we made our way to Bondi Beach- just on the outskirts of Sydney. It was a pretty cool beachy town, with a gorgeous beach, pretty blue waters, and a really nice coastal walkway. We spent a good deal of time walking along the coastline, then enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach. The weather in Australia has been pretty sporadic, but we happened to come to Bondi Beach on a great day for sun-soaking and swimming. That night we headed over to the main City Business District (CBD) to a part of Sydney called "The Rocks."

"The Rocks" is where the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney bridge are located, and is also the site of the first colonizers of Australia. These settlers, who were convicts kicked out of their own country and moved to Australia, came over from Great Britain in 1788. These ex-convicts slowly transformed their land of exile into a flourishing community that is now modern day Sydney.

That night, we went up in the sky tower to take a good look of Sydney from up above. An elevator shot us up to the top of a high tower with a 360 degrees viewing deck. It was beautiful! I never knew how much water runs through the heart of Sydney- no wonder it's so well known for its harbors. We took a nice walk around the main CBD and explored around a bit.

The next day we took a ferry over to the island of Manly. It's got quite a funny name I think. The ferry ride was really great because we got to see a great view of the city, as well as go by some of the islands within the Sydney area. Manly beach was a lot of fun, and we went through a scenic hike in the park on the island. When we got back, we went for a stroll in the botanic gardens, and then at night we went to see an opera at the Opera House! We saw "The Marriage of Figaro." The opera was in english (phew!) and it was a classic tale set in modern day times so it was really funny and cool to watch. The music was beautiful- I wish I could sing like that!

On our last day in Sydney, we went to a small suburb within the city called Newtown. Home sweet home! It was a really cool place with a hippie-ish feel and so many stores and restaurants that sold food and goods from countries all around the world. In the afternoon, we checked out of our hostel and I decided to go for run across the famous bridge. It was a gorgeous sight running across the bridge and getting to see the whole harbor from the other side. I then continued my run into Hedge Park which was also really nice! Next stop Cairns...

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Bondi Beach!

Also Bondi

The Bridge!

First sighting of the Opera House

City at Sunset

More Opera House! This time from the ferry

Front view

Ferry ride- Opera house and city and bridge!

So much sailing- This was on Manly Island

Beautiful arched bridge

Botanic Gardens

Inside the Opera house!

All lit up at night

Statue of Queen Victoria in Hedge Park- so many things here are named after her!

Fountain at Hedge Park

Great Ocean Road

            This past weekend, some friends and I took a road trip along the Great Ocean Road. This is a road that extends from Sydney, through Melbourne, and then across the southern coast of Australia. And we did the whole thing! No just kidding, the drive from Sydney to Melbourne alone takes 10 hours (Australia is huge!), but we did see some very pretty sites along the southern coast part we did past Melbourne. 

            The Great Ocean Road is exactly what is sounds like- it is a long road that follows the coastline so you can see the ocean most of the time you are on the road (gorgeous!), and the Ocean you see on the Road is Great. We started out at Point Lonsdale where Georgia, our lovely amazing tour guide/friend, lives with her family. We drove through Apollo Bay, and saw some beautiful beaches along the way! The water was so blue and we drove along pretty cliffs that overlooked those amazing waters. It is hard to really capture how pretty it is on camera, so they photos do not do justice to the Great Ocean Road, but I did my best.

Great Ocean Road begins!

Point Lonsdale Lighthouse

Point Lonsdale Pier

Bells Beach- famous Surfing Beach where the Rip Curl Pro Surfing Competition is held every year

Australian Surfers!

Airy Lighthouse

Lighthouse brunch stop!

Didn't see any this time... but I'm always on the lookout

Lorne

Just a friendly reminder...

A koala in the wild!!!!!!!!!!! When we stopped at Kennett River to have a look around

Cool birds in the wild we saw at our Kennett River stop

Koala! It's so high up in the tree!

Package from Home

         Best family ever! Just the other day I got a super exciting email that said they had a parcel for me in the office from my lovely family! It had all sorts of amazing goodies in it- milano cookies, sour patch kids, People magazine (little touch of America)- so good!!! It also had something very interesting stamped on the outside: Opened by Australia Post for Inspection by Quarantine.

          Agriculture in Australia is a pretty big deal. They are very protective of their soil- literally. The Australian government works hard to make sure that no one is bringing any pests or little insects or anything from food that could affect their soil/ their crops. When I first landed in Australia, customs was a very different experience than it is in the US. We had to all line up with our luggage beside us, and dogs came around to sniff all of our suitcases and purses, not for drugs or anything highly illegal, but for any trace of food. Any food brought in must be disposed of in special Quarantine waste bins at the airport. The dog could even smell traces of a sandwich that the lady next to me had in her bag a few hours earlier! So impressive! Accordingly, they do the same with packages that come from overseas. It seems the dogs or X-ray machines caught smell or sight of my yummy snacks and so they had to open up the package to take a look inside. A nice little note said that they found no contraband cookies and nothing was taken out, but they had to inspect it to be sure. They are usually looking for things like fruits and veggies which may carry plant diseases and pests that would be harmful, not usually harmless packaged foods, but I guess to a dog food is food.

          Pests are a pretty big issue in Australia. Right now there is actually a severe fruit fly infestation in Queensland (the state that is located in Northeastern Australia). When you cross the borders between states, you are encouraged/required to throw away any fruits to try to reduce the spread of fruit flies. There is another large pest in Queensland that we have actually just been learning about in my Australian Wildlife Biology class, called the Cane Toad. These huge dudes (seriously- look up a picture, they are gigantic) were introduced to Australia by humans from Hawaii in 1935 to try to get rid of the Cane Beetles that were destroying sugar plants. Unfortunately... they did not end up eating the beetles, 5 years later an insecticide was invented to ward off the beetles, the Cane Toads multiplied like crazy and have now not only invaded people's lawns but also spread way down the east coast to New South Wales and across the North to the Kimberly's region, AND these guys are poisonous so many animals native to Australia have been dying as they are fooled into thinking these toads are just normal frog food. Silly humans always meddling...

          Well, anyhow, I thought it was pretty interesting. So, in case you were wondering... if you ever come to Australia- leave yo fruit and yo pets and yo toads at home!

Phillip Island

     This past weekend, a friend and I traveled over to Phillip Island, an island south of Melbourne that is just about a 2 hour bus ride away. There are various wildlife conservations on the island and many fun tourist-y attractions for us study abroad students to see. When we first arrived, there was a pelican feeding going on by the beach. The pelicans are HUGE! I never realized how big they are.

Giant Pelican

Mine mine mine mine mine

There were also Manta Rays that came by to pick up the scraps that the Pelicans left behind:

 We stayed at a really nice hostel, which, while it was really nice, it was unfortunately a 6 mile bike ride away from all of the fun attractions on the island! This was unexpected. Nonetheless, we pounded through and pedaled the 6 miles along the bike path to reach our end goal= the koala conservation! Along the bike path we came across some interesting things...

Yikes!

 And then we got to see the koalas! They were just hanging out, sleeping in the trees, eating Eucalyptus leaves, and swaying in the breeze. They're so chill!

At the koala conservation, we also saw some wallabies walking around:

Then on the way back to the hostel we stopped by a seaside overlook- it was so pretty!

        At night, we went to go see the penguin parade of Fairy (or "Little") Penguins. All the penguins come in after sunset from their long day of floating and fishing in the ocean back to their nests on shore. Small groups of penguins come in together, waiting for other members of their group to join before leaving the water's edge. They huddle real close together, waddle a few steps, get scared then waddle back to the ocean. Then they slowly keep making their way, stopping every once in a while (to look out for predators? to wait for more penguin friends? to make sure they are heading in the right direction? confused? to rest since they are twice their body weight this time of year in their molting stage? no clue... but it was super cute). Then once they make it pretty far along the beach, they make a run for it and suddenly bolt across the sand to their grassy burrows. We got to see them waddling around up close, looking for their nest and squawking at each other in what sounded like a funny squeaky snoring sound. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed of the penguin parade. The flash disrupts the animals, and so they were very strict about not allowing any photos to be taken in the penguin parade area in case someone accidentally didn't turn their flash off. HOWEVER, once we got to the parking lot, we managed to find a penguin on the loose! Signs everywhere said to check under your car for penguins before driving off, and good thing they warned everyone because we found quite a few renegade penguins wandering around the parking lot. I managed to catch a flash-free blurry snapshot of one of these cuties:

          The morning before we left Phillip Island we took a little stroll along the beach, and, while not as exciting as some of the other wildlife on the island, I found a sea urchin shell!