What is Death?

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that is always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near, 
just around the corner.

All is well.
- Henry Scott Holland

RIP NANCY DUQUETTE

je t'ai toujours aimé comme une soeur, ma cousine. tu me manqueras pour le restant de mes jours xoxox

i always loved you like a sister, my cousin. i will miss you until the end of my days xoxo  

Goodbye, love

Sad day today: Ryan left this morning. I'm currently in Noosa, heading up for my (almost free!!) Fraser Island trip on Tuesday.
The engagement story will be the post after this one, mostly because I have to recount the adventures of the past week while they are still fresh-ish in my mind ;)
We stayed in Bondi for two nights at the YHA, and had marvellous weather the whole time. Sunday was spent on the beach, each with our own rental body boards (free!) and we were going to do much of the same on Monday, except when I called to confirm our tour of Uluru for that Wednesday, they didn't have us in their system. We booked the tour on February 14!!!!!!! The stupid Byron Bay Nomads travel agency didn't do their job and after a day of stressing on the beach, waiting to hear back from two different people and not enjoying a beautiful day, we finally got the last two places on The Rock tour, which was the one we had originally booked. What we think happened is that the girl that took our booking booked us into our hostel in Alice springs no problem, then booked us on the rock tour but gave us a confirmation/phone number for Adventure Tours 'the rock' tour. Two different companies. What a bunch of *expletive deleted*s. Anyway we ended up sleeping at the Airport Monday night, since our flight to Alice Springs was at 640am. Sadly, Ryan didn't sleep, and I didn't sleep very much either (photos below). We napped on the flight, which was the inaugural flight from Sydney to AP, so there was a red carpet when we landed, as well as the mascot on our flight (photos below).
Our tour of Uluru was spectacular. We slept in swags at night, underneath the stars, and we did a LOT of walking (10.6kms around the entire base of Uluru, some 7.4kms around Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), and three hours around the edge of Kings Canyon. I didn't do the last one because of foot pain that's been around for a couple of weeks, and I'm glad I didn't because Ryan said it was a lot of steep inclines, etc. I took a nap in the bus with a few other girls instead ;)
We did not climb Uluru, and I suggest if you ever see it that you don't, either, since it holds a great religious and cultural significance for Aboriginals. It is very insensitive and selfish to climb, not to mention dangerous! It was extremely interesting learning how the aboriginal way of life is taught down the line through stories and traditions and how they lived directly off the earth for so many hundreds of years, before the Europeans came and screwed it all up. Ryan and I bought a few cards by an artist named Tommy Crow and we're going to frame them like mini paintings once we get a place together in Canada :)
We not only watched the sunset over Uluru, but saw the sunrise there as well! Photos to follow once Ryan sends them to me/ I upload my own. The Olgas were equally stunning, and thankfully we did that walk early in the day, as opposed to the Uluru base walk, which we did at 230pm. On the last day, as I said, I didn't do the King's Canyon ledge walk, but opted instead for the easier one-hour walk. I made the right choice, as there weren't any toilets on that walk, and they started it just as the sun was rising.....it wouldn't have been pretty if I had gone with them LOL
That night we partied with our tour group back in Alice Springs and won the photo contest for a photo that I took of a part of Uluru, that I had put a hat on....all will be explained when I actually post the photo lol but we won a jug of beer, so that was nice :)
We boarded yet another Tiger flight on Saturday that took us back to Sydney, but this time we stayed at the Stamford hotel at the airport. Our last night together was definitely in style!!!! We enjoyed a few drinks at the bar, had a fabulous seafood dinner and a bottle of wine, then stayed up waaaaay too late watching a movie in tv, in our king-size bed. This morning came too early, and we took a cab to the domestic terminal, checked me in for my Brisbane flight, took the train to the international terminal to check Ryan in for his 20+hour flight to Toronto, then had breakfast. He walked me back down to the train so I could go back to catch my flight, and of course I cried!! I even tried to Skype him from my terminal, but the free wi-fi kicked me off. Stupid sydney airport :(
So I'm back to living the backpacker life, carrying everything I own around with me until I find a place to live in Cairns. I'm looking forward to getting my own room in a house/apartment somewhere, so that I don't have to live with 46 other backpackers (cuz I am WAY too old for that!!!!), and I really hope I get a job quickly, and even a second job, so that I can save save save by working working working. I'm really sad that I won't be able to make it to Scotland at the beginning of May with Ryan's family, but it just wasn't realistic for me to book a $1700 return flight just for a weeks holiday. Hopefully I'll save enough in the next few months and be able to travel for a few weeks before returning to Canada sometime in August :)
Ok here are the photos, including the ones I mentioned earlier, a sunset taken from the balcony of our hostel in cairns, the night market in Cairns, some photos of us sleeping at the airport, us at Brunch in Bondi, the snake that lives at Toddy's backpacker resort in Alice Springs, and a quickie shot of Uluru, taken from our tour bus xxoxo

Where to begin??!?

Sorry it's taken me so long to write :/ I have no excuse, really, except that I haven't had Internet on my iPhone for several weeks. But really, I'm addicted to Candy Crush. It's sad :(
When I last wrote, we had finished with mission beach, left our beautiful Paronella Park, and were on our way to cairns, with plenty of days to spare before we returned our campa van. We stayed in cairns for a couple of days before heading up north, to see the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. It was so gorgeous, lush, and HUMID up there! We saw huge spiders and we swam in the natural spring waters of Mossman Gorge (which was warmer water compared to the dip we took at The Boulders, just south of cairns). When you see photos of Mossman Gorge, it's usually of the beautiful swimming hole :)
We also took a Daintree River Crocodile 'cruise' and saw a full-grown salt-water croc, a smaller one, and two babies, all in their natural habitat!!
In between Cairns and Cape Trib, we stayed in Port Douglas for a couple of days before and after, at a place called Dougie's. LOVED IT!!!!! But the mozzies were really bad, what with it being just south of the rainforest. I'm considering heading up there to work once Ryan leaves (booooo *sad face*).
We've be in Cairns ever since, arriving the day before we had to return our van, and thank god we did!!! We had a LOT of stuff and crap in that van, and had to do SEVERAL trips to our room, that we ended up staying in for a week, and then another 6 days in another hostel. During that time we lounged by the (man-made) lagoon, met up with my friends Zara and Sam, who were on vaca from their lives in melbs, hung out in our room and watched the entire four seasons of 'The League', which Ryan is now a huge fan of (its always been one of my favs....I even got Erin into it), and enjoyed $5 dinners at PJ O'Briens, and now my trousers are a little tighter LOL :/
Yes, we DID go snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef!!!! It was a boat called 'passions of paradise' and it was AMAZING!!!! We went to two spots on the outer reef, snorkelled for a combined 4 hours, had a great buffet lunch, and I saw THREE different green turtles!!!!!! Ryan was lucky enough to go snorkelling with one of the crew, so he was shown the best spots, and he found Nemo!!! It was a wonderful day that continued at Gilligans that night when we met up with the crew for drinks and then the next day we pretty much didn't leave the room til dinner LOL
So....you're pretty much up to speed, now. I'm finishing this looooong blog entry on a bus, in Sydney, heading to our YHA hostel in Bondi Beach. We stay here until Tuesday morning when we leave for Alice Springs and our 'Rock' tour, then it's one last night in Sydney before Ryan heads home and I head to Brizzy for my free Fraser Island trip.
I'll post more photos later, along with the blog entry explaining how I got engaged last night ;)
xxooxox

Pics (second new post today!)

Whitehaven Beach and photos of On Ice and Airlie Beach

Magnetic Island

Ok when last I posted, we were heading out of Airlie Beach. We stopped at the Big Mango at the information place in Bowen (known for its mango production...and where the movie Australia was filmed, although I have yet to see it) and a wonderfully knowledgeable lady told us what to do in Bowen, as well as gave us a MUST SEE tip just north of Mission Beach called Paronella Park, where I'm writing from now....but i digress. Bowen is a cute small town with a lot of murals (picture below). We spent the night at a free rest-stop with toilets and a nice covered eating area, but there were three other cars/vans parked there (including a car that two of the three inhabitants slept on TOP of the picnic tables in sleeping bags, and inquired as to how much our campa van cost....did I mention they were middle age? Around 50y.o) AND there was a guy on his BIKE that set up his tent and slept and he must have been 45....he was tight, I have to admit. We passed him not once, but twice the next day, after we had stopped in Ayr for a cheap lunch ($8 steak) and a cheap beer purchase ($30 for a case of fosters. FOSTERS!!!!! I thought they only exported that crap LOL).
When we arrived at the ferry terminal in Townsville to get to Magnetic Island (which we had booked before leaving Airlie), we were greeted with the news that we COULDN'T bring our vehicle, since the deal we had purchased was for just our bodies on the ferry. It would have cost an extra $125 return to bring the van, so we sucked up the $14 for the two nights of parking, repacked our overnight bags, had a few beers, and caught our ferry. Now, I still don't know how Magnetic Island got its name, but let me tell you that it is breathtaking. If the nomads hostel is still looking for extra staff next month, I will GLADLY give them a month of my time in exchange for a free room, free brekky and dinner, and cheap drinks at their bar. Speaking of: our team came in third place in the trivia night on Thursday ($30 bar tab between 4 people) and FIRST in the bar games comp on Friday night (which just ended up being a free shot for the seven of us, but at least we won!!).
We were a little worse for wear on Friday morning, when we had to get up early for our Bushtucker breakfast with a crocodile, snake, and koala (pics below), but after a quick nap in the hammocks we were ready to explore the island....until the rain came. Our hostel was directly on the beach, however, so there were no complaints from these two. I can't wait to go back and see more :)
The one thing I forgot to mention was that at the end of our Airlie Beach trek, my neck started to hurt. A lot. I think it started when I jumped into the (man-made) lagoon at Airlie...I think my head snapped back too quickly. It got so bad at Magnetic Island that I had to get a massage when we got to Townsville on Saturday. It definitely helped, but didn't fix it straight out, since I had to continuously sleep in a van :/ we found a free place to sleep Saturday night, and the we met up with 2 couples that we had met on our Margaret River tour, and had a session with them and stayed in one of their guest rooms (luckily they live three blocks from one another, and they were both SO GRACIOUS). We left early on Monday morning, had brekky (with a bit of Internet) at Macca's, and were in Mission Beach by 2pm, after stopping in Tully for lunch and a photo at the famous Golden Gumboot (pic to follow). We slept in the van at mission beach, did laundry the next day, and went to go swimming in one of the stinger nets, but it was low tide and really crappy. I DID, however, see two crabs on the beach, trying to hide themselves in the sand, hoping the tide would carry them away. Ryan tried to take a pic of one but I think he was too fast. Also, the night before, I caught an earwig crawling on my hand, and he may or may not have bitten me. GROSS!!!!! >:(
Just before leaving mission beach, we discovered that we were close to an attraction suggested by the lady at the information place in Bowen: Paronella Park. We have now been here for three days LOL. We got a deal because we were in a Jucy van, and our admission included a campground site for the evening, and then we paid for two nights in a cabin, complete with fridge, a/c, a double bed and TV!!!!! Very reasonably priced at $80, and I would rather give the park my money than some hostel that kids mess up anyway.
Paronella Park is absolutely breathtaking. José Paronella came from Spain to be a cane-cutter and ended up buying a piece of rainforest and building a Spanish-style castle and gardens over his however-many acres. He told his fiancée that he would go back to fetch her once he was established, but after eleven years she had married someone else, so José married his sister and they continued work on the park, which was open to the public and had a ballroom and cinema. It was on the Bruce Highway, before the highway moved to the other side of the mountain. It has a huge waterfall that hydro powers the entire park, using the same system José set up in the 1930s. Did I mention this guy had no architectural knowledge and was trained as a BAKER???! Read about the park here: http://www.paronellapark.com.au it was voted number one on the RACV's list of 150 things to do/see in Queensland.
During the night tour we saw fireflies (that are actually beetles), mushrooms that glow in the dark (retain light) and turtles and eels. Pictures to follow. I'm tired now and this is a very long entry so until next time!!! Xoxoxo