hey everyone! i'm in new zealand now and i just love it. danny is staying with me for four more days and mom is coming tomorrow morning... actually she was supposed to be here today, but she missed her flight=( tisk tisk, mommy, you should know better than to try and fly without your ticket! hehe...love you mom. anyways. lets catch up. Frasier Island is the largest sand island in the world and even though it is made completely of sand, it has lots of life on it. Rainforests and regular forests, fresh water lakes and stream, dingos, beautiful stretches of beach and lots of marine life in the ocean around. We got to rent 4WD trucks and drive all over the islands in groups and there was even a base camp for us to stay at during the night. It was really fun driving on the beach and through the forest's narrow soft sand roads. Not to mention learning how to drive on the left with the stick shift on the left being an adventure enough! On the second day we got stuck in some soft sand, and then our starter broke. We needed the tow truck to tow start us, but had to wait several hours for the tide to go down so we would have harder sand to drive on. So we just made a day of it at the beach, swimming in the bright blue ocean (while slapping the goon=)), making a picnic lunch off the back of the truck and just hanging out. Turns out later that some people said they saw sharks around the area where we were swimming, but we figured we were safe the whole time because there were some crazy surfers farther out that would have been eaten first if the sharks were hungry=) The third day we spent most of our time at Lake Mckinsey. Its even more amazing than the photos. The water is so clean and clear you can drink it and the beach has sand so soft and fine it gets everywhere! I ended up swimming for over an hour in the lake (down and back) and just loved it. So peaceful and refreshing. The people in my group were really fun and all of us got along really well. It was a really great three days full of sun, beach, crazy 4WDing, rainforest, lakes, camping, drinking games...After Fraiser Danny and I made our way up to Airlie beach to leave on a sailing trip for three days, where we would be exploring the Whitsunday Islands and diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Our boat was the Kiana, a sailboat that could hold 13 of us and 4 crew. Dave, our captain was really cool. (i know what you are thinking baba, anyone with the name Dave has to be cool=)!) The first day we got to see Whitehaven beach...the MOST beautiful beach I have ever seen! The sand was so fine and pure that when we walked across it, our feet made this squeeking noise! And the way the sand and water came together was just gorgeous. The next day we did one dive at the islands, then made the 3 hour journey out to Bait Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, to do two more dives. The coral was just wonderful. I've never seen anything like it. So colorful and so many different shapes and kinds. I also got to see two white tipped reef sharks, fairly big, but completely harmless, a couple sea turtles. and on my last dive that day we could hear the humpback whales so loud we were going nuts out looking all over trying to see them, but with no luck. then when we surfaced, dave speeded over to us on the little dive boat to haul us over to the whales that were passing right by the big boat so we could snorkel with them. I saw them coming out of the water a few times and was so excited, they are so magnificent! But by the time we got in the water they had gone down under, never to be seen again...=( Still really exciting though, especially since they were my first whales. After the Whitsundays, we headed up to Cairns. We went out to dive the reef one more day, which was again really great, i love diving! and i was paired up with a really experienced diver(40 yrs! of diving and a divemaster), so we could go at our own pace and do what we wanted, and not follow a divemaster around, which is a great way to dive. then on our last two days in australia we went up to cape tribulation. we rented a car (got a free upgrade to a SUV, luckly because we would have been stuck in the rain!) with these two crazy Swiss, Italian-speaking guys from our Fraiser Island group (Andre and Ronny). It rained the whole time, but we still had a ton of fun. we got completely soaked playing around on the beach, then walking back through the rainforest to our hostel (PK's Jungle Village!), the swiss guys found a tree vine, which we started swinging from like tarzan! then they got the brilliant idea of going at the same time, which snapped the tree branch (a pretty thick one too!) into pieces right when they were in mid-air, so they came crashing down along with the branch into the mud! We messed around in the rain like little kids pretty much the rest of the day, then played cards, drinking games and danced at the Jungle Village's bar (they were having a hippie party=) ). One the way back we stopped at a rainforest habitat and got to see koalas, kangaroos, tree kangaroos. emus, crocs...i even got to pet the kangaroos since they were so tame. it didn't feel like a zoo and the animals had plenty of room, so i liked it a lot. on our last night in australia we went out and had a huge feast, danced and drank downtown until we had to head to the airport to catch our flight at 5:30am! We traveled all day, so we were pretty beat by the time we got to the Bay of Islands in NZ. We flew into Auckland, then picked up our spaceship to drive up. Our space ship is a van that has been converted to a mini campervan. Still the size and price of a van rental, but with a bed, tons of storage, DVD player, stove that swings out...etc. its great! We went to the Waitangi Treaty grounds (where the maori people and the british signed their treaty) and then caught a dolphin discovery boat to see the bay. I wasn't planning on getting in, but at the last minute i threw on a wetsuit and jumped in when I saw the dolphins. and I'm so glad that i did! There were about 4 dolphins that were in a really playful mood and I was able to get super close to them and play around in the water, doing flips and circles, so that we could mimic each other. It was amazing! they are so graceful and smart, and social. they would come straight at me to check me out. but after a while they got bored (we can't swim so well...=) and moved on. well thats pretty much the highlights... love you all, and i'll let you know when mom has safely arrived.