Kim vs. The World!

Update: I just went out for a surf today (Sunday morning) and I stood up my first REAL wave. It was about 3 ft and I rode it all the way into the beach. (I had some help from Josh picking the wave and a little push for the paddle, but otherwise all me). It was an amazing feeling. Am hooked. Woo-hoo!! After a few dodgy Aussie lessons, many, many bruises, a stinger encounter, and about 100 wipeouts... Mission accomplished! Kind of. My surfing has been improving over the last week and I am now able to stand up and ride waves all the way into the beach! I had said that if we were going to live in Oz, I was not leaving until I had learned to surf. On the surface, I can check that off the list, however I still want to tackle the bigger waves that Noosa is famous for... so I'm still trying to get out as much as I can. It is a great day when I can go for a surf, then lay out in the sun for a while, then finally roll into work for a dinner shift. Pretty sweet. I am really starting to love ...

Sorry for the delay in blog postings... but we are on Aussie time now... which means no specific time at all! We wanted to compile a bunch of stuff to tell you about so that it would be a juicy post (aka between partying, surfing, sleeping, and trying to get on our free internet when it is actually connected, we we didn't have time!)! So, where to start?? We have started to truly live like locals. I especially feel like one as I have really taken to the local custom of not wearing shoes anywhere... including the grocery store. Yup, was in there the other day buying some chocolate milk in nothing but board shorts and a bikini top! We have met a lot of the locals here and are having a great time... specifically with the locals at the Irish Pub down the street where we had way too many on St. Pattys Day! Also, I went with our friend Jay (from Whistler who has lived here for 2 years) and some of his friends to a huge sand beach for the day while Mars was in Sydney. We took out a 4 whe...

... When life gives you a cyclone, Noosa goes surfing. On top of the tourists/backpackers that were evacuated to Noosa from the north to escape the cyclone, the town was further flooded by scores of surfers eager to paddle out into the huge swells created by the cyclone winds! Marissa and I went out to Main Beach and a surfing area called The Boiling Pot to watch the surfers take on the waves. It was crazy. In the pictures above, all those little "dots" in the water are surfers...! They looked like swarms of fish! We have attached a video from The Boiling Pot, but it really doesn't do a great job of capturing just how big the waves were. It was great fun to watch the surfers - guys, girls, ages 6-70 - catch the waves and also have some huge wipeouts. The cyclone was downgraded to a Category 2 when it hit us, so no damage done. Today is the first day that we have seen sun for a while... yeah! Also - Mars got a job... yeah! She is working at a really nice small restaurant...

After a fun night of partying at the Irish Pub just down the street (I am supposed to meet with the manager about a job there on Tuesday, but think I won over the rest of the staff with doing shots and a dance off victory over the head chef) we awoke to see this email from our property management company: Dear Tenants & Owners, Please note that we are currently on a Cyclone Watch as tropical cyclone Hamish has now developed in to a Category 5. Please prepare your property by ensuring all outside loose objects are secured do not leave anything out in the yard than can be blown around and cause damage. Should the Cyclone hit please note the following: Disconnect all electrical appliances. Ensure you have a battery operated radio and listen to the reports. Do not go out unless you're told it is safe to do so. Seek shelter indoors, if the building breaks up stay under a table and wrap yourself in a blanket or mattress. THE EMERGENCY NUMBER TO CALL IS 132 500. THIS INFORMATION COME...

Free wireless is back...! We are currently sitting on our balcony on folding chairs, drinks in hand, tunes playing, watching the incredible sunset. Please direct all hate mail to Marissa's email.

Am camped out at the internet cafe near us where the first 30 mins are free... and rapidly running out! The free wireless that we were stealing has disappeared as of this morning and we apparently can't get an internet connection installed for less than a one year contract. We will check our emails at the cafe until we get it sorted somehow... so please be patient! How dare the random people paying for wirless shut it down... don't they know who we are??

After a week of couch surfing at our friend Nathan's, Mars and I have moved into a place that we will be calling home for the next 4 months. All of the places that we looked at were really nice... this town is a very chill, very posh surf town... but as you can see from the video attached, the one we chose is AMAZING. We realize that we have absolutely no business living in a place this nice during our year long backpacking adventure, but everyone we have met here lives in a similar (or better) pad, so we figured we should do our best to try and get the most authentic local experience possible! haha! While our place may look different from where we lived in Toronto, we have found a surprising number of strange similarities: 1. It is a 2 level place in a great area of town, and the only thing in the cupboards is booze. 2. Our landlord is crazy. Apparently "fully furnished" means "everything except a tv and plates! " We are having flashbacks of our apartment in TO...

Note: We hit the road on Feb. 10th for this trip, however with my grief over Sneaky and our move to Noosa, I am just posting about it now. I will try to post a video of our apartment soon, but the internet here is incredibly slow. Enjoy! So Mars, Fish Sticks (Glen's friend who we nicknamed), and I set off on an "Aussie Must Do" - Drive along the Great Ocean Road, whi ch is an incredibly beautiful coastal drive between Adelaide and Melbourne. After an extremely early start and some minor setbacks (Mars overslept, we had to stop at McDonalds for breakfast, and a call to roadside assistance because the car totally died) we were off to our first stop - The Grampians National Park. We checked into our camper van (!), then set off on a hike to beautiful MacKenzie Falls. To reward ourselves for sleeping in the car and the relatively short hike to the falls, Mars and I stopped in at a spa in the middle of the mountains for a quick massage :) On the way back from the spa, we spott...