here's the international monopoly tournament and below me on magnetic hill  

 

      here was me making zopf                            which eventually ended up aight

for some reason i cant put this close to the pictures which really annoyes me but yeah....anyways theres pete and i at alligator gorge and also some wallabies that we saw on a walk on some hill that i cant remember the name...

i hope thats enough for right now cause i am sooo tired and going to bed now....have a good one!

My time in adelaide and then back in forster

hey everyone!!

the last two weeks have been really great for me and i enjoyed them heaps!as i already told u i went to adelaide and now i am back in forster since sarurday night.

in my second half of the stay in adelaide i went to the flinders rangers which is a chain of hills that go through a few parts of south australia. i dont know exactly how long the chain of hills is but it was pretty big and it was very nice. there was a hill called magnetic hill where you have to turn off the engine of your car and put it in neutral and then loosen the brakes. at this stage you expect to roll backwards but really you roll forwards so it looks like your rolling up. i didnt think it was going up much but it was definitely flat and the car was rolling too fast for the surface being flat.....so that was interesting.

after we went to alligator gorge where we walked on some paths that took us through the gorge. this was very beautiful since there was also water flowing through the gorge.

also we went to a place on the coast south of port pirie called wallaroo. a very nice little village where we had a cabin in a resort. the weather wasnt too great but mainly windy and also it rained from time to time...first night some friends of the arnolds came over that also live in port pirie and also stayed in wallaroo for a few nights. they brought their son hugo and two english guys about my age that were on holiday in australia with them for 4 months. we had a good barbeque and then had an international monopoly tournament which britain won.

the next day we met the same people again that we had had over for dinner and we played poker. i can proudly say that i dominated and brought the win home for switzerland. also we went fishing in the morning but it was very windy and chilly so that peter who is one of the two arnolds i stayed with took me for a drive to see some small places around. this was good but later in the afternoon i was so tired that i slept for three hours and almost ended up not going to visit the english for a revenge in monopoly. but once again britain struck another important win in this financial crisis....i ended up giving my remaining money to sam who was one of the two british guys so that he could finish off the job and not let australia claim a win over europe.

the next morning it was already time to say goodbye to wallaroo and since dianne had to see a doctor in adelaide i decided to join her and go shopping in one of adelaids biggest shopping centers....was pretty good and i got some things to give the arnolds to take to switzerland when they visit georgia at the end of september..

other than that not much more happened after that because only few days were remaining. and after all that midnight monopoly i was more than happy with a day off. the last evening some friends came over and we played pool and watched the aussies play cricket although they werent doing any good at all....

then on saturday it was time to say goodbye and drive down to adelaide again. i had a good flight to melbourne and then off to newcastle where my host family the dwyers picked me up.

then the next day on sunday a girl from denmark that had just arrived on saturday in australia and that is staying near my place in gloucester which is about 40 minutes away from forster. it was a beauty of a day so the water was very pretty and it was nice and warm. we checked out most of forster and then she went back to gloucester with her hosts.
then i spent some time playing picionnary with gillian, who is the dwyer's daughter, and her three kids asleigh (11) giorgi (9) and cameron (7).

since i have one more week of holidays left i spent monday in tuncurry with ben who is a great mate of mine. we played some golf and went for a drive around forster.....in the evening i went to rotary and i spoke about my experience in adelaide and they presented a nice badge shaped like the border of australia, this will look great on my blazer!
now today i went for a drive with terry and he showed me some places near forster that i hadnt been to. since it was a very nice day the looks were beautiful....

so thats pretty much it and now i still have heaps of program for a while...here's whats comin up:

soon i will go deep sea fishing with noel from my rotary club
going to sydney to visit my host sister
going to the blue mountains with my hosts
going on district tour for 9 days...

and all that in august haha lookin good ay??

cheers

hey everyone

alot has happened since i last blogged and soon i am leaving adelaide :(

i dont really have time to blog right now but tomorrow i am flying back and then sometime soon after that i will refresh my blog with the happenings from adelaide and also upload some pictures...i noticed that i have been horrible with uploading pictures...it just takes a while to do it so yeah but i will upload some!

MAFOTWTCBAILEIIMSW

so here i go with my aussie feature of the week...

its THE ASHES

this is a cricket tournament that is currently played in cardiff, england.
ages and ages ago the aussies played england and australia won. because england had always been the best team in the world the aussies burnt the wickets which lie on top of the stumps. the ashes were then put in an urne and this is ever since a tradition and every three years australia plays england and the winner gets the cup. this tournament means alot to everyone and its quite popular on tv aswell. its a best of 3 series and every game lasts 5(!!!) days with each team bowling and batting twice.
so there u go!

this was "my aussie feature of the week that can be anything i like even if it might seem weird" hope u enjoyed it!

adelaide

hello everyone

so here as promised what i have been up to in the last few days....

last friday i went to armidale for a rotary meeting where all the aussies were briefed and i was just there to tell them some things about what will expect them on their exchange and so on...it was a very good meeting with lots of talking to a group of exchangies going to europe and their parents....some people from rotary asked me to do a short talk infront of them and ended up being a 45 minute lecture caused by the curiousness of everyone....i of course would have been the same.

then on monday i came home and felt really bad so i didnt go to school or do anythin except sleep and pack and get ready for adelaide.....
then on tuesday morning i caught the bus to newcastle and then got on my plane to melbourne...on the plane my ears really hurt because over the weekend i had caught a very bad cold and was a bit sick still...so in melbourne my ears were buzzing and i couldnt hear a thing :D
then when i finally got on my plane and flew to adelaide it got really bad with my ears and it still is a today...it doesnt hurt when i am not in the air but i just cant hear very well sometimes but this will clear soon otherwise i will go to a doctor on monday..also i have limited voice due to extremely sore throat...
anyways in adelaide i met dianne and pete and they told me that we were staying in adelaide for a few days first so we went to a house that belongs to some friends of theirs but they were camping somewhere so the house was empty. it was really nice to stay there although a bit cold still nothing like it was in armidale...
in the evening we went to a nice pizza place where i met the son of the arnold's josh and his mate patrick and also his girlfriend...it was a very nice evening.
next day we decided to head south to victor harbor (not harbour but dont ask me why...) and there we saw some whales but they were far off the coast and u could barely see them by bare eye but still we saw some....then we went into town and also visited an animal park where i fed some roos out of my hand and also some emus....i saw many different aussie animals like wombats and some crocs and all other sorts....i even got up close to a koala and patted him that was very nice..
later in the evening we went to granite island where we went on a penguin tour and we saw some that were just coming in from the sea...
then thursday so yesterday we went into town and i saw some of the main streets of adelaide and met georgia's best friend who then later in the evening came to port pirie with us...we arrived in pirie around 8.30 in the evening and dropped issy off at her place and then i got a tour around the house and yeah watched some cricket and then went to bed.
today pete and di showed me around pirie and took me to their bakery...i am planning on showing them how to make some swiss zopf and other stuff...
so here i am know and the plans for the next few days are made but i wouldnt have a clue anymore...

hey everyone

sorry that i havent been active lately....i am in south australia since tuesday night and spent a few days in adelaide and since yesterday night i am in port pirie....today i am going to explore port pirie and in the evening i will tell you what i did in adelaide....i can tell you i have seen some great animals from really close!!
catch ya later!

MAFOTWTCBAILEIIMSW

my aussie feature is aqua golfing...

in tuncurry we have a place where u can go aqua golfing. its heaps of fun thats for sure!!
what u do is u buy a bucket of balls, bring your own golf club and then you have a green mat with a tee on it. in front of you there are signs in the water that you can hit. these signs have different meanings. two say hit me! so when you hit them you get a coupon "2 for 1"....there really is no such thing as a free lunch ay....
there are other targets where you can win a golf lesson or a ride on the amaroo cruise boat or then the jackpot of 200 dollars which is basically impossible to hit....
anyways it's great fun and my aussie feature of the week!

Safari part two!!

Hello everyone!

sorry that it has been so long sice my last post but i have been fairely busy and it doesn't get too quite until the middle of july.....last weekend i played soccer for tuncurry in tunners (tuncurry) and we were versing forster so it was a fair bit of rivalery....the game began quite bad for us with our goal keeper getting sent off for swering and also forster being rewarded a penalty. so with 10 men left and the score being 0-1 against us we really started playing....in the first half we were able to score once. my very good mate jack jenkins was able to “nutty” the opponents goalkeeper...so his shot went inbetween the keepers legs. second half we were dominating and scored one more and in the end we won an intense game 2-1...thanks to this we are still 4th in the league which would lead us into the semis at the end of august which is definitely what we are heading for....
later on i went to ben's house and stayed there for a bonfire where a few others came aswell and then i slept at ben's....sunday i was meant to go surfing but obviously it didn't work out because my mate jake robertson had to do his business speach...bloody hell...
anyways so ben, shannon, cody,who is the guy who got sent off for swearing, shane and i went golfing in forster and then aqua golfing in tuncurry. more about aqua golfing in an other post...
since monday i havent been up to too much but school and preparing my trips to armidale and adelaide coming up in the next 6 days. on friday i am leaving for a meeting in armidale where a few aussie exchangies leaving in january for all sorts of places and vini and i get together to catch up and meet each other..there will be another few meetings like this one.
now another episode of my safari adventures....again if u have any questiones to the places i visited or anything...go ahead and ask!

Day 7
early as always we got up and made our way from bed to the showers to breky and into our seats on the bus where we fell asleep again....we had some more than just spectacular views of the 12 apostels which are cliffs about 100 meters offshore....i have never seen anything like it so i will have to upload some pictures for you guys. in the evening we arrived in warrnambool where some people went for a 2 minute swim at the beach but the people living on the coast didn't even bother thinking “it's not that cold” because yes it was “that cold!”....in the evening we went to see a show where we were taken through a rebuilt village of the 17th century where they believe everything had been exactly like that and a boar had sunk due to hitting the cliffs of warrnambool....must be very frustrating when you come all the way from england and then as soon as you reach your destination you sink...i would have gone troppo i know that!!

Day 8
this day was so boring. just driving all day and then arriving in mildura. where there is nothing what so ever which meant self entertainment like music, bonfire and everyone singing songs from they're own country....the next day our “very capable” tour leader yvonne said that there everyone had been talking too much in their native language by the bonfire...dear yvonne....this is what happens if everyone sings native songs from their countries...she was quite upset with us and we were upset with her....suprisingly....

Day 9
another day of pure driving. we stopped in port augusta which was the closest to adelaide i have been so far until tuesday anyways....we were meant to stay there for the night but it was raining really badly so we decided to go on to coober pedy straight away. this was a great thing that the leaders arranged for us because in cooer pedy we stayed in one big room inside where it was 22° instead of rain and 5 °....we arrived in coober pedy around 11.30 at night so we didn't get up to too much that night....

Day 10
coober pedy was very different from everything else...we saw that very soon after getting up. we had a tour guide from coober pedy on our bus who told us about everything. we visited a grave yard that was more international than most others. because in coober pedy opal is found there are people from all over the world coming and trying to find the fortune they are hoping for. there was a very special grave there aswell. a cat everyone had loved had a grave with a nice and big grave stone. quite funny was that the owner of the cat had a much more plaiin grave...
then we went on to the golf course. yes there is a golf course in coober pedy. it works different than all other golf courses of the world though. because the surface is all sand in coober pedy they took very fine dirt to make the brown “greens” and then to tee off you have a patch of gras that you take with you in the beginning. after that you carry it around with you and whenever you want to hit the ball you pick it up and place it on your patch of gras...how cool is that!!
later that day we went “noodling” which is looking for your own opals in an area that was dug out so that everyone that wants to can try their luck. almost everyone found some sort of opal but nobody had any breakthrough sort of opals....a few went to an opal shop to see if they could get any money for their opals...the owner just laughed....a nice souvenir still! also we went to a museum that showed how people live underground in coober pedy and how locals dig for opals...

Day 11
next day was all driving until we reached our destination: bush camp....well actually you could get the wrong image of it so let's give it an easier name: bush!
nothing there but 3 fire places. during the day we had loaded heaps of wood on top of the trailer so we didn't have to look for too much when we got there. that night we wrote our safari song and sang lots of others aswell before sleeping only in your sleeping bag under the free sky!it gets quite cold i can tell you that!!

Day 12
after sleeping in the bush we were all quite happy to get into the comfortable bus seats and sleep some more since the night had been rather unusual and some people were keeping others awake with their rather loud snoring....in the afternoon we arrived in yulara ayers rock resort. we built up our tents and then went to see uluru/ayers rock in the sunset. it was very pretty and i will also have to upload some pictures from this.

Day 13
the day had arrived where we were going to climb ayers rock. after having seen it in the sunset we agreed it does look like a steep climb but there was nothing like it when you were standing at the bottom of uluru and looking up the track that you were supposed to go on. it was very steep and in the beginning there was a metal chain that you can grab so that you were more stable and trust me you needed it...the steepest points were almost at a 45° angle!that is steep!i am not quite sure about the exact angle but its one of the steepest things i've climbed that's for sure....uluru is also very special because it's one piece of rock. it's the second largest monolith in the world...the largest can be found somewhere in western australia. anyways the climb was fantastic and there were groups going the same pace because it was very different how people reacted not only with the exersise but also with the height. it was very scary at some points!!when i reached the top together with vini, carlos, jp and tillmann we were the first up so there was nobody other than us on the top of the rock. it was very impressive!!after about 40 minutes of enjoying the view from the rock everyone had arrived and after several group photos we climbed down again which was not less scary than goin up!

Day 14
after climbing uluru we headed for the next natural sensation which was kings creek. we stayed at kings creek resort which is a horse and camel station. yes there are camels in australia and there are more than you would think. we arrived in kings creek before lunch time and left for kings canyon after lunch. we decided to do the rim walk which took us about 3 hours but it was so worth it!!we walked on the edge of the canyon looking down through and onto the canyon. it was amazing!!again pictures will be added to the blog! that night we went to see a camel show at the resort where they told us about camels in australia and how they are caught in the wild and some other things....

Day 15
after enjoying a hot chocolate and marshmallows after the camel show we went on the next day to alice springs...this drive took us a fair while but on the way we stopped to have lunch and there we did something rather special. we had the opportunity to ride camels. just a 2 minute ride but still it was pretty cool!
arriving in alice in the evening we went to a didgeridoo concert. that was awesome! one of the best didg players in the world accompanied by a drummer and another musician, they were great! one song they invited everyone to join in and play a simple instrument like sticks or a shake instrument...it was great!


so here you go another big part of my trip!!the last part will follow before i go to adelaide i hope!