Hello Everyone! I just arrived in New Zealand. Before I begin, I have to comment on the response I've received after posting one photo of girl i met named Claire. Listen up everyone, get all those thoughts out of your heads! I've met a ton of cool people on this trip, Claire was just one of them. She was really cute though........ I also need to thank some people for helping me while I've been on this trip: My parents, brother Howard, Robie Sifrit, Debra Dee, and John Koken. Thanks for all your help! You know what it was for! I am staying with an old high school friend of mine, Sara Webb formally known as Sara Essiq. Back in high school we weren’t the best of friends, but now we share the same passion, traveling. Sara and her husband have been all over the world. They’ve backpacked South America, North America, Europe, India, Asia, and Australia. Of course being married to a Kiwi, she’s seen all of New Zealand, this has been a tremendous help to me of course. I have a ton of respect for Sara and the interesting things she has accomplished in her life...................

She’s done very well for herself and I am extremely thankful to Sara and Aaron for their hospitality. It would also be fun for Sara to hear from some old friends from Port Charlotte. So, if you want to email her, send me a quick email and I'll give you her email address. Sara and Aaron took me to my first professional Rugby match. Begin an American; I didn’t know anything about the sport so a special thanks also goes out to Aaron’s friends for teaching me all the rules of Rugby.
I haven’t finished my stories about Australia yet, so I can't begin with New Zealand. I have to think back it where I last left off. I have “heaps” (Australian for “lots”) to talk about so let’s begin.
After leaving the boat we headed off to Magnetic Island. This was a small island with an awesome hostel on itView image
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. Seriously, this place was a little resort View image
. Every full moon they have a full moon party with good DJ’s, and packed with people so I am told. We unfortunately had just missed the full moon party, thus we had to live in the aura of. View image
(this was our bus driver) Our stop here was for 2 nights. Melissa had come down with a nasty bit of strep throat, so most of our time was spent looking in on her. I am a caregiver, that’s just me!! The only thing that sucked about this trip was, here you have this fantastic hostel on the beach but you can’t go swimming without wearing a full body jelly fish suit . Every where you go above Brisbane, you have to put on a special jelly fish suit if you want to get in the water. Australia is known for these tiny little jelly fish about the size of your finger nail. If stung, within a half hour your stomach begins to cramp, muscles begin to aches and spasm and your heart rate immediately increase. In short you get very sick, and some people actually die from the little buggers. So, if you see some people wearing wet suits that look like they just came from a “Star Trek” convention View image
, there actually stinger suits.
After 2 days we had had enough of Magnetic Island, and we were off to Cairns. Once again we had to take the bus. All in all the bus was pretty good; the whole trip only took 8 hours. Upon arrival in Cairns, we were all just tired and beat up. So, we all agreed to check into a 5 star hotel. I used my power of persuasion to convince the man to give us a discount because our friend Melissa was sick. We got this resort type place for 160AD instead of 260AD. Nice, 100AD saved!! This was perfect for us. The next day I happen to find this great apartment at the “INNS CAIRNES”. We were so happy here. It was a really nice apartment, right in the middle of the city. We had all the amenities of home, even our own washer/dryer. For backpackers that’s a luxury. We also got fresh towels everyday. No more using the same towel day in and day out! You’d be shocked what kind of luxuries you take for granted when traveling. We also had 3 nights of just pure fun while we were there. Every night there was something going on.
While I was in Cairns I got to do some diving. I booked a top dive boat to the outer reef. I made two fantastic dives in a top location. This was the best diving of the whole tripView image.
I took the best photos, check out all of them in the "PHOTO" catagory under "Australia 3 photos" in a week or so. The visibility was 20 meters. The coral was the best I had ever seen. We saw a ton of small colorful fish clown View image fishing being my favorites . Occasionally, we saw a huge Cod, swimming turtle or reef shark. This place is a must for those who love to dive. I’ve heard that the Great Barrier Reef was the best spot on the earth to dive, I definitely believe it now.
I also got a chance to go fishing. I caught my first BarramundiView image
. The Barramundi is just like a snook on steroids. This is Australia’s sport fish. I also caught a “White Jew”. Now, calm down my Jewish friends, it’s not a racist thing. It’s just a fish. I think that I am the only guy around who could say, “Hey, did you ever catch a White Jew?”. Although, it wouldn’t be politically correct saying that in Germany. You might actually here a “Yes”……Now, Kevin………that was typical, bad Kevin humor.
After 4 days, it was time to say good bye to the girls, Melissa, Jackie, and Samantha. They had to fly back to Sydney and get jobs, because they were out of money. It was sad seeing them go, but it was time for me to get back on my own. The owners of the apartment were so nice to me that they let me stay in the apartment alone for 24 dollars a night, normally 130 per night. That would have been the price I would have had to pay out to a hostel. So, I got this great apartment…..all to myself. Wouldn’t you know it, just my luck that night I met up with my old friend Irish friends again, Claire, Shannon, Vicky and Naomi. I don’t need to tell you how much fun I had that night. If you have any question, just call Matt Defillippis for details. We called him that night at 3:30am! Now, it might seem to some people that I’ve only met girls on this trip. That’s not the case. I’ve also had the opportunity to hang out with some nice guys as well. So don’t think that I am out every night, just trying to hook-up. That’s not the case, I am good Christian boy, my mind doesn’t think like that! I also just got out of a serious 4.5 yrs. relationship with Diana. That’s still hard, but I am still having that time of my life…….The next day, I boarded my plane alone for Alice Springs.There I went camping in the outback……….I mean the real outback.