Follow the Journey

At least you will once we embark on this exciting adventure!     Justin and Jessica here in Portland, OR.  We are scurrying around to finalize the details for our amazing journey.  We’ve spoken to all of you as an introduction and to go over the important details of prep, packing, and placement (at the LAX airport).  You should also have emergency phone numbers for the day of travel.  Check… Read More

Our time down undahh and as a group has come to an end.  Annie and Rita here blogging to everyone at home for the last time in Cairns, Australia.  We just got back into Cairns today from Fitzroy Island and it was a wonderful two days and nights to spend in a really really reallly nice resort with amazing facilities… For our last day all together we enjoyed a nice… Read More

So we start our week in Carins* going to a scuba school and meeting our instructors, Matt and Dave where they thought us for 2 days the risks and rewards of scuba diving. After the first day we had loads of homework due the next day, We had to read a whole book and fill out questions for the scuba certification test. We had a ton of fun with our… Read More

Hayden and Dylan wishing everyone at home a Happy Thanksgiving. It has been a very pensive week here in Australia as we have been staying at the Chenrezig Buddhist retreat center. Before arrival we got a quick briefing of customs and practices of buddism and the expected behavior while attending the retreat, which includes living alongside spiders which has proven to be quite a challenge for some. It also began… Read More

Hey everybody, it’s Annie and Blair from ALICE SPRINGS! We just finished up our week long bus tour with Groovy Grape through the Australian Outback! Last Monday our tour guide, Steve, picked us up at 6:45 AM from the YHA. We had a long day on the bus and visited a cave with Aboriginal art inside. That night we stayed in Angorichina Village in the Flinders Ranges, a location soliders… Read More

Franny and Sadie here reporting from Adelaide, having just returned from an amazing week of working with CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia). For the first time in the trip we were separated into smaller groups in order to conquer more tasks in the duration of the week. Group 1: was Justin, Ozzy, Dylan, Frances, Hayden, Liz, and Rita. And group 2: Allison, Mike, Connie, Blair, Sadie, and Annie. We said our… Read More

Hey guys, it’s Blair and Rita again from AUSTRALIA! We never got a chance to recap on our few days in Sydney so here you go! We left Queenstown, New Zealand and arrived in Sydney last Thursday. We loved the opportunity to explore the city and see all of the exciting events going on. On Friday, we all took a ferry over to Cockatoo Island to check out the awesome… Read More

We MADE IT!! Blair and Rita reporting to all of you folks at home that we actually made it through a 4-day treck on the South Island of NZ. We decided all last minute that we where gonna do the Kepler Treck and it all worked out wonderfully. We spent 4 days trecking up and down the big mountains and it was just about 7 hours of hiking a day.… Read More

Sadie and Liz reporting to you from the land of Mordor. We come bearing news of ventures of all kinds. Since arriving at the Blue Mountain Adventure Center Saturday morning we have endured an array of team and self building exercises. Our adventures began with the high ropes courses where we were harnessed and encouraged to walk acoross a log which stood 30ft in the air as we met our… Read More

Frances and Hayden on Blog duty this week!!! We just left the Maori village and had a great time! We stayed with Paora and Aramanu on their small faremette just outside the actual village of Porongahou (sp?). They had a few cows and a few sheep and a small garden, and two cats. About half the group slept inside but the rest of had to rough it in tents outside.… Read More

Ozzy and Mike giving a quick update.  Well, our time on the farm has come to a close.  Over the course of the week we continuted doing odd jobs, such as building fences, more hole digging, and of course feeding and moving calves.  Everybody loved the farm expereince, and we will take away so much knowledge.  We appreciate the White family for hosting us for this wonderful week.  While we… Read More

Oops! This was meant to be posted before the last update being an account of Fiji… We made it! One country down, two to go.  Yesterday we landed here in Auckland, NZ, and were reintroduced to warm water! Fiji was amazing, especially Nananu, the village where we stayed for two of the three weeks in country. they were some of the most welcoming, giving people any of us have ever,… Read More

Day in Auckland with Sadie and Rita: Today we explored all of Auckland learned our way around following the fan trail to Eden Park.  On our way we were greeted by many friendly locals that helped us find our way around town.  We also, stopped at some of the many shops on the way that caught our eyes. HAHAHA!! Loving everything about New Zealand so far also, when we arrived… Read More

Bula Bula from Annie, Dylan and Blair Just headed into town from the beach to get some Indian food, where we got ripped off. But it’s cool cause we got super cheap ice cream after. We’re having a great time and we’re excited to head to the Fijian village tomorrow to meet our home-stay families and show off our newly purchased sulus! Here’s a picture of us in the internet… Read More

Bula!Bula!Bula! hey everyone, its Frances, Ozzy, and Hayden. We are spending the day on a scavenger hunt in downtown Nadi. so far, we have visited a Hindu temple, the fresh produce market, and bought several sulus. We are having a great time in Fiji. Frances, Hayden, Ozzy… Read More