La Manga

Hey people!

Well lots of things have happened in the past couple of weeks since i wrote my last entry! obviously because i've been on holiday and here in Murcia there are lots of spring festivities going on! more to come on those! today i am writing about an adventure in my first week of holidays! Ok well i can't remember what day it was, my camera tells me it was a tuesday which sounds right, i went with a group of people to Cabo de Palos and La Manga! My friend and fellow English teacher sent me an email monday night asking me if i wanted to go with them to the beach so i said sure! sounds good! Anyways the following day i got picked up by Rosalia (my friend) and then we went and picked up two more of her friends! One was spanish and the other from England! i was quite surprised to learn that the british woman had been living in Spain for 10 years! i picked up her accent straight away and i would've expected her to have better spanish than she did! but that seems fairly typical here in Spain! lots of Brittish people come and live here for half there life without ever learning spanish! seems odd! you see they don't care to emerge themselves in the culture, but rather have everything english, only with the spanish climate, so they form communities etc! anyways more on that later! We then went to Santa Ana to pick up another friend of Rosalia, Ricardo! who seems to be an authority (or for lack of better words a know-it-all) on everything!

Firstly we went to Cabo de Palos! about an hour from Murcia center, which is i suppose literally 'Stick Cape' in english! XD but the word cabo in this case comes from the latin word palus (lagoon)! it was really beautiful and we walked up to a lighthouse to see out to the Mediterranean Sea! huh huh! i feel so exotic saying that! :D Its lighthouse began operating on January 31, 1865. The cape is part of a marine reserve, the Reserva Marina de Cabo de Palos and Islas Hormigas (a group of islands)

 Little beach!

 lighthouse!

 Ok so apparently out here a ship similar to the titanic sank 2 years before the titanic (or after, i can't remember! lol XD)

 tip of Cabo de Palos

 another beach at the tip of the cape!

 Here you can see La Manga! Cabo de Palos marks the beginning of it! i neglected to take any pictures when we were there so will talk about it here!! Basically it is like a massive sandbar (connected spit if you want to be technical) that separates the mediterranean from 'mar menor'! The strip is 22 km long and 100 metres wide (average). It is really nice! reminds me a lot of the cold coast with all it's hotels and such! just about every1 from Murcia goes there for the summer to escape the heat! i heard that there were only 4 land structures like this in the world! another is in Acapulco Mexico! Here is a picture:

Ok! Next up, in Cabo de Palos we went to a nice restaurant next to a little marina! Aaaand for the first time (really quite ridiculous) i tried Paella! the national dish of Spain (if you live outside of Spain, and if you're from Spain it's the regional dish of Valencia!) Also i tried Caldero! like rice done in a very very strong fish broth! The paella was the best! :D

 The people that came along! from left: Ricardo, Rosalia, Linda, Iliana

 Ok so i said before i would talk a little bit more about british communities in Spain! well they seem to bring all things British to spanish weather! i'd heard about them before but never actually come across them! anyways we went to La Manga Club, which was interesting! actually felt like being out of Spain! was def for very very rich English people! we found out it was like 2,000E per night! aaaaaaaah! talk about a waste of money! lol  i felt so awkward walking on in with my beach clothes, snapping up pictures of everything! XD

A week in Brisbane

Heeeeeeey!

SO i had such an awesome time in Brisbane! was absolutely amazing catching up with my brother again! and man was it awesome to have my dad there! i tell you it's so much nicer traveling and doing things with people you know!

Anyways let's start off at the beginning! it was a cold miserable day in NZ (no offense) and thank to my good friend anthony we got to the airport (making a pit stop or 2 on the way XD) then we jumped on a plane and 3 hours later we were in sunny oz! although it wasn't very sunny because it was night! Hoooooooooly heck! it was soooo good to actually be meet at the airport and not only that but by some1 with a car! man that made life sooo much easier!! XD

So the next day we went to Dreamworld! had soooooo much fun! got to be my fav of all the theme parks! and was stoked to get to ride on every ride! they had just opened a new ride called the buzz saw! which was very fun! i had to wait over an hour (by myself cause every1 else chickened out) in the blistering hot heat! we somehow managed our trip to oz to coincide with the first week of school holidays! thank goodness there were no queues! don't know why but i'm not gona get upset XD

sadly i can't recall what we did everyday but i'll highlight some of the main things that were really cool! one day we did a tour of brisbane city where we drove around everywhere and caught the ferry! got to see my cool friends university! we also went to south bank to see the man made beach! i'm not sure why but beaches never really do it for me! i guess i just take them for granted! we're sooooo lucky to have world class beaches here in NZ! We went out to dinner a couple of times! firstly to Hungry Jack's! which we know as BK! and also went to the Hog's Breath Cafe! gotta love that place! Alex had the most amazing rocky road dessert! absolutely huuuuuuuuuuge! it's amazing he got through so much of it! XD

Before i forget i must put in one of my absolute biggest highlights of our time in Australia! a Trip to Allan's Music World! Laaaaaaaaaa! was soooo good! for those of you who don't know i went to get sheet music! we have a terrible range of it in NZ and when you do find it it's like $50+ for simple things! anyways i had a field day in there! could hardly make up my mind on what to get! after 4 or 5 books i was like come on chris! you have to start saying no! so i limited myself to only 3 more XD i don't dare say how much i spent on it! only thing is i will have to wait a year before i can play it all cause my dad took it back to NZ with him! =(

Finally the last couple things we did was a trip to some malls and the movies to see cowboys and aliens! (which by the way is not such a bad movie), a trip to Bribie island - we had a car and tried using a GPS, after a while we heard it say "you have reached your destination" and we looked at each other and were like ummm no! hahah turned out we had programmed in Port of Brisabane and not Bribie island XD hahahhaha no wonder there were soo many trucks! XD then there was a trip to Byron bay! was really cool! super busy but had some very cool scenery! we chilled there and went to the lighthouse! oooooooooh and they had this amazing sand sculpture of a dragon on the beach! kudos to those who made it! :D come sunday dad flew back to NZ (super early) and that night i headed to the airport myself ready to start my next adventure!

Thanks so much to the peeps in Australia for making it such an awesome time! was very cool and will def miss it alot! but as they say in Oz, no Dramas! or Too easy! XD