Blog update #6 - Hello World!

Hey everyone!

Not sure how I made it this long without another blog update – so I’m gonna try and make this one the best one yet!

Locals setting the tone @ Snapper Rock - Coolangatta 

When I first set out on this Australian adventure I came here with one goal – to complete my Business degree. As of last week I am happy to say I have completed and been awarded my Griffith University degree. A pretty cool feeling, and strange as well; for as long as I can remember I’ve been in school (as many of us can relate to) - and now, it’s all over. Wow.

One thing I have lacked in, and have been asked a bunch about, is what the surf life is like. I still hardly have any pics since I can’t seem to get myself out of the water and grab the camera, but here’s a few of what I have so far!

D'bah surf spot!

Snapper Rock surf spot!

Kirra beach!

Azim lovin the aussie life!

 

Small waves does not mean small fun! 

good pal Adam doin his thing - Surfers Paradise

goin right! ..in Surfers Paradise


A few weeks ago my friends Alex, Azim and myself hiked a mountain an hour and a bit southwest of us called Mt. Warning. It’s a 2 hour hike to the peak, filled with unique looking trees, a few snakes and other small wildlife, and these weird looking creatures from the lizard family, called Land Mullets! HAH! We started hiking at 3 AM hoping to get there for sunrise but the rain and clouds that surrounded us drowned out the sun for a while until after we made the peak - finally the sky opened up and amazed us. Take a look...

an early start!

oh hey there snake 10 seconds into our hike!

The crew on the way up! Alex, Azim, and myself

Alex found her resting place

so did I

Land Mullet! What the heck ARE YOU??

HUGE trees!

The top! Elevation - 1156 metres... Amazing. Ocean coastline in the distance

Mt. Warning, you just got owned.

 At the end of each November the state of Queensland’s high school grads (schoolies) come spend their grad trip in a few locations along the coast. Here in small Surfers Paradise is by far the largest group, with 30,000 schoolies coming to party in our streets. Drinking age is 18, but these grads are all 17, so they load up on alcohol from older friends or whoever and all drink in their hotels. With these kids first taste of freedom turning into more than they can handle at times, an organization called “Red Frogs” has grown to be the support system for these schoolies. Red frogs are a candy, like a gummy bear just shaped like a frog. They were the first icebreaker in 1997 and this year 750 of us from all along the coast put on the shirt and represented red frogs and what a week it was. Our days started at 4 PM, where we had our prep meetings, dinner, then hit the hotels and streets with our teams of 4-5 people until 3-4 AM before heading to bed. Our job description would say we walked kids home from the beach party if too drunk to walk, to make them pancakes if they were hungry, help them clean up their place after a heavy night, or get them to the medical tent if under an influence too much for them to bear. But it was so much more than that. We had a blast getting a chance to hang out with these kids first and for most, with energy running low, emotions running high, and these kids becoming overwhelmed with choices they have to make post- schoolies, this was a chance to get involved in this chaotic week and be a light into many of the dark times of schoolies. Unforgettable, sleepless, exciting, highs, lows, worth it.

Red Frog crew

This year I got recruited by a frisbee team that rep’s the Gold Coast. It’s a league based out of big-city Brisbane so each week we’d rip up there and play. Our team was already pretty established in the league before I was added, a few Canadians, couple Aussies, an American, and a couple from Europe made up our skill-filled team. The BPL (Brisbane Premiere League) labeled the best frisbee league in Australia full of some quality players gave us a challenging season. We ran ourselves into the ground each week, laid out for grabs and snags, and come finals we stood at the top winning the championship. Yeeooowww! 

Looking back on the last 10 months I have definitely learned a substantial amount academically, but the life highlights about this experience so far have been the peripheral things along the way. The opportunity each day to do something I’ve never done, go to a place I’ve never been to, make friends with people from a foreign country wherever that may be has been an overwhelming experience to say the least. The world is starting to feel like my backyard, but it’s those reading this that are the big influences in my life to have guided me, sharpened me and been placed in my life for a purpose and sent me off as prepared as I could be. For all the prayers that have continued to flow in, I can assure you that God’s hand has been as evident and as tangible as this email you are reading and I can’t thank you enough for this faith-filled support community. I always get reminded how far away I am when I go to Skype someone and I have to coordinate across a 15 hour time change, and then hear of the snow falling when its 30 degrees here and the Leafs are...I want to say winning, but we all know what they are normally doing. But at the end of the day I’ll always remember where home is and those that I can call my friends.

On December 30^th I leave for three weeks for India with our church mission’s team here, an opportunity and privilege to go share the love of Jesus in a few small isolated villages and be eye opened once again to the world we live in. I look forward to the many stories I’ll have following and will definitely have a few to share in next blog. While I’m there I’ll be getting my working Visa, and plan to spend up to another year here in Oz. Not done here...not yet anyway – plus, I haven’t had any visitor’s yet! (Wink).

It doesn’t feel like Christmas here – it’s hot! “Dashing through the snow” doesn’t quite work here, but I’m looking forward to experiencing an Aussie Christmas with friends here, surfboard in hand and celebrating the time that God came looking for us by sending his son – the biggest present we could have imagined, to come meet us where we’re at, and be a presence in our lives today. Awesome.

So in advance, Merry Christmas everyone! Love you guys heaps!

Until next time,

Rob

Update #5

Hey everyone!

July was our month off between semesters and we got up to Cairns North-Eastern Australia) for a few jam-packed days full of day trips and perfect weather. We checked out:

1)      The Great Barrier Reef!

-          2.5 hour boat ride out to the reef and arrived at an isolated island no longer than 200 metres long.

2)      Cape Tribulation – Alligator tour, zoo, rainforest hike, and awesome lookouts!

-          Slower paced but great views all around and saw some really cool stuff

3)      White water rafting down the Tully River

-          Hello adrenaline junkies!

This blog, if tried to use words would be like trying to describe a new colour so I put in a bunch of pics.. Take a look... 



Sharky and me on the way to the Reef!



Uncle Jules and Big Tony - when you're on your way to a wonder of the world, frowning not possible!



Hello Reef!





How can I possibly describe this scene?

 

I LOVE THIS!!!!



Big Mike hangin with the million birds on the Reef island

Back to the ship.. just 5 more minutes please?

 

Heading back - awesome views here and all trip long!





Beautiful harbour - Cairns



dido



Tide goes way out! - Cairns

Driving to Cape Tribulation - Sugarcane central

Snapper Island - see the crocodile shape?

8 footer Mama croc hangin on her pad.. "keep limbs and infants inside boat please and thanks.. or don't"

Cape Trib lookout - Waters behind me is where Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was fatally stung by the stingray..

Mandy checkin out the unique trees in the rainforest

Uncle Jules gettin his tourist on

Cape Trib - That bottle isn't full..

Hoops soakin in the spot!

Some of the crew - it just never ends

Our rafting squad, our Irish friends and Moricio our tour guide all the way from Chile! Ready to go!!

Awww yeeahhhh!!

Dominating the Tully River!

Update #4!

Hey everyone!

I hope this blog finds everyone well. As for me final exams are finally over and in a couple weeks I’ll be leaving for one of the 7 wonders of the world – the Great Barrier Reef! I’m not one to throw around the word “epic”, but there’s potential in this trip. This blog is not the usual update, but hopefully this will add another gear of inspiration from this long vacation down under.

 I recently read a book called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller. This guy is pretty inspiring, he’s written a few other books I’d like to read but apart from his writing he also serves on President Obama’s taskforce on Fatherhood and Healthy Families and started “the Mentoring Project” a while back building a team to mentor tonnes of kids throughout churches in the U.S. This book is essentially about two movie producers who come to Don wanting to make a movie about Don’s life, taking pieces of it and making the best story possible with the core characteristics of Don himself. Of some of the books I’ve read by Christian authors I’ve got the response that at times there too much tendency to try and re-create the Bible and before you know it you’ve got a two hundred page  “Jesus loves you” fridge magnet from the guy handing them out in front of DQ. Don’s perspective is none like I’ve ever read and challenges us to look into our lives as he wrote about his, unsettled, unedited, and without the church infomercial that your life will be perfect when God joins in.

What a book has are thoughts, thoughts that the reader can relate with, to expand the imagination and create your own sense of meaning, but in a movie it’s all in the action. This book tells a story and a story of a movie, but it’s also about story itself; the structure, the roles of characters, the ups and downs, the climax, overall the quality of story and how to start picking away the layers in determining the motives for moving forward. As a reader, you soon realize that this book is a mirror into your own life and the question of “what kind of story are you living?” starts nagging on you. It starts making you appreciate and remember more of the little things, the seconds that pass, why this and why that...At least for me it did.

This adventure I’m embarking on is not the same as everyone else’s, but as I continue to bring these blogs to you guys, I can’t help but challenge everyone to get out there, or keep staying out there and do something with the working limbs, brain and creativity you were designed with. As Don writes it’s all about the “inciting incident”, breakthrough’s sort of speak, that acts as a door you go through, a moment of quality meaning, but it also means you can’t go back, not that you would want to. Quoting Don, “The most often quoted commandment in the Bible is ‘do not fear’. It’s in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn’t let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves a purpose. But fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life. “

I’m 5 months into my stay here already and life definitely has not been boring, but I also know that there wasn’t a pause button to hit when I left and I know things are changing. I just really want to encourage everyone to keep looking to create memories with everyone you can, take a risk, and put in that extra effort so when you look back, it’s memorable.

Some fun ideas come straight from Don’s book, from a Canadian friend who provides these men’s events to help with bonding. Put these on the bucket list...

“I asked him once how he got the guys to bond like that and Kaj said he believed the key to getting men to bond was to have them risk their lives together. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, so he explained he was talking about rock climbing and swift-water kayaking and that sort of thing. But one night I went to one of their men’s events, and they didn’t exactly sit around beating drums. Instead they played capture the flag, but instead of flags they chucked little bottles of gasoline across fields into each other’s campfires. The team whose campfire burned down last won. I honestly thought somebody was going to die. And then another night they made knights’ outfits and rode bikes at each other with javelins made from long sticks with rolled up towels on the end. Only the towels had been dipped in gasoline and lit. I looked over at Kaj as though to say he was crazy, and he reminded me that men don’t bond unless they risk their lives together, and that Canadians enjoy free health care.”

As my good friend Jeff is always saying here... “When crazy is staring you in the face, you just gotta stare it right back!”

Take care homelanders, now get off your computer and go do something!

Update #3!

Hey everyone!

Time for another update, hope you don’t mind! We’re getting into “winter” season here, running at low 20’s during the day then down pretty cold for night probably around 10. Might even be warmer on your side of the hemisphere.

Last time I updated was just before Easter; don’t know where the time goes. It was my first Easter away from the fam, sometimes you can’t help but miss home at some of the pivotal times of the year but from day 1 of this adventure I couldn’t even begin to count the blessings that have woven into the last 4 months. Thanks for the prayers. Easter began with a couple Easter meals then off to Sydney!

Before we could take off we checked in our carry-ons and without even thinking about plane security I packed a couple Swiss-army knives for our hiking trip, never know what kind of wildcats you’re going to run into in the outback! The airport computer owl noticed these knives on the computer screen and my life-saving artillery was confiscated. Mint.

5 Star hostel

One hour later we arrive in Sydney weaponless, cab to our hostel and check in. First time in the hostel scene; so many cool people roaming the levels we met a bunch of people from all over. England, Italy (a couple of the Italians made pasta the one night, and made some for us... sorry mom, that pasta was ridiculous) and all over. The hostel was nothing special but we got to do during the day made it all worth it. Opera House and Harbour Bridge were day one, rainy day on day two but who cares, this was the Anzac Holiday rugby match between Sydney Roosters and St. George Dragons. Four rows up for $40 (we were in the wrong seats) with skydivers and army helicopters making centre field landings to start the memorial ceremonies. Amazing! The game was intense with St. George running away with it; these guys just demolish themselves running full speed at brick walls with fans of all ages, genders and mental states screaming at you. No wonder they can’t walk by 35 years old. Rugby league games are on TV all the time here as well, I still don’t like it. Give me some NHL playoffs!

Day 3 we got out to the famous Blue Mountains! It’s labelled as the “Grand Canyon of Australia”. Our tour guide Dave, a mountain local creeping up on 60 was one of the coolest guys on our trip thus far and unlike our lectures, was really interesting to listen to haha. We had patches of rain all through the day as well but that didn’t slow us down! Filled with wild kangaroo sightings and an overall taste of life outside the city it was easily worth the 68 bucks! When we got to the canyon Dave let the 4 us break off the pack to hike down to the lower level of the canyon and with each meter the views went from no visibility to a clear opening of the tree-carpeted canyon  up the rock walls off into the distance. “Remember this moment” we kept saying. We came across a waterfall halfway down and that was definitely one of the clinchers. To take us back up was the steepest funicular railway in the world at 52 degrees! Keep those infants secure!

Tour Guide Dave and our first sighting of a wild kangaroo!

The team

Beauty waterfall mid-hike!

Stuart Little staring down a couple hundred foot cliff




Hard to be sad when you're looking at this, eh Matt?

 

Day 4 was departure day, Bondi Beach or Manley Beach were on the list but we couldn’t escape the rain. Overall though, awesome trip with the crew! Some of our other friends checked out the Whitsunday and Fraser Island (just south of the Great Barrier Reef), Melbourne, Fiji, and Bali. Endless.

Since then it’s been getting in some surf days when possible but we had a busy spell of group projects and presentations that just finished up a couple days ago. Final exams begin in a couple weeks, time for some hard work and then see what comes up for our month off in July. Great Barrier Reef maybe?

I’d love to hear what’s going on with you guys, send me an update if you have a few minutes.

Until next time,

Rob