The Day I Hopped the Fence

6/14/16

I woke up early AGAIN. I'm really getting sick of waking up early/not being able to fall asleep/not being able to stay asleep once I finally do fall asleep (lol jokes on me because the reason I'm typing this out right now is because of the reasons just given and it's like 5 months later lol). It's really getting old, especially since these days I don't have very much time to sleep to start with.
Once it was finally time for me to leave (which was still really early), I made my way down to the train station (sorry these area bit out of order, the train station in Perth, Australia).
Thanks to staring at the screenshots of Google Maps for a long while, I didn't get lost this time! It's actually really close by. I love how centralized my hotel is, even if I do believe it's haunted.
At the train station, I noticed everyone had printed their entire confirmation email (like 6 pages) even tho I only printed the first page which was like the ticket part. I started to internally freak out a little bit. Then I saw some people with only one page so I attempted to calm down but then I saw the one pagers' had a barcode on them. Mine didn't. Cue that begging praying that God can't possibly like yet I continue to do it anyways. Grrreat. Then we start boarding and I notice the ticket collector isn't scanning anything. Bless him. He just checks the name off the list.
Was it me or was he American? The more tired I am the harder it is to tell and I don't know if he has an American accent or if I've unintentionally slipped back into the Aussie thing that sometimes came out without my knowledge/consent in middle school (once people started pointing it out, I just called it a redneck/country/Texas/southern English accent lol). Mind you, middle school was way before my first trip to this great country; I guess it was just ingrained in me. Could probably blame the Wiggles or those kid songs I grew up on that I recently found out are actually Aussie songs and no one in America has a clue what I'm talking about or what a kookaburra is. Now that I think about it, the fact it's in a gum tree probably should've tipped me off. Oh well.
So anyways, back to the train. So the guy must've read my mind (they are seriously so good at that here!) because randomly, he comes into the car and is like "New Jersey, USA" and I'm just like yeah, American. Ride on, brotha, ride on (okay that last part I just added while writing in my blog book but I was pretty hype he was from the states because that meant I wasn't going crazi[er]).
I get off at my stop in Byford, and it's literally in the middle of no where. Like where are the taxis? Which way do I go? I've no idea.
I see a sign for a parks and rec building so I start in that direction, but after a while I turn around. I use my roaming data to try to get an Uber, but it isn't loading. I see a church with lots of cars and figure I'll go ask them, but some lady pulls up and asks if I need help. I asked her how to get to the koala park, hoping she'd give me a ride because I know it's only a mile away. Instead, she just tels me to go over the railway tracks and it's 10 minutes walk down the road. I ask her if I can because there's a big barb wire fence surrounding the tracks (and lots of no trespassing sings) and she's like "yeah, people do it all the time" so I'm like "okay thanks" and she leaves.
So I make sure nobody's looking and there's no train coming and I cross the tracks. It's not suicidal if you don't want to die, right? Woo, made it. Now for the fence. I walk along it for a while, yeah it goes all the way around. The gate is probably locked but I'll check it anyways. Yes, it is chained and locked and even I can't squeeze through. Okay, I'll have to climb. To make sure I'm not seen so I don't go to jail or get deported or fined, I got back into the wooded section. Oh great, there's a pole I can use as a step and part of the fence is already bent. I throw my suitcase over and hop onto the pole. I try to bend the fence more so as to put the pokey things down so they won't get me. It works a little, not a lot, but it'll have to do. I slip my head through, no problem. I get one leg mostly through, but from this angle it's impossible to bring in the other. Back under goes my head. I'm very thankful for my big coat, for without it the barbed wire on top of the fence would've destroyed me. So now my first leg is through. The second doesn't fit in the little hole of bent down spikes and has been speared so that my pants are caught. I can't keep going or my favorite jeans will rip. So I kick my shoe off and squeeze my toes around the fencing to stay on while I use my hands to free myself. Finally I unhook my pants from all caught parts and ducking back under, I free myself and jump down onto my suitcase. Thank God the fence wasn't turned on so I didn't get electrocuted.
Woo, I did it. Now that I think about it, crossing railroad tracks and hopping barbed fences was probably lowkey on my bucket list I've never written. I mean it's in like every movie; it's like a right of passage for livin in the middle of nowhere as a teenager. Well I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm kinda a teenager and I finally hopped a fence across the tracks and didn't go to jail. Looking down at myself, I check my body. Besides a little scratch on my hand, I think I got away scratch free. Awesome. Time to go to the koalas.
I'm walking and I'm walking. There's a sign on the road for some bandicott thing. What is that? Idk. Keep walking. Man I wish I brought that water bottle. Oh well. Keep walking. Are we almost there yet? Awe man. Another sign for that b thing; this one with a picture - a rat! AW NO! If I see a rat, I'm gonna scream so loud and jump so high imma land back in America! Ya girl does not do rats. Aw naw man. No way. Walk faster. Oh look, a brown sign. That's probably it. Keep going. You can do this. You did not just climb a barb fence to not get your pic with a koala. Keep walking.
Finally I'm there. Yes. Man this is a long driveway. Omg a wallaby! Two of them! Just chillin. How awesome. I keep walking. Finally I'm at the gate. I open the gate just to be greeted by two alpacas (llamas?). Amazing. I wish I could spend all day or at least a few minutes here but I'm already running way late. In, picture, out. So I don't stay to play with the animals and I go to the entrance to get my koala pic.
The lady takes me into some room to wait for her to bring me a koala. I see all the koalas, sleeping. I wish I was sleeping. I see her go get a eating koala and bring him to me. She makes me wear a vest then hands me eucalyptus and the koala. I don't appreciate wearing the vest because although it protects me from his claws, it totally covers up my shirt and I wore this shirt on purpose because I also wore it the last time I held a koala. It's my koala shirt (even tho it has a zebra on it). Man. Whatever. There's no real photographer/camera so the lady takes pictures for me on my phone. I've upgrade from just holding a koala to feeding a koala in the past 4 years. I take the eucalyptus into the same hand I'm holding Jimbo the koala in so I can take selfies with him. No offense to the lady but the selfies turned out better.
Okay great, I got my picture, now it's time to go. The lady at the desk is calling me a taxi while I try Uber again. Although I'm using the data charges, I have better luck this time and soon an Uber picks me up to rush me to the airport.
I don't like talking to people. That's not an unknown fact. But this guy is talking to me and it's nice. It's friendly talk and nobody's talked to me in so long. Then we get going well and no more talk. Man, my ankle hurts. Maybe the barbed wire did hurt me. Let me check. Nope, it's fine. We keep driving. A while later, my leg starts to hurt. Ah, my ankle was fine, must be mental.
Finally we make it to the airport. I already have my boarding pass on my phone (I knew I'd be late) so I just check my gate and go. There's not a soul in security. Lovely. I go through and the machine goes crazy. I've been selected for the random screening. Great. Why does this always happen to me? And always when I'm not a million hours early. But the lady knows I'm clean so it goes super fast and soon I'm at my gate.
The ATMs downstairs weren't working and I need money for my shuttle to Coral Bay, but thankfully there are two ATMs near my gate. The first one rejects both of my cards. The next finally works. Mmm I smell fried chicken. They feed us on Qantas, but if I see fried chicken, I'm gonna get some. Oh, what's Red Rooster? I check it out. It's like Australian not as good Chickfila! Yes! So I get a crispy chicken. I eat it all before we are called to board the flight.
As I'm eating, my leg continues to hurt. So I give in and check it. It's bleeding. Like kind of a lot. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. Score 1 for the fence. (Update 5 months later: there are scars on my leg. I'm very proud)



Once they announce boarding, we walk for what seems like forever to get to the plane. It's a 100, so quite small but larger than the one I took to Christchurch. The plane's not very full; I'm glad they didn't cancel it. They feed us meatball paninis, crackers, cheese, and drinks. The flight is less than two hours, domestic. & we get meals. I love Qantas!
I read about different ways to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef in my Qantas magazine in the seatback pocket. At Haggerstone Island, one of the private island way of enjoyments, the article talks about "but the family - which grew with the arrival of son Sam in 1994 and daughter Tasha three years later"! Uh, hi, hello. My name is Tasha and I was born three years after 1994. Man I have to go there and meet my twin one day.
Outside the windows I literally have desert to my right and tropics to my left. It's amazing. So cool. & I'm seeing all of Australia like I wanted to. We land and there's no signs of the tropical waters I saw from the sky but I know I'm going there.

For now, I am in the Great Australian Outback. No doubt. How cool man.
On the forever long drive to Coral Bay, we passed sheep, bush, rock, cows, bush, rock, grass. All seemingly endless. I don't know what the rocks were doing there/how they got there but I swear they're trolls, just like the ones from Frozen. They even looked alive! There were kool tho.
Then we got to Coral Bay. Our river gave us the tour before dropping us off at our accommodations because the whole town is one road, 300 metres long. We're literally a beach on the edge of the desert. How trippy, man.
I'm quite tired and this post seems quite long so I'll just make Coral Bay Day 1 it's own post.

2012 v 2016

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

All Blacks v Wales

Much like Hobbiton, you can't go to New Zealand without going to an All Blacks game. Also like Hobbiton, I'm not into rugby. Thankfully, like with Hobbiton, I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun it was.

Before the game a bunch of us chilled in Anastasia and Libby (and Aissa but she wasn't there)'s flat. Then when it was time to go we shared an Uber (well 2 ubers) so we only paid like $2 to get there. Then I went with my Uber's girls (Libby, Anastasia, and Celeste) to their seats. On the way in we got free boxes of chicken snack cracker things! Then Celeste was nice enough to walk me down to my seat so I wasn't all alone. The girls' seats were up in like high stadium seating. Mine was right on the field (it's just wrong for a cheerleader to not be right on the field/court). I felt like I was in high school again, getting ready for a game, wishing I had hot chocolate.

My whole row was empty so Celeste stayed down with me because (no offense) they were better seats than hers. We watched the players warm up and toss up while we prayed no one would come take the seats.

We watched the news reporters give their reports followed by the Wales national anthem. When it was New Zealand's turn, we sang along with the words on the screen. Then it was time for the Haka. My phone decided to stop working quite early, but I still caught a little, which you can see in my All Blacks video on my Facebook.

Then the game started. It reminds me a lot of football, with touchdowns and field goals and everything (okay not field goal, the extra point you get for kicking after a touchdown). But they also add some sick cheer moves that low key took our team foreverrr to do (where you lift by the thigh and not the foot or ground). It's a pretty sweet game.

About halfway through the first half a couple dudes came to sit next to us, but when the realized they were in the wrong section because there buddies weren't there, they left.

Halftime was lame. I expected a grand performance. 

After halftime I got a hot dog! It was so good and I wanted a hot dog so bad. Later Celeste got donuts and I had a couple, but they were too cinnamony for me. 

After the game, we attempted to find the others for like two minutes before we decided to start walking. Previously I had walked all the way to that area before and it was super nice out so we decided to just walk all the way back instead of getting another Uber. We only got lost once, and we found like a dozen Waldos.

Soon we were back in our rooms and I was ready to be asleep. Gotta get up early for Straya the next morn.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

The Water Is Calling & I Must Go

You’re not a true water baby if you’ve never felt compelled by the water.

For weeks on my way home I’ve been trying my hardest to resist the urge to veer off course and head straight for the beach. Well tonight, that’s exactly what I did.

I had to satisfy my water craving. Not a craving like “oh I need to drink some water” like a “I have to go be in the water NOW and this time the bathtub just won’t do”. Besides, everyone’s already asleep anyways and to be honest, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get in the house tonight. I didn’t tell them I was coming and I usually come back after I wake up on Fridays sometimes, so I might be locked out. But it’s okay; if I am, I’ll just come back and sleep on the beach.

So why am I typing and not just enjoying the beach, you ask? Well I got here, took the required snapchats to prove I was here (extra important tonight because my phone is pretty much dead and I’m all alone and my parents need to know where the last place I was if I go missing), then I put the phone away and just enjoyed the utter perfectness of the night. It was raining all day, so there are no stars out, and it’s a bit chilly from the wind, but it is still perfect. Any night at the beach is perfect.

So anyways, I was just taking it all in and enjoying my beach night when it occurred to me that I should write a post about it. And when the inspiration is there, it’s there. So I made the huge trek back up to my car to grab my laptop and here I am, typing to you. But have no fear, I don’t need to look when I type so I am still enjoying this beautiful view. In fact, I just saw an ambulance headed westbound over the bridge followed by a police car. It must happen quite often I would imagine, but it’s the first time in my life I’ve seen an ambulance cross the bridge, lights on.

Yes. It is November. Yes, I did go in the water. Yes, I am in Maryland. The current air temperature is 66 degrees Farinheight (oops spell check is off because no internet) and it’s 10:52pm. The water temperature does feel a bit chilly though, but you get used to it. I did go swimming on this same beach last Christmas day, after all. Maybe this part of the bay just doesn’t get super cold. Even the wind didn’t seem cold while I was wading in the bay, but now that I’m just sitting on the sand, I’m shivering.

It’s really dark because the moon is nowhere to be found and the clouds are coving the stars. There are trees blocking the beach from the grass and roads, keeping the lights practically nonexistent, which is great because I’m not here for the bright lights. It’s really cool seeing the lights on the Bay Bridge at night, and the towers across the bay remind me there is civilization. The Annapolis side is surprisingly dark though, with only minimal lights to the south of the flashing towers. The great orange glow from the city keeps me warm like the sun as the wind picks up. It also is the majority of the things allowing me to see.

I could sit here and watch the cars cross the bridge forever, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past hour. With my feet in the water, the wind on my face, and the view of the bridge in plain sight, there’s no place I’d rather be. When I was younger, my dreams ALWAYS consisted of me miraculously crossing the bridge at night. Mostly by monkey bars under the bride. Sometimes other methods, just as insane (although if you ask me I’ll straight-faced tell you there ARE monkey bars under the bridge. I’ve been under many times via cruise ships, so you think I would know there isn’t, but I’m convinced). Then I’d always drop off at the end, either swimming in the bay on the western side or jumping on a cruise on the eastern side. I think those dreams making up pretty much every night of my childhood makes watching the bridge at night in real life that much greater.

Ya know, when I hadn’t been on a cruise in a while and I would get sick I would tell everyone I was land sick, that it had been too long since I was on a cruise. While I definitely was land sick (can’t keep a mermaid from her sea), I’m not so sure it was the cruises. Maybe I just needed to find my way back to the water.

After all the sea (or bay, or river, or lake, pretty much any water, but mostly oceans and seas and bays, ya know, stuff with salt) helps me get back to me.

Well I think I’m gonna enjoy this beach time a bit more then head on outta here before I catch hypothermia (prob shouldn’t be swimming in the Chesapeake Bay in November, but hey, what can ya do?), so I’ll catch ya on the flip side. Happy swimming ya’ll.

swimming with the dog
at Matapeake on
Christmas 

Until next time,

Xoxo,

Tasha

Tourism in the Caribbean

Okay, ya'll, I'm heated.
So yesterday was our Caribbean Student Union meeting (yes, we all know I'm not actually from the Caribbean - fun fact: you don't gotta be Caribbean to be part of CSU) and our topic of discussion was tourism in the Caribbean. Man, so I was excited right! Like yes, finally, something I actually know about because when I go to the Caribbean I'm a tourist bc I'm not from there. And I go there a lot. If ya'll didn't notice my many complaints about missing the Caribbean while I was abroad in New Zealand, it's like my favorite place on Earth.
So anyways. Crystal, the president of CSU, had to be somewhere else during the meeting so she left some other guy in charge and idk who he was but man, he was no Crystal. So he opens the discussion by asking people to name countries people go to when they go to the Caribbean. Not Caribbean Islands, COUNTRIES that people go to when they go to the Caribbean.
So of course I start naming off countries. Bahamas (that one is accepted and he repeats it). My second choice is Mexico. This gets a "No that's not in the Caribbean" and I'm like "uh yeah actually it has a part in the Caribbean along with it's Pacific and Gulf parts" and the guy is just like "No". Then I'm like okay, Turks & Caicos, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands both US and British and he just ignores me and starts talking back over me when I get to the Virgin Islands. Obviously I can name a lot more but I just shut up because he's talking again so I sit there stewing.
I am so angry over this Mexico comment.
HERE'S A MAP OF THE CARIBBEAN:

Oh, look, what is that over on the left?? Oh yeah, MEXICO!!!!!
Like hun, you might know about whatever country you're from, but when we're talking about like general tourism to the Caribbean, please do not doubt I know what I'm talking about.
And the other people in the room seemed to be getting angry too because the rest of the discussion seemed to only focus on Jamaica when there are clearly many more countries than just Jamaica in the Caribbean.
But back to Mexico. If you look on the map, Mexico has more area in the Caribbean than a bunch of the smaller Caribbean islands put together, so why does that not count as having a Caribbean vacation spot? Cruising is a major form of tourism in the Caribbean and many cruise ships do indeed go to Mexico when they go to the Caribbean! Cozumel and Riviera Maya (Playa del Carmen, Tulum, etc) come to mind. Which, look, Cozumel is indeed a Caribbean island, but guess what country it's part of? MEXICO. Therefore, if Cozumel is a Caribbean island but is part of the country of Mexico, that must mean that Mexico does indeed have part of the country in the Caribbean!!!!
Plus uh, they have Mexico episodes of Caribbean Life (only the best show on television, catch it on HGTV), which obviously they wouldn't put it on Caribbean Life if it wasn't in the Caribbean. (Yes they also have Mexico Life for the other parts of Mexico, but there have been instances where one of the destinations on Caribbean Life have been Mexico.)
Oh my goodness I'm heated. Like don't tell me I'm wrong when I know that I'm not and I have facts to back it up, including, oh look, a MAP!
I bet if he had let me keep listing countries that have a section in the Caribbean he would've also told me I was wrong when I said Colombia or Venezuela, probably even Honduras. Maybe I should buy him a map.
But whatever, someone just needs to ship me off on a boat to my dearest Caribbean Mexico with a fruity little drink in my hand and it'll be all better.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

PS. Sorry this post is really negative. The next one will most likely also be negative but then maybe they'll start picking up. 

Update

Hey ya'll
So I obviously didn't finish posting all my blog posts from New Zealand, but I do have a bunch written in a notebook somewhere so once I relocate that notebook I'll get those posted, then eventually I'll get around to writing the rest.
But a couple things have really been on my mind that I gotta blog out, so be on the lookout for those posts in the next coming days.
Also since I'm no longer in New Zealand I've changed the title of my blog to Travels with Tasha (gotta keep that alteration) but that's an awful title so if you have a better one, feel free to let me know in the comments below :)
Okay thanks ya'll

til next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

airplane thoughts

It's hard to write any of the 14 posts I have to write because all I can think about is my beloved Ocean City. Just 12 more days (only 9 more flights and 2 more finals) until I'm back on the beach in summer. I just came from Darwin (if I ever move to Australia, definitely my new vacation destination) where it felt like summer (at 91 degrees F) in the middle of winter. It was a much needed escape from the cold, but now I'm in desperate need of summer.
Lol tho, the drastic weather change destroyed my immune system and now my nose can't stop running and I can't catch it and I keep sneezing and my throat is killer and I'm covered in bruises. But it's back to freezing in 5 hours; it might make it better or it might kill me.
Okay maybe I'll start catching up on some posts now. Or maybe I'll just keep getting absorbed into my music (this flight has no tv, but it did have a meal, so good on ya, virgin)

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha 

Shine Bright like a Glowworm

Okay, it's literally humanly impossible to remember every detail of the posts I still have to write (11) and the ones I will need to do about this week (8), soo I'm going to attempt to get writing on some old posts I have to catch up on.
So the farthest one back is the glowworms, but I don't really feel like writing about them but it'll be the shortest because it was only like an hour and not that impressive so I guess I'll just start by doing my glowworm post.

I have to pee tho (I just did a tasting of like 12 beers) so hold up real quick tho. I'll write ya before I get on my tram tour tho, I promise.
Okay I'm back
So after Hobbiton we (the bus) went to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. So I wanted to do the black water rafting, but it was as expensive as Hobbiton and the glowworms, and Hobbiton was extremely expensive on it's own as well. So because I believed, as an American, Hobbiton was an essential part of New Zealand, I did the Hobbiton and Waitomo bus tour instead of doing black water rafting and Hobbiton separately for double the price. At the time I feel I was pretty okay with this, but then Celeste and friends did the blackwater rafting and it looked so fun. But oh well. I didn't have time for both anyways.
So after Hobbiton we went to Waitomo where we waited like 10 minutes for a tour guide. They told us we couldn't take pictures, but of course I tried anyways. First the guide took us into the caves where he explained to us about the stalactites and stalagmites and the limestone. I think it's so cool that the caves - the whole entirety of the caves - were once completely underwater. They're huge! Apparently, it makes for great acoustics. One of the guides had her wedding there, it makes it so good.
Then we went further into the cave where our guide explained about the glowworm life process, but thanks to Allison (I think, maybe it was one of the other girls, idk) I already knew a bit about it. Anywhos he took us further to tell us about their lives because we could see the 'fishing line' webs they use to catch their food here. It really does look like fishing lines! So cool.
So then we got on the boat for the glowworm cavern thingy, I forget what it's called. The place where there's a lot of them. Anyways I attempted to illegally take some pictures but my iPhone refuses to capture glowworms or stars or anything so it was all just black. But the glowworms looked just like stars but blue. Like lots and lots and lots of blue stars or tiny blue Christmas lights. I think I thought they looked like Christmas lights first before It thought they looked like stars. But like little dotty ones. But yeah.
We weren't actually in the glowworm grotto (that's what it was called) long but we couldn't talk and the silence (except for the drip drip of the cave) was deafening. Then after we got off the boat we could take pictures so I got one of the outside of the cave.
Then we went to the gift shop where I got Autumn a postcard because when we were fantasizin about if she would come to New Zealand the glowworms were at the top of her list of what she wanted to see. Would've been better if she was there but oh well.
I still had time before I had to get back on the bus so I got an ice cream. Then we headed back for Auckland.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha