The Adventure

2 weeks now in Northern Territory. I can say that I have gone from hating the place and planning my escape, somewhat like a prison escape, to absolutely loving the place and thinking how sad I will be when I leave. There is so much to explore here, and it is really bringing the outdoorsy side of me out and I love it. I'm no longer afraid to get my hands and feet dirty!

I have made some amazing friends, all of them telling a different story and teaching me something new. It's amazing how good they are to new employees, they make me feel so comfortable and are so nice and welcoming. All the late nights spent up sitting around in a circle chatting and laughing has been so much fun, not to mention the mischief that we get into!

The experiences that I have had here are going to be something that I remember forever! As a lot of you know I don't really live in the best living conditions, no 5 star Fairmont, but I feel like I am at summer camp and its so fun and makes me really appreciate the nice clean shower I have at home. I really feel like everyone has to experience something totally out of their element and make it work, go out on a limb to make friends, and get over the whole luxury apartment living style, which I definitely got used to over the past few years. I am really starting to appreciate the simple things in life and getting over the material world.

In 20 years it won't matter about the clothes I wore or what I had, all that will matter is the life experiences I have had, all of the amazing people I have met along the way and the adventures I have had.

These are some of my new friends!

4x4-ing

A guy I work with here got his mates 4x4 for the day and we went back in the bush in the rough terrain roaming around. It was awesome.... awesome that I took a short video and felt the need to blog about it!

Enjoy!

Survival of the Fittest

My first week in Nhulunbuy has truly been one of the best life experiences I have ever had. I arrived here last Friday night (January 7th) and was a bit too tired to care about anything and I went to bed. The next morning I woke up and found a pay phone and called home crying because I hated this place so much.

I decided that I wasn't going to sit in my room I went out the the lawn chairs and read, very quickly I got an invite to go to a water hole and go swimming. It was so much fun! Everyday since last Friday just started getting better and better and I actually really like it here now. I started working and meeting the staff, started hanging out with them and becoming friends with them.

In my first week I was asked if I could be adopted into an Aboriginal family, I was asked if I wanted to get married, I now have an Aboriginal Brother, I have learned some aboriginal basic words and heaps of other funny things have happened that will come up in stories when I share them.

It truly is an experience here and you either make it or break it, I have chosen to make it and make the best of my time here. It is very unique and beautiful land up here just waiting to be explored. My plan was to stay here 3 months but I just go day to day and when I stop having fun and start getting a bad attitude thats when I'll leave.

Until then, Life is an Adventure and this is truly such a remarkable experience that I will remember for the rest of my life!

Me in Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory

My Inspiration

My Mum is my inspiration, without her I have no idea where I would be. She is my best friend in the entire world. No matter what she is always there for me with open arms. Every day I talk to her no matter where in the world I am I will find a way to talk to her, I love to hear her voice it makes me feel that she isn't really that far away. 


Every day she gives me words of wisdom to go by and help me get through this month in Nhulunbuy. Today her words of wisdom were;

I am proud of you to stick it out. Life will never be exactly what you expect. There are mountains to climb and different roads to take, as you know it is a journey. In many ways you have the power to control what you do in life, It's all about the choices. Some may not turn our so good and others will be beyond your expectations. 

I love you. xo

Walkabout Lodge

So I have been in Gove for 3 days now. The first 2 days were so long, I had really nothing to do. I went on a tour with my manager and he showed me and Victoria some sights, that occupied about 2 hours of time. Yesterday I went for a swim in the water hole with Tony, that occupied another 2-3 hours. Other then that I have been doing nothing but reading pretty much. I have spoken with other staff members and they said if you don't drink there is nothing to do. Well I'm to cheap to spend my hard earned money on drinking.

I started working today. I worked in the Tavern which is so disgusting. The counters are rotting, everything is rusty and a pile of garbage smells better then this place. The local cliental is 95% Aboriginals that stink of 16 day old sweat. I almost had to tell one to go home and shower using soap and then to come back. The other 5% is dirty miners who claim that they are unmarried when they are mining.

I finally got the internet today! This will help occupy some of my time; looking for new jobs, researching different places in Australia and travel plans.

This has been one of the best experiences I have had in Australia, such an eye opener, if I can do this I can do anything. If I can live and work in these conditions then I can do anything pretty much.

The Walkabout Lodge -- Home.

Another angle of the beautiful 5 star resort.

Anyone care for a dip in the green algae filled pool?

Staff Common Area

Staff Kitchen, there are rats sometimes running on the counter

Staff Toilets lots of ants inhabit this area

Showers -- Killed a cockroach in here.

Staff Accommodation, its worse then it looks

My room, not too bad but there is still dirt and grime all over the walls. It's liveable I guess.

Me in Northern Territory!

GOVE

Alright so I arrived last night in Gove. I think my house in Haliburton is bigger then the airport. I went to the toliet and there was a sign written in Aboriginal language, good thing I understand that. NOT!

This guy approached me asking if I was Jennifer and I said yeah I'm Jennifer. Hes like Hey I'm Tony I work security at the Walkabout Lodge. Alright I thought I guess I have to take his word for it, so I piled my stuff in his van and down the road we went.

We pulled into the Walkabout Lodge, I was speechless. This place is a complete dump. Trust me, I came here with a very open mind.

The pool is green cause the filter is broken so you cant swim, this morning I killed a cockroach in the shower, while making sure this lizard wasn't going to crawl on me. The kitchen well I think I would rather jut have a camp fire, its horrible. My bedding didn't even look clean from the last person who slept in my bed and there is NOTHING to do in this town. I walked the town 6 times this morning in about 1 hour. The shelves at the grocery store are bare...I guess they are waiting on a shipment. Today I was walking through the tavern and an aboriginal started hissing at me. They also smell really bad. This one abbo was breast feeding her child in the park this morning just out in the open while she was walking with her "sisters".

I was totally mislead about this place, it's an experience thats for sure! The plan: WORK WORK WORK and make money to get the hell outta here.

The Northern Territory Adventure

Well I have arrived in Cairns, after a bus to Brisbane, a flight from Brisbane to Cairns, I am on my way

to The Walkabout Lodge in Nhulunbuy, otherwise known as Gove in the Northern Territory. 

Moving North in Australia means I am moving closer to the equator which means it gets hotter! The local weather there today is 28 degrees C with a humidity of 81% which makes it feel like about 40 degrees C. 


Gove is a very small and remote town on what looks like the most Eastern coast of the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory. They have a Woolworths, Bank, Library, Hospital, a few stores which I imagine are very high in fashion...NOT! and no Vodofone coverage (which is my current mobile and internet carrier) My anticipation of this place kind of seems like Haliburton, so bring it on!

My New Home!

So I landed a job at the Walkabout Lodge where I will be bartending and serving and making heaps of cash, just what I need to travel all over Australia. I plan on staying in Gove for about 3 months and then who knows what. 

When I had my phone interview with Tony, the manager of the lodge, I asked him what sorts of activities there is for me to do. He answered with, "I hope you like fishing." I thought to myself well I guess I'm going to learn to like fishing aren't I? I did some research and its not actually that bad there is plenty of things to do such as;

• 4 WD & Camping Adventures
• Spectacular Fishing - Hiring a "tinnie"and charters
• Art & Cultural Experiences like Bawaka Cultural Experiences and Nyinyikay Interactive Cultural Experiences.
• Roy Marika Lookout 
• Nature Walks
• Golfing
• Nature Walks 
• Chilling out and Relaxing

Wow what a great list of things to do! (sense the sarcasm) but its all about the experience and the things I will learn. Like how to fillet and eat my own catch! I think this is going to be such an amazing experience for me and I really do have a good feeling about it!

I can't swim in the ocean because there are too many sharks, crocodiles and jelly fish. Tony said to me "You shouldn't even put your feet in the ocean because before you know it a croc could come lurking up and you would make a fine treat for him for dinner." Oh perfect! But at the lodge I have a nice swimming pool I cant bathe by. 

The Walkabout Lodge

 

I'll let you all know all of the adventures that I have so stay tuned for "The Adventures in Gove"

Greetings from Jennifer in Gove xo

Sydney

The countdown is over and I have just arrived back from a fantastic 4 days in Sydney!

I went to Sydney to meet up with some friends and properly celebrate the new year, and that we did! It is safe to say that New Years 2010 was the best yet! We went to our friend Craig's friends flat, which by the way was an amazing flat! He had a catered party with bartenders mixing cocktails for the entire night and all the fixings that go along with that. This blokes flat was right under the bridge, I don't think we could have gotten a better place to watch the fireworks. It was actually incredible!

 Tierney, Steph and I

 Craig, Tierney and Steph

 Just a few of the shots I got when the NYE Fireworks went off

 Fireworks on the Bridge

After New Years Tierney, Steph and I headed into Sydney to do some of the touristy stuff and explore around in the City. Sydney is such a beautiful and iconic city. It's so amazing when you turn the corner and there it is, The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge! I was able to climb all 1337 stairs of the Harbour Bridge, it was such an incredible experience, even though the weather was a bit gloomy it was still amazing! It would be sick if you could bungee jump off the bridge...maybe one day they will come up with that!

We toured around Darling Harbour and had a coffee there.  

We went to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, this place is so beautiful and peaceful! You can hire costumes for $10, we really wanted to but it's just not on the packers budget. Hence why we snuck past the admissions gate into the Gardens to save $6 haha!

Now I'm on to my next adventure and the girls are on route back to Colorado. We had a nice picnic lunch in the Royal Botanical Gardens together on our last afternoon together sipping red wine with beautiful scenery in the background.