NorthWest New Years Trip '08-'09!!

Happy New Years Everybody! I had the most amazing New Years!! Definitely the best yet. Two days after Christmas, my friends Mic, Brian, and Viktoria and I rented a camper van and took a road trip up the north west coast. We started the trip off going to a friends house a few hours away and having a party there. There were only about 10 of us, but with these 10, that's all you need for good laughs and a fun time! The next day we all went to the beach, where it was so windy that we had to set up camp on the pier to escape the painful pelting of sand.



The next day we left our friends place and drove up north about 1000 km's before deciding to camp. It was along this drive I saw the most awesome sunset. We saw it from 2 different places and in between the colors had changed so much! It was soooo beautiful. The road trip was off to a good start and we had covered lots of ground this first major day of driving. So around 9:30 we pulled over and set up camp next to a beach on the side of the road. It was a good spot. We had a few drinks and went to bed.




The next day we drove up to our final destination, stopping first at Coral Bay for an afternoon at the beach. This beach was so beautiful. There is nothing for miles and miles in between each place to stop. Sometimes you worry about whether you have enough fuel. The road is just mile after mile of straight road with red, dry, dirt on either side. So when we got to the beach, with water, it was very refreshing, even to see. But getting in the water and getting rid of the heat of the day was fantastic.

We left there that evening and drove to our final destination, Exmouth. This place turned out to be crap, with no good camping places near the beach. It was the night of the 30th and it is where we had planned to spend New Years. But when we got there and saw what it was like, we changed our minds and drove back down to Coral Bay, where we had spent the afternoon.
Because it was the 30th, the place was packed and we couldn't get a camping place, so we drove back out to the road and away from town about 20 km's to make sure we didn't get a ticket. We spent the night in the middle of the road! I am quite serious, it was the middle and no cars came for hours. It was so surreal and with no city lights of any kind around, the stars looked amazing! Whenever a car did come, we had about 20 minutes warning to move. The road was so straight that we could see the cars' lights 20 min before it got to us. We goofed around in the road for a while, basically because we could. We stayed up all night pretty much, goofing around and tossing back a few.

The next morning we went back to Coral Bay. We still couldn't get a spot for New Years Eve, but decided to just park the van and spend it on the beach. We would accept the fine they gave us the next morning, but we weren't going anywhere! Besides $100 split 4 ways isn't that much. We got on the beach at about 11AM and stayed there until about 5:30AM the next morning, leaving only once for water and warmer clothes when the sunset. The colors at this beach were absolutely fantastic! There were high white sand dunes, red rocks and cliffy shoreline, tall green beach grass (but not to much), and the water was this vivid blue color and so so clear! Sunset was incredible as well. A great last sunset for 2008! We played in the dunes, surfing down the dunes on our boogie board, we also got fishing poles and fished all day. We didn't catch anything. The rest of the time we spent just splashing and lounging in the surf.











We had the best time, the four of us. We managed to find our own little piece of beach where no one else really came. A few people walked past all day, but that was it. We weren't even sure when it was midnight, so we made it up and had a little countdown. We beat the people who give the fines out by half an hour that morning and ended up not even getting fined!! Wahoo!! We spent the night on the beach and had our first showers of the trip the next morning at 6AM. A great way to start the New Year, wake up on the beach, watching the sun come up, then having a very refreshing outdoor shower!! I loved it :) This pic is of us right before we showered.
Then we started the very hot ride back to Perth. We spent 2 days doing it, stopping again at our friends house the night before returning to Perth. We stopped at many beaches along the way, but were unable to spend much time at any as we had to get back. Plus we were all feeling the effects of over exposure of the sun. We did stop at one beach that had no sand at all, only shells... millions and millions of little shells! It was a truly fantastic trip with memories that will last me a lifetime!
More pictures from this wonderful trip can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/find.barlow/PerthNorthWestRoadTrip0809#

Christmas Time in Perth

Merry Christmas!!
I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as I did! I woke up and called my parents. They had sent me a care package for Christmas, and I was a good girl and waited until Christmas morning to open it. Sop first thing, I called mom and opened my package with her on the phone. I was so excited for my homemade cookies and receese candy. I also got a shirt and a change purse/wallet I was not expecting, but badly needed! My package was awesome and opening it with my mom on the phone almost made it seem like I was opening my presents Christmas morning back home. But then the good-bye came and mom and dad's voices disappeared. I looked out the window at the start of a beautiful 95 degree day and said to Toto, "We're not in Kansas anymore!" or Delaware, as the case may be. All though I missed all my family and friends back home and our Christmas traditions dearly, I still managed to have a wonderful time here.
I have made many new friends at my hostel here in Perth. I came here specifically to spend the holidays with friends of mine I lived with during the Aussie winter in Brisbane. A lot of them have all ended up in Perth now, so I came to join the fun.
My friends and I had a lovely day at the huge park in the city named Kings Park. We barbecued all day and had a massive feast! The park is a beautiful setting. It overlooks the city and the river. Unfortunately I do not have any pics from Christmas Day, however there are pics of another day we spent at this same park only days before. If you want to see the park, these pics can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/KingsParkTrip# .

The Photographic Chapter Continues...

The last 4 months I have spent traveling in "Big Red" and taking pictures down the east coast of Australia from Brisbane, then across Victoria twice (where I saw a PINK LAKE!! and that's not sand... it's salt!), then I caught the 11 hour ferry ride with my truck and trailer from Melbourne over to Tasmania where I spent 2 months driving around from town to town in Tasmania, that's right, that is a sign telling drivers to be ware of Tasmanian Devils! I am then finishing in Hobart. I was going to leave my job at Christmas time as I have started to get quite bored with it at times, not much room for artistic expression, and the clients lately have all been a bit of the snobby sort. However, I do still get some good clients and do find enjoyment in my job, but it is time to move on. The company really wanted me to stay on for a bit longer after Christmas and do another 3 weeks in Tasmania, while I train my replacement.
My replacement is my current make-up artist, Elise. She is 19 and a wonderful work/travel companion, I will be sad to leave her. But she will become the photographer and is training a friend of hers from home to be her make-up artist. Anyway, I agreed to go back after Australia Day (Jan 26) if they paid for my Christmas tickets to Perth and back, then flew me back to Brisbane when I am all done. They agreed and it has worked out perfect! They pay for my flights around the country while providing me time to backpack on the west coast and return to backpacking from Brisbane and this time go UP the east coast. Then I plan to go over to Darwin (middle of the North Coast), travel to see Ayer's Rock in the middle, back to Darwin and out the door to South East Asia. Not sure where exactly yet. But my visa expires here in the beginning of April, so after I finish working, it should give me about 6 weeks to see the rest of Aus, then onward.

Enough about work, how about Tasmania instead!! Tasmania has been awesome! I have seen so much wildlife up close! I also think I am having such a wonderful time here due in part to my great new friend, travel companion and work buddy, Elise (Lisey). She is wonderful and brings excitement into my life. On our days off we go on what we call our "Adventure Daze". These usually consist of finding a national park to hike around in for the day, stopping to eat fruit and take pictures. What should be a 3 hour walk, usually takes us 5, haha :) we just sit and take pictures and eat fruit and talk about god knows what. It is really nice to spend our days off immersed in nature, as otherwise we would never see the sunlight during the week as we work 12 hour days. We have done lots of things around Tasmania, but my favorite has been Mt. Field National Park, where I saw the biggest waterfall I have ever seen, and I have seen a few. This one was named Russell Falls. We hiked up next to it, even though you were not supposed to. We were so happy we did, the views we got from being on the side were incredible and I caught some double rainbows on my new camera... the images look wicked, you all should totally go check all of them out!

I also very much like the city of Hobart. It's geography makes it amazingly beautiful. Everywhere you look there is water! It is a city built in the middle of inlets with islands all around. The view from the top of the mountain at the back of the city is incredible, even if we visited on a cloudy day. We have also visited caves, mountains, tree top canopy walks, and historical sites (from when Tasmania was where all the convicts were sent). There are more pics of all our wonderful adventure daze at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/TasmaniaAdventureDaze# (Chris and Terri, there are pics here of a real Echidna for Julia :). A guy with red hair you will notice in a lot of the pics. This is Blake. He is a bar tender in Hobart we met out and about one night and quickly befriended. He joins us now for adventure daze as his "weekend" is also in the middle of the week like ours. There are also pics from my travels around the main land of Aus while in this photographic chapter of my life which can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/NewImageTravels02# .
I can not believe my time here has been a full year! I thought at first I would just come for a month to see Ayer's Rock. Weird how plans change. Currently, I was very much needing a brake from work, even if it is only to return for 3 more weeks before I finish for good. But I am in Perth now and loving the vacation!

Aussie Life Now...

Life down under has extended itself once again. Just as I was getting over my job in Brisbane and ready to move on, a new opportunity presented itself. It is a job I find I really enjoy and could see myself doing for a little while just to save extra cash before I depart Australia. I am now a photographer by trade, studio photography. Mostly I do family portraits and glamour shots. I learn every day more about posing people than photography, how to enhance good attributes of people and hide their bad. It is pretty fun and to have a job I enjoy I find does good things for my soul.

It is travel photography (and a sales job). We also offer "bedroom" photos if the client wishes. I encourage all my clients to try these out for themselves. ;) I have a strong belief in making my clients feel good about themselves while they are comfortable and enjoy their time (My favorite is when the bigger crowd gives it a go and then are happy with the results I produce. Good on'ya mate!).

I am finding that I love this job. Not only do I get to help people enjoy their time and feel good about themselves, but I never get bored. I meet a new person every hour of the work day, 12 hours disappear in a little longer than a blink some days! I am constantly learning about people and sharing in, what I hope to be, happy moments caught forever in time. On top of all that it is good money and they pay me to travel Australia, from town to town! Last month I had training in Melbourne where I met a dingo! Then I returned to Brisbane and traveled down the east coast, exploring it on my days off. I will continue this until I reach Melbourne again and then go south on the ferry over to Tasmania. From there I will be flown across the country to Perth for a month, before returning to Tasmania to finish my run there. It is going to be a busy few months.

Which brings me back to my original point. My trip in Australia has extended itself at least a good 6 months past its originally thought of departure time. I am also thinking I will be spending heaps more time in the South East Asia region of the world. My trip has already extended itself by years and I have barely started it I feel. I am loving my adventures out here and am happy to be in the "photography chapter" at the moment.

FINAL THOUGHT- I just re-read what I wrote in my blog and in my profile when I was first preparing to leave home. Things are so much different now that some of the writing seemed almost unfamiliar, as if it wasn't me. I am really enjoying life outside the box I felt trapped in when planning this trip commenced. This trip has moulded into something completely different than I first thought it would be since then. And things I used to think about everyday no longer concern me; I have a different perception of those things now. I am really enjoying the unplanned path and where it has lead me thus far :) Can't wait to see what happens next.

p.s. Here are some pictures that were taken during training for my company. To give you an idea of what I do everyday. The girl next to me in the goofy picture was my trainee, Lorelle. The mermaid girl was my make-up artist when I first started, Lena.

Brisbane Update :)

Life here in BrisVegas continues to go well. I wanted to post what else I have been up to here other than working.

There is a lovely park with a ton of different rose bushes just a short walk from my hostel. On the weekends the crowd from the hostel usually finds their way down to the park for beers and soccer. But one particular sunny day my friends Peter, Mic and I went and hoped on the City Cat Ferry, which transports people around Brisbane via the Brisbane River which cuts the city in two. So the three of us had a fun day in the sun on the ferry and stopping to smell the roses!
















I went to the mountains outside the city for work for a week. This was awesome as the views were spectacular and I was in a rain forest! Here are some pics of the views from where I worked!




















My birthday has come and gone as they tend to do and I am officially a quarter century! For my birthday I took myself to see the Queensland Orchestra play what they called "The Pink Floyd Experience"! It was definitely cool. There was a band in front of the orchestra, complete with singers. It was amazing hearing the orchestra play everything.