Albany

For the second week of April break, my friend Kelsey and I went down to southern WA to Albany to visit my friend Rhys and his family. We had to take the bus from Perth, which took about 7 hours. Once we arrived, Rhys and another friend, Nathan (who had been there all week - also from Curtin) picked us up and we went to Rhys' house to settle in. We went to Rhys' friends house that night to hang out and were going to go to a nightclub in town but decided that the line was too long and just went back to Rhys' house to hang out for the rest of the night.
The second day, we did some touristy things such as see the Natural Bridge formed by rocks and the Gap...a huge gap between rocks. The pictures are a better explanation. That night we had an awesome BBQ for dinner and some of Rhys and Nathans friends from Curtin stopped by the house while on a road trip through SWA. We hung out with them for a bit, then they left
The next day, one of Rhys' friends' brothers took us to the TV set for a TV show that plays in Australia. I have never heard of it before and can't remember the name at the moment. The cast and crew were on holiday for the week, and Matt (who took us there) works there as set design crew. We got to see the entire set and help bring props in to be set up!! I have pictures of this, but I am not allowed to post them online, so if you want to see ask and I can email you.
Afterwards, we stopped for some lunch and went to eat on the beach. It was really windy, and there were tons of seagulls, so we ran to the car. As we left, we put all the food we didnt eat in the paper box it came in, stuck it under the car and drove away to see if the gulls would eat it. We drove approximately 15 meters one way, went around a driving circle and drove back. It took us about 30 seconds...by the time we came back the food was gone...even the box was missing!
The next day was really great weather, so we decided to go to a nice beach which the locals called the Waterfalls. On the way, Rhys decided I needed to learn how to drive. This proved very interesting because a) they drive on the opposite side of the road, b) Rhys drives a large pickup and c) its stick-shift. SOOO he pulled into a parking lot, turned the car around and I got into the drivers seat. I turned on the car (always always always remember to keep the clutch and brake in!) and Rhys put the car into gear. I stalled within seconds and had to restart! I eventually got out onto the road and drove (a very rocky) 20K or so to the beach.
The beach itself was soooo nice!! It was tucked away amongst huge boulders. We hiked through some woods and over some boulders to get to a more secluded beach. There were about 8 of in total...Kelsey and I were the only girls AND the only ones who had never done this treck before! We climbed some HUGE boulders (I thought I was going to die) over to sit on a sloping rock, then slid down to stand on a rock that was out in the water a bit. The water around this rock was at least 10 ft deep, but CRYSTAL clear and with very little current. I wish we had beaches like this at home...nothing at all compares! Anyway, after sitting there for about 30 or so minutes, we decided to go back to shore. The only way back was to dive in and swim back...so that is what we did. 2 of the boys went first, then Kels, then me. I dove in and as soon as I looked up I was like..'where's Kelsey!?'. She dove in maybe 10 seconds before me and already she was jetting ahead of everyone to get back to shore!!! (She is TINY too!). It was probably about a 3-400 meter swim back to shore, but it was very refreshing!!
The next day, Rhys had a dentist appointment so his mom decided that the three of us (me kels and nath) should go to Whaleworld..where they used to hunt, capture, and kill whales. We sat around for a bit at the house waiting for another friend, Jamee, to get to the house from Denmark, a town about 45 minutes from Albany. She got there, and Rhys got home before we left the house, so we went with him instead of his mom. It was a pretty neat exhibit...we enjoyed playing on the large ship they had at the museum. Nathan and Jamee then headed back to Perth while the three of us went to go see some natural Blowholes (which we didnt actually get to see, even after a 1.5 K or so walk down a hill...and back up again). We also saw Salmon holes, where salmon fishing and surfing are both popular.
The last day we spent in Albany was fairly relaxing. The three of us went to another tourist atrraction where they had alot of war remnants. The price was 6$ each, but I think the woman taking our money thought Kelsey was a child and let her in for free!! Quite funny because she is actually the oldest of the three of us!! (She is 21, I am 20, Rhys is 19). We saw lots of canons and Rhys got a kick out of being able to spin some around and act like he was shooting me. Typical boy.
Afterwards, we just hung around Albany for a bit and chatted with Rhys' parents, who are very interested about our lives in the US and how everything is so different from here!! It was fun telling them about some of the things that are different and things that we like to do around PA and NC.
That is all for now!!
<3 me