Lauryns Travels!

Just got back into Melbourne from spending the last 15 days in Fiji (08/03/2009-23/03/2009). It was amazing! So chill, relaxing, and fun. I can't believe how quick it went. I definitely recommend people to go there, but try and go to villages and such, instead of just staying in the huge resorts. You won't experience the real culture of it doing that.

Sunday 08/03/2009: Arrived at Melbourne Airport around 5, went to dinner at the Hilton, and said bye to my parentals and my little sister before going into customs and duty free, buying a stash of grog, and sinking a few champers before take off at 1am Monday morning.

Monday 09/03/2009: Barely slept on the plane, some guy in front kept farting! We arrived to Junior (Biancas gay cousin) and caught a cab to Aunty Sarahs house, where we were greeted with roti and curries for breakfast, got changed into shorts (as we were wearing trackies in 35 degree heat), went for a walk and got stalked by a bunch of Fijians, and then went to the Northern Hotel, which had the biggest effing pool on Earth. That arvo we slept lots, then got pretty to go to Sarahs again for dinner, where we got to try Taki, which are shots of beer. Weirdest thing ever, but still pretty fun

Tuesday 10/03/2009: Spent the day lying by the pool with a ruski studying Law for Uni. Haha. Oh man, it was fun. Had some weird Indian boy in the pool watch us for about an hour and just laugh at everything we did, which included trying to catch a dragonfly with our bare hands. That night went to Sarahs again, and hung out, had real good dinner, and went for a walk to go get a charger. The night time is so different there. Groups of people just walk around at night, and there are millions of dogs roaming the neighbourhoods. Its scary.

Wednesday 11/03/2009: Caught a mini bus to Suva to catch the overnight boat to Savu Savu. On the way we stopped at Pacific Harbour, saw Outrigger and the isle where the last Fijian Canibal lived, which I all saw last time I was there. We caught the Suilivan to Savusavu overnight. We tried to run away from Biancas uncle David by telling him the boat was the next day, and when Jun, Pie, Kenneth and Kathy were upstairs, he walked onto the boat. No one believed us that he had followed us until they came down to the deck and saw him! It was so funny.

Thursday 12/03/2009: Arrived on Savusavu, and went to Tillys house to have showers and drive to Kasavu, along the north coast. Savusavu was 35 degrees and so hot, but when we got to Kasavu it stormed. You had to walk a kilometre in mud to get to the house we stayed at! Such an experience! Met all the family, and got shown our rooms. Then we went down the beach and sat in a rock pool thats incredibly hot. The house was really cute, and we were shocked to see that night over 30 people show up to drink Kava under the cori iron sheds. All the people who came brought their children and we ended up sitting inside with them most nights playing with them and watching cartoons and movies.

Friday 13/03/2009: We went and sat in the pools again, and when we got home we saw two pigs hanging from the trees ready for the next days festivities. It was horrible! I felt so bad for the poor things, and pretty much spent the rest of the trip from there as a vegetarian after seeing that. That night Aunty Alice and Charlie had a fight, so Charlie put "who the fuck is alice?" on the player really loud to annoy her. It was hilarious.

Saturday 14/03/2009: Aunty Alices birthday. All morning we set up the birthday. Joseph, Bianca and I were in charge of blowing up hundreds of balloons and tying them all together, whilst the Fijian women wove leaves around all the posts and others slaved away in the kitchen cooking enough food for an army. They sang the most beautiful hymns for her, and the afternoon was spent drinking Kava and racing around with about 50 little kids. It was so much fun!

Sunday 15/03/2009: William begged us to go to the beach alllll week so we went down the beach with him, sat in the rock pools and he climbed all the trees. It was so funny. He was such a cute kid.

Monday 16/03/2009: We attended Kasavu Primary today. The first class sang "If I was a Fish" to us, the second sang "Naughty Monkeys" and the third class we spoke to about Australian school systems. They were all so shy, but they all seemed really enthused to hear about how our schools ran differently, and what we were now doing with our lives, uni and traveling and such. It was really different to go into a school that was only 3 buildings, on the beach, with no gyms or labs or any of the priveledges we had at Toorak. That night we came home with all the boys and watched Airbud! It was the cutest movie ever! All the little boys loved it.

Tuesday 17/03/2009: We went out on Uncles boat to an island made of coral and had a picnic. Junior had to tear apart the trees leaves to make the ground soft for us to sit on, we lit a fire and then went swimming and snorkelling. Junior found a sea cucumber and was throwing it around pretending it was a penis. We then found heaps of shells to bring back home. After being there for a few hours, it started to rain and we had no way of getting home as the Uncles had taken the boat out to fish, so everyone hopped back in the water to keep warm!

Wednesday 18/03/2009: This was our last night Kasavu. We just hung out at home, and Sarah made us a roast. We watched TV and hung out with William, but he fell asleep before we had a chance to say goodbye!

Thursday 19/03/2009: Woke up at 6am to drive in the back of a ute, with all the bags and a bunch of other people back to Tillys house, and to catch the boat back to Suva. On the way to Savusavu we visited the Vunassi grave site, and walked through mud for 15 km. It sucked!

Friday 20/03/2009: Arrived in Suva and caught the bus to Nadi town where we caught a boat across to Castaway. We arrived at Castaway to a storm, and a heap of relatives ready to take care of us and pamper us! It was so cute. We spent that whole arvo in the pool, drinking cocktails, then finally had the first hot shower for weeks and wore makeup! :D It was amazing. Went to dinner, and came back to crash in our Bure which was beautiful.

Saturday 21/03/2009: Spent all day getting free rides on the kayaks and banana boats! We went way to fast on the banana boats and almost ended up airborne, before going down to the massage temples and all getting the most relaxing massages of life! That night we went to dinner with Stephen and Mere, who are the two managers of Castaway, and are both relatives of Kathy. Everyone on the other tables watched us, awkward assss. That night Kathy went to drink Kava, and Bianca and I decided we had to swim at 12! So we raced down to the pool, hid from the staff behind the bar, and then quickly jumped in and out before racing back to our bure. Biggest adreneline rush ever. Haha.

Sunday 22/03/2009: Caught the boat back to Nadi where we then went and stayed at TokaToka resort, which was mega cute, with heaps of waterslides and bridges over the pool to jump from. Went out for dinner with Stacey and Breanna (two americans we met), Junior and Mere to a Chinese restaurant which had the biggest soup bowls youve ever seen, and amazing food. Then came home to Toka and spent all night in the pool drinking cocktails (Blue Marlin!)

Monday 23/03/2009: Got up at 6, went to the airport and discovered we were flying home with the Fiji Sevens Rugby team! They were the mintest boys on Earth, and real cute, waving at us whenever we bumped into them again. Flew United to Sydney, and the flight was amazing, best service and smoothest ride ever. Then onto Melbourne where I walked out of the doors to my mother almost in tears! I missed my family so much.

So from 20-22/02/2009 I went to Tasmania with the family + bee.
No lie, I thought it was going to be the shittest weekend of life. But for the first time ever, proved wrong.
It’s a pretty mad place, seedy, but mad. We went to Maccas 300th, and I don't think until recently I've realised how much I've appreciated having someone like her in my life. She's not only my friend, and role model, but she plays big sister to Anais and I like crazy. Dad and I talked about the time we had had with her, and I thought of the first time I met her. Under 14s, Friday night, grading for VC. She was my mentor and came down to watch a game, Beb, my coach, abused the shit out of me before we'd even started. She then proceeded to tell us a crock of shit to do on court, Macca immediately grabbed the starters, walked us out on court away from Beb, and said "I don’t give a fuck what she just said, you're doing this..." and off she went with her own game plan. From that very second, although being 12 and finding it so amusing that she someone put Beb in her place, I knew that Macca was going to be the change in my level of commitment to that sport. She made me live and breathe it, to the point I was training 3 or 4 times a day, and missing chunks of school for camps. I don't regret a second of it. She's been a total inspiration to me.
It was then that dad said of the moment she had influenced him most, being the night Australia played in the world cup, with Timmy Cahill scoring the goals. Dad was in Germany, and we watched it from home. As the siren went, dad received a msg from Macca saying how happy she was that it was dads boy that scored the goal. He said that even though she should have been preparing for Olympic camps and so on, there she was at 4am, and thought enough of him and knew how close soccer was to his heart, enough to msg him to let him know she'd seen it all.
Its kind of heart breaking to see Macca end, even if it was on a good note. She brought more to the sport than anyone, and more to people like me than she knows. I think most I'll miss coming into work in the arvo to find she hadn't moved from my dads’ office since the morning, with them both sharing a huge amount of coffees, and arguing about the weekend’s games, or her chances of Opals. And second to that I'll miss coming into work and sitting around chatting to her about all the boys. Espesh our deal that if she didn’t find a hubby by 30 she had to be a lesbian. We had some of the best laughs, and I don’t think I'll ever find someone I respect more than her. I'm glad that after sacrificing everything for the game, she has now given it away to pursue the rest of her life.
I can't wait to go to South Africa with her next year.

Back to Tas: It’s a real nice place, but you certainly feel like you’re not in Aus anymore. I think its history and scenery makes it more appealing, than the built cities themselves, but that’s the case for most areas I’ve traveled to.

We went to Mt Wellington, which was breathtaking, and 13 degrees colder up there! It was such a beautiful area, with so much to see.

At Mount Wellington:
Lauryn: Okay Bee tell us where we are
Bianka: Okay we're at... Mount... Where are we again? Mount Williams?

At Port Arthur:
Lauryn: Okay Bee, cameras on, where are we?
Bee: Okay we're at Port Macquarie

Then we traveled down to Port Arthur. The site itself is beautiful, but I couldn't help but feel horrible whenever setting foot near Broad Arrow. I'll admit, and we all know, that I'm a murder-crime junkie, being the reason I'm doing law at uni. But something about Port Arthur was different, and in the last two weeks, I've completely changed my mind on the whole scenario. I bought a book by Joe Vialls, which if anyone wants a copy of, ask. It’s called Deadly Deception at Port Arthur, and proves that Martin Bryant was a patsy in the shootings, and it was 110% impossible for him to commit such a crime. This has ruined my brain in the last two weeks, questioning every moral belief I have, and every faith I have in my own country. A set up, a scam, and a conspiracy took place 28/04/1996 as to change the gun laws and to undermine national security in Australia, and it absolutely appalls me. Please, if you have anything to ask about what I’m raving on about, please do not hesitate. I want everyone to know Martin Bryant was innocent, and 100 incapable of committing such.