Scuba Diving

I recently joined an Adventure group on the Gold Coast to meet new people and do fun adventure stuff. My first adventure was scuba diving. Something I always wanted to do. It was good fun, but not sure the Gold Coast Broadwater compares to the Blue Hole. Maybe I might try next time up the Great Barrier Reef!

Flash Mob Performance

I am wearing pink on the right.

As part of the Surfers Paradise Festival the Common People Dance Project were doing a Flash Mob performance and were looking for participants. Sara and I decided to join the bandwagon and spent the next three weeks learning the performance. We finally performed it in Surfers Paradise on Saturday and even made it in the Gold Coast Bulletin. Was heaps of fun and sad its now over.

I am wearing pink on the right.

RSPCA Million Paws Walk

The Annual RSPCA Millions Paws Walk was today and actually having a dog this year I decided to take Toffee along. Toffee dressed up for the occassion and off we went.

The Million Paws Walk is the biggest fundraiser the RSPCA has. It costs $12.00 to enter and you can do the 1.5 or 3km walk. Toffee's little legs managed to walk it around the full course and we had so much fun with all the other puppies!

Toffee wasn't the only one that dressed up though!

That guy in the white shirt, third from the left, Lincoln Lewis aka Geoff from Home and Away

All pooped after our walk, what a great day!

Mothers Day Classic

Earlier in the year I decided to set a few goals for myself and one of them was the 8km fun run in the Mother's Day Classic.

I had been running about 5km's on average on the treadmill and only managed to do two 8km runs, but I was still hoping to run in a relatively good time.

A week before the run, I got the Chicken Pox so I couldn't do any more preparation for the run, so fingers crossed.

On the day, I was feeling less itchy and less spotty and was really looking forward to the run and doing it in a good time.

The run went relatively well, luckily I ended up running with another girl who ran at the same pace as me, because otherwise I don't think I would have made it. Being sick and not training and also with my dodgy ankle was making my life hell.

I did however manage to finish the run and was pleasantly surprised that I managed to do it in under 1 hour which was my goal.

I don't think I will do another 8km run as my ankle was just not coming to the party and due to my ice skating injury doesn't work the same any more. I have however signed up for a more manageable 5km run in July which I am hoping to do in around 30 - 35 minutes.

I really want to thank everyone below and was stoked to have raised $140.00 to help breast cancer research. Thanks heaps guys xoxo

Casey Macfarlane (Sun 7th Mar 2010 13:01)	I love your strict training diet - beer & gelati! Good luck, my friend!	$20.00
Justine Turner (Mon 8th Mar 2010 06:24)	Go you! I'm a hater of cancer so in support of all things anti! tehehe.... And because you're a star for running! Luck lil miss xx	$10.00
Louisa Strange (Tue 9th Mar 2010 12:20)		$15.00
Rachel and Cam Jordan (Wed 24th Mar 2010 23:04)	Go Toni!! This is for all those out there who have or maybe effect with breast cancer.	$15.00
Zac Rutledge (Mon 3rd May 2010 05:38)		$10.00
Emma Robinson (Mon 3rd May 2010 20:49)	Great cause Toni, good luck on the run!!	$15.00
Hayley & Niki Laban (Wed 5th May 2010 06:44)	Go You Good Thing! Hope those pox don't slow you down chicky xx	$10.00
Donna Jobson (Mon 10th May 2010 08:36)	You made it.Wow. 40km next lets see how u handle that. Mum	$20.00
Donna Roycroft (Sun 16th May 2010 08:51)	Well done!	$10.00
CAITLIN ALLEN (Tue 25th May 2010 01:26)	HAVE FUN ON THE RUN. :)	$15.00

Raised so far: $140.00

Toni's 27

Few pictures from my 27th birthday - dancing in Surfers Paradise.

There isn't that many because most of them were blurry.

Thanks to everyone for their text and messages!

Toni xoxo

Last days in New Zealand

Sunday 3 April 2010

After my exhilirating Bungy jump I said goodbye to Jason and Juliet again not knowing when I would see them again and headed back to the batch to have a shower before heading out of town. Before leaving Taupo though we went for a quick walk to view Huka Falls.

After our tourist stop we headed on to Auckland to stay with Daniel for the night before I flew out the next day back to Aussie.

Daniel was staying house sitting (they obviously didn't know Daniel that well! :)) in an oh so fancy house so Zac and I rocked up

with booze on hand and as it so happens Pam was around so the four of us sat around in the spa for hours, and hours and hours, drinking, reimising about the old times and generally having a great catch up.

There were a few minor spa incidents but nothing that couldn't be handled by four drunk people, plastic cups and the first aid kit!!

The camera unfotuantely didn't come out, but maybe thats not such a bad thing ....

It did make me miss my life back in New Zealand though and my old friends, but I look forward to the next one - maybe you could all come over here!

New Zealand - Part 4 - Taupo Bungy

Sunday 3 April 2010

After saying goodbye to Debra, Jason, Juliet, Zac and I headed to Taupo Bungy!

I had always wanted to do a Bungy Jump, but with my leg never thought I could, I decided to give it a try anyway. As Jason didn't want to do it and Juliet having already done one, me and Zac paid up and waited our turn in line.

As the line got shorter the more nervous I got, OMG what am I doing, ok so I jumped out of a plane - well helicopter actually - I can do this. But the thing with skydiving is that you don't have to push yourself your instructor does.

As I go up there, I was feeling even more nervous, as I got closer to the edge and looked down I thought WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING. One count down goes by with a little nudge from the instructor, before I grab onto the rail, ok, ok I can do this, give me a minute. She tells me its only going to get harder the longer I stand there, but when you are looking down at a little elastic band that is supposedly going to hold your weight and not let you die, the harder it is to convince yourself to jump off the edge.

After a couple of minutes I told myself to stop being so stupid and I couldn't back out, what would my friends say - Wussss - so I sucked it up, did the countdown, she pushed me a little harder this time and wwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - well if you watch the video you know that is not what I said - but it was fantastic, great, excellent and would totally recommend it!!

The videos I have below - one is from the pack I brought and the other one is kindly taken by Jason and Juliet.

This movie is me at the top, getting ready to jump

This is me jumping - from spectators view

This is Zac jumping - not quite taking as long as I did!

Trip to New Zealand - Part 3 - Taupo

Friday 2 April 2010 (Good Friday)

Zac picked me up on Friday morning and after a quick stop to the chemist and servo we were on our way to Taupo. I used to drive the Hamilton Taupo Road all the time when I lived in Taupo and its always a nice scenic drive.

View of Lake and mountains from our batch
Upon getting to Taupo we meet up with Debra, who had come from Tauranga and went to explore our abode for the next couple of days. The batch we hired was really nice and if you are going to Taupo let me know and will give you the details. It was a lockwood home but was toasty warm, especially with the fire and had plenty of space. The only thing wrong with it was I am sure there are GHOSTS, there were a lot of strange noises ... although more "less believing" people put it down to the fact that because it was a lockwood home there was a lot of wood creaks especially when it heated up with the fire.

As we got there early on Friday Debra, Zac and myself headed into town to have some lunch and then stopped by the information centre to find out what sort of fun things we could do in Taupo. We decided to head out to Craters of the Moon - Craters of the Moon Thermal Area is a region with geothermal activity north of Taupo, New Zealand. It has numerous steam vents, constantly shifting, collapsing and reforming giving the whole area desolate appearance. All the craters at The Craters of the Moon are the result of hydrothermal eruptions. The pressure of the steam beneath the surface exceeds the pressure exerted by the weight of the overlying ground. This results in an explosion. A mixture of hot water, steam, hot mud and pumice is ejected into the air. Material may be blown up to 100 m, leaving behind holes or craters as deep as 20 m. Hydrothermal eruptions occur about once a year.

Maybe if I ever come back to New Zealand I thought I might start a business at the craters called "White Woman Cooking Food in a Hole" where I will cook delicious meals in the craters and play

relaxing mud bubble sounds ...

After Craters we headed into town to get some dinner, little did we know that the supermarkets would be closed for Good Friday, damm it, so we headed to a servo and stocked up on (expensive!) snacks and by chance found a butcher and vegie shop open where we got some sausages and salad for dinner.

When we arrived back to the batch Hayley and Sarah were there. The rest of the day was spent drinking in the sun, playing fun drinking games and then we headed into Taupo town for a bit of dancing

Drinking Games

On the right we have the fish game. Where everyone makes their own fish and then blows it across the table.

On the left we have the coin drinking game where people have various amounts of coins between their legs and have to walk so far and put them into a cup. You can see that Sarah and Zac both have different, but effective techniques. Below is Hayleys!

Saturday 3 April 2010 (Easter Saturday)

Today we all had a leisurely lie in and then went into Taupo town for a bit of a wander. Sarah and Hayley were leaving today and it was a sad goodbye because I am not sure when I will see them again.

That afternoon we decided to head to the prawn farm and try our hand at prawn fishing. Full of hope we grabbed our rods and bait and sought out a "good spot". Rods baited and in the water, we waited, and waited, and waited and then decided to move and waited, and waited, and waited and then moved again and waited and waited and waited, and then ... I think you get my drift.

Apparently prawn fishing isn't that easy, after an eternity I finally caught one, yah! I can tell you prawn fishing is quite an art. After a while we decided we couldn't be bothered anymore and went on a tour. Whilst we were on our tour, Zac caught a big prawn and someone gave him a few so at least we had a few to take home and taste.

Me feeding baby Prawns

That afternoon Jason and Juliet turned up to spend the night so as we wanted to go to some hot pools whilst we were in Taupo we thought we might try the free ones. When we went to the information centre we were given a free map that showed a section of the Taupo River that had hot water so we thought we would try it out. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there to find that the river was not only warm but actually quite hot and it made for a relaxing afternoon soak.

We spent the rest of the evening playing this really fun board game, which I forgot the name of now, but will have to get, eating the prawns (they weren't that nice, as they were freshwater they had quite a different taste) and eating birthday cake as it was close to my birthday. Thanks Zac for making a yummy cake, love the decorations!

Sunday 3 April 2010 (Easter Sunday)

That morning I said my goodbyes to Debra, I wasn't sure when I would see her again and wished her well on her journey to Wellington to start her new job!

Trip to New Zealand - Part 2 - Hamilton

HAMILTON

30 March - 2 April 2010

On Tuesday, instead of catching a busy at 7.30am to Hamilton which is only 1 hour away, I was fortunate to be able to hitch a ride with Nicky's mum as she was heading through Tauranga from Gisborne on her way to Hamilton to see her new grandson.

We got to Hamilton and I spent the time until 5pm looking through Centre Place and Downtown Plaza, which I can tell you have very much gone down hill since I left. At 5pm Kimmy finished worked and I headed back to her house for the reunion with Katie my beloved kitty. Once she was feed and had a run around she was ready to be embraced in my arms. Me and Kim were talking and decided that Kim and Quentin have probably had Katie now longer than I had her!

On Wednesday I had a sleep in and then put my jeans on, yes Hamilton was a bit cooler than I was used to so after 5 months in storage they came out. I unfortunately missed the bus into town so had to walk from Fairview Downs into the city. It wasn't that bad and was a nice piece of exercise to combat all the food I had been eating. I meet up with some old work mates for lunch, wherein I got my long awaited potato and then spent the following two hours catching up with the goss from my old firm.

That night I wasn't feeling so well, ugggg my tummy said, I told my brain that it was maybe just some wind and went to sleep.

When I work up feeling as good as I did in Egypt, I decided that maybe my long awaiting potato gave me a bit more that satisfaction of my potato cravings - a touch of food poisoning maybe because all I ate was toast, potato, bag of potato chips and $1.00 worth of lollies before I started felling sick (no not all in one go throughout about 6 hours).

I did manage however to hall my arse out of bed and head to Chartwell to meet up with Delia for a light lunch and catch up on the goings on in her world. The night I still wasn't feeling flash but that didn't stop me going over to Jason and Juliets. Jason and Juliet built their new house, gosh must be at least three years ago, and I still hadn't seen it. So after the meet and greets of all my Gisborne friends I hadn't seen in ages and Alies baby, Hayden which I hadn't meet yet. I had a grand tour of the house.

I still managed to stuff myself silly on dinner and Jason and Juliet's fabulous homemade creme egg ice cream - YUM! I must get that recipe. The rest of the night was spent playing board games, I especially liked Ticket to Ride which I saw in my local games store the other day and I might be tempted to purchase.

On Friday morning I got up early and packed up all my gears before heading to Taupo for the weekend.

Trip to New Zealand - Part 1 - Tauranga

TAURANGA
27 March - 30 March 2010


The time had finally come for my long awaited trip to New Zealand. I hadn't been to New Zealand for over two years and was very excited. I arrived at Auckland airport at 1am - after having to wait an extra 20 minutes for late (foreign) passengers - leave without them I say! I can say that because I haven't been late for a flight ... yet! The wonderful Debra picked me up and we drove back to Tauranga to have some sleep before the wedding at 2pm that day. All dressed up in our glad rags we headed off to Kauri Grove for Hayley and Niki's wedding. The weather was perfect, the garden beautiful and the Bride amazing. The ceremony was lovely and I pocketed away a few ideas for WHEN I have my own wedding. After the ceremony it was back to Debra's for a few drinks and dress adjustments and then off to the reception at the Tauranga Rowing Club. The rest of the night was spent drinking and dancing on the dance floor including a conga line, macarina and the limbo.

Hayley and Niki it was a fantastic wedding and I had heaps of fun, well worth the trip over the ditch to come. Hope you have a fabulous honeymoon and look forward to seeing the professional photos. xoxox

Sunday we headed to Bayfair to do some shopping before heading over to Sarah's leaving bbq and leftover wedding food. The rest of my trip in Tauranga was spent catching up with old friends and eating lots of food.

Good Vibrations 2010

I saw various ad's for the Good Vibrations Festival all over the Gold Coast and as there were a few bands I liked the sound of I decided to buy a ticket and have my music festival virginity taken away.

As the weeks crept closer I went onto the Good Vibrations site and had a look at all the artists. I am useless when it comes to matching songs and singers so I thought that I would youtube all the artists and listen to a couple of their songs. I got more and more excited as I kept on going cause I actually knew a lot of them.

- Killers

- Basement Jaxx

- Gossip

- Busta Rhymes

- Salt-n-Pepa

Gold coast page - Good Vibrations Festival

The day finally came around and what a fantastic day for it. The weather was good but a little overcast so wasn't so hot.

After a few drinks at a friends house we walked around finding a taxi to take us there. Once we mish mashed ourselves inside the venue and after purchasing drinks tickets we were ready. We ping ponged from a lot of the various music and drink tents listening to the artists that took our fancy. There was one big downpour during the night, fortunately it was when I decided to go to the toilet and as it was a quick shower I didn't get wet.

Killers were the big act of the night and they didn't disappoint.

Unfortunately, because I am an idiot (this has happened before) I brought my fully charged camera to the festival but I didn't bring my memory stick so I only took a few photos.

I had a good time at the festival but at $145.00 probably won't be going to another one any time soon.

Toni

Sara's 24th Birthday

Its was Sara's birthday this week so we decided to go out into Surfers Paradise to celebrate.

The night started with free drinks at Bedroom nightclub. The Bedroom nightclub is where Ms Coutts-ma-loots works. For your birthday you can bring at least 10 friends into the nightclub with free entry and free drinks from 8-10 and the birthday person gets free fishbowls from 8-12! How good is that?! Making the most of the free drinks

So thats what we did. The Bedroom isn't really for me and I was the oldest one there but was good to hang out with the sisters and see what I am not missing by not going to this club on a Saturday night!

Oh how we all look alike!