HIGHs and lows

When I returned from New Zealand, Ginny and I drove to Canberra from Sydney, and were playing in the Australian Open qualifier the following day. After the three hour drive from the airport, we met up with my friend/caddy and headed out to play a practice round. When we stepped up to the first tee and began to get our balls out and take notes, Mick, my caddy, pointed out all of the kangaroos right in front of us! We rushed to grab our cameras and and started taking tons of photos and videos. We were taken aback by how many kangaroos we continued to spot as we played the first few holes. We ended up having a great practice round, especially with all of our "friends" on the course. After the practice round we dropped our things off at the hotel, and Mick took us out to dinner right around the corner. We had a great dinner and I was ready to play in the qualifier the next day. I had a great solid round of golf, but had one bad hole that caused me to miss it my two shots. I took it pretty hard because I was so close, but knew that things happen for a reason and need to get focused for my next and last tournament while I'm here in Australia.

After the round, Finny and I drove back to the suburb of Sydney to my housing, host family Judy and Chris's house, where we stayed for the night. They had prepared dinner for us and we were able to relax and hang out. I feel very blessed for having such outstanding host families during my stay here in Australia. The next morning we had breakfast and I got things packed up and headed off to take Ginny to the airport. After I dropped her off, I decided to hang around Sydney and walk around and have lunch. I went down to the Harbour where I had lunch and walked around the shops for a couple hours. When I got back to the house I took some time to get organized and clean out my car. That night, everyone was out so I ate leftovers and got some reading in.

The next morning I met my caddy, Mick, to go play with him and some friends. We had a great game and I really enjoyed playing the newly designed Greg Norman course. Afterwards I stayed with him and his sister, and she made all of us a great dinner. We sat around and chatted about the differences between Australia and the US. We had a big day planned the next day. One of my hosts, Chris's favorite hobby is canyoning, which I have been wanting to do so bad. Chris said if we had some time that he would take me, so on this day Mick and I drove back to their house to meet Chris and his friend to finally go canyoning! We really had no idea what to expect, but it was AMAZING!! We had a two hour drive up to the mountains, where we parked and walked to the trails. We then walked through the "bush" for about thirty minutes and then cam to the creek. We waded through the creek, while jumping and sliding over the trees and brush. We were having and absolute blast and asked Chris is this was canyoning..he said we weren't even there yet!

When we finally made it to the rushing water, we started to get a little nervous because we had to slide down rocks and jump in small, deep pools of water and slide down some of the waterfalls. Besides the obstacles we had to go through., the views were outstanding! We were at this canyon, and there was only a small opening at the top, where huge boulders were edged together. It is really hard to describe, but if you have seen the movie 127 Hours it is similar, but a different climate. This experience came in a close second to bungee jumping. After our two hour trek we headed back to the car which was parked next to a dam. At this dam you could also jump off a cliff into a deep pool of water. Since the day was already full of adventure, we thought we would continue with the theme and decided to do it! When I got to the top, I was a little scared so I went down one level and jumped from there. The top was about forty feet and the level that I jumped from was about thirty-five feet. We were all exhausted after and headed to a place called "Pie in the Sky" that Chris said would be the best meat pie we would ever have. I had a meat, cheese, and bacon version, and for dessert I had an apple pie. I don't know if it was because we were so hungry, but the pies were so delicious and hit the spot! After our stomachs were full we headed home and watched some tv and then passed out because now we were full AND tired.

Wish me luck!