Blue Mountain

Hey guys, I'm absolutely exhausted, but I wanted to write a quick email telling you all about my exciting weekend. We took the train up to the Blue Mountains Friday morning and then we backpacked around there for a while. Mom, you'll be happy to hear that we didn't stray far from town, just because the separate smaller hikes closer had much cooler stuff to see. Also the girl I was with had been backpacking up there before so she knew the good stuff to see and the best trails. We got to see some really cool waterfalls and interesting rock formations. Then it started to rain a little so we decided to camp near town just in case it rained a lot, but luckily it didn't and it wasn't even that cold. In the morning we met up with the rest of the group at the train station. We went abseiling all day (repelling). It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!!

To see abseiler Kel, Click here.

You guys would be really proud of me, I was so brave :) I was almost always one of the first ones to try the next biggest ! cliff, so I could go the most times. We started off with 3 meters just for practice and then progressively made it to 200 feet!! That one was insane, but I loved it. Then we found out we could go face first. A lot of people didn't do that, but I really wanted to try it. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done, because literally you are on the edge of a cliff and you have to have your feet on the edge until they are even with the rest of your body and you are relying completely on the equipment and the person belaying (sp?) you. I was really nervous and I almost chickened out, but I'm so glad I did it. You are literally going down a rope with your face forward. It was really safe, so don't worry Mom. The view was incredible and don't worry I have a ton of pictures of me doing it. It was also a good activity for our group to get closer, everyone really had to rely on each other for moral support when it got scary. After that we all came back and went into town and go! t dinner. We were pretty exhausted so we made it an early night. This morning we woke up and went into town to grab breakfast. We went bushwalking all day (hiking). We went through "the Grand Canyon" -- a different one in case you didn't know :) It was really neat because in the deepest part it was a lot like a rainforest. I thought the hike would be really easy, but we did a lot of uphill hiking, especially toward the end. By the end, I was booking it up the hill with one of my friends who didn't want to stop either, because I was ready to be done, but the view was amazing. Once again, I took a lot of pictures, and I'm in them, by special request :) When we were done with the bushwalking we all ran back to catch an early train. I slept most of the way back and then got dinner. Now I'm going to do some laundry and get to bed early. We had a meeting about Fiji and our group is almost doubled, which is good I guess, but I'm hoping that people will sort of spread out to d! o their own thing. Well, I guess that's about it for me. I'm going to call the house tomorrow around 12:30 pm here, so around 10-11 pm for you guys. I love you and I miss everyone -- less than three weeks!!

love, me

Blue Mountain Virtual Reality Tour