sooo today we decided to have an early thanksgiving dinner, partly because a couple of our american buddies weren't gonna make it home in time for thanksgiving, partly because i didn't wanna study for finals, and mostly just cuz we can.  we couldn't get a whole turkey from the market, which realistically didn't even matter cuz the 5 of us would have absolutely no chance in taking down an entire bird ourselves.  so instead we got these two giant turkey drumsticks.  if you've ever been to disneyland and had their giant fried turkey legs...ours were bigger.  and i'm gonna go out on a limb and say they were way better.  we brined them over night (didn't have a cooler, so i had to macguyver a 2L coke bottle and a pitcher into a briner), then threw it in the over at 180°C for about an hour 20 mins.  15 mins or so before we took um out we basted it with some soft butter and threw on a bunch of herbs, i think it was some oregano and basil.  anyways, they turned out ridiculously juicy and delish.  i got a stuffing recipe from papa char, and managed to throw somethin together.  i rendered down a bunch of bacon, threw in some diced onions, minced pork chop, and diced carrots and a granny smith apple, then threw in the bread bits.  add a bit of chicken stock, and mix it up, throw it in the oven, and you've got yourself some crip stuffin!  i think i mighta added a bit too much stock cuz it was one the mushy side, but the taste was good.  mama marian (becca) made some sweet potato casserole with a walnut/brown sugar/butter topping that was super crip too.  jill made some mean kine honey carrot thingys.  anna made a pumpkin pie from scratch that broke da mout.  smother everything in some gravy made from the drippings and chicken stock, ho brah action!!  ono kine grindz.  anyways, i'm almost pau with everything, few more finals left then i'm headed home.  so if you like something from oz let me know soon cuz i'm outties in about a week and a half (i fly out/get home nov 18 if you want specific dates).  shoots!  chout!

mean kine turkey legs

crip pumpkin pie zones

stuffing!!  buggah was ono

sweet potato casserole thingy...super sweet, i wasnt sure if i was eating dinner or dessert!

carrots+dinner rolls

da spread...no forget da booze

round 1...pau

crap, i realize it's been a while between blog posts...my bad homies.  the last couple of weeks have been craycray, i had a paper due every week for a while, then presentations and tests and more presentations and then end of semester shenanigans...yeah.  anyways, I MADE IT THROUGH THE SEMESTER CHEEE!!!  last friday we finally got around to hiking castle hill, which was pretty rough but had some sick sunsets.  then saturday we went to maggie again with jade, hiked over to radical bay and set up camp there.  cruised on the rocks, jumped off some, swam around, and got stung by a million tiny stingers.  didnt hurt too much, but got crazy itchy in a couple days.  then we struggled thru the last week of class (didn't really struggle, more like partied...i won't put details here cuz this is a family program, but if you really wanna know skype me) and made it to this past weekend!!  friday night was oktoberfest at uni club, then saturday we drove up to jourama falls, about an hour or so north of JCU.  it was super sick up there, there was a bunch of pools and waterfalls with these massive rocks you could jump off.  we hiked to the bottom of the pools, then left our bags in the shade and climbed up to the bottom of the top waterfall, thanks to some slightly sketch rock climbing and jade's tarzan/wildman-ness.  the top pool had a jump about 15 feet or so, we cruised there for a bit.  jade thought he could outswim me, so i had to SMOKE HIM and shut him up...altho he got pretty close.  too bad he doesn't know how to swim in a straight line.  anyways, we got down to the second pool, which had a jump about the same height, but slightly more sketch, since you had to clear two ledges, which stuck out about 6 feet from the top ledge.  jade was the only one ballsy enough to charge the top one.  i rushed the second ledge with glenn, and the girls climbed down to the bottom one.  the last pool and jump was RIDICULOUS.  easily the highest jump, i'd say it was a good 20 feet, maybe more.  def at least 5 feet higher than waimea rock, if that gives any reference point.  and on top of that, there was ANOTHER ledge sticking out halfway down, prolly stuck out at least 6 feet from edge of the top "ledge" which was really only wide enough to stand on.  pretty precarious.  it took me about 5 mins to finally nut up and shut up and just jump...everyone else climbed down around the ledge.  except jade who climbed higher, and then jumped over the slab.  frickin wild man.  anyways, when we finally all got down to the bottom, we had some lunch, attempted some gainers off a lower rock ledge, and failed miserably.  apparently when i have time to think about flips, i cant do it, but if i'm bodyboarding and see a ramp i'll hit backflips no probs.  go figure.  anyways thats prolly enough writing, i'll leave you guys with a sampo of some of the gopro pics i took.  most have choke waterspots, so i won't put them all up here.  check fb if you wanna check um all out, but they're honestly kinda crappy.  i might motivate myself to edit the footage we got...if i do i'll post that here too.  kden, unco out.  shoots!

bottom waterfall.  yes, we jumped off of that.  and no, its not as short as it looks.  blame the fisheye

sketch rockclimbing zones

waterfall zones!! almost as good as getting shacked

mini waterfalls zones

selfies for days

about to take the plunge...compare the size of the ppls to the size of the waterfall.

sunset from top of castle hill

glenn and his headband, so adorbs

sick little nug

sick little rock zones.  we were attempting gainers off the bottom left rock...didnt work too well.  

cheee finally got to dive the great barrier reef!!  we went on a live aboard dive boat the whole weekend this past weekend, even though i had a 3000 word paper due the following monday.  cuz #yolo right?  haha anyways, we boarded friday night and headed out on the 6 hr ride out to the reef.  the swells were pretty big, something like 2 meters at 6 sec intervals, so the ride out was a little craycray.  we woke up earlyish saturday (7ish) and went for a bunch of dives.  we did 4 day dives and one night dive, all on keeper reef.  we moved over to wheeler reef over night, where we did three more dives, starting at 530 am (ugh).  after the three quick dives, we had to head back in to get back to town.  we were supposed to dive the yongala, which is this wreck thats supposed to be the best in the world, but it was too rough so we couldnt go there.  that was kinda not legit but the GBR dives were still sick.  even tho i didnt get to see a tiger shark or napolean wrasse or giant humphead parrotfish or 200 lb uluas.  i still saw a smallish ulua, bout 15 lbs, and a big pile of pompano.  and a ton of sweetlips and other stuffs.  took a buncha shots on the gopro, most of which are blurry.  i have some vids too which are a bit better so i'll try to edit them up and put it up on youtube later.  here's some of the better gopro pics, i'll upload the rest on fb for your viewing pleasure after this.  chutes!

mad stokage

giant clam zones

fatty seastar

dead triton snail thingy...this thing was pretty huge

more giant clam zones

sweetlips!

bebeh lion fish!  so adorbs

big pile of emperors under the boat

bebeh mu!  stupid scuba was too noisy and spooked um

pile of sweetlips

feather thingy

stingray!

I FOUND NEMO

cool little nudibranch thingy

coral trout zones

bigkine sweetlips

angel fish

fugu

menpachi!!

hard to tell but the uluas swimmin around midwater in this shot

pile of pompanos

wheeler reef