Travel Tip #4: Look for the diamond in the rough.

So I'm a little behind on blogging, the semester is winding down and I'm getting ready to graduate (yippee!)  I will be combining my travel tip and website favorites together today because they go hand in hand.

The other day, the Travel Channel posted a tweet to find out what are some favorite travel tips of their followers.  I got excited because I had a few up my sleeve that would hopefully gain some attention.  Much to my surprise, one of my tips go retweeted, which brings us to travel tip #4: looking for the diamond in the rough.

When traveling near or far, you may really want to see the glamorous, tourist attractions, but don't be afraid to go with the flow.  You may stumble upon a hidden gem in a small town or big city.  I continuously find exciting places and outdoor places local to me that very few people know about, and I love it.  While abroad in Australia, I found numerous hidden gems--mostly found by my professors taking us around.  This is a short and simple tip, but a very wise one none the less.  You will get more out of your traveling adventures if you go with the flow and discover something ten times more astounding.

I will leave you with one of my favorites gems from Australia, North Stradbroke Island.  Geology research is done here, and it is also thriving with their small local population and coal mines.  Very few know about this island, but not many venture there unless they have a reason.  It's a quaint island thriving in aboriginal culture along with some of their more modern day residents.  Koalas run wild and you will not find an ounce of light pollution at night.  In the later hours of the night away from public shores, by light of a small flash light you will find dolphins coming up to the shore line.

Above:  A beautiful view of North Stradbroke Island

Left:  Sunset on Straddie
















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Disasters heard around the world.

It's no surprise that when something earth shattering or tragic happens, the whole world hears about it.  When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, LA you could not go anywhere without hearing about it--which is also another place I love to explore.  Disastrous earthquakes hit Haiti--horrid flooding tore through Queensland, Australia--a revolution began in Cairo, Egypt.  Events we will most likely never forget about.

Adding to the list--we have the horribly tragic earthquakes of New Zealand.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-zealand-earthquake-christchurch

The link talks about the level of devistation that has occured.

I always find it heart breaking to hear about anything like this, but especially the Australia and New Zealand area.  I only spent a few hours in New Zealand on a lay over, but I met some very nice New Zealand Natives while on my flight and in the air port.  They remind me a lot of the friendly Australians I encountered.  Australia was such a charming place for me, and I did spend quite some time in Queensland making the flooding issues very personal to me.  Just thinking about another disaster happening in that general area of the Southern Hemisphere makes my heart ache for them.

Keep this place in your thoughts and prayers; there really are amazing things yearning to be discovered there with some friendly, welcoming people.