Week 11

After Sydney we were off up to Tropical North Queensland to the beach town Cairns.  We stayed in Cairns from Tuesday till Friday afternoon. Tuesday was spent walking around the town, and spending some time in the sun, enjoying the warm weather.  

Wednesday we got up early to cross some things off the bucket list!

First one…. Bungee Jumping!

I tried to convince my mom, but didn't have much luck… She agreed to go scuba diving with me so I couldn't give her too much trouble about not wanting to jump off a bridge with me.   We got to AJ Hackett, the only bungee jumping station in Australia... I was excited but also incredibly nervous.  Of course I signed up early so I was the first jumper of the day…. why do I do this to myself, I muttered as I climbed higher and higher up each flight of stairs but I knew I would regret it if I turned back.  I know I look confident in that video, but every single fibre in my body was screaming at me to stop as I jumped.  What a rush! 

I had so much fun! I can't wait to do it again in New Zealand!

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Though I was pretty fried from all the adrenaline running through me from the jump, my mom wanted to explore the rain forest! We took the Skyrail up above the rainforest into a little town called Kuranda! 

We took a little walk through the rainforest, which was about as amazing as it sounds. Just incredible

Instead of taking the sky rail back down to town, some psycho suggested it would be good to take the tourist train. My mom was all for it, I was thinking it was going to be quick and painless. I thought wrong.  The train was two hours… meandering around the forest and stopping at various points so people could take pictures.  My phone died within the first five minutes, therefore my patience for this train was gone within the first ten.  God bless my mother for putting up with me when I'm cranky as.

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On Thursday Vanessa and I decided to cross one more thing off our bucket lists!

SCUBA DIVING THE GREAT BARRIER REEF.

The pictures do not do the reef justice what so ever, it was the most incredible thing I've ever experienced.  My mom nervous about actually getting down on the ocean floor and scuba diving, I was nervous that I was going to be sea sick on the boat.  ( I learned that I get sea-sick the hard way, when I planned a deep sea fishing trip in York maine a few years back… nothing worse)  The wind was at 20Knots… which means it was fairly choppy but not too bad.  I along with about 20 other passengers on the boat felt sick on the way out.  I was able to keep my breakfast down, others were not so lucky.  You could not pay me enough to be a crew member on one of those vessels, cleaning up vom on the daily.  Yuck. On a lighter note: Once we we hit the water it was smooth sailing! 

Though she was terrified, she never took that smile off her face! 

Get ready for some pictures of the Reef

Unfortunately we couldn't take the GoPro down for our Intro dive, they stopped letting people take them down for the intro dives because they are just focused on taking pictures of everything, not listening to the dive instructor.  Fortunately the reef was so close to the surface that we could snorkel with our camera and capture much of the same marine life.

Me: "hey mom lets try to dive down deeper and take a picture"

Vanessa: " okay lets do it!"

Me: " Uh.. what are you doing?"

Vanessa: " help! I don't know how to dive down! why am I upsidown?"

We Found NEMO!

That wraps up the ultimate trip to Cairns!

What an incredible experience!

Still catching up on Blogs so there will be another posted later this week!

xoxo-

-A

Week 10.5

Everything has been crazy busy for the past few week so I haven't had much time to sit down and write these blogs.  The weeks with my mom were so packed full of things each day that I didn't think it would be right to only write one piece about each of the weeks.  On the second half of her first week visiting we traveled down to Sydney to be touristy and  experience all the beautiful city had to offer.

Just to start off… a little bit more about how freaking lucky I am with timing… Our flight left the Gold Coast at around 8:30 am on Thursday morning…. CHRIS FREAKING HEMSWORTH was causally walking through the airport eaten a brownie at 4 later that day… come onnnn 

Our first day started out a little rainy but that didn't stop us from going out and getting a feel for the area we were staying in. The food was incredible in Sydney, so there will be a bunch of food pictures in this post.

We started out with a little thai for lunch :)

on our way home we ran into a little bit of a torrential downpour… so we ducked into the cutest little cafe and had some cappuccinos and shared a little dessert.

Later on that evening we met up with one of my childhood friends Charles.  We grew up in the same neighborhood and I hadn't seen him in a few years.  He is studying medicine at the university of Sydney.  Who would have ever thought I would meet up with someone I grew up with while studying across the world!  It was so nice to catch up with him!

 That night we  had some awesome Lychee Mojitos and then had a 5 course sushi meal.  Seriously Ive never eaten so much sushi in one sitting in my life…. 

So adventurous 

Friday we started our day out early, to go to sydney harbor to do the touristy stuff.   On our way to the harbor we randomly met up with the girls i live with back in the Goldie in the subway so my mom and I spent the day with the girls.

Selfie stick coming in clutch 

Later on Ramsey my mom and I split off from some of the girls and went on a booze cruise around the harbor because whats better than seeing the opera house? Seeing the opera house while drinking a cocktail on a Yacht. 

Later on we walked around the Rocks and found the cutest bar called The Argyle and had some ridiculously over sized drinks.

 

Saturday morning we went to Bondi Beach and Darling Harbor.  I completely fell in love with Bondi Beach, though it was a lot smaller than I had Imagined, the pictures don't even do it justice.  Breathtakingly beautiful.

The famous Bondi Ice Bergs

Salt water olympic pools right next to the beach :)

Gangs all here 

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Friday and Saturday nights were both huge nights for the gang. We went to Ivy on friday, a four story club with a pool on one of the floors… excessive to say the least, but ridiculously cool to see.  Saturday night we went to the Shan Gru La, a roof top bar overlooking sydney harbor.  

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Sunday my mom and I went down to Bondi Beach for a day of sunshine!

 Followed by a glass of wine and some bruchetta next to the water, which was as perfect as it sounds. 

Too bad i thought it would be a good idea to escape the line for the bus by getting on the bus on the other side of the road… Three hours later…sitting on public transport… we had a nice tour throughout Bondi Beach and all around the city.  Sorry mom! 

Our last day in Sydney was spent walking around Manly Beach.  Unfortunately it was a too chilly to lay out.  We still had an awesome day walking around the town.  

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So that wraps up the 5 days my mom and I were traveling in Sydney. Sydney you were unbelievably beautiful! See you in November!

Till next time

xoxo-

-A