Week 10 (Part 1)

I can't believe its week 10!  I guess time flies when you are having the time of your life.  My Mom arrived this week!!!!! I have never been away from her for this long in my entire life and I've missed her so incredibly much.  She arrived early monday morning, with a serious case of jet lag… so what do we do? take a walk down to one of my favorite little coffee joints in town! The Bumble Cafe :)

My Best friend, My other half

My insanely beautiful Mother.

within the first hour, we laughed, we cried, we laughed so hard we cried.

Some things never change.

The Dynamic Duo Back in Action!

Vanessa and Alison Take Australia!

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Mekila and her mother took us out on our first adventure to Lamington National Park!  What a day! From Alpaca Farms to Tree top views to Kangaroos and King Parrots! 

And no, we didn't get spit on.. thankfully

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Time for a tree top walk!

So proud of her for getting up to the top with me, even though it was pretty sketchy.

The view was worth the climb.

Had to take some selfies at the top of course.

 Little guy was posing for all the pictures! What a cutie!

Its all fun and games until the bird tries to land on your head…. 

so done with the bird feeding after that one.

~

 Look who jumped in from of our car on the way home! He clearly wanted to welcome my mom to Australia! 

Coming soon.

Week 10 part TWO

Vanessa and Ali take

 SYDNEY

till then

xoxo-

-A

Week 9

I was so terrible with posting that I've honestly forgotten what I've done in week 9. I had a good amount of school work to catch up with so I spent most of the week working on mid terms.

Course work means Coffee.. and lots of it!

Fun Fact: Not a single starbucks in Australia has turned a profit since opening so they are all slowly closing.

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The only other thing that is worth writing about this week was the fact that I SWAM WITH WILD DOLPHINS. Yep.  Went out for a early morning surf with some of my surf buddies and came across a pod of 10 dolphins jumping around and playing in the waves! We tried to get some pictures with them but it didn't work out and we ended up snapping some pictures of us with my go-pro instead.

 Love these girls: Helene, Anna, and Stephanie <3

I really do live in Paradise!

Feeling so blessed!

Till next week,

xoxo-

-A

Week 8!

I have been incredibly busy this past week, doing papers and course work for midterms.  Yes, I actually do have school work to do here… on occasion.  So thats the reason for this super late post!

This weekend I went camping! Yep you heard that right, I slept in a tent in the wilderness! well, not quite the wilderness, we set up camp just behind some dunes on North Noosa beach!  As many of you know I am not really the outdoorsy type, and was a little reluctant when I heard there would be no bathrooms or showers, but it turns out that camping on the beach is 10x better than camping in the woods.  Mekila, her husband Nick, set this entire weekend up for me, I can't thank them enough for everything they have done for me since I've moved to Australia! They have been a godsend since I've been here!  We started our trip bright and early on Friday morning at 6:30 and packed up the trucks, along with their couple friends and that couples kids, and we were headed up north!






There were lots of interesting places to see along the 2 1/2 hour drive up the coast.  The thing that still gives me a good laugh is the names of the towns, seriously they sound like fictional places.. imagine introducing yourself like Hey Im Ali I'm from Wagga Wagga… I kid you not there is an actual town in New south wales named Wagga Wagga. Cant make this stuff up.









Once we got to the beach we had to do some 4 wheel driving on the beach to get to our camp site.  I was pumped about it because I love off roading!  We did some major off roading on Saturday, though unfortunately the trail was incredibly rough and Mekila was feeling sick from it :( Thankfully enough when we got to the paved road she started feeling better.

As you can see, we were just off the beach! Such a prime location.  There was zero cell reception, which I was kind of freaked out about, but in a way it was really nice to not be glued to my phone every second like I normally am.  I got some sunshine, finished my book, played with the kids and just enjoyed everyones company without any distractions.

 Nick is pretty handy, and installed a grill right into the back of his truck.  Pretty incredible, Ive never seen anything like it in my life! We had every meal on the grill and I was loving it! Had some hamburgers the Aussie way… which was close to impossible to eat.. seriously the amount of stuff they load onto their burgers is a bit excessive haaha.  I also tried something called a Jaffrey, which is basically a home-made hot pocket…. lets just say.. if I could eat one of those things every day, I would.

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Nothing  better than a bonfire on the beach.

~

On Saturday we went to Rainbow beach! 

At first it didn't look like much.. When people say Rainbow beach you think the sand is just all multi colored all along the water. Not the case. The multi colored sand was all up in the cliffs and you needed to climb up a little ways to get to the good stuff. Honestly that was half the fun :)

 Racing up the sand dunes.

Black sand was probably my favorite, I've never seen anything like it!

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Sunday was a day of firsts! Though I was very nervous, Nick insisted that I drive the 4x4 on the beach!  It was a LEFT hand drive, AND a manual…. I was terrified! But I had so much fun and Im glad I got to experience it at least once while being down here!

Unreal concentration right here.

Seriously, can't believe Nick trusted me with his truck, after my driving history…

~

Oh hey its a Goanna..

This big fella came to check out our campsite on Sunday.

I couldn't believe it just walked right past us!  Ive only seen them on the crocodile hunter! At that to the list of dangerous animals I've encountered on my trip down under.

~

Im going to wrap this post up because its long overdue and I could honestly go on and on with all the things we did this weekend.  I am so thankful to have friends like Mekila and Nick that want me to really experience all of what Australia has to offer! 

Until next time

xoxo

-A

Week 7!!

I can't believe I am writing my week 7 blog post, it feels like I got here last week.  Seriously these weeks need to slow down, because I want this trip to last forever. I wish I could move all my friends and family down here…The only thing Australia is missing is you guys! :(















This weekend was incredibly boring.  I had my first paper due on monday so of course I left it till Friday, the paper was only 1200 words so I figured I would bust it out in a few hours (easy).  When sitting down and reading through the directions I realized that I needed 8 sources, and we could only use 2 from the books so I spent tons of time looking through library sites to find worthy sources.  I actually went to the library on Saturday AND Sunday! I was a try-hard student this weekend, but as soon as the paper was passed in on Monday… back to being a beach bum ;)

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Mekila and I got together for a coffee date on Tuesday.  Little did I know when she picked me up we would be going on an all day trip up to Mount Tamborine! Anytime I can get out of the city, I am a happy gal.  The scenery was spectacular, we had lunch at a little cafe situated right next to a waterfall, you couldn't see it from where we were sitting but you could hear it and it was a wonderful escape from the city.



















After lunch Mekila and I decided to take a little "Bush Walk" (Aussie Nature walk) to see the Falls!  I was very happy to explore a little Aussie rainforest but also terrified of every little thing that moved as I walked along the pathway.  Mekila assured me over and over that there was nothing in there that would kill me but I was NOT convinced.  We were walking along the trail and out of nowhere some decent sized black animal started shuffling around in the woods…. I WAS OUT OF THERE… yep pushed my pregnant friend right in front of me.. You heard that right I used a PREGNANT lady as a HUMAN SHEILD for whatever vicious animal that was coming for us… (friend of the year right here) … turns out it was just a harmless bush turkey… guess I'm a little too jumpy at times…. sorry Mikki

couldn't leave with out taking a picture with the waterfall.  

Wineries were scattered all across Mount Tamborine, I will definitely be back with my mom for some wine tastings when she gets down here!

There were a bunch of little shops all along the way and Mekila and I stopped in a few, many were filled with hand made things and some really interesting things, like coo-coo-clocks and specialized tea pots… how these businesses get enough revenue to keep their doors open actually boggles my mind.
Seriously… these clocks were 900-4K
What PSYCHO buys a four thousand dollar Coo-Coo-Clock?

The Tea pot shop was a little out of the ordinary as well, but they were cute, and I love tea so I thoroughly enjoyed peeking around in the shop.  Still not sure how they can make enough money selling 50$ tea pots to keep the doors open.

~

"Quit Worrying Shark Attacks NEVER Happen"- said every Australian I've ever met.

Well… it happened.

TRUST IS GONE

On Tuesday there was a Great White shark attack.  In the shallow waters, of the public beach at Byron Bay.  ( You know the one I was swimming at last weekend.. yep that beach) 

A man in his forties was swimming just past the break line, when he was fatally bitten by a shark in the upper region of his thigh. A paddle boarder saw his body floating and tried to rescue him, but he was too late, the man had already bled out in the water from his wounds.  

                     An Image shot by a helicopter as the seen unfolded on the beach shows just how close to shore the shark came. 

WELL that puts a damper on surfing doesn't it now? Fortunately our beaches in Surfers Paradise have shark nets to keep these monsters out.  The only problem is that Ive seen dolphins swimming in the waves, makes you think… if dolphins can get past the shark nets… sharks could too.  TERRIFYING THOUGHT.  

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Yes sharks are terrifying, but surfing is just wayy too much fun to stop because of some man eating fish. Ive been Surfing every day this week and I am finally getting a little bit better! Though Im still getting demolished 90% of the time, I have gotten up on my own a few times and any victory is a victory.  Surfers make it look so easy and effortless…. ITS NOT… but Im out there every day trying my hardest to get better.  I have fun whenever I'm out in the ocean regardless if I get up that day or not.

Heres one of Jake and I 

some action shots with my go-pro

I even got one of me almost standing up! key word being Almost.

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As for Coffee

Jake and I went to the same little spot in Main beach this week because it was just too good last week! but embarrassingly enough-- the place is called Le Jarden not Le Garden, they really need to make their cursive more clear. but heres a picture of our cute cappuccino hearts in our coffee.

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Alas, Ive got to cut this post short because Mekila is about to pick me up for a weekend adventure!

We are heading 3 hours north to the Sunshine coast to camp on Rainbow beach for the weekend :)

Till next week!

xoxo-

-A