Remember me??

Hey Hey! Weellll, once again i have let far too much time go by between entries, and once again i am so so so sorry!

where to start... where to start... weellllll...

soon after my last entry two of my closest friends here took me on a little day trip to the south coast. it was by far one of my very very favorite days here. Here are a few pictures of me from that day:


(*IMPORTANT* - now if you look really really careful at this picture you can see on the left side of my face (well my right, your left) right above my lip... A FLY! it landed there RIGHT as the picture was being taken. haha - amazing timing, eh?)


--the mandatory picture of me being dramatic in front of a beautiful view.


Mahalia, Me, and Katy


one of the most important stops during this day trip almost didn't happen. Towards the end we were running low on time and Mahalia and Katy were discussing whether they should show me the "small blow hole" to which i tried to explain "of COURSE you need to show me the small blow hole!!!". :-) Well i finally convinced them and we started our way. Right when we pulled up, however, it started to DOWN POUR! as in RAAIIIIIIN! Well, that SO wasnt going to stop us, so we made a run for it!


Katy and the small blow hole - she is trying throw pebbles because if you do it at just the right moment they will explode into the sky along with the shooting water. This is a skill i could not, for the life of me, master.


But yeah, it was sooooo awesome - and so we got SOAKED! haha!


A couple weeks later my first (of many! :-) ) visitors arrived -- MY DAD!!!


His stay began with a trip to the harbor to take a ferry tour, which was very nice and something i hadn't gotten a chance to do yet. :-)


We also walked around this outdoor market in the Rocks for a while and looked at all these odds and ends that were being sold which was quite nice. my favorite part, however, was definitely... THE CORN!


After a couple days in sydney we took a day trip to the Blue Mountains- stopping off at the Three Sisters:

(me being a geek in front of the three sisters)

Finally we got to the blue mountains and hiked about for a while, but first i saw this car that made laugh a bit... or that i at least viewed as photo worthy--

haha. heard it before, but still clever.

anyway, here are a couple pictures of the Blue Mountains:




It was ridiculously beautiful, even though the sky was threatening rain. :-)

We also took a nice hike in the rainforest (like ya do.. haha ):





so so so amazingly pretty. I have a million more pictures from this hike, but i'll spare you. :-) But yeah. it was really humid and mostly uphill (which was way tiring, haha) BUT at the very top, there was this AMAZING waterfall that was so worth seeing.





A day or so later my dad and i left for our week long trip down to melbourne (though we didn't know at the time if we would get that far).... The first two nights we stayed on a farm a few hours outside sydney that is owned by one of his former students. This allowed us a chance to explore that area, which was really nice. The family also showed us around a bit. For example they took us to see the BIG blow hole (which was indeed significantly large than the one my friends showed me, but also significantly less active --still very cool to see though!).



We also got the chance to hike in yet ANOTHER rainforest, which was (once again) ridicuously beautiful:



we then drove and drove and drove and drove...
and of course stopped at basically EVERY beach to see the view:


apparently the beach ain't big enough for both of us:


haha, at this particular beach my dad finally saw his first kangaroo (that wasn't on his plate):


After a few days of driving we arrived in Melbourne, just in time for christmas (we arrived christmas eve)!! It was definitely really nice to just get a chance to relax and stay put for a couple days. It was also rather weird though because Melbourne was sooo empty - it was like a shell of a city:



Although almost everything was closed, it was really really awesome to be there. I hope that maybe before my time here is up i can make it back there again. Would love to have some more time to explore it. (though i do like sydney better. :-) )


It was a truly amazing trip that i felt so lucky to be able to experience with my dad. Cant imagine a better way to spend the days leading up to and immediatly after christmas. :-) Thank you again, so much, dad for finding a way to visit me - i hope you had as an amazing a time as i did having you.


So, a couple days after my dad left it was new years and i went to a fiend of mine's to ring in the new year. i was informed it was a 'fancy dress' party - which i at first took to mean fancy clothes... but soon learned that -no no.. it was a COSTUME party!!

I went as a tourist:


and DANG did i look cool!!! :-) haha - seriously the best new years i have ever had. so so much fun, and so many amazing outfits! haha!


wellllllllll a few weeks later i had my SECOND vistor- my MOM!!!!! When she arrived she had a few hours in sydney before we were to head off to new zealand. Well, in those few hours she came to my house to pick me up. now, i had just been sick with toncellitus, right? Sooo, had recently gone out and bought all this -good for me food- in order to try and get healthy again. well, as we walking out the door on the way to the airport i suddenly realized that i still had one orange left. I offered this orange to my mom thinking- she's a mom.. she's very much pro fruits and veggies- and of course she accepted it and we continued on our way to the airport. fastforward a 5 or so hours to us getting off the plane and going through customs in New Zealand. As my mom's bag goes through the the xray machine suddenly there one of the airport staff starts flipping out- "Whose bag is this??!? Whose is this??!?" - we suddenly realize it's my mom's. No mind you, this isn't like.. a shoulder bag or a purse... this a a plastic, SEE THREW, bag that she has a bunch of odds and ends in.... and what could easily have seen but didn't... was the orange i had offered her... sitting right on top. New Zealand and Australian customs people are STICKLERS about fruit and nuts entering the country. so yeah. the guy freaked out, ran and grabbed a form and began asking my mom,
"So, just exactly WHAT were you planning on doing with this item?" -man
"um.. um... i was... planning on eating it...." - mom
*i'm watching as the man writes down my mom's words 'i was planning on eating it.."
"eventually." -mom
*man writes ",eventually"*

it's a FLIPPIN' ORANGE! WHAT DO YOU THINK SHE'S GOING TO DO WITH IT!??!

needless to say, she got fine 200 dollars!!!!!

"but... but... can't i just walk back there a few feet, throw away the orange, and reenter your country?" -mom (hahaha)

it was ridiculous, and so not positive way to start the trip.

wellll finally we got through customs, jumped in a cab, and road to our hotel. When we arrived we discovered the outside was painted like a zebra, and when we got to our room we saw this (now, remember, my mom has been traveling for something like 48 hours straight... isn't this EXACTLY what YOU would want to see after 48 hours are taveling???):



hahaha - amazing

anywho... we spent 3 nights here (in Wellington). The first day we were they we just kind of wandered around. First we came across a breakdancing competition, which was pretty cool to watch:


We ended up in the botanical gardens where i climbed a tree (mom- hahahaha, never forget the tree :-) ):

weeeeeee



The next day we met up with my last two visitor - my UNCLE STEVE and AUNT CATHY!!!!!! The four of us took the ferry from the north island to the south island:





then next day my mom and i went swimming with WILD DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!! (again, like ya do) it was AMAZING and SOOOOOOOOOO beautiful!




dolphin

seal

It was so funny because each time i would look up from the water i would see like half a dozen dolphins surrounding my mom... but she was ALWAYS looking the ONE direction they werent. hahaha. one of the women on trip with us i guess has a picture of just that. so awesome.

after a couple days we began our drive farther and farther south where we went on a really really really really long hike. First we took a ferry... somewhere (i know i'm so informative aren't i) where they showed us this really cool rock:


we then, like i said, hiked a whole lot... but how can one really complain with views like these at ever turn:




also, how can you complain when you get to watch your mom swing on random swing attached to a tree branch while your aunt pushes her?

exactly right, you can't complain, so i'm not. :-)

no but it was a really really nice hike, and at the end we all were all soooo hot and jumped into the water (almost missing our ferry back because of it, haha)!


oh, and look at how close i was to some of you!


anyway, we made it all the way down to Greymouth and then my aunt and uncle continued on and my mom and i took a 4 hour train ride (supposedly the most beautiful train ride in the world -- which i will vouch for because the views were amazing) up to Christchurch.

When we got to Christchurch (after walking literally almost all the way across the city because my mom INSISTED that the hotel was within walking distance of the hotel ( :-) :-) ) - we discovered that our reservations were for the night before and that the place we were supposed to stay didn't have and room available. Well this was a MAJOR bummer consider we were on foot and had no way (aside from public transport) to get to hotels. Well, the place let us use their phone and my mom started calling placed but EVERYWHERE was completely booked. it was ridiculous. and we were so tired! Then fate happened - some random person tied up the line so we had to walk down the street to use the pay phone.... around the corner we came across a motel. we walked into the lobby right as the guy behind the counter was telling someone on the phone that he was sorry but that they didnt have the number of beds he needed. We figured he couldn't help us either, my asked anyway and we were in LUCK!!! we got the VERY last room... AND found out that the reason the entire city was all booked up was because of:

a) a rugby game
b) the coast to coast (a marathon thing)
AND - MOST IMPORTANTLY
c) a BOYZ II MEN CONCERT! - hahahahahhahahahahha - i didn't even think they were still around! so so funny.


anywho. yeah, we lucked out and definitely stayed there that night. the next day we headed back to sydney via Wellington. A couple days later Steve and Cathy arrived in Sydney as well and we went to bondi and to the beach walk and then i brought the fam home and made them dinner, which was really really fun! :-) haha

my mom left a couple days later (only after losing her wallet. :-( so so not cool! i still feel like my room ate it, i'm totally going to find it on the day i move out, haha. -- Mom, thank you again so so so soooo much for visiting me. It meant so much to be able to show you my life here and to be able to introduce you to many of my friends [ even if you couldn't understand them very well. :-) :-) i love you and hope you had fun too!! )

my aunt and uncle stayed on for a few days, durning which they went off to explore the blue mountains and such. their last full day we went to the ZOO! which was so awesome. Seriously, Sydney has the COOLEST way of getting people to the zoo! First we took a ferry and THEN a cable car-- in which we literally flleewww over elephants! hahahaha, so awesome. there was also a way cool bird show during which i kept ducking because i totally thought the birds were going to land on my head. haha

but yeah so much fun. Their last night we went out for dinner, and then to a local pub so that uncle steve and i could battle it out in pool. He and I actually ended up going over to The Newtown Hotel (the pub that is my "local") and played free pool upstairs w/ my friend bel. It was so amazing to get to introduce him to my friends here. Steve and Cathy - cannot thank you enough for visiting! I know you didn't HAVE to come to Sydney, but it was AMAZING to get the chance to show you everything and to introduce you to people i never would have imagined having the opportunity to introduce you to. Seriously amazing. Thank you so much, Steve, for driving and Cathy for navigating- and both of you for every moment i got with you. i love you both so so much.


so so thankful for all my my visitors over this summer break and all the traveling i got a chance to do. A huge thank you to everyone who visited and everyone who showed me around anywhere this summer -- best. summer. ever.



Well i know that was kind of a fast update covering the span of like 2 or 3 months, but i hope the summary was alright. :-) I really need to get to sleep now because guess what -- MY SUMMER BREAK IS OFFICIALLY OVER AND I HAVE CLASS TOMORROW-- AHHHHH! I'm so not ready for summer to be over yet!!!!! I am, however, looking to starting uni again. :-)

oh and by the way, it's currenty Sydney's month of gay pride (aka Mardi gras) soooo HAPPY MARDI GRAS EVERYONE!! love you all, and miss you! hope all is well.

x