Seriously Procrastinating

So I have been procrastinating writing anything lately since I waited way too long and didn't know where to start. Basically since my last post I've just been hanging out around Sydney (apart from one weekend in Melbourne to celebrate a friend's birthday) and hanging out with friends etc before I leave. I finished work yesterday for good and am now in the midst of packing up my room because I start a 26 day tour around Australia on Saturday morning! Can't really go into more detail than that since I'm busy packing but anyway, I'll be absent now for another month while I'm away!

February Update

So clearly I've been slacking a little bit in writing posts lately. It's March 3rd now and the last time I posted was February 6th. Oops. Here's a little summary of what I've been up to:

Just after my last post my mom came down to visit for 2 weeks. It was so nice to have her here and we did tons of stuff! She arrived on Sunday February 9th and I picked her up from the airport. We had a chill couple of days since I still had to work on the Monday and Tuesday so she just hung out at my apartment and went for walks to the beach etc. On the Wednesday we had a crazy packed day and went to the zoo, aquarium, Madame Tussauds, IMAX and regular movie theatre all in one day. Probably the busiest day I've had in a long time! On Thursday we headed out to Hunter Valley (about 2 hours north of Sydney) for 2 nights. It's wine country so we had lots of ideas of wine tasting and relaxing at spas etc. We stopped at a wildlife walkabout park that we saw on the side of the highway on the way and were allowed to pet kangaroos and emus which was very cool! Once we got there we found our cute little bed and breakfast, had dinner at a vineyard and then went to bed. On Friday morning (which was valentines day) we got up super early (like 5 am early) and went on a hot air balloon ride over Hunter Valley. It was a bit rainy and dark but still awesome - I've always wanted to go on a hot air balloon. We spent the rest of the day doing wine tasting and getting massages and facials at the spa, having two fancy meals at vineyards, and finishing off Valentines Day by watching a movie with pink champagne and heart shaped chocolates. It was a perfect way to spend the day!

On the weekend we hung out in the city, did some shopping, and did a 2 hour coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach... Probably the most beautiful walk I've ever done. On Monday morning we flew to Melbourne to visit family friends (the same ones I saw over Christmas) for 3 days which was really fun. We flew back on Wednesday night and spent Thursday just hanging out before my mom left on Friday. It was really fun to have her here and very sad when she left.

That following weekend was the finals of the olympic hockey (which Canada won - woo!) so I spent both nights either staying up super late or getting up really early to watch the games. Life since then has been pretty uneventful. This coming weekend I'm actually flying down to Melbourne again to celebrate the family friend's daughters birthday and go to a music festival. Should be a very fun filled and busy weekend!

Some Chinese Festivities

Last weekend was Chinese New Year so the city was very busy! On Friday night Chris and I just had a movie night at home. Saturday we spent the afternoon on the beach and then went out with some friends for dinner and drinks to celebrate our friend Neil coming back to Sydney after a month and a half of travelling. Sunday was a lazy day for me, and then I met up with those same friends to go to the Chinese New Year parade in the city. It was cool at first but got a bit old after the first hour! After the parade there were fireworks put on in Darling Harbour so we went down and watched those and then got some frozen yoghurt before heading home to bed before work on Monday. Work has been uneventful this week. I've been hitting the gym pretty much every night and watching what I eat since I started a new 12 week diet last weekend. It's been challenging to keep within the recommend (low) calorie intake but I've been doing pretty well! When I came to Aus I got very much into "holiday mode" and gained a bit of weight so hopefully this will deal with that issue! Not much else to report, my mom comes to visit for 2 weeks on Sunday which I'm extremely excited about! I haven't seen any of my family for 3 months now so some family time is much overdue. We'll probably do lots of stuff when she's here so I'll update more then!

Since NZ

My life since New Zealand has been pretty uneventful you could say. It's been a week since I got back and I think I've only just recovered from my vacation!

I got back last Friday at about noon and spent the afternoon doing some errands (groceries etc... I may have also felt the need to get my nails done) and then had a chill night at home unpacking and uploading photos etc. Saturday was kinda the same, just slept in, went for a run etc. Sunday was Australia Day so we went to a friends house for a BBQ in the evening and then went out into the city after. I was still so tired though so I went home pretty early! Monday we had the day off from work (since it was a public holiday) so we went to the Sydney Museum which had a big dinosaur exhibit on and walked around that for a while and then had some dinner and I went home to finish unpacking and get to bed early again! Tuesday I started work (which I was not looking forward to after 2 and a half weeks off) and then went to the gym after work. On Wednesday night I met up with a few girls from the tour, 2 who live in Sydney at the moment and 1 who was just in Sydney for a few days before flying back to the UK. It was so nice to see them and we spent the whole night reliving the amazing trip we had. Last night (Thursday night) I went down to Bondi Junction (another suburb in Sydney) after work and walked around the mall a bit and then got some groceries and went home. Today is just work and then tonight Chris and I might go see a movie or see some friends or something, unsure of plans yet!

This weekend is Chinese New Year so we'll probably attend some of the festivities for that which should hopefully be fun.

Write soon!

New Zealand - Queenstown (Last Day - Jan 23)

It was a very sad day on my last day of the tour. We woke up that morning and headed out with the group that was continuing on to Christchurch to stop at the Kawarau Bridge because a whole bunch of the group were bungee jumping. A few of my friends did it and I was impressed they had the courage.... I could never jump off a bridge. Although I guess I used to say that about jumping out of a plane and swinging through a canyon but I did those so you never know!

After everyone had bungee jumped we had to say goodbye to the group while they continued on the coach and we got a shuttle back to the hotel. It was really sad to say bye to them and we left a few members of our group of friends but but random coincidence most of the group was finishing in Queenstown so we had the rest of the day together. We split up and went to our new hotels and got our rooms and then met back up in town so go out for dinner. When I had to leave them all to go back to my hotel for the night (I had an early flight the next morning) I cried! They are some of the best friends I've ever made and we became so close over the 2 weeks. So: Steph, Liz, Lauren, Katelyn, Colette, Laura, Jodi, and Aby (plus everyone else on the tour) if you guys are reading this I love you so much and thanks for making my time in New Zealand the best trip I've ever had.

After getting back to my hotel that night it was so lonely! I had spent the past 2 weeks constantly around people so being on my own was very quiet. I went to bed and got up at 6 am the next morning to head to the airport for my flight.

Watching the sunrise over Queenstown one last time before my flight

And that concludes my amazing New Zealand adventures!

New Zealand - Queenstown (Day 4 - Jan 22)

We had to wake up early that morning to go to the canyon swing which was a bit difficult considering the very small amount of sleep I had the night before. Still, I managed and me and a few friends headed over to the canyon swing store in the city and they drove us out to the site. I wanted to do it with someone since I was way too scared to do it by myself so Liz and I decided to do it together. Basically the canyon swing is where you're harnessed into a swing system and you jump or fall off a platform and free fall until the swing system kicks in and you swing through a canyon a few times until they pull you back up to the platform. There's something like 70 different ways to go off the platform using all types of different props and mechanisms and stuff but we just decided to go for the easiest one which is where they suspend you above and then you have no choice but to drop because they just unclip you. Liz really didn't want to do it and was really scared so I wasn't too bad for the first one because I was trying to calm her down. It was scary when you first drop but after that it's fun! They offer an option of going again for only $35 and all my other friends had gone by themselves and jumped off the ledge so I kinda wanted to prove to myself that I could do that too. I spent about 10 mins on the platform trying to convince myself to jump off until I finally just told my friends to count down from 3 and jumped. I wouldn't necessarily say I would do it again but I was proud of myself for having the courage to actually jump!

We drove back into town and got some lunch and then I went back to the hotel and had a long afternoon nap to catch up on the sleep I missed out on the night before! I woke up and changed and then went out for dinner with the group one last time before the tour ended. We had all you can eat pizza at a well known Queenstown restaurant called Winnie's and then went back to the hotel to finish catching up on the sleep I still needed!

New Zealand - Queenstown (Day 3 - Jan 21)

We met in the lobby in the morning to funyak for the day! For anyone who doesn't know (I didn't) a funyak is basically an inflatable canoe. The funyak trip was supposed to have amazing views and literally went out to a place called Paradise on the map so we figured may as well sign up! We drove out to the dart river and then took about an hour jet boat ride out to where the funyaks were set up and waiting for us. We spent the day paddling around (and through some little rapids!) and at one point went into a little cave section where a few of us (including me) jumped off a 10 m rock into the water! Terrifying to actually jump but very fun afterwards. We sang songs while we paddled and got back to the bus completely exhausted after a full day in the sun.

When we got back to the hotel I had an hour nap in the room and then showered and changed and got ready to go out. We all went to the Minus 5 ice bar which was cool - everything was made out of ice including the cups we drank out of! All of the Aussies couldn't handle the cold but the Canadians thought it was positively warm at only -7.5 degrees celsius. Most people headed home early since they were exhausted from the day but since I had napped, I was wide awake and ended up being only 1 of 5 of the group still out partying till the early hours.

New Zealand - Queenstown (Day 2 - Jan 20)

In the morning we had an included ride in the shot over jet which was really fun. It's a really fast jet boat that goes through big rock formation and drives about 3 cm away from the sides of the rock. Definitely a thrill ride!

After the jet boat we went to a little town called arrowtown and had a snack in a bakery there. It was a really cute little town! 

Next was the biggest event of the trip: Skydiving. The day before I had been thinking "Ok, this is gonna be awesome, nothing to be worried about!" But when I woke up that morning all I could think was "Why the hell did I sign up to do this again?" We met at the skydiving office in the city and I literally had to slow down my breathing to stop myself from hyperventilating. We paid and signed all the paperwork and then got driven out to the dive site. Luckily we were the first plane so I didn't have too much time to psych myself out. They got us into our skydive suits and we got into the plane to fly up to 15,000 ft. The options were either 9000, 12000, or 15000 ft but I figured if I'm going to do it (probably only once ever) then I'm just gonna do the highest and get it over with. As we start going up in the plane I was freaking out a bit but trying not to think about it. I had been the last person to get into the plane so naturally was going to be the first one to jump out since I was right by the door. There was a guy in our plane who was training to become an instructor or something so when we reached 12,000 ft the door opened and he just disappeared out of it. And that's when the tears started coming. At that point (as I was crying) my only thought was "I'm such an idiot for signing up for this." Backing out at that point was never going to be an option for me but I was definitely wishing I had never decided to do it in the first place. We finally got up to 15,000 ft and it was my turn to jump. They opened up the door and my instructor (who I was strapped VERY tightly to thank god) shuffled us over to the door and sat on the edge so I was essentially hanging down from his harness over 15,000 ft of nothing. I of course freaked out and was screaming and yelling that I didn't want to do it but there was no turning back, he threw us out of that plane. 

#noregrets is the Contiki slogan so we all wrote it on our hands as a bit of a joke. Although, clearly from my face I was feeling the regret at this point.

Yep, freaking out.

For about 2 or 3 seconds it was the biggest regret of my life. I actually thought maybe I had died for a second since I had no idea which way was up and all I could feel was my body hurdling downwards at 200 km/hour. But then, we got upright and I saw the face of the photographer (they send another guy out with you to take pictures and video) and I realized that I was actually alive and then it quickly turned from the biggest regret to the biggest feeling of accomplishment ever. It doesn't even feel like falling once you reach terminal velocity. It's impossible to explain to anyone who hasn't done it but even though it was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life I had never felt so safe and alive. After 55 seconds of free fall the instructor pulled the parachute and my first thought was "awe the parachute bit already?" quickly followed by "wait that means the parachute actually worked and we're going to live so yay." I kinda just floated there in the parachute for a couple minutes and then had a very smooth landing down back at the dive site. If you ever want to feel on top of the world, skydive. I promise you there is no better feeling in the world. I will 100% skydive again in my lifetime. 

Yeah whatever, just flipping out of a plane here

Ok, at this point I could honestly show the no regrets and mean it

Top of the world

After skydiving we went back into town and had a celebratory Fergburger (a really famous burger place in Queenstown) and then headed back to the hotel to relax for a while. I went back into town after showering and changing to pick up my skydiving photos which turned out awesome (as you can see above)! The group went out for drinks and food that night but a few of us went back to the hotel kinda early to get some rest after a very exciting day! 

The best tour group I could have ever hoped for

New Zealand - Last Stop: Queenstown! (Day 1 - Jan 19)

Basically we drove the whole day all the way from Franz Joseph to Queenstown with a few stops along the way. It was a beautiful drive but again involved lots of sleeping!

We stopped at a place called Puzzling World just before getting to Queenstown which was a really random place to stop but also really cool! It had a huge maze to go through and lots of cool illusion rooms.

We finally got to the hotel and changed into nice clothes for a fancy dinner at the skyline restaurant. We went up in another gondola to the top and saw the most gorgeous views over Queenstown. It must be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Most of the views don't even seem real they're that gorgeous. The dinner was a buffet with soo many choices and was delicious! We saw the sunset over the city and when everyone was stuffed we rolled back into the gondola to head down and go out for a few drinks before bed.