Finally an update huh?

Well sorry for the delay but I am finally making an interesting post about my travels! Australia was gorgeous place to visit this time of year. The sun was as hot as it gets on the best Minnesota summer day. I can't imagine how hot it gets in the middle of summer. The extent of my travel in Aussie land consisted of spending time on the beaches and when it got too hot i would go for a dip in the ocean. If i wasn't lying on the beach i was lying by the pool. I did not have much planned in the adventure department. It was just a relaxing time outside the country on some gorgeous beaches. I will go into some detail as to a few bits of fun and excitement that I have had so far. I spent about nine days in Surfers Paradise which is honestly the Miami of the Gold Coast. I was a gorgeous place to visit and the weather was perfect but it was very touristy and expensive. With that being said, it was still a worthwhile leg of my trip. I got to meet people from all over the world and had many enjoyable happy hours with them.

When i became tired of Surfers and needed a new perspective of Australia I hitched a ride, figuratively speaking that is, with a friend I made at the hostel I was staying at in Surfers and headed south to Byron Bay. Byron was a very lovely, and little hippie surfer town with a slower pace of life. It was a relaxing change. While in Byron I had my first experience with a full hostel dorm. I guess I should say that while at Surfers I had an entire four bed dorm to myself, which was nice, but it wasn't the full travel experience that I was expecting. Byron gave me the full hostel experience. I went there on my own and stayed with five complete strangers, three of which I ended up spending almost my entire time in Byron with. Byron was much more scenic than Surfers in regards to landscapes rather than shining urban high rises along the beach front. My first morning in Byron was an early one. Rise and shine, well not quite shine, but rise at five a.m. to catch a short bus ride up to a light house that is located at the most Easterly point of the Australian mainland. Whereupon, myself and my new hostel mates, some lovely ladies from Canada, awaited the rise of a new sunny day. The rest of my time was spent walking around town, hanging by the pool and chatting with my new friends about life and traveling. My last night in Byron was a quiet one. I sat on the beach and watched the sun go down, and had some very tasty fish and chips on my walk back to the hostel.

Sunday morning I had to be up early in order to catch a shuttle to the airport and fly Back down to Sydney for the day and catch my New Zealand bound flight the next day. Sydney was a gorgeous city with a beautiful harbor. My day consisted of a stroll around the botanical gardens that lined the harbor and the Sydney Opera House. My last night in Australia was spent with the four Belgium boys I was bunked with at the pub next to our hostel. They new how to drink some beer and we closed down the pub and called it a night, which was a good thing because i had to be up early again the next day to make my international flight to New Zealand. The next morning was pure hell. Lucky for me i had made it to the airport two hours early. I waited in a long line to check in and when I make it to the counter I am told i need either proof of a outbound ticket or a visa to enter the country. Lucky for me, my working holiday was recently approved and all i had to do was find a place to print out my confirmation letter, which proved troublesome in an airport was not familiar with. But I got it printed and made it to my terminal with ten minutes before take off...just kidding, an hour. It was rather nerve racking though. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it to New Zealand that afternoon. Rest assured, when I sat down on the plane i was relieved that this was going to be last flight I take for quite some time. I was on my way to start my big adventure!