Im going to apologise now as I’m about to spam you all with the blogs i have missed during this busy six months i have had.

So this semester has been a hectic one and so this blog was a little neglected. My return back to Perth to begin the semester again came after a fun fuelled and hectic summer, road tripping the Australian east coast and New Zealand.

It all started on the 27th November with the first flight to Cairns to begin my six weeks road trip down the East Coast of Australia.  I always thought of Australia being so far away from home, but in reality the world is so connected now that its wasn’t long until I ended up meeting some people I knew from my home town, completely coincidentally in my hostel room. Its a small world!

There I was joined by three other travelling buddies and we hired a car to begin our 22 day road trip trip to Byron bay.

Our first major stop was Port Douglas, where our Great Barrier Reef tour commenced. As a place I’ve studied and learnt about throughout various years of senior school, university and you watch documentaries and read news about the reefs, its sometimes hard to believe that now i have actually experienced it. I opted for the snorkelling option, due to a tight budget, that was to last me until February. Whilst diving, some would say would be the preferred option, snorkelling was just as much of an experience, to swim around the reefs and corals is a magical experience.

The fun and games didn’t stop there. After a week of travelling down the Eastern coast, we found ourselves upon a cruise ship, cruising around the Whitsunday islands. White sands and blue seas, it looks like the cover of a magazine, right now you feel like your in paradise. This all came before a mammoth 12 hour drive down to Hervey bay where island hopping seems to be a common theme this trip, ending up on Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island, stretching around 120km in length. The tour brought us to Lake Mckenzie, a uniquely located closed lake system, one of a few in the world.

In true Australian Style I knew i needed to try my hand at some surfing. My first surfing experience, saw me failing absolutely miserably to even stay on a board in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. After many attempts, i admitted defeat and stuck to the body board, where catching waves was no problem and gave me hours of fun. After hitting the Queensland beaches for the last , it was time to enter New South Wales.

Nimbin, how do i describe you? Whilst those who have heard about the place will know exactly what I’m about to say about it, but for though who don’t, here goes. Nimbin is notorious for its Cannabis culture and has a very free living environment, with a significant hippie look and feel. It has become known for being the ‘drug capital in Australia’ and its not every day you have the Hemp embassy next door to the police station. After exploring this region, we made our way down to Byron Bay.

Byron bay was where the fun really started. As we waved goodbye to two of our fellow traveling companions, it was me and Alice left. As many can imagine there is a typical sense of people coming to Byron bay to ‘find themselves’. The place is full of British and European backpackers coming to live the ‘Australian dream’. Unfortunately it wasn’t all fun and games, as I ended up with severely tonsillitis spanning the whole of the Christmas period, which left me unable to eat and eventually in hospital, where a minor surgery had to take place. Christmas day also happened to be the wettest day on record for Byron, in over 30 years! Just our luck!  Not all was bad though, the evening of the 25th eventually brightened up and so a trip to the beach was on the cards. Santa hats and secret santa gifts in tow, we had a lovely evening, with some drinks and classic beach games, to take us into the night.

From Byron we took short flight to Sydney, to prepare ourselves for our New years celebrations. We hit pot luck and managed to hire an apartment that had some spectacular views of Sydney harbour and a perfect viewing platform for the Fireworks that were to take place. With a group of around 9 of us, all UK exchange students, from various universities, it was a lovely way to bring in the new year, with a few drinks and a BBQ in the park, overlooking the Opera house and Harbour bridge.

After 42 days, my journey ended in Melbourne. Of all the Australian cities, this has to be my favourite. Personally, It has a vibe similar to that of many english cities, such as London and has a very welcoming feel, something that Sydney lacked. This period of time was a respite for me to prepare myself for my New Zealand adventure that was fast approaching.