Travelling, The story so far…

Australia

My adventure started in the January of 2013 when i left the UK on a one way ticket to Australia. Leaving winter -10 degrees to arrive in summer 30 degrees was quite a shock, though i did enjoy it and it helped kill off the winter germs i had. As a first time traveller i was shy, introverted and struggled to make friends. I left Melbourne after a week of tennis to head to Brisbane for an East coast adventure.

Brisbane – Lonely pine Koala sanctuary, walking to the lagoon

Noosa – Faser island, Rainforest walk, Australia Zoo

Airlie Beach – Whitsundays tour

Townsville/ Magnetic Island – YMCA animal experience, Beaches and walks

Cairns – Great Barrier Reef scuba dive, Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge, Kuranda Village and butterfly house, Uncle Brians tour.

I stayed in Cairns for a month in total until my friend arrived and i flew into Melbourne to meet her. We then did The Great Ocean Road tour, went to the F1 racing, up the Eureka tower and a trip to St. Kilda beach to see the penguins. Then we flew to Sydney and spent a couple of days there. We did the blue mountains, Taronga zoo, Bondi beach and the sky tower. My friend flew home home from Sydney and i went to the Friendship Garden before getting a bus back to Melbourne. That was a very long and exciting journey (12 hours and we stopped so an unruly passenger could be taken away by the police).

Then i started the long and boring process of finding a job and surviving abroad. By this point i had become much more out  going and able to make friends much easier which meant i enjoyed living in hostel a lot more. Skip ahead a few months of teaching (a tale for another page) and 15 of us went on a grand adventure to The Great Ocean Road in three Wicked camper vans for a long weekend.

We visited all the sights (Bell’s beach, 12 Apostles, a light house and Loch Ard gorge) and then headed back to the city. I stopped in briefly to grab a new bag, get a hair cut and then headed back out to the airport for two weeks in Thailand.

I joined a tour group called ThaiIntro which meant i was with a group of 15 people with a guide for a week. We had our day trips organised for us so all i had to do was relax and enjoy.

We visited Bangkok – Kho San Road, Wat Pho temple, Wat Arun Temple, had a cooking class

Then we headed onto Kho Suk – the national park- where we slept in floating bungalows, went out on a typical Thai long boat, went fishing and swam in the lake.

We headed over to Surat Thani to get the ferry over to Koh Phangan – elephant ride (traumatic – i’ll explain one day), beach and boat tour and had a massage.

The group split up then but joined back together to go to the half moon party. I had moved into a hostel and swapped my booked tours for a PADI open water diving course which took up the rest of my time there.

I headed back to Melbourne for a month before going to Tasmania to do my regional farm work for my second year visa. I spent the three months Wwoofing (Willing workers on organic farms) with four different hosts. A varied experience i will share more about.

After my three months was over i returned to Melbourne just in time for Xmas. i spent the next 6-7 months working, exploring more and teaching with a month long trip home in july for a friends wedding.  I met my travelling partner in crime just before i went. We then planned another (a first for him) East Coast adventure which included a lot more adventure sports.

Cairns – Great Barrier Reef scuba dive, Kuranda Village walks, Green island, white water rafting

Mission Beach – Sky dive

Townsville/ Magnetic Island – YMCA animal experience, Beaches and walks

Airlie Beach – Whitsundays tour Beaches, snorkelling and walks

Noosa – Faser island, Australia zoo

Brisbane – chilled dinner and drink with friends

Surfers Paradise – BBQ, Sea world, Wet’n’Wild and Movie world theme park

We headed back to Melbourne to then go to a farm so my travelling partner in crime could finish his farm work but it turned out to be a scam (a long story to add another day). so we stayed in Melbourne and went back to our jobs until December when his visa ran out so he flew to Auckland, New Zealand.  I went up to Cairns (couldn’t staying the same hostel in Melbourne any longer- another story for another post) for a change and did more Scuba Diving on a different part of the reef and just chilled out over Xmas and New Year until my visa came through in January and i left for Auckland to surprise him.

So far in Auckland we have lived in two houses and bought a car. We have visited Hobbiton, some beautiful beaches and islands and are heading off soon to Wellington.

WOW, looking back it has been a pretty epic two + years so far and thats just the abridged version. There are many tales in that that need telling separately or this would go on even longer.

If you have made it this far – THANK YOU –  i’ll make an easy photo journey for you to enjoy to add in here. 🙂