Travelling in Australia

Hello my sweeties,

I am very ashamed that I haven't contacted you for so long. Even I haven't been on this blog for a long time, so I have actually forgotten what it is called. 😂 I am currently travelling so much that I never have the time or the desire to write anything, but right now I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight, so I have some time to write.

(I WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT THIS BLOG ENTRY WAS ACTUALLY COMPLETED ON 28.01. IN THE NIGHT AT THREE, BUT MY WONDERFUL IPAD SIMPLY DELETED IT. GREAT, SO STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN :) )

So since I left my host family, a lot has happened, I have travelled a lot, met so many new people and seen so many beautiful things. I will try to pick out my favorite moments and tell you about them chronologically.

When I had already written half of the post, I realized that I haven't told you anything about my travels during my time with the host family, so I will just squeeze it in here. ^^

Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise:

Actually nothing special, I was there quite often because I lived only 30 minutes away. The beaches are nice, but for Australian standards really nothing special.

Brisbane:

I was also in Brisbane very often. Brissy is a lovely, medium-sized but also somewhat boring city. There's not really much to see, but it scores points for its size, as the city is not as crowded as Sydney.

Milford:

Stan (host father) took me on a weekend trip to a farm in Milford with some friends. Kim and Mud live really far away from everything, so it was a very long and unfortunately too short trip.

Stradbroke Island :

Straddie is the second largest sand island in the world and is 30km away from Brisbane. On this island there are three villages, many beaches and even more sea. On Stradbroke, I also saw a koala with a baby in the wild for the first time.

Interestingly, we also happened to witness a wedding on the beach.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary:

LPKS is a rescue center for koalas and other animals living in Australia.

East Coast trip with Marjorie:

Marjorie, my au pair friend, and I had planned to do an East Coast trip together right at the beginning of our time in Brissy. This started on 10.12.2016 in Noosa. Noosa is a cute little coastal town known mainly for its Everglades. In Noosa itself, we only stayed for one night and during the day we explored the town.

And the next day we took the bus to the Everglades. A kayak trip plus camping was planned there. Unfortunately, the camping was canceled, so we had to sleep in comfortable beds in bungalows with kangaroos as neighbors - too bad. 

Rainbow Beach:

The next day we continued to Rainbow Beach. RB is actually known for being the last place before Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, but we didn't include Fraser in our trip, so we just checked out RB, which was quite boring, but we had a pool at the hostel and lots of goon.

Airlie Beach:

AB was our next destination. It takes a whopping 15 hours by bus from RB to AB. We were lucky that we took the overnight bus and didn't lose much time. When we arrived in Airlie Beach the next morning, we checked into the hostel first. Since AB unfortunately doesn't have a nice beach, we made ourselves comfortable at the man-made lagoon. 

Whitsundays:

AB was just another stopover, this time for a 3-day boat trip on the 'Atlantic Clipper' around the Whitsunday Islands. The boat was designed for over 50 people, but I couldn't quite believe it when I arrived. The cabins were really very, very tiny, so you only stayed there to sleep, the rest of the time you were snorkeling, diving, swimming, at the whitest beach in the world (Whitehaven Beach), eating super delicious food, drinking even more delicious goon, and just having a lot of fun. On the boat, I also met three really nice girls (Julia, Sara, and Lynn) who I am currently with in Melbourne. My best experience was snorkeling, as we were just before the Great Barrier Reef, where you could see many colorful fish and corals. The crew even sometimes threw fish food at us, so about 100 small fish jumped on us.

The boat trip went by way too quickly and we had to go back to AB after three days, where afterparties awaited us.

Because every fun has to come to an end, I had to say goodbye to all the new people I met and Marjorie with a heavy heart. I flew to Sydney on 18.12.2016 to spend a few days with one of my friends there. But since the fun was far from over, I booked a spot for a tandem skydive in Wollongong and did it the next day. It was really one of the most beautiful experiences I had in Australia and in my whole life. I jumped out of the plane at an altitude of 14,000ft and all I had underneath me was crystal clear seawater and a beautiful beach. I want to thank my dearest friends again for this wonderful opportunity, you really made my heart bloom. <3

And on 20.12.2016 it was time to say goodbye to Sydney again and this time also goodbye to Australia, because I went home for Christmas and New Year's. You will read about how I spent my time in Germany in the next post, which will hopefully be published soon. I would like to apologize again for taking over two months to contact you again. But as they say, better late than never.

And with that, greetings from Australia,

Love you all

xxx

M.