Pasifika festival
Yesterday we went to Pasifika Festival. “Experience the sights, sounds, tastes and colours of the Pacific.” It was awesome. Such an amazing atmosphere, packed with people and music all over the place. My colleague at the hostel is from Niue so I wanted to try out their food. Yuck! But hey, at least we tried. We also bought watermelon and pineapple filled with ice cream omnomnom.
New country, new adventures
Okay so I have now been in Auckland, New Zealand 12 days. I got work for accommodation at Nomads my second day and am still working there. It’s easy and I like my roomies, we’re like a small family!
Anyway, I am hanging out with my uni buddies. How did I get to know people at uni, you wonder? I overheard a girl talking about a Swedish passport while standing in line to get through the custom at the airport. We started talking and had to queue for 50 mins, thereof we got to know each other pretty well. It ended up with me getting a free ride from the airport, a goodie bag with the uni schedule, lollies and a map. Way to go, right?!
At the uni
So what have I done over here this far? Everything and nothing. Partying, hanging out, walking, stand up paddle boarding, tanning, eating froyo, driving and so on. Last Wednesday a couple of guys and I rented a car and drove to Waitakere ranges and Karekare beach. Such an amazing place! The beach was covered in black sand from the volcano and while we were there it was sunny but there was water in the air from the breaking waves, which made the mountains look mysterious and awesome. The current was really strong and while we were in the water we had to be really careful not to be dragged out to sea! How to feel alive. Afterwards we had a picnic on the beach, walked to “the structure” and saw a seal playing around in the waves. We also climbed on one of the mountain sides, probably not a good idea to do only dressed in a top and bikini bottoms lol.
Turned out we didn't really have to wade through the water
Btw, we are atm 12 hours ahead of everyone back in Sweden. It’s the end of daylight saving on April 6th, and we will then only be 11 hours ahead of you guys, I think.
I love Melbourne
Au pair again
So Johanna and I had a great couple of days in Sydney. Our last few days, we simply enjoyed our time there and walked around the city. On the Wednesday we spent the day with Frida and Åsa. We bought take away food and sat in the Queen’s Park for a while. In the evening we once again used our Merlin Passes to go up to see the sunset from the Sydney Tower Eye. It was really beautiful.
Friday morning we had to be up at 5am, yuck! Both Johanna and I were both excited and sad. After 1 month together with so much laughter, I thought my belly would cramp to death. We were going separate ways. I know it sounds dramatic but it was really sad! But hey, hopefully we’ll be studying in Sweden together next year. Oh yeah, that’s right! I’ve finally got some plans of going back haha.
I have now been in Melbourne for 5 days and approximately 3 hours. The flight was alright, I guess, since I slept the whole way. Feels like I’m a pretty used to flying by now. But anyway I’ve met a couple of great gals over here. Started my stay with some great, sunny days at the beach! It’s raining now.. A girl called Jasmine, and I have been spending our days walking up and talking to random guys. Talk about getting a confidence! Now way people would react the same way in Sweden though. It’s fun and I can’t complain haha.
Oh I almost forgot! It is, today I believe(?) the last day of Chanukah. And since my host family is Jewish and they celebrated Chanukah this last Sunday, I went with them. Such an opportunity to learn about another religion and I had a great time. There was a show onstage, fireworks, a market and in the end people singing.
Lots of love to my mum and dad, who are always there for me, even when I’m at the other side of the world. You’re the best <3
Sydney baby!
Saturday. Johanna and I have been couchsurfing! It was really fun. We stayed at a Swedish guy’s apartment in The Rocks, 21st floor and the view was over Harbour bridge and the Opera house!! Talk about brekky view! Anyway, the first day we went to Madame Tussauds. It was smaller than expected but really good. We were a little scared because all of the wax dolls looked like they were going to move any second haha. Oh and Johanna’s love, Johanny Depp was shorted than she thought. She might have cried herself to sleep lol. After MT we caught the bus to Chinatown where we got headaches and completely lost. It was stressful, people were screaming and we didn’t know where to go haha. After a couple of hours walking around in the markets we finally found our way out and went to the shops. In the evening while the slow cooker was on, we walked down to watch the sunset by the opera house. Amazing. Later in the evening we had the worst Moroccan dish ever haha. But if you’re hungry you eat anything, right? Later on in the evening we went out to Scary Canary. By the time we found the building we both had to go to the loo. The line was way too long, so we managed to sneak inside The Base hostel, haha. After that we had a great night dancing!
Sunday. The second day Pär, the guy we were staying with, showed us around at Bondi and Bronte beach. A simple, chill day at the beach. We had totally deserved that. In the evening Johanna and I made enchiladas with a fresh salad. Oh salad, how I have missed thee.
Monday. It was time for us to move on to a hostel again, we found one in King’s Cross. It’s probably the worst one we’ve ever been in lol. We’re sharing our room with three men and one of them smells really bad. But hey, you can’t be lucky all the time. At least we don’t spend all our days in there. So we packed all our stuff in the apartment, enjoyed the view for a last time and spent the day walking around in the area. We went to Sydney Wildlife Zoo and Sydney Aquarium. Sydney Aquarium is great! I totally recommend people going there. They’ve got dugongs. And of course a lot of other animals haha. But all the people working there were really nice and good at explaining. On the way back we saw Sydney observatory, walked on Harbour Bridge and also walked past the Opera house again. It was raining back and forth the whole day and when we got to the opera house everyone had to hide from the rain. Oh and I’m officially a Chinese tourist. Maybe worse. I take pics ALL the time and of everything and anything haha. All of this we did in a couple of hours. And since it was raining all day and night we decided to go to the movies. We watched The Hunger Games: Catching fire. It was SO GOOD! I’ve got to start reading the books.
Tuesday. We caught the ferry over to Manly, where we went to Manly Sealife Sanctuary. It was pretty small but we got to see the fish feeding, which was really good. And I’m compelled by the Lion fish, they’re so beautiful. And I got to see them eat, awesome haha. After watching the Port Jackson babies eat I talked to the girl working there for a while. She told me a lot of interesting stuff about the sharks in the tank. After Manly we walked back along George Street and tried to find Sydney Tower Eye. It’s pretty hard when you’re on the ground and all the buildings are high and you can’t really see this one tower ahah. Eventually we found it and the view was spectacular. We could probably see all of Sydney and all the different places where we’ve been and where we want to go. Oh and we also got to go to a short 4D movie! I’ve never been to one before. I’ve got to say it was pretty cool! After the Tower Eye we headed towards the Chinese Garden that we had seen from above, but when we got there it was closed. So instead we took a lot of pics outside haha. Playing around in the dirty fountain pool when people were watching and also climbing on things. YOLO.
Wednesday. Today. The plan is to plan our lives lol. We’re also going to go to a couple of gardens and hopefully meet Frida and Åsa later. Peace out.
Pics
The last week
Okay so the last few days we have been to Brisbane, Southport and Byron Bay. Before Brisbane we asked so many people about what you can do there and got heaps of tips, but we ended up barely doing any of it. It was raining all the time. We both really liked Brisbane though. Such a nice city and I prefer cities to towns. We spent a lot of time at the library with the free WiFi and also just walking around. We went to Mount Coot-tha with the botanical gardens and also both the museum and the art centre. In the nights we went out partying and we were lucky to have the hostel right on top of the best nightclub in Brisbane, Down under bar!! OMG so much fun!!
So after our awesome days in Brisbane we went to Southport. A small town but from there we went to both Dreamworld and Surfer’s Paradise. Dreamworld with WhiteWater world was AWESOME! We had so much fun and were screaming during all the rides and slides! We were really lucky with the weather until the end of the day. We had been standing in line for our last ride for a while and had just gotten in when the guy told us we had to get out again because of the storm that was coming. Thank God! We barely got to the very exit of the same ride when we heard slamming on the metal roof. It started hailing. No one likes hail, but this was like the doom day! The hails were big as golfballs, kids were crying and parents were screaming. After one hour it was all over and we had a nice evening, like it never happened..
So anyway, we spent the day after in Surfer’s Paradise. We walked around, chilled at the beach and accidently walked into a shop with $5 clothes.. Only bought a few things ;)
Wednesday we went to Byron Bay, which is where we are atm. The first day we walked all the way up to the lighthouse. Help us, the walk was unbearable! So hot and warm and sunny and steep and blah. BUT we made it!! And the views were amazing and totally worth the effort! From one of the lookout point we also got to see some dolphins. Which speaking about dolphins, we didn’t got to see at either of our two kayaking tours.. Kayaking is always fun though! But we were really bummed not getting to see any dolphins, or marine life at all really. In the evening we met up with our Swedish friends Åsa and Frida. They made vegan dinner and we had some wine. Afterwards we went out dancing for a while.
Tonight we’re catching the Greyhound nightbus all the way down to Sydney. In Sydney we’re staying with a Swedish guy via couchsurfing. Hopefully it will be as good as expected!
Btw the pics take waaaay too long so I'm gonna try and upload the rest of them later
Australia Zoo
On Monday morning we went to Noosa. We walked up a killer hill to a lookout point. Unfortunately it was cloudy so we couldn’t see anything.. In the evening we partied with our roomies!
Tuesday morning, hungover and tired, we caught the bus to Mooloolaba (yes I know, what a name!!) where we went to UnderWater World. It wasn’t as big as we thought it would be, but it was still really good.
Fraser Island and Hervey Bay
So for three days now we have been on Fraser Island. I have had no reception at all. Actually that felt kind of good, except for everything that you need to read now later on haha. Long story short we pushed a big bus through the sand dunes. But I figure you would like to know some more details.
Day 1. We did a bushwalk along a creek with fresh water that we all drank of and finally got to Central Station. We went to Lake McKenzie and also tried to push the bus through a deep sand spot to get to another lake, we didn’t manage. In the night we were playing cards and drinking some vine before dinner. After dinner we had some more vine with our Dutch friends that also went on the Whitsundays trip with us. After a little while we saw a huge spider crawling over the fridge, Jurre and I screamed, Marjolijn jumped onto the table and Johanna hid far away. It all ended with Jurre hitting the spider once with a thong and me smashing it to death. I felt bad afterwards.
Day 2. We went to a look out spot and also to see the colored sand dunes. We got stuck with the bus on our way to the champagne rock pools, so we had to walk 40 minutes in beaming sun and deep sand, fml. After the pools we drove to Indian Hill, which we climbed. 68 metres over the ocean I believe it was and such an amazing view! On our way back towards the accommodation we stopped at both a ship wreck and a creek. Johanna and I walked upstream in the creek, felt pretty cool carrying our backpacks above our heads while dodging branches and stuff haha.
Next to the Champagne Rock Pools
Day 3. We went to Lake Birrabeen where Johanna and I tried stand up paddling. After that we went to Lake Wabby, and OMG the walk to get there. It was only 4.8km return but add way too much sand and uphill, it’s terrible!!
At Lake Birrabeen
The bus we pushed
After Fraser we stayed two more days at Hervey Bay, such a cosy little town. When we got back to the hostel they told us that the room that we had booked wasn’t available and that they had upgraded us to a 4 bed room with no extra charge. Awesome! On our last full day in Hervey we rented bikes for the whole day. So cute pink bikes!! We biked down to the beach and watched the boat race down there.
Life on a boat
We woke up early on the last day as well to go snorkeling just next to the beach. It was close from the boat so I decided to be brave and swim over there, even though I hate deep, dark water. Hopefully I'm cured after this trip! Since I was one of the first ones in the water I FINALLY got to see a turtle. Happiness. The coral at the last spot wasn't so nice, so Johanna and I thought it seemed funnier to go rock climbing. We went by ourselves and after a while, climbing on the rocks along the ocean we found a perfect spot to jump into the water! It wasn't too high but we felt adventurous and thought it would do. Whit that last jump the trip ended and we all headed home, racing with our sailing boat The Boomerang.
Mission Beach
Yesterday we spent the whole day on the grayhound bus going down to Airlie Beach. Once here we had an awesome dinner and spent the rest of it walking around in Airlie. Today we're going on our Whitsundays cruise, yaaay! 
Cape trib
Johanna and I have been planning our travels a bit. Our first stop will be the Great Barrier Reef on Monday.I met a guy that showed me around in Cairns. We spent a whole night talking on a beach at "the spot" just watching the moonlight and the sun rise, amazing. All the bites from sand flies on my legs are not as amazing though...Cairns
2 weeks
YOLIAO
Ready for backpacking
Butterflies
Not my native language
Monday night the McGowan’s and I played scrabbles. It looked like I was gonna win, I was so happy. Kael and Sarah was in the same team and Gary and Rusty. This was really unfair since they all have English as their native language and I don’t. Anyway I was in the lead until I got letters like W, J, Z and Q and when it’s all finished you count all the points on the bricks you’ve got left and take it away from your score. So unfair! Anyway, I could have won ;)
Tuesday was my day off and since the rain was pouring down, Gloria and I decided to drive to Rockingham shopping centre. Bad choice, we could barely see where we were going haha. We finally got there and sat down with a coffee and donut, yum. After that we were just stroddling around and went past a nail salon. We asked about prices and had our nails done! I’m so happy I’ve been kind to my nails and taken good care of them haha.
On our way back it stopped raining and we drove past the war memorial. It was so much prettier than I thought it would be. Too bad there was still a lot of gray clouds..
6 months down under!
The 10th of August it was finally time for a road trip to Pinnacles! Sara, Johanna, Louise and I drove up to Lancelin Saturday morning, of course it was raining all the way up there. But by the time we got there it had stopped and we had a look at the dunes and couldn’t wait to go sand boarding! So we rented a board and hurried back. The dune was pretty steep but it was so much fun! I tried standing on the board and almost came all the way down the dune, so proud haha. But I did fall and had a big bruise on my bum for a couple of days. There was a man at the dunes who had brought a dog without a leash. The dog jumped on people and when Louise and I went down the hill in high speed it just came right at us and we had to stop. Ruined all the fun! I really don’t understand people who don’t keep their dogs under control! Fortunately we had already been there for a while by then.
After Lancelin we drove the rest of the way up to Cervantes where we stopped to have some lunch. After Cervantes we went to Pinnacles where we looked at rocks. Johanna started off the tour by taking a photo and complaining about a big rock being in the way, hahah. We also found the lion cliff from The Lion King.
During the last week I have met up with some new au pair friends in Mandurah. Apart from that it’s been full on at work with extra hours! I really start to feel like one in the team and finally I have started to learn how to make coffees!
Friday night Johanna, Sara and I went to Leederville where we had some delish frozen yogurt, mine too full off topping, as per usual. Later in the evening Johanna and I went to Perth by train. We were talking Swedish and said some silly things as you do if no one else can understand you. Only this time there was a couple giggling next to us and they spoke Swedish too! Ended up with the four of us laughing out loud and everyone else on the train wondering and asking why we were laughing. So with us being totally sober, really, laughing while walking and people looking after us, we went to Brass Monkey. Realised there were only couples and gay people in there and asked our way to The Mustang bar instead. It was so cool! Live music with old classics, a big dance floor and a bar area just to hang out at.
The day after Johanna and I went to Malaga (not in Spain) to go rock climbing. It was really scary the first time we had to let go at the top and they really shouldn’t leave two hangover girls, being there the first time, alone to climb haha. It went alright though and no one fell that day! Our muscles started getting stiff even before we were all done climbing and I’ve realised how many muscles in your hand that can be stiff haha. After the climbing I slept at Johanna’s place and we had a movie night. We watched The back-up plan and Sucker Punch. The last one must be the worst movie I’ve EVER seen (except for that one with a guy being stuck in his car in the woods for 90 minutes that Emelie and I watched a couple of years ago..)
Today, Tuesday, I joined in on Sara and Louise’s Tuesday meeting in Perth. We had a great time at the Indonesian embassy “working” by the gate haha. After that we just chilled at one of the parks and had some take away from Hahn’s cafe. I also realised that it’s the 20th of August today, which means that I am celebrating 6 whole months down under! Weeey, happy girl :D And to top it all it’s getting warmer every day and I love it! Finally feels like the summer is on it’s way!
Party and mud slides
Last Friday Sara picked me up at Stirling station and we spent the day at her place, playing with the kids and were just being silly (as per usual). In the evening we went to Brass Monkey were they had a x-mas theme we didn’t know about. We bought a drink that turned out to be disgusting and sat down at a table. After a while two guys sat down next to us, they were pretty wasted.. We tried everything to get rid of them and ended up saying we were a couple, celebrating two years together. I LOVE YOU SARA! It didn’t work.. When the guys left the table I thought I’d try to get rid of the chair next to me by pushing it under the table. I only managed to get a bruise on my finger when the chair fell on the floor, haha fail.
I spent the whole Sunday whit my host family and friends of them by the Avalon river. We brought the BBQ and were walking around the area. It such a beautiful place! This weekend it’s going to be a canoe race there, so when we were there, there were a lot of people training and canoeing down the river. While the mum of the other family was happy none of the kids were too dirty, we knew better. And as predicted one of the boys fell down a muddy hill and gave the idea to a mud slide. A bucket of water poured at the top and a few slides down the hill and you’ve got yourself a mud slide. Once they had mud on the clothes there was really nothing to do but take pictures and record the whole thing. The kids were happy and it actually looked like real fun!
This Tuesday I had the day off so Gloria and I went to Perth. I really shouldn’t buy anymore things now.. But what I did buy was actually nice things and stuff I can use. A peach colored dress, black body and cute top (no idea what the color is haha). Oh and I finally bought a pair of comfy and cool thongs!
