The trip of a lifetime.....2nd week

Well it has been a while since I have posted my friends and I am sorry for that. I have had some pretty full days since being in this amazing part of the world. I want to say that we are VERY spoiled in the U.S.A to getting free internet almost everywhere!! I have had to pay for internet in just about every place I have been. The first free place I discovered was McDonald's and it is not even that reliable to actually get on it. I will keep this as short as possible but will be hard with all that has gone on. 

We pick up my journey on Sunday, August 14^th….

The day began with a visit to a local Thermal Village in Rotorua. I will note here that besides the smell of sulfur (stronger than Pagosa Springs, CO) it was a very neat little town that I would recommend a visit to anyone coming here. 

Their homes and businesses surrounded the pool

The Thermal Village was home to another Maori tribe. A lady from the tribe took us on a tour that showed us how they lived in this area right by the pools, and how they used the thermal pools for everyday things. They bathed in them, washed clothes, cooked food in earth ovens, used the mud for their skin, etc. 

When the tour ended we got to see some of them do several traditional Maori dances, songs and a traditional Haka (known as a Maori war dance, which you can also see if you watch New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup these next two months). This was all a bit touristy to me when compared to the Maori Marae we had visited a few nights ago. It was still a great learning experience and since most people will not be able to go through the experience I got, this thermal village is a great place to visit. 

 

After we left the Thermal Village we headed into Rotorua for a quick lunch and a chance to buy some proper winter coats, gloves etc. I mention this mainly because this is the point that Tasha and I bonded. I did not have a winter jacket, hence you see me wearing my Texas Tech fleece in just about every picture. After lunch, I dragged Tasha around to about 20 different shops trying to find a cheap, woman's, winter coat. I was not being picky by any means but seriously could not find a one or gloves or a hat. I ended up in a men's store, to finally settle on a black man's jacket, gloves with no fingers, and a red/black striped toboggan. Yep not a great choice to settle on but it was all I could find. I spent money on gloves I ended up hating, a hat I never wore, and a jacket that I did use a lot but now do not want to get rid of because it is too nice. I am therefore dragging a bulky coat around for the first chance I can get to ship it home for one of my brothers to hopefully use!

  

Tasha and I in our new coats!

Tasha - She is a precious, very tiny, 19 year old girl from England (London area) and is one of the most musically talented people I have ever met. Yes there is an age difference but she is really quite mature for her age. We really connected over our love for sarcasm and a some what unhealthy need to not stand down when a challenge is presented to us. She informed me at one point that I am the first American she has met that understands her sarcasm and is also sarcastic themselves! I was amazed since I come from such a sarcastic family!! This is also actually a stereotype that Americans do not get sarcasm and are not sarcastic, so a point for me for proving that one wrong!!! We became fast friends and I look forward to many more trips with this girl. She is of course coming to my wedding because she will be singing in it. I have already given her her song to get ready. 

After our exciting lunch/shopping stop we headed on down the road. We first stopped at an amazing waterfall, Huka Falls, for a quick photo op.

Rapids to Huka Falls - not allowed to raft on these

Huka Falls

Our tour guide, Lance, had told us several days before that today would be our first opportunity to bungy jump. I came on this trip knowing that New Zealand was the place I wanted to do it for the first time since this is where it started commercially years ago. We were headed to Taupo Bungy with a 47 meter (154.1995 feet) jump! There was a group of 6 of us jumping with 2 having done one jump before. I was worried about chickening out but once you pay you cannot get a refund, so I went inside and paid before giving the bungy a look.

Ready to go!

Now for the kicker, the lady told me she could not guarantee me NOT going into the water AND that I might be going in up to my waist.

Ok so....

1. I LOVE water but not in freezing, cold winter time!

2. NO they did not have a towel at the bottom for me before I made the wonderful hike back up the side of the mountain.

3. Not going to get my precious Tech fleece drenched so had to take that off.

4. Hoping my swim team diving skills are still good!

5. Paid for with no possible refund.

She told me to do my best “Superman” jump (i.e. going out straight for a while instead of diving straight down). The longer I jumped out straight the better chance of not going in the water. This pretty much took care of my nervousness since I now had a challenge I had to overcome. You challenge me or say I cannot do something, will get me pretty focused to get it done. Who says I'm competitive?? I just prepared to dive like I did when on the swim team and went for it. 

Gotta give a Guns Up!

Still got the diving skills :)

I did not come out of the diving pose or make a noise until I realized I did not touch the water. I started screaming as soon as I knew I was not going into the water. It was such a thrill and over way, way too fast!! I had such an amazing sense of accomplishment at the end!!

This is something I recommend everyone to do at least once in their life. It was not jerky like you think it would be and I was concerned about that since I have some back issues. I really did not even feel it when it bounced and brought me back up. 

After we had all jumped, we headed on down the road to Tongariro National Park for the next few nights. As we were heading there the once in 50 years snow storm began. There was quite a bit of snow when we got there and it continued to snow throughout the night. 

Side Note: This was my first day of getting home sick. I had a pretty big day with the bungy jump but was unable to just text or call anyone back home to share it with someone. This got to me and I ended up having a bit of quiet, alone time that night to write some postcards to friends and family and write in my journal. I will say this has been the hardest thing for me to date to not have this simple act of contacting people whenever I need or want to. 

Monday August 15^th –

We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland in New Zealand in August!!! This set us up for a lazy day ahead since we could not do much because of the snowfall around us. Even the bus to go to the mountain for snowboarding/skiing was canceled. Janita, Sam, and I decided to sleep in since we did not have a set time to get up. 

Sam and I

Samantha aka Sam – Sweet, beautiful, tall, brunette girl from South Africa. We started to become closer friends on this portion of the trip. She shared a room with Janita and me for the two nights we were at Tongariro National Park. She had been with us on the Hobbiton tour and that is actually when our bond began over being very excited, nerds over it all!! I am very excited to go to SA to visit her some day!
 

Some of the group went on a 3 hour hike to see some waterfalls but since we were just getting up we opted out of going. I will say part of me regretted not going because the pictures were beautiful but I did have a very lovely day at the lodge with my girls. We sat in front of the fire, writing postcards, writing in our journals, reading, and drinking some hot chocolate.

Patio at the lodge

Later in the day some of us watched a movie, read, or played some UNO (YOU-NO is what the Australians call it). I tried and tried to tell them it was U-NO since it is a Spanish word but they would not change how they said it and of course frustrated me!!:)

Mount Tongariro (aka Mount Doom in LOTR)

This day was very chill all the way around and was nice since we had had some pretty hectic days so far. We even experienced two, massive earthquakes this evening that no one felt but the bus driver Scotty. We were after all staying next to 3 classified active volcanoes, Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe. Which in New Zealand it is fine to snowboard or ski on them and for your safety they do have escape routes in place if one does erupt and you need to get off that volcano in a hurry!!  I made sure and read up on all the notices posted around, including in the bathroom stalls, so I knew what I had to do in such an emergency.

Little light reading in the bathroom

The view from backside of the lodge

As the day progressed and the snow continued to fall off and on all day, we began to realize that we might not be able to leave the next day. We were to head to Wellington, get there by early afternoon, and have the rest of the day to explore the city. We would not find out until the morning if we could leave so, we went to bed planning on getting up early to head to Wellington.

Tuesday, August 16^th –

  

We got up early, ate breakfast, and found out at about 7:30am that the roads were closed. We would have to wait until 10am for the next report. I figured I should get on and put up my first blog and then played some UNO. We got the next report that the roads were still closed, next report at 12pm, so we all headed outside for some fun in the snow.

This was not great snowman building snow

Did some sledding down the road w/ Catriona (Irish friend)

The whole crew

Let’s be honest here, no, this does not look like a lot of snow and for what I have seen in my life it was not. This however, was a huge snowstorm for New Zealand since it was snowing in most of the country and even snowing at sea level in Wellington. There were many places that do not see snow that were getting snow. I was surprised it was not more and even when we started driving to Wellington was wondering why it took so long to open the roads. It did however make for some beautiful scenery for the rest of the trip, and Lance said he had never seen this much snow in many of the places we went. We got the report that the roads were open at 12pm so we headed on down to Wellington!!

Reminds me of Narnia

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and again for those LOTR rings fans is where Peter Jackson has his studio. This is where a great portion of filming was done. There was both indoor and outdoor filming done here so you can take several different tours to see the locations. I unfortunately did not have the time to do this and yes will be coming back someday (hopefully with my Mom) to do this tour.

After the beautiful drive to Wellington we had a quick dinner and then went out for the night since several of the people were leaving the tour at this point. I unfortunately had to say bye to Janita and Sam that night. They both had only signed up for the tour of the North Island. We had a blast all hanging out as a group that evening.

We found out this evening that we would be staying in Wellington another full day because the ferry that takes us over to the South Island was canceled. This was nice in that we got to have a full day in Wellington to do what we liked but also meant we were losing out on something scheduled on our tour. Later we found out that we would miss out on our night at Hamner Springs.

Wednesday, August 17^th –

Pointing out on New Zealand map where we are

We slept in this day and again had a lazy day to do whatever we wished to do. There was a free museum within walking distance of our hostel so several of us went there for a few hours. It was a rainy day and since we had not planned on being there, no one had any booked activities to do. 

This day was a pretty mellow day in retrospect. After the museum, we came back to the hostel, did laundry, read, rested, worked on journals, etc. A group of us girls went to eat and had a nice dinner out. I also got to introduce several of them to Bananas Fosters for dessert and they LOVED it!! We headed to bed early again “planning” on getting up for the ferry early in the morning.

Thursday, August 18^th –

We once again got up early and were delayed due to the weather and the ferry not crossing that morning. All we could do was sit, wait and hope we would be able to leave that afternoon. After a few hours we found out the ferry was going across that afternoon. We had a little bit of time to kill so we headed up to Mt. Victoria to see the view of the city from higher up. It was a rainy, cloudy day but still got an amazing view of the whole city.

Lynne, Me, Katie, Tasha, and Sarah

We finally headed to the ferry and boarded for our about 4 hour long journey to the South Island. The ride was a bit choppy in the open ocean but thankfully no one got seasick. When we got back into the calmer waters near the South Island we were able to go up top to take some pictures. I feel like all the pictures I have taken do not really do this place any justice. It is just so hard to capture the magnificent beauty of it all.

Definitely still getting use to driving on opposite side

We arrived in Picton and then continued on to Christchurch where we would be staying for the night. We had a 5 hour drive to get there so the rest of the day was spent on the bus and then a late dinner in Christchurch. We got to see some beautiful scenery this day but other than that it was a long travel day.

Friday August 18^th –

We had ANOTHER earthquake early this morning!! But…again no one felt it and did not know until Scotty told us. I would say having been in 3 earthquakes and not feeling a one is ok with me.

We were adding more new people to the tour today! We were going up from 13 people to 30 people for the next week. It was always exciting to add new people to see where they would be from and of course the opportunity to make new friends. I was also curious to see if I was going to still be the only American. 

Taking it down in pieces to rebuild

We drove around Christchurch a little so we did get to see some of the damage from the big earthquake but not much. The city centre where most of the damage was done is still blocked off and you can only get so close. They continue to have small earthquakes every day but not enough to cause much more if any damage. The city centre (American - center) is being rebuilt but will take some time. There were areas with buildings completely demolished and some with just areas to be rebuilt. We did drive by one church that was being taken apart piece by piece to be rebuilt because some of it had fallen and this was the best way to fix it. 

It was very sad to see all of the damage and sad because of the many things that were ruined. They have a famous Cathedral in the city centre that has been damaged and was one of the things I was looking forward to seeing. I am hoping to come back here someday. I pray that this city will rebuild and be back to what it once was. 
 

We picked up our new passengers and did our introductions on the bus. There were some new Germans, a group from Taiwan, several more English and Australians but no more Americans once again. It was kind of nice being the only American to be honest but at the same time made me sad that Americans do not travel like the rest of the world does. Spread the word Americans, to travel is to live!!

Pretty cool cloud cover over the mountains

We headed out of Christchurch and to a sheep farm for our morning tea and a tour of the farm. The farm was run by a very sweet couple who opens up their home to show us how things are run. Sheep here are like cows are in Texas. They are everywhere and you see them all the time while driving through the country. You can spot them in a lot of the pictures I took. 

The morning tea included cookies, scones, sausage rolls, tea, orange juice, and coffee. This is something that is practiced here and several European countries I have come to realize. They have breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. It was a very nice thing for this couple to do for us and it was my first homemade scone! I actually probably ate too many scones…. 

Watching the sheep dog do his job

We got a brief tour of the farm, held/petted some lambs, and watched as the sheep dog did his job. We were all given sheep dog whistles which I have yet to make a sound with. I am working on it though and will come back with an obnoxious toy but a great Texas Tech Gameday noise maker!!!

Lake Tekapo

After the sheep farm, we headed on down the road towards our accommodation for the night at Lake Ohau. The rest of the day was filled with stops by beautiful lakes to take some pictures and do a little goofing off. This country is by no means hurting for some beautiful scenery. It is also amazing how much countryside there is because if this was any other country the lakes would be surrounded with homes. The majority of lakes in New Zealand are uninhabited and therefore makes the place that much more special and beautiful!

Little bit of obstacle to get down to lake

Lake Pukaki

Lake Ohau (Our lodge sits next to this)

Doing a little bit of tree climbing

We stayed the night at the beautiful Lake Ohau Lodge. You have to be purposely coming to this place because the lodge is the only thing on this lake. This place is popular in the summer months for it's water and wilderness activities but more so in the winter months for it's skiing and snowboarding. It has been voted the best place to ski/snowboard in New Zealand for the past 3 years. We of course were not there long enough to try it out and not so sure my snowboarding skills are up to par. It is a pretty straight down, hardcore mountain so you have to be an excellent snowboarder to even attempt it. 

This was my first night to finally see those Southern Hemisphere stars I had been so excited to see since I started planning this trip. It was magical for me to be under a completely different night sky. I have always loved to sit under the stars and try to take in the vastness of our universe. I got to see the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. I have to work on finding more constellations but I got a whole year to do that!


The journey goes on next to Queenstown, so I will pick up there next post. I appreciate all who take the time to read this. Thank you! 


Until next time....

My first week in New Zealand

Hey there!! I can hardly believe that I have been gone for a week!! I can't believe all that I have done and experienced in such a short time. I will try to keep this brief but I do want to share several things with y'all. :)

I left Los Angeles, California on Saturday August 6th at about 12:30am (2:30am Texas time) and then arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 8:30am Monday August 8th. I flew Qantas and to be brief I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone to use them when you can. There are tons of nice touches and great food during the flight. Alcohol is even free, which I did not realize until my seat mate ordered one. You are even greeted, on your own personal screen, by none other than Mr. John Travolta!! I had a very sweet, seat mate from Germany who was also spending a few months abroad working but in New Zealand. His English was excellent since he had spent a year in Idaho in high school. I was terrified going through immigration and customs but it was very easy and only a little over an hour process. I did have to have my beef jerky examined but after a few minutes of him looking at the package I got the all clear.

My First Stamp on my Passport this trip!!

I caught a shuttle that went straight to my hostel. Since it is winter here there are not as many tourist so I was on the shuttle alone and was able to talk with the driver. He was very sweet and gave me tons of advice on what to do and see in Auckland. I was not able to check into the hostel until after 1pm so I had some time to kill. I headed out to the streets alone and amazingly felt very safe and quite natural to do this. I want to say that this was also a huge step for me as I do not do many things on my own for some reason so going out to explore by myself was a growing experience. I headed down Queen Street to the harbour to do a tour. I signed up for a tour and then walked around while I waited. When I was getting on the boat a lady recognized the Double T on my fleece and said "Hey Texas Tech!! We are from Texas too!" This was very exciting for me (as most of you know) and she and her husband took me under their wing for the tour.

Auckland skyline from the boat

My first time in the hostel was very nice. I was in a co-ed 6 bed room with 5 others all from England (4 of them were traveling together). There was another lone girl traveler and she was very quiet but after I kept talking to her, she warmed up and gave me some great advice on where to go in Australia and New Zealand. I will say there was quite an interesting experience when I first arrived into the room but to keep this G-Rated I will not post it here. Let's just say a young couple was staying in my room too. The other 4 had just arrived a few days before me and were starting their year abroad so had not done anything yet.

My first ever hostel stay

I headed out on another excursion on my own that evening to the Auckland Skytower. I was told it was great to see during the day and at night. I tried to get several of my bunk mates to go with me but no one seemed interested. It was a short 4 block walk from the hostel and I got the backpacker discount which was a plus!! It was a beautiful view and I am hoping to go back during the day time someday too.

Looking up at the Skytower

My tour with Topdeck Travel started on Tuesday August 9th at 12:30pm. I did not do much this day besides getting ready for the tour. I met a girl, Janita, on the elevator on the way down to meet the tour. We hit it off right away. She is from Melbourne, Australia and we have hit it off so well that others on the tour thought that we had known each other for years. It is crazy how that happens but I know it is a God thing that I met her and know that I have a friend for life.

My ride through the countryside for the next month (Scotty our driver)

We headed up to the Bay of Islands on the top of the North Island of New Zealand. The scenery was beautiful!! The Bay of Islands is a bay (obviously) with around 140 uninhabited islands.

Just a few of the islands ~ Beautiful place!!

Wednesday August 10th, we had the day to decide what we wanted to do. We headed up on a bus to drive down the Ninety Mile Beach (an actual highway here) and to the very tip to Cape Reinga, where you can see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean join. I would advise anyone that comes here to go to Cape Reinga. It is a spiritual place to the Maori (indigenous people of New Zealand) and so it is very peaceful and absolutely beautiful there!! I will be coming back here one day for sure.

Tasman Sea coastline

The Northern most point of NZ ~ This is
where you can see the Tasman Sea & Pacific Ocean joining

Thursday August 11th, we headed back to Auckland to drop off some people and pick up some more for the tour. This is something we do several times on the tour and only a handful of us are doing the whole 19 day tour. We did stop at a beautiful waterfall along the way and then in Auckland for lunch. We then headed down to Coromandel for the night. This was a beautiful but quiet little town since it was winter. I will probably just say now that everything thing here is beautiful and so green even for winter. I was told it is so much more beautiful in Summer but that is hard for me to imagine.

Whangarei Falls

I am jealous of the cows here :)

Friday August 12th, we headed to the Hot Water Beach where the water naturally warms the sands. None of us were dressed in swim suits (since it is winter) but we all headed down to at least put our feet in. There were quite a few other people there in suits enjoying the hot water. You can't actually put your feet in for very long, or at least I couldn't because it is quite hot.

People not worried about the cold

That night we stayed at a traditional Maori Marae. This a very, very big deal and we had to go through a welcoming ceremony to be able to come into the Marae and stay there. This is something that not many people get to do and actually not many New Zealanders will ever get to do. The reason we are allowed to do this is because the guy who founded Topdeck has been adopted by this certain Maori tribe and they gave him permission to do this. The only way to do this is through a Topdeck tour. The Maori man that greets us, goes through the traditional greeting to us and does it all in the Maori language. He then sings us a song in Maori and we have to stand up and sing a song back to him, loud and proud!! We had to pick a song and we choose to sing Stand By Me. We each then go up to everyone who has come to greet us, shake their hand, and then press our noses and foreheads together (you may have seen this in Whale Rider). There is no real way to express this experience but to say it was a very moving and spiritual experience for me. I am not allowed to post any pictures of this because out of respect for them we are not allowed to do this. Later I sat down with one of the Maori men, who designs personal tattoos for people, and told him my life story and he designed me a very beautiful tattoo. The tattoo will be placed on the inner side by my right ankle, and we had to tell him where we were putting it so that it is designed to go with the flow of our body. I have not gotten the tattoo yet but will probably do so by a Maori in Australia. This whole experience at the Maori Marae was quite simply amazing.

The whole group in front of Marae (morning we left)

Saturday August 13th, we had a fabulous breakfast at the Marae and then headed towards Rotorua. This was another optional day on what we wanted to do. I opted to head to Hobbiton for the morning. They are in the process of filming the next two movies and so it was all done up for them. I was allowed to take pictures and video but I can't share them. You are required to sign a legal document saying you will not post anything or give out any information you might receive while there. I am allowed to post those pictures after both movies have been released. I expect all of you to wait in anticipation for the next two years for those to be posted. :) It was pretty cool to be there and was actually feeling a little bit of a dork because I got so excited about it all.

Super EXCITED to be there!!

I found this right outside the bathrooms

I had a lazy afternoon this day and got a chance to Skype with my family for a little while. Janita and I were lucky enough to get cheap tickets to a local Rugby game for that night. The stadium was like my high school stadium but the sport is so much more aggressive and the players are VERY fit. They are out there without pads or helmets and in short sleeves shirts and shorts. It was such a blast!! I don't understand all the rules yet but I am working on it.

I got some pretty good action shots.

Let me tell you how in shape they all are!!

I think I will end the post there for now. :) I have been thinking how crazy it has been that I have been here for such a short time and done/seen so much!! I am not able to post pictures now but will add some soon to this blog and on Facebook....well at least the ones I will not get sued for posting. I am sure things will not be as exciting once I am working in Australia but who knows. I hope all of you were wonderful and thank you so much for reading!!!

How this all got started??

Many people have been asking me why I am moving abroad to Australia for a year, so I figured I would inform all you inquiring minds the wonderful story....

The desire began a few years back when I went on my first trip abroad at 18 years old. It was a short one month trip to Europe through a program my high school offered. I got to see Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and England in that one month and earned a little college credit too.

(My Europe group - can you find me??)

I had a fabulous time and could not wait to go back. I especially wanted to take a vacation without the homework!! I not only wanted to visit but move to Europe. I wanted to immerse myself into a different culture and not just visit it. I wanted to be a traveler not a tourist.

Then came college and more college and working and more college. My college career was somewhat a never ending process for me that took me longer than the average person. I may have taken longer in college but God blessed me with wonderful experiences and friends along the way. I know that if I had graduated "on time" I would not have many of the amazing friends I have today.

(My Raider Recruiter Years)

(Friends I made living in the dorms)

(A few of my Bodyworks friends)

(Some of the best girlfriends a girl could have)

In all those years in college I never pursued a chance to study abroad and honestly cannot tell you why. I then came across an opportunity to move to Florida and work at Walt Disney World for a semester. I snatched up that opportunity quick! I became a lifeguard, I made life-long friends, and had tons of wonderful experiences in those 4 short months.

My Disney Roommates (Annie is missing)

(My Blizzard Beach Crew)

I did think, ok moving out of state, and farther than I had ever been from family would take the overseas moving bug out of me. Guess what? It only made the desire worse because of what a fabulous experience I had in Florida. Yes, I know Florida vs. Europe is not the same but still I knew moving overseas someday was still in my blood.

Finally, came my last few years of college and I began to inquire about what would give me a opportunity to move to Europe for at least a year. I first looked into being an Au Pair/Nanny since I had several friends who have done this and loved it. I have a passion for children and figured this was the route for me too. I continued looking into this option actually until a few months ago when I knew being an Au Pair would not give me the freedom or sufficient funds to travel. The ability to travel is my driving force so that I can experience as much of a different part of the world as possible.



I cannot say that there was a defining moment that I decided on Australia instead of Europe, except that it became the most logical and for me the most exciting. I would not have to learn a new language (which I am not against and definitely want to learn other languages in my lifetime). I knew it would not be as much of a culture shock for me and that it was a country that seems to not be pursued by many in the United States because of the cost of flights and the distance of the flight as well. I know tons of people that have been to Europe but only a handful have been to Australia or any part of that side of the world. I will have to drive on the opposite side of the road when I drive but what a fun thing to get to do!! The whole country intrigues me. As I continue to research it and talk to people, it just gets me more and more excited. There are SO many things to see and do there and I cannot wait!!!


So, I had decided for sure that I was going to Australia and now began the how to get there, money it would cost, etc. I discovered the Working Holiday Visa option and what a fabulous option it would be for me. The WHV is something you can only do once in your lifetime, for most countries you have to apply for before you turn 31 (cutting it close I know), and the primary reason to get this visa is to travel and work is secondary to supplement your travels. Bingo!! At some point I found several companies that exist to help me in this pursuit. I had to first apply to a company and get approved by them before moving forward. BUNAC is the company I am going through.


BUNAC will be my main support system while I am in Australia or any of the surrounding countries. They pick me up from the airport, have my first few nights stay booked for me, help me with my resume for jobs, give me free internet service and computers to use at their office, free luggage storage for however long, give me a prepaid SIM card to use in my Aussie phone, and help me find a job and place to stay. They are there for whatever I may need. This company has been around for years and have offices all over the world including the US. I even have the hook-up with a friend of a friend who works at STA Travel in D.C. that has done this whole thing through BUNAC to Australia last year. She has been an amazing help!!


As of right now, no I do not have a job set up or a place to live. I will be staying in a hostel the first week at least and I know the job will come. I have had quite a few different jobs so I am sure I will not have any problems finding a job. I also know that I have an advantage over other foreigners because English is my first language. I will be going there at the end of their winter and so will not have to compete with college students for jobs.


Well now you know the wonderful road that led me to this exciting adventure!! It has been a process for me to get to this point but I am finally making my dreams come true!!


I have set up this blog to keep my loved ones up-to-date and whoever else wanders onto this site. I am hoping to get on at least once a week if not more to post an update along with some pictures. I will try to be as entertaining as possible so I keep you coming back!


Please leave comments, suggestions, or questions as I go along to help me out. Thank you for reading and have a fabulous day!!