Sydney

I have completely neglected my blog in the month of July it seems! July was a strange month for me. It consisted of an extremity of nothingness to 2 blissful weeks. The first half, Vincent and I were trying our hardest not to spend any money at all in an attempt to have the most we could for Australia, so as you can imagine it's pretty hard to go anywhere or do anything without spending money. We turned into nanas and started 1000 piece jig saws and cross words! To be honest it was more fun than it sounds. One day in the future we'll look back on our old skint selves and laugh while remembering our hurting bank accounts!

26th July, we set off for Sydney from Rotorua. A smooth enough flight until suddenly we hit some turbulence. I've always been a good flyer but this turbulence made me slightly nervous, especially when it felt like the plane had suddenly dropped giving Vincent and I a huge shock! So we landed safely in Sydney and got the train into the city to find our hostel. Having done Kiwi Experience I was well accustomed to staying in backpackers and I don't mind at all. However. This is the worst one I've seen and I thought I had seen a couple of dodgys! But it was only for 2 nights and it was cheap so we got used to the 'slumming it' feeling haha. That night we just went out for drinks and dinner, not staying out too late to party as we wanted to get up early to make the most of our one full day in Sydney.

So we wake up and decide to go to a little French patisserie I had spotted before for breakfast. I am quite the fan of all things French so I enjoyed sitting with my crepe and coffee in this French styled bakery. This was when we spotted a hop on hop off tour bus in our Sydney Guide. We were planning on just going for it,exploring the city on our own. Although I had been on this same bus while in New York and found it was definitely the best way to see all of the city! There we were on the top of an open top double decker in Sydney, ducking to avoid branches and getting a great view of everywhere. We stopped off at the Opera House, took a few pictures as you do, and took a walk through the gardens. It was such a beautiful day! So lovely and warm in 'Winter'. Next stop - the fish market. Random. But we had a lovely BBQ seafood lunch (I've become more open to seafood since being in NZ, whereas at home I would never have really considered ordering it.)

Very windy on the bus..

Next stop we got off - Sydney Aquarium. This place was impressive! I loved going into the underwater tunnels and seeing sharks, sting rays, small whales, and all colours of fish swimming around and above you. We continued on our tour and took more pictures at the bridge and Opera House. By this stage we were getting tired and hungry again. I was hoping to get the Ferry to Manly Island and also climb the Tower at the bridge but at the time it felt like we had already done loads and would do it perhaps next time we come to Sydney! So we went out for some drinks and walked about China town finding somewhere to eat. We ended up eating at a lovely Indonesian restaurant. I love trying new things, and Indonesian food is definitely something I've never had the chance to try before!

So both Vincent and I had a lovely time in Sydney together. We had to get up super early in order to make a 6.20am flight to Brisbane! But that's for the next post!

Thanks for reading x

Zorb & Plans for Aus

On Saturday Elle, Liana and I went Zorbing. It was so much fun! Basically you get into a big inflatable ball... and roll down a hill. They put water in ours too so it meant the 3 of us were slipping and sliding all over the place. Very funny!

I think it originated in New Zealand but is spreading throughout the world now. So if you ever get a chance to do it, I recommend it! Can be quite expensive in some places, but it is a lot of fun!


In other news, my plans for Australia are SORTED. Vincent and I leave to go to Sydney on 26th July. We're only staying there 2 nights because the funds are low and it's a very expensive place I hear. Then we head to Brisbane to stay with Vincent's older brother. I'm very excited because I have never met him before but met all the rest of the family. So we stay there until 7th August, which gives us a chance to visit all the attractions in and around the Gold Coast such as Movie World! I'm very excited for the theme parks and also the zoo!

Also looking forward to the weather being a bit more sunny and warmer than here in New Zealand up around the Gold Coast. I don't like winter!

Have any of you ever been to Sydney or Brisbane? Any suggestions as to what we should definitely see and do?

I Believe I Can Fly!

Today was unlike any other day.

Today I jumped out of a plane...

...at 15,000 feet. Thats fifteen thousand feet! Haha, had to reiterate that, I can hardly believe it myself.

It. Was. Amazing.

The best thing I've ever done!!! I was super excited as we got in the plane and when it took off I was just psyched up so much! When it came to the point for me to jump I just thought 'nooo.....' but I knew I wanted to do it and there's no going back anyway because your tandem master (the guide you're attached to) WILL jump!! So we edge to the edge of the plane door, I'm hanging there,legs dangling out of a moving plane at 15,000 feet high thinking 'What am I DOING?!!' and then we fall. It is actually physically breath-taking. I freefalled for 60 whole seconds, and it takes about 20 seconds for it to kick in what is actually happening. You are travelling at 200 kilometres per hour towards the ground! There's another skydiver filming you and taking photos, so it is rather reassuring to see another person jumping below you! He shakes your hand and makes you smile while you're falling! 

The wind resistance causes your face to go all wobbly, you feel like you can't get a breath at first but after those first 10-20 seconds you just start loving it. I didn't want the parachute to open yet, I wanted to fall forever! (Not to the ground,obv! lol.)

It seems like 2 seconds until your parachute opens and you're gliding along, free as a bird over beauutiful views,lake Taupo, Mount Taranaki wayyyy over on the east coast of NZ (Taupo is in the middle!) and you really can see for miles and miles around you. This is a great chance to just take it all in, reflect on what just happened!

"I JUST JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE!!!"
"YES, YES YOU DID!!"

That was the just of the conversation when the parachute opened between the tandem master and I haha.

A few awesome little photos follow.... 

Enjoy!!!

As you can see in some I have a massive smile on so I was clearly loving it and it's true. I'd do another one in a minute!!!

Night Out; Photos; Taupo Tomorrow!

Last night I went out again with Elle. Wow you'd think we never stopped partying! Normally we have a great night every night but last night it was just one of those nights where it is FAR too packed, people are pushing you around..I got drinks spilt on me twice! Grr to bulky boys who can push me and my friends about haha. Here is a picture of the two of us besties. I wore a black lacy dress (ok ok, it's Elle's but I love it!) and Elle went with a cool nautical look with a nautical ring as well!

Vincent came later that night after he'd finished work at the bar he works at.

The main reason for this post is just to show you some pictures I think are pretty cool. I regularly go onto the website we heart it and save pictures that catch my eye, so I did not create any of the below images, although I wish I did!

This is so true of life. So often when something goes wrong or against our plans we feel like it's the end of the world and we just wanna give up, especially when we're young. But from experience I know this, I had this life plan where I'd start medicine at uni September 2010, but when I didn't get in (it's extremely competitive) I was forced to either take a gap year, or chose another course. I wanted desperately to go to uni, but more so to do medicine. So I reluctantly chose to take a gap year. All my friends were going to uni and I had to begin the application process again.

Long story short, I have an unconditional offer for medicine in Glasgow in September 2011, and I am currently in New Zealand. How awesome? So now that I've seen 'the dark' I can certainly see 'the stars'. Life has a plan again. And I'm looking forward to it!

 I think these are beautiful! I really want to try this / have someone do it for me!

I love this. There's so much fakery in the world so it's always good to have a good head on you, to keep grounded, and recognise when people aren't being their true selves. That's the only person we should be!

This one speaks for itself. Everyone has regrets.

But if we look to the first picture, sometimes regrets lead to darkness but without that we might not appreciate what comes along next!

I'm ambitious, I don't give up. I'm a day dreamer with a strange as imagination! But hey, Albert Einstein was the one who said "Imagination is more important than knowledge..." and I think I'll agree with him on this one!

In other exciting news, I am going to Taupo tomorrow for two nights where I'm going SKYDIVING for my birthday with Vincent (Skydiving totally deserves capital letters....eeeek!)

Not gonna lie, I'm scared! But I'm gonna do it. So hey guys if you see a post later this week, I made it! And I'll post photos up ASAP.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend....x

Recent Nightlife

Hello lovelies, I thought I would do a little blog to show a few pics of recent nights out! Has been busy busy social life lately with my bestie Elle...

First, if you read my post about my 19th birthday, you'll know I went out that night. The lovely Liana came around to get ready with Elle and I. We had a great night just getting ready together..Elle did our hair and make-up! She's my personal beautician..haha.

Babes In Black

Shatter Girls

Elle also surprised me with this cake, YUM pink icing sponge cake with a photo of us and Victoria Secret Beauty Rush lipgloss. Cute!

More photos follow...

Liana and I drinking cocktails out of a jar..normal!


The next lot of photos are from last night when Elle and I went out with her friend Jessie who is home from Australia...

Always a fun night when Elle and I are about!

Best Blog and Butterfly Awards

I've been awarded two blog awards! I love finding that someone has enjoyed my blog enough to award me one of these!

First off, Rach at Island Girl Insights awarded me the Butterfly Award. Thank you!

Rules of the Award:

- write a random fact about yourself

- pass the award on

- notify the bloggers who got it

Random fact: I've just booked flights to go to Australia. Yay more adventures!

I am awarding a blog I just discovered, Anna Bell and also Megan and Katelyn at Crosswire Dreamers.

I was also awarded the Best Blog Award by both Island Girl Insights and Hannah Michelle, both really cool girls. You should check out their blogs if you haven't already!

Rules:

- Link back to the person who awarded you

- Share 7 random facts (I've done this before here!)

- Award 15 blogs

- Answer the following questions:

Name your favourite colour: Pink!

Name your favourite song: I can never chose just one but I love Pretty Wings by Maxwell

Name your favourite dessert: A really yummy carrot cake, apple crumble, chocolate cake.. There's too many!

What is pissing you off? My skin is being stupid and dry no matter what I try

When you're upset, you... Go quiet

Your favourite pet: I've only ever had one rabbit and goldfish so Honey my rabbit who I used to call honeybun haha!

Black or White?: Black

Your biggest fear is...: The idea of a house fire really freaks me out

Your best feature is...: My eyes, and my long legs haha - i'm TALL

Everyday attitude: PMA - Positive Mental Attitude. Gets you places!

What is perfection? If we were perfect, we would have no room for mistakes, and then we just wouldn't be human!

Guilty pleasure: Long lie ins

I'm just going to award my couple of favourites

Superficial Sanctuary
Click and Make Up by Vonnie

and my sis Elle at Ellary's Place

Happy Birthday To Meee!

Today is my 19th birthday! Yay!

I've had such a lovely time already. My boyfriend Vincent surprised me by organising a really thoughtful dinner last night! His two friends who are qualified chefs cooked us a 5 course meal with champagne and candles. So cute and romantic!

They also surprised me with a birthday cake, carrot cake mmmm.

I woke up this morning to find out what my present is...

Firstly Vincent's family gave me a card with a voucher for 2 nights in a spa motel in Taupo - wow! Sounds perfect.

Then I found out what Vincent got me....

A SKYDIVE!!

So next Tuesday I'm going to be falling out of a plane from 12,000 feet! Yikes!

This morning we went out for breakfast with his friends who cooked us dinner, yummy pancakes and coffee.

I didn't actually have banana hearts! But this pictures cute.

Tonight Elle, Liana and I are heading to Lava Bar. They helped me pick out a dress where they both work yesterday. Gonna be a nice girly night getting ready together. Elle is going to do my hair, make-up and nails! Looking forward to it!

Christchurch - Part II

I woke up on Saturday morning at 6.50am to another aftershock, 4.4. When you wake up to one you don't fully register what's happening, so I found that once the shaking stopped I just went back to sleep. It still felt surreal, the room shaking, hearing rattle sounds around the house, really kinda freaky!

That morning Lisa took me to a market where I was hoping to get one of the 'Munted' t-shirts (there's a picture in my previous blog) but unfortunately that was the one week that the man who made them chose to take a day off - typical! Not to worry, I'm going to try and order one online and get it sent to my Rotorua address, however I would have liked to have seen them properly first!

Lisa and I decided to go to one of the big shopping malls just for a look around, so we walked about, testing out different make ups in the Body Shop and a pharmacy. I was very good and didn't purchase anything because I've spent soo much recently on my Kiwi experience and all the activities I did while on it!

That night Jacqui and I were looking for something to do - a hard task when most of the city is closed! So we looked online and found that Speight's Ale House had a band called Smashbox playing who looked pretty good so we decided to eat there then stay for the band. Jacqui had blue cod fish and chips which came out in the Otago Daily Times - a really good touch! This was when I learnt blue cod isn't actually blue.... haha.

The band was really good and played music that got people up dancing. Jacqui and I had a laugh watching some people and decided you can have a really good sober night just watching drunk people!!

On Sunday we went to Hanmer Springs where they have a whole complex of thermal hot pools. This was bliss! We had a nice relaxing day broken up by going down the slides, some of which were actually kinda scary! There was one of those pitch black ones where you don't know when a corner is coming up, and another where you get dumped into a big bowl and go round and round..and round!

Me with Lisa on the left and Jacqui in the middle

That evening we went to Woodpecker's for Tim's 3rd birthday - Lisa's partner's son - where we had lovely food while the kids all played in a big ball pit next to us. I got my picture taken in the birthday seat because I turn 19 on Thursday!

My flight leaves Monday early afternoon, so I have to say goodbye to Lisa on Sunday night as I would be asleep when she leaves for work. It was sad having to say goodbye to her because she's a cousin who I've only just met from across the world and have to leave again! But I'm sure I'll see her again sometime. Same goes for Jacqui who brought me to the airport on Monday. We got coffee and hot chocolate and sat until my flight was called to go through security. I really didn't like having to say goodbye to her either - I'm not good with goodbyes whether I've known them a lifetime or a weekend!

I board my Air New Zealand plane and got a nice surprise to find it was one of the All Black planes for the Rugby World Cup with black leather seats, all very spacious! The outside is painted black and white too. New Zealand really is crazy about rugby!