Vivid Last Call

Friends!

Well...looks like Vivid's last night was Saturday. Thankfully, I got a notification about it so I forced myself to go see the botanical gardens. Unfortunately, it was pretty underwhelming so I walked around The Rocks, which is the center of all the bars and food scene in Sydney. 

The Botanical Gardens had a huge line, so I thought it would be pretty exciting, and believe me, it was beautiful with all the lights on the threes, but there wasn't many picturesque things to show you all...except for these Kiwi's. Check em out. 

Pretty cool how they look like light bulbs, right? 

Part of the garden display was filled with these block letter reflections with an inspiring message. Pretty cool. 

After the Gardens I just walked around and found some other cool lit displays, like this alley filled with umbrellas. If only I didn't go alone, I could have got some awesome pictures like Mary Poppins!

Lastly and most random I found this very colorful mailbox!

The last night of Vivid was a success that included some awesome raspberry pink lemonade, a pork belly bao bun, and a performance by some aboriginal kids.

Well...back to studying and packing for the next five days.

See you soon!

Christine

Vivid Take 2

Hi everyone!

I am down to my final week here in Sydney, so it is time to say goodbye to all the things I will miss, and time to see things that I have yet to have seen during my time here. Amongst all of this I need to pack, study for my last two exams, and get excited to see everyone when I get back!

Today I took a walk that I have done a few times, but not in full. I walked down memory lane I guess you could say, when I walked the coastal walk all the way from Coogee Beach to Bronte Beach and then I ended up at Bondi Beach and then walked all the way back. All three beaches I have been to during my time here. After living in Bronte the first month I was in Sydney, I have to say, that was the one I will miss the most.

Maybe if Jersey beaches looked like this I wouldn't have to miss it so much...

Another adventure today was to the Toronga Zoo, to continue my Vivid festivities. The whole thing was pretty awesome, minus the wandering kids in the dark and the many parents freaking out when their child wandered three feet away. So check me out being a kid...

Grace's favorite animal!

Family photo?

A lot of the animals were changing colors and moving too which was cool. But I was kind of upset there was no kangaroo or penguin displays... :(

My next Vivid adventure will hopfeully be at the Botanical Gardens so stay tuned!

Peace & Studying,

Christine

P.S. I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH FINANCE AND I THINK I PASSED! Cheers mates!

Last 12 Days Down Under

Hi Everyone!

For those who didn't know, my friend Ashley and I had a 5 day long trip to Phuket, Thailand planned for after our Finance exam today. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the trip so my next week and a half won't be as eventful as originally planned. But, fear not, I have some better news.

As of today, I will finally be done with my finance class. For anyone who has been keeping in touch with me, they know that Finance is kicking my butt. I have been studying for 2 weeks for this exam and still feel pretty unprepared, thankfully, it is a pass/fail class. Classes abroad are unlike any in the States and they are extremely harder, even though you'd think they'd be a breeze. So as of today I will be halfway through all of my exams!

So...now that I don't have a trip planned, what am I going to do?

I have one more exam being held here before I leave, and it should be considerably easier than finance so I need to keep myself busy with other activities before my departure. Currently, there is a festival called Vivid going on in Circular Quay, where the Opera House is held. It is a display of lights, music, with some cool food. I went a few days ago as a send off for Ashley, so here are some pictures to give you an idea...

There are several attractions including one at the Taronga Zoo and another at the Botanical Gardens. I plan on going several nights out of the week to see all of the show that I can. There are plenty of other activities as well that I wasn't going to get to...so now's my chance.

Stay tuned for a post about all of my last adventures down under...

See you soon,

Christine

Road Trippin' in Melbourne

Hey all!

In Australia, there are two main cities: Sydney and Melbourne. Between the two there is often a debate about which city is better. In this post, I'll give you my consensus on the topic.

When we arrived in Melbourne, we rented a car to do the most talked about road trip in Australia; The Great Ocean Road. This is a road that stretches along the coast of Melbourne going past many famous rock formations such as the 13 Apostles, the London Bridge, and many more. We split this part of the trip into a day and a half. The first day we were very lucky with weather and views, the other day was quite rainy, but lucky for us we had the whole place to ourselves.

Some cool beach with a bunch of caves!

Just happened to stumble
upon this lighthouse!

The 13 Apostles (unfortunately there are only
8 because of weather and erosion)

After our adventures along The Great Ocean Road, which truly was great, we headed into the city of Melbourne.

In the city there was tons of shopping, some markets, a few museums and lots and lots of graffiti art. And the first day, we did it all. We started with exploring the stores, which were mostly department-type stores, so nothing super exciting, although we all bought some warmer clothes because highs were in the low 50's!

We also went to an art museum and pretended to know what we were talking about and finally ended up walking down some streets adorned with graffiti. 

Reppin the Drexel Dragon

The next day, we did the most instagramed thing in Melbourne...the Brighton Beach Boxes. (p.s. this beach was much nicer than Brighton Beach, NJ). The boxes go all along the beach and are painted in awesome colors so we of course had to strike a few poses, especially in front of the Australia Flag themed box!

The gang!

One of my many posed beach box photos (view more -->)

Later in the day found a cool town called Fitzroy where we did some shopping while Courtney finished a group project in a cafe. After that adventure, we tried to rent bikes to ride through the Botanical gardens but got very lost and had to go back. But this time there was no falling off the bike and I even conquered some city riding. Guess I need to blame my bad bike skills on the wine tasting that accompanied the bike ride in New Zealand. Later in the evening we went to see the Penguins that come out around Sunset on the pier!

Very familiar bridge walk into the city of Melbourne

Overall the trip went by really fast, and although I don't regret studying abroad in Sydney, I LOVED Melbourne. The town was full of things I loved, shopping, coffee, and art. The entire scene was different and chill, instead of the upbeat fast paced city of Sydney. In US terms I would compare Sydney to New York. But Melbourne on the other hand was a nice mix of London and Philly and it definitely reminded me of the City of Brotherly Love where I will be headed in 24 days. 

Signing off for now...

Christine 

Deadly Activities Round 2

Hey y'all!

Ready for some more fun?

This past weekend Ashley and I did something crazy... A SHARK DIVE

This dive gave us another chance to scuba dive, this time with some awesome animals that most people use a cage to dive with, but not us.

I think these pictures will be quite self explanatory...

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that this dive was at a safe little aquarium. But I think we are still pretty crazy seeing what happens with wild animals in captivity all the time.

We also ended the day with some crazy amazing food at this cute little italian restaurant at Manly Beach! I got some yummy pasta with crab and asparagus.

NOM NOM

Oh and also got this chocolate shake topped with a nutella filled donut that I swear had half a small jar of nutella on the inside.

Even too much for a nutella lover. I guess I'll be spending the rest of this week at the gym..

Tootles!

Christine

Last month Down Under

Hey hey!

I haven't been posting much...and someone keeps looking at the blog, so I thought I'd give them something to read. 

The last few weeks have been kind of boring because classes are starting to wind down and everyone has projects, papers, and exams. But, no worries. Exciting things are to come!

Next week, Ashley and I will be swimming with some sharks, and the weekend after Courtney and I are off to Melbourne. Once our Melbourne trip commences, that will probably be the extent of the Australian travels. :(

BUT NOT TO FEAR. Once we get back from Melbourne, Ashley and I are going to kick some booty on our Finance final and then hours later we are hopping on a plane to go somewhere exciting...stay tuned for that adventure....

Back to procrastinating my last paper in my least favorite class...psychology. 

Aussie out, 

Christine

The Nasty Camels of Aussie

Hi Everyone!

We are now down to the last two months in Australia and it is flying by. With lots of exams and papers coming up we don't have any exciting adventures planned until the end, but I will keep you posted on anything slightly interesting that is happening!

Last weekend my two roommates, Emily Courtney, and two of courtney's friends went on a road trip to Port Stephens. We rented a car and headed up there for the day. After the nauseating car ride, we finally arrives to lots of ocean, and huge sand dunes, and even some camels.

The entire draw to Port Stephens is sand boarding on the sand dunes. You sandboard by getting a snowboard looking thing, but unfortunately it is too dangerous to stand, so we had to sit. But being the daredevils we were we went to an unmonitored sand dune that was much higher than the one that the company was watching.

Here is a cool video!

We also met some of the nastiest camels I have ever met. Some were even mussled from how much they sit. And the trainer kept warning up that camels kick.

See? TERRIFYING

During this photo the trainer was warning me about getting
kicked and I was slowly trying to move away

Overall it was a super fun day, and although we chased the sunset and missed it, it was a fun adventure!!

Till the next aussie adventure...

xoxo, 

Christine

Birthday and Bye

Hello hello!

We finished up our fun week! But before Mom left we had an entire day that was about her. We went to tour the Opera House, and then later took a ferry ride over to Darling Harbour where we had an awesome dinner, paid by yours truly.

The entire trip was so amazing, and I had tons of fun. Unfortunately it was too much of a taste of home then I could handle. I am really wanting to come home now, although I know I am in an amazing place that people would die to be at. Home is where the heart is, in more ways than one.

But, the last day started at 4 am, when I had a little dilemma at home, and had to attend to my phone. Once I came back into the room Mom was up with me as well because her flight was changed, thanks to VP Mike Pence. After much stress and phone calls we figured it out and the flight was changed to a decent time.

Since we were up, we ordered room service and chilled out until the tears set in. Although Mom missed home, she didn't want to leave, and knowing how much I missed home and my friends, it made it that much harder.

But everyone is safely back to where they were two weeks ago, and now begins the countdown to classes being over!

Miss you all dearly,

xoxo,

Christine

p.s. sorry for no pictures, but all the New Zealand pictures are to the right on the blog page! -->

Going Out With a Bang!

Hi Hi!!

Today was our last day in Queenstown before heading back to Sydney for two days. We flew out in the mid afternoon so we had plenty of time to do one more adventure in Queenstown, and Mom picked it!

Turns out she has been jealous of all my daredevil activities and wanted to tag along, so we did a bungee swing, which is an activity New Zealand is known for because they have the biggest bungees in the world.

It was super fun to do... but it will be even more fun to watch the video below...

Not scared at all, aye? 

Hope you enjoyed our thrill. Well... One more full day with Mom, and lucky for her, it's a big one! Her BIRTHDAY!!

Till adventure's end...

xo,

Christine

Making the Most of it!

Hey there!

Today was are finally full day in New Zealand. We were at our final destination in Queenstown. We had an awesome day planned to Milford Sound, by plane where we would take a boat to lunch. But unfortunately...the weather was too bad in Milford Sound to head over there via airplane, and it was too long to drive. I would recommend googling Milford Sound to see some pictures and to fully understand why we were so upset.

But, since it was our last day we needed to make the most of it, and what is a better way to do that than shopping and wine?

We headed up to a vineyard where we rented bikes and went on a ride past two wineries where we did some wine tasting and got a tour.

So athletic, right? 

We were doing so well, and the scenery was beautiful; feeling good after our free wine tasting and our exercise. All until Miss. Clumsy over here (that'd be me), fell off her bike into a prickly bush. I had the camera so Mom thought I was just taking pictures and when I caught up to her she was like, "I was starting to get worried." Turns out after you turn 18 your Mom's motherly instincts kind of slow down. I'm fine by the way and I will blame it on the wine. But in reality I tried to wipe my nose because it was running. But I only ended up wiping out. I believe I will be pulling out splinters until I arrive back to the USA.

Once we were done there we did a cheese tasting, because what goes better with wine than cheese?

The cheese tasted as good as this cheese board looks!

Then we finished off the night with some shopping for souveniers. It wasn't the day we planned for, but it turned out to be alright. Here's to the last few hours and Queenstown and our final adventure in NZ.

Beautiful, aye? 

Cheers,

Miss Clumsy aka Christine

It's the Climb

Hello again,

Sorry for bombarding everyone with blog posts and pictures, but I want you to see all about our adventures, so it's easiest to do it as I go.

Today, we did a waterfall climb in Wanaka. The entire day I thought this climb was going to be a steep walk to a waterfall with a tour guide. WRONG. Right before we left Mom showed me what it was...and let's just say I am very surprised she booked it!

It was basically rock/mountain climb. We were holstered in and we had clips that you had to clip on as you go always keeping two out of the three of your clips attached at all times.

Surprised this picture isn't blurry from how much
the bridge was moving under me

We even felt confident enough to dangle!

After this little adventure we hopped in the car and headed to a pit stop, Arrowtown. But before getting there we noticed this along the road...

Nothing like breast cancer awareness!

Arrowtown was a super cute town. All the leaves were changing as well and it was super colorful.

After this we headed to Queenstown, our final New Zealand adventure. Thankfully, I was able to get a very New Zealand-like picture today while driving. The beautiful mountains, with the famous, New Zealand sheep.

 

Last adventures to come...

xoxo, 

Christine

Helicoptering to Mount Cook

Hi!

Yesterday was a long day, but it was a day full of amazing views. It all started with a helicopter ride from Lake Tekapo all the way to Mount Cook and the Tasman Glacier. Mount Cook is the largest mountain in all of New Zealand. During the helicopter ride we saw the entire mountain range and even saw some volcanic rock glowing on the top of one of the peaks.

 

The mountain tops and part of the tasman glacier's path

During the ride, we also landed on the top and took some amazing pictures. 

Striking a pose, as always

After our helicopter ride we back tracked and drove back an hour and a half to the most walked trail in all of Lake Tekapo. The trail was about three hours and took us super close to Mount Cook! There were also a few of the first swing bridges, which swung quite a bit when you walked across.

Biggest mountain in New Zealand??

There she is, Mount Cook in all her glory

Once we finished up the walk we had a three hour drive to our next destination, Wanaka. On the way the sun was setting and we made sure to pull over to get a good picture.

Today is off to a waterfall climb. Wish us luck...

Signing off,

Christine

Road Trip Central

Howdy all!

Yesterday was quite the day, it all started in Geraldine for a few hikes. The first hike took us to a huge tree that was over 3 meters wide. The second took us to a waterfall that was more muddy than it was worth. I also fell in the water trying to get the crappy picture. But I cleaned off my muddy sneakers!

The Big Tree Walk tree!

After our hikes, we hopped in the car and drove about an hour and a half to Lake Tekapo. Along the way was lots of pretty scenery so we stopped a few times to take some pictures. The most exciting picture, was of the sheep of course!

I was literally in someone's yard taking this picture 

Pretty, right?

We even stopped at this cute little stand because we had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately though they didn't have any toilets! :(

"Sorry, NO TOILETS"

Once we got to Lake Tekapo and finding a toilet we took quite a photoshoot in front of the lake. Also, this church is the most photographed church in all of New Zealand, and I somehow got all the pictures without other tourists looking in the window of the church.

In the midst of taking this picture I was told by someone
else to get out of her picture, RUDE

Breathtakingly beautiful

Today is off to helicopter that lands on top of Liebig Dome. And then it's off to the most popular walk in the Mount Cook Park where there is the first swinging bridge and a view of Mueller Glacier.

Next Stop: Wanaka, NZ

Adventures & Love,

Christine