Morgan came to visit!

Wow!  It was a busy 2 weeks but I definitely did a lot of things I wouldn't have normally done.  Morgan arrived in Gold Coast on Saturday the 11th and around 4 that day we left for a concert in Brisbane.  We walked around waiting for the show to start and experienced a bit of Brisbane nightlife (and food…finally found some good Mexican).  The show was really good (womp womp dubstep) and went until 5am…perfect timing because we took the 6:30am train back to Gold Coast!  Sunday was her birthday and we were wiped but forced ourselves to go out, we didn't last long.

That Tuesday we went to Stingray for taco Tuesdays!

And the rest of the week we made many trips to the beach (Surfers Paradise, Burleigh Heads & Broadbeach).

Polaroids on the beach

We walked to the top of a hill in Burleigh Heads that had a great view of Surfer's Paradise.

View from the start of the hike in Burleigh

View from the top of the hike in Burleigh

During the weekend we took a day trip to natural bridge and Cedar Creek (which is on Mt. Tamborine).  It's about an hour drive and we went with about 10 people.  It was a really fun day full of hiking and swimming.

THEN, on Monday we caught a greyhound to Byron Bay.  I had heard great things about Byron and I can definitely say it is my favorite spot in Australia so far.  It is a small beach town with amazing boutiques, a beautiful beach and a really scenic hike to  a top of a hill with a lighthouse.  On Monday we walked around looking at the shops and then walked to the lighthouse.  The next day we had a really good breakfast at a cafe and headed back around 2.

An amazing boutique started by 2 sisters from Byron.

Morgan and I were so busy but we had a blast!! Anna comes in 2 weeks and I'm really looking forward to having her here :)

xx Michelle

21st birthday & private island party

I woke up on my birthday to a huge surprise!  The girls and I had planned to walk over to Zarraffa's (Australia's Starbucks) for coffee and breakfast.  I was getting ready and someone knocked on my door…it was Kirsty, Katie and Rachel with a cake, donut (they know me too well), a card, champagne, and my whole apartment was filled with balloons.  It was such a nice surprise :)

After our coffee date I spent the day relaxing while everyone had class…I luckily had the day off.  We went to dinner at our favorite spot, Stingray…$3 taco Tuesday!

Pre-dinner birthday cake

A couple weekends after my birthday we took a cruise to a private island.  It was a fundraiser for the Canadian Student Association and it included an hour cruise there and back with a DJ & lunch on the island.  It was a really fun day of exploring and seeing wild kangaroos. 

8:30am pregame at the pool...

Our little roo friend

Boat ride to the island

Sunset on the way home

Successful day :)

Well, I can't believe it has already been 3 months and I only have 2 more!  I'm really looking forward to having Morgan here for 14 days, and then Anna here for 20 days!! It will be so fun to have them and show them around my new home.

xx Michelle

kiwi country

Rachel, Kirsty, Katie and I all took a trip to New Zealand for our mid-semester/easter/spring break…whatever you want to call it.  Rachel and I flew into Auckland on March 29th and Katie and Kirsty came on the 30th.  Little did we know our phones wouldn't work over there…it was pretty hard to find each other- but eventually we were successful.  Because of the holiday and all of the liquor license laws, the nightlife was more than uneventful.  We got in around 11 and the bars opened up at midnight (they were closed for good Friday but opened again on Saturday).  We sat in a completely empty bar and got a few drinks and then decided to head home.  On Saturday we took a ferry to Waiheke Island.  It was gorgeous and extremely green.

Wine tasting

Saturday night Rachel and I went to a few different bars and we ended up meeting a local named Jade.  He was really nice and showed us around for the whole night.

Jade and his "Bro Mob" shirt…

The next morning the 4 of us left Auckland and headed to Tauranga.  I think that Tauranga was my favorite place that we visited in the North Island of New Zealand.  It reminded me a lot of the little beach towns in Oregon.  We got had a really good dinner at a restaurant/bar next to our hostel and got hit on by 45 year old men…per usual.  When we were getting ready to head out a guy with a huge red fro came over and asked if we wanted to go to the house that he and his "musician friends" were staying at.  It didn't sound like a good idea, but then he mentioned that it was Phil Rudd's (ACDC drummer) old recording studio.  Ginger fro told us that it was "right down the road" so we all thought it was a good idea.  We got in the car and ended up driving for at least 45 minutes!!  Probably not our smartest move…

Anyway, it was a really cool house and the guys played a little jam sesh for us and I got to play the maraca!  The cab ride home ended up being a whopping $120…NOT worth it.

Jammin!

The next day we did a gorgeous hike up Mt. Maunganui which overlooks the Bay of Plenty.  

After Tauranga we went to Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. The town smells like sulfur but you get used to it after a while.  We went white water rafting the first day and the second day we went to a Polynesian Geothermal Spa, as well as walked around a park looking at boiling mud baths and natural thermal areas.

We spent our last 2 nights back in Auckland.  We took a hike up Mt. Eden.  It looked like something out of Sound of Music, it was incredible!

And our last night we went to an Ice Bar.  The bar, stools, cups, etc were all made out of ice!  It wasn't worth the cover charge but it was a tourist must-do…

We had a great vacation but I think we are all glad to be back in Australia, and now, I need to go write a paper!!

xx Michelle

finally saw some roos!

Yesterday Rachel and I took a little trip to Currumbin Wildlife Park. We got picked up from our apartment and took a bus with 15 other students. We honestly weren't extremely excited to go…sitting by the pool sounded like a more preferable way to spend my day. BUT we had already bought tickets and it was one of those "tourist must-dos".  So we got on the bus and I had about 3 bags of different types of snacks that I had assumed I'd eat throughout the day. Nope. Ate them all on the way there.

We got there at around 9:45am and the bus was coming back for us at 4:30pm…we knew it would be a long day and we didn't plan it out too well. Within the first hour we held a koala and got our pictures, fed the kangaroos, saw the crocodiles, pet an emu, attempted to see a Tasmanian devil…yep, we had done everything.  So we had a good 5 and a half hours to kill. We got some lunch (fish & chips!) and walked around a bit.  I saw a sign for ice cream that said $1.95…ummm STEAL!! So I order and the lady goes "$4.95 please!". They tricked me…part of the 4 had rubbed off and I never would have bought that ice cream if I had known it was $5. Oh well.

After we did the ropes course we had about 3 hours still…so we decided to go bully some kangaroos… 

Poor kangaroos…

Here are some other pictures from our day at Currumbin:

So many sleepy Koalas!

The largest roo…I think he's half horse.

There's a baby in the pouch!

Pre-ropes course (NOT fun…way too hot in those suits!!)

Hoppin along...

Overall it was a pretty fun day and I'm glad we went.  I'm sure if we didn't go we would have regretted it.

We leave for New Zealand on Friday the 29th! We planned everything out so we should do fine but I'll keep ya posted…

xx Michelle