New Zealand

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve spent my time exploring the southern island of New Zealand, aka Te Wai Pounamu. It was so different from what I’m used to. The country was absolutely amazing, but so different from the United States. To start, there was more country side than cities! Their population is a little over 4 million and I think that’s awesome. Everywhere I went seemed to be in the middle of nowhere surrounded by stunning views and 100% nature. I loved it.

I began my journey leaving Christchurch to hop on the Tranz Alpine train that takes me to Greymouth, a small town on the northwest coast of the southern island. I was traveling on the TranzAlpine Back Paddock tour. The trip started off slow, as it was only 8am and we were about an hour away from anything significant. We were told there was a huge snowstorm in the mountains and that it would create the perfect winter wonderland. As I was finishing eating breakfast, I looked outside the window and stared in amazement at the Southern Alps. I’ve never seen mountains so big before! Slowly, the train started to

Traveling Around Australia (Whitsunday’s)

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been experiencing Australia at its’ best with a bunch of my friends from the University of the Sunshine Coast! In a quick summary, I visited the Whitsunday’s and Sydney.  But what you don’t know is how much fun those 2 stops have been!  I’ll break this down into 2 blogs: 1) Whitsunday’s &  2) Sydney.

Whitsunday Islands:

1. My first stop was Airlie Beach, where we stayed at a hostel and partied like crazy! Airlie Beach was a nice small town, but full of life (especially at night) and beautiful women.  My first night was off to a good start.  That was also the first time I’ve ever stayed at a hostel.   It was quite dirty and not my favorite place.  Overall, I would give Airlie Beach a 7 out of 10.
2. The second day we boarded a boat that took us to Long Island, where we spent the entire week. Long Island was built more for families, but we made it a party spot and met a lot of people, including a few old couples who loved us.  Our hostel was located in the back of the resort, but it was perfect for us.  We basically had no food the entire week.  The only thing that filled us was our lovely alcoholic beverages we managed to buy before coming to the island.  I think from this point you should be able to guess how the rest of the week went.  PARTY!! 
3. While in the Whitsunday’s, we had a bunch of fun adventures that we booked with STA before we left.  They were extremely helpful.  The following occurred from April 1st – April 5th:
   1. Rock climbed the small mountain on Pelican Island
   2. Enjoyed a 4.4 kilometer hike to Sandy bay where we drank Goon, played baseball, & ran naked, which led to cutting my foot on rocks! My friend also got stung by a jelly fish!
   3. Sailed the Camira to Whitehaven Beach
   4. Snorkeled at Knuckle Reef
   5. Drunken hot tub adventures 
4. My week came to an end 2 days earlier than our group.  I chose to leave for Sydney and spend a week traveling alone, or so I thought. 

Update on Life

Well today is beautiful once again, but I don’t want to go out.  I need a break from laying in the sun and staying out late.  My sleep pattern is slowly getting better, but it is still off.  I can only sleep until 8am and then I just force myself to get up.  The birds are so loud here it’s almost impossible to fall back asleep.

The last 3 days I’ve gone to the beach twice, visited Kondalilla National Park, and went clubbing twice.  Fun life, but a hell of a lot of walking. I really like how there is more walking in Australia compared to the states. I’m sure the scenery and weather helps make it easier to walk here.  My friends and I walked on Mooloolaba beach for almost 3 miles until we caught a bus in the middle of some small town.  I was exhausted and my ankle was swollen from twisting it on the first day here.  I don’t think I mentioned that, but for a quick FYI, I’ve been limping around in pain..

Kondalilla National Park was so cool.  We hiked down the mountain to the bottom of the waterfall and then hiked to the top.  When we arrived at what seemed to be everyones favorite location, we jumped in the water and swam for an hour.  It was freezing, but it felt good.  I’ve never swam in water that felt so pure.  I do have to admit that I was a litter nervous for some Australian animal to sting or bite me, but I saw absolutely no signs of life in the water.

One of my favorite things about this trip is how unpredictable your daily schedule is.  I’ve planned on staying in, or going to the pool, but end up going to the beach or on a trip.  It seems like nothing really has to be done that very second.  This is a huge difference than the US. Everyone really is laid back here.

One last comment.  I can’t believe how expensive everything is here.  I’m starving because I haven’t purchased enough food and I’m still adjusting to actually cooking my meals, not just microwavable meals.  Do you know of any good recipes that are healthy and quick to make? Let me know.

USC Campus Orientation

This campus is sick! I’m very impressed with how well kept everything is.  All of the buildings are modern and very colorful.  USC doesn’t seem real to me, but it’s a place to study haha. There are palm trees everywhere and kangaroos in every courtyard! It might take awhile to get used to, but I can see myself doing well here.

Orientation: I have to say “O-week” is not great. It’s stretched to 7 days and all the information isn’t that important to me.  I also can’t believe they aren’t giving us name tags.  There are too many people to keep track of and to remember their names! One thing I do like, is how friendly the staff are.  They seem happy all the time and extremely outgoing and approachable.

I’m not happy to say this, but I won an eating competition yesterday at the pool party USC held for us.  It was disgusting.  I had to eat 2 candy bars, a cereal bar with Vegemite (NASTY) and a cookie with whip cream.  I did all of this to win a $20 gift card that I actually never received. I walked away laughing and in search for a drink. Vegemite is awful.

After the pool party, we through a pool party for ourselves back at UniCentral (our apartments) that was awesome.  It looked just like that new movie that’s coming out with the kid who wants to be know/cool.  Everyone was out of control and having a blast.  We later cleaned up and jumped the fence to Varsity apartments to join their party with a DJ.  It was EPIC. Everyone had their own dance styles, which was very entertaining. These kids go H.A.M. here.

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