And I'm off..

My first day here in Auckland I was wide awake at 6 am. The time difference is really only about 3hours behind Seattle. But, its still taking me a few days to sleep past 6am. After eating some toast and my heathy orange I set off to walk the city. Downtown Auckland is really not that exciting, its small and full of shops. So I was not there too long. But, what I did love was that when I walked down the marina the water was amazing! Its so col all the water I have seen here is a turquoise blue. I sat and looked at how pretty the water was for bit and then headed back up Mt. Eden. 

Later in the day I went up to the top of Mt. Eden and it was so beautiful. It is a small in-active volcano at the center of Auckland and it gives you 360 degree view. Its so cool that this just shoots up out of the middle of the city. From up top it looks as if there is water surrounding you. Its almost as if you are on an island the way the water creeps around the edges of most of Auckland. 

My second day I went to Waiheke island! It was breath taking, the water, the sand the views. I went down to the ferry in the morning with the German kid and took a 40min ferry ride to the island.

  It was so hot out so we headed straight to the beach. This poor kid had to stay in the sun the whole time because of his sunburns. But, I ventured out into the sand.

 The beach was so beautiful, long stretches of soft white sand and glowing blue water. I could had stayed there for days. Getting bored of the shade my friend wanted to go for a walk around the island.  And walk we did, for about 3hours we walked along the coast on the way back to the ferry terminal.

 We really had no clue what we were getting our selves into and most definitely did not have enough water. But, the views were unreal and looking back I am so glad I did it. At the time however as we were lost on a freaking island without water in 80degree heat I was ripping the kid a knew one with my thoughts. The island also has vineyards/wineries all over the place. But, being the broke backpacker I am forcing myself to be we didn't end up going to any. Making myself stick to a budget is so hard!!! I love spending money haha

40 minute ferry ride right back to the city and I was done for the day. I had put SPF 50 on myself in the morning (typically is way more then enough for me) and was burned by 3pm. The sun here is very strong I have come to learn.

Another night that when my head hit the pillow I fell instantly into a deep sleep. Every muscle in my body was sore, my legs were not used to this amount of activity! 

Momma said there would be days like this

Today is my 3 full day in New Zealand and it all has started well.

My legs are so sore from all my hiking that its unreal.

The sun down here is so strong that I have burns on my feet and shoulders.  

Considering both of these 2 things I planned on staying at the hostel all day to relax. 

One bad thing about doing so… My mind starts to wander.

As I was sitting quietly on my bed finishing the book "wild" I became overwhelmed with emotion.

"WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!?!"

I am all alone. In New Zealand. On a budget. With only a backpack. 

WTF?!

The looks on peoples faces when I told them about my journey are running though my head. 

That crazy eye head tilt half smile that people gave me when I said I was going alone for 6 months to just explore. 

There is that feeling deep down that I am now allowing myself to acknowledge, were they right this whole time? Is this going to be a disaster? 

I know that I CAN do this and I will DO this. But, during this moment of venerability I wonder if maybe I should have listened.

All I can keep telling myself is that this feeling will happen. It will happen all the time. I will feel lost, alone, and maybe even sad.  I have to tell myself that its OK and that after that feeling has passed great things will happen. 

I remember being in Australia on Christmas day sick as a dog and surrounded by amazing people. And all I wanted was to go home.  There was great food, music, wii games and a dog! But, sometimes nothing makes up for the fact that you just want your mom. 

PLease don't get it twisted, I am not leaving here and coming home. Nor am I just sitting around crying all day. But i felt that i needed to share the good with the bad on the steps of my journey. 

Tomorrow is a new day and there is a whole new world to explore on my horizon. 

Finally the day has come

Leaving is the hard part…..

I have the most amazing group of people that surround me in my life and saying goodbye is just crap. 

The support and strength that my friends and family provide for me is just out of control. 

Shout out to all you amazing people out there that encourage me, lift me up and guide me. 

Because I have such great people around me all that time, saying bye is 100x harder.  

I had my moment, I knew it was coming too. I was waiting for it, that moment when it hits you that not only are you leaving home with out a plan; you are leaving your support bubble.  

My moment did not last too long thankfully and I think I owe that to how prepared I was for the adventure. Since arriving I have yet to regret this trip or have any sort of panic, this is good! 

The flights were the worst, it took me about 30hours of painstaking travel to get here. 

My travels went like this:

SEA-LAX (2hours)

LAX-Nadi, FIJI (11hours) -worst airport EVER

NADI-Auckland (3.5hours)

17 hours of flight time combined with layovers, bus rides, car rides, customs and so on. 

As soon as I left the airport I immediately  became lost haha getting off the bus too early, then the next bus too late. Trying to talk with my way too big pack and in the end I gave up and took a taxi to my hostel. All in all I spent the same amount of money getting to where I needed to be as I would have if I had just taken a taxi from the airport. OOPs!

  

I settled in quickly, met my roomates a French girl and a German kid and attempted to hit the ground running. Trying to beat jet leg I headed straight to the store to buy food to cook for the day and I could think straight. I ended up leaving with cheap unhealthy foods that I was familiar  with from when I was in OZ. Shapes crackers, cup of noodles, lift soda bread, jam and an orange (because I'm all about health foods). Realizing I didn't really get any dinner foods I crossed the street and orders a KEBAB! They are 100% my favorite food here! Much like a gyro the are salty and meaty and all the best things in one. Leaving totally satisfied with my choices I went back to the hostel and slept for the next 12 hours! Holler!!!

This was my first view of New Zealand and all I thought was "wow there really are lots of sheep"

Welp, here we go again.

Welp, here we go again. 

Im back to planning my next journey and it is constantly on my mind. At any point of the day if you ask me what im thinking about I would say my travels. When you literally are capable of going where ever you want and doing whatever you want it becomes hard to plan.  Truly the only restrictions  have are financial ones.

The past couple weeks were spent deciding where to book my flight home from. 

Seoul?

Hong Kong?

Bangkok?

I decided after much debate to choose TOKYO! Holler! 

So it looks like my itinerary is shaping up.

Its looking a little like this.....

January 14th- I take of for Auckland, NZ

Play around NZ for a few month (maybe work)

Late March I leave for Australia

(hopefully mom will visit)

April 21st- Start my volunteer program in Cambodia

Play around Asia for a few months

June 25th I fly home from Tokyo

Currently I am already mentally packing and also preparing myself to travel alone. Alone for the first time ever while traveling and have committed to 6 months! 

I know that I will also be missing some major moments here at home. But, I need to figure out what I am doing, where do I go from here? I am so excited for all my family and friends doing huge things with their lives.

Marriage, babys, homes, how cool?! 

I know that by leaving I will miss out on some of those awesome things. But I need to go do some awesome things of my own. 

So, let the planning begin. 

But, not too much planing .... really ... like I'm trying to plan the bare minimal and just go with the flow.

BONDS undies

Its our Australian obsession!

We love our BONDS undies

So CUTE and so COMFY I live in these adorable things

and you get them at Target!

Here in Australia they lack Victoria Secret ...... so sad

But after some searching we found this brand that we love and they are not too expensive

They come in the best colors and prints that are always fun.

I just had to share this OBSESSION with you because I love them soooo much.

Bondi to Melbourne

BONDI! such and amazing place! We came back from the Blue Mountains and went straight to Bondi beach in Sydney. We stayed at the YHA and it was really a great place. The picture above is the view from the deck. It was just down the hall from our room. This is not the Bondi beach side of the hostel this is the way to Coogee beach. Its a really cool walk (if your me) or run (if you are Abby). This place was full of beautiful people and places. Also there is a great sunday market!

After Bondi we flew on over to Melbourne and were met by some rain and interesting people. We managed to find our way into the city and were led to the hostel by a nice man. This man later sent us a very odd package with lotion and tim tams. Turns out I have now a strong obsession with tim tams. Anyways...We checked into the down town YHA it was really new and posh, a little bit cold though.

That night we were told to see a local girl in concert Paris Wells and it was tons of fun! She was great, very fun music. On the way home we had Chinese food in some tiny place in China town it was amazing. For dessert we decided to go ahead and purchase every candy bar in the shop that we had never tried.

Here is a picture of how we rated them

The next day in Rainy Melbourne we walked the whole city

and did a little bit of shopping (oops)

We could not help it they had great shopping there.

Melbourne reminded us a lot of seattle Very artistic and trendy, good food and shopping full of fun local things to find and explore.

We met up with one of Andrews friend that night for drinks at the Carlton Hotel.

We left the next day to hop in the camper van and head over to Adelaide.

But, we really did enjoy our short few days in that home like city.

Abby even looked at home here in the park......

The TV on our Virgin flight showed us where we were on the map and detailed how fast we were going as well as altitude and aporx. time of arrival.

Rolling back the clock to September.... this is where it all began.

After the longest flight of my life (literally) we arrived in Kings Cross a suburb of Sydney.

Our hostel had free airport pick up witch was great and we could not get past the fact that the cars were on the opposite side of the road! It blew our mind, plus we were in a state of delusion after our long flight.

Arriving at the JOLLY SWAGMAN we were tired and excited.

The first thing we did was set out to explore and then went straight to bed.

The intercom at the hostel blasted girls screeching about the events they had going on that evening urging you to get out of your room and head out on the town.

Needless to say we did not make it out that night or the next. We spent our days wearing our selves to the bone walking the whole city. Taking the train to Bondi and the ferry to Manly. Exploring the botanical gardens and farmers markets. Checking out shopping that even the simplest things are way more expensive then home. We ate meat pies, went to the zoo and aquarium. A few nights later we were dragged out of our rooms for speed dating! It was a blast and we met plenty of fun people. I actually met a guy named ADELAIDE haha he was from Paris. The next few days were a little more quiet as I got sick and the weather turned to rain.

After Kings Cross we moved on the the Blue Mountains. We took a inexpensive train ride up the mountains to a town called Katoomba. I was shocked by how cold it was and spent most night curled up by the fire or the heater. But, the sights were amazing! This picture is out the "three sisters" a rock formation in the mountains it was really cool. They are called to blue mtn. because the eucalyptus trees give off a blue hue and they cover the mountain sides and the valleys. We did lost of exploring during the tree days we were there. we saw our first wild kangaroos and thousands of really cool birds.

This is Abby in one of the caves that we took a bus to go see. The ride took about and hour up and down some crazy steep slopes but in the end it was worth it. We went into the earth to see some really scary cool caves. I had a freak out but made best buds with our guide and managed to make it through the whole tour! Surrounding the caves were tons or crazy cool birds and trees. There was a bright blue lake that we were told had platypus in it! But we didn't get to see any...

After the Blue Mnt. We took the train back down to Sydney to stay beach side at Bondi.

To be continued.....