I just arrived home from Australia last night and it is good to be home. My last three weeks have been full of adventure and it is nice to be able to just relax. However, I will fill you in on everything I have been up to!
After finals ended in Sydney, my friends and I flew to New Zealand for a 10 day long trip around the South Island. We took a trip called the Kiwi Experience which is a bus that brings you each day to a new city. We started in Christchurch and headed up the east coast all the way around in a huge loop until we got back to Christchurch. New Zealand is an amazingly beautiful country. Almost the entirety of it excluding the coast is huge snow capped mountains, and the mountains are COVERED in sheep! They are everywhere!
The first city we went to after Christchurch was Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a cute little town that is known for its whales, dolphins and seals. When we got there 2 of my friends and I went seal swimming. We had to wear full body wet suits that had hoods so that when we were swimming the seals would think we were one of them and not get scared and swim away. I was glad we had the full body suit on thought because it was FREEZING in the water. It was such an awesome experience because the seals were swimming no more that 4 feet away from me and I got to go right up to them and watch them play on the rocks. Very cool.
Another one of the really awesome places we went to was a place called Fraz Josef. It is on the west coast of the south island and it is famous for its Glaciers! We had planned to do a full day hike up the Glacier but
sadly like it does 280 days out of the year in Franz Josef, it RAINED! When it rains they aren't able to bring people up the glacier because the gushing water makes it dangerous and hard to climb. To make up for it though, I went sky diving over the glacier which was one of the most awesome and exciting things I have ever done. I was very nervous going into it, but honestly once I got in the plane i was just so excited that i stopped being scared and i loved every minute of it!When we got to Queenstown, we took a day trip out to a place called Milford Sound. It was a huge waterway surrounded by huge mountains and waterfalls. Very gorgeous. My friend Brook and I took a plane ride back to Queenstown over the mountains which was super fun and amazingly beautiful.
After New Zealand we flew to Fiji and spend 6 nights there on 3 different Islands. We flew into the mainland and spent one night there. Then the next day we took about a 3 hour boat ride out to the first island. We spent 2 nights there and
it was GORGEOUS! The island looked exactly like the islands from the television show Lost. There were probably max 40 people on the island and you could just relax and read and sunbathe and snorkle and do whatever you wanted all day. It was a great change from the moving around of our New Zealand Trip. One day we walked to the summit of the island and looked out over the other islands around us. Our guide pointed out an Island not too far away that was where they filmed the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks! The second night we were there we were part of their traditonal ceremony called a Kava Ceremony and the Fijian people performed songs and dances for us. It was really cool. After the first Island of Kuata, we took another boat another hour to another Island called Kourovo. This one was really pretty also but definetly less remote. They had a pool which was nice, but I did miss the quietness of Kuata.
After all of that I flew back to Sydney for a few days and then got on my plane flight home. I am excited to spend Christmas with my family and head back down to New Orleans and spring semester.
I am so glad I studied abroad, and I would urge EVERYONE to take advantage of this opportunity. It was one of the best times of my life and I will never forget all the amazing things i go to do and see and the people I spent it with. And of course I suggest Sydney! It is SUCH a cool city and Australia is so unique and interesting.
I'll try to post soon!
Kelly
