Mom and Michael Come to Australia! First Stop - Great Ocean Road

After a lot of flying, Mom and Michael made it down under! My mom was a little worse for wear with her broken foot but it didn't end up being an issue for us. They first stayed near my place in Coogee down by the beach. It was so nice having them here and so close! We took a ferry to Manly on their first day but it poured rain after lunch so we just decided to head back into the city which ended up being nice. They got to see the Opera House and Darling Harbour where we had dinner. After three days we all flew down to Melbourne to do the Great Ocean Road drive. It was amazing! Gorgeous beach views.

Bells Beach

First koala in the wild!!

The first place we stayed was an Eco Lodge in Cape Otway. When we first pulled up it looked a bit like a hippie commune as we were greeted by a girl in bare feet who kind of talked like she was a little high... turned out she was just a cheerful intern and the owner was out at the time. The place was amazing though, probably one of my favourite places I've ever stayed. It's all ecologically friendly and they also have an animal rescue center on the property where they nurse injured wildlife back to health. They had three baby koalas, one full grown, a wallaby named Mel, flying squirrels, spotted quolls and two dogs (not wild, just pets). There's also a 'mob' of kangaroos that live on the property, I can't remember now but I think there were atleast 70 of them who hopped by the lodge every morning and every evening. It was spectacular!

The lodge

Mel the wallaby

The intern and an injured joey

Amazing! Two males fighting in the wild

A female with her joey in her pouch



After two nights at the lodge we kept going down the route and stopped to see the famous 12 Apostles on the way. There aren't actually twelve anymore, erosion has toppled a few over but they're still amazing. We took a helicopter ride above them which was definitely the way to do it, the views were unbeatable.

We stayed two nights in Port Fairy which is a small fishing town. It was pretty quiet and the locals weren't too friendly but still had a good time. We went to a small island off the edge of the town to watch Mutton birds coming in at night to their nests. It was pretty dark once they all came in but you could still see them, thousands of birds all coming in at once - pretty cool! After our time in Port Fairy we continued on to Cape Bridgewater which is a very small town (only one bar!) but very beautiful. We went on a seal watching tour here and did some hiking up near the beach. We stayed in a little bed and breakfast that was right on the water, very friendly people and a gorgeous beach.

A petrified forest near Cape Bridgewater

Cloudy but gorgeous

Finally after five days on the road we headed back to Melbourne for one night. It was a bit of a shock to be back in a busy city after all the nights on the road in small towns. Melbourne is a very cool city but I was starting to get used to the small places and quaint towns. We looked at some famous alleys in the city with lots of legal graffiti then out for dinner. The next day we took a bus trip and I did some shopping then caught our flight in the afternoon to Brisbane.

Catch Up

Here are just a few pictures I've taken over the week or two before my mom came out, nothing too exciting just a catch up on what I've been up to! Oh! And my neighbour from home, Grace, is studying in New Zealand for the next 6 months so she stopped in Sydney on the way to meet me for a couple of days. There's some of her pictures here too.

Gave myself a mohawk while dyeing my hair - what do you think?

Came across these bird cages hanging in an alley in the city, not too sure what they're there for!

Me and Simon, a friend from class who went back to Sweden after our first trimester

Hanna and I at her apartment for celebratory drinks after exams

Grace and I on my balcony, she brought me mittens!!

Matt, Rachael and I on our balcony

Up at the Blue Mountains

Advertising Assignment

I'm all done classes now for first trimester which feels AMAZING! I got my marks back and did pretty well, better than I expected which is always nice. My last assignment in advertising was to create an ad campaign for a brand of alcoholic cider here called Toohey's 5 Seeds whose tagline is "Not as sweet as you think". We were all put into groups to act as advertising agencies and present our "pitch" to the company (our teacher in this case). I was in charge of the creative part for my group and here is what I came up with. (Obviously could never be used but our teacher is kind of quirky and likes this kind of stuff)

Queen Elizabeth (Billboard Ad)

Ghandi (Magazine Ad)

Mother Theresa (Bustop Ad)

Australia Day - Big Day Out

January 26th is Australia Day and is a bank holiday here, basically the same as our Canada Day - lots of parties, booze and fireworks! Tim and I got tickets to Big Day Out, which is a big music festival that goes all day. We saw about eight or so acts in total and the headliner at the end of the night was Kanye West. The forecast was for rain but luckily it held out and we had a day of sunshine!

Toronga Zoo

One weekend Tim and I went over to a zoo across the harbour called Toronga Zoo, it's pretty big with tons of animals and amazing views of the harbour and the opera house. The ferry ride over is really nice too. They just had three tiger cubs born there so it was fairly busy but not too bad when we went. It was such a nice day, sunny and hot. The weather's been kind of iffy this month, pretty grey some days then sunny and warm other days but definitely cooler than what it's usually like. It's been good for me because the bad weather makes it easier to stay in and do my assignments! Here are some pics from the zoo

you can kind of see the opera house behind him

Two of the tiger cubs, the zookeeper said the one on top had spent days trying to get up there and wouldn't come down now!

New Years in Sydney

Sorry I haven't been updating this since I've been back from Christmas break, I have been super busy with assignments at school but just finished the last one for now so thought I'd update everyone back home! First thing to update on was New Years, kind of feels like ages ago now but really only been a few weeks. I landed in Sydney around noon on New Years Eve and only had a short time to go home get changed then we had to head down to the harbour to get a good seat for the fireworks. Luckily we got there early because it got packed by night time. The fireworks were amazing, I barely stayed awake long enough to see them but I'm glad I did. I've never seen fireworks like them, they were going off everywhere - the harbour bridge, the tops of buildings in the city, boats in the harbour! It was awesome, and a great way to ring in the new year. Here are some pics!

So strange to have sunshine on new years!

All the boats in the harbour were lit up after the fireworks went off

Update!

I haven't been posting much recently because I've been so busy with Uni but here is a quick update of what I've been up to! Last week I had midterms in two classes and some assignments to do, so far I've done really well on most of them which is a relief after my first assignments in University! I'm now going into the second half of the trimester and trying to get some work out of the way so I don't need to be cramming it all in over Christmas break. I've been going out with girls from school and my housemates which has been nice and last weekend Tim and I went to the Eminem concert in Sydney! I've always wanted to see him live and he did not dissapoint. It's been so rainy these past few weeks, apparently the coldest and wettest in 50 years! I've been complaining about how cold it is but next week I'm heading home for the holidays and I will remember what cold really is. Can't wait to see everyone! Happy holidays x x

Christmas tree in Sydney

Patzy, Hanna and I studying

Me and Hanna out in Surry Hills