Last night with mom

So today we went to see Mom's friend Cathie in Newcastle. She is the sweetest woman ever! I loved meeting her and visiting with her! 

Tonight was my last night with mom here. We went to dinner and then walked around the city. We sat down for a drink at this cute cafe and then decided to walk back to the hotel when it started to sprinkle. Little did we know, it decided to pour rain for the whole time we were walking home! We got totally soaked and my umbrella was already broken so I decided to just throw it out since it was turning inside out every time the wind blew. We got totally soaked! What a last night to remember.

Sydney

Harbour Bridge

Opera House

Ghetto Apartment Bedroom

Amazing Valentines Day :)

Finally in Sydney! It is beautiful here...I will have no problem getting used to living here for 5 months. It has been raining since we got here, but it is supposed to warm up next week. Mom finally got a hold of her friend Kathy so we are going to Newcastle to visit her tomorrow. We got to see my school today and moved me into my apartment! I haven't explored the campus yet but I will probably do that on Monday when the rest of the GSE kids get here. My apartment is pretty ghetto...there are spiders everywhere and the water from the wash machine drains into the bathtub! But it should be fine for the amount of time I will be living here.

Mom and I had our own little Valentines Day in the hotel...it was funny haha! The picture explains it all...they love their Krispy Kream here! love you all!

PS...wicked

By the way...mom and I saw WICKED our first night in Melbourne!!!! It was amazing!!!! my first time...we had totally awesome seats right in the center and it was so good!

Lots of stuff

They went right for the good stuff!

Flat White (you wish you had one huh?)

Mom and Mark (Thanks again Mark!)

ok complainers im updating, haha just kidding. But after Taupo we went to visit moms friend Mark in Hastings. He made sure we had the best time and was an amazing host! We got a tour of his apple orchard and learned all about his job as an apple farmer. We had a little complication on our last day in New Zealand. I was driving to the Botanic Gardens and I almost turned onto a very busy one way street. Realizing I was about to go the wrong way, I turned back and hit another car! But dont worry, we got insurance and no one was hurt. Wow...my first car accident and it was in a different country! Ill give myself a break though since I was driving on the other side of the road, and the other side of the car...the guy I hit was really nice too...not like those crazy American drivers :) When we got to Australia we went to Melbourne and shopped ( :)=guilty face). The day we shopped it was the hottest Melbourne has ever had (46 degrees Celcius! Which is about 116 F) We have kept up with all of the fires in Melbourne and it is such a tragedy...but we were not affected. Although we could see much smoke from our hotel room.

We got to feed Kangaroos, pet Koalas, and visit with huge Eagles that hated long blonde hair :(...seriously though...but its ok he was in a cage. Cafe's are just as popular here as McDonalds is in the US so we have been drinking lots of coffe..and "flat whites" are the thing here (they are really good.) Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef and saw amazing fish and jellys (sorry I dont have pictures yet..we had a disposable waterproof camera). It has been amazing so far and I have been talking to some kids from my University on Facebook and have gotten to know them a little...I cant wait to get to Sydney! Tomorrow we tour the rainforest...should be gorgeous! Love you all! Cheers!

Me and mom at dinner

Sunset on Lake Taupo

View from hotel balcony

After Auckland we went to Rotorua (which smelled like sulfur and made me want to hurl haha) and we are now in Taupo. Last night we went to a Maori cultural performance and got to have a hangi (meal) which was really good. Today we went to Te Puia which was an area full of geothermal pools, geisers, and mudpools. We also got to see 2 live Kiwi birds! After that we took the drive to Taupo, and I have to say I am starting to enjoy driving around here :) The view of Lake Taupo from our hotel balcony is to die for! We got to walk along the beach and watch the sun go down. Tomorrow it is off to Hastings! We miss you all! xoxo

First Day

View from top of Stytower

Skytower

Me and mom in Skytower

Our first day in Auckland New Zealand was exhausting. We got in around 7am NZ time and didn't get to the hotel until around 10am...do to moms fabulous driving on the wrong side of the road, NOT, (tomorrow I think I will give the driving a try). We didn't want to sleep at all because we didn't want to throw ourselves off so we walked around Ponsonby and drank Flat Whites (really good and much needed coffee). Then we went up in the Skytower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere) and had a glass of wine. We then decided to just come back to the hotel and order room service. It is only 745pm here and we are thinking about going to sleep haha. We miss all of you and can't wait to tell of our next adventures!

So today is the day I leave for Australia. My mom and I are going 2 1/2 weeks before my program starts to travel around New Zealand and Australia. I can't wait! Mini vacation! School starts on February 23 and im actually looking forward to school in another country.

I said goodbye to all of the people that I love and it was very hard. I am going to miss you all so much! But I will be back before we know it! Keep in touch and tell me all of your stories! Talk to you all later xoxo