Vistors, Moving, and SUMMER!

HELLOOOOO ALLLLL! I sincerely apologize for the month and a half drought… to say the least, things have been a little crazy – Birthday parties, Mom Dad and Jessi visiting, exams, Thanksgiving, moving, summer classes, and planning Christmas and New Years. Phew!

Starting wayyyyyy back to October 21st – Maggie’s 21st birthday! Went to a Moroccan restaurant, had some delicious half-baked bday cake and watched a movie :) Then the rents came shortly thereafter. Mom, dad, and Jessica (Winthrop roomie and most incredible girl on the planet) were here for two weeks and we packed it in!

Happy 21st Maggie!!!

Mom and dad arrived in Sydney first and spent a few days touring the Opera House, Darling Harbour, and the vineyards. Meanwhile, Jessi got to recover from jetlag in Mooloolaba and we got some one-on-one time. M&D picked us up and the four of us headed North to a beautiful beach called Noosa. They rented a beach house where we grilled out, had friends come up and stay, dad got his biking in, mom did souvenir shopping, and Jessi and I got a tan! Perfect first few days.

Our gorgeous house in Noosa!

The family :)

Charleston will never look the same again...

The "kids" out on Friday night

Dad's bike paths in Noosa

Next stop, Mooloolaba. I was so excited to show them my side of Australia and everything they've heard me talking about for the last four months in person. I got some really good one-on-one time with both of them - dad in the ocean and mom and I went apartment shopping. I was living in the campus apartments but it's slightly isolated so I recently moved to the beach! Perfect for summer - and a job...

At the wharf in Mooloolaba

Moonlit Dinner

While in Mooloolaba we took a day trip to another beach called Rainbow beach - it's known for its 72 colors of sand, amazing! We went on a kayaking, dolphin watching tour. It was a small group which made it much more interesting - the (attractive) tour guide was able to take us up and down the coast, even though it wasn't on the agenda. There were massive sand cliffs that had layers of pink, yellow, while, orange, and green sand. When we pulled over to put the boats in I was so nervous about paddling through the waves but as soon as we got out there was a pod of four dolphins feeding just a paddle-length away! So worth it!! And mom and I didn't even flip surfing back in :)

Rocks in Rainbow Beach

Amazing colored cliffs

(taken with the water-proof camera)

Uh oh! Someone waited until the

tide was a little too high...

Mom and me conquering the ocean

They then got to experience there first official bush walk with me to the top of the cliffs. The scene is called Carlo Sandblow and it truly blew us away!

Taking them on their first bush walk

On TOP of the sand cliffs

Called Carlo Sandblow

Good thing Jessi was there ;)

He's still got it ;)

Once back in Mooloolaba, we went to Brisbane where we planned how we were going to make our last few days together as meaningful as possible. We decided to go on a day trip in the morning and headed two hours south to Byron Bay. Mom and I planned a surprise and we off-roaded it to a little village called Nimbin on the way down - hippie town of Australia! It was wild! Everything was brightly colored with rainbows and mushrooms – the rents felt like they'd time warped to the 60's and they loved it! All in good fun - it was definitely memorable!!!

Road trip: which way to go?!

This epitomises Nimbin quite well!
Took dad right back to college ;)

Back on the road we finally made it to Byron Bay, the most Easternly point in all of Australia. Byron Bay is one of my favorite places I traveled to on my Semester break road trip. When the weather is nice, it is simply gorgeous - filled with tourists and locals, you are bound to meet someone interesting. We took the Pacific Coast Hwy through the Gold Coast back to Brisbane. Everywhere we went we wished we could stay longer - there is just so much to see!

Byron Bay

Lighthouse in Byron Bay

Back in Brissy

I somehow got conned into participating
in a street performance. Hmm....

After spending the next day in the CBD of Brisbane, I said bye to the rents for the next eight months and Jessi and I headed off to Sydney. I love Sydney! I haven't been in a big city in so long - it was so nice to see the bustling people, lights, street music, sky scrapers and here in Syd, the harbor! We experienced some nightlife, went to Hillsong United Church, did a seafood-buffet harbor lunch tour, botanical gardens, walked the Sydney Harbor Bridge, largest Imax in the world, Aquarium, Darling Harbour, show in the Opera House, Fish Markets and lastly the Sydney Skytower - phew!! Amazingly enough, it was incredibly stress-free. The way it should be when you're with the ones you love. I'm so thankful that I got to spend a few weeks with my parents and with Jessi - I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Saying bye to the rents
for a long looong time
Our first sight in Sydney
They always say to start with a bang!
Darling Harbour Bridge...

Holding up the Opera House!

Our lovely bed and breakfast
Hillsong United Church!

Aquarium tunnel - so cool

Jessi, if your scared of crocs, snakes, and spiders...

why did you come to Australia?!?! ;)

Gorgeous Darling Harbour at night
after seeing "A Christmas Carol" in IMAX

The next morning, we started with a bridge walk - it's so nice to get a feel for the city on foot instead of in a taxi.

Bridge Walk!

The Rocks is the area of Sydney that we
stayed - location, location, location!
This is why they call it the rocks!

Sydney Opera House from the Darling Habour Bridge

We made it back to the hotel in just enough time to shower and jump on our harbour tour. We had an AMAZING seafood buffet and learned so much about Sydney and it's past.

Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, me
On the harbour lunch tour
Love her

While waiting for the play at the Opera House, we toured the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful - so many paths, flowers, and mini castles! How cool!

Flowers of the botanical gardens

-Taken for you mama!
Monkeying around :P

Jessi getting cheeky with

the statues!!!

Sneak Peak (illegal) photo of inside

the Sydney Opera House!

'God of Carnage'

Our last morning we started at the Sydney Fish Market and had some lovely fresh sushi. We were in an area called Pyrmont... I could definitely see myself living there ;) We then wandered over to the Sydney Skytower where you view the city from above. It was simply amazing...

Shadow of the Sydney Skytower

Overlooking the city

Beautiful Darling Harbour

Morning Sydney Markets

Immediately returning to Sunny Coast, I had exams to complete, apartments to find, Thanksgiving to plan, and plane tickets to book! I always say that a busy life is an interesting life!

Oh, in case I forgot to mention - I have decided to stay in Australia another semester!!! It was an even harder decision than coming at all. No holidays, birthdays, graduations, or family time for 12 whole months - scary! The idea was born when I realized there was no way I would be able to see and do the things I was hoping to in just six months. Some things are once-in-a-lifetime... if you don't grab them now the opportunity will be passed forever. I knew it was highly unlikely that I'd ever be able to live in Australia for another year of my life. So if anyone wants to do some traveling between now and July - come on over! I would LOVE to have you :)

SC conquers Australia

Phew, what a couple of weeks it's been! Still recovering from having my SC girls leave and turned in a massive assignment - exhausting. It's crazy that the semester is wrapping up here, time certainly flies when you're having fun! Speaking of having fun, I cannot explain how wonderful it was having Lauren and Bianca here for the other week - It had been 3+ months since I'd seen either of them so we definitely made their trip worth while...

They arrived Sunday, October 4 and nearly tackled them to the ground at the airport! Here's the three of us in my home sweet home

We just got groceries, bbqed, and relaxed Sunday - 

preparing them for their surprise on Monday...

CAMEL RIDING!!!

I wanted to plan fun Australia-only things for us to do for the week

 and this was first on the list. 

Riding on the beach in Noosa

This guy below has photoshoot practice because he's a movie star!

I can't remember the movie now but when I do, I'll let y'all know

He even smiled for the camera :)

We had SO much fun riding - certainly a once in a lifetime experience. 

Noosa is a part of Sunshine Coast but is also filled with it's own suburbs. There's Noosa Heads (most famous), Noosaville, North Shore Noosa... After the Camel Riding was over, we headed to Noosa Heads where the main beach is. We laid out for a while and later decided to visit the Noosa National Park. I had the novel idea to climb Noosa Hill to see if there was a good lookout. Turned out that Noosa Hill was no hill. We ended up climbing a mountain with no lookout! A little disappointing but we had a great time, nonetheless.

Watching the sunset from the rocks in Noosa

::Remember the pyramid-like mountain::

We were worn out by dinner time... We ate and went to bed early, knowing that we had a big day coming. Tuesday, we woke up fairly early and headed to Mooloolaba Beach with the roomies, Ben and Tate. I love Mooloolaba and had a great time showing them around. We headed home around 3 to get ready for our next adventure - climbing Mount Coolum!

We had no idea what we were

getting ourselves into...

This is never a good sign...

DANGER: Serious injury or death could result from walking on or around the edge cliff

Just what you want to see in the start of the ascent...

If it looks steep going up, just think about down!

Ahhh but like always, so worth it :)

Noosa is just to the right ->

Ocean side:

The awesome pyramid-like mountain is just to the 

right of this one, it was awesome seeing it from a different angle

Land side:

After descending, we stopped by Uni on the way home

in hopes of the girls seeing their first Kangas.

Fortunately, they were EVERYWHERE!

Lovely USC :)

But, hold on, the day isn't over yet! Every Tuesday is "Cheap Tuesday" = cheap food, drinks, entry, everything - Bianca was done for the day but Lauren and I managed to push through!

Meeting up with Sini for

a fun night out

We did not stay out too late because we knew we had, yet another, 

jam-packed amazing day ahead of us...

The Steve Irwin, Australia Zoo!!!

We had the most amazing time! I hadn't made it there yet so it was a new experience for us all. And it was 100% Aussie -

We did everything from 

lazing around with Kangaroos...

To holding Koalas!!!

Hilarious :>

Warning sign covering every Crocodile exhibit

Someone wasn't paying attention to the sign!

I don't think I'd get that close...

Thursday = Uni Night

Friday was absolute-relax day. We all slept in, played Monopoly with the roommates and the girls began their packing... However we did have one surprise, somehow I had managed to not try Vegemite since I moved to Australia, so Friday was the day for all of us!

To put it lightly - YUCK!

Funny enough, we weren't posing in the picture - real reactions

Macaela came home from work out 4 and took us to an adorable French-styled town called Montville. It is on top of a mountain, over looking valleys. I'm sure the view is a beautiful but it was very overcast when we were there. Still a good time though :)

Saturday came all too soon and it was time to for the girls to leave... Cat was SO sweet and made us a delectable breakfast before their long trek home. Ben and Tate joined us for the ride and the 5 of us spent sometime in Brissy before taking the girls to the airport.

Varisty saying bye to the girls :(

Last authentic Aussie treat - Meat Pies!!!

As you can tell, we had an unbelievable time together - I had been looking forward to it since I got here and it was even more than I had expected. I love those girls so much and I'm so thankful they were willing to travel across the world to visit me. How does one get so blessed?! Like I said before, I had a massive report due this week - I have two left and I am D-O-N-E! But just because school's going to end, doesn't mean the fun will stop... Mom, Dad, and Jessica (Winthrop roomie/most amazing girl in the world!) will be here the 27 of October - YAY! We have some amazing things planned while they're here and Jessi and I are heading to Sydney at the end of her trip - I haven't been yet so I'm pumped about that as well. So much behind me, so much going on now, and SO much to look forward to! 

Thank y'all for going through it all with me - Love you so much!!!!!