MY FAVOURITE TRAVEL MOMENTS OF 2015

2015 has been a great year full of memories I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. There’s nothing I enjoy more than flicking through old photos and remembering exactly how I felt at that very moment. The moment might have been and gone, but the memory will always be there to make you smile. Making memories that you can cherish forever is what life’s all about.

With that being said, here are my best travel moments of 2015 :)

1. PARTYING IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

2015 got off to a bang when I flew to Sydney on New Year's Day for a Contiki tour along the East Coast of Australia. We were staying in a hotel in Kings Cross so headed out to a local bar where things got crazy pretty quickly. Lets just say it involved a lot of alcohol, pole dancing and making lots of new friends! I can remember thinking 'oh my frigging god I'm partying in a bar in Sydney 9000 miles from home' and I literally felt like I was living my dream.

2. STROLLING THROUGH THE OLD MARKET SQUARE AS THE SUN SETS
IN LEUVEN, BELGIUM

This photo doesn't really do the moment justice, but you can get a feel of how beautiful the Old Market Square in Leuven is in my vlog here (skip to 8:30) The sun was setting, it was lovely and warm and the streets were filled with people eating, drinking and enjoying themselves. It was such a lovely atmosphere - a combination of the buzz of a city with the architecture and beauty of a small Belgian town.

3. BATHING IN THE BLUE LAGOON IN GRINDAVIK, ICELAND

An obvious choice! What's not to like about chilling in 38 degree water sipping rosé whilst the sun sets behind you?

4. DRINKING GOON ON THE BEACH AT SURF CAMP IN COFFS HARBOUR, AUSTRALIA

You've probably seen this photo 100 times before but it's honestly one of my favourite photos ever! It sums up exactly how perfect that evening was... sat on the beach with new friends, watching the sun set, drinking goon and just feeling completely content. We then got extremely drunk whilst playing drinking games and spent the night partying on the beach. Absolute heaven!

5. TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS & DRINKING WINE IN OUR DRESSING GOWNS

IN CHESHIRE, UK

As much as I love going abroad, I've had some equally amazing moments throughout 2015 at home in the UK! Me and my uni gals try and meet up as often as we can, so in the summer we all went to Emily's house for a BBQ and spent the evening sat around her outdoor fireplace (which is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!) toasting marshmallows and drinking wine. It was honestly one of the loveliest evenings I've ever had!

6. HAVING A BBQ AFTER SWIMMING IN LAKE MCKENZIE ON

FRASER ISLAND, AUSTRALIA

After a relaxing afternoon swimming in Lake McKenzie on the stunning Fraser Island, my Contiki tour group were led to a private area for a BBQ lunch. For some reason, I always remember this moment as being an absolutely perfect way to end a very special day. I love crystal clear water, I love 30 degree weather and I love BBQ's, so I was completely in my element!

7. WHITE WATER RAFTING DOWN THE TULLY RIVER IN CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

I think this photo pretty much sums up why white water rafting down the Tully River in Cairns is one of my favourite travel moments of 2015! I loved the adrenaline of feeling like you were going to fall out of the dingy on the grade 4 rapids, but equally loved floating around in the tranquil water surrounded by some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen in my life.

8. RIDING AROUND LANGMORN STATION ON A TRAILER
IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

I'm sure you're beginning to notice that the majority of my favourite travel moments of 2015 are from my trip to Australia! I was there for 2 weeks and, as it was a holiday of a lifetime, I did pretty much every activity there was to do! So it's not surprising that I made a lot of amazing travel memories :) One of my favourites is riding on the back of a tractor around Langmorn Station wearing cowboy hats and drinking vodka in true outback Aussie style!

9. CLIMBING THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE

Please excuse my Rudolf nose... the sun did not like my pale English skin haha! Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge was the one thing I always wanted to do, so I was a bit lost for words when it actually happened! I'm so glad we ended up doing a night climb as we got to see the sun set over Sydney half way up the bridge and the Sydney Opera House all lit up against the black sky at the top of the bridge - the best of both worlds!

10. SKYDIVING IN SURFERS PARADISE, AUSTRALIA

You might think that jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft having only had 3 hours sleep (oh and did I forget to mention I was still drunk as it was my birthday the night before?) sounds like hell, but trust me... DO IT.

What are your favourite travel moments of 2015?
xxx

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 15 & 16 (PLUS VIDEO CLIPS)

The next morning, 7 of us were up (not so) bright and early for our last adventure activity in Oz - White Water Rafting! The famous Tully River in Cairns is known for being the best place to go rafting so I made sure I was insured up to Grade 4 before I left the UK as there was no way I was missing out!! As you can probably tell from our smiley faces, we had the BEST day! I'm one of those losers that loves team building activities so I loved the fact that we all had to work together and we didn't stop laughing the entire time! Because I was the smallest, I had to sit at the back with the instructor (what is it with me getting put with instructors ay?) so I didn't have to work as hard! Yayyyy for being 5"3!

The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and it honestly felt like we were in a dream. We couldn't believe how lucky we were to experience something so beautiful. When we were away from the rough water, we jumped off the raft and floated around in our life jackets. It was probably the most relaxed I've ever felt in my life. If there's one thing I've learnt about myself in Australia, it's that I really love the water.

We stopped at the halfway point for a BBQ lunch then continued on for another few hours to the end of the river. We were SO exhausted afterwards so I ended up sleeping the whole way home (and got caught on the sleep cam that entertained us on pretty much every coach journey since Day 1). I was my typical unprepared self and forgot to bring a spare change of dry clothes with me, hence the borrowed Superman tee from my superhero obsessed bus buddy. That evening, we all went out for dinner and said our last goodbyes to mark the final night of the trip. You'd think the last night would be the craziest but none of us were in the mood to drink so we ended up heading back to the hotel earlyish to pack. We did however make time for one last dance to Uptown Funk! We pretty much screamed the bar down when we heard the opening beat, jumped straight on the table and threw our hands in the air like we just didn't care. The looks we got from the other travellers - who were peacefully eating their dinner - were priceless!

Reality hit the following morning - I was officially going home. I spent my last few hours buying snacks from Woolworths and getting ice cream with some of the guys who weren't flying home until later that afternoon. It was really difficult saying goodbye to the Aussie guys I had met, as chances are I would never see them again. I may have shed a tear (or ten) in the taxi on the way to the airport after they waved me off. 3 planes, a 2 hour delay sat on the runway, 33 hours and plenty of Tim Tams later, I landed at Birmingham Airport.

As promised, below is a video made up of random clips that I recorded whilst I was in Australia. If you've been reading since Day 1 (thank you for sticking around - I know it's taken a while!) then you'll probably recognise a few of the things I've written about. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my Contiki adventure and I'm sorry it's taken me over 6 months to finally finish it! Note to self: don't try and write a travel series when you've just started a new job! I'll be writing a review on Contiki within the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that if you're interested.

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 13 & 14

We were back on the mainland today for another 7 hour drive to our final destination of the tour, Cairns. Home to the Great Barrier Reef, it's safe to say we were equally excited and sad about arriving in Cairns as the trip was swiftly coming to an end. We didn't really do a lot on our first night apart from our included dinner where we all tried Kangaroo (when in Rome!) which tasted just like steak but was lovely nonetheless. After dinner we went for a wander around the night market and me and a few of the girls decided to pay for a Chinese massage. I clearly thought I was in Thailand for a second because I assumed it was going to be this amazing experience where they would use oils and I'd come out feeling like a new woman. Instead, we basically went behind a curtain with 10 other strangers and they gave us a massage ON TOP of our clothes and it was SO painful. Not only because he was pressing really hard on my sunburn (note to self: don't fall asleep on a beach), but it felt like he was bruising me and I spent the whole 10 minutes wishing it would end.

Stupid tourist 0 - 1 Chinese masseuse. We grabbed an ice cream on the way back to the hotel (which melted within SECONDS - no word of a lie it was like 30 degrees at 10pm) and called it a night.

The next morning we headed out to the number one thing on everyone's bucket list - the Great Barrier Reef! For once in my life I was actually prepared so the second I stepped on the boat I popped a few sea sickness tablets and was good to go! Me and a couple of the girls rented an underwater camera for the day to take snorkeling and scuba diving, but looking back I REALLY wish I'd bought a GoPro beforehand. The water was a bit hazy so the photo's weren't the best quality and it's really hard to get decent photos of yourself when 3 people are sharing a camera. Even so, scuba diving was one of the best experiences of my life! I was pretty scared at first (more scared than I was for my skydive!) because it's such a weird sensation having to breathe normally underwater without holding your breath! Luckily I got the hang of it beforehand when I was snorkeling, but scuba diving was another level of scary! We were taught all of the hand signals to use underwater in case of an emergency, but I really panicked when we were practicing taking our regulators off underwater (the thing in your mouth that gives you oxygen and keeps you breathing). When I tried it the first time, I didn't do the technique right so I ended up inhaling water and frantically floating to the top gasping for air. I find it so bizarre that you can remove your regulator underwater when it's the only thing keeping you alive! A trained instructor took us down 2 at a time so me and my friend Connor held on to each arm as the instructor guided us deeper. A lot of my friends paid for 2 dives but it was quite expensive so I decided to just do the 1. Definitely regretted that afterwards! I loved every minute of scuba diving, so much so that I'm planning on getting my PADI Open Water Diving licence in the foreseeable future!

We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the rays, eating endless buffet food, listening to music, chilling on a glass bottom boat and squeezing in some last minute snorkeling before we headed back to the mainland. The staff were so lovely (and as always the guys were very easy on the eye!) and they really made us feel at ease the entire day. When the boat docked, the staff lined up at the exit and shook our hands one by one as we departed which was really cute! Later that evening we all bought our passes for the bar crawl which was by far the best deal we had of the entire trip! $30 for dinner & an alcoholic drink at each of the 6 bars on the bar crawl - all for the equivalent of £15! I had the BEST night - plenty of table top dancing, drunk piggy back rides and Uptown Funk lovin'. At one point I had 3 vodka soda cranberries in my hand so yeah, things got messy.

Tomorrow we're going White Water Rafting down the famous Tully River!

xxx