WHAT'S NEW? WORK, FRIENDS & THE USA

Hey guys!

Thought I'd do a bit of an update on a few things I've been up to the past couple of weeks cause I seem to be a bit obsessed with blogging at the moment (never thought I'd see the day!)

I thought things would quiet down after my first couple of weeks at home but luckily I've still been fairly busy which has kept me occupied. I guess the most important update is that I've started back at my old workplace and am settling back in with my old colleagues in a brand new building - how exciting! Well, I say new building - we're technically in the same building but the whole place has been renovated and it looks absolutely amazing. The renovations started way before I left but were completed whilst I was away and it honestly makes such a difference! Goodbye dated decor and freezing offices, hello modern workspace! I went in for an "interview" on the Tuesday and started on the Wednesday even though my CRB hadn't been processed yet, so my first couple of weeks have been pretty quiet as I'm not technically allowed to start my role until the CRB comes through. Apart from that things are good, especially now I'm in an office with two guys my age who I really get along with (mainly because we've all been travelling and are obsessed with Harry Potter...) Having colleagues to chat with on a friendship level rather than being purely professional makes work so much more enjoyable!

Aside from work, I've been enjoying catching up with friends I met travelling and it made me realise... I'm so bloody glad I met the people I did when I was abroad. Over the years I've had a lot of friends who couldn't be more opposite to me - 'no' people shall we say - who I would literally have to beg for them to want to do things like holidays or music concerts. So I guess you could call it a massive breath of fresh air that I've finally found people (who baring in mind I sometimes only knew for a matter of days) who never hesitate and JUST SAY YES! When I was down south visiting friends I met in Australia and suggested they should come visit me in Notts one weekend, the very next day they had it booked off work and 2 weeks later they were at mine! When I asked another travel friend (who I'd only spent a few days with in Bali and hadn't seen for 7 months) if she wanted to join us, she didn't think twice about the hour long train journey and happily met us in Nottingham 3 days later. The night before, I asked another friend who I'd met in Australia 2 years ago (who had recently moved to Notts for uni) if she wanted to come and you guessed it... another yes. It literally ended up being the easiest night out I've ever arranged and not one of them was from my hometown or knew each other beforehand. I had such a fun night so YAY to spontaneous friends!

And probably the best update of all... I'm going to the USA!!! For a few months now I've been saying I wanna do a coast to coast trip of the US for 4th July and to visit my friend Catherine (that I met and travelled with in Thailand). The trips were booking up pretty fast and although all the 4th July tours were sold out, I decided I still wanted to go regardless so booked my Contiki tour asap before even more sold out. You might be wondering why I've decided to book an overpriced tour when I've just been travelling for 9 months so am more than capable of getting around by myself. The most obvious reason is that America isn't as backpacker friendly as Asia or Australia, so coast to coast bus routes don't exist and I can't imagine there are an obundance of party hostels in the southern states such as Texas or Tennessee. If you're with friends and can buy/hire a car than that's great, but I don't so as usual a tour is my only option. Not like I'm complaining... I bloody love Contiki so am more than

happy to pay the price for what I know will be an incredible 25 days! I've been eyeing the Grand Southern tour up for years and my friend Sarah actually did it last year and couldn't rave about it enough, so I already know I'm gonna love every minute of it! Plus I got 5% discount because I'd been on one before so happy days!

It's crazy how quickly life can change, I've not even been back a month yet!

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

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 11 & 12

So when I woke up at the farm after a big drinking sesh the night before, I wasn't exactly expecting to walk into my friend's dorm at 6.55am (5 minutes before we had to be packed to leave) to find what I can only describe as a pool full of red wine. At first I thought the girls had accidently smashed a bottle of red wine on the floor in their drunken state, but lets just say it came from the top bunk of a Yorkshire girl's stomach. Yeah, not pretty. Poor Becky, those 2 bottles of red wine really did her over. They'd all overslept so not only were they having to deal with the fact that their stuff was covered in red wine vom (Kirsty's poor flip flops), but they were frantically running around trying to pack their suitcases and get ready in under 5 minutes. SO glad I wasn't in that room!

We travelled another 6 hours North to the place everyone had been waiting for - the Whitsundays! Turns out I didn't really do my research before the trip because I had no idea what the Whitsundays were or why everyone was so excited to go there. Now I realise how famous it is, I feel like SUCH an idiot! I feel like an even bigger numpty because when I booked the trip, I had the option to spend 2 days sailing around the Whitsunday islands on a yacht but decided against it because I get really bad sea sickness (and as I said I didn't really know the significance of the place). Looking back, I 100% should have paid extra to do that because it looked amazing and it's definitely something I'm gonna do when I go back to Australia. About half of our group opted for the 2 day sailing (most of the guys, only 4 of the girls), whilst the rest of us headed to a resort on Daydream Island.

For those of you who don't know, the Whitsundays are a collection of 74 different islands (Daydream Island being one of them). Whilst half of the group spent their time sailing around the islands (sleeping in cramped conditions on a yacht), the rest of us caught the ferry to our own little slice of paradise. We got off the ferry and walked straight onto a mini pier where a member of staff proceeded to place beaded necklaces around our necks. The island is tiny - you can walk from one end to the other in about 10 minutes - but there's so much for you to see and do there! There are pools, restaurants, a spa, an outdoor cinema, a lagoon full of stingrays and baby sharks that you walk over to get to reception, you can hire jet skis and snorkels... and to top it all off, there are kangaroos EVERYWHERE. You could be walking to a bar at night and there would be 5 kangaroos just chilling on the grass next to you. CRAZY.

Source: link

We basically spent the first day playing water volleyball in the pool and sunbathing with photos 10 & 11 as our view! The next day we were up bright and early for a ferry over to another island to visit one of the top ten beaches in the world, Whitehaven Beach. I think photos 1 & 3 speak for themselves! The inhabited island was deserted apart from maybe 100 tourists, so the 7K long beach was practically empty. We had a paddle in the sea but I was tired so me and some of the girls headed back to the sand for a spot of sunbathing. Before I knew it, 3 hours had passed and I was woken up from the world's deepest sleep because we had to make our way back to the ferry. Yet again the lack of sleep caught up with me and I spent my entire time on one of the top 10 beaches in the world sleeping. FML. It's safe to say my entire body was a lovely shade of lobster.

When we got back to Daydream we paid $10 to go inside the lagoon area of the resort to feed barramundi and stingrays! We hung bate above the water on pieces of string and watched the fish jump out to eat it. We got to hold huge starfishes and best of all, we got to stroke and feed real life stingrays! I always thought sting rays were a big no no but apparently they're completely harmless unless they feel threatened (RIP Steve Irwin). Their mouths are underneath their bodies so we had to slide the shrimp under them and you'd feel the suction as they ate them. So bizzare! Later that evening we had a few drinks, I skyped my mum and that was about it.

Anyone going to Australia seriously needs to visit Daydream Island - it really does live up to its name!

xxx

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 10

Today was one of our coach days as we made our way from Fraser Island to Langmorn Station! Our farm stay experience was completely unique to Contiki, so no one else except Contiki tours are allowed to stay there. I had no idea what to expect when I read that I was going to be spending the night on a farm, but thankfully it was nowhere near as grotty as I thought it was going to be! The rooms were basic (grey concrete walls and floors with bunk beds) but it was clean and the main dining area (where we spent the night partying) was amazing! 

After an 8 hour coach journey, we arrived early evening so promptly got changed, grabbed some alcohol and went straight out on a trailer for a tour of the farm. We were all given cowboy hats to wear as we rode around the farm on a trailer pulled by a tractor, which was really fun and completely different from anything we had done on the trip so far! I'm so glad we got to experience a different side of Australia away from the beaches and bronzed bodies. Although I never had a chance to visit the true Aussie outback, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do the next best thing. I actually quite enjoyed being secluded from the rest of society as well! It was just the owners and our Contiki group at the station, so it really gave us the opportunity to bond and get to know the newbies a bit more!

After the tour, the guys randomly decided to start doing topless workouts (it was boiling, I have no idea why anyone would choose to work out in that kind of heat!) so a few of us went for a walk up a nearby hill to take a look at the views. Let me tell you, walking up that hill was HARD. I swear the heat makes breathing difficult, let alone hiking!

Later that evening, we settled on the patio and spent the night drinking surrounded by miles and miles of greenery and beautiful landscapes. The only entertainment we had was karaoke but fortunately for me I LOVE karaoke so I was in my element! The owners made the guys get up on the bar and sing to some cheesy girly song (I wish I could remember what it was!) and then it was the girls turn to strut their stuff to 'Single Ladies'. My fave part of the night was deffo stood on the bar with my Belgian friend Bruno duetting to Meatloaf's 'I Would Do Anything For Love'. Classic.

After the karaoke (I have a really drunk video of us all singing to 'Wonderwall' that I will post on Day 16 if anyone is interested!), we did a bit of line dancing to some country music and the good old Step's classic '5,6,7,8.' We continued drinking outside on the patio til the early hours and our Yorkshire friend Becky had 1 too many bottles of red wine that she'd live to regret in the morning (more on that in my next post!)

Tomorrow it's back to the Aussie coastline as we make our way to the stunning Whitsundays!

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 9

Two 4x4's were waiting for us outside the resort this morning to take us to our next stop, Fraser Island! Fraser Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the largest sand island in the world. There are no roads, so you can only get there by driving on the sand in a 4x4 and boarding a ferry each time to cross water. We drove along Rainbow beach (above in photos 1 and 2) which was absolutely beautiful and as the name suggests, very colourful! When we got out to explore, the whole beach was deserted so it was really tranquil and the scenery was absolutely stunning! I wish the panoramic I took showed up better on my blog as it really does not do it justice! It was absolutely boiling too - the more we travelled North, the hotter it got as we were getting closer and closer to the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn!

The journey along the beach took a good few hours but I really enjoyed it! It was SO bumpy so we were flying all over the place like a roller coaster - which kept waking the sleepers up every time we went over a bump! We had a few hot chocolate breaks on the way and just sat and chilled on the sand completely surrounded by, well, miles and miles of sand! The place is literally like heaven on earth!

We ended up at a rainforest so we had a guided walk through the bush - pretty much the standard thing to do when in Oz! I'm not a big fan of wildlife so I almost died when I had to walk past a snake (I'm absolutely petrified of them!) After the rainforest, we were taken to what I can only describe as paradise - Lake McKenzie!

I didn't really look at the itinerary for Fraser Island so I had no idea we were going there until we walked down this little path. When we got to the end of the path, photo 3 was my view! We spent the afternoon playing water wrestling on each other's shoulders, relaxing in the freshwater lake and sunbathing on the pure white silica sand (a sand so fine it's a natural exfoliant!) 

We walked back up the path later that afternoon and there was a huge BBQ lunch waiting for us! It's the little details like that that really made me love Contiki! After lunch we got back on the coach and drove to our resort for the night. We stayed in these beautiful picturesque wooden lodges but boy were they hot!!! We all went down to the beach and watched the sunset and well - I think the pictures speak for themselves!

It was such bad timing because I felt SO ill that night so I ended up going to bed at like 8pm whilst everyone else was at a toga party. I can remember feeling like death so yet again I just had to sleep it off. I felt like such a killjoy those couple of days in Noosa and Fraser Island but I'm not one of those people who can power through if I feel awful! 

Next stop, Langmorn farm!