Sunday, November 13, 2011 New Zealand-start til now (playing catch up...again) 11.11.11 New Zealand I haven't even been in NZ for a week yet and I've already seen half of the country thanks to our wonderful family friend, Peter. He could not have been a more generous and accommodating (and fun) host and friend to spend the past week with! I arrived late Saturday night and he picked me up from the airport and we drove through downtown Auckland and ...

Sunday, November 6, 2011 Kiwi Land Sunday, November 6, 2011I've made it to Kiwi Land now, aka New Zealand, and am loving it so far! My last few days in Australia were as fun as ever. Spent them in Sydney just relaxing and spending time with good friends. Had lots of laughs and good food with friends(tried Vietnamese food at Phoung's Restaurant from the photo--it was delicious!). Also had yummy gelatto (sweet talked the guy into a free third scoop ...

Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Secret community Before i begin, im adding My disclaimer here is that I'm typing from my iPod right now so no judging of errors please!Anywho, so I've been thinking a lot these past few days about what exactly it is that I (and so many others) love about traveling and I think I may have an answer. It's easy to assume that it's the newness of it all, the exciting adventures, amazing views, new sights and tastes, meeting new pe...

Sunday, October 30, 2011 Backpackers--My Love/Hate Affair So I've been in Cairns one week today and have enjoyed my time immensely. To be honest, Cairns is not my favorite place so far and had I not had a set flight, I probably would have left earlier. I LOVED diving in the reef and exploring the rain forest, but had I not done these things, I would have been disappointed.It's a very touristy town which is both good and bad. Bad--I don't feel lik...

Thursday, October 27, 2011 GREAT Barrier Reef Day 28 Wednesday, October 26, 2011 Today was FANTABULOUS!!!! We (the Swedes and I) went scuba diving in the great barrier reef today…and it is GREAT! Since I'm on a budget, I wasn't sure if I wanted to pay for diving since I had already done it once before in the Dominican Republic and sort of checked it off my bucket list. But, after asking around, we found a company that had a special this week so for the pri...