To the van!

Greetings from Dunedin! Above is the lovely Dunedin train station, a very nice place to arrive in this beautiful city.

Plans changed and we found out that Montana's aunts van is not in Queenstown, but in a little town on the Southeast coast, so that's where we have been headed. We took a 6 hour bus trip down here a couple days ago and got to see some scenery, it actually looks a lot like Ireland with the little towns and the sheep and green hills. Beautiful!

Dunedin is such a cute town, it's actually named after Edinbourough (don't ask me how the two names are connected but apparently they are..) and has a lot of Scottish heritage. We arrived to bagpipes playing in the central square, which made the haul to our hostel a little bit better. Yesterday we went on a bike ride, followed by a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory--nothing like chocolate samples to make you feel better about how out of shape you are... or wait, is that counterproductive? whatever...

It's pretty cold here, which is nice, and the clouds and mist make everything pretty. However, I am ill equipped to deal with cold weather. When unloading things to send home with my family in the gold coast heat and humidity, keeping jackets, sweatpants, long sleeved shirts, etc. was the last thing on my mind. Oops. Good thing New Zealand is home to some of the best wool in the world, I can get myself some hats and scarves, and who knows, if I have some free time in the wildreness maybe I will try my hand at knitting again!

Alas, I am off to get the van, learn to drive a manual, and begin roughing it hard core for the rest of the month. Wish me luck! I couldn't be more excited :)

The adventure begins... again!

Hello from New Zealand! We arrived in Christchurch, which is on the eastern side of the south island, late last night after two days in Manly visiting friends after leaving Brisbane.

Christchurch is a lovely city; it is not to big and not too small, has beautiful weather and amazing people. It also has a bit of a European feel from it, which is a nice change from Australia, where you don't really feel the colonial history of most places I have been so far.

Today I took a stroll around town, enjoying the sunshine and a break from the scorching temperatures we had lately in Australia. I walked down the bustling pedestrian malls and through a small market, past the arts center (this is a very artsy city) and through the botanical gardens. We are leaving Christchurch tomorrow to take a long busride to Queenstown on the west coast to collect our van we will be living out of for the next month, but we will come back here in a few days to explore some more and see one of my best friends, Britt, who will be housesitting here!

We are staying on the south island for the entire month of February, and I could not be more excited. I have loved everything in Australia but I can only take so much of big cities--I have been craving adventures and the outdoors, and that is exactly what we are going to find in New Zealand! Though we don't have a definite itinerary yet, which is actually kind of nice, we know some things we want to do for sure.... a 3-4 day kayaking/camping trip in the amazing Abel Tasman national park, whale watching on the east coast, hiking through the Caitlins in the south, trekking the Franz Josef glacier, and black water rafting through glowworm-filled caves, to begin with.... Jealous?? :)

So I will be updating a lot since I will have a lot to talk about, haven't been so good in the past but will be now that I am adventuring a lot more!!!

Cheers from the land of the Kiwis,
Maggie

again, overdue...

It's been a while! These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. My fam came to sydney for new years, then we took off to go to cairnes, snorkeled in the great barrier reef, and saw where the rainforest meets the sea! It was gorgeous. Then we flew down to the gold coast, where the weather was pretty bad but we had a blast anyway. The east coast is so beautiful, so many beaches, surfers, warm water, national parks, crazy animals.... love it. We got a surf lesson also which was very fun! Pat can now say he is a surfer :)

Montana and I are in surfer's paradise right now on the gold coast and managing to stay away from the massive flooding in most of queensland. It's so sad, they are calling the floods the biggest natural disaster in Australian history. Nuts! Our plans originally, based on the fact that it is SUMMER here and supposed to be NICE weather, was to go up the coast to fraser island, which has a bunch of adventure stuff to do, and to Brisbane... but the roads anywhere north of here are closed and Brisbane is basically underwater so we are trying to figure out what to do for the next 2 and a half weeks before we go to new zealand. Hopefully will be able to come back to Queensland at some point when the weather is better!

Here are some pictures of family adventures:

A very Coogee Christmas

I am having deja vu of studying abroad in Denmark...

The first few months in Copenhagen were hectic and I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that I was actually LIVING, however temporarily, in a completely different corner of the world.

Then, with about a month left to go, my homesickness evaporated, I developed some deep friendships, and I thought "WAIT! I just got used to life here! I don't wanna gooo!"

And while I am not going back to the states anytime soon, it is a little weird to think that I have less than a month left in Sydney. I will admit (and have made obvious in certain blog posts), I have struggled with adjusting to life halfway around the globe. Living frugally is something I have always been good at, but cramming into an apartment with very little personal space and living paycheck-to-paycheck are not things that I am used to. Maybe I needed the shock of getting used to being out of my comfort zone. I have come to appreciate little, stupid things... for example, Montana and I freaked out when we saw the DISH DRYING RACK, of all things, when we moved into our new apartment. No more sopping dishes left on the counter to be covered in ants! Now they can actually be properly dried and neatly put away!

Anyway, ramblings aside, I have gotten used to the way of life here, living without luxuries, and am quite fond of the little Coogee Beach bubble that I live in. I love my coastal walks, interactions with tourists in which I am actually able to give them the information they are after, and the friendly Australian lingo that is permanently ingrained into my vocabulary ("no worries" is not only my favorite phrase, but also a reminder of how to best life a happy life). While I love Sydney, the little beach towns of Coogee and Clovelly, where I work and play, are where my heart really belongs. And while I am SO excited to have my family visit in a month and then move on with the rest of my grand Australian adventure, part of me is freaking out to leave Sydney when I have gotten myself a nice little comfortable routine going on here.

But if I have learned anything this far, it is that life's greatest experiences come from pushing yourself to take a leap of faith. And because of that, I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for me in the upcoming months.

I've been working a lot more lately and am SO happy about it! Not only am I obsessed with the Cloey and my wonderful coworkers, but bartending is such a social job that forces me to be friendly and outgoing on days when I really don't feel like doing anything (which has been a bit recently, the holidays coming up are making me a little homesick). Plus, I'm actually making more money than I am spending (shocker) so it's very exciting that I will have some funds for travelling after the new year.

Speaking of the new year, my family comes in a month from Wednesday (Tuesday for all you American folks)!! I am SO excited that they will be here for my birthday, and they are finalizing their plans of where we are going to go besides Sydney. Seems like the plan is to fly up to Cairnes and do the Great Barrier Reef and other wilderness outings up there, then fly down to Brisbane and explore the Gold Coast for a few days. Wish they could stay longer, but I understand that not everyone can be a wandering nomad like myself...

Montana and I have been thinking about our plan for after that. I think once we leave Sydney with my family we most likely will not be coming back. I'm so antsy to travel and get to see the rest of the country, but Sydney has been my home for almost 3 months now and it's weird to imagine leaving. I'm currently trying to convince some of my coworkers to come do a grand American tour with me next summer (or at least a visit to California) when I am back so that I don't have to say goodbye for long! Sydney, at least Coogee and the eastern suburbs, remind me so much of California beach towns. The city of Sydney itself is super modern and metropolitan, but when you get out to Coogee it's all flip flops and chilled out attitudes. Californians and Australians are of the same breed for sure.

It's beautiful out so I am going to go on a walk on the beach, I will post some pictures soon as I finally have been using my new camera!

Cheers!

Darn Sepos

So people at work have been calling me "sepo", and I was too embarrassed to ask what it meant (sometimes it's better to just nod and smile than ask questions that could prompt a 'dumb american' joke), but I finally found out... according to urban dictionary:

Sepo	133 up, 20 down
	American. (Australian cockney rhyming slang.) From: Yank --> Tank --> Septic Tank. Is he a Candian? No, he's a Sepo.

It's a term of endearment, or so they tell me... Am I the only one who thinks it odd that being called a container full of shit is supposed to be flattering? I mean, Australia is one of the few countries on the planet that we have not totally screwed over in one way or another, so I don't know why they have to hate on us like that.

My work schedule is becoming a bit more regular, basically I am the opposite of a normal person in that I work all weekend (and I do mean alllll weekend...) and usually not during the week. Which is nice, but as it is Monday afternoon and I can't get out of bed because my body is so mad at me for being on my feet all weekend. Plus the "staffies" (staff drinks) last night after closing didn't help either I suppose. Regardless, it is a glorious day and I am going to head down to the beach as soon as my lazy ass gets out of bed.

I'm pretty much obsessed with working at the Clovelly Hotel (lovingly known as the Cloey). By the way, most bars here are part of hotels, but I really forget that the Cloey is a place where people stay and get really thrown off when after pouring 8 million jaeger bombs people ask about accommodations. But everyone I work with is awesome, and I feel like I'm really settling in and meeting locals and just having a blast.

Next week we are moving to a new apartment, it's only about 10 minute walk from where we are now which is nice, PLUS it's ONE BLOCK from the beach, right off the main street in Coogee, nicer than our current shithole and cheaper. Stoked!

Off to the beach, I will be there for the next 5 days, life is rough :)

cheers!