Week two with the new fam

Hi y'all!

As you may have noticed in my previous post, I didn't use any names. That's because my hostfamily doesn't want me to. So I'll use new names for everyone in the family.

Monday, the 3 year old boy Ash stayed home from kindy, since he had been sick during the night. He kept getting sick at night, so on Wednesday we went to the doctor. Turns out he's got whooping cough, so he had to stay home for the rest of the week. On Thursday dad Steve came home from work, so I got the next day off. Friday I went to the shopping centre with my host mum Kellie, Steve, Ash and baby Wynn, while the older two (Chris and Ava) where at school.

Saturday morning Kellie had to fly to Sydney for work, so I went to a park with Steve and the kids. Today was going to be the last sunny day for a week, so I decided to spent it at the pool, reading a book.

Cheers!

The first week (again)

Hi y'all!

Monday started with the two youngest kids, the boys both stayed home today. My new host mom showed me how everything works at their house and where everything is. Tuesday afternoon the two eldest kids came home from their dad's place. So on Wednesday, I had to drive the kids to school. While the kids were at school, I only had the baby to take care of. He sleeps a lot during the day, but while he's awake we'd go for a swim in the pool. On Thursday the baby had an introduction at kindy. So I had an hour without any of the kids. Friday afternoon their grandpa and uncle would come over for the weekend. So we had to clean the entire house while the kids were at school.

Saturday morning, one of the boys had soccer, so while grandpa and mom went to see him, I took care of the baby. When they got back we all jumped in the pool to cool off. Today we went to the birthday party of one of their nephews. They'd rented a waterslide, since it was really hot and it was lots of fun! After we got back we went for a swim again and afterwards we had a barbecue.

Cheers!

Moving to the Gold Coast

Hi y'all!

When I came back from Perth on Tuesday, I went to see Kayleigh after I dropped of my luggage. The next day, she told me that she had applied for a job 5 hours south of Brisbane, but she wasn't sure she'd get it. A couple of hours later she called me to tell me she got the job. So I had to look for something else, so I started looking on Facebook and AupairWorld to see if I could find anything that would require me to start as soon as possible.

On Saturday me and Kayleigh met up in the city, where we went to the Chinese New Year festival. There were a lot of dancers and there was a lot of music going on.

Monday I was talking to someone in the Gold Coast, who needed an au pair as soon as possible. I got the job and would arrive there today. From then on I could finally enjoy my "vacation" in Sydney, Wednesday I went to the Sydney Tower Eye with two girls from my hostel. And Thursday, my last full day in Sydney for a while, I went to Sea Life.

Friday morning I checked out of my hostel and got on the train to Kayleigh. We started driving up north, our first stop was the Entrance. It was really quiet when we got there, since it was still quite early. There were a couple of pelicans and the ocean was beautiful. After the Entrance we drove to Port Macquarie, where we had our lunch break at the beach. We had planned to go to Coffs Harbour that day as well, but we didn't have enough time, so we drove straight to our campground near Dorrigo National Park.

Saturday we went to the Dorrigo National Park first, where we saw a beautiful waterfall and where we did a little skywalk trough a rainforest. After that we drove to Coffs Harbour, since we couldn't do that the day before. We drove to the Big Banana and started making our way up to Sealy Lookout, where we had an amazing view of Coffs. After the lookout we drove to Byron Bay, where we finally could enjoy the water. After spending some time on the beach, we drove to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is on the most eastern part of Australia. After spending some time in Byron Bay, we drove to a campground near the Gold Coast, so we wouldn't have to drive very far the next day to get to my new host family.

This morning we drove to my new family in the Gold Coast. It was amazing, they were so nice! We spent most of the day by the pool, since it was so hot. And after the kids had gone to bed, my new host mum and I have been talking for hours .

I'll upload my pictures from the past two weeks tomorrow

Cheers!

Perth to Exmouth

Hi y'all!

Monday I slept in, because I was really tired from Rottnest Island. I went to Hyde Park for a bit where I had my breakfast and facetimed with Kayleigh for a while. After that I walked to the Perth Oval and to the shopping centre.

Perth to Exmouth Tour:

Day 1:

Tuesday we started the tour by going to the Pinnacles, that was really impressive. On our way to Kalbarri we drove past a pink lake, like the other pink lake it wasn't pink. In fact, there was no water at all in this lake. Our tour guide told us we could walk on the lake, you could see all the salt on the sand.

Day 2:

Wednesday we had to wake up quite early, so we could walk trough the Murchison Gorge. It was a beautiful gorge, we walked all the way down to the river. After that we drove to the Natural Window, which was a big rock shaped like a window. By the time we got here it had gotten really hot, so we drove straight to Monkey Mia.

Day 3:

Thursday morning we walked down to the beach, where the dolphin feeding would be. The dolphins got really close to the beach and one of them had just had a baby about a week ago, which was really cute:). After the dolphins had had their fish, we drove to Eagle Bluff, where we tried to spot sharks. The water was really clear and at some point I spotted a shark in the water. After some more driving we got to Coral Bay.

Day 4:

Friday we had a day off, we could choose whatever we wanted to do. Me and some other girls decided to relax at the beach and just go for a swim. There were quite a lot of big fish in the water and we also spotted a stingray. At the end of the day we drove up to Exmouth. We got a warning from our tour guide that we might have to evacuate in the middle of the night because of cyclone danger. It didn't happen though... But it was quite windy and rainy while we were in Exmouth.

Day 5:

Saturday we drove to Turquoise Bay, where we were supposed to go snorkeling, but the rangers didn't let us. So we drove to a beach where you could see a shipwreck. We walked on the beach and saw quite some coral and shells on the beach. It started to rain really hard, so everyone ran to the bus, once we got in everyone was soaked haha. We spent the rest of the day in our accommodation because of the weather.

Day 6:

Sunday was a really hot day, so we started the day by going to a farm where we had homemade ice cream. After that we did a lot of driving, we drove all the way back to Kalbarri. Me and a couple of others got in the pool before we would go out to see the sunset. We drove up to Pot Alley, where we had an amazing view on the sunset.

Day 7:

Monday was our last day of the tour. We started the day by going to Greenough wildlife park, which was amazing! We got some food so we could feed horses, camels and lots of kangaroos. After we had walked around the park for a bit, we got the opportunity to cuddle with dingos, hold a snake and to hold a joey. I did all three of them and it was amazing!! The dingos were super friendly! I got a lot of kisses and cuddles . Holding a snake was a bit scary at first but after a while it was actually quite cool . And the joey, he was just adorable, with it's beautiful blue eyes . After we left it started to rain, but we were supposed to go sand boarding.. Once we got to the dunes in Lancelin it was raining pretty bad, but two girls decided to go out anyway. It was pretty funny to see them trying to get down the dunes and once they were done, they were soaking wet and covered in sand. After the sand dunes we drove back to Perth, once we got there I got on a bus to go to the airport.

I had an amazing time, especially with the dingos . Don't forget to have a look at my new pics

Cheers!

Rottnest Island

Hi y'all,

Today I went to Rottnest Island, I left my hostel around 6.15am to catch my train to Fremantle. I had to be at the dock around 7.45am for boarding. When I arrived at the island, I got a bike and snorkels. I wanted to cycle around the entire island, which would be about 22 km. I started by going to Kingstown Barracks, on my way there I saw the Settlement Railway Station. In Kingstown Barracks there was a beautiful beach. I started to cycle further down and saw some shipwrecks on the way. When I got to Parker Point, I saw my first quokkas:) They're adorable! After Parker Point I cycled up to the Wadjemup Lighthouse, where I saw two baby quokkas and some bigger ones. I cycled to Mary Cove, there was a beautiful quiet beach. I got to the Roland Smith Memorial, where you had an amazing view over Rocky Bay. I cycled all the way down to the West End, on the way I saw some more quokkas. When I got to the West End I had some lunch. After lunch I had to cycle a long way back so I could get to Stark Bay. I cycled a bit further and got to this really small quiet beach, where I went for a swim. I cycled up to Catherine Bay and went for a swim over here as well. After I had been to Parakeet Bay, I got a bit lost. I had gotten to a little town and didn't really know which way I had to go to get back to Thomson Bay. While I was there I did find another quokka. I saw a bus and followed it for a little bit, since all the busses on Rottnest Island go to Thomson Bay. When I got back to Thomson Bay, I had some time left before my ferry would leave, so I decided to sit back and relax in the sun for a bit.

I had an amazing day! Don't forget to take a look at my new pictures;)

Cheers!

Nullarbor tour

Hi y'all!

Monday I had to wake up at 5.30am, so I would be able to catch my shuttle bus to the airport. I had two flights this day, one to Melbourne and my next flight was to Adelaide. By the time I arrived in Adelaide it was 3pm, so I went into town for a little bit. Tuesday I had the entire day in Adelaide, I still had some laundry to do, so I did that in the morning in my hostel. After that finished I went to the shops, to get some breakfast and lunch. I then walked to the river. I saw an excursion boat and decided to go on a little tour. The guide told us about a prison, that had been turned into a museum. So after the river tour had finished, I walked to the prison. It was really impressive, but also really creepy, since I was the only person in the prison and I kept seeing these big dolls to illustrate things that happened in the prison. After I had finished my self guided tour around the prison, I walked to the St. Peter's Cathedral, where I had a look around and I could put a pin in a big map, so they could see where their visitors are from.

Nullarbor Tour:

Day 1:

Wednesday morning my Nullarbor Tour started. We drove to a little town called Clare, where everyone could buy their last minute things for the tour. After everyone was finished we drove to the Flinders Ranges, where we saw Mount Remarkable. We drove to Alligator Gorge, where we did a walk trough the gorge. We went to Quorn and from there we drove to the campground. We slept under the stars that night, while kangaroos and wallabies jumped around us.

Day 2:

Thursday was going to be a hot day (42 degrees Celsius), so we woke up really early to walk up the Dutchman's Stern. I got bitten by ants for the first time in my life on this walk and it really hurts, especially if you've got twenty ants attacking you on each foot. But once you get to the top, the view is amazing. We saw two yellow footed wallabies from our viewing point. We started driving towards Venus Bay, but once we got closer it started to rain. So instead of going for a swim, we went to Coodlie Park. I had my first bucket shower here, and besides the Huntsman in one of the showers, it was a pretty good shower. We met another tour group, but they were driving from Perth to Adelaide.

Day 3:

Friday started with a lot of rain in the middle of the night. We were going to swim with the sea lions and dolphins this day and before we arrived at Baird Bay the weather started to clear up. We put on our wetsuits and got on the boat. We got to the sea lions after about half an hour on the boat, everyone dove in and it was amazing! The sea lions were so playful, we swam with them for about half an hour before we went to the dolphins. We got in the water and there were like ten dolphins swimming around and under us. It was amazing! This was definitely one of the best things I've experienced in my life so far. After we got out of the water and went back to the sea lions to see if they wanted to play a bit more, in the meantime we had some hot chocolate and a biscuit. The hot chocolate was much appreciated, since I was freezing. After we had lunch, we had to say goodbye to two of our group members, Axel (from Germany) and Avishag (from New York), they were going on a loop tour from Adelaide to Adelaide, so they were joining the other tour we had dinner with the day before. This day the Nullarbor officially started. We had a stop in Penong, where they have the highest windmill in Australia. After Penong we got to Fowlers Bay, where we would spent the night. But before that we walked up the sand dunes, where we went sand boarding.

Day 4:

Saturday we left early, because we were going to drive a thousand kilometers this day. The last thing we did in South Australia was the Great Ocean Bight, which was beautiful. After that we crossed the border and did some time traveling;). On our way to an old telegraph station, we had a quick stop to take some pictures of the view. As I was walking to a better spot, I saw my first wild poisonous snake. It crawled into a cave almost right away. We drove further to the telegraph station, which was covered in sand. After that we drove to a natural blowhole; Caiguna blowhole.

Day 5:

Sunday we didn't have a lot of driving to do, since we drove a long way on Saturday. We drove to Esperance, to Twilight Bay, which was beautiful. It was one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen. We drove a bit further to get to Le Grand Park, where we would spent the night. It was right next to Lucky Bay, on this beach you'd have kangaroos walking on the beach, which was amazing!

Day 6:

On Monday we did the Le Grand coastal trail. It took us about 2,5 hours and we walked past some beautiful beaches. We had some free time until around 4pm. After that we went to Frenchman's Peak, where we did a walk up the mountain. On our way back to camp, Jodie (our tour guide) spotted a snake on the road, so we turned around so everyone could have a look at it. It was a dead tiger snake. We had to turn around again to get to camp, but the bus got stuck in the sand. We all had to push the bus while Jodie tried to get it back on the road, after a couple of tries we got the bus in the right spot.

Day 7:

Tuesday we got six new people on the bus, they did a loop from Perth back to Perth. We drove to the Pink Lake, which wasn't very pink that day.. While we were driving to the Stirling Ranges, we noticed that the airco wasn't working properly. So Jodie made sure it was going to be fixed the next day first thing in the morning. We got to Mount Trio, we climbed all the way to the top and the view was amazing.

Day 8:

Wednesday morning our airco would be fixed in Albany. It was supposed to take three hours, so in the meantime we walked around Albany. We started a walk up the hill, because the mechanics said it would take an extra hour. That extra hour eventually turned into four extra hours... After we had waited at the top of the hill for an hour, they came to pick us up in three different cars to bring us to the beach where we would have lunch. After three hours at the beach, they finally arrived with our bus, so we could go to our next stop; the Natural Bridge. It was beautiful! After our stop at the Natural Bridge, we drove all the way to Denmark. But on our way, we had to turn around to take a different road because of a bushfire. Our campsite was a bit different then usual this time, the entire entrance to the campground was filled with gnomes. Jodie came up with the amazing idea to put grumpy looking gnomes around peoples swags, so that when they'd wake up the first thing they'd see were the gnomes.

Day 9:

Thursday morning I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off because Donella was freaking out about something. I opened my swag to see what's going on and I see an emu walking between our swags. After walking around for a bit, the emu decided to come to my swag, where it attacked my phone, my hair and my sweater. After these eventful five minutes, we drove to the Diamond tree. It's a 52 meter high tree that you can climb. I didn't climb it though, it was way to high for me. We drove to Hamelin Bay, where we went to see the stingrays. They were really close to the surface, it was amazing! After everyone had taken their pictures, we drove to Margarets River, where we had a wine and chocolate tasting.

Day 10:

Last day of the tour, we drove to Yallingup Beach. Jodie grew up here and she wanted to share this amazing surfers beach with us. We drove to Ngilgi Cave, where we got a tour from an Aboriginal guy. He showed us around the cave and played a didgeridoo. We drove to Meelup Beach for lunch and on our way to Perth we had a quick ice cream break at Simmo's Ice Cream.

At the end of the day our group was going to have some dinner and a drink, as a goodbye.

I had an amazing time and I'll try to upload the pictures tomorrow:)

Cheers!

Tassie tour

Hi y'all!

Tuesday morning my alarm went off at 3am, my taxi would be there around 4am so I would be at the airport in time for my flight to Hobart. But before we eldhad even left my street, I had lost my phone. We went back to my house, where I looked on the grass and in the back of the car, bit I couldn't find it. When I decided to check under my bag, I found it... It had fallen behind my bag. I had booked my taxi quite early, just to make sure I would have enough time, so I was still in time for my flight. My flight landed in Hobart at 7.45am, so I had the rest of the day in Hobart. I dropped my backpack at the hostel and went to the harbour, there were still some yachts from the Sydney to Hobart race. I got some breakfast and after I finished I went to the Tasmanian museum and art gallery. Almost the entire museum was about the Aboriginals, which was really interesting. After I had walked around the museum for about two hours, I could finally check in at the hostel. I decided to lay down until Kayleigh would arrive. After a bit of delay with her plane and shuttle bus, she finally arrived. We went to a food market; Taste of Tasmania. We walked around Hobart for a bit until we decided to go to bed since we would have to wake up at 6.30am the next morning.

Tassie tour

Day 1:

Wednesday morning, our tour guide picked us up at our hostel at 7.45am. We had to pick up a couple of other people before we went to Mt. Field. We walked trough the rainforest until we got to the Russel Falls, a really high and beautiful waterfall. After that we drove to Lake St Clair where we had lunch at the pier. It was a gigantic and beautiful lake. After everyone had had lunch, we drove to Donaghys Hill. We walked to a viewing point and it was amazing. You could see a open field, which was created by Aboriginals, the park rangers keep burning this field down in memory of these Aboriginals. After this, it was time to drive to our hostel. We had a barbecue with the entire group, which was lots of fun.

Day 2:

Thursday started with a three hour walk through the rainforest, to get to the highest waterfall in Tasmania. The walk was definitely worth it, the waterfall was amazing! On our way to our lunch stop we had a quick stop at a viewing point, from where we could see the ocean. We had lunch in a town (Strahan) where it seemed like time had stopped. After lunch we drove to the Henty Dunes. We had to climb all the way up, but the view was amazing! We all jumped down the dunes for a while, which was lots of fun:) We went back to our hostel and put on our swimming suits, after that we drove to the lake, where we went for a swim.

Day 3:

Friday morning we had to wake up around 5.30am, because we were going to Cradle Mountain. Half of the group decided they didn't want to walk all the way up, so they would do the walk around the lake. Kayleigh and I did want to walk to the lookout, so we had to walk up the mountain for about an hour. It was really hard, especially since it started to get warm quite quick. But we made it:) and the view was amazing! On our way back to the bus, we passed the wombat pools, and we saw something move in the water. Our tour guide thought it might have been a platypus. After Cradle Mountain, we had a honey tasting and a salmon tasting. When everyone was finished we drove to our hostel in Launceston.

Day 4:

Yesterday we started the day with a cheese tasting. After that we drove to Bay of fires, where Kayleigh and I walked to the other end of the beach, to get some nice pictures. At the end of the day, when it started to get dark, we all went to the beach to see the penguins. We saw quite some penguins from up close.

Day 5:

Today started with the beach, where we stayed until around 11am. After that we drove to Wineglass Bay. We walked to the lookout, where we had an amazing view of the bay. It was really warm and since we still had time, we went to a little beach just down the road. When everyone was back at the bus, we drove to a berry farm, where I had lavender ice cream.

I'll try to upload my pics in the next few days.

Cheers!

NYE

Hi y’all!

In my last post I already told you about Monday and Tuesday. So I’ll start this one with Wednesday. Wednesday I had to take care of the girls, so we went to Crocodile park for a bit. The rest of the week consisted me packing my bags most of the time. Thursday I went into Chatswood to get some last minute stuff for my trip. Friday morning, I had to look after the girls for a couple of hours and the rest of the day I was packing my bags.

Yesterday was NYE, but before I went to Luna Park, where I would go see the fireworks, I went into Chatswood to buy a GoPro camera, so I’d be able to take pictures and videos under water during my trip. Also, to take amazing pictures and videos while we’re in New Zealand. Around 5pm I left to go to Luna Park. The doors would open at 6.30pm so I’d have plenty of time. I got an amazing spot where I could see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and after about half an hour a girl was sitting next to me asking me if I was alone as well. Since we were both alone, we started chatting until the fireworks started. The fireworks were beautiful and we had an amazing spot!

Today, Kayleigh and I went to Bondi Beach, because a couple of Dutch people had tried to get as many people to join them with their “Unox Nieuwjaarsduik”. There were a lot of people, all Dutch, and It was amazing! We had a lot of fun

Tomorrow will be my last day with the family. After I come back from traveling, I’m going to do farm work with Kayleigh, so we’ll be able to get a second Working Holiday Visa. So we’re going to Featherdale Wildlife Park, where we’ll feed the kangaroos and get pictures with koalas

I’ll post all the pictures tomorrow

Cheers!