Ok, after my love affair with Melbourne, in particular the Mornington Peninsula, I thought - this is my favourite place. It can't get any better than this, I am happy. It had culture, Sun, fantastic food and drink, beautiful beaches and the people were just incredible. Then I went to Perth and to be totally honest, I didn't like it nearly as much. I found it to be isolated, overpriced and the people just weren't all that great in my experience. So, I decided to totter off to Queensland, with promises of Sun, Sand and good times. Plus, Australia Zoo made famous by one of my abosloute Idols (hello Steve Irwin) is just down the road. I am visiting Australia Zoo in early October (SO EXCITED SQUEAL)
Just look at him. I am gutted he's gone so I'll never get the chance to see him in action, but seeing where he lived and worked will be amazing.
On this note, I feel I should mention a wildlife Sanctuary type place I visited on Magnetic Island, just a 20 minute ferry away from where we stayed in Townsville. It was incredible! I held a baby saltwater crocodile, lots and lots of reptiles & even a 25 year old snake called Samantha (I felt it was a sign she'd look after me, with us being age and name twins). At one point, I had a reptile on my head and a croc in my hands... shit got cray!! Haha.
Having had a fear of snakes since I was small, the blurry moment above was a real achievement for me, it was celebrated with lots of yummy pear cider :D
During August, my friend Steph and I were lucky enough to housesit in a beautiful house in an awesome city called Townsville (Ironically I thought this meant it was actually a town... it isn't). I LOVED townsville, from the little bars playing the worlds cheesiest music, to bumping into AFL players, the aquarium with the living coral and having my own swimming pool with no rent to pay for 2 weeks was pretttty cool. They were some really happy days and I had a lot of time to just chill out, watch lots of episodes of New Girl and fall in Love with Australia all over again. Here's a delightful picture that sums up my average day there -
As is life, my money quickly dried up and now I am working again to save for my next venture... which is going to be New Zealand! It was never really on the agenda to visit New Zealand for a long amount of time, but having met the amount of people I have and just spied on their photos, it is simply too much of an oppurtunity to pass up, it looks absoloutely incredible. So the original plan of going home for Christmas has been scrapped, in favour for a year off traveling the world again. I never thought I'd have the balls to last a year out here, let alone want to wander off to other countries afterward.
Wow this has been a lengthy post. I also want to mention to anyone who may be reading this by chance, please learn to make the most of and appriciate the life you have. I often look at bloggers/vloggers/youtubers of a similar age and background to me, I compare how much success they have and their lifestyles to myself and I really beat myself up that I'm losing. It's only when you take a step back, stop comparing yourself and appriciate what you have that you realise, it ain't so bad. I am really proud of myself this past year, prouder than I was when I graduated University, when I passed my driving test and when I was brave enough to be someones birthing partner (trust me, with hindsight, that was freaking brave!!). I have come so far - and the liklihood is that you have too, you just don't realise it. It is so easy to sit at a screen and covet someones life - but vlogs/blogs and the like, usually only document the good. & where would we all be without the bad eh? Not appriciating a bloody thing. So I'm going to sign off now, with a picture of a rainbow. When the rain falls, look for your rainbow - even if it's TINY there's one out there :)
Lots of love, Sam
