I can’t believe this isn’t a dream!

Hello!!! I miss you so much! I hope all is very going well at home. I heard that a bunch more snow has come your way. Ish ;) I’m now in Australia and it’s been so hot lately you can’t spend too much time outside cause it is dry heat and you sweat just walking outside. Miserable hun?! Haha I love it! I apologize in advance cause this will be very long, but hopefully it makes up for my lack of updates lately ;) o and I can’t get pictures up, they will not upload

The last few days in New Zealand…

When we were in Wanaka, I did not get to go rock climbing because it got dark very quickly but it was a beautiful night and was still lots of fun. A girl in the group got a bit injured while climbing and they are still not sure if she tore a muscle in her shoulder or if it was more severe so she got to spend some time in the hospital and has her arm in a sling now. The following morning I woke up pretty sick and ended up spending the day in bed other than an hour trip we took to Puzzle World (extremely weird). A 24-hour flu seemed to go around the group the next couple days and most took their turn being sick. On Friday we left for our last hostel in New Zealand which was in Franz Joseph on the west coast. It rained the entire time we were there and we really didn’t do much of anything because of the weather. The group spent a great deal of time together, continuing to get closer. We had a great time. On Monday we took off for an 8 hour drive back up to Christchurch. Once again we took some pretty crazy roads and our van ended up dying mid-way up a large winding hill on the side of the mountain. Not really a good situation. Somehow we all did our part and managed to direct traffic around us, unhook the trailer, prop it up on the hill, and get the van going again. A trucking company ended up pulling our trailer up the rest of the way. It added an hour or two to our trip but it ended up working out just fine. We finally got to Christchurch and we all went out together that night. The following day was full of class and then we had a “Farewell New Zealand” party. Awhile back we decided we were going to draw names and buy crazy outfits for each other from a second-hand store. We had to wear the outfits the next day as we traveled from NZ to Australia. The outfits ranged from guys in dresses to a wetsuit and flippers. I lucked out and only had to wear a snakeskin patterned shirt and suede skirt. Good times ;) We left nice and early in the morning and headed to the airport in our wonderful apparel. The time at the airport and the flight brought quite a few stares but it was hilarious. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND!

I can’t believe I’m in Australia…

We arrived in Australia fairly late and drove straight to Blue Hearth where we stayed in a Boy Scout Den. A very interesting experience. On Thursday we got to go canyoning which I really don’t know how to explain so I’ll have to show you pictures. It was awesome! Then we went on a pretty ridiculous hike. So much fun! On our way back to the den we had our first wild kangaroo siting! A few parents of people in the group ended up joining us for dinner that night and we had a huge barbeque. Delicious!!! After breakfast Friday morning we had another long hot drive up to the Warrumbungle Mountains. Just before dusk we ended up seeing hundreds of wild kangaroos!! It was amazing. We finally got to our campsite at dark and set up our tents. It was unbelievably beautiful out that night and the sky was incredibly clear so we went out away from camp a ways and stargazed. While we were talking and laying there we heard a strange sound and one of the girls turned on her flashlight. A kangaroo was honestly 6 feet from me! We all started screaming and freaked out a bit which scared the kangaroo more than anything. We were scared out of our minds but ended up laughing about it quite a bit. It was incredible! After a long while we all finally went to sleep. The next morning we were awoken around 6 am by the most annoying birds in the world. They sounded like shrieking babies. Needless to say no one slept much past then so we went on a few hour hike where we saw many wild kangaroos, a koala far up in a tree, and some wild ostriches. Then we took off once again on the hot smelly bus. It was so incredibly hot we ended up stopping in a small town and went swimming in a wonderful pool for awhile. Then we headed to our next campsite where we spent the next day walking around town in the intense heat. That night we drove out to the Cascades where we stayed in a Field Study Center. We went whitewater rafting for just over 4 hours which was incredible! Probably one of the best water activities yet :) We had awesome guides. They made us a large barbeque when we finished and then we headed back for class. 2 days ago we hiked through the rain forest which was beautiful but was covered with leeches, ticks, spiders and snakes…not really for me. By the end of the hike I had over 30 leeches! It was so disgusting but I survived and I pulled them all off myself believe it or not. When we got back everyone was cleaning up and one of the boys found a creepy looking spider so we showed it to someone who worked there and found out it was Funnel Web Spider which he said is the deadliest spider in the world. He killed it but while we were all looking at it, it started moving again. Very disturbing. Then we got to experience Australian ‘bush tucker’ which is food that the Aboriginals ate. I got to eat emu, crocodile, many nuts and berries, and we had skippy burgers which is wallaby or miniature kangaroo. The food was all surprisingly good. Yesterday we got to Byron Bay. We are staying in little beach houses and I swam in the ocean and played tennis on grass courts today. I love it here, its paradise! We get to enjoy beach, scuba, and surf for the next couple days!!!! I can’t believe it! I’m so excited :)

My experience so far has been unbelievable!!! I love it so much! I can’t wait to see you all but it is gonna be hard coming home. It’s just so carefree and wonderful here.

I hope you have an amazing week! I love you so much and I miss you!

Until next time, Kate
xxx (those are hugs)