I can't believe that I have only been in Australia four days. I have managed to cram so much into such a short space of time, I'm wondering how on earth I am going to fill the next 12 weeks as there surely can't be that much left to do...like that is actually true.
But first the journey, which was surprisingly uneventful. 24 hours from take off to landing, with 20 of those spent sat on a plane. My time was filled by sleeping, eating crazy amounts of pretty awesome plane food and watching four films: madagascar 3, brave, dark shadows and last but not least magic mike. Well helloooo very naked Channing Tatum. Although, I think the Singaporean lady sat next to me was slightly disturbed when she glanced over at my screen and saw what very much resembled soft porn...aw well.
So I arrived at Adelaide airport to find my sister and my neice waiting for me at arrivals holding a banner saying "G'day Auntie Amber" that Scarlett had made for me... and I'm very proud to say that despite this I didn't even cry. Now that has to be classed as a pretty decent achievement, well for me anyway. Friday passed in a jet-lag induced haze of tiredness and relief and having finally made it to 8pm I crashed into bed. And then it was Saturday and time to get my first experience of Aussie life. It was the middle of November and I was lying beside my sister's pool drinking a glass of wine, waiting for my sister's friends to come over so that we could get the bbq going and cook up some snags. I managed to struggle through the day with great difficulty, just in case you were wondering. I did, however, experience my first beef sausage. Unusual, but not as disturbing as I thought it might be so would be happy to eat one again.
Now for Sunday, whoch has been my favourite day so far. Me, Oliver, my sister and Scarlett headed over to Cleland wildlife park. This is basically a massive area of bushland that they have fenced off and filled with laods of tame aussie animals. I spent the afternoon feeding kangeroos, walabies and emus, chasing after bandicoots and hunting for wombats and tasmanian devils. The highlight of the day had to be cuddling a koala though. For just $30, I got to hold a Koala called Belle. I felt like an excited child in the queue waiting for my turn and believe me, it was worth the wait. She was such an adorable little thing and had the softest fur to stroke. Apparently they sleep for 19 hours a day and spend the remaining 5 hours stuffling their faces with over 1000 leaves....hence my cousin has renamed me 'the koala'. The koala experience didnt pass without a bit of drama however, and believe me this is a pretty good story. My problems began when we were walking through the long grasses, which triggered of my hayfever. By the time we reached the koala shack, I was sneezing pretty often but as the koalas are very-noise sensitive I had to try to stifle them as much as I could. Having passed Belle back to her keeper, I felt a massive sneeze building so I moved outside to move further away from her so I didnt startle her. This plan worked but to the detriment of me, which was that holding back the sneeze and then letting it out so violently managed to cause a massive nosebleed. My sister realised first and rushed off to find some tissues but only managed to find a first aid box full of bandanges, so picture me sat on a bench outside a koala enclosure, holding my nose with gauze strips and hysterically laughing at the absurdness of the situation. It was unforgettable, thats for sure. So anway, it eventually stopped and we carried on with our day talking about how awkward it could of got had the nosebleed started whilst I was holding the koala. Hilarious.
The last couple of days were less dramatic, but busy all the same. Scarlett has become my new shadow and is at my side at all times. We have been in and out of the pool, hit the beach and watched countless episodes of the wiggles and the faries. Its amazing to be able to spend some time with her and Josh, as well as my sister and her husband. What would we do without family.... Today was my scuba diving training day, which I really enjoyed. I'm off out on my diving expedition on thursday, so I will keep you posted. Bring on the fishies!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment