Faaaaall!

While the rest of you are starting to warm up, it's getting cold here. I'll be traveling up the coast in northern Australia in 6 weeks and it will be warmer there, but for now I'm revving up my heater! On my way home from the mall with a friend I snapped some photos of the beautiful leaves to share.

ANZAC Day

Have you ever tried an Anzac cookie? If not, do it. They are SO GOOD.


Today was ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). It's a public holiday, which means I don't have a single class this week :)


Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years and was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. Australian and New Zealand forces allied and landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed.


Originally, I was planning on going to the Dawn Service at the War Memorial at 5:30 am, which meant I would have to catch a bus at 4:30 am. Since I'm practically nocturnal anyway, I decided to stay up and do homework until it was time to head out. During that time, I heard it raining pretty hard off and on and decided that it was a bad idea to go since the temperature outside was a measly 8 Degrees (46 F) outside. I was able to make it to the 10:15 service, though. The agenda was different, but I'm glad I at least went to something. 

I survived (an earthquake)

I woke up this morning around 5 am to an earthquake! I was too tired to care or get up.. so it's a good thing it wasn't anything major. It measured 3.7 mag and was about 30 miles away from me. One of my roommates posted this picture and I couldn't help but laugh:

Black Mountain

About 10 of us exchange students went on a hike to the top of Black Mountain yesterday. There was a tower called Telstra that had a great lookout from the top. Here are some pics!

 

New Zealand

For my mid-semester break (Australians get mad if you call it 'Spring Break', as it is Fall here), I traveled to New Zealand with 7 of my friends. We rented 2 4-person camper vans and road tripped around the south island for 7 days. I had so much fun! Our cell phones didn't have service other than the occasional wifi we could find, which forced us all to enjoy the vacation without interruptions or worries from back home.

We went on a 3-4 hour hike that lead us to a few beaches along the way. There were supposed to be seals at the destination, but we only saw one along the way.

The trail was pretty muddy in parts because it had rained quite a bit the day before. There were also a few obstacles we had to climb over/under.

While the hike was a little challenging due to the mud, it was well worth it. 

When we finally made it to Queenstown, it was obvious that the one day we had allotted was not enough. Our plans were rearranged a little so we could spend a full day and a half in the cute little town. The pictures below were taken right at the edge of town.

There was a lot of driving involved (hence, road trip). Whenever someone wanted to take a break, we were all happy to get out to stretch our legs and take pictures.

 During the last couple of days, we drove along the south coast and stopped to hike to a few waterfalls on the way. They were so beautiful!

For more pictures, you can view my album on Facebook: Sweet As... New ZEALAND <3