Hello from Australia! Chelsea and Marissa checking-in! Sorry it took so long for us to post since the sheep farm but we have just been so busy with our travels.

After the sheep farm we spent two fabulous nights in Queenstown, NZ preparing for the upcoming Routeburn Trek. The trek was 32 kilometers (around 20 miles) and took us only 3 days. Through the trek we were surrounded by a variety of beautiful scenery- woods, mountains, waterfalls GALORE. After each long, eventful day of busting our asses we were pleased with the cleanliness and friendliness of our cabins. One of the biggest pieces of the trek was planning group meals, which eventually (and unfortunately) led to the up-chucking of Reid Miller. Our ten hour/15 mile journey on the second day finally ended with the best cup of Milo we'd ever had. The third day we all awoke at 5 in the pitch-black morning to hike out and finish our journey, some of us without a headlamp... Chelsea and Elizabeth... Which led us directly into a tough day of kayaking the Milford Sound. The day of kayaking started off easy-breezy; all of us enjoying our beautiful surroundings with big open smiles. Yet as the hours passed, the forces of nature grew stronger. For some of us those big open smiles quickly turned into angry frustrated grit teeth as we battled those forces of nature. Some of us were quickly taken away at sea, needing the assistance of our trusty guide Oly, as he harnessed Kay-Lin and Chelsea's kayak to his. But thankfully we all reached land safely.

The rest of the day and the next was spent at the only accommodation in the Milford Sound (the Milford Sound Lodge). April Fool's Day was not forgotten either.

We spent our last day in NZ in Queenstown again, where we enjoyed a family meal followed by the most massive, mouth-watering gelato cone anyone had ever had. With very full bellies we slept all having very good dreams knowing that Australia was "just around the river bend..."

SYDNEY!! Carpe Diem was in da house. Kings Cross, where we stayed within the city, was dirty but we still had a good time. The Botanical Gardens, Opera House, and Hyde Park were all fab-u-lous. Our first day we were given a super cool SCAVENGER HUNT CHALLENGE!! We got into, real into it. The hunt nearly ended friendships as the teams competed for the romantic dinner prize. The next day, the group split up according to which markets they wished to visit. Tyler, Shelby, and Marissa all had plans of hitting up a few. After walking through Paddy's market, and purchasing a fluorescent pink wig on Marissa's part, things went wrong. Marissa was left behind on the train, and had to fend for herself for the rest of the day... all whist wearing the fluorescent wig.

Our last night, we all attended a play at the Opera House called "The Alchemist." We all enjoyed the play except for poor soul (Chelsea). Again the night ended with ice cream.

Then we hit up Adelaide, where the group settled in chilling with the kangaroos and wombats. There we spent the next few days there working on a Australian conservation project counting wombat burrows in order to count there population (very important in helping protect these cute cuddly creatures). For all of you that didn't know what the wombat creature is - it is a marsupial that looks like a cross between a guinea pig, pig, and a chinchilla- overall a cute little bugger. Our guide Katie became our new best friend as we begged her to cook us more pancakes, and with here eagle eyes she even pointed out two wild wombats, a emu, and a plentyfull amount of kangaroos. Today (April 9th) we left our house in the outback into travel back to civilization to prepare for our next adventure on Groovy Grape where we will be touring the outback. Till next time! Love the fab 10.


Chelsea
Marissa