My First Adventure Outside the US
First of all, hi there! You made it to my first blog post! I am so unbelievably excited for this blogging journey. Traveling is my passion and I cannot wait to share it with all of you. Since I was a little kid I always dreamt of traveling to the most insane places. I spent my time outside, climbing trees, fishing with my Dad, or playing sports in the backyard with my brothers. I was always looking for the next adventure. As I grew older, that wanderlust just kept growing and I ended up taking my first step outside the country in the summer of 2018.
HERE’S HOW MY FIRST TRIP ABROAD WENT!
I knew going into college I wanted to study abroad at some point. I didn’t know when, but I knew it was going to be in the cards. I remember going back to my parents house for a weekend in the winter of my sophomore year of college. I came across a 5 week summer program that hit both Australia AND New Zealand. The two places that were at the top of my list! Right then and there I knew in my heart this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I immediately sat my Mom down and told her this trip was part of God’s plan for me. I knew I would experience an immense amount of personal growth and an adventure of a lifetime. My heart couldn’t say no.
The weeks leading up to this huge adventure consisted of me bursting with excitement but also almost pooping my pants thinking about going on a 5 week excursion with 17 people I didn’t know. Luckily, when I got to the airport, I was greeted with the biggest smiles and kindest souls. I knew right away I was in for an experience I would never forget. We had an 18 hour flight from LAX to New Zealand. Oh. My. Gosh. Longest flight of my life! I had never wished for a horizontal bed to sleep in so badly. Fortunately, the airline treated us like Kings and Queens. We received a pillow, a blanket, an eye mask, earplugs, drinks, a meal every 3-4 hours and snacks in between. I felt pampered but also very uncomfortable in that seated position for 18 hours. But it was WORTH IT! We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, and I could not swipe the smile off my face for at least a few days.
After spending a couple days in Auckland doing “touristy” things, we went on a 3 day excursion at Abel Tasman National Park. Out of my entire abroad experience, this is definitely in the top 3, if not the first. It took about 2 hours to kayak to our destination, seeing seals and unbelievable mountains along the way. I remember being so at peace and so happy in that moment, taking in the scenery and the sound of water hitting against my kayak. I had never kayaked before so it was quite the adventure for me. Luckily, I caught on pretty quick!
We arrived at our first hut, made ourselves at home, and took off on our first hike. Most of our hikes ranged from about 4-8 miles, and many of them were with our big hiking backpacks because we were hiking from one hut to another. 5 weeks of my life’s belongings were in that backpack, so you could imagine it was pretty heavy! I had legs of steel after this trip!
There was an interaction in one of the huts that I will remember for the rest of my life. My friend, Lauren, and I started the fire inside (we’re pretty badass, I know), and it was getting pretty late. There were New Zealand high schoolers that were sharing a hut with us and they happened to be sitting right next to me. We struck up a conversation and I couldn’t believe how awestruck they were while talking to us, “So you speak American?” … “Wait, do you go to frat parties like in the movies?” …. “So you go to college?” All valid questions that I couldn’t help but chuckle at. They were so interested about my life and I was so interested about theirs. I asked them if they had any college plans and they said “uni” isn’t as strict there and they don’t know if they are even going to go. That’s something I didn’t know about New Zealand and University! I thought it was such a cool experience to sit and chat with them in front of a warm fire after a long day of hiking, no service, just pure connections and laughs. A moment I will never forget.
I could go into so much detail about this litter excursion, like seeing glow worms in a small cave we found at night off of the beach, like going on my own little hike in the morning before anyone else was awake, like watching the unreal sunrises, sunsets, and stars at night before we fell asleep, and all the connections I made with all my new, adventure loving friends. I couldn’t of asked for a better adventure to start this trip out.
Since this is going to be a novel if I describe every single thing we did, I’m going to skip to when we flew to the South Island. Another favorite part of mine was when we arrived in the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown. With a statement like that, how can you NOT go bungy jumping and ziplining? I knew right away I had to, they were both on my bucket list anyway! Besides, why not do it in fricken NEW ZEALAND?!
I decided to bungy jump first since I was more nervous to do that than zipline. I remember standing in line while it was about 20-30 degrees out. All I could think about was how cold I was the entire time, so I kind of forgot what I was doing by the time I got up there. When I finally got strapped in and looked down, it hit me again that I was jumping off a dang bridge! He asked me if I was ready and I just said “uhhh” and he goes “alright! 3-2—1!” And there I was, about to dive head first into the depths of the river. I remember him asking me before hand, “do you want your head to get dunked? And I remember giving him the most confused face and a big UM no thanks!”
So there it was, I survived bungy jumping. I ziplined immediately after, and I was still in shock about the bungy jump I probably looked like a deer in headlights the entire time. Cheers to risk taking and adrenaline rushes!
The next big adventure was Australia. We arrived in Sydney where we spent a couple days riding the ferry to Manly Beach, seeing the Sydney Opera house, and checking out the local bars. We happened to be there the weekend of the light show, which is when they have tons of lights around the entire city and on the Opera House, it looked so cool!
We then went surfing at Bondi Beach which was an unreal experience. I’ve always heard how awesome Bondi was, so I couldn’t believe I was actually going there to surf it. It was a pretty cold and rainy day which brought some nasty waves (at least to a little beginner like me) but I still had fun with it! We then made our way to Cairns which was a super fun city. We experienced the night life and had some warm days at the beach, but the next place was another one of my favorites. Fitzroy Island! This is where we experienced the Great Barrier Reef and spent a couple nights on the island. It was about an hour boat ride where we then settled in and got ready for snorkeling. The reef was INSANE! So many bright fishes, turtles, and yes… someone saw a baby shark! I remember at one point I was just swimming minding my business and all of a sudden I reached the drop off into the depths of the ocean. It was terrifying, I felt like a shark was just going to gobble me up so I quickly swam back by the turtles.
In terms of the coral, a lot of it was bleached unfortunately. Before going on this trip I heard the reef was dying, so I was especially excited and grateful I got to see it before it was completely dead. Now I have seen 2/7 of the natural wonder’s of the world! 5 to go!
The last adventure I want to touch on is when we had our last 3-4 day hiking excursion out in the Australian wilderness. We were now in North Australia in a place called Kakadu. We rented two awesome jeeps that we strapped all of our hiking backpacks to and filed in the back. As soon as we got to our trailhead our professor said, “take off your watches and turn off your phones. I don’t want you to worry about time the next couple of days. We are simply going to wake up when the sun wakes us up, and go to bed when the sun goes down.” I was in shock. At first it was bizarre not knowing the time for an entire day, but I soon came to absolutely love it. I got to fully live in the moment and enjoy everything happening around me.
Our days consisted of us hiking to waterfalls where we spent the entire day jumping off cliffs and enjoying each others company. We actually had to swim to the waterfalls in order to fill our water bottles! It was such a cool experience. There was one place we hiked to that had a hidden waterfall and was super hard to get to. I remember I had to jump over water about 50 feet up in the air onto a small cliff, easily could have fallen to my death if I had one bad step (don’t tell my mom this pls). I don’t know why but I just love the adrenaline rush from things like that, even though when I think about it I still can’t believe I did it. Actually I can believe I did it because the waterfall was absolutely unbelievable, I will never stop seeking out natural wonders like that!
Our nights consisted of us making campfires, telling stories, and sharing many laughs. When I’m stressed out I like to think back to this exact moment of pure bliss. I wonder if I were to put my phone away for a couple days if I could get back to this feeling somehow. It can be so consuming and toxic, I wonder sometimes if it’s truly worth it to have.
I seek out new adventures and new places to travel to because of this exact excursion. I want to put my phone down, make new connections, and truly live in the present. This world has so much to offer and I have so much life yet to live and experience it. That alone is so exciting!
If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventure abroad and some of the thoughts I had throughout and after it. I look forward to offering more travel tips, itineraries, and basic lifestyle posts for all of you! Stay tuned!
דירות דיסקרטיות בקריות-israelnightclub
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