Yes, I know I’ve been lazy lately with writing and keeping up with this blog. I apologize, but I really haven’t been doing much that requires writing about. The past couple of weeks I’ve fallen into a routine of lazy days reading by the pool and busy afternoons and nights with the kids, running back and forth from the dance studio for rehearsals. I’ve also been feeling the slightest pang of homesickness. As September rolled around, I found myself aching a bit for school. It was such a weird feeling not packing up and shipping up to Boston, squeezing into my tiny, hot dorm room with my best friends, and throwing on our Super Fan shirts for the first BC football game. This time of year has never not been back-to-school season for me, and it’s been sort of hard to wrap my head around where my place is now. Of course, I know I’d be feeling the same way even if I were back close to home. Luckily this weekend I was able to get out a bit and explore, so here’s an update on what I’ve been doing down under.

Saturday I spotted my first wild kangaroo – and not just one, but a whole heap of them! A few au pairs and I drove down south of Brisbane to spend the day at a winery where they had $5 wine tastings and live music all day. As we drove through the vineyard to the Cellar Door, heaps of kangaroos lounged for acres in every direction, chilling out with the grapes.

 

First wild kangaroo sighting

The winery was absolutely beautiful and we had the perfect day with warm, breezy springtime weather. At the Sirromet winery, we tasted dry red wines and sweet whites and split a couple bottles along with our pizza and bruschetta while we sat on the patio listening to the band play oldies that everyone knew. It reminded me of my semester I spent studying abroad in Florence, Italy, a couple years ago. One of my favorite things about Italy was the laid back lifestyle along with the abundance of wine. Of course Aussie wine will never beat a bottle of Chianti, but it was still wonderful to sit back in the sunshine with a glass filled with one of the best things on earth.

Kelsey and I at Sirromet winery

On our way back home from Sirromet, we stopped in the city. September hosts the Brisbane Festival, an annual cultural/arts festival here in Brissy. There are all sorts of events and shows playing in the city all month, and the festival closes out at the end with the Sunsuper Riverfire, where they set off fireworks and light up the city by setting the whole river on fire. Unfortunately, I’m going to miss that spectacle due to traveling (not that I’m complaining about swimming with sea turtles on the Great Barrier Reef instead), but we were able to see one of Brisbane’s light shows on Saturday night – we sat by the river and were mesmerized by the lights, lasers, and special effects in Southbank.

Brisbane Festival

The fun continued into yesterday. I met back up with some of the girls and headed to Springbrook National Park, about two hours south of Brisbane near the Gold Coast, for some hiking. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Springbrook, and it was just as beautiful as I had imagined. We drove along winding roads up into the mountains, passing heaps of Aussie road signs – warning us of bushfires, koala crossings, and rock avalanches. Once we got to the park, we bushwalked to several waterfalls. My favorite waterfall we saw was Rainbow Falls, where the falling water was more like mist. When I stepped into the falls, I could suddenly see rainbows everywhere. They covered the wet rocks and the mist looked red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The only sad part about it was that I couldn’t capture it on camera, so instead I sat in the mist and stared out at the brilliant colors around me, capturing a mental image that will hopefully stick with  me. After leaving Rainbow Falls, we bushwalked through rainforests to Twin Falls, waterfalls that fell into a sort of enclosed pool. My friends and I stood under the freezing cold water to cool off and sun baked on a rock before heading to several look out points. The look out points had amazing views of mountains, canyons, and if we squinted hard enough, we could make out the skyline of Surfer’s Paradise way in the background. It was such a fun day, but extremely tiring – so much that I’ve barely made it out of bed today!

Kelsey at Rainbow Falls

Springbrook National Park