When my dad started planning his trip down under, he gave me a list of everything he wanted to do while he was visiting me in Australia – it included just about everything I’ve written about in my blog so far. With only 9 days, I told him it was impossible to see and do what has taken me six months, so we narrowed it down. Despite crossing off two-thirds of his list, my week with my dad was still incredibly action-packed.

Last Thursday, I met my dad down in Sydney. I have to admit, I wasn’t entirely thrilled to go back. My first trip left me feeling underwhelmed, and I remember thinking that besides Sydney Harbour, it felt just like any other typical city. But last time, it was winter. And I was working. I didn’t have my own agenda, and it was hard to bust free. This time my trip was short, but it made me fall in love with the city. It was so different from the first  – my dad and I stayed in Sydney Harbour in the heart of iconic Australia and we had no agenda. We wandered the streets and took a ferry over to Manly Beach. Manly was quaint, but gorgeous, and we enjoyed dinner that night at a German Beir Haus where we feasted on beer and schnitzel, making friends with the Aussie waiter and other travelers sitting at our communal table. The next day we headed over to Bondi Beach. In the heat of summer, Bondi was swarming with people. We soaked in the sun, went swimming in the surprisingly icy water, and headed back later for a last minute Bridge Climb.

Dad and I on top of the Bridge

I hadn’t expected to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge (twice), but my dad was incredibly jealous that I’d done it the first time without him. We booked the last day-climb, which meant we caught the sunset at the end of the tour, but paid half the price of those going up at twilight. We hiked up in nothing but our breezy Bridge Climb onesies and watched the sky turn pink and orange over the beautiful city.

After two days in Sydney, we flew up to Airlie Beach. Airlie is a small town, and when we arrived it was completely dead. At dinner that night, we asked a local where all the people were, and he responded, “What people? If we wanted people, we’d go down to Sydney. This is how we like it.” And I had to agree with him. While I had expected a little more, Airlie’s low-key-ness made it charming. We weren’t in Airlie to party, anyway. We were there to catch a three-day catamaran trip, sailing around the Whitsunday Islands.

On Sunday morning, we said hello to our home for the next three days: Wings. Our boat had a four-man crew: Captain Tristan and cook Lou Lou from England, Aussie scuba instructor Charlie, and our main man, Clayton, the coolest Kiwi I’ve met. The trip was so much fun. We spent the days swimming with fish, sailing around the islands with a salty breeze in our face, and during the nights we set anchor in the middle of the sea and the sky lit up with stars brighter than I’ve ever seen them. We had to give up our shoes when we boarded the boat, so I spent three days barefoot, in nothing but my bikini. It was great. I didn’t even miss showers because I could jump into the water whenever I wanted.

Wings

The boat trip had three highlights:

1. I knocked scuba diving off my bucket list. Scuba diving, for me, left a lot to be desired. I wasn’t all too thrilled to descend into the deep blue, pressure building in my ears, trying to breathe from an oxygen tank that was heavier than I was on land. It was kind of cool breathing under water at the bottom of the ocean and swimming with the big fish. I don’t know if I’ll do it again, but I tried it. I may have been a little more keen for a second go if I hadn’t managed to bruise my ear drums in the process – yup, I spent days on end with never-ending vertigo because of my failure to equalize properly while diving. Not too fun, if you ask me.

After our first Scuba

2. We visited Whitehaven Beach. I’ve heard great things about Whitehaven, and it lived up to every bit of the fuss. It was beautiful. The sand was fine and white, it was almost as good as having snow on Christmas. The water was crystal clear, turquois blue, and incredibly warm. The best part about the island is that, like many of the other Whitsunday islands, there are no inhabitants. It’s only beach. It felt like I was finding a deserted, unknown paradise, and it was wonderful.

High fives in paradise

3. My dream came true: I swam with a sea turtle. It was the one thing I was wishing for the whole trip, and I think because I wanted it so badly, the turtles avoided me. At every snorkeling spot, the Captain would tell us, “Wow, this is the first time that we haven’t seen sea turtles in this spot. There’s usually heaps of them.” It wasn’t until one of our last snorkels, after I’d given up and taken off my wet suit, that we finally spotted one. I threw my snorkeling gear back on and jumped into the water. I swam with the turtle all along the beach, all the while thinking, “Duuuuude!!!”

I like turtles

We made it back to the mainland on Christmas Eve, but the adventure wasn’t nearly over. Immediately after checking into our hotel in Airlie, we went skydiving. Again, I wasn’t expecting to go skydiving (twice), but it was even cooler the second time around. I loved watching my dad get ready for the jump – he said he wasn’t nervous, but I think he was. Because I had done it before, my skydive instructor insisted we go first. I honestly wasn’t the least bit scared. We boarded the tiny plane and had an amazing view of the islands. The only time I got butterflies was when we reached 14,000 feet and we opened the plane door, leaning out to see the view, with no seat belts on. Then I was free falling. I think it was even better the second time around. Without the nerves, I felt free like a bird.

Successful landing

In less than 48 hours, my dad and I had conquered sea, land, and air. What an incredible way to spend the holidays!

After all that, I was ready to spend Christmas lounging on the beach. It was really strange celebrating in the middle of summer, but hey, I’ve always wanted to know what it would be like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island, hang my stocking on a great, big coconut tree. My dad and I spent Christmas day at the Lagoon right off of the beach and met some of the coolest people. That has to be one of my favorite parts about traveling – the people. I’ve found that the people in this country are especially friendly, and when you’re in a place filled with backpackers, everyone wants to be your best friend. On Christmas day alone, we made heaps of friends just floating around in the water. There was Vincent from Belgium and Anna from Germany, who met at Airlie Beach and are training to work on a boat. Michael and Marco from Switzerland who are traveling around Australia in a camper van for several months. Tom from England who came to Sydney two years ago and never left. Tal from the Netherlands who is traveling for a year through Australia. And Roy from Israel who first hitch-hiked through New Zealand, and then came to Australia a year ago to tour around as a professional beat boxer. He’s leaving in three months, and when we asked him what was to come next, he said, “I’ll go home, say hi to some people, and then I’ll be off on my next adventure – I just haven’t figured out where yet!”

Christmas at the Lagoon

We had just come off of an action-packed trip and my dad and I felt so accomplished, but we actually weren’t nearly as cool as most of the people we’d talked to. We went scuba diving, but met people who were scuba certified. We went skydiving, but met heaps of people who’d jumped out of planes well into the double digits. I thought I was adventurous for moving to Australia for a year to work, taking a couple weeks here and there to travel, but most of everyone we met were not just “on holiday” – they had made travel their lifestyle. They are true wanderers. It makes me want to jump outside of comfort zone even more than I have already.

I said goodbye to my dad a couple days after Christmas, after a short trip to Brisbane, and we are both off on our separate adventures now – me to Melbourne and my dad to a week-long motorcycle road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. Yea, my dad is pretty cool. I will post when I can! Happy New Year to all!