I used to be a photography nerd. It was my favorite subject all through high school, I was even President of the photography club. I had a fancy camera around my neck at all times - I wanted to capture every moment. But the more I travel, the more I've lost interest in photography. Yes, I want to capture these moments so I can relive them later, but I find that when I'm constantly looking through the lens of my camera, I'm not living in the moment. I miss everything that's outside of the frame.

Lately, I've been experimenting with a new way to capture my experiences: video. I've been bringing my new GoPro camera with me everywhere. There's no viewfinder, so I don't worry about the frame. I just set it on a stand and hit record - and I could not be happier with the results… Here are some sweet videos from my travels over the holidays. Hope you love them just as much as I do!

Melbourne, couch surfing, and road tripping

New Zealand: more road tripping, skinny dipping, canyon jumping

Life gets crazy sometimes. In the past couple months, I’ve been running nonstop – with the holidays and family visits and an infinite number of changes in my plans. I haven’t had time to keep in touch with my friends and family, to write, to sleep, eat, or breathe (at least that’s what it’s felt like). So much has been happening, and I want to send an update to you all!

First off, I moved. To make a long story short, things didn’t work out with my host family. As much as I love Christian and Tea, there had been tension and discomfort in the house for a while, and when I returned from my holiday travels, it was made very clear to me that I wasn’t welcome in the family anymore. It has been such a whirlwind of emotions – I was just getting back from almost a month on the road, desperate for time to recuperate, and instead I spent the rest of my time off of work crashing at friends’ houses and attempting to find a new home. I learned a couple of things about myself in the last couple of weeks. The first is that I’ve made some really incredible friends in my seven months here in Brisbane, friends who will go completely out of their way, drop everything, just to make sure I don’t have a mental breakdown. And the second is that I can keep my cool through almost any situation life throws at me.

So now I find myself with the Newcombs. It’s a funny story, actually. When I applied to be an au pair in Australia back in May, the Newcombs were the first family I spoke to. I loved them. Unfortunately for me, the family decided to go ahead and not hire an au pair right away, but I kept in touch with the mother Dana when I ended up in Brissy. A couple weeks ago, I sent her an email – and just as quickly as I had lost my job/home/family, I fell into a new one! I’m living with two adorable boys – Harry (5) and Oli (7) – in Paddington, a cute, quirky suburb of Brisbane, filled with little shops and cafes, and only a short bus ride into the city. It’s so different than what I had before, but I’m honestly really excited that my plans have changed.

Sweet view of the city from my new home

One of my favorite writers, Brian Andreas, once wrote, “Most people don’t know that there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.” I think those angels have been following me around lately, shaking things up a bit to make my life a little more interesting. And you know what? I think that’s exactly what I needed.

Almost immediately after moving in, my new host family headed off to the Sunshine Coast for the long weekend, and I had several days jam-packed with Australia Day festivities. Australia Day is the official national day of Australia, and it reminded me a lot of the 4^th of July back at home. Everyone partied all weekend long in their red, white, and blue. On Sunday, my friends and I went to the annual Cockroach Races, which sounds really weird but was actually a big deal (especially among the touristy population of Brisbane). You could buy a cockroach to race for $5, or you could bring your own, and the winners got prizes and their cockroach named in the Hall of Fame. Men dressed in kilts played their bagpipes, we drank beer, and cocky races ran all day. Later, we headed into the city and watched the fireworks over the river at Southbank. In the morning, we headed to Mermaid Beach – even though storm clouds hovered above us all day, Australia Day weekend wouldn’t have been complete without an Aussie barbie on the beach.

Aussie Day cocky races

It was a good weekend spent with good people. Now I'm ready to sit back, relax, get some sleep, and finally fall back into a routine. This time I'll just have to make sure I don't get too comfortable!

I’ve fallen absolutely in love with New Zealand. I just returned to Brisbane late last night after spending eight days in a campervan, road tripping around the South Island with Kelsey. It was such an adventure and I’m missing it already.

We left Melbourne last weekend on a red-eye flight to Christchurch. When Kelsey and I boarded our plane, we thought we were the luckiest people in the world – she had the window and I had the aisle and there was no one between us. We laid back, ready to sleep as much as we could on our three hour flight, but from the moment of take off, the baby behind us started screaming bloody murder and didn’t stop until landing. We arrived to Christchurch at 4:30am, exhausted, the van rental place not opening until 9am… so we found ourselves some nice-looking benches, curled up, and slept like homeless people in the airport. After four hours of tossing and turning, we hopped on a bus to take us to Wicked.

I’ve always thought hippie campervans were cool. Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to buy an old one, graffiti the outside, and take it for a cross-country road trip. Wicked Campers hires out crazy-looking vans all over Australia and New Zealand – our Wicked van for the week was Norton. Norton, the “iconic two-seater,” wasn’t too flashy. He was a little beat up with dents and scrapes, but we loved him all the same. After all, he was the one keeping us warm at night. We loaded Norton with our bags and some groceries and immediately hit the road.

Kelsey and Norton at Lake Tekapo

To be honest, Christchurch wasn’t all that exciting. A lot of the city had been destroyed by earthquakes years ago, and that destructed feeling was still present. Our plan was to leave Christchurch and do a week-long loop around the South Island, hitting up Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Wanaka, and the glaciers on the West Coast. But one of the best things about our week was that New Zealand had different plans for us. On Norton’s dashboard, there was a bumper sticker that read, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” and a prior Wicked renter had added “Don’t make plans!” We learned last week that that’s the best way to go.

With Kelsey driving the first leg of our root, I dozed off. When I woke up, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. We were surrounded by mountains, purple and snow-capped, green fields filled with sheep. We reached Lake Tekapo and took a dip in the bluest water I have ever seen. It’s hard to put into words what it was like. The only one I can think of is “unreal.”

Heaven

From there, we headed to Mount Cook, where we planned to camp and hike in the morning. When we pulled into the campsite, we began to doubt ourselves for the first time. Everyone at the campsite was decked out in long pants, hiking boots, down coats, gloves and hats. Our warmest layers were summer raincoats and leggings that barely covered our ankles. We bundled up in as many clothes as we could find, and drifted off to sleep. And in the morning we woke up to rain… the question was, do we hike Mount Cook, or move along with the journey ahead?

My dad had just left New Zealand when we arrived. He had planned a similar route on a motorcycle, but his trip didn’t go as expected. From Christmas day through New Years, the temperature had dropped and it rained every day. My dad ended up cutting his trip short and flying back to Sydney to spend a few days before going home. Kelsey and I didn’t want that to happen to us. We didn’t want to come all the way to New Zealand to skip out on everything we’d planned. And after all, we weren’t on motorcycles – we had Norton to keep us dry and warm and out of the elements. So we hiked anyway.

Hiking Mount Cook

Big mistake. It was freezing. It was raining hard. Our “raincoats” soaked all the way through and we got back to Norton completely drenched with numb hands and feet. We didn’t think about the fact that when you’re living in a van, there’s no clothesline or dryer for your wet clothes. We found a place to take a five-minute warm shower for $2 and used hand dryers to dry as much of our clothes as we could. We still ended up driving around for a couple days with wet clothes hanging all over the van, and it started to stink really badly. Not only that, but they were our warmest layers. I started to get stressed I wouldn’t be dry or warm for the whole week.

We camped at Lake Gun, and drove to Milford Sound in the morning for a cruise. I’d heard that it rains about 360 days a year at Milford Sound – but we got extra lucky and sat on the boat with sunshine. I guess the universe started to feel sorry for us and wanted our clothes to get a little dryer. The cruise ended up being amazing. We cruised through mountains, waterfalls flowing from high above, seals bathing on rocks, free coffee on board. We got back to Norton feeling pretty good, only to find that we’d left the headlights on and the battery had gone flat. Luckily, some cute French Canadian guys helped jump start us and we were on our way again.

Milford Sound

We drove straight on through to Queenstown. The adventure capital of the world. I had heard so many great things about it and it was every bit as great as I’d expected. We ended up getting sucked in so hard that we ditched the rest of our plans and just stayed. Part of that was because Queenstown’s weather turned into warmth and sunshine, and we couldn’t stand the idea of moving on to the West Coast where we were bound to have rain.

Kelsey and I found an awesome campsite right outside of the city – Twelve Mile Delta. It was right on the lake, and we brought our soap and took freezing cold baths in the lake and warmed up in the sun. We spent a couple nights there, and booked a hostel for one night in the city – a chance to do some laundry, take a real shower, and sleep in an actual bed. I have to admit, even just being one night away, we missed Norton a little bit.

I think we definitely made the most of our few days in Queenstown. On Day 1, we headed to AJ Hackett to look at bungy jumping again – after going in Cairns, we knew we had to take advantage of our lifelong discounts at any AJ Hackett in the world. We booked a tandem canyon swing and it was amazing. When I studied in Florence, I went canyon jumping in Switzerland – the two crazy Swiss guys who took my group told us there were only two places in the world where you can jump from a platform and swing into a canyon: Switzerland and New Zealand. I had one down, so naturally I had to go in Queenstown. Kelsey and I were strapped together in harnesses, suspended 150 meters above a canyon, and dropped, adrenaline coursing through our veins.

Nevis canyon swing

As if that weren’t enough of a rush, we went canyoning the next day. A group of eight of us went with our cute British tour guide Rauel – bundled in wetsuits, swimming socks, shoes, jackets, hats and helmets. We climbed to the top of the canyon and ziplined over it, abseiled down into it, climbed back up and cliff jumped into the freezing cold water, swimming, slipping down rockslides, and having an absolute blast. Everyone had a name on his or her helmet. I was Bubbles and Kelsey was Ke$ha. I felt so silly when Rauel would pull me around by my harness and call me Bubbles.

Canyoning crew

For the rest of our time in Queenstown, we chilled. We got clean. We got warm. We drove to Glenorchy, only 20 minutes away, and had coffee at a café overlooking the mountains. We wandered around Queenstown, which was adorable, with so many little shops. We ate world famous Fergburgers, the biggest burgers I’ve ever seen. We stumbled across a weekend market down by the waterfront, laid in the grass and listened to live music, getting a little sun after days of rain. We threw away our plans and could not have been more content.

So in love with Queenstown

The last day and a half of our trip was spent driving through pouring rain back to Christchurch. Although the rain wasn’t all too fun, New Zealand still looked absolutely beautiful. Kelsey and I made it to the airport and boarded our flight home to Brisbane last night – all the while scheming our next trip…

At the moment, I’m writing from a brown leather couch in a hostel in Queenstown, New Zealand, surrounded by snowcapped purple mountains and the bluest water you could ever imagine. But before I tell you about the land of Kiwis, I have to talk about my week in and around Melbourne, Australia.

Part I: Melbourne

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately. One of the perks of being an au pair in the southern hemisphere is that the kids have about two months of summer holiday off of school around Christmastime – which means I’ve been free as a bird as of three weeks ago. After my dad set off for New Zealand, I met up with some other au pairs – Kelsey, Jordan, and Tessa – for a week down in southern Australia to celebrate New Years. Our adventure began in Melbourne, one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. When I got to Melbourne, I didn’t feel like I was in Australia anymore. Gone were the palm trees, beaches, and scorching hot sun – instead we could put on pants and sweaters and wander around the graffiti-covered streets, sipping cappuccinos at alleyway cafes.

We stayed in Fitzroy, a tiny, artsy suburb on the outskirts of the city – in a hostel called the Nunnery. We were only there for five nights, but the Nunnery felt more like home than almost anywhere I’ve been in awhile. The four of us stayed in a twelve-person room, which sounds overwhelming, but our room was big and homey feeling. We had roommates from France, Germany, Scotland, England, Canada, and a lot of them had been living at the Nunnery for months. They all had a similar story – they came to Melbourne only for a couple of days, and loved the city and the Nunnery so much that they decided to stay forever (or at least until they run out of money). There was such a sense of community at the hostel. Nicholas, who worked at the front desk, tried to set up frisbee dates in the park across the street. The girls and I cooked meals together in the hostel kitchen and ate on the rooftop or in the courtyard, sitting at communal tables and making friends who are traveling from all around the world. We played cards and drank wine on the balcony outside our room and had new friends come and join in as they were passing by.

The Nunnery

When we weren’t at the Nunnery, we were exploring the city. One of the best parts of the trip was that we booked a flight and a hostel, and other than that we had no real plans. Kelsey, Jordan and I woke up early on our first day and went downtown, stumbling upon a few of the graffiti covered streets. There were graffiti artists in the alleys, making the city into a work of art. We wandered down little alleyways, filled with tiny cafes. We met up with Tessa other days and went to free museums and the Queen Victoria Market, where we bought fresh bread, prosciutto, cheese, and fruits and had a picnic in the park. On our last day, we went to one of Melbourne’s many rooftop bars, Naked in the Sky, and drank beers on the balcony overlooking the city.

Me, Jordan, and Kelsey at Hosier Lane

We spent New Years in Melbourne at a Party in the Park. A lot of our friends from Brisbane were setting off for Sydney for New Years, and the ones who didn’t were at least trying to find themselves in some bustling city to celebrate. But I’ve always thought New Years Eve is overrated – especially when you’re in a place jam-packed with people. Everyone at the Nunnery was going to Edinburgh Gardens, BYO, to chill out and watch the fireworks. We decided to join. That night we made dinner and had drinks with new friends at the hostel. We made it to the park, a little boozy, right before midnight and just in time to watch fireworks bring in the New Year.

New Year with new friends

From Melbourne, we rented a car for the next part of our adventure: two nights on the Great Ocean Road. Before leaving Fitzroy and the Nunnery, we took the car on a mini road trip to Brighton Beach where we walked along the sand next to heaps of brightly colored bathhouses. We ate fish and chips on the beach in Sorrento, and spent our last night on a pub-crawl with our Nunnery friends.

Kelsey at Brighton Beach

Part II: Great Ocean Road

I didn’t really know what to expect when we decided to spend three days and two nights on the Great Ocean Road. Kelsey, Jordan, Tessa and I packed our rental car to the brim and drove a couple hours from Melbourne. When we hit the Great Ocean Road, it was amazing. We drove a couple hours on cliff edges, beautiful views, with the windows down, wind in our hair, Kelsey’s “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” road trip CD blasting. We stopped at lookout points, the London Bridge and the Twelve Apostles, and anywhere else that looking enticing. And we broke up our trip into a couple days by spending two nights in tiny towns along the way – Apollo Bay and Port Campbell – and I think those stops are what made the trip.

Great Ocean Road

Part III: Couch Surfing

I’ve always liked the idea of couch surfing. I remember studying in Florence and hearing about the couch surfing organization, but I was too chicken to put myself out there to crash on couches during my travels. It was just against my instincts to be so trusting of strangers. But when I started planning this trip, I made myself a couch surfing profile, hoping to save some money on the road.

We got our first taste of couch surfing at our stop in Apollo Bay. Heath and Kyle hosted us – two pretty cool surfer dudes from Florida. I’d messaged Heath a couple months ago and he was super keen on hosting all four of us, even though he and his roommate were living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. We were a little nervous about sleeping arrangements, but in Melbourne we made friends with Kaylee and Gary. Kaylee and Gary are a couple from California who are living in Sydney and had been traveling a bit over the holidays. They were staying at the Nunnery after having driven the Great Ocean Road. We met them in the kitchen at the hostel while cooking dinner, and made friends instantly. Kaylee and Gary had coincidentally stayed with Heath in Apollo Bay and had such a great time with the guys.

Couch surfing

When we got to Apollo Bay, we pulled up to Heath and Kyle’s place as Heath was riding his skateboard to work. Kyle let us in and we immediately knew they were going to be great hosts. Kyle showed us their apartment, their new camper van (where a couple of us could sleep for the night), and acted like he was our best friend within ten minutes of meeting him. He was also headed out to work, but before he left he showed us where they kept the spare key and gave us permission to raid their freshly stocked fridge.

We had such a great time that night. Heath and Kyle are awesome guys – so much fun and so welcoming. It was only my first time couch surfing, but I could tell they were probably going to be some of my favorite hosts. They work at the only two bars in town – the Top and the Bottom bars. After dinner, Kelsey, Jordan and I went to visit the guys at work. We ended up at Kyle’s bar, where we got some great beer at a couch surfing discount. Apollo Bay is such a tiny town, and we could tell right away that we stood out like sore thumbs at the bar, where all the locals knew each other. We made friends with some of the locals and got home just before the guys got off of work. When they got home, we stayed up and hung out with the guys before crashing all over the floor and in the big green van. In the morning, Heath took us up to a lookout point where we could see all of Apollo Bay.

The gang with Heath at Apollo Bay lookout

Our adventures in and around Melbourne were amazing and we were sad to say goodbye. Luckily, the travels didn't end there. Tessa and Jordan flew out to spend a few days in Sydney, while Kelsey and I set off for the South Island of New Zealand. We've been road tripping and camping for the past few days…more to come next week!