Aloha!

Today's my last day on O'ahu, Hawaii :(
This last week went by sooooo fast, I can't believe I have to leave tomorrow.....or in a few hours, since the airport shuttle is picking me up at 4.15AM!

But let me tell you about my week here in Hawaii! When I arrived last thursday I was pretty confused, since I left Sydney on Thursday 6PM and I arrived here at 8AM THURSDAY!! :D
I had to wait for my room to be ready, so I decided to walk to Honolulu and buy food and an american cell phone! The day went by pretty quick and I just hung around the hostel! This place is great, nice people, (mostly) clean room and a lot of stuff you can rent or get for free here ;) I've met a(nother ;)) german girl here. Her name is Isabel and we did everything together last week.

On Friday we decided to "climb" up the Diamond Head Crater, which was great! You have to walk around 1-2h and the view from up there is phenomenal!
Saturday we wanted to go to the North Shore, but I have to admit we didn't inform ourselves well enough, because we ended up sitting in a bus for 3h and we only saw the Sunset beach :/ oh well, it was great anyway, biiiig waves for surfers, not so good for swimmers ;)
Kailua beach was next, on sunday. Since Kailua is more a family beach we went further to Lanikai beach and it was awesome! Great flat water for swimming, nice sand, not too many people, great beach!!!
The weather forecast said it was raining on monday, so we thought we rather stay in and planned an "inside activity" :) since the bread over here isn't exactly good, we decided to bake a good old loaf of bread :D it was cool, but we "wasted" a great SUNNY day with baking and watching a movie outside on my ipad ;)

Yesterday I FINALLY made it to Waikiki beach (that's pretty weird since I'm staying only 2 blocks away ;))! We watched the sunset and relaxed in the sand!
And today I took my first surf lessons!!! It was AWESOME and it turnes out I'm pretty good at it. I could stand every single time and it was soooo much fun doing it! :D After that we wanted to lay on the beach for a while, but it was just too hot to lay in the sun!

I just finished packing my suitcase again and since I bought some new stuff I have to take an extra carry-on bag to take all my stuff with me ;)
Hope I manage to get up so early tomorrow morning and I finish this entry with a LOT of pictures from this beautiful island......

ALOHA!

Bye Bye Australia!

5 more hours til the shuttle is taking me to the airport and I'm off to Hawaii! :)

But first things first... Some of you may have seen it already on facebook and of course I had to tell my family first: I CUT MY HAIR! :D I was thinking about doing it for almost a year now, but I never dared to do it in Switzerland. Since I have a similar shaped head like my mum and she wears her hair short, I knew it can't be that bad and after two days now I have to say that I really like it that way and I'm gonna keep it ;)
Wybke and I decided to spend the rainy Tuesday in a mall, there's a great one called Westfield Center at Bondi JCT. While shopping we found a great hairdresser and the young woman working there liked my idea of short hair so she did it and I think she did a wonderful job.... You can see my new hair on the picture further down :)

Then my last day came and passed quickly. We were so lazy that we decided to leave the hostel not before noon :D we then went to the Pylon Lookout at Harbour Bridge and took some last pictures of the city at daylight. There was also some time left for souvenir shopping, but I have to admit I haven't bought anything for friends and family yet, because there's just NO space left in my suitcase ;)
After dinner at the hostel we went back to the city by bus and crossed the Harbour Bridge one last time at night! The view was amazing and I could take some great shots from the Opera House, the skyline and the bridge :)
I hope you like those last impressions from Sydney because next week's all about beaches and surfing and a huge Island :D I can't wait to be back in America!

One, two, three..... SYDNEY!

Since I arrived late wednesday evening here in Sydney, I could only spend four days in this wonderful city!

My first day was pretty lonely, walking around the city, going sight-seeing all by myself! Still it was nice seeing all those wonderful places here in Sydney!

Then I met Wybke, a German girl on her last week in Australia. We went sight-seeing together, to Bondi Beach, over the Harbour Bridge and to Manly.
Friday evening I went on the BridgeClimb and it was GREAT!! I loved the view over the city and I even did the night-climb which made the city even more beautiful! :)
On Saturday we went to the Glebe Market, which was cool. Great second-hand and vintage stufff! I bought shorts with strapes like an overall ;) they're cool and I feel really compfy in them! In the evening we wen to the Darling Harbour to see the weekly firework!
Sunday, I went to Bondi Beach with 6 Germany :D it was okay, but too much "see and be seen", not my kind of beach.... So we went to Tamarama Bay and laid in the sun there!

Today I went to Manly with Wybke. It was awesome, just laying on the beach for a few hours and getting a little tan ;) an hours ago it started to rain and it's nice to feel the air cooling down a little

Two & a half days left here.... Can't wait to be in Honolulu soon! ;)

Great Ocean Road!

There's one more day left in Melbourne and tomorrow I definitely need to go to the Skydeck & see the city from up there ;)

But let me tell you about my last two days now.... they were absolutely AMAZING!!! Thanks to my former host-dad Tim I decided to do the 2-days tour and I have to say I'm really happy I listened to him :D
The whole trip was great! First we went inland to Warrnambool, had lunch at Tower Hill and later got to the London Bridge (a part of the Twelve Apostles), Bay of Martyrs and the Grotto. We were a small group of 14, all from different countries (although there were 3 other Swiss girls, but they pretty much just kept to themselves) and we all had a great time together (never mind the old Australian drunk guy who was totally annoying)! After settling in at the hostel in Port Campbell, we went to the 12 Apostles for sunset.... It was BRILLIANT!! I've never seen something as beautiful as this! I tried to get some good pictures, but it just doesn't quiet capture the moment the way it actually is.
After the sunset we went back to the hostel and had a great BBQ together (thank god the drunk dude was already passed out in his room :))!
The morning after we went to the Razorback, Loch Ard Gorge and back to the 12 Apostles to see them in daylight. It was still amazing seeing all those big stone formations out in the sea! The guide had some good stories to tell us about the rocks and the Great Ocean Road. There are actually 14 rocks now that are part of the Twelve Apostles and there used to be 18 of them. When a part of the London Bridge fell off, a couple was stuck at the far end and it later came out that the woman was married and met her secret boyfriend there ;). The rocks were called the Sow and Pigs, but when more and more tourist came, they re-named them!
We then went to the Great-Otway-Nationalpark, walked in the Mait's Rest rainforest and went to Apollo Bay for lunch.
Later we had three more stops at the Memorial Arch, the Split-Point lighthouse and Bells Beach! The whole trip was full of great new sights and stories! I really enjoyed my weekend down at the Great Ocean Road and Sydney has to more than just impress me to top that experience ;)