Day 11 – Monday, January 8^th

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and watermelon
• Lunch: Chips and sorbet
• Dinner: Steak at Outback Joe’s and then McDonalds later

This morning, Lucy and I got up around 9:30am, made breakfast, and headed on a quick 5-minute drive to a waterfall. We go out of the car to see the waterfall from the bottom which was beautiful but then made a 15-minute hike up to the top of the waterfall to see it from the top which was stunning because you could see the surrounding mountains.

We headed back to the house, got the car packed up and then headed back on the road to get to Cairns for the night. We stopped at Mission beach on the way which was beautiful and grabbed some green apple sorbet before getting on the road again.

We got to Cairns around 3pm and headed to our hostel to check in. We got a private room for tonight since it wasn’t too much more. Once we got our bags into the room, we walked into town to go to my tattoo appointment at 4pm at Cairns City Tattoo. I got the world map on the inner arch of right foot which mirrors my “The journey is the destination” tattoo on the inner arch of my left foot.

The whole tattoo took about 8 minutes which Lucy and I were really impressed with. It turned out wonderful and I love it so much! After the appointment, we stopped at an Irish pub called P.J. Obrien’s for some cider. After that, we walked back to the hostel and got showered to go out to dinner. We decided to get some Australian food, so we went to Outback Jack’s. We both got the traveler’s special with fries, a garden salad, and some mushroom sauce. It was delicious but very filling.

After we got done eating, we walked through the Cairns night markets which was interesting since there was such a diverse array of items being sold. Next, we headed to Gilligan’s to get some drinks and we ended up going on the night they had their talent show so we got to watch some great acts and some not so great acts. It was so much fun and a great way to spend our last night together until Tasmania. Once we left Gilligan’s, we headed to The Woolshed, to get some more drinks and then we headed to McDonalds to get some late night food, and then made it back to our hostel to go to bed.

Day 12 – Tuesday, January 9^th

• Breakfast: Croissant with butter
• Lunch: Greek yogurt, pretzels and kangaroo jerky
• Dinner: Toasted ham and cheese and some chips

I woke up around 6:30am to get my bags all packed up for my 9:20am flight, and get ready for the day. Once I was ready, I woke up Lucy and we headed to the Cairns Airport for me to get my first leg of my flight to get to New Zealand. I checked in and went through security, grabbed a croissant for breakfast and waited until my flight was boarding. Once boarded, we waited on the plane about 45 minutes due to the weight of the plane being sorted out so we were behind schedule but I wasn’t worried because I had a 4.5-hour layover in Sydney airport until my flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. Once in Sydney airport, I had to get my checked luggage, take the train to the international terminal and then re-check my bag in for the international segment of my flight. I got through security and made my way to my gate. Boarding was prompt around 4:50pm for my 5:35pm flight. Once everyone was on the plane and seated, the cabin informed us that there was an IT issue and there was no flight plan for this specific flight so they didn’t have clearance to fly. That took about an hour and a half to sort out until our plane got the clearance to fly that we needed. Finally, we were taxiing on the tarmac to get to the runway and there was a huge thunderstorm that came out of nowhere, so we had to sit on the tarmac waiting for the storm to pass. This took about another hour until our captain was comfortable with taking off. Luckily, I didn’t have anything planned or time sensitive for the next day unlike some people on my flight so I wasn’t too worried. I landed in Christchurch around 12:30am and had a shuttle waiting that would take me to my hotel for the night. Once at my hotel, I settled in for the night and went to bed after a long day.

Day 13 – Wednesday, January 10^th

• Breakfast: Ham and cheese omlete (room service)
• Lunch: Chinese noodles and chips
• Dinner: Asian ginger sesame salad with a chocolate Bavarian dessert

This morning, I woke up around 9:30am and ordered myself room service breakfast since I had decided to have a lazy day to just relax. I got a ham and cheese omelet with some OJ. I watched some TV while finishing my breakfast. I worked on my blog for a while and then decided to get ready for the day and head to the grocery store to get my lunch and dinner.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at the 185 chairs memorial which is dedicated to the 185 lives lost in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

It was very touching and such a simple but emotional way to honor the victims of this natural disaster. The artist had a sign saying to pick a seat that spoke to you and sit as long as you would like. The saddest part for me was that there was a baby car seat and a wheelchair as two of the chairs. Once back at the hotel, I ha my noodles for lunch and then studied for my NCLEX for about 4 hours and then had my salad for dinner. Once I was all showered and ready for bed, I watched TV until I fell asleep.

Day 14 – Thursday, January 11^th

• Breakfast: banana chocolate chip muffin and hot chocolate
• Lunch: ham and cheese toasted sandwich with potato wedges and sour cream
• Dinner: Lamb shanks

This morning, I had to meet my tour in the lobby of the hotel at 7am and then straight away we loaded our luggage onto the bus and started our tour. My tour leader was Jess and then the tour driver was Emily.

We stopped in Hokitika for groceries and some lunch. Also, I shopped around a jade shop and a hand painted rock shop. Once, we all got some lunch we headed back out on the road and made it to Fox Glacier around 4:30pm. I was in a 4-bed female dorm so I shared the room with 3 other girls from my tour. Their names were Ashleigh, Laura and Annie. We all got to know each other and turns out that Annie and Laura were traveling together. Laura is from London, while Ashleigh and Annie are from Australia. We all went down for dinner around 6:30pm in the hotel’s restauraunt.

We ate dinner with some more people from our tour, got drinks then played some card games in the lounge until everyone was tired out for the night.

Day 15 – Friday, January 12^th

• Breakfast: pb& j b/c line toast too long
• Lunch: chips and sandwich
• Dinner: Ferg Burger (deluxe)

Today, breakfast was early around 7am, then a group of us headed downtown to get ready for our helicopter ride. We took the helicopter ride up to Fox Glacier, landed on the glacier and got to walk around on it for about 5 minutes then took the helicopter over the glacier and back down to the town.

This was my first time ever in a helicopter and it was so incredible! The views of the glacier were unforgettable and walking on the glacier was also something not many people get to do! Once back in town, I walked back to the hostel and talked with a group of people on our tour and then went to a café to get some drinks. Our tour group left for Queenstown around 12:30am. We stopped at some waterfalls, a café to get a late lunch, and stopped at Lake Hawea for some beautiful photos.

We got to the hostel around 7pm, got ready to go out, and called in burger order for Ferg Burger. Ashleigh, Laura, Annie and I went and got burgers/cider and ate them on the beachside.

After we were done eating, we got to enjoy the sunset.

Then the four of us met the tour group at Ballarat bar for drinks and live music (vodka lemonade) then a smaller group of us went to Winnie’s for more of a dance scene but lots of drunk guys were there on a pub crawl so we headed back to the hostel for the night.