Windmill Hike and a Beautiful Spring Weekend

As it turns to fall in the United States and I read more and more tweets pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking, and falling leaves, its beginning to be spring in New Zealand! Although its a little bittersweet missing fall in New England, weather getting warmer in Wellington is a welcome change. Last Saturday, a few friends and I decided to celebrate warmer temps and the sun shining by hiking up to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine. It was a clear day, which provided us with great walking weather and beautiful views of the entire city from the top.

According to Meridian Energy, the West Wind wind farm in Wellington (seen in the picture with multiple windmills above) provides enough energy for 71,000 homes a year. Its an awesome way for Wellington to take advantage of its natural windiness and create sustainable energy (after all, it is nicknamed Windy Welly!) It was also a pretty cool experience to stand directly under a wind mill. They're huge!

Thanks for reading!

Second Week of Break: Australia!

Well, I'm back from my second week of break and back to reality! I got back to Wellington late Sunday night, and it has been nice to settle back in and relax a little after all of the traveling! I spent last week in Australia, spending the first two and a half days in Melbourne and then the rest of the week with my friend Steph who is studying in Gold Coast!

The week started off by waking up at 3 am in order get checked into the airport with plenty of time for our 6 am flight to Melbourne. Once we finally arrived, checked in to our hostel and got some much needed coffee and breakfast, we went off to explore the city and get our first taste of Australia! Below are all pictures taken in Melbourne:

Federation Square

An artists work of people's regrets written on paper water (or tear?) drops

After the early wake up and quite a bit of walking and exploring, we all took a well deserved nap in the afternoon, and took it pretty easy for the rest of the day. On Tuesday, we bought day/night passes to go up the Eureka Skydeck, which is highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere. The views of Melbourne from up so high were awesome! Personally, I preferred the night time experience, being able to see all of the city lights from above.

Before dinner, we also walked down by the harbor and continued to see the walkable parts of the city. A delicious dinner was followed by gelato (there were gelato places EVERYWHERE) before heading up for the night view from the Skydeck and then exploring some of the (limited) Melbourne nightlife.

Wednesday, I was off to Gold Coast to visit Steph! I spent most of the day in Melbourne, and then arrived in Gold Coast around 10 PM. Thursday was a busy day, as we started off at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to see some Australian wildlife. The highlight was getting to hangout with some kangaroos!

These guys were everywhere!

Dingos

After hanging with all of the animals, the next thing on our agenda was surf lessons! I was pretty nervous for my first ever lesson, but once I got going I had a ton of fun and even managed to completely stand up a few times! The remaining days we spent at the beautiful beaches in the area and by the pool, as well a good amount of time in Surfer's Paradise, which is the downtown area. Then on Sunday night I headed back to Wellington!

The week (and all of break) was amazing and I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to do so much traveling. Also a big shout out to my parents for the early Christmas gift which allowed me to go to Australia! :)