Our trip to Melbourne, Australia 2012-2013 | The most amazing holiday

As you may have guessedfrom my first post of the year – Australia really did fill me with happiness. Andas sad as it sounds, I was really looking forward to coming back and sharingthe experience with you guys too.

WARNING: this isprobably going to be a very very long post and image heavy, so if you’re notinterested in those kind of things press that little x at the top ^^ :)

So first things first,getting to Australia. We actually had a bit of a nightmare – we boarded theplane at Heathrow, took off on time and after about 20 minutes in the air therewas an announcement from the captain. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid wehave had a technical fault with one of the engines and will have to turn aroundand head straight back to Heathrow”. I am not good when it comes to flying,taking off and landing pretty much petrify me and as you can imagine I wasdumping myself at the thought of any type of ‘fault’. Anyway we landed – tofire engines and crowds of people staring out of their windows to look at theplane and the left wing covered in black soot. I’m pretty sure it was a tadmore serious than they made out! We had to wait another day for our flight out,and ended up flying with a completely different airline, it was all a bit of adrama but worked out okay in the end!

I’ve never flown out ofEurope before, and my body majorly hated the long haul flight so I was reallyquite poorly for the first couple of days, as was Daniel with the flu! Once wewere settled and better, the holiday commenced :D

 As I’m sure you’re aware, Australia is vast!We were staying in Melbourne, and stayed there for the whole 3 weeks. It’s ahuge and wonderful city, and if we’d had a bit longer we could’ve seen a lotmore of it but I’m so happy with what we did see and do.

It’s strange becauseall of my usual holiday’s involve ultimate sunbathing and eating out in theevening. This holiday was like the complete opposite. Yes, it was boiling hot(40 degrees most of the time), but we spent minimal time sunbathing, there wasjust so much to see! We started off the holiday visiting an adventure waterpark in Geelong, I’m scared of water but I made myself (with the push ofDaniel) go on every ride. I’m such a pansy haha, but we had a lovely day. 
Wewent horse riding; I used to ride when I was younger for a good few years so Iwas looking forward to having a good hack across the country side! Daniel wasabsolutely hilarious – he’ll give anything a go but when the instructor wastelling him to lean forward or back he nearly fell off! The horses were lovelyand it was like a proper olden days ranch. You could actually rent out littlehouses for a horsey holiday which I thought was awesome! It made me think of the horse whisperer.

Anyone familiar withMelbourne has probably visited St Kilda and Luna Park. It’s famous for the parkand it’s amazing cake shops and nightlife. From what I could tell, it’s a bitof a hotspot and is infamous for celebrities dropping by. I’m a bit of a grannyso didn’t go out for a boogie, but I did indulge in a frickin’ awesomestrawberry tart, have a nose aroundthe theme park and watch some pretty awesome street performers.

We climbed the 1,000steps memorial walk – a huge landmark in Melbourne which is basically what issays in the title. The 1,000 steps lead through a beautiful rainforest and arevery, very steep. Dear old exercise and I don’t mix, and walking up these inthe 40 degree heat was a real challenge for me. Daniel on the other hand wentup and down TWICE. I nearly died. It’s definitely worth going though, you dofeel kinda good about yourself once you’ve done it and it’s a beautiful littleplace. 

Chapel Street is likeour Oxford Street equivalent. It’s got the hustle and bustle of London with alltheir local high street shops, including a few of ours…Karen Millen, MAC andTopshop. I was a little bit thrilled, because as it was the start ofAustralia’s summer all their winter clothes were in the sale. I picked up someabsolute bargains!

The one thing Daniel andI were most excited for was the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. If you haven’theard of it before it’s a huge tourist attraction where the public come to thebeach at around 7pm (it’s still daylight at this time) and wait for the sun to set.Once the sun has gone down at about 9pm, the tiniest breed of penguin starts tocome out of the sea. They’ve been fishing for their baby’s dinner all day andthey wait until the sun has gone down to make their way out of the water andback to their homes in the sand dunes. There are over 1,000 in the group andthey all come out of the water a couple at a time and run past you on the beach.After we’d watched a few groups make their way out, we moved our way up to thesand dunes to watch them make their journey back to their little homes.Unfortunately, the little penguins get scared of the flash so photography isstrictly prohibited, so no piccies I’m afraid. But I did get a little snap ofthe lovely beach whilst we waited for the sun to set! It really was so magicaland if you ever find yourself in Australia you should try your best to go. It’s massively worth it :)

Now, I know what you’veall really been waiting for. Yes of course, we went to the wildlife park andfed the KANAGROO’S! I’ve never seen a kangaroo or koala in real life so I wasliterally peeing my pants with excitement. Lots of the animals were separated,but where the kangaroo’s ‘lived’ they had emu type birds running around. If youwatched my 50 random facts video, you’ll know I hate anything that has wings.Now I know they’re not exactly about to take flight, but my GOD are they scary.Every time we got our food out to feed the kangaroo’s they’d charge at you andtry and peck the food out of your hands. It was so special though, thekangaroo’s were so tame and we just sat there stroking and feeding them forhours! It feels amazing when you put your hand out and they hold on with theirlittle hands. If you need a reason to visit Australia (if you do, there’ssomething wrong haha), this is it.

We also spent a bit of time on the beach and milling around the local towns :) but if I carried on about absolutely everything we did you guys would probably want to kill me at how long the post would be! It was Daniel and I's 5 year anniversary on New Years day, which was amazing (5 years seems like such a huge amount of time!) & special to be spending on the other side of the world in the sunshine.

Honestly, I had the besttime of my life and spent it with my favourite person in the whole world. 

I’dbeen having a pretty shit time before holiday and the time away made meappreciate my life more and the people around me. This might sound soppy but Idon’t care – you only have one life and one thing Australia made me realise wasdon’t waste it - spending your time around negativity or doing something for thesake of not having to try. There is a whole world out there which is literallyyour oyster, if you’re thinking for some reason you can’t change your life; youdefinitely can on some level or another.

Clearly, we got homesafely and there were no problems with the flight back! (phew) Hopefully seeyou soon, Australia & thank you for having us!

I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about our trip away! and remember...Don't worry. Be happy <3