Country, City, Beach and the Wonders of the Deep, All Explored Within Just One Week

Outfit: 

- Mustard yellow blouse with black tie collar

- Vintage 1970's grey skirt

- Vintage white bag

- Cameo brooch

- Mustard yellow tights

- Black block-heeled mary-janes.

And I thought things couldn't get any crazier. Last week I did about a hundred things I never thought I would have ever done.

I went to the water park with my best friend, which I had not visited for years. We stayed at the hotel there, and my it was beautiful, as well as my first night ever staying at a hotel outside of functions relating to school. We also ordered room service (which I'd also never had for obvious reasons) and received giant bowls of hot cheesy potato wedges. I regret not being able to finish them.

The next day we spent about the park doing and seeing wonderful things.

I saw a Polar Bear prepare himself for a back massage. He then lost his patience waiting for the masseuse and dived into the water to devour a bucket.

I witnessed a waddle of Emperor Penguins strangely flock towards me in a crowd of on-lookers, and look me up and down in a confused manner. My friend said it was because they had found one of their own (Just look at my outfit. It didn't help that I was wearing a black cardigan at the time either). What was even funnier was that I wore that same outfit to dinner with my boyfriend a few night afterwards and he independently thought I looked like a penguin as well.

 I not only stroked sea cucumbers and starfish, but I also touched, and hand-fed a giant Manta Ray. Something I definitely never thought I'd do! It took a lot of courage!

I ate the most delicious criss-cross fries. They look like waffles to me.

They deserved a photo.

I think perhaps my favourite part about the park though, was being within the underground aquariums. It felt so eerie, so silent and so beautiful. The beams of light that came down from the surface looked like solid shards of warm gold. You could almost catch them. I could have stayed in there forever.

After a tiring day we headed home. But there was no rest for me. I immediately had to pack for a four day road trip with my boyfriend. Unfortunately we didn't really get any pictures, despite his taking with him all his bags worth of photography gear.

We headed out the next day in the early afternoon. We would not get to our destination until 10:30 that evening. We took wrong turns, surprised my Grandma in her small country town with a short visit, stocked up on sweets, and battled to stay awake.

At last, we made it. 

A beautiful, beautiful country house almost 100 years old, hidden out beyond a field of tall grass. It had a balcony that stretched all the way around the house, and every room opened unto each other, forming a maze of chipped wood and peeling paint. That night, the sky was the clearest I'd ever seen in my life. I could actually see the Milky Way. It felt as if I'd never seen the sky before. The morning sunrise was just as beautiful. Light came right through the green glass windows of the master bedroom, and a river of fog lay between the rolls of land that seemed to stretch on forever. And upon one hill in the distance, there was what looked like a little silver diamond. The sun was reflecting off of an abandoned house.

We left in the early afternoon, and then headed towards the coast. It was amazing seeing the landscape change as we traveled. When we arrived it was so lovely, and like a little paradise. No building was taller than three stories high, except for one, a fancy five-star hotel, which reached six. It was very different to the coast back home, filled to the brim with high-rises. We rented out a town house, which was even better than the hotel I stayed in at the water park, and then went off into town to experience the night life and have dinner. I had oriecchette pasta and my very first creme brulee. Afterwards, we took at walk along the boardwalk by the beach. It was so clean and so calm, again very different to the coast back home.

The next day was spent at a Food and Wine Festival with Gold Class tickets. We saw some of the world's most famous chefs and tasted some of the most delicious food. Pistachio crusted turkish delight parfaits, coffee panacotta with frangelico jelly, sweet potato chips, honey and walnut ice-cream, ginger ice-cream, macadamia crusted cheesecake, chocolate mousse, green tea noodle salad, wood-wood fired pizzas and free wines and coffees. All good food, all great worth of portions, and all free!

We headed home the next day, following wrong directions and almost running out of fuel completely in the middle of nowhere. We were glad to be back. And as if we weren't tired enough, the next afternoon we went for a rain forest hike to see the most secretive and most beautiful waterfall and picnic there. Go figure.