A photo album of Melbourne happenings and pretty people and things.

 All of my friends came with me to travel. A whale sewn by one of my most talented and beautiful friends, Veronica. A Angsty made by artist extraordinaire Ursa Eyer (She sells these if anyone wants one!) and a pretty little birdie from my best friends James and Angela. Not pictured is also a turtle stone that my best friend Robyn gave me as something to remind me to stay grounded, as well as a small photo album made by my sweet friend Kristen. I am so grateful to travel with all of the love of all of my friends wherever I go. 

 My first hosts in Melbourne! The lovely and entertaining couple Tahnia and Win. Bushwalking we go.

 I love this street artist. He/she puts these up all over the city and they are so whimsical and beautiful.

 This is some rare kangaroo steak. I ate a small piece of this kangaroo steak. It tastes like beef. 

This is Jade the sweet Kitty I was housemates with for my last several weeks in Melbourne.

            

 I stayed with my wonderful friend Birdie, who has a really sweet house, with a lot of succulents on the    porch and a big garden in her backyard full of cherry tomatoes and basil. 

                       Just a girl and her bird. having a coffee before it rains. 

                        Great Ocean Road! Its beautiful. 

 Such an amazing breakfast with Tahnia. Balinese black sticky rice, coconut milk, passionfruit, papaya and flowers for garnish. I would like to re create this at home. 

          Merri Creek, just down the street from the house I was cat sitting for. 

 Great Ocean Road is right along the coast. It wraps around and around. We had good weather. 

 A painting I like a whole lot made by one of Birdie's friends who is an artist living in Germany. 

 Pinata festivities with co-workers.

 Melbourne in all its beauty!

 Some good friends from New Orleans who happen to be living in Melbourne as well. We went to the Great ocean road together and had an adventure. We also ate jelly beans together on easter. Good times :)

 One of my closest and oldest friends, Julia, who lives in Melbourne and kindly drove us to Great Ocean Road

 I needed to take a picture of this because my Mom is named Penny. And what is a pouisson? The guy was sitting in the front seat with the motor running. I think you could knock on his window if you wanted to buy any of the listed meats. 

 Stephanie is brave. She ordered the stuffed squid with prawns. It was the last one available at the restaurant so we all took it as a sign that it was meant to be in her belly. 

 When Great Ocean Road turns away from the ocean, you get to see beautiful lush mountains and hills.

 This is a hedgehog slice. It is broken up tea biscuits inside a fudgy like brownie with coconut and sometimes nuts. It is as good as it looks!

 I wore my new orleans street car pendant when I left Melbourne to go to New Zealand. It reminds me that I have a beautiful home no matter where I am. 

 This is Miette. I nannied for her once a week while I was in Melbourne. She is a super cute 3 year old. Here she is reading to "baby", Miette means "sweet crumb" in French. 

 Melbourne has the best street art and grafitti I have ever seen.

 I baked a bit while I was there. Orange and fresh fig cake. 

 Everyone is Australia and New Zealand eats PIE. But not pie as we know it in the States...no no, meat pies. Savory pies. These are the savory pies we served at Babka, the bakery I worked in. Bridget made silly signs for us to know what kinds there were. 

 Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. 

 I made lots of cat friends on my trip. 

 This is a Koala! So close I wanted so badly to pet him! But he was sleeping so, couldn't disturb. 

 This guy was pretty close to, and we were in luck to see him wide awake and eating! Koala's sleep for some ridiculous amount of time in the day. It is very lucky to see an active koala. They are so cute. 

 The cafe's in Melbourne are too cool. I want some of these bell jars in my imaginary future bakery. 

 The great ocean of great ocean road. we went down to the beach to feel the sand. 

 Fresh figs everywhere! I came at the right time. 

 Melbourne has some of the best coffee I have ever had anywhere. And every cafe holds themselves to that standard. Its hard to get a bad coffee in Melbourne. 

 More cute shop displays and more bell jars. 

 A whimsical flower shop. 

 The lentil salad at Babka- Puy lentils, tomato, cucumber, sesame seeds, dates, and seared halloumi cheese on top. So good. 

Win being silly and "meditating" 

Australia to New Zealand- some background info.

Hello Family and Friends! 

    I have decided to write here on this blog to tell you all about the exciting and not so exciting happenings as I travel so so far away. I miss you all, all of the time, and traveling alone has to be one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life! 

       I spent the last 6 weeks in Melbourne, Australia. As some of you know I was living there last summer (winter over here) for 2 months and decided that I should use up the holiday work visa while I still had it and before it expired. Thanks to so many wonderful friends and family and all of the support I had in raising funds, I made it happen and came back to Melbourne with the only plan of going back to a job I had working at a beautiful bakery and figuring out where to travel to from there. I guess I decided to travel back to Australia again also because as much as I LOVE New Orleans, (and trust me, I DO know what it means to miss New Orleans)  I felt like it was time for me to explore other places and learn about them and myself in new exciting and challenging ways. 

      While planning to go back to Melbourne, I decided that I could come over to New Zealand after my visa was up because 1, its right next door and I mean, lord of the rings anyone?, and 2, they also have a holiday work visa, which makes traveling a lot easier if you can earn money while doing it. So I got the visa and started to look into job opportunities in New Zealand, not really knowing where or what I should do or even where to go. I found a backpackers website that had listings from lots of different employers suited to travelers and a job description for an au pair in the beautiful coromandel peninsula stood out to me. I've worked with kids a lot in the past and know that it is something I enjoy, plus, just google image the coromandel peninsula as I did and you will see why I thought it would be heaven. The family contacted me on Easter, in the middle of a huge lonely spell I was having. I was sitting in a house that I was cat-sitting for a friend, in Melbourne, on Easter day. I had just finished a really stressful shift at the bakery, selling hot cross buns to the hungry masses like their lives depended on it, and felt so awful and lonely. I collapsed on the kitchen floor with jade the kitty by my side, and had a real good cry. I was just craving something familiar, someone to cheer me up and tell me that I did choose to leave all of my loved ones and happy life for a reason. Well, as I was looking up plane tickets to return to the states, I get a text message from the family from the au pair ad in New Zealand. Talk about timing. The mom tells me that I sound like the perfect candidate because not only do they need an au pair for their daughter, but they also OWN a bakery! And would I be interested in possibly baking for them as well? It was such a crazy serendipitous moment. Here I was, in tears, writing to my Mom and my sister, telling them about how lonely I was and how I should come back home, researching plane tickets, and in that moment, I get a clear message that there is a perfect sounding opportunity for me. I couldn't not take it. I ended up having a phone interview the next day and getting the job. I had to leave my job in Melbourne early, but I also felt like well, this could be my dream job, so I better do it. Plus, when a moment like that happens, you can't do anything but recognize it and see it through. 

        So a week ago I left Melbourne and landed in Auckland, greeted by the family that I am supposed to live with for the next couple of months, taking care of their daughter, and working at the bakery, in what I imagine paradise to look like. This is exactly what I needed, I think on the plane over. I just need a beautiful place that enriches me and lets me have time to do lots of art and creating and reading and exploring. 

         Thats the background. Keep reading for how my life is going now that I am here in Pauanui Beach, in the Coromandel. It has sure been a learning experience thus far!