highlights in 6 months

All tour talk aside... travelling the east coast of australia had its perks. here are some of my highlights i've had in the last 6 months...

one of the best parts of travelling australia? ... was seeing that a cafe culture DOES exist in australia ... i went to so many great cafes through my travels and best part of it all was that they actually stayed open past 6 p.m. *gasp* ...sorry townsville... the rest of australia's got this one...

i remember one time we weren't in a time crunch to get to a port, so captain jeremy made a decision to anchor out somewhere. so the decky guys took down the zodiac and we found ourselves exploring a close by beach somewhere! ... and my first time in the zodiac...

this is one of my besties katie morrison. she said she would never sail on the ship. i think her nightmares of great whites taking her life out in the open sea convinced her she would never ever be part of the ship. who knew she would have a change of heart ... i was stoked. who wouldn't want to experience 6 weeks of travelling australia with one of your closest besties? ... ... sleeping (literally) 2 feet from each other down in our cabin, chai's & long blacks, mcdonalds every port, laughs in between tour groups and deep & meaningfuls late at night ... glad you were there with me katie. there were times i would've thrown myself overboard if you weren't there to keep me sane ...

People would always ask me what my favourite port was ... and it was a close call. but there was just something special about hobart, tasmania that made me fall in love. people said it reminded them of wellington, new zealand. it was artsy and cultured, nippy in the morning and evening but sunny during the day, and i just found it easy to get around with the compact layout of the town ... hobart definitely had a warm, homey, friendly feeling to it all and i wouldn't mind going back one day ... one day ...

Another highlight was when i left the ship for a week and went to Portland with Shey & Jennifer to do some school programs ... take 3 big, loud personalities and put them together for a week and you can only imagine what went out... we are wearing matching $4 panda hats from woolworths in this picture ... doesn't that say enough? ...

Out of all our sails... i will never ever forget the sail from ulladulla to geelong. in between the perfect sunsets and sunrises and clear night skies, i saw for the very first time dolphins swimming alongside us as we sailed. at first it was 1 dolphin, then 6 then 10 then it was a whole school of cheeky dolphins...