Day 3: Bali Adventures

Good morning everyone! Another bright and early one for me today. I feel amazing. My only wish is that I had that crisp fresh air to breathe in that Australia gives me, but then I look at the breathtaking scenery and I forget that.

Another hot one today. But then again, that is every single day here. Today was the last night that we were going to be spending in Legion at Melasti Beach Resort. I must say I was super excited for this because even though the resort we were currently staying at was nice (the pools, pool bars, view, restaurant and bar were all lovely) I knew the next place we were due to stay would take my breath away. But alas, that is not until tomorrow.

Today we set out with a mission after our morning buffet breakfast and swim. We had to find a very specific tattoo shop, because that is where Kieran has planned out his whole tattoo in Bali. We had some rough directions but in these streets that really just didn’t cut it. We trekked out to the hotel he knew it was near and from there things just went crazy.

It is extremely hot and humid out, but there is no point catching a ‘taksi’ (I love their spelling haha, it just makes so much sense) because traffic is atrocious. It would’ve taken longer sitting in a car in traffic than it would of walking.

We saw a few pretty nice looking resorts on the way to Kuta where the tattoo shop is and some pretty standard stuff you would see at home that amazes me here. We found Starbucks, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s and even though they are such standard chain stores at home, it was so cool to see them in another country. McDonald’s especially, I couldn’t believe how dirt cheap their food was. Makes me miss cheap Maccas back in Aus (it’s just too expensive now for the shitty food lol).

After about 3 hours of walking, asking endless people for directions, stopping in every mini-mart (just like the standards 7/11 back home minus the petrol) for a bottle of water, stopping at a bar to have a few actual drinks and use their bathroom, paying some random shop owner 10,000 IDR (aka $1) to use their computer with internet- we finally found the place!

The place was really nice for what I thought tattoo joints in Bali would look like and the people were so friendly. We were there for barely any time at all before we headed back to our resort.

After a tiring day where we probably walked for almost 4 hours all up, we went straight for a swim, because well as per usual we were dripping in sweat.

Some more swimming, more drinks and some dinner hit the spot really well and we ended our last night in Melasti Beach Resort with quite an early one awaiting tomorrow’s adventures.

Don’t forget you can follow my adventures on Instagram and Snapchat (both are @krristelley)

Next post will be shortly,

Kristelle xxx

Bondi to Coogee

After (I don't even want to calculate how long so let's just say a long) time, I finally was able to go to Bondi and do the Bondi to Coogee walk with my boyfriend!

Bondi Street Art

 This happened a couple of weekends ago now, but it was still something that I just wanted to cross off my list so bad, so it deserved its own post. If you ever come to Sydney, this is definitely one of the things that you have to cross off your list of activities.

Kieran and I stopping for 1 of 1383482 photos we always take with the GoPro

Bondi Icebergs

It's still Winter here, so it was pretty cold (cold enough to wear pants and a jacket) but it was still a beautiful sunny day. There was also a surf comp on the day we were there which was pretty cool, but I have no idea how they could even bare to be in the water (even in a wetsuit) because the water was freezing.

Bondi is a beautiful place, lots of street art and plenty of nice little cafes to eat at. Which is exactly what Kieran and I did before our walk. If anyone is ever in Bondi I totally recommend checking out the Lammond Cafe, food was great and so was the service!

Bondi Street Art

Originally, Kieran and I were only going to the Bondi to Bronte walk, but it's actually only a few kilometres and takes about 20 minutes each way (even calculated with the constant stopping to take photos of the scenery).

So instead, we decided to go the step further, which is to Coogee and back, and it is a lot further than Bronte. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining, however near the end the weather turned a bit sour. No rain though, but plenty of clouds and overcast weather quickly turned the day cold and we had to head back to the car to venture home.

Overlooking Bronte?? beach

There is plenty of nice places to stop along the walk to take some nice photos and also grab a smoothie or a bite to eat if you get hungry.

If you can't handle the heat, I would definitely recommend only doing the Bondi to Coogee walk in Autumn/Winter weather because even in Winter we still got hot out there. Alternatively, if you're not up for the approximately 13km round trip from Bondi to Coogee, Bondi to Bronte is a great choice. It's only a few kilometres each way, so you still get to enjoy all the beauty this place has to offer, just with less walking distance.

It was a good day and Kieran and I 150% plan to do this again- in Summer. The idea was to take our exercise clothes but wear swimming costumes underneath. We would walk/swim/walk to mix it up a bit (and to obviously cool off during the walk). There's so much to be excited for this Summer and I can not wait for this.

Thanks for reading,
Stelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley

The Colour Run

Hey everyone! You all have absolutely no idea how excited I have been to (first of all) do the Colour Run) and then write this post!

I have always wanted to do a Colour Run because I had seen photos on Facebook and Instagram and it honestly just looked like it would be a lot of fun. The website describes it as "The Happiest 5K on the planet" and I think I would have to agree. Basically, for those of you who don't know, the Colour Run is a 5km walk/run (whatever you want to do) that money goes towards charity, and you get dressed up and then volunteers at stations throughout the course throw coloured paint at you and you get really really messy. It's a lot of fun. You also get your own paint to throw at each other at the end (and that's a lot of fun too). 

In the Glowtastic 2DayFM Photo Booth with Kieran feat. our minion headlamps

I got to do the colour run with Kieran this year. I bought tickets for the event months ago and I was so excited to finally get to do the event over the weekend. We got covered from head to toe in the coloured paint and felt like minions with our headlamps. 

Straight after the event, nice and messy- Kieran has a 'Happy' glow tattoo on the side of his neck haha

After the event- you can't see it but my hair was full of yellow and orange (yucky)

We ran about 1km, off and on and then walked the rest of the way because there were way too many people there to try and run the whole thing without stopping (plus we are too lazy for that anyway). The views of the harbour were beautiful and there were many people watching the event wondering what was actually going on (it was pretty funny watching their faces as we all threw paint at each other). 

Quick pic as we walked past the water looking onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

I am very glad I chose to participate in the colour run this time, even better it was the first Night Colour Run in Australia. I definitely think they will have another one, it looked like such a huge success. After the event, Kieran and I were absolutely starving so we picked up some pizza on the way home. I had to get it and get out of the car and yes.... I was covered in paint still (not as bad because they have a 'cleaning station' at the event, but it was still all over my face). The pizza guy thought it was pretty funny and so did the other customers in the pizza store.

All up, it was so much fun and if there is ever a Colour Run event hosted near you, I definitely recommend that you take part in one because they are so much fun and for a good cause!

Thanks so much for reading 

Stelle xxx

Blue Mountains, Hiking and Waterfalls

Hey everyone! I finally have another post to make and I am very excited to be writing about this because it was so much fun!

Last Saturday, true to our promise on the bucket list, Kieran and I woke up early and picked an adventure we thought we were up for that day (unfortunately it could not have anything to do with swimming because I had gotten stitches in my arm the day before and was not allowed to get them wet or do anything that would over work that arm- including working out and swimming). So we picked something 'easy' travelling to the Blue Mountains to walk some of the trails! I was extra excited that I got to cross two things off my bucket list in one go because we went on an adventure to the Mountains to go hiking and we found a waterfall (we found quite a few actually, but the bigger and better ones I wasn't coordinated, nor strong enough to climb to- especially with my weak arm). 

The first waterfall we found- small but beautiful

In the end, we ended up hiking for just over 2 hours and our legs felt like jelly by the end of it. It had recently rained, so unfortunately it was slippery and muddy but that didn't stop us. I'm not too clear on all of the names of the trails we took, but I know we started at Echo Point (where the lookout of the 3 sisters is in the Blue Mountains) and we walked around another trail towards Katoomba Falls.  

I love the things that nature can create

The day started off freezing cold, despite how hot we knew it was back home, but we were in the Mountains so it was expected. By the end of our walk, we were sweating because the temperature had jumped up about 15 degrees Celsius. 

I love this photo because we were mid-adventure, exhausted but so happy to be doing something fun together  

Doing the walk (we estimated we walked about 14km that day) left me feeling so great by the end of the day. I had been lacking in my workouts at the start of the week, so by ending the week with this exercise filled adventure, left me feeling amazing!

I am so in love with how green and lush everything was in the national park (and so in love with this boy)

Short, yet sweet post because I feel the pictures say more about the adventure than my words ever could. Keep your eyes out for more posts coming soon!

Thanks for reading, 

Stelle xxx

Bucket List Review

Hey everyone! So I thought it was about time I go back and revisit my Summer Bucket List and actually see what I have/haven't accomplished this Summer. As a little side note I want to say I really didn't think that all of these things would be done in Summer (mostly due to the fact that my boyfriend has a full-time job and worked a heap of overtime and I was basically working every day during Summer with two jobs!)

Shoalhaven Heads Beach- South Coast of NSW

1. Go camping- We actually went camping twice, once over the New Year period for about 5 days with my family and then a second time when we went camping in Kiama!
2. Get drunk on the beach- This was probably done a few times actually (lol), but the one that stands out to me was on New Years Eve when we continued our partying and sat on the beach (slightly intoxicated) talking about life
3. Have a campfire
4. Learn to surf
5. Go paddleboarding- This was one of the standout memories from the Summer because it was a random day when we decided to do this and I was very nervous to give it a go but I actually loved it so much and we had so much fun
6. Go fishing- I'm not even 100% sure if I can count this as going fishing because we sat in the light rain (more annoying than actual rain) and we didn't catch any fish (extremely disappointing). But we still went fishing and had bait and everything. To be fair, the fish were smart and were eating the bait off the hook without actually getting hooked...
7. Do the Bondi to Bronte walk
8. Get a piercing- This was a total spur of the moment decision (even though it was on my bucket list I didn't think I would actually do it). I got my belly pierced, it got infected, took forever to heal and was getting knocked by Kieran constantly when we would muck around. But no ragrets. I should mention 2 weeks later Kieran also got his nose pierced when we were on holidays in Kiama. Totally random
9. Go for a bike ride
10. Have a picnic lunch- I am going to count our picnic lunch as the day when I was sad and sick so Kieran bought over a whole bunch of foods that I liked (including the best cheese ever) and he made us lunch (sort of). It was sweet and it was cute.
11. Go snorkelling
12. Visit the mountains in Summer
13. Get a new tattoo
14. Make a video of our Summer
15. Workout more- YES! done on both of our parts I think. He goes to the gym probably 5 times a week and I've been working out using the Kayla Itsines guides and I couldn't be happier. Progress is so easy to see on him, bit harder on me but I feel so much better!
16. Go to an outdoor movie/drive ins- We went to the drive ins, ate our food and watched Taken 3. Probably a bit different to how they used to watch movies at the drive ins, but we had fun with our mountain of pillows and my 1.5L of orange juice I deemed necessary to watch a movie.
17. Spend the day at a water park- We went to Wet 'n' Wild Sydney once, I think that should count?
18. Save up for 2015's holidays- In progress! I think I should let everyone know that this New Years, Kieran and I will be going to Bali! We both opened up savings bank accounts for the trip so that totally counts and starting to save
19. Go to a music festival
20. Do something crazy- Okay it might not seem like much but I totally think that this one for me would have to be when Kieran actually got me on his motorbike and when I rode the quadbike too. Totally not my thing, I never would of done it. But I was saying yes to new experiences and it was definitely crazy!
21. Messy twister
22. Carve our names into a tree
23. Make a homemade slip 'n' slide
24. Visit a waterfall and go swimming
25. Skinny dipping at night- story of this isn't appropriate, but I did it
26. Water balloon fight
27. Watch a sunrise

I'm kind of bummed that a lot of things didn't get crossed off this Summer. But Kieran and I have come up with a plan:

• every weekend when neither of us are working, we are going to ignore what the weather is like (unless it's really extreme aka thunder storming or torrential rainfall) and pick an activity and go and do it. It's what we have 'planned' for this weekend. Around my work, we are just gonna go for it!

I plan to re-update this post in probably a couple of months time. I know there are heaps of other fun things I want to do that I have totally forgotten to even include in this list- but hey you will probably see a blog post about them (or I will just sneakily slip them in my next update).

Hope all my fellow Southern hemisphere folks out there had an amazing Summer & my Northern hemisphere friends enjoyed their Winter. I know I love Summer and it is safe to say I am not keen on Winter (I hate the cold- but I might get to go to the snow *fingers crossed*).

Still one of the most amazing days I've had Paddleboarding @ Northern Beaches

So thank you everyone for reading and I hope I can continue to cross things off this list!
Stelle xx