20th Birthday Shenanigans

Ahh so I am 20 now, I guess that happened. All I wanted for my birthday this year was to spend the night in great company with people I love and spend a weekend some place quiet, doing all the things I love. Thankfully, I am lucky enough to say that I got exactly that.

On my actual birthday I spent the day at the beach with my little sister and then I had dinner in Darling Harbour in Sydney with my family and closest friends (well they are basically family). It was a beautiful dinner at a lovely restaurant called Cyren's Seafood Bar and Grill. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is in Sydney, the menu is really great. The reason I was drawn to it (other than the promise of seafood- which I am in love with) is the Fishbowl drinks. Of course I ordered one and drank most of it myself (oops). Dinner was accompanied by fireworks in the harbour (which were obviously beautiful) and I even had everyone embarrass the crap out of me and (very loudly) sing me happy birthday with the waiters in front of everyone (thanks guys).

After dinner, my boyfriend, two friends and myself headed around the harbour in looks for something fun to do. We didn't really spend too much longer out after dinner because we were so tired and some of us had to work the next day (not me though thankfully haha).

I was very spoilt and received some amazing gifts from my friends and family (which I love presents but I prefer to give them rather than receive them).

Beach days for my birthday. 20 now! 

This was taken after dinner at Bungalow 8. It was a really good night 

Taken during dinner when I was encouraged to drink the fishbowl straight from the well, fishbowl

On to the other part of my weekend- the long weekend away with my favourite person (yes this is my boyfriend Kieran). I chose to go camping at a little place called South West Rocks that is about 5 or so hours from both Sydney and Brisbane. It's a beautiful place and I had been camping there before and had a blast so I wanted to go back.

This weekend was supposed to include swimming, fishing, relaxing, bushwalking, eating food, drinking and basically just having fun. We had a few extra things included in the weekend that I didn't expect. So really the weekend turned out to be: swimming, fishing, adventuring, whale watching, searching for kangaroos, bushwalking, drinking and a lot more swimming with a touch of relaxing.

It was the best weekend I have had in a long time as it was everything I wanted and more. If you asked me to pick a highlight I really don't think that I would be able to. Fishing off the rocks in the ocean and seeing whales, sea turtles and stingrays was I have to say probably one of the best times. I caught some fish that we ended up cooking for dinner and it was a great time.

Fishing off the rocks, this was the first fish that I caught this weekend 

Amazing view of the beach that we hiked down too after we hiked up to the lighthouse (it was at the top of this very steep hill) 

Private beach that we hiked down to (the walk down was bearable but the walk back up, oh my god. Glad that's over lol.

Happy snap of me overlooking the ocean

Lately I feel like I have been at a loss for words. To put it simply, I am so blessed to have the friends, family and the boyfriend that I do. I am an extremely lucky girl that I get to go through life with such amazing people by my side and I wouldn't have it any other way. Shoutouts to Kieran, Mum, Tamara, Darren, Amy, Maddie and Amber for giving me an amazing birthday.

Thanks for reading guys, hope the pictures are more exciting than my rambling collection of words.
Kristelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley (currently being spammed with pictures from this holiday infact)

Snow adventures (in Australia)

Here it is, one of the posts that I have been the most excited to write: all about my snow trip 2015 with my boyfriend. I live in Australia (for those of you who don't know that already) and I stayed in Jindabyne- which is a town in NSW near the snow and I snowboarded at Perisher (one of the few places in NSW you can ski at).

I love going to the snow and it is the only time I will ever put up with the cold (I usually hate the cold as I am a beach lover and Summer is by far my favourite season). But I think the reason that I love the snow so much is because it is something different that I really do not get the opportunity to experience very often (well obviously I live in Australia and not that far from the beach and it just feels like it's always hot here- and even when it's not hot it is nowhere near cold enough for it to ever snow where I live).

So, anyway, back to the snow. I usually go every year, but I didn't go last year and I missed it terribly. I thought it would be a funky idea (does anyone even say funky anymore??) to plan a snow trip with Kieran this year and call it our 'present' to each other for our anniversary. This year will be 5 years together and it seemed like something different we could do. That and we were both dying to go.

So we (and by we I mean I planned it), packed our bags and headed off to the snow. I am the biggest wimp honestly when it comes to risk taking. I'm so scared of getting hurt and sometimes it takes me a little while to get out of my shell and jump out of my comfort zone. This time was really no different, with the first half of my snowboarding day having quite a few tears shed and several tantrums (sorry Kieran lol). But once I got over the fear (and that really is what holds me back but I can't help it) I had the most amazing time. It was beautiful sunny Spring weather, snow was awesome (and there was plenty of it) and there was so much to do. 

I will admit, the bottom half of my body and my arms are still aching now a couple of days later. I was not prepared for all the falling I would do and all of the muscles I would exercise in those couple of days. Ouch. That pretty much sums it all up.

I thought I would share some of the photos of our trip, each photo captures a memory and I am still so happy we got to do this together.

The start of our road trip (before we got lost like 3 times lol) 

Most amazing pretzel/nutella/chocolate filled milkshake from Patissez in Canberra 

First day of snowboarding at Perisher- it was so beautiful out there 

Chairlift selfie

I built a snowman (with a very weirdly shaped head) 

On the last day of snowboarding we got our pictures taken (and it was also really warm- considering he isn't wearing a jacket)

Thanks for reading guys and girls,

Kristelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley

South West Rocks

I am back from another crazy adventure and it is time to write up a blog post about it after a long and (extremely) sucky day back in the real work aka. uni and an 8 hour shift at work lol. 

This time, Kieran and I chose to adventure somewhere that we had never been before. I'm not really sure how this place came to my mind, but I am so happy we went there because we had an amazing 3 days. South West Rocks is a small beach town, about halfway between Brisbane and Sydney which was about a 5 and a half hour drive from my home (for all those Aussies who actually know what I am talking about, you get the picture of where it is). 

Trial Bay is beautiful

I'll give a quick list of the highlights of the trip and then I will talk more about what we did and the fun we had!

- I got attacked by a Kookaburra and it stole my food out of my hand (this isn't the first time that has happened to me when I have been camping!), I cried (mostly because the bird stole my food)

- Overnight a kangaroo got into Kieran's food and ate a box of biscuits, Kieran blamed me for eating them

- I cut my arm on nothing

- We went fishing and caught 3 fish each

- Didn't get lost the entire trip

- Kieran went to the shops and bought me female products and the cashier thought it was funny

- We saw a kangaroo and I got sad because it was dead (no it wasn't dead because it sat up and it scared the shit out of me)

- We found a nudist beach and a lady warned us about old people down there

Friday

I got up bright and early to pack my things and do some uni homework before we went on our way. It took about 5 and a half hours to get there and Kieran drove 2 and a half, then I drove the other 3. I am a lot more at peace with sitting in the car, staring out the window and singing than he is. Within 2 minutes of me driving he complained of being bored/hungry. To put it nicely, it was a long 3 hours when I drove because he complains a lot. 

When we got to our destination, we immediately got food and made lunch. During lunch was when I got attacked by the kookaburra. The irony in this story is I had just finished retelling Kieran about the one time I went camping in the Blue Mountains with friends and a kookaburra stole my sausage sizzle straight out of my hand. No more than 2 minuets later, the exact same thing happened again, same food and all. Freaky, and yes I cried. Mostly because I wanted to eat that food and well sort of because birds freak me out a little bit and I was in shock.

After lunch we had the challenge of setting up our tent and then we went and bought groceries. After all the boring bits and pieces (and they weren't even bad) were done, we got to hang out and relax for a little while. There isn't much daylight in the day anymore, so we thought we would leave any of the exploring until the next two days because we didn't want to risk getting lost in the dark (because that wouldn't be a funny story for a very long time). We had dinner and a drink each and had a chill evening. 

Saturday

It was Anzac Day and we planned on getting up at 4:30am for the Dawn Service, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We also considered going to the local club and playing 2 up (buuut again we didn't do that either). Instead we woke up early(ish) and got ready for the day. We went for drives around town to see what was around and what we could do later. We went swimming in the amazing pool at the campground we were staying at (it has water slides!!) and that's when my elbow randomly developed a cut and blood???

Our lame couple photo from the weekend that I didn't actually mean to take but am in love with

We checked out the beach and went swimming in the ocean, it was beautiful. Calm, no winds. Just peaceful. We went for walks along the beach and then got back in the car and went for another drive. Eventually (like 15 minutes later) we found a lighthouse and an amazing view overlooking a beach. This was around the time that the 'dead' kangaroo incident occurred. I was walking ahead of Kieran down the footpath, and I pointed out the kangaroo which was laying on its back with its paw over its head, and said I was sad it was dead. For some reason we walked over to it and then it suddenly sat up and I nearly wet myself. Just after this, a lady warned us not to walk down too far because there is a nudist beach down there. Not to worry, no one was around, but we had to watch out for them old folk.

1 of 100 photos we took of kangaroos because for some reason they fascinate us (yes we have seen kangaroos many, many
times before- we are Australian after all- they are just cool) 

Beautiful view out near the lighthouse we found (sadly we forgot to take a photo of it though)

Earlier in the day we had made several trips to the fishing store because Kieran is obsessed with fishing. He needed up buying a new fishing rod because he loved it so much so he begged me to go fishing that night. Because I have never properly been and we now had two fishing rods, I agreed to go. So after dinner we packed the esky and chairs (and warm clothes) along with the fishing gear and set out to the lake. Surprisingly we got a really nice spot that I saw when we went for a drive earlier that day. It was pitch black and the only things around were kangaroos and other small animals. I caught 3 fish and so did Kieran. When I caught my first fish, I was so shocked I screamed and danced of joy. I let Kieran pull out the hooks because I didn't want to hurt the fish (and it was kind of gross) and I threw one back in the water (all out fish had to go back because they weren't big enough to keep). It was such a beautiful night, looking at all of the stars, talking and laughing and fishing together. It was something different and it was so much fun I am 100% glad he suggested fishing. 

Kieran and I both with 1 of the fish we each caught. I was so proud as you can probably see from my goofy smile

Sunday

Sadly Sunday was home day. It had been really cold on Saturday night so I was afraid of how cold it might be on Sunday. I was right it was cold. We rugged up as we cooked breakfast and prepared ourselves for the day. Kieran and I actually worked together for once to pack up the tent and everything else (normally I go for a long shower and am lazy, but at least I admit that haha). We then played air hockey (I won) and ping pong (I also won). We went for a drive and went for a walk along the rocks and took some beautiful photos before we decided it was probably better to just get in the car and take the journey home. The weather wasn't very nice and it was too cold to spend the entire day there. 

Kieran loves the long distance couple photos, they're always his idea

Another photo I got of the beautiful landscape with a wave breaking

Instead we stopped off at Port Macquarie on the way home for lunch and went for a nice walk there. It was cold and windy too which was disappointing but it was still a lovely time. Then we took our time on the drive home and talked for hours. The most surprising part about the car trips is that even though we were stuck in the car with each other for over 5 and a half hours and then we spent 3 straight days together without anyone else around, we didn't kill each other!

The camping ground we stayed at was lovely, probably the most 'camper' ground we stayed at. All the other places we have stayed definitely haven't felt as close to nature as South West Rocks did. Probably because we had ever been there before, it is a small town and I didn't know what to expect from it. Also, it is very open, there are lots of trees and the landscape is mountainous and coastal (which we aren't used to). The fact that native animals like kookaburras and kangaroos roam so freely in the caravan park probably made it the best experience (for the most part too). It is still so surprising to me how at ease the kangaroos were. They would hop right next to you and you would be standing less than a metre away and they did not seem phased at all. 

I had a beautiful weekend and I would like to give a shoutout to my amazing boyfriend for making it all possible. I love you and look forward to many more adventures with you. My life would be dull without you in it.

Thanks to everyone for reading, I hope to write of more adventures soon. 

Kristelle xxx

Kiama

I was so happy to get away. Get away to my (second) favourite place. Not quite home, but home enough that I didn't want to leave. 

A week ago I went on a 'get away from life and life's drama' trip down the South Coast to Kiama. I sipped alcohol, I floated in the pool, I explored the towns along the Coast. I took photos (lots and lots of photos). I got lost so many times and I watched my boyfriend get his nose pierced. I ate lots of food and watched the clouds float through the air. I cooked, I cleaned, I camped. I sang. I danced. I laughed and I cried. I kissed and loved and I felt loved. It was a weekend where I felt at ease. 

I'm not much of a writer and I don't know if anyone out there even enjoys reading my blog but I just want to let you all know that I enjoy writing these feelings and capturing these memories. My life isn't perfect but it's an adventure.

Loving on him from the lookout near Gerringong. Most beautiful sight (and a lovely bush/beach background too)

Again, I love this

Our typical selves. Not much else to say

Shoalhaven Heads. I love this picture I took of him

Kiama Lighthouse at night

The trip with my favourite person was great. Our padlock near the Blow Hole was still intact (if still very rusty). We ate ice-cream and snuggled up under trees in the park. Ate lunch in the RSL surrounded by old people where he told me "this will be us one day Stelle".

Thanks for reading everyone, not much to read but a single picture does tell a thousand words.

Stelle xx

Motorbike riding and Rodeoing?

Anyone who knows me will know that I am a bit of a princess. Not in the sense that I sit around and expect everyone to do everything for me (I am a hard worker and do almost everything for myself), but I am not a huge fan of getting 'dirty' and doing activities that involve that. I love the beach. That is the one true place I will call my home and I will go far enough to say that I belong there. I like that there are wide open spaces, water and it's peaceful. But at the same time I appreciate that all I have to deal with is sand and then sun and that I am still extremely close to the city and the area is.. populated. 

What I was not prepared for, was a weekend away in the bush (aka. the middle of nowhere to me). There was no phone reception, no electricity (everything ran off gas), wide open spaces, lots of trees and dirt and only being able to have a 3 minute or less shower (any girls who care lots about washing their hair and taking their time would feel my pain at this). But as I am all one for new experiences and adventures (and to stick to saying yes more instead of no, I sucked it up, packed a backpack and went for the weekend adventure. 

I rode on the backs of motorbikes, I rode a quad bike, drank alcohol. I didn't wash my hair for three days, I ate the biggest chicken snitzel I have ever seen. I did the dishes, I read books, I sat around and watched the riding of motorbikes (no one warns you how much your bum will actually hurt afterwards). And strangest of all things... I went to the rodeo.

New experiences all around but I am honestly surprised to say how much of a good weekend I had. I gave it the chance but I honestly didn't expect it to be so much fun. That was a typical bogan weekend (or I see it as one anyway). But it was fun and I'm glad I had the experience. 

Bucket hat selfies at the rodeo 

This is what a rodeo looks like, lots of horses and bulls and baby cows and sheep. Oh it also smells sort of funky because of that

I should mention that this weekend was the Australia Day long weekend, so yes this post is a tad delayed. I don't even know why. And although there is no photographic evidence of me on bikes I promise I rode them (the GoPro died and my motorbike outfit aka boyfriends trackies and an old T-shirt was definitely not cute). 

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx