East Coast time...

"Map our your future - but do it in pencil.  The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip."

-Jon Bon Jovi

So for those of you confused as to where I actually am and have gone, I have mad this handy map.  The green lines are driving and the blue lines are flying.  I started on the top left in Karratha, drove (green line) down to Exmouth.  From Exmouth I flew to Perth, then Adelaide, then Alice Springs.  From Alice Springs in the center I joined a tour and we drove to Uluru and King's Canyon, then down to Adelaide.  After Adelaide I joined a tour that drove along the coast on the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne.  After Melbourne I flew to Sydney and then flew up North to Cairns where I am sitting right now.  This post will be all the adventures between Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. 

 I've been able to visit a total of 5 of the 8, states and territories of Australia.  Just like in the US they have these handy state border signs that are fun to stop and take pictures with.  This border crossing also came with a 30 minutes time change.

So after staying in Adelaide for a day I joined a 2 day Great Ocean Road tour.  The first day we drove from Adelaide to Grampians National Park.  I love all the silo murals!

We also made a stop at a pink lake! Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so the lake wasn't super vibrant.

At Grampians National Park we did a short hike to the base of these water falls.  It was stunning! We were also told there was a chance of seeing a platypus here but unfortunately we didn't see any.  

 The next day however we did find a koala! Obviously every animal has a natural habitat, but I just feel like animals this cute shouldn't be hanging out in trees next to a persons house.  They belong protected in zoos.

 On our second day we made it to the ocean part of the Great Ocean Road. 

 This is known as the London Bridge.  Apparently there was a second bridge connecting this island to the mainland but it collapsed in 1990 leaving two tourists stranded on the island.

 This is the most famous part of the Great Ocean Road.  These are known as the 12 apostles.

 We then went to the rainforest! Its amazing how many different climates I have traveled through in the last 3 weeks!  This rainforest is apparently what Steven Spielberg modeled his rainforest after for Jurassic Park

 I was very lucky to have Ronja, a German traveler, on both my Alice Springs to Adelaide tour, and my Adelaide to Melbourne tour!

Unfortunately, our afternoon was a bit rainy, but it made for beautiful rainbows!

And then we were on the koala hunt!  We were super lucky to find 4 different koalas!

Once I arrived in Melbourne I was able to meet up with my friend Alex who I met studying abroad in Denmark! I also did a walking tour of the city and then headed to Brighton Beach to see these adorable bathing boxes. 

Ronja and I also made snap decision to buy tickets to an AFL (Australian Football League) game.  Now for those of you who have never seen an AFL game, which is everyone in the world minus Australians, I was told by an Australian that the point is to "kick a goal and hopefully hurt somebody along the way."  They score a goal by kicking the ball between the poles at the end of the oval field.  If the ball goes between the middle two poles its 6 points, and if it goes between the poles on either side its 1 point. 

 This was the most hilarious part of the whole evening.  I was like yeah they are going to run through the sign! Nope, they ran up to the sign and then ducked under.

 After a very short day and a half in Melbourne I flew to Sydney! And I was welcomed by this stunning view! Some places you go don't live up to the photos, but I definitely think the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge lived up to the hype.

 That is until a giant cruise ship blocked the view at peak sunset time! This should definitely not be allowed!

 I ended up arriving in Sydney on the last night of a lights festival called Vivid.  It was sooo cool! There were light art instillations everywhere and projections on the buildings.

I was able to meet up with these super cool people for Vivid! These three were on my tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide and live in Sydney. 

On my second day in Sydney, I went to the famous Bondi Beach.  You can't really see in the photo but there were a ton of surfers out in the water.  I think this was the first time I actually saw surfing in real life. 

I've seen photos of this pool before with the surf crashing over the sides.  Unfortunately we didn't get that, but still a really cool place. 

This might have been my favorite place in Sydney.  Its a tiny park called Foundation park that is built amongst the foundations of some of the original houses.  Its so cool how they have used the foundations and metal pieces of furniture to show you how the houses would have looked. 

We then had to stroll through this creepy mouth into the amusement park of Luna Park. 

So all of this was done in the span of a week.  I was already exhausted by this point! But I have about a month left before I come home and can relax! As I said in the beginning of the post I am currently sitting in Cairns and just finished diving the Great Barrier Reef! I hope I can get to those photos and write a post tomorrow!