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3 months in Australia? Check.

Sydney Opera House SailI’ve just finished my 3 months in Australia. It’s been hard, easy, fun, exciting, scary, expensive, cheap, long and short.Planning the trip, I made a list of places I wanted to go, figured out roughly how much money I’d need and then book some plane tickets. I didn’t think about it too much after that. I made a bit of a list of things I definitely wanted to do and some things that would be nice but only if I had the time.Once I got to Australia, the lack of planning definitely showed and I was a bit overwhelmed with things to do, place to see, people to hang out with and more to plan. I wasn’t sure how not planning out the whole trip to the day would affect how it went. I had originally planned to book things and set everything up before I left…. but I got lazy.Everything ended up working out very well. The only thing I booked before I was actually in the city was Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands and I had to rush to make it there. For everything else, hostels, trips, and meeting up with friends, I just rolled in when it happened and went from there. Having a car, no hard plans and a fair amount of time helped tremendously and I highly recommend this style of travelling. I always have to remind myself I was there in the winter and things were rarely booked full. Try that in the summer, and you’ll probably find yourself disappointed, or late for other things.I haven’t had much time to reflect on my time there but hopefully once the trip is completely over, I’ll be able to look back on all the memories and remember all the good times and learn something from the bad times. That being said there are definitely a few things that stood out.I already mentioned Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands but I will again. It was amazing. That was my favorite part of my Australia trip and I would gladly do it again. Learning to sail and crewing on a boat somewhere has definitely been added to my ever-expanding list of things I must do.I’ve now got a soft spot in my heart for Melbourne. The feel of the city, the sights there, the people there, all added up to a great experience. I went to an Aussie Rules rugby game, saw the Pyrophone Juggernaut at the Docklands, ran around the Botanican Gardens or the “Tan” and took a free bus ride.Heading into the Grampians, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t planned on going here and was just going to drive up the coast to Adelaide. After receiving numerous recommendations about the area I decided to check it out. I wasn’t let down. I hiked for 2 full days and still didn’t get to see all of it. I checked out the Pinnacle, Mackenzie falls, Sundial Peak and a bunch of other places.After arriving in Sydney to sell the car I had, I ended up with a bunch of time to kill. I had originally intended on doing a bunch of races while I was in Australia  but the lack of planning and overwhelming amount of information and things to do when I got here pushed the idea right out of my head. Looking for things to do in Sydney, I found the City 2 Surf, a 14km fun run from Hyde park to Bondi Beach. A perfect way to end the trip and push me to do some more training. All in all, running the race with 75,000 other people was a fantastic experience that I’ll never forget.With Australia finished and the New Zealand part of my trip just starting, I feel like I’m on a whole new trip: new people, different locations, exciting adventures. I’m sure this part of the trip will be as good if not better as Australia.