Hi Everyone!
I’m Henry, a senior level student from the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada. I am currently on exchange here at Flinders University for one semester and I am absolutely loving it!! Back home I’m taking a double degree in International Relations and Philosophy. Here at Flinders I have had the opportunity to take some classes that I wouldn’t be able to take back home but that still count towards my majors.
Before coming to Australia I was able to do another exchange in Auckland, New Zealand so this is my second one back-to-back. Since the semester in New Zealand finished in November I have been travelling around Australia for the past three month before arriving in Adelaide. I spent one month in and around Sydney and New South Wales and then two months out in Western Australia. Sydney was a fantastic city. I really enjoyed the week I stayed there. I was couchsurfing with a really cool guy and he showed me around the city and took me to see Interstellar on the world’s biggest IMAX screen! Great film if you haven’t seen it already. Got to see some of the country around Sydney and NSW. I volunteered at a yoga studio about an hour outside of Sydney for a few weeks and was able to see lots of the countryside and wildlife around that area. The Royal National Park outside of Sydney is amazing and has some great hiking trails as well as some wonderful beaches.
After NSW I spent two months in Western Australia. I have an old family friend in Perth that I stayed with for a few days before starting a trip around southern WA. WA is absolutely fantastic! I spent some time volunteering on a horse breeder in Mumballup a few hour south and east of Perth and then started a two week road trip around the south. Margaret River is great and there is so much to do! The National parks around the area are amazing and the wineries are always worth a visit as well if, like me, you enjoy drinking! I was down in Albany on the south coast for Australia Day and spent a great day on the beach with some friends I met in the hostel and some local Aussies who taught me how to play cricket. We all drank far too much and had a great time. After Albany I travelled to Esperance faith east along the south coast. The. Most. Amazing. Beaches!! Spent most of my time there just laying on the beach and swimming in the crystal clear water. If you plan to go to WA at any point definitely make your way to Esperance! After a quick stop in Kalgoorlie, which was okay but not very much to do, I returned to Perth to get ready for a 2 week road trip up the west coast. We spent time in Shark Bay, Exmouth and Cape Range National Park, Karijini National Park, Coral Bay, and Kalbarri National Park. These two weeks were some of the best times of my life! It was unbelievable! Waked around the alien landscape of the Pinnacles National Park, fed dolphins in Shark Bay, snorkelled on the incredible reef with reef sharks and sting rays in Cape Range NP, hiked some fantastic gorges in Karijini NP, and saw amazing countryside all the way. In total we drove about 6000km of WA and there was still so much too see. One thing about Australia… It’s A LOT bigger than people think it is! Final returned to Perth and made the flight to Adelaide to begin the next adventure!
Anyway I have been drone on and haven’t mentioned anything about my live here at Flinders so I will end this post so I can start a new one about the first month of living at Flinders.
Talk soon everyone!