Today Is The Day!

I'm boarding a USA-bound plane in a few hours and couldn't be more excited! It feels so surreal (but wonderful) to finally be going home.

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My Dad, Betty, Anthony, Katie and Lauren are picking me up from the airport once I get back to Arizona, and our task is to complete everything on my "To-Do Within the First 48 Hours Home" list!! Some of the items on my written list include:

*Sending over 100 text messages all within the 1st night (give me a break, its been hard living without my Blackberry this whole time!)

*Cooking something in an actual oven

*Staying 100 feet away from curry, fish, and white rice at all times

*Watching a LOT of television

*Rediscovering the joys of listening to the radio

*Eating a hamburger for the 1st time since February.

*Driving on the correct side of the road without crashing

So that should be pretty fun! But here's the issue I'm currently working on...there is NO WAY, in the whole world, that my bags are going to pass the weight limit restriction. I'm pretty sure each suitcase of mine weighs about 75 pounds (I wish I was kidding!) We'll see what happens once I get to the airport! Haha I'm such a girl..!

Peace out Australia- it's been real.

Once I get home and settled in, I'll post one last blog. Thanks to everyone who has consistently read this, it really really REALLY means a lot to me. SEE YOU ALL LATER TODAY (that's so exciting to say)!!!!!!!!!!!

For the last time- I love and miss you guys lots!
--LP--

SKYDIVING!!!!

Well hello everybody! This morning I jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet above ground! What did you guys do? Ha, kidding. But seriously- skydiving today was INCREDIBLE!!! Just to answer the uniform question of "Hey Lauren, were you scared?" - yes! I was freaking out, but it was pure adrenaline, not terror. Bungy jumping is something I never plan to do again, but skydiving was amazing! Once the parachute opened up it was a calm, beautiful ride to the ground! And being strapped to an trained instructor helps too (even if, like in my case, they're 65+ years old).....

It started off with about 20 people crammed into that tiny airplane (seen above) like sardines. Your guide basically straddles you from behind until there's only 3 minutes left. Once we were at 14 THOUSAND feet, the door of the airplane just flew open, and here was my reaction:
Us watching the first few people jump! Literally hanging outside of an open airplane window...it was so loud and windy (OBVIOUSLY haha!)

When we first fell out, we did a couple back flips in the air!!

Free falling at a rate of 300 kph (...nearly 180 miles per hour!)

Sooooo much fun!

Somebody, please tell me that these next 3 pictures aren't the funniest things you've ever seen! I spent a good HOUR laughing at these after they were printed- such a crack up! This is what happens when you try to scream:

Once the parachute deployed he let me steer! It was really cool! We went right over the highway and nearly skimmed a lake near the landing pad!
Back to the ground safe and sound!
I had the BEST time skydiving today in Sydney! I can't wait to make a second jump sometime!

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Well, as of right now I'm at my friend Claudie's house! I love it! I'm spending my last 2 nights in Australia with her and her family. In less than 48 hours from now I'll be on my way back to the United States!!!!!!!! Bitter-sweet, can't believe it. What a journey it's been.

Love and miss you all dearly, and can't wait to see (most) of you in a couple days.

--LP--

The Price's Take Over Australia (and New Zealand!)

Hi everybody!!! Sorry I haven't updated in forever but I've been living the 'good life' with my family for the past 2 weeks! For those of you who didn't see my Facebook status, I was originally supposed to pick up Andrew, Betty and Dad from the Sydney airport, but I secretly flew BACK to New Zealand (for a 2nd time) and surprised them by showing up at their hotel! :) It was wonderful! Dad knew I was coming, but Andrew and Betty were completely shocked to see me standing there! I loved it! Seeing them again after so long was the best feeling ever!

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This post is 2 weeks worth of pictures and stories so please feel free to skip over the text and look at the photos if that saves you time! It's HUGE, but here we go! Here's our first family photo in Auckland:

On the first day we went to the Auckland Museum. By the way- a lot of the things we did we're repeats of my itinerary from the weekend before, so I thought it would be kind of pointless re-uploading the same pics. ANYWAY- at the museum we went and saw a Mowrie Cultural Performance.

My brother and I in front of some old ship

Next we went to the Auckland Flower Gardens (...another repeat). These cacti really made us feel at home!

This is the outside of the flower gardens:

Love, love, LOVE this picture of Dad and Betty!

The next day we went to the Sky Tower. Last time I was there, I couldn't see ANYTHING out of the windows. We had much better luck this time around! Here's Andy standing on part of the glass-bottom floor!

Andrew and I were brave and loved the sights!

Daddy and Betty on the other hand were a different story! Here's Betty demonstrating their poses for most of the time we were up there. They were both really scared. So what did the kids do? Jump around on the glass floors and lean up against the windows, of course! I'm sure that gave them some more grey hairs! Ha ha!Here I am pointing out the bridge I jumped off of the weekend before. I PROMISE YOU that it's not really as small as it looks! ;)

Later that day we took a ferry ride over to Waiheke Island!

While we were there we went on a bus tour and then ended up at this wine tasting. For a self-family-photograph I'd say Dad did a pretty good job taking this one!

After the wine tasting, we we went to another vineyard to watch the sunset. You had to climb for about 10 minutes up a hill, but once you were on top- it was AMAZING!!! Words (nor these pictures) can describe how beautiful it was.

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We had time to kill before the sun went down, sooooo we had a Price Family photo shoot! (Although, I'm not too sure what I'm doing in this first picture....)

Andy and I cheesin' it up for the camera!

My favorite picture of the 4 of us!

I love my family. A lot.

The beautiful sunset over Mudbrick Vineyards!

Self explanatory wooden sign we saw at the top of the hill. This was, in my opinion, the best part of our trip!

Alright, so the NEXT day in Auckland we decided it would be fun to get out of the city and go on a beach/waterfall/rain forest tour....thing. It was picture perfect (no pun intended)!

Andrew leading us through the rain forest.

So beautiful!!!! (I guess the waterfall is kind of neat too!) Just kiddingggg.

An photo-op stop on our day-trip.

Next we went to the black sand beach, Puhi. Everything here looked like a computer screen saver! It was breath-taking!

Wonderful beaches...Andy, Dad and I did a hike up to the top of that mountain.

New Zealand was amazing and I'm so glad I was able to be with them for it!

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Alright, next stop: NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA!

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Here's Dad and me hanging out in my dorm room! This is such a great photo!
Andrew, myself and Dad outside of my dorm! It felt so out of place to have them there. VERY COOL, but I've been alone here for so long that it was really strange having familiar faces around!

The next morning we woke up and went to Oakvale Farm and Fauna World (the same place from my previous post with all of the Australian wildlife!) Here's us with a koala and her baby!

A family who feeds kangaroos together, stays together! Ha!

Back at the hotel, dad had his first experience with Vegemite! I'm glad I'm not the only one who is repulsed by it!

After Newcastle, we went down to Sydney- OH! Please keep in mind that all of the transportation in Australia was done by Dad DRIVING! On the wrong side of the road! Scary as hell.....but he did great!

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Here's us in Sydney in front of a fountain at Hyde Park:

We took part of the night, got a ferry and headed over to Luna Park! It was a lot of fun!

Alright so in Auckland I went to an ice bar, remember? Well you weren't allowed to bring in cameras or ANYTHING which I was upset about. Sooooooo we found one in Sydney too- except this time you could take as many pictures as you wanted, it was cheaper, and free drinks were included! Here's my brother and I in a frozen ICE CAR! So neat!

We climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge the next day so here I am getting a little bit of practice before the big trek! For the record, I am SO embarrassed I'm actually putting this picture online....wow.

My lovely family in our parkas!!!

The next day we went on a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House! It was really great to be able to see the interior and learn about it's history.

Day ^ and night...

We also climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but unfortunately we only have hard copies of the pictures from that! It was pretty fun- definitely a one time thing. Good enough to say "been there done that" but I'm not sure if it was worth the $200 a person...

Beautiful Bridge right after our climb:

Moving along on our virtual tour, CAIRNS AUSTRALIA!

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Right when we got to Cairns (literally, maybe an 2 hours after we landed), Andrew, Dad and I went white river rafting!! For those of you who know about it- the river we rafted on was a level 3. I was really nervous the whole time, but we made it out alive! And I was only scared for my life ONCE! :) Here's a photo of the people in our boat! Team America was the name!

The following morning we conqured the GREAT BARRIER REEF! All of our picutres from the reef are on a CD (that's currently at home with my parents) so I'll put them up soon. But we took a boat out there called, Calypso.

Calypso sounds like a pretty nice name, right? SO MISLEADING! It was the worst boat ride ever. I got seasick and threw u---actually, I'll spare you the details. But it was harsh!

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Once we got TO the reef though, it was all worth it! Andy and I snorkeled with a 5 foot white tip shark! We saw a ton of cool fish, including one that was the size of a human CHILD, and big clams and vibrant coral. It's definitely something that everyone should experience at least once in their life. Incredible. Again, pictures to come! :)

On our last night in Cairns we went to a tribal ceremony. It was an all you can eat buffet and warrior show! I liked it a lot and had a great time with the fam. Here are pictures from it:

They flew home the next morning, and I flew back to Newcastle. Leaving them was fairly easy though since I'll be back home in FIVE DAYS!!!!! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip though. And a big thanks to Dad for everything- you're the best!
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Oh, I'm going skydiving on Tuesday! Because jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at 14,000 feet seems like a fun idea. Haha! Crazy Lauren! It'll be a nice way to end my time here, though.
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Anywaaaaaaay, now I'm back in Newcastle and have spent all week packing up my belongings. I said goodbye to my 5 best friends here which was really rough. And even though I've known all along I would have to leave them- it was heartbreaking. To think you can get so attached to people over a six month period is crazy. It crushes me to know that I'll never see them again, but I'm so thankful for the memories.
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I'll be sure to post again right after I skydive, and then also once I'm home. I can't believe my time here is finally wrapping up. Bitter-sweet!
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I love and miss you all in the states! See ya NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!
Love, LP