July 29th: Day 33

I was so excited at work Wednesday, I could hardly sit still. I was leaving at 12:30 to catch a flight to Australia. It has been a life long dream of mine to go to Australia...and now it was all coming true. After 3 hours of work I left to go catch the shuttle and meet everyone at the airport. When I got to the airport I remembered that I forgot to apply for a visa to Australia. I litterally spent the next hour running from one side of the airport to the other trying to find a computer so that I could apply for a visa. When all of that was settled and I finally made it, I rewarded myself with smoe Burger King! haha I saw Lara, Phil, Kristen, Hannah, and Sabrina all sitting at the gate already and we were all so excited to have a weekend away from New Zealand, cold weather, and our horrible apartments. During the 3 and 1/2 hr flight from Auckland to Gold Coast I watched 17 again and I suddenly remembered how much I love Zach Efron. He is a really great actor!! I haven't seen very much High School Musical stuff but I'm assuming he is good in that too. We flew with Jet Star which was a little iffy to start with...there was music playing on the loudspeaker the entire time we were taking off and the plane didn't look very well put together but their flights are so cheap around the southern pacific region. When we finally got to Gold Coast I was so excited. It was dark already, about 8 pm. We got a cab from the airport to our Marriot resort!! Lara's dad is GM at his Marriot hotel in Florida. He actually just got GM of the Year of all Marriots and he was able to get us a great deal!! This was not just a Marriot hotel or anything...this was a legitimate resort, with a lagoon, fish in the pool, a salt water pool, 2 hot tubs, a restaurant, spa, gym, a fresh water pool and the best breakfast buffet in the whole city of Gold Coast.