MELBOURNE - AUCKLAND

I'm trying to get better at updating my blog more frequently... last month was just a disaster haha. I recently got back from my Melbourne/Auckland multi-sector which was such a nice trip. I got to see my friend Hannah, that I had studied with in America 4 YEARS AGO! How time flies. It was great to catch up with her across the other side of the world in her hometown. I never thought I'd be able to do it to be honest because flights to Australia are VERY expensive from the UK. But thanks to my job I was able to see her for free! Oh the perks :)

The flight to Melbourne was very long and tiring. I hadn't been able to sleep much before the flight either, but luckily we had legal rest on the plane. I don't think I would have survived if we hadn't. The flight was close to 14 hours and once we arrived at the hotel I was so thankful to lie down in a comfy hotel bed haha. I was meeting Hannah later on in the evening as she was working during the day. So it was good to get a few hours of rest in. I ended up going shopping before meeting up with Hannah, and spent a little too much in Sephora hehe.

I went shopping with another girl from my flight and we had a nice stroll through the park which was right by our hotel. It was lovely to be able to do this as the weather was just incredible. It's getting very hot in Dubai at the moment so it's a struggle to even be outside let alone go for an actual walk.

I really like the quirkiness of Melbourne. There's so many little side streets with bars and cute cafés. You don't know what you'll end up finding. We walked through this one street that had so many graffiti artists. It was quite cool. We also had to stop for a coffee at one of the places :) I want to learn how to do latte art!

We met with Hannah as night fell, and the whole of Melbourne just lit up! She took us to Southbank River where there was lots of nice restaurants. We had a difficult time choosing! The lights along the river looked so pretty and the whole city just came alive.

Me and Hannah :)

The next day we were off to Auckland! The initial plan was to go straight to Waiheke Island which is an hour boat ride from Auckland. However, once we got there it looked so cloudy that we didn't want to risk getting caught in the rain. Samantha and I ended up walking around the city and shopping... obviously! I spent far too much again oops. I was quite concerned about being able to close my suitcase actually.

We went for dinner along the harbour at The Crab Shack. I'd never been before but the food was amazing. We were stuffed afterwards. We also found a really cute dessert bar but were far too full to sample anything. The street it was on was very pretty though.

The day after that we were heading back to Melbourne. We didn't really have much of a plan for this last day. Samantha and I woke up super early unintentionally... so we had a little workout session and went swimming, followed by a huge breakfast at the hotel haha. We then walked through the park again because it was a lovely sunny day.

We ended up going to Doughnut time... if you're ever in any of the major cities in Australia please try it! The doughnuts are something else. I got a salted caramel and Sam had a Nutella one. Honestly, I'd never seen so much filling inside a piece of dough. It was insane. That picture doesn't show all of it because half of it fell inside the box haha! I couldn't even finish mine. One cool thing about this company is that they change the menu every few weeks. So you'll always be trying something new. Obviously it's a very good marketing strategy because it makes people come back to see what new flavours are available.

I really enjoyed this trip but next time I'm going to try and go in the summer. I'd like to go to Hobbiton or Waiheke Island in Auckland for sure :) My next flight is a Hyderabad turnaround... I wish we got more layovers in India. I'd like to visit Delhi again at some point. Oh well, maybe in the future maybe?

- Parul xo

P.S. If you want more daily updates, follow me on Instagram @parulmmm

#Melbourne #Auckland #Australia #NewZealand