"Why travel? To learn and grow, challenge yourself, stretch your limits and foster an appreciation for both the world at large and the chair waiting in front of the fireplace back home."

So I'm sitting on my couch right now, with the fire right in front of me, snow outside, and it's COLD, but I really really appreciate it, as well as I have appreciated every minute of the incredible journey I have been on for the past two and a half months.

For our farewell dinner on the last night, we were asked to write a paragraph about our favorite part of the trip.  I think my response to the prompt is the best way I could explain what this trip has meant to me, at least now with only two days of reflection.  I know it will continue to impact me, but it already has so much, and I am so thankful and grateful to have had this opportunity!  Well, here's my response:

"Instead of describing my favorite part in one experience, I have to explain it as many smaller experiences combined (this may be cheating, but oh well!)  Only with these tiny dreamlike fragments combined can I express how important and amazing this whole trip was for me! Well, here it goes:

sleeping outside under the greatest number of stars I have ever seen in my entire life.  swimming through a school of glittering, shining fish that change from pink to turquoise to blue to green.  hearing the sound of carving wood.  realizing and appreciating the incredible colors of the Moss Garden by painting and drawing it.  floating above a sea turtle gliding through the water.  searching for two hours, almost giving up, but then finally spotting a sperm whale and seeing it gracefully dive, tail-up, into the depths of the ocean.  rolling down the hot black sand dunes to splash into the cool water of the suspended lagoon.  being two inches away from a wombat wiggling its butt and ambling past all of us on his own time.  watching the little mermaid with all my friends and singing along the whole time.  getting to know new cultures, new people, and new stories in Rarotonga.  playing games, singing songs, and feeling like I could fly with the happiness and laughter that surrounds me at the marae.  eating and slurping up every last juice in the passionfruit, starfruit, and mangos.  scurrying up the golden hills to see the most incredible sunset reach from behind the hill, over the sky, to touch the horizon of the ocean on the other side.  dancing and stomping and running on the beach to make it sparkle!  sitting on the top of a volcano and witnessing the sunrise touch every hill individually in front of us until it reached ours.  eating lunch at the top of a volcano looking into a huge abyss of a redblack crater.  dribbling and kicking the soccer ball around jellyfish and huge boulders and the sea rushing in a beautiful, beautiful beach.  hiking through the eerily beautiful white burnt trees that stand out against the blue ocean.  watching a rainbow follow our bus for an hour and a half and then disappear behind a mountain in what looked liked a rainbow sunset.  and finally, meeting an amazing group of people, and learning so much about them, and about myself and who I want to be through them and our shared experiences."


Thank you to everyone who followed me!! Knowing I had people at home supporting me made me be able to be less homesick and fully engage in everything!  I can't wait to see you all in person and swap stories from the last few months!!!

Love,
Megan

Lady Elliot Island

Our last stop - Lady Elliot Island.  This tiny island, that takes about 30 minutes to walk around, only has an ecoresort and an airstrip.  It was really beautiful, and everyday we snorkelled and drew and just relaxed.  I read a lot, which was amazing.  Snorkelling was incredible, and we saw huge turtles, squid, manta rays, sting rays, jelly fish, beautiful coral, the most amazing colorful fish I have ever seen.  Did I mention we were in the Great Barrier Reef? It was incredible.  And it was turtle-hatching time! So we saw many baby turtles, and even helped some who were lost at night find there way into the waters!

It was so amazing, and an incredible, incredible way to end the trip.

Carnarvon Gorge

This was definitely one of my favorite spots ever on the trip - and I think that's saying a lot based on all the places I've been!  Carnarvon Gorge is another national park more inland from the east coast, and nearer to the north I think of the east coast of Australia.  We camped in safari-style tents, which were amazing, and slept out under the stars when we wanted.  I woke up with a few friends every morning to sit quietly at the Platypus Pools to spot one. Unfortunately, I never saw one as they are extremely shy creatures, but I did always get to here the forest waking up around me with the kookaburras laughing first, then the cockatoos screeching, then the rest of the birds waking up, and finally the smell of bacon coming from our caterer's grill :).  

The Platypus Pools creek runs to the right of this

There were so many kangaroos at the visitors center! This mum has a joey!

The Moss Garden - a stop along the main trail.  If you look closely, you can really see the amazing colors of this little cove.  I was incredibly blown away by the colors of the rocks, that it was actually REAL!  And I spent about four hours drawing it, of course!

Ward's Canyon - An offshoot of the trail, skinny canyon with glowing green moss everywhere and king ferns that were so huge! I think they are from prehistoric times!

The Ampitheater - You looked up from where you were sitting, and this was the view.  It was really incredible, and if you sang, the song echoed and bounced off the walls and created a beautiful sound!

The Art Gallery - this art has been here for thousands and thousands of years I think - Aboriginal art on the rocks.  The colored images are created from blowing ochre by the mouth onto the object in a stencil way, and the ochre doesn't wear out! There are also carvings - it was so cool to see this!!

A betton? bettol? not quite sure the name, but it looks like a large mouse that hops like a kangaroo!

We hiked to the top of Boolimba Bluffs for this view of the Gorge - it was truly incredible!

Wilson's Prom

So after Apollo Bay, we headed on a long drive to Wilson's Promnatory (spelling! ahh!).  It is the southernmost tip of the state of Victoria, and it is a national park and absolutely spectacular!

We drew and hiked and went spotlighting at night with our biologist, Pete.  We spotted so many possums, and saw the stars at night, and saw many wombats! They are really funny marsupials that only come out at night - and the kind of waddle and wiggle their butt as they walk - they are realyl adorable! We also had a chance to draw kangaroos at the airstrip - I guess the favorite hang out place for the kangaroos there. Oh, and I saw an emu!

Two years ago there was a fire here, so there are many dead trunks of trees, but they are so eerily beautiful, especially against the blue of the ocean.

Our beach :)  The most amazing thing: We came here at night, and danced and stomped and ran by the water on the far side where there is a little river - and the beach glittered and shone and sparkled.  It was like being in a disney movie, but better.  There were bioluminesence in the sand I guess, so when we walked on it, it sparkled! It was so incredible, and I have never been so blown away I think ever! And happy and exultant and jumping up and down!

The Lilly Pilly Gully trail - how cool of a name is that?

A tough hour long straight up hike, to be here, at the top of Mt. Oberon - not too shabby huh?

And that beach is the same one that is ours in the picture above! To give you some perspective of the amazing place we were in.

Look down from plane flight to our next stop.

APOLLO BAY!!!!!!

I HAD TO GET THIS POST IN BEFORE I LEFT!!!!  Guess what we got to draw!!! from the wild, not even just in the zoo!!!

 they are the snuggliest creatures i have ever seen!!!!!



these are of the twelve apostles, of which there are actually only 8 now -- huge eroded sand/rock cliffs


so beautiful!
i'm so happy to be back in this beautiful nature!

Melbourne

So we have been in Melbourne for two weeks, and are leaving tomorrow!!! It has been a wonderful city, andI have done so much stuff, even though we have had jampacked studio days, sometimes from 9 in the mornign until 9 at night!

 My best day ever was a Saturday.  

I drew in these beautiful gardens in the morning, then went to a rare book arts exhibition at the national library.  I went to the Disney Dreams Come True exhibition - which was so incredbile.  They showed art and everything that goes into making the movies, plus scenes from the movies they were showing: sleeping beauty, snow white, the little mermaid, beauty and the beast, cinderella, princess and the frog, and tangled.  One of the coolest thigns - they studied dolphins to see how ariel's body moved in the little mermaid, and studied the first woman's astronaut hair and space to see how her hair moved for ariel! It was incredible and so interesting - and makes me want to have a disney movie marathon when i get back - so whoever is up for it - let me know!! :)

Then I went to an indigenous cultures art exhibition at one of the many museums - which was so inspiring and amazing to see.

Then back to the disney exhibition :).

Then to a free concert with some friends, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  We had a picnic on the lawn, and went from day to sunset to stars while listening to classical music and Beethoven's 5th! The one that goes.. banana NA - it was incredible!!!

 Cathedral right down the street from where we stayed! We had our own apartments by the way with 4 other people - it was incredible!

 Children's illustrations exhibition at the library - so wonderful and inspiring  - this is what i want to do!

 downtown melbourne - the train station

 hot air balloons from a morning walk!

on the way to the studio :)

 in fitzroy gardens, there is a fairies tree - and tree carved and painted by an artist in the 60's for all the fairies and children of australia to have a safe place to be :)

on our free sunday, we went to st. kilda festival right on the ocean! it was so crazy and so many people - tons of music, rides, food, stalls, and just laughing and dancing and having fun!!!! and kite surfing (which you can kinda see in this photo)

So this is what i have been working on for the past 2 weeks in the print studio.  it's a portfolio (so basically just a book cover without the pages, with loose leaf prints inside)

 cover (it's sideways right now)

mt. eden sunrise ( i have a photo from this on the coast to coast walk!)

abel tasman national park (sideways)

cathedral grove, waipoua forest

picton mountains, new zealand

the back part, called the colophon.  my title is "those moments when faeries exist and magic is real" - so all those moments so far that have been magical (there are more,, but here are some) -- i did this kinda for all the people back home, so i can try and convey how it felt when i was in these amazing places, but in my own way! so hopefully these prints share with you a little more of what i'm experiencing than just the photos!

our print studio - it was amazing - it's a professional studio!!!




this may or may not be the last time i have internet - i will be home in 19 days and it's so crazy! i can't believe it ! i will try to do another post if i can!!!!

Midterm Break Part 2

So the second part of midterm break.  Absolutely Incredible.

Kaikoura. Two nights. A coastal town on the east coast in between Christchurch and Picton, on a peninsula, with huge mountains right along the ocean.  We walked around town, went whale watching and saw two huge sperm whales.  They are beautiful creatures, and also pretty mysterious - they surface for about 10 minutes, so it was quite the race once we spotted them in the boat 2 miles away to get to them before the dive deep down in the ocean for about an hour to find food, or at least we think that's what they do.  We saw seals bathing and playing and yawning  and slouching/lounging around of course, what they are best at!  We saw albatross dancing and gliding over the ocean.  Drawing cows in the middle of their pasture, where they would stop to look at us for about 5 minutes, wondering who we were and what we were doing - but they made the best models!  Going to the local bar and hearing live, low key music - so much nicer and different than a usual Friday night at school of pop songs.  Walking along the beach.  Making our own food.  The best chocolate chip banana muffins.  And of course, drawing A TON!!!  And the most incredible sunset I have ever seen in my entire life - that stretched from over the golden hills to the ocean on the other side.

Okay - well you are basically all caught up now!! After midterm break, we came to Melbourne, Australia.  We are here now for two weeks.  We are doing printmaking at this real artist's workshop - it is beautiful.  Melbourne is an amazing city - with so many museums and art galleries and art festivals going on, and so many parks and a river and on the ocean, and, the most perfect thing for me while I'm here: the library has an Australian picture books exhibit, and another museum has an exhibit on Disney fairytales - how perfect is that!!!