This year- as usual, has flown by in the blink of an eye and boy has it been a good one!
(Aside from all of the celebrity deaths- let's not even go there).
I thought it would be a nice way to finish up by having a look through and doing a quick summary of my year and some of the things I got up to.
As well as reading this blog post I made a YouTube video of my 2016 extras and highlights which you can watch here if you're interested:
I lived in the beautiful Gold Coast, Australia for a year. I got a FitBit and started working out for the first time in my life and loved it!
I saw Jimmy Carr the British comedian live in Brisbane in January and the Indiana Jones live performance by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in February.
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| Koala kisses in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast |
I started this blog, I started my YouTube channel. I flew to New Zealand to spend Easter with my family in Coromandel and also visited my friends in Wellington and went to my favourite Kiwi music festival Homegrown.
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| Coromandel, New Zealand |
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| Kumara chips at the beach! |
I got a new S7 phone which was a million times better than my old phone!
I became more interested in beauty, makeup and skincare.
I travelled to Melbourne for the first time in May for a wonderful long weekend there.
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| Melbourne, Australia |
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| Checking out the street art on Hosier Lane |
I went to a huge State of Origin game in Brisbane. I read more books this year.
Gareth and I flew to Bali for the second time for a 10 night getaway in July where I also got my sixth tattoo.
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| Beautiful water temple in Bali |
In August I saw Professor Brian Cox live in Brisbane and went on an incredible Humpback whale watching cruise on the Gold Coast.
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| A humpback and her baby calf! |
I met Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth at the Thor Ragnarok film set in Brisbane with my sister.
In September I met the Kiwi legend Karl Urban at Comic Con and got a photograph with him which he later signed.
I went to Brisbane Oktoberfest and had VIP tickets to the Warner Brothers Movie World Fright Nights Halloween event which was so fun.
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| Just an excuse to dress up in my dirndl again! |
I also spent the year planning and organising my wedding which in November we flew to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands for and I got to marry my best friend in tropical paradise!
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| Beautiful view from our room in Rarotonga! |
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| My best friends and I on my hens cruise |
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| Now married! |
In December we spent an incredible two weeks in Vietnam, travelling to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Halong Bay which was a bucket list dream come true!
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| Street vendors in Hanoi |
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| Having a wonderful honeymoon in Halong Bay! |
On our way back we stayed in Brisbane for Cirque du Soleil- the most incredible show I've ever seen and then arrived back home just in time for Christmas!
My Christmas was wonderful- I always have a great time because Gareth and I always spoil each other and so do my family- we had a big group Skype call, and I just love the food, Christmas movies and having fun with loved ones.
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| Our tree! |
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| Some of my amazing presents - Merry Geekmas! |
This year even though I lived overseas I still got to spend time with my family and friends whether that was in New Zealand in March, them visiting me here, or meeting up with them for my wedding in Rarotonga- so I feel incredibly lucky for that indeed.
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| Cocktails with my sisters in Raro! |
Although I only started this year 2016 has already brought some awesome blogging and social networking opportunities as well. I joined with Fat Joe, a publishing network for my first proper paid blogging work.
I entered and won my first blogging competition for Dream World Travel.
I became a Social Soup ambassador and have the opportunity to be sent and promote products of my choosing through my Instagram account- the most notable of which is my first free hotel stay!
I also signed with BBTV which is the #1 YouTube partnership network in the world.
I am in no way successful yet in what I do but I feel like I have my foot in the door and that I'm hopefully heading in the right direction.
In all, it has been a very busy but amazing year, but as always the prospect of a fresh new year is always so exciting to me.
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| Jumping for joy at Surfer's Beach |
I have brand new goals and bigger and better dreams than ever before; and the majority of them are for this travel blog.
I have so much to write about and I want to expand my categories and fill all of them with the best information. I want to write more about my experiences, how travelling has changed my life, about food and best places to eat, more hotel and tour reviews.
I wish to grow and get my name out there as a fantastic source of travel information.
This year I have reached over 33,000 page views and next year I want to more than triple that!
I would love to start working with more companies and write reviews for them and become known as a professional travel blogger.
Nothing excites me more than travelling and to make a career out of that is my ultimate dream. So bring on 2017 to continue making that come true!
This is my final post for the year so I'm signing off here! It's also my 50th blog post which I thought was a good round number to finish up the year with.
In the New Year I will be continuing parts two and three of my Vietnam travel diaries and plenty more as well including hotel reviews, travel tips and best places to eat.
I also have my three Vietnam videos which I'm currently working on the first one now for YouTube.
I will be a very busy lady in January as I'm also moving and setting up in a whole new house and state. We are moving and driving down to Canberra- the capital of Australia which is about 1200 km's away but we are stopping twice overnight along the way as we will have our cat with us who does not like car rides!
We are stopping in Ballina and Port Macquarie which are both on the coast in New South Wales so it will be nice to have some breaks on the big road trip and visit some new places in Australia as well.
Finally, a big thank you to all of my readers- I have enjoyed so much blogging this year and it has become such a passion of mine. Your support means the world to me so thanks to my loyal readers and those just stopping by and I hope to see you again in 2017.
Happy New Year and best wishes for a safe, happy and fun holiday!
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