Gifts From Far Away.

You know what the best thing about having friends in a different country is? They send you goodies from said country which you can't get in this country. A while ago my colleague sent me a link to the Austravel Us & Aus map, so weeks later when Austravel got in touch with me asking if I'd like to take part in a blogger exchange obviously I said yes. But something really funny happened...

...they partnered me with my friend Hannah, who has appeared on my blog a few times before! We both bonded a coupla years ago over our mutual love of Perth and Australia in general, and I gave her various advice and tips before she moved there last summer. 

Moving abroad is hard, especially when you don't really know anyone, so when I went back to Perth at Easter to visit my friends, I introduced Hannah to my two best friends; Rach and Cait. Hannah and Rach hit it off instantly, and are now firm friends. Nothing makes me happier than seeing two awesome people become friends, and they both make me laugh when I'm least expecting it by randomly phoning me just to say hi, or sending gross photos of themselves with abusive messages...

And their conversations on my Facebook are something that needs to be seen to be believed. Especially when they make loads of memes with my photos and then spam the hell outta me with them. So anyway, Austravel paired us together, gave us each £50, and tasked us with sending each other care packages using that money. For me it was easy as £50 goes a pretty long way with Hannah's requests (Cadbury Oreo Chocolate, Charbonnel & Walker truffles, and Cath Kidston goodies). However Hannah had it much harder as £50 is only about $90...which doesn't go very far in Australia.

A block of chocolate is about $5, as is a pack of TimTams. Postage alone took up over half of her budget as the postage costs in Australia are insane. However, I think she did an absolutely amazing job! She sent me everything I asked for (aka all my favourite goodies - she even got my fave flavour of timtams - and even my favourite Nude lip balm!), AND she even got her boyfriend to go to my Aunty's house to pick up the sunglasses I'd left there!



I think my favourite thing she included was the card (below) and an artsy picture of the Perth skyline (in the middle above), I need to find a frame for it though (she said it was either chocolate or a frame, and she figured I'd prefer the chocolate - she knows me so well).