New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland and took the airport bus into the city. After dropping our bags at the Ibis hotel we made our way to the viaduct harbour and had dinner at  Snapdragon. We started with a grilled halloumi salad since neither of us can remember if you can get it in the states. Mo had scallops with mushrooms and I had a white fish with gnocchi. These meals were great! Good first choice for Auckland.

The next morning we slept in for a bit and made our way down to the harbour again for the ferry to Waiheke island at 11. Here is Auckland from the ferry.

We immediately got on to a little bus tour of the island which was nice to be able to learn a bit about the island. 

The driver dropped us off in an area called Oneroa and we had a great seafood lunch with local wines and olives at Vino Vino.

After lunch we caught the local bus back to Stonyridge winery (apparently one of the top 10 wineries in the world for tastings). This was a great tasting - all red wines, we had the tasting in lounge chairs and the views were amazing! There was even a helicopter that took off while we were there. Perhaps some people are too rich for the ferry. The last wine we tasted went for between 260-500NZD depending on the vintage. It was nice, but both Mo and I agreed had they not told us which was the freaking expensive bottle we would not have been able to tell.

We had dinner at Elliot Stables - de niro restaurant, good, but nothing special.

The next morning we picked up our rental car - a little red Mazda 3 - and drove to the Coromandel peninsula for the hot water beach. This is where for 2 hours either side of low tide you rent a spade for 5 dollars and dig your own hot tub. Here I am in the process of digging hole #1. After digging this beast we determined we found the coldest water on the beach.

We set off to find a better spot and managed to find the hottest water..I swear it boiled through the sand. It was like goldilocks...too cold, too hot... But we did manage to sit in it for a while and when a big wave would come, it cooled our boiling pot enough to make I enjoyable for a few minutes.

In a few hours, the whole beach was absolutely covered in people digging holes.

We left the hot water beach and headed toward Rotorua. I took a turn driving on the left side for the first time. Hardest part? Indicators are on the ride side of the wheel. I spent much of that day shouting expletives when accidentally turning the windshield wipers on.

We stayed in a 4 person room at the Base Rotorua hostel, but were the only 2 in the room! We had seafood chowder and lamb dishes for dinner at the Fat Dog Cafe. We decided on this because we had eaten at the Funky Dog in Chiang Mai and the Smiling Dog in Ao Nang. I'd recommend eating anywhere called 'adjective' dog cafe...all three were great!

Te nex morning we went to Hellsgate mud bath and sulphur spa. Stink City. It was fun, hopefully good for the skin and we got to smell nice and sulphurous for the ride to Gisborne.

We stopped for brunch at Fig cafe in Whakatane. I could've eaten my way through the entire menu....but we split eggs benedict and the pesto pile up instead. Very good, but not quite Le Paris Go brunch.

After lunch I gound hokey pokey ice cream! I wa very excited about this - one of the things to try in New Zealand. I wasn't so impressed...but it was much better than the durian ice cream I tried and dumped into the street in Siem Reap.

Once we neared Gisborne we followed the wine map to some of the wineries, but in a very comedy of errors way, we always seemed to end up in someone's driveway or the cellar door was just closing! 

Luckily, we found the Gisborne Wine Centre later that evening where we were able to taste 10 wines from 10 different vineyards. My favourites were of course the reds. I've been on a red kick for a while!

One of the beautiful things about New Zealand is the landscape you see while driving. Here are a couple of the hundreds (??!) of snaps we tried to get in the car. Note they do not do the scenery justice at all! Those little white blobs in the first picture are sheep. Unfortunately, I am severely allergic to this beautiful scenery and have had to keep the tissues, eye drops, and antihistamines close. Mo would also like me to point out that in fact she is not allergic to New Zealand. There's a first, something I'm allergic to tht she's not.

After Gisborne we headed to Taupo and did a 5.6mk hike to Huka falls. Also not doing justice to the power and amount of water flowing here are some photos.

We got back to our hotel and started the pack for the plane home!

In the morning Mo went for a run and I was told that photos of the lke were a must.

All packed up, ready to go!

Of course the drive to the airport was fun - there was an incident on the harbour bridge which closed it and there were "major delays" on the motorway. I attempted to get us into the city without using the motorway and this craptastic map with no names for the yellow roads. Unbelievably we made it in with no wrong turns, stopping only once for assistance!

We got the bus back to the airport and Mo got us into the lounge with her mysterious status that randomly appeared.

Currently sitting in the lounge waiting for our 13 hour flight to LA. Slightly dreading my assigned middle seat on this full flight!

Cheers to a great trip!

Sydney

On Thursday we left Broome and connected through Perth on our way to Sydney. These two flights may have been the roughest I've been on. Not sure I've ever come so close to being sick on a plane! 

Anita picked us up in Sydney and it was freezing! Well, not freezing, but it was 17 degrees Celsius and felt pretty cool coming from 40+. We tip toed in to Anita and Ian's so we didn't wake their 3 month old, Madyson.

The next morning Anita, Madyson, Mo and I had lunch in Manly at a cafe called Cartel. We met up with Mo's friends Brenda and Elodie and had drinks in Shelly Beach. Later that evening we had drinks at New Brighton Hotel and The Steyne. Here we are with Brenda drinking in a teepee/egg thing at the New Brighton Hotel.

Here is everyone at the Steyne - after I missed out on winning a huge tray of meat and $4,500..by mere minutes..

On Saturday, Mo and I walked to Fairlight beach near Anita's house and laid out for a bit, soaking in the last few days of sun before we return to certain brutal winters. We took the ferry in to the city and met up with one of Mo's flatmates in Sydney, Amynta. We had dinner at the Carrington Hotel in Surry Hills and went for drinks at the Forrester before catching one of the last ferries back to Manly.

Sunday we made our way back in to the city for the fish markets with Mo's friend Steve. We had a few bottles of wine, a platter with lobster, soft shell crab, oysters, octopus and chips! Steve also bought us some amazing sashimi of salmon, scallops, and oysters. We bought chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. On the way back to the ferry we stopped at a pub where Mo and Steve had a beer, but I was so full I couldn't put another drop in me! 

When we got back to Manly we met up with Charles, another Steve, and Brenda for drinks and some pizza at Wharf Bar. 

Anita and Ian convinced us that we should skip the blue mountains the next day, so instead on Monday we went to featherdale wildlife park where you can feed kangaroos and pose with koalas.

Here's a better picture of a goanna - that huge lizard we saw in WA.

We stayed in that night and Anita made chicken pot pie. YUM!

Tuesday we drove to Hunter Valley where we went to several wineries. I really liked the wines from the two orangic wineries - Macquariedale and Tambourlane. We also stopped at a winery called Piggs Peake and I had to get a plate with their logo to add to my pig collection.

Wednesday we went into the CBD and met our friend Tim for lunch near the KPMG office. Tim and his soon to be wife Jo were with us in London for a few years. We walked around and had some beers at the Hero of Waterloo - Matt and Jen's local when they lived in Sydney (we stayed with them in Dubai), a beer garden, and then got the amazing wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce! Why have I never heard of this combo before!?

Christmas in summer!!!!

Thursday we made the trek from Manly to Bondi where Mo lived for most of her time in Sydney. We got the eggs benedict at Le Paris Go cafe (I have heard about these eggs benedict forever...probably Mo's fave). They did not dissappoint! Very good breakfast. We did a bit of sun bathing on the beach and saw a lifeguard being interviewed - most likely for Bondi Beach Rescue as well as several surfing classes. After a few hours of roasting, we walked around Bondi a bit and then grabbed lunch at Gusto. Our feet had been hurting for a good pedicure for quite some time, so we stopped in for one before heading back toward circular quay. Mo and I had a drink at Opera Bar and then met up with Amynta, her fiancé John and friend Eloise for a few drinks and tapas. Mo and I ran for the ferry for the second or third time (The one flaw I've found with Manly! If you miss the ferry you have between 30-45 minutes generally before the next one!).

On Friday, Mo's friend Brenda took me scuba diving. Well, as close as I could come to scuba diving - I wasn't very good! I've determined that I: 1. Have a hard time equalising my ears, 2. Am not so graceful with 20 kilos of extra equipment on, 3. Have an odd shaped face (for masks) and 4. Am generally too controlling to be below the water for more than 60 seconds. Nonetheless, I am glad that I tried it and it was so nice of Brenda to take me. We also got to see an eagle ray - the first one Brenda has seen in Sydney (in over 500 dives!), so that was pretty special! I'd really love to love scuba diving, so perhaps I'll give it another go at some point. The three of us grabbed lunch at Cartel afterward and then Mo headed into the city to catch up with a few more friends. I relaxed with Anita and Madyson.

Saturday was our last full day in Sydney. We started with the Rocks Markets (near where Mo lived the last few months in Sydney), then headed back to Manly. We ended with drinks at Wharf Bar and dinner at Hugo's with Steve, Charles, Anita, Brenda.

Overall a great visit back to Sydney for Mo and an amazing first visit for me!

The next morning Ian drove us to the airport and we were off to New Zealand - the last country on the trip!!! Oh my!

Western Australia - Karijini to Broome

We left Exmouth to head to Karijini national park. It was a 700km drive. On the way in we could see the reminants of some bush fires. Crazy! Also some mini tornados!

We got to the park, had dinner and rolled out the tarp we were going to be sleeping on. The flies were out of control, all over our faces, but luckily the flies have a bed time - right after sunset. We could see orange glowing in the distance which was one of the bush fires. Kimbo also pointed out the international space station as it passed close to the horizon. We also spotted a small snake slithering away from the toilet!

One girl got ready for bed and then Kimbo noticed that there were no swags on the tarp! Apparently we are the first tour group she's had that has neglected to get the swags out and didn't even say anything when we were sleeping on rocks! The swag is like a foam mattress inside a canvas sleeping bag type thing. We slept under the stars on the most deadly continent! One of the girls woke up in the morning with a tiny poop on her pillow! Kimbo said it would've been a pebble mouse which isn't a mouse as we know it, but looks like a tiny kangaroo! 

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and hiked down Hancock gorge to Kermit's pool through the spider walk. One of the guys was being naughty and jumping off the rocks into the pool, but he managed to lose his gopro off his head. As luck would have it, about ten minutes after diving in the deep water he was able to retrieve it. We hiked back out of the gorge and headed to Weano gorge. Both gorges were class 4 and 5. We went back to camp for lunch and then back out to Hamersley gorge for another swim.

 I still slept outside on night 2, but several of the girl opted to sleep in the tents with 4 sets of bunk beds! One of the boys slept inside too, but swagging was too cool to miss for me! I was really happy with my sleeping bag since I was able to zip myself in with the built in mossie net.

 We went out to Dales gorge the next day for more hiking and swimming. 

We went to circular pool, walked the length of the gorge and then down to fortescue falls and fern pool for our 7 hour excursion. 

Shamelessly stole the next photo from Katie.

And the next stolen from Lukas!

When we got back to camp we stopped at reception to have some ice cream and pick up beers to have back at camp. We sat around chatting for a bit and by the time we came back to the bus there were two flat tyres!!! Mo and I are surely the jinx. This was the FIFTH time this trip we've had a flat!

The boys and Kimbo worked several hours to fix them, but various obstacles including darkness, jacks that were too tall, and jacks that were too weak meant we had to leave it for the morning. 

Even after hours under the bus, Kimbo cooked us some kangaroo to taste. Very good! 

We got up at 5am the next morning to get started on the tyre and Katie managed to get this amazing photo of the sunrise.

They managed to get the front tyre changed, but the back was still busted. Because we have "duallies"  we just all piled in to the front of the bus and Kimbo drove slowly for 100kms to Auski so they could put our tyre on a casing and change the back. It took us 2 hours to get to Auski and wouldn't you know it, it was the mechanic's day off! Oh well, another 250kms at a slow speed with all of us piled in the front rows (not really piled in...but seems like it when you've had 2 seats to yourself for a week.).

Apparently being piled in doesn't keep me from sleeping in any position possible.

Meanwhile, I missed some of the bush fires out the window. Luckily Mo was on photo duty.

Plan A was to make it to Port Hedland and have the tyre changed, plan B was to meet the truck leaving from Broome and get another spare from them. Plan A was a success! We made it to Port Hedland around 2 and the tyres were good to go in less than a half hour!

Kristof decided he was going to cook a surprise dinner for us - gnocchi, and it was amazing! We had a visitor to the table..

We also had two geckos join..

We learned to blow a bottle cap into the bottom of a bottle with one blow.

(Note this is not the proper technique)

The next day we packed up and headed to Broome! Kimbo dropped us all at our respective hostels and that's it for the tour! We'll all meet up for dinner tonight and then Mo and I head to Sydney!

Today the temperature read 51 degrees Celsius... That is HOT. I'm starting to wonder how I will cope with cold after basically 6 months of summer!