WE'RE COMING HOME!!

Well, our time in Australia has come to an end. It's quite bitter sweet. We'll take with us many memories and heaps of Aussie slang. Thanks again to Andrew, Marion, and Lilly and all of the other people who have made this trip worthwhile. Love you all :)

Cheers!

Sterling's 11/11/11 Birthday

My lovely husband just turned 21 on Friday!!! Unfortunately though, because I had an Exercise Physiology exam on Saturday morning, my most difficult class and the only one I'm taking here that counts towards my major, I spent all of Friday recklessly studying and drowning in lecture notes and practical packets. I did get the chance to buy him a delicious chocolate cake though (I ordered a small but they ran out so they gave me a large for the same price--bonus!!). 

We'll need to eat this for B,L&D in order to finish by the time we leave

The celebrating was done on Saturday. After my exam, Sterling and I took the train to Darling Harbour in Sydney, where we walked around for a bit enjoying the beautiful cityscape. I then treated him to the Hard Rock Cafe which was his first experience with that restaurant. He loved it!!!! The music was great, they even played really old Dropkick Murphys and Pennywise songs-- two of his favorite bands. The meal was delicious too!! We were lucky enough to have a table overlooking the harbour where we were able to watch the sun go down, watch various little performances and see the city all lit up. After dinner, we were walking over the harbour bridge and noticed that tons of people were lined up by the railing looking towards the water and surrounding it at all edges. Thinking something was going on, we decided to do the same. We kept on making up little scenarios about why these people were just staring onto the water. Eventually, after a solid 15 minutes of standing there enjoying the beautiful view, Sterling started to say "I really hope it's firewor...." and then a fireworks show started from in the middle of the water. It was incredible and just another one of those really cool instances that seem to happen to Sterling a lot (like for instance, when we were in Melbourne, his hotel room was 1111). It was a really awesome experience. The atmosphere couldn't have been better. It was crazy how long the echo lasted after each firework and the reflection off of the water was really neat too (you can kind of see it in the video below). I tried to tell Sterling that I had planned it and knew it was going to be a firework show all along haha. It was a really nice surprise for both of us and I'm so glad he enjoyed his birthday outing, even though it was a day late. 

A guitar in the sky! (a window decal) and the moon!

The view

Happy 21st Birthday Sterling!!   

New Zealand

I don't really know where to begin this post, but I guess I will have to say that once again this was another absolutely amazing trip and once again pictures cannot do such a beautiful place justice (maybe it would help if I had a better camera haha). 

The planning: I had never really planned a trip before. Fiji was taken care of by a travel agent, for the trip to Oz, Arcadia pretty much told us everything we had to do, and I am often not even the best at planning get-togethers, leaving it up to my friends to decide when/where to hang out, so I was kind of useless in the planning stage. Sturr and I were considering stopping over in NZ on the way back to the US, but were kind of iffy about it because we figured by then we would just want to go home. However, two of our friends, Lindsey (from gburg), and Julie (from Indiana University who we met here) were planning a trip during our study break, and long story short, they invited us along!! (Thanks guys!!) They already had a general idea of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to see (most of which were the same things we had in mind) so after all of us had turned in our final assignments, Linds, Sturr, and I went to the travel agent on campus and booked a Birtz camper van for the week. The day after, the four of us (and by the four of us I mean mostly the three of them haha) met in the library and looked up distances to the places we wanted to go and planned what days we'd go there. After that, we booked three tours online (glacier hike, glow worm caves, and Milford sound cruise). Then we were all set to travel New Zealand's South Island!! 

10/29: The trip began on Saturday, October 29th (or 29 October for those Aussies who are reading this and do the date backwards). We caught the train from Fairy Meadow to the airport around 2:30ish and arrived at the airport a couple hours later and checked in for our flight! We arrived in Christchurch, NZ after midnight (time zone change) where we were picked up by a shuttle that Julie booked and driven to a hostel called the Jailhouse (appropriately named-- it used to be an old jailhouse). The place was so cool and only slightly creepy. When we got there we punched in to code to unlock the front door and our keys has been left on the front counter for us to claim when we arrived. Sterling and I were in a different room from the others. When we walked in there were already four people in the bunk beds asleep. I was wondering what they were going to think when they woke up and found two extra people in the room. I actually slept really well and the rooms were really nice. The next morning we woke up early to begin our adventure!!

10/30: First thing Sunday morning, we caught the shuttle and were driven to the camper van rental place. There we watched an instructional DVD and signed some paperwork, then we were taken to our home for the next week! It was quite a cool little van. In it were plates, cups, etc., cookware, a gas stove, microwave, sink, and heaps of other stuff you'd need. There was a table you could put up and two beds you could make, which were actually really comfortable. Then we were off!! We drove around Christchurch a bit to find a grocery store and buy food for the week and drove around even more in attempt to drop off our friend Molly (who was visiting a friend at a uni in NZ) at a bus stop. There was still so much destruction from the earthquake that hit earlier this year (June I believe) so roads were still closed, windows were still boarded up and buildings were abandoned. It was really sad, however, somehow the place was still really interesting and beautiful. 

Top Bunk

Buckled into our bed!

After dropping Molly off, we had a quick lunch at Maccas and then found our way out of Christchurch with the help of our GPS named Glenda M.B. after our Indigenous studies tutor and Lindsey (who was the first driver!). Naturally, I fell asleep for a while, however, when I woke up, we were surrounded by the most gorgeous mountains I have ever seen. The ones nearby were lush and green while the ones in the distance were snow-capped. It was absolutely incredible. The whole trip we were surrounded by panoramic views and... Sheep! Yes, there were lots and lots of sheep living the life in their perfectly green fields with the best backdrops ever. 

A few hours later, we stopped in Arthur's pass where we took a little hike to the Devil's Punch Bowl-- a giant waterfall. We then walked on another trail called the Bride's Veil where literally everything was covered in bright green moss. It was really pretty! After our excursions, we headed to Franz Josef, our destination for the evening, and found a site to park our van (who we named Benny). The first night, we cooked up some meat and made tacos! They were delicious :) and for dessert we had tim-tams and milo (so australian haha). We then played a couple games of cards and then we were ready for bed.

Devils Punch Bowl

10/31: The next morning we woke up, ate brekkie and walked to the meeting place for our glacier hike!! There we were given waterproof pants and a jacket, a hat, wool socks, gloves, boots, and crampons, which are the spikey things you attach to the bottom of your boots to that you can dig them into the ice and not slip. Soon enough we were ready to go! We were bussed about ten minutes away and had to hike the rest of the way to the the glacier. We chose to be in the fast group with more experienced people, which turned out to be a good choice because we were able to go further up on the glacier than the other groups. The glacier was so beautiful! It was so interesting to hear how it has retreated soooo much in such a short amount of time and how they have to do trail maintenance daily because it changes to quickly. It was funny to see all the workers walking around with their pick axes carving out stairs and paths along the way. 

Franz Josef Glacier

The glacier hike was a good workout. Conveniently, we were given free access to the hot pools down the road. We totally jumped on that offer. The place was resort-like with three hot pools. We decided to go in the 40 degrees Celsius one. It was so nice to be able to relax and warm our achy muscles! After the hot pools, we made some sandwiches for lunch and started our leg of driving for the day. This time Sterling drove. Our destination was Wanaka. On the way we saw more incredible scenery. We arrived at a caravan park later that evening and were lucky enough to catch the owners even though they were closed. We got a lake-front spot with the most gorgeous view!! Such a great find. We cooked up some chicken, rice and gravy for din-din and once again played cards and then went to bed. 

Hot pools

Lake front camp site

 11/1: Tuesday, after breakfast, we drove to the visitor center and asked where would be a good place to hike for a couple hours. The lady recommended climbing Mt. Iron. This mountain was soooo steep, but we trucked right up it. Once we got to the top, we were in awe of the 360 degree gorgeous view. It seemed so unreal. We spent a good amount of time up there soaking it all in, then we hiked back down the other side back to Benny where we had lunch and then began our journey to Te Anu.

The crew: Sturr, me, Linds, Julie

When we arrived in Te Anu, it was early evening. We went to the cheapest caravan park in town, which still happened to be really expensive (it was a tourist town) with not nearly as good of a view as the last one. Oh well! We made sure to use as much power as possible to get our moneys worth haha. Any ways, I then cooked up some spaghetti with salad on the side for dinner. Yum! And then we tried to decide which bungy jump we would like to do the next day. After we cleaned everything up, we drove to the tourist center where our boat for the 8:15 tour of the Te Anu glow worm caves left. It was a pleasant ride to the cave. When we got there, we split up into groups, walked into the cave where there were incredible water falls with insane amounts of water flowing through at very very high pressures. We then found our way to a little boat in the cave. The guide navigated the boat through the pitch black tunnels and all along the ceiling, there were glowing dots that looked like stars. It was pretty neat. On the way out, we were able to see some in the light. By the time we got back to the camp site it was pretty late so we just went right to bed. 

One of the waterfalls in the cave

Glow worms!

11/2: On Wednesday morning, we woke up early to get to the place where our Milford Sound tour left. We walked around in the little shop until the BBQ Bus was ready for departure. The BBQ Bus Tour was a really nice thing to do, because we had a small group of 7 people going on the tour to Milford Sound, and our driver Nigel was excellent. He was so enthusiastic and his commentary on all the places we passed along the way was great. On the way to the Milford Sound cruise was pretty neat. We made a lot of stops at scenic areas along the mountain side and through the valley.

BBQ Bus

Our first stop was in a valley flat that had us looking in either direction into high mountains, the tops of which could not be seen because of the cloud cover. It was a neat landscape because it showed the grandiosity of the mountain range. Our next stop was a neat, short stop at the Mirror Lakes. The viewing area was small but the water was so clear and reflective of its surroundings! We had stopped for a BBQ lunch at Gunn's Camp, a small park area, where Nigel cooked us up some snags, along with chicken and steak on skewers. 

Mirror Lake 

After lunch, we continued up the mountain, passing various beautiful streams and falls along the way until we got to a tunnel pass through the heart of the mountain. We stopped just before passing through for photos of the scenic snow covered mountains, and passed through the tunnel to make our descent on to Milford Sound. Another neat stop was The Chasm. The Chasm had heavy water pressure system through a segment of rock, and the waterfall and whirling water through the rocks over time had created a magnificent cove of smooth rock in this rainforest setting. It's been so awesome to see the effect of these water systems in this area, and the sheer natural beauty it presents. Afterwards, we cruised into the harbor where we set off on our 2~ hr cruise.

The Chasm

First and foremost, Milford Sound is beautiful. It is like a giant lake, but it opens up into the Tasman Sea, and this lake is surrounded by lush, gorgeous mountains that rise some 3000m above sea level. Along these mountains are several incredible waterfalls on the mountains' cliff-side, as you can imagine it was quite steep. But the day of our Milford Sound was both rainy and cloudy. We could not see the tops of the mountains, or the sheer beauty of the mountains in sunlight, but yet it still blew us away. We traveled 8 miles to the end of Milford Sound, where we saw rare penguins! Then traveled back, getting within 30 feet of Stirling Falls, and catching seals lounging on Seal Rock. The magnificence of Milford Sound is hard to put in words, however. It was just a truly special, natural and raw place. It was void of anything artificial, and although the weather was rainy and cloudy, it still took on a magnificent form through its powerful waterfalls. It would surely be nice to see the tops of the mountains in a place like that, but just as amazing was the idea of forming our own ideas about the mountain peeks, knowing them to be just as beautiful as the 1500m of beauty we could see beneath the clouds. In this way, we were able to become a part of the scenery, and there was no more beautiful reminder of what we can and cannot control, and what to appreciate. When we returned to Te Anu, we drove to the lake to take some photos and then headed to Queenstown, which was our final destination. 

Penguin!!

Seals on Seal Rock

Sterling w/ Sterling Falls

Us

The lake in Te Anu

Camp for the night in Queenstown

11/3: Queenstown was awesome. Bungy jumping! That was our goal on Thursday, so we had gotten up and taken our time in the morning because the sun was out and it felt good! We took a short walk out to the lakeside, skipped some rocks, took some photos, then ate some breakfast. We had a scheduled bungy jump for the four of us at 2:00, so we got out in town around 11:00 and walked around to all the neat shops. Found some really cool kiwi stuff, and just marveled at how nice this town was. Around noon we made our way back to Benny the Britz, ate some lunch, and relaxed a bit as we prepared to make our way up the mountain. We got a ticket for the gondola, the cable line that takes you quickly to the top of the mountain. It was actually snowing at the top of the mountain a bit even though it was still sunny. The views were amazing with the sun out across the lake and along the mountains, you could see for miles, especially being up so high. We finally made our way down to the bungy place. We saw one of the workers doing some jumps off the bungy ledge as we made our way down, and it was just crazy to see that we'd be doing it ourselves. We checked in, got weighed so they could accurately use the correct bungy rope, then made our way to the ledge. It all happened so fast! We all got out there, strapped on our harnesses, as this was a bungy that you could do any kind of jump you wanted (flips, somersaults, superhero flying, etc.)-- we stuck to simple jumps for the most part. One by one we all made our way to the ledge, and 3, 2, 1... jump! Amazing! What a terrifying, invigorating feeling free falling. Our jump was 47m down, and then we were suspended 400m above Queenstown with one of the most amazing views we'd seen yet. What a moment for all of us. 

The Ledge!

Before the jump!

That evening after the adrenalin rush, we had amazing burgers at Fergburger. Naturally Joy had only tomato sauce (ketchup) on her burger. But they were fantastic, and filling. We found a nice, cozy pub that night and played cards next to a fireplace. What a terrific day in Queenstown. We made our way back to the camper site for our last night with Benny, and prepared all of our things for the road back to Christchurch. 

Queenstown!

Fergberger

Birds flying over the lake in Queenstown

11/4: We woke up early to get Benny back in time. He was due at 3:30 and we had to fill him up with fuel and that. The ride was actually pretty awesome. Lindsey and Sturr split the driving. We drove through some nice valleys and approached Lindin's Pass, then drove through the snow there because of the altitude! It was fun and really pretty. After Lindin's Pass and a couple hours later, we made our way back through some of the countryside through all the pastures of llamas, deer, cows, sheep and the like. The llamas were pretty cool looking. We approached Christchurch about 6 hours later, found a nice place to sit and make some lunch for the arvo, and fueled up. We got Benny back by 4 :) We really needed the extra 15-30 minutes. We made our minds up that we would stay in the airport that night, as we would have to be there by 5am for our 7am flight in the morning. We got to the airport, relaxed for a while, ate and had a card tournament, which Sterling won, grrrr. We all tried to sleep but the airport floor was cold and uncomfortable, but we were up and ready at 5 and made our way home! 

11/5: Saturday morning we hopped on the plane, took off at 7 and landed at 7:45. But, it was actually a 2 and 3/4 hour flight because of time zones. It was a long trek back to Fairy Meadow taking multiple trains. We made it back here safely, but would love to go back there on day. 

Writing this now we have 11 days left in Australia, wow! Will be hopping on another plane home soon to see everyone :) 


Cheers!