Mom & Dad visit: New Zealand

Although I had an amazing time in Melbourne, I couldn’t wait to leave… only because I was meeting my parents at the Sydney airport. It was the first time we were seeing each other in four months. Needless to say, we were all excited to be reunited! The three of us flew straight to Christchurch, which has been described as the most “English” city outside of England. After two days we were ready to move on to Franz Josef, home to some of New Zealand’s largest glaciers. One day later we were heading to Queenstown, our undisputed favorite city of the trip. While there we took a day trip to Milford Sound and went fishing. My parents absolutely loved New Zealand and I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back to do a tour of the north island or to visit Queenstown again. A week passed very quickly and before we knew it we were flying back to Australia to go relax on Hamilton Island for a few days!

Although it’s the largest city on the south island, there still isn’t very much to do in Christchurch. We walked around the town, browsed through the markets in the church square, watched a few street performers, and visited the botanical gardens.

Christchurch is known as the Garden City of the world, and they definitely didn't disappoint. My mom and I couldn't get enough of all the beautiful hydrangeas.

We passed Ross on the way to Franz Josef, a small town known for gold mining.

Dad and Mom in front of Fox Glacier, the longest glacier on the west coast of New Zealand.

The weather in Queenstown was absolutely perfect and only added to the beauty of the lake, trees, and mountains.

The drive four hour scenic drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound is one of the most beautiful in the world. We stopped at this "mirror" lake to take pictures.

I lost track of all the dolphins we saw on the two hour cruise that day. It was magnificent.

It rains about 182 days out of the year in Milford Sound. We were lucky to fall into the 183 days that it did not.

Milford Sound isn't actually a sound, it's a fiord. The difference between the two is that a fiord is carved out by ice and a sound is carved out by water... but who really wants to go through the trouble to changing all the names on the maps?

Instead of doing another four hour drive back to Queenstown, we decided to fly back in a ten person plane. It might have been my favorite part of the whole day.

Our fishing guide and me. I caught the fish, but he was nice enough to hold it for me in the picture so I didn't have to get my hands dirty.

Melbourne

My first day in Melbourne, I spent with Tamsin, Kat, and Adam. We went for a free tour of the Parliament House, went to the Botanical Gardens, and did a nice walking tour of the city (which I found in my Lonely Planet). That first day it was very hot and muggy, but the next three days the weather were absolutely beautiful, which is quite rare for the city that’s been known to experience all four seasons in one day. The three of them moved left Melbourne on Sunday, but I decided to stay two extra days to hang out with my friend Alli, whom I’ve known since freshman year at Miami. She came to Australia in September and decided to move to Melbourne when she got a job working for the Australia Open as a production assistant. On any given day she might be driving Andy Roddick around the city or picking up the Williams sisters dinner. Pretty cool, eh? She lives in a house with two other Australians just outside of the city. Her roommates are super nice, they took me out for a drink my first night since Alli had to work late. I spent the next day exploring the city some more; I went to the Victorian Arts Center (my first museum visit since being in Australia), visited the observation deck at Eureka Tower, and then met up with Alli at the Open the night that Federer beat Hewitt. The next day was Australia Day, which I spent with Alli and her friends at the concert Big Day Out. We saw bands like Lily Allen and Muse perform (I don’t have any pictures because sadly my camera died). Overall, I really loved Melbourne and could see myself going back there to visit again.

Federation Square was recently named one of the world's ugliest buildings. Score.

Kat and Tamsin in front of the Parliament House.

I'm kind of a big deal...

We stopped for a tasty lunch in Chinatown.

An Eiffel Tower inspired sculpture outside of the art museum.

Flinders Street Station.

I enjoyed my lunch in Fed Square while also watching the Open.

I can't for the life of me figure out the point of this sculpture.

Eureka Tower, it has the highest observation deck in Australia.

A nice view of Fed Square from above.

Where the Australian Open was taking place.

Alli and I cheering on Federer from the Beer Garden. Such a fun night!

Phillip Island

While staying in Melbourne, we decided to take a day trip to Phillip Island, which is about an hour and half outside of the city. It's here at sunset that the world's smallest penguins waddle to shore after a long day spent in the sea. Kat and I were especially excited about the penguin parade, and then extremely disappointed when we realized that you had to pay to watch... along with hundreds of other people... and you're not even allowed to take pictures of video tape the event. Change of plans. We instead went to see two different blowholes and ended up eating dinner on the beach and watching the sunset. All free of charge. The whole day was so much fun, I couldn’t be happier that we went!

A very rocky beach we had to walk across in order to get to the blowhole.

Technically, it's just water smashing up against the rocks, not a blowhole. Still very cool.

Our next stop was The Nobbies, where the real blowhole was. This blowhole was a let down, so I didn't bother putting up a picture. The scenery was worth the trip alone though!

Flynn's beach.

A very scary, spiky, and (thankfully) dead blow fish I would have stepped on if it were not for Adam.

South Coast

After I got back from Ettalong, I had one more day of work and then I packed up and moved out of my apartment in Newtown. Tamsin, Kat, and her fiancé Adam had rented a Jucy Van to drive down to Melbourne and I decided to tag along. Neither Kat nor Adam has their license yet, so it was up to Tamsin and I to get us there. That meant I had to drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the road. For the first time in my life I was actually driving under the speed limit because I was so nervous! I think by the end of the trip I had the hang of it, I’m just happy I was driving mostly on the highway and not in the city. It was an absolutely beautiful drive down the south coast; tons of ocean views, farmland, and vineyards.

This wasn't my first time living in a Green Machine...

Our first stop of the trip was in Kiama to see a blow hole. The blow hole turned out to be a let down, but no one seemed to mind too much because Kiama was so beautiful!

Apparently the water and wind weren't working in our favor that day, so this was the biggest "blow" we saw.

Everyone in front of the blow hole (the picture is more exciting if you imagine a big splash of water behind us).

The second stop of the day was for Seven Mile Beach in Wollongong. It's a popular place to learn how to surf because the waves are relatively calm.

I loved watching this kite surfer.

Adam found a hermit crab on the beach.

Some people stop to smell the roses, I stop to feed the horses.

The first night we stayed in Nowra in a wildlife park, we arrived just in time to catch the most beautiful sunset!

Everyone unloading the van for the night. Kat is standing on a latter about to go into the "penthouse" where she and Adam sleep.

The thing about sleeping in a wildlife park is you wake up and find peacocks chillaxin' nearby.

We got a tad bit lost (sans GPS system it happens quite frequently...) and asked a local for directions to Murrays beach. He suggested Green Beach instead, which we liked much more. And I have to admit, I felt pretty cool going to a local not even mentioned in my lonely planet!

The nice thing about driving/living/eating out of a car is that you can choose whenever you'd like to stop, rest or eat.

Shortly after crossing over into Victoria the "empty" light went on. We drove for as long as we could and ended up in Mallacoota, a town where the gas stations close before 8pm.

Fortunately, we met the nicest-- not to mention tallest-- police officer named Trigger (it was like he was destined to be a cop) who was more than happy to let us spend the night in the police parking lot. There was just one small condition...

We had to cook him dinner. Yup, not only did we drive all day and sleep all night in the green machine, but we cooked dinner in it too!

The back of the van serves as a passenger seats during the day, dinner table in the evening...

and Tamsin and my bedroom at night. Pretty impressive, huh?

Thankfully, we made it to our final destination the next day without any problems.