The Working Life - Down Under

Almost two weeks into our stay in Melbourne, Keith and I were just starting to consider whether or not we should be moving on; as we hadn’t landed any jobs yet. No sooner had these discussions started; I woke up Monday morning to a phone call from a recruiting agency I had submitted my resume to. Following the advice of our friends in Melbourne, we had started applying for positions in call centres (inbound) because they paid well, were relatively easy and could be short term. The first response I received was from one of these companies, looking to hire customer service representatives for the Government of Australia’s ‘Digital Ready’ campaign information phone line. This program refers to the switchover from analog television to digital television, a change that has already occurred in several countries around the world, including Canada. I set up an interview for that afternoon and would go on to receive three more call backs from similar positions by the day’s end. Meanwhile, Keith had heard back from a contact we met on that sailing boat about a part time job opportunity. While not overly glamorous, he agreed to take on the task of maintenance/cleaning of luxury apartments in Brighton (a very nice suburb area by the beach). A random job to add to his experience, and cash in hand! So Monday morning, he set off for his first day and I prepared myself for an interview later that afternoon. Beforehand, Zee and I went out for a nice lunch in Beaumaris and then walked along the beach and sea wall for about an hour; enjoying great conversation. She dropped me off at the train station, and I headed to Collins Street; in the heart of downtown for my interview. I got along great with the woman I met and found common ground to chat about, since her husband is from Canada. She quickly informed me that I had passed on to the next stage, which was a group interview the following day. I must say, I was very surprised at what a process it was just to land a call centre job for a one month contract! That evening, Keith and I shared stories of our day with Zee over dinner and then walked over to Southland mall to see a movie. Thankfully, my group interview wasn’t until noon the following day, so I had sometime in the morning to stop by the mall and pick up some cheap dress pants and shoes. Thank you Target and Payless! The group interview went fine, and I felt relatively confident about the position as I left. Only a couple hours passed before I heard back with an offer for the position, which I accepted. While it was only a call-centre job, I was very excited for the prospect of living and working in Melbourne for the next month! Besides, if I had to answer phones all day, what better than listening to Australian accents on the other side of the line!

As soon as my job situation was confirmed, I knew that Keith and I should start looking for a place to live for the next month. At that point, we had already been at Zee’s for over two weeks and while we loved staying with her, we didn’t want to overstay our welcome.  After I came home from the interview, I put in another three hours working from home for Phil; this time, putting together the speakers’ itineraries for the marketing summit in Sydney. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing with Keith, who had finished his second day working in the apartments. Not due to start my training until Thursday, I headed back into the office on Wednesday for a full day of work at The Media Pad (Phil’s brother’s company). In the morning, I completed a few odd jobs here and there, and then spent the afternoon making outbound calls. This was my first attempt at ‘telemarketing’ of sorts, but I received some positive responses!  It was a long work day and I didn’t get back until almost 7:00 pm feeling pretty beat, so Keith and I had another relaxing night at home. Thursday, April 7^th was my first day of training on the new job. The offices were nice and in a great location, on the corner of Collins St. and Spencer St. right beside Southern Cross train station. I was hired on with six others; four Australians and two British guys who were also on working holiday visas. We all got along well right away, and managed to get through our first day of classroom style training. The material was pretty dry and there sure was a lot of it! Never thought I would learn so much about televisions, antennas and government subsidies. I enjoyed being the only Canadian in the group and answering all of the funny questions about my country. That night after work, Keith and I were invited out to a delicious Thai dinner with Zee, Julian and Brooke (her son and his wife).  The two of them have a trip to Canada booked for late May, so we tried to pass on as many tips as we could. Although I should note, the more I travel the world, the more I realize how much I don’t know about my own country! This has really inspired me to increase my knowledge on the eastern and northern parts of Canada, and our history.  Friday was my second full day of training and was very similar to the previous day. By the time 5:00 o’clock rolled around, I was more than ready to blow the quitting whistle and get my weekend started. Keith came to meet me downtown and we went for a few after-work beers at a little place we found tucked into a laneway. Then we headed down Flinders Lane to a very small comedy club called the ‘Tuxedo Cat’ to take in another performance, as part of the comedy festival. The show was called, ‘When Melbourne met Sydney,’ and was a play on ‘When Harry met Sally;’ in theatre form. All of the characters’ names were Australian cities, and their personalities encompassed the stereotypes of each city; a great concept and we enjoyed it.  Giving in to a pizza craving, we then took the tram back to St.Kilda for an obliging meal. From, there we continued on to Chapel St. to meet up with our friend Caitlin for a bit, who was out for a friend’s birthday. Yet another cool bar to discover only because we were with a local. To end off the night, we headed back to Cheltenham on one of the most interesting and fun train rides I have experienced; chatting with all of the footy fans who were on the way home from a big match between Carlton and Collingwood. We then went over to our friend Jen’s boyfriend’s brother’s place for what ended up being a very late night of drinking and dancing. Such a fun night. The next day, we slept in, took it easy during the day and then had a recuperation night in. Sunday afternoon, we headed into the city to meet up with Phil and a friend at Ethiad Stadium for our first ever AFL game! By Phil’s influence, we were deemed Essedon fans and went on to watch ‘our’ team beat St. Kilda in a great game! I loved the atmosphere at the game, with all of the fans wearing their team’s scarves and singing their team’s songs. Jen ended up being at the game as well, so we met up with her briefly. By the time the game was over and we had filtered through the packed station to the train, we just headed home for the rest of the night.

Monday, April 11^th was my first full day of work, and I didn’t actually even end up taking a call, just listening in on other calls for further training. It wasn’t until the following day that I started to take my first calls and they all went fine! By the end of the day, I had already received two comments on my accent; with one woman calling it ‘beautiful.’ I must say, that was a first…but not a last! I just wouldn’t call the Canadian accent beautiful, but I heard it a lot over the next couple weeks. These first few days of work were also spent getting to know the other people I was hired on with, and we all got along great. After spending about a week searching for short-term accommodation, we finally heard back about a place on Wednesday and set up an appointment to check it out that evening. Keith and I met up downtown beforehand for a small dinner at an Irish pub and then took the tram out to Carlton North (about 15 minutes north of the CBD). Having never ventured into this part of Melbourne yet, we both fell in love with the neighbourhood right away. Only a few blocks away from Brunswick Street (very trendy street with lots of bars, cafes etc.) and full of beautiful old Victorian style homes, it was attractive right away. We trucked down Newry Street until we spotted #77 and found ourselves in front of a cute little house built in 1875. Once inside, we met Ciel, who was renting out the room. She is originally from Brisbane, in her 30’s and works as an arts event planner. We got along well right away and she took us for a quick tour through the place. We also met Greg and Anna, another couple who were also renting out a room; from England and Russia, respectively.  Keith and I loved the house right away, and Ciel told us she would make her decision by the end of the weekend and let us know. We had our fingers crossed! After another day at work on Thursday, we ate dinner at home and then met up with Jen later on at a local pub for some beers and good conversation. It was great to be getting into the swing of working life, starting to look for a place to live and looking forward to a big upcoming weekend on the Great Ocean Road.

Victoria - The Place to Be

After surviving 12 long hours on an overnight bus from Sydney, I arrived in Melbourne at 8:00 am on Monday, March 21. Keith was there to meet me at the station and it was so great to see him again! He had already arranged a hostel for us to stay in for the night, so we headed there right away to get settled in. After showering and relaxing for a bit, we took the tram into the downtown area and Keith gave me my first introduction to the city. Thankfully, he knew his way around after spending the past week exploring the area. We walked around for a few hours but then just headed back to the hostel to relax; I was pretty beat after my busy week in Sydney. The next morning, we checked out of our hostel and took the train southeast from the city centre, to a suburb called Cheltenham. Arriving at the train station, we were met by Zee, who is a long-time family friend of my parents. I had met her once before as a twelve year old when I visited Australia with my family for the first time and hadn’t seen her since. She generously offered to pick us up and let us stay with her for a couple weeks while we were in Melbourne. Dropping off our backpacks at her beautiful townhouse, we were very excited to see the room we would be staying in and our own bathroom. Absolute luxury after staying in hostels for so long! She took us out for a nice lunch beside a small harbour and then we headed back to her place so I could Skype with my parents. Thirty years ago, my Dad actually stayed with Zee when he was travelling through Melbourne on his worldwide trip, so it was great for him to see me staying with her as well. The rest of the day we took it easy, got some laundry done and visited with Zee. Tuesday morning, we took advantage of sleeping in and then Keith and I walked over to check out Southland, a huge mall in the area. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing outside in the beautiful sunshine on her back porch. To be honest, it felt strange but very refreshing to be able to just relax and take a day away from busy sight-seeing. That night, we went out for a delicious Turkish dinner with Zee, her brother and his wife, Allan and Ginny, and her son and his wife, Julian and Brooke. It was great to meet her family and enjoy a lovely meal out. Back in Taupo, NZ, Keith and I had met three Aussie guys out at a bar, who were part of a car racing team. We had kept in touch in case we ever made it over to Adelaide, but it just so happened that they were going to be in Melbourne at the same time as us, for the Grand Prix! Great timing! Thursday morning, Keith and I headed out into the rain down to Albert Park, where the Grand Prix was being held. We met Mark (the mechanical engineer) at the front gate and he casually presented us with a VIP entry pass! Despite being such a bleak, rainy day, it was still such a neat experience. They were part of the Porsche Carrera racing team, and we were given the opportunity to take an up-close look at the car. This session consisted of me nodding along every once and a while, attempting to appear knowledgeable of all things car related, but Keith was in his element! The rest of the day was spent checking out the exhibitions and other races, from various vantage points throughout the park. My main takeaway of the day: those cars sure are fast and loud! We managed to endure the rain until the late afternoon, after our friends’ last race of the day and then headed into St.Kilda for some dinner at a delicious pizza restaurant. Later on, we took the train back out to Cheltenham and spent the night drying off and packing!

Bright and early Friday morning, we piled into the car for a weekend away with Zee in Northeast Victoria. As we were getting into the car, I took notice of the Victorian state license plate which read "Victoria - The Place to Be" (hence the title of this blog post!) She kindly offered to take us away for a few days to see some of her family and the beautiful countryside. One of our first stops was in Glenrowan, which is famously known as the town where Ned Kelly was shot and finally arrested by authorities in 1880. Ned Kelly was a bushranger (criminal), and one of Australia’s most well-known historical icons. Although I didn’t remember its name, this place was actually one of my family’s favourite memories of our trip to Australia in 1999; or most specifically, the high-quality attraction of ‘Ned Kelly’s Last Stand.’ And by high-quality, I mean walking from room to room watching animatronic characters act out the scenes leading up to Ned Kelly’s demise, including a fake pop-gun fight in the backyard. One of the reasons it’s so memorable is because of how scared my sister Jen was at the time (who am I kidding; I think we were all a little scared by it). It’s just funny looking back now, because it really was such poor quality and fake. We still talk about that memory to this day. Keith, Zee and I sat down for lunch at a small restaurant blasting country music with a sign on the window reading ‘Ned Kelly drinks here.’ Almost everything on the menu was Ned Kelly related; basically this town’s only claim to fame is Ned Kelly tourism. I was sitting there wondering where this memorable attraction might be, when I heard the distinctive sound of pop guns coming from the backyard next door! I was so excited to tell my family and snapped a couple pictures. After wrapping up lunch, we continued on to Beechworth; a small town that came to life during the gold rush in the 1860s. This town was so neat because since then, it doesn’t really seem like too much has changed! Zee had recently bought a cottage in the area that was still being built, so we stopped by to check on its progress. The location is absolutely beautiful, with a great view from a big back porch over the valley. I really hope I get to see it completed one day. We took some time to walk through town and I really loved taking in the slow country pace and all of the unique shops; including the massive mouth-watering candy store! Leaving Beechworth, our next stop took us a little ways over the border into New South Wales, to a town called Albury. Here we went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant owned by Zee’s nephew, and were joined by Zee’s sister and her husband; Isabelle and Bob. After dinner, we drove back to their lovely farm, where we would be staying for the weekend. The rest of evening consisted of good conversation and Carton Draught beer (Victoria’s most popular beer). Keith and I stayed up a bit later to watch the AFL (Aussie Football League) game, and received our first lesson on the rules from Bob.

Saturday morning started out by sitting on the huge back porch in the sun; looking out on the farm and listening to the distinctive laugh of the Kookaburra bird. Mid-day we hopped in the car and drove to Yackandandah (no, I’m not making that name up) to check out a small music festival there. We stopped for lunch and then went back to Beechworth so we could take more time to look around. This time, I made sure to check out the old courthouse where Ned Kelly had spent time, and indulged at the delicious Beechworth Bakery. Then it was back to the farm. Before dinner and just as the sun was starting to set, Zee drove us out into the bush along a back road to try and spot some kangaroos. We actually did manage to spot three, but we weren’t able to get a close look since they were all hopping away from us. Returning from our expedition, we were greeted with a delicious home cooked meal. Keith and I helped out with dishes and then settled into watching another AFL game. The next day was pretty low-key and relaxing. In the afternoon, we went shopping with Zee so she could pick out some furniture and appliances for her new cottage. On the way back to the farm later on, we stopped by a lake and enjoyed some ice cream before briefly stopping in Chiltern; the small town where Zee grew up. This town looked even more old-fashioned than Beechworth; with horse-hitching posts still visible out front some of the shops. Once back at the farm, Isabelle took Keith and I for a tour through the paddocks to check out the scenery and visit her cows. One of the calf’s mother had died after it was born so Isabelle raised it up at the house, and they are very attached to one another. In fact, ‘Addy’ had just gone to live with the rest of the cows a couple months before we got there. He was so cute, and it was amazing to witness the bond between them. When we were leaving, he kept following her like a little kid who didn’t wanting his mom to leave him at school! The rest of the evening was spent enjoying another home cooked meal and more relaxation. Monday morning came and it was time to head back to Melbourne, after saying grateful goodbyes to Bob and Isabelle for their hospitality. On the drive back we stopped for lunch and then at the Healesville Sanctuary, where we saw tons of Australian animals up close. We spent a few hours there admiring the koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, etc. and enjoyed an exciting ‘birds of prey’ show too. We didn’t end up getting back into Melbourne until dinner time and just took it easy that night. It was such an amazing weekend away; getting to know Zee’s family, and see a beautiful part of Victoria that not many other backpackers would!

Back in Melbourne, we decided to head out on a sightseeing day of the city. Our first stop was at the Queen Victoria Market. This place is another one of my family’s favourite Australian memories. I remembered the market being absolutely massive; and while it was still big, it didn’t quite have the same effect this time around. We browsed the stalls for a while and bought some postcards but weren’t really souvenir shopping, so we didn’t spend too long. Strolling through downtown, we took in the impressive monumental buildings and popular streets. Once we made it to the very distinctive Federation Square, we couldn’t resist stopping for a beer on a patio in the sun. Next, we continued on to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful. Thirty years ago when my Dad was in Melbourne, he actually worked in the gardens as a groundskeeper, so it was especially neat to see. We took our time walking around for a couple hours and admiring our surroundings. Then we hopped on a tram to St.Kilda, where we walked along Ackland St and stopped for a quick dinner. As the sun started to set, we ventured down to the beach and walked along the famous St.Kilda Esplanade. From there, we headed back to Federation Square to meet up with our friend Phil. He is an Australian who we met in our hostel in Innsbruck, Austria and went on a couple hikes with. The three of us walked over to Southbank, which is a popular area along the river with several restaurants, bars and shops. It was such a beautiful night and I managed to snap some great shots of the river with a city background. We went to a bar along the river for some beers and had a great time catching up for a few hours. It was a wonderfully busy day! Wednesday morning, I Skyped with my family again and then Keith and I headed to Southland mall to meet up with his friend Jen for coffee. Keith went to high school with Jen back in Beaumont, and she has since met an Australian guy and is living here with him. By strange coincidence, they just happened to be living in the same suburb we were staying in! It was nice to talk to another Canadian, and we got along really well. Later on, she dropped us back off at the house so we could get ready to head to Williamstown and meet my friend Matt. Matt is another Australian I met while in Granada, Spain; he was part of a great group of people I met and hung out with from my hostel. The previous night, I had sent him a text message asking if he wanted to meet for a drink or something to catch up, to which he replied ‘that sounds good…or you could come sailing with me tomorrow.’ Within seconds I replied that option two sounded just a smidge more exciting, and not an offer to decline! So there we were, showing up at the Williamstown harbour, expecting a relaxing evening sailing out on the ocean. Pretty quickly after we arrived, we learned that’s not exactly what we were in store for. In a bit of a blur, we boarded a 40 foot racing sailboat, and discovered we were to be a part of a 100 boat race. It was Matt’s dad’s boat and along with a few other men, they are part of a sailing club that races every week together. This night was the final race of the season, so they were able to invite a few friends along. Other than Keith and I, two other girls that Matt knew were also on board, making about 10 of us in total. Before we knew it, we were tugging on yellow rain suits that made us look like firemen and ditching our flip-flops to be barefoot. Our role was essentially to act as balancing weights on the boat, sitting on the up-wind side to counteract the lean of the sail. If you have seen those racing sailboats with one side of the boat in the water and the other end vertically tilted upwards…yeah, that was us. When the captain shouted ‘coming about!’ everyone had to crawl and scramble to the other side of the boat to balance the weight. If you didn’t make it across fast enough, you were basically left hanging vertically from the boat, while the others pulled you up. Luckily this only happened to me once, and I couldn’t stop laughing; but one of the other girls seemed to constantly fall behind. Everyone on board was so nice and friendly to us, and it was a crazy experience I will never forget. While I had so much fun, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit relieved to be pulling back into the dock alive and safe. After packing up the equipment, we sat underneath in the cabin and had a few beers and snacks with everyone. Disembarking the boat, we headed up the pier toward the drifting music and glowing lights of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Here we tucked into a delicious buffet dinner, and great live music. What a night! On the train ride home, I got a call from my friend Phil, who we had met up with a few days previous. He is working for his brother’s small event management company, which was planning an upcoming Experiential Marketing summit in Sydney. They needed some administrative help, and he asked if I wanted to put in a few days of paid work for the company; of course I did!

So the next morning, I was off to my first day of work in Australia. Basically I was just sending out emails all day, but it was still fun to be in an Australian workplace and event management company at that. After dinner that night, Keith and I just stayed in and watched a movie. The following day, I worked from home for about three hours finishing up the email distribution list for Phil. Then Keith and I went for a run down to the beach, which was great but a little rough for me as it was my first run since leaving home! That night we met up with our friend Caitlin, who we met in our hostel in Salzburg, Austria. Even though we didn’t spend too much time with her there, her and I kept contact since Europe and were very excited to meet up again. We met her and five of her friends in Chinatown and went for dinner, and then spent the rest of the night at a few different bars around town; it was a really fun night out. The next day was mostly a relaxing day at home, we got some groceries and then Caitlin picked us later on for another night out. We stopped by her place for a bit and met her parents, then went to a house party in St.Kilda and to a bar on Fitzroy Street. All of her friends were really nice, and one even drove us home that night. Sunday was another recovery day of relaxing, until the evening when we got a call from Phil who had free tickets to one of the performances at the Melbourne Comedy festival. So we took the train into the city and met him there with another one of his friends to watch a show called ‘The Day I Ate Wombat.’ It was really funny, and a great end to a jam packed week in Melbourne.

Life as a Sydneysider

After a few hours on the plane back to Sydney, we immediately hopped on a two-hour train out to Katoomba, the biggest town in the Blue Mountain region. The first time we were in Sydney, we really enjoyed hiking out in this area, so we decided to head back for another two nights. By the time our train rolled in and we found our hostel, it was already almost 11:00 pm, so that night we basically just checked in and hit the hay.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, eager for a great day of hiking. After a sparse ‘continental breakfast,’ we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up buns, cheese and granola bars to pack for lunch. Then we walked out to Echo Point, which is the most famous lookout point in the area, and the only spot that most ‘tour-bus’ tourists see. Not enough for us of course! Unfortunately, the morning started out a bit foggy so we weren’t really able to see the full effect of the panoramic view. The famous ‘Three Sisters’ rock formation was still visible, but hardly comparable to the ‘Three Sisters’ that we know back in Alberta! We started down the path, walking along a swinging bridge to get as close to the rocks as possible and then started on our track for the day. Almost right away, we started descending hundreds of stairs down into the valley; only making us aware of the equal amount of stairs we were going to have climb at the end to get back up… something to look forward to! The trail was pretty relaxed and took us past beautiful waterfalls and through rainforest settings. Five hours later as the hike was coming to an end, we heard a rustling in the bushes and were surprised to see two roadrunner birds pop out on the trail ahead of us! They lived up to their cartoon legacy and were very fast…no coyote sightings though. It was a wonderful day hike and we were definitely tired by the time we climbed those stairs and got back to our hostel.  A torrential downpour started up about ten minutes after getting in the door, so we spent the rest of the evening cozy inside with warm showers, dinner and reading. The next morning we checked out and left our backpacks in luggage storage so that we could get another day of hiking in. The sky was pretty clear when we left, but it didn’t take long for the clouds to set in. This time we took a more challenging trail down into the valley, which showed us a completely different landscape, more arid with big red boulders to climb over. Eventually we made it to the ‘Golden Staircase, which sure didn’t seem too ‘golden,’ when we had to climb 900 stairs in the pouring rain! Finally arriving at the top of the ridge, we consulted a map and were pretty disheartened to find we still had about 5 km to walk back to our hostel in the rain, without an umbrella. Luckily we had only been shuffling along for about 10 minutes when a car pulled up and asked us if we wanted a ride into town. Inside were two guys and a girl from Ireland, they were really nice and we had a good to chat with them. As I was getting out of the car and thanking them for the ride, one of the guys casually pointed out to me that I had two leeches attached to the back of my leg. Keith pulled on one as hard as he could and it took him a few tries to actually get them off. Great, another creature bite to add to the collection! Since the weather was so miserable, and there wasn’t too much else to see in Katoomba, we headed to the train station and jumped on the next train Sydney bound. Instead of staying way out on the outskirts like we did last time, this time we opted for the Kings Cross area, which is known for its great nightlife but somewhat seedy environment. The hostel we checked into more or less kept up with this stereotype, with a small, stuffy room and safety signage everywhere. One of the German girls in our room actually got bitten by bed bugs, but we didn’t; I guess she just picked the unlucky bed! That night, we decided to skip the cramped kitchen and go out for a nice dinner and headed toward Oxford Street. We ended up at a delicious Italian restaurant called Pizza Mario. It is the only pizzeria in Sydney to be given the seal of approval from the governing Naples body, which was established to ensure pizza makers aren’t corrupting the trade. After dinner, we walked the streets for a bit and found ourselves at a small ‘Bier Haus’ drinking a few Polish beers.

The next day was a stunningly beautiful sunny day, which we probably should have taken better advantage of in hindsight, by staying outdoors all day. After breakfast, we checked out the Paddy market near Chinatown and then headed into the nearby mall to get our Australian cellphones figured out. Exciting! Then it was back to our hostel for lunch, before getting into our swimsuits and making our way toward Bronte beach. This was one the beaches we walked past during our coastal walk the last time we were in Sydney, and I had really liked the look of it. We didn’t get there until 3:00 pm or so, and I wish we had gotten there sooner! The weather was just perfect and we stayed on the beach until it started to get dark. Later on, after a simple dinner, we ended the night at an Irish pub with a couple pints of Guiness. The next morning we checked out, left our bags in luggage storage and took the bus to Bondi Beach, trying to make up for lost hours of the previous day. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as we planned since it was pretty cold and we lasted less than an hour, once it started raining. We walked up the boardwalk for a bit and grabbed a smoothie before heading back to Kings Cross. I picked up my backpack and moved a couple blocks away to my new hostel, where I would be staying on my own for the next week. After I dropped off my bags, we took the advice of the guy at the front desk and walked down through Woolloomooloo (yep, that’s 8 o’s!), passing Potts Point where all the navy ships are. This took us into the botanical gardens, where we sat to eat lunch and marvel at the thousands of bats in the trees! Since we had weekly transit passes, after walking back to the Opera House, we spontaneously decided to hop on a ferry to Manly and grab a bite to eat. We were only able to stay there less than an hour before heading back to the city and picking up Keith’s backpack from our hostel. Then it was off to the Greyhound bus station where he caught an 8:00 pm overnight bus for a 14 hour ride to Melbourne. I was staying in Sydney for the week on my own to spend time with some friends I had met on previous travels. After saying our goodbyes for the week, I ventured back to Kings Cross where I would spend my first night alone in a hostel! As soon as I got back into my room, I started chatting with two guys from California and Holland. They mentioned that everyone at the hostel was going out as a group that night, so I took a quick shower and then headed out to the backyard for some drinks. I met heaps of people, including several other Canadians. After drinking and talking for a couple hours, we all headed out to a bar called the Sugarmill, where we took advantage of the drink specials reserved for people staying at our hostel. There was quite an eclectic group of us including a US solider on leave from Afghanistan, two hilarious Irish guys, and two demolition engineers from New York. It was a really fun night dancing and getting to know these great people!

The next morning I managed to drag myself out of bed to go on a free walking tour of Sydney, similar to the tours I took in Europe. They took us to a lot of places I probably wouldn’t have seen on my own including the Rum Hospital, Hyde Park Barracks, Martin Place, Australia Place etc. I really enjoyed learning about the architecture and the history of the city, finding all the information on the convicts fascinating! After grabbing a quick lunch, I headed back to the hostel for a nap to rest up from the previous late night. Later on in the evening, I went out for pizza with a couple guys from my hostel. We also picked up some drinks and then came back to sit in the backyard with everyone.  Around 11 pm or so, we all headed out as a group again to World Bar, which is actually the same bar that I went to in Queenstown, NZ, where you can drink out of tea pots. Another really fun night! Wednesday was a beautiful day, so I decided to head to Bondi Beach with a guy and girl from Vancouver, who were travelling separately.  We had a really nice day relaxing on the sand, talking, reading and listening to music. The one dramatic moment came when we got absolutely swarmed by seagulls after abandoning our leftover fries beside our towel; that drew some attention to us! We headed back to the hostel to freshen up around 4:00 pm, and then I met up with my friend John, who I met while travelling in Prague. He is an Australian from Brisbane, but is currently living in London. He was back for a week or so visiting home before a work conference in Asia, so the timing worked out great for us meeting up. He has also worked in Sydney for a few years so he knew the city well and I was able to give an insider’s perspective! That night, he took me out to a nice Thai restaurant, which I had never tried before and really loved! Then we stopped in a pub to watch Australia vs. Canada in a cricket game on TV, while he tried to explain the rules to me. I think I might understand the game a little more…but still very unclear on all the different meanings of a ‘wicket’! Then we headed back to the same restaurant we had previously eaten at, to sit in the lounge and have a few delicious cocktails. Later in the night, he headed back to his hotel and I met up with my friends from the hostel at a nearby bar for yet another fun, late night out.

The next day, I slept in a bit and took my time getting going in the morning. Around noon, I got picked up by my friend Justin, who I actually met on my first Europe trip back in 2007. He is born and raised in Sydney. It had been a few years since we had seen each other, so great to see him again and talk about old memories. We drove to Darling Harbour and he took me to a patio bar, where his cousin was bartending. Apparently this was a place that Oprah dined at when she was visiting Australia… look at me go! It was a beautiful and sunny day, with a nice view overlooking the harbour. After a couple hours of catching up, he dropped me back off at my hostel and I had another little nap before heading out to meet John again. We had a few beers on the patio at his hotel, where we were visited by about ten cockatoos! Then we took a cab to Circular Quay to go to Café Sydney for dinner. This was hands down, the more amazing restaurant I have ever been to. Not only was the food and service impeccable, but the view was incredible! He had reserved a table right against the glass on the patio with a clear view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We ended up staying there for five hours, taking in as much of the wonderful atmosphere as possible!

Friday afternoon, John and I headed to Freshwater beach, stopping for a quick lunch of burgers and milkshakes beforehand. When we first arrived, we actually had the beach to ourselves for about five minutes, but then a huge group of kids arrived for their gym class. Can you imagine having your gym class on the beach! We swam in the ocean for a bit but the waves were pretty strong. After the beach, we headed back into town and I went to my hostel to freshen up and relax for a bit. Later on in the evening, we took a cab over the Harbour Bridge to an area called Kirribilli. This was the area that John lived in when he was in Sydney, and said its one of the best kept secrets of the city because of the incredible view you have looking back on Sydney Harbour at night! Well there you go, the secrets out to all of you reading this blog! We went to another Thai restaurant, but this one was BYO so we picked up a few beers before-hand as well. After dinner, we walked down to the water and he showed me that incredible view looking back on the city, so beautiful. Definitely the benefit of seeing the city with someone who has lived there and knows the good spots! The next morning was a pretty lazy and relaxing after quite a few busy days and late nights. I met back up with John in the afternoon and we went for a late pizza lunch in the neighborhood. That night, he took me to watch my first ever rugby game! This sport was a little easier to get into than cricket and I really enjoyed it! The rest of the local fans were not too enthused to watch their favoured home team get crushed by the opponent, the Cheetahs from South Africa. The next day I met up with the Vancouver girl from my hostel and we checked out the Sydney Museum together. It had a lot of interesting history on the first fleet of convicts to arrive in Australia, the most influential people of early Sydney’s history and Australian Aboriginal people’s history. Before John left that afternoon for his work conference in Hong Kong, we walked through ‘The Rocks’ area, across the Harbour bridge and along the water.  It was so great to spend time with him and I really appreciated how much thought he put into showing me around Sydney! I will definitely have to return the favour to anyone who comes to Canada! That evening, I picked up backpack from left luggage and headed to the Greyhound bus station to get on that same 8:00 pm, 12 hour bus to Melbourne.

My overall impression of Sydney was soo much better the second time around! I’m sure the deathly heat and bug bites didn’t help the first time, and it was so great seeing the city from a local’s perspective. I really enjoyed the time I spent on my own and all the new people I met, but of course I missed Keith and was excited to meet back up with him in Melbourne!

Rafting off Waterfalls, Jumping out of Planes … You Know, the Usual

Wow, where has the time gone? I can’t believe it has been three weeks since I have posted a blog entry, so much has happened! I even had most of this next entry already drafted before leaving it sitting untouched for so long; but we have just been so flat-out (aussie slang for ‘busy’)! I hope this delay has only increased your curiosity level, enjoy reading about our last week in New Zealand!

Well, I can safely say that the first week of March 2011 will be one of the most exciting weeks of our entire trip. We encountered so many new experiences, and said goodbye to a big chunk of cash in the process. On March 1^st, we spent our last few hours in Wellington at NZ’s excellent national Te Papa museum, which offers free admission. We saw the largest squid to ever be caught, realized that the information and history on earthquakes was now out-dated due to Christchurch and learned that NZ is home to thousands of refugees. Our first and only museum in New Zealand and we gave it two thumbs up! From there we drove five hours to Taupo, arriving later in the evening and only spending one night. We took part in a delicious chilli dinner at our hostel and talked for hours with a British couple and Canadian girl we met, who gave us a lot of helpful tips about Australia. Since we had already spent time in Taupo earlier in our trip, the only reason we stopped there again was to go skydiving the next morning. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate with us. That was a little disappointing, but you just can’t control those things! After checking out, we booked some activities at the information site, and then drove two hours to Waitomo; which is famous for its glow-worm caves. As opposed to just walking through the caves and then taking a short boat ride, we opted for the more adventurous ‘black water rafting’ option. This involved us selecting a rubber inner tube and donning full wetsuits, booties and a lighted hard hat. Then we piled into a bus which took us down to the mouth of the caves. From here, we switched on our lights and clambered through the caves in water that was knee deep in some places. It was a brand new experience for both of us, and definitely exceeded our expectations. Every once in a while when the water got deep enough, we would jump in our inner tubes and float for a bit through these incredible underground caves. The roof was pretty tight at times and at other times the chambers seemed to open up beyond what we could even see. At one point we all had to walk up to the edge of a small waterfall, face backwards with our inner tubes underneath us and then take a leap of faith off the edge into the water below. After all of the climbing, jumping and splashing, the highlight definitely came when we all lined up behind one another in single file, holding on to each other’s’ feet in a chain, floating down a narrow passage. Everyone turned off their headlamps and we looked up to see thousands of glow-worms twinkling above us in the darkness. It was so relaxing and peaceful. At the end of that part, our guide broke the serenity by saying, ‘do you realize you have come from all around the world to sit in a dark wet cave and look at fungus gnats with glowing bums?’ I think I will just stick with the ‘glow-worm image,’ thanks! :) The tour ended with a hot shower, free hot soup and delicious bagels; can’t beat that! Once we finished up, it was another two hour drive to Rotorua, where we checked into our hostel late and had an easy, relaxing night.

The next day was a memorable one for sure! At 8:00 am, we were ready and waiting for the shuttle bus to take us down to the mighty Kaituna River for some white water rafting! Not only is this river known for its Grade V status, but is most famous for its 7 METRE waterfall! Roughly equivalent to two stories high! After getting suited up in yet another wetsuit and helmet and carrying our raft down to the water, we tumbled in along with two guides and three other girls. We went over a few small waterfalls first, before pulling over on the side so the guide could flip a silver fern leaf (NZ’s national symbol) to determine our fate at the big waterfall. If it landed green in the water, our raft wouldn’t flip, but silver side up, not so lucky! Turned out we got a little taste of both, it started silver and then flipped back over to green. With that in mind, we held on tight and over the waterfall we went! What an unreal feeling!! Although we came very close, we didn’t end up flipping, but another raft did! The whole experience seemed to go by really fast, but was definitely worth it. After some lunch back at the hostel, we walked through town for a bit and then were on to the Kairau Thermal Park; the only free option among the available parks. It was cool to check out the bubbling mud and steam, smell that lovely sulphur and even dip our feet in one of the hot springs. Then back to the hostel for a little relaxing before getting all dolled up for our night out at the Tamaki Maori Village. I was so excited to learn more about the Maori culture, and this evening definitely didn’t disappoint! As we arrived, Maori performers ran out of the trees just as they would if we were foreigners arriving on their shores. They were dressed very authentically and performed a challenge and then ceremonial peace offering. Then we walked through the model village, checking out the various displays and interactions. Next was the performance, which was my favourite part. There was a lot of singing, dancing and of course the famous Hakka! The performers were so into it, it was actually a little scary at times! I really enjoyed it. Last but not least, we sat down to enjoy a delicious ‘hangi’ meal (traditional Maori meal which is cooked in the ground), and took full advantage of all of the meat and potatoes available! Conversation at the table was great as well, with a few Australians and another Canadian couple sitting with us. After getting back to our hostel later on that night, we ventured out looking for a fun place to go out, but the whole town seemed pretty dead.

The next morning we left Rotorua and drove another long five hours or so up to the Bay of Islands, where we stayed in Pahia. It was a beautiful drive in and nice to be back near a beach! We stayed at a good hostel and ended up having the dorm room to ourselves the first night. That night we just cooked some dinner, played cards and then went for a walk along the water and through the town, checking it all out. The next morning we woke up ready for some beach time, only to look out the window and find it pouring rain. To keep busy in the morning and try to use our time effectively, I gave Keith a haircut, just like I did back in Greece. By the afternoon, the rain had let up a little bit but still wasn’t stopping. Not wanting to completely waste the day indoors, we decided to brave the rain and go for a 10 km hike to the Haruru Falls. The pathway crossed through a mangrove section and was considered ‘kiwi territory,’ but unfortunately we didn’t spot any of the shy, nocturnal birds. By the end, we were pretty soaked, but it was still a nice walk. Back at our hostel we met our new roommates, two 19 year old girls from England. After we had some dinner, we taught them some Canadian drinking games and then we all went out to the biggest bar in town; it was a really fun night.
By the next day, the weather had improved a little but still wasn’t great. We made a spontaneous decision in the morning to drive north up to Cape Reinga for the day. It was quite a bit of driving, but definitely worth seeing. In 10 days, we had been from the southernmost point all the way to the northernmost point of New Zealand. Pretty amazing! We stopped for lunch at the entrance to the 90 mile beach, which you can drive your car on, but it’s pretty risky. It was neat to see a speed limit driving sign on a beach. From there, we made it to the lighthouse which signifies the final point. The best part of the day was definitely stopping at the giant sand dunes, where we played around for hours. We were intending to go sand boarding, but realized a little too late that we were supposed to rent them before arriving at the dunes…will just have to do it another time! We had so much fun running around and jumping in the sand, we could have stayed there all day! That night we met our next two new roommates, who ended up being from Calgary! What a small world! They were just starting out their trip, and we ended up giving them our tent because we didn’t need it anymore; nice to pass it on!

March 7, 2011 – a day to go down in history! It was pretty amazing to wake up, open my eyes and have my first thought be, “I’m going to jump out of an airplane today! AHH!” Less than 12 hours earlier, Keith and I had said to each other that if we woke up the next day and the weather was nice, we were going to go skydiving. I never thought I could do it, but it is something I have always wanted to do. With a sunny day outside, we headed to the information site and booked it for noon. It was strange to do normal things in the meantime, like have breakfast, shower and checkout. We were so nervous and excited! When it was time, we got picked up by the shuttle bus and headed to the small airport. Since the three other girls in the bus were so nervous on the ride up, I found myself taking the role of being ‘the confident one,’ which actually ended up helping me as well. After signing all of the waivers, we listened to a quick safety briefing and learned the ‘four things we must remember or else we would die’ (how the instructor put it). Keith and I were up first, so we got into our jump suits and harnesses and met the guys we would be jumping with. I found myself with a Hungarian named Gabor, who didn’t speak much English, but ended up being a really funny guy. Since I had decided to pay more for a DVD video and pictures, another jumper came up with us and had the sole responsibility of recording my experience. We had a lot of fun with him getting some good material for the video. Before we knew it, we were climbing into a tiny Cessna plane and heading down the runway. Excluding the pilot, there were five of us sitting on the floor and it was pretty squished. I thought the flight itself would be the hardest, most nerve racking part, but I was surprised to find how genuinely excited I was! Keith even admits he was more nervous than I was; something that really surprised us both! The flight took about 20 minutes, and the view was absolutely gorgeous, I don’t think we could have picked a nicer place than the Bay of Islands. Before we knew it, the pilot was giving us the 5 minute, 3 minute and finally the 1 minute warning. At that point, the door slid open (and by door, I mean the entire side of the plane) and Keith was sliding toward the edge. It was pretty unbelievable to watch him fall out of a plane and then know that I was next. We inched our way over, until my instructor was sitting on the edge and I was dangling out into the air at 16,000 ft (the highest point you can jump from in NZ). We rocked back and forth once and then tumbled into the air, I will never be able to describe what that felt like, like nothing I had ever experienced before. Once we got straightened out, I finally got my head around the fact that I was skydiving, it was INCREDIBLE! The camera jumper was in front of me, it was really neat to interact with someone else in the air. I remember thinking that my mouth felt so dry from screaming and smiling and I could feel the wind whipping at my ankles. I was also surprised that I didn’t feel like I was falling, but more that I was suspended, and had high pressure wind pushing up on me from underneath. After just over 70 seconds of free fall at 200 km/h, we successfully pulled the parachute and then glided down for the next five minutes or so, taking in the beautiful scenery and the fact that I just survived skydiving! As we got closer to the ground, I could see Keith safely below and before I knew it, I was standing on solid ground again. After landing, I was so high on adrenaline, I just could not stop smiling and jumping around, saying how incredible it was. And I got it all on video! We got changed and then took a look at the pictures and DVD while talking non-stop about the experience. Eventually we got dropped off back into town around 3:30 pm and immediately went back to our hostel, so I could use the last minutes on our phone card to call my parents. Thankfully I managed to get a hold of them both together, and was able to say, “Mom, I just went skydiving,” words every mother wants to hear. It was so funny to hear their surprised responses and they were relieved that I hadn’t told them ahead of time. As if this day wasn’t exciting enough already, we then headed down to the wharf to board ‘The Rock’ for a 22 hour cruise, which is a hostel on a boat and our overnight accommodation. Another major NZ highlight, and highly recommended! There were only 24 passengers, and an incredible staff that learned everyone’s names. After being shown to our tiny 6 bed dorms, the evening started off with a paintball shooting competition off the back of the boat, with everyone trying to hit a rubber duck bobbing along behind a rope. Being the sharp shooter that I am, I ended up winning the women’s competition and got a free beer out of it! Keith made it to the finals, but eventually fell short. Then as the sun was setting, we were all given a fishing rod and did some fishing; we caught one and then released it again. After a while, it was dinner time and we sat down to a delicious BBQ buffet and more drinks, meeting some great people from all around the world. The boat was anchored down in a bay, and once it was pitch black, we went out night kayaking in small groups. The starry sky was stunning and when we ran our hands through the water, it looked like it was sparkling because of the glowing phosphorous algae. Once we got away from the boat, everything was just so quiet, dark and peaceful and we just lay back in our kayaks looking up at the stars. Back on the boat, we had a few more drinks and sat around a fire while a couple people played the guitar. One absolutely amazing day from sky to sea!

Waking up the next morning on a boat in the middle of the Bay of Islands was pretty incredible. At the sound of the breakfast bell, we were downstairs to start the beautiful sunny day. First up was some snorkelling, which would have been great but only a few minutes into the water, I felt something graze my arm. At first I thought it was just seaweed or something, but when I put my mask into the water, I saw that I was surrounded by about 20 purple jelly fish. Over the next 15 minutes or so in the water, I got stung so many times and back in the boat, I looked down to see my arm pretty swollen in some places. These jellyfish aren’t dangerous at all, but the stings really hurt and of course my body just overreacts to anything like that! That was an unfortunate incident, but shortly after we stopped near a beautiful beach which we kayaked up to. It was truly paradise. We played around in the water with a volleyball , spent some time on the sand and hiked up to an incredible look out. It was a great afternoon. In our last few hours on the boat, we spotted some dolphins and penguins in the water, watched a fish be gutted (that was a first for me) and even ate sea urchin eggs! Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye, which was actually kind of sad. Even though it had been less than 24 hours, everyone got along so well. It was an incredible time! We basically headed out right away after that and drove three hours to Auckland where we checked into our hostel. We had a nice relaxing night after the craziness of the past few days, and enjoyed long showers, free internet and watched a movie. The next day in Auckland wasn’t too eventful after returning our rental car in the morning. That little car treated us well, and we miss him for sure! We lazed around the hostel, just reading and relaxing before Keith skyped with his Mom. Then we walked around in the sunshine, did a bit of shopping and grabbed lunch. Back to the hostel for 4:30 pm to skype with my family, which was also great. Then we had a quick dinner and went to a movie. Our final day in NZ, we got some laundry done in the morning, checked out and then just walked around downtown a bit more before taking a taxi to the airport. Our flight was a little delayed, but we boarded the plane around 5 pm and we were off to Sydney!
New Zealand was INCREDIBLE. It completely exceeded our expectations in every way, and truly became one of my top three favourite countries in the world! We will be back one day for sure :)

Our Last Few Days on the South Island

In New Zealand, all of the main highways seem to have descriptive names. We have driven the ‘Thermal Explorer Highway’ and the ‘Treasured Pathway’ among others, and after leaving Milford Sound on February 23, we drove five hours along the ‘Southern Scenic Route;’ eventually reaching an area called The Catlins. Ironically, out of all the drives we had done on this trip (just over 5000 km so far); this was probably one of the least scenic drives. The ocean was beautiful when we passed right along the south coast, but it was mostly crossing through farmland and straight stretches of highway (we have certainly seen enough of this back home). Also, up to this point in the trip, we had seen our fair share of sheep, but nothing compared to how many we had been expecting. That was until we hit the Southland region; ALL you see is sheep…and a few cows just to change it up every once and a while. This area is definitely the most isolated and low-key we had been to, and it was exactly what we were looking for after a busy week. There are only about two gas stations and one grocery store in the whole Catlins area. There also wasn’t much access to any news sources, so we had no idea the extent of the Christchurch earthquake at that point. We found an available room at the Lazy Dolphin Lodge, which was actually lucky considering we didn’t book anything of time and there are only about six places to choose from. Thanks to a great tip from the owner, we quickly put our stuff into our room and then walked five minutes to Curio Bay, arriving right around 8 pm – the best time to spot yellow-eyed penguins! She told us that these penguins are very rare and limited to this certain area of New Zealand. Not really knowing what to expect, we arrived and discovered we could go right down to the beach, as long as you left enough space between you and the penguins. Right away, we saw the cutest little penguin just sitting on the rocks. Every night at the same time they slowly waddle and hop their way up the beach, back up to the nests they have in the bushes. There are so many places that would charge you to see something like this, but we were able to see it for free and there was barely anyone else even there. It was amazing. We saw about five penguins in all, and were able to get pretty close to two of them. At one point, these two started chirping at one another, leading one to waddle up and slap the other one right in the face. It was hilarious and I managed to get it on video! After they made it to their nests and out of sight, we headed back to our hostel to cook a late dinner and have a nice relaxing night together.

We let ourselves sleep in a bit the next day and took our time getting ready in the morning. It was actually a pretty cold day, and we got all bundled up in jackets and coats before heading out. We hopped back in the car and drove along the coast hitting a few spots highlighted in our trusty Lonely Planet guide. Our first stop was at Slope Point, which is the most southern point of New Zealand. From the parking lot, it was about a fifteen minute walk out to the cliff face through a farmer’s field. All there really was to see is a lot of ocean heading out to Antarctica, an old yellow sign and SO much wind. We were just getting blown around and laughing so hard; it was hilarious. Nearby, we got a great picture of the ‘windswept trees,’ and after coming to the point ourselves, we can understand why they look like that. I don’t want to know what my hair would have looked like if I didn’t have it tied up that day! From there, we drove to McLean falls. Although they weren’t the biggest, this waterfall was probably one the most beautiful I have ever seen. It seemed so isolated, and the water cascading over the green, moss-covered rocks had such a nice effect. It didn’t hurt that we were the only ones there either. Our last stop for the day was at Cathedral Cave, which made up for us not being able to see Cathedral Cove a few weeks ago in Coromandel. It was about a thirty minute walk down to the beach in low tide and then on to the cave. It was so cool to go in one side, walk through a naturally made tunnel in almost pitch black and come out the other side. We discovered that taking pictures from within the cave looking back out to the beach created a really cool silhouette effect, so we tried our hand at taking some artistic shots. After clambering up the steep walk back to our car, we drove back to the hostel for more relaxing, reading and dinner. Later on, we walked down to the beach at Porpoise Bay, (essentially the backyard to where we were staying). Walking along the sand and scanning the water, I spotted three dolphins playing in the surf! We were only able to make out their upper halves and didn’t see them jump, but it was cool spotting them so close to the shore! Then it was back to Curio Bay to watch the penguins again. This time we had a good conversation with the Department of Conservation Ranger, who told us that the penguins are out swimming for 8-10 hours during the day finding food and that they mate for life (there were eight couples living on that particular beach). That night we ended up staying on the beach for over an hour until it was dark. As we were leaving, we happened to spot a penguin standing less than 10 feet away from us. It was too dark to get a picture, but it was amazing to see one so close! They are so cute. We got back to the hostel by 10 pm or so and then just curled up on the couch to watch a movie in the common room. It was such a relaxing day that cost us absolutely nothing, and a great way to celebrate three and a half years together.

Friday morning we checked out and continued our drive east making a few more stops along the way. We stopped at Purakaunui Falls, a well-known tiered waterfall, which was beautiful but didn’t quite have the same effect on me as McLean Falls. It was interesting to drive through so much farmland, and then walk a few minutes to these incredible waterfalls tucked into rainforest settings. Next was Nugget Point, where we spotted tons of sea lions and walked out to a lighthouse providing great coastal views. From there it was on to Dunedin, where we planned to stay for the night; although we hadn’t booked anything ahead. We checked out several hostels and then finally went to the information site, only to find out that there was absolutely no vacancy. This was when we first became aware of the earthquake’s impact, and realized that the entire east coast would be booked up from people fleeing their damaged homes. Up to this point, we had experienced no trouble just showing up somewhere and finding a place to stay; so we were a little worried at this point. We decided to park our car and walk through Dunedin’s core just to see some of it, and have a quick bite to eat. It seemed like a really fun city with all of the students and bars; it’s too bad we couldn’t have spent the night there. We continued to drive up the east coast and stopped at the next biggest town, which was Oamaru. It was a pretty cold night and we really didn’t want to sleep in our tent so again, we tried to find availability in a hostel. Again, no luck. The only place we could find was a holiday park that had one site left, so we decided to sleep in our car to stay a bit warmer; it actually worked out well. Since it was late, we took the opportunity to do our laundry and re-stock on groceries. Oamaru seemed like a pretty quiet town and didn’t really have much going on.

We left early the next morning and drove straight up the east coast another five hours or so. On this leg of the journey, we drove through Christchurch but only on the outskirts as we stuck to the highway. The only signs of the earthquake happening were notices with information of emergency shelters and that some of the stores in the surrounding areas were closed down. Other than that, everything seemed normal from our vantage point, which felt very strange because we knew there was so much damage and devastation only a few kilometers away. We had been reading newspapers along the way and trying to keep up to date with all of the stories; just unbelievable. Less than two hours later, we reached our destination of Kaikoura, about 180 km north of Christchurch and were happy to find warm sunshine! We had got online the night before and managed to secure a tent site for that night, so no problems with accommodation there. That night, we cooked some dinner and then went for a walk down to the beach and along the main street (this didn’t take too long). All that seemed open was a few souvenir shops and one pub, so we made our way back to the campsite. Although Kaikoura seems small, it has a really nice vibe to it and we got a great first impression. The rest of our evening consisted of enjoying a few beers and several card games, can’t beat that!

February 27, 2011 – Keith’s 24^th Birthday! We observed that of all the four birthdays he has celebrated while we have dated, this is probably the only one where: a) he didn’t have to study for midterms and b) we were actually together in the same city (even if it is across the world). Enough reason to celebrate right there! We woke up after a very cold night in our tent, but were happy to step outside into the sunshine. Then it was time for Keith’s breakfast of choice; I told him he could pick anything he wanted…and he chose cereal mixed with yoghurt. Picky guy. :) Then it was time for a tour of the limestone caves in town (which actually ended up being a private tour because we happened to be the only ones to book); worked out perfectly! We had a great guide and enjoyed the tour in our stylish hard hats. From there we settled into lunch and a cold beer on the patio next to the ocean. There was free wi-fi at this café, so we managed to catch my family on Skype by chance. A quick conversation, but great to see everyone’s faces nonetheless. After pulling ourselves away from relaxation, we took off on a three hour coastal walkway hike; spotting a few sea lions and lots of cows along the way. Around 5 pm we headed back to our holiday park for a dip in the pool and soak in the hot tub, or ‘spa’ as they call it in NZ. Here we chatted with a young family from Christchurch who had temporarily left their home because of minor damage and lack of power. It was interesting to hear a first-hand experience of the earthquake, but sad to hear about their situation. For Keith’s birthday dinner, we cooked a delicious meal of chicken and rice (gourmet by our standards). We enjoyed the rest of the night over more drinks, and splurged for a warmer little cabin with a nice view. Keith had a great birthday and I loved being able to celebrate it with him in beautiful NZ.

We were up, showered and checked out by 9:30 am the next morning and already on the road headed toward Picton to catch our ferry back to the North Island. Arriving at around noon, we had plenty of time to spare and got on the ferry no problem. This time the ride across was a little choppier, and we were both pretty relieved to get off when we arrived in Wellington a few hours later. We drove straight to our hostel, which had a great location but paid parking. In the kitchen we cooked a simple pasta dinner and watched some of the Oscars, which were on TV. I actually talked to my friend Heather for a bit on Facebook chat and it was funny that we had both been watching the Oscars, but it was Sunday back in Calgary and Monday in New Zealand. Crazy time difference! After dinner, we went for a great walk along the waterfront and finally got a good look at Wellington. Making our way further into the city, we rode the cable car up the hill and then walked back down through the beautiful botanical gardens. We both really liked Wellington; it seems like a very liveable city. Our last stop of the evening was at Molly Malone’s, an Irish bar with live music, where we enjoyed a pint or two and had a great time.

Well its back to the North Island now, which means only one more week left in NZ! Time has flown by, but we have truly enjoyed every single experience together and look forward to making the most of our final days to come! And then it’s Australia…so we really can’t complain :)

Ps. Sorry the pictures are out of order - it's so hard to get them placed correctly!