End of NZ

We spent an extra night in Queenstown because we loved it so much! We went to the Franz Josef glacier next and I did a glacier hike. It was amazing! The ice was super cool, exactly what I was hoping to see! We also went to the glacier hot pools..they were amazing. Mom, you would have loved them!

We took the TranzAlpine train all the way from the West Coast of the island (Greymouth) back to the East Coast (Christchurch) on Monday. It was a really nice ride with good views and good weather! Lucky us! In Christchurch we really didn't do much at night or this morning.

Our flight had tons of turbulence but we got back to Melbourne safely. We head home a week from today! It's hard to believe the trip went this quickly, and that I leave in three weeks for Colombia! Only two weeks at home. I am getting more excited and less nervous for the trip though, which I am glad about.

Dinner time! Love everyone.

Last days in Dunedin/ first days in Queenstown

Our last days in Dunedin were packed with activities! On the second to last day I walked 3k uphill..a STEEP hill..to get to Lanarch Castle. I took the early bus and went alone because Lana wanted to sleep in but I wanted to do a brewery tour later in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous walk, even though it was super windy and I complained to myself the whole way! The actual castle wasn't that cool but the castle gardens were pretty neat. I then had to walk all the way back downhill (!) and I took the bus from the main road back into town. I took a "Beer and Chocolate Tour" at Speight's Brewery that afternoon. After the tour I took a bus up to Baldwin St., which is the steepest street in the world! (According to the Guiness Book of World Records). I walked all the way up it and back down in 10 minutes because I had to quickly catch a bus back into town so I could go on my sensory tour of the Cadbury Factory! It was super neat to watch them making the chocolate.. They are already making Santa chocolates! We got so much free chocolate I honestly don't even know what to do with it all because I know there is no way I can eat it before I get home (good for mom, dad, and the boys)! The next morning I toured a Gourmet Ice Cream Company and got free ice cream and truffles, yum. We left around noon on the Taieri Gorge Railway and got into Queenstown in the evening. That was yesterday, and today Lana is skiing a half day (which I can't because my knees are bothering me from all the walking) and I am doing a gondola ride/luging! We are skiing a full day tomorrow(!!!) and then seeing Harry Potter tomorrow evening! Dunedin honestly wasn't that great, but I really like Queenstown! Love everyone.

Catching up on the last few days...

We went back down to Ocean Grove on Monday. Jeanne's friends from the city came and met us there that evening. I read the Da Vinci Code that day and am planning to read Angels and Demons next. Dan Brown is coming out with another one in September too! On Tuesday I read the fourth Harry Potter..that is basically all I did, besides go on a run on the beach :) I am on the fifth now but have gotten a late start on it in preparation for the sixth movie coming out in two days!! Anyway, on Wednesday we drove back to Melbourne with Jeanne's friends that were visiting. Lana and I went to see Bruno that afternoon...oh man. It is vulgar! I would not let the boys go see it...it's super inappropriate! I was like covering my eyes for half of it haha. On Thursday morning we got up bright and early to catch our plane to Christchurch! On our way in the mountain views from the plane were amazing. We got to our hostel alright, and I spent the evening wandering around Christchurch by myself. That night I read The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime...I didn't like it very much. The next day was more wondering around in Christchurch. We didn't end up taking the cruise to Banks Penninsula because we liked the city so much on the first evening that we just wanted to explore. I had brunch at a cute little grunge cafe. That afternoon Lana and I went on the Christchurch gondola which gives you an amazing view of the city (for all these pictures see links following this post). That night we wandered around the city some more and ended up heading to bed early so we could get up at 7 for our bus to Dunedin. We set four alarms, just to make sure we would get up. Well....none of them went off. We woke up at 9:46, unfortunately. We made about 30 phone calls and inquiries through four different travel agents, including our hostel's front desk, and all of the rest of the transportation to Dunedin was booked through to Tuesday afternoon because all of the students at Otago Uni in Dunedin start class on Monday after a two week break and were heading home from Christchurch. We couldn't arrive on Tuesday because we were due to leave Dunedin on Tuesday morning for Queenstown and we had a lot of things we wanted to get done in Dunedin anyway so...we hitchhiked (sorry mama!) We took a bus to the edge of town to the road where all of the cars going to Dunedin would be headed, and took our chances. It is a lot harder to hitchhike here because there aren't freeways and really obvious places where people could pull over and pick you up, but we got picked up in about twenty minutes by three Dutch guys in a camper van. A lot less sketch than it sounds, I promise! They weren't going to the same place we were, but we got them to drop us about halfway between Chch and Dunedin. We stayed at a little hostel in that town, Timaru, and the owners of that hostel drove us to Dunedin in the morning! Once we got here we took a bus out the Otago Penninsula to Portobello to try and catch a bus to the Lanarch Castle, but it was too late. We explored the city center here in Dunedin for a bit and planned all of our activities for tomorrow. I'll post again tomorrow because we have a fun-filled day ahead of us! here are the links for the pictures...NZ: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=278211&id=759950467&l=85a0fba59b Aus: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273982&id=759950467&l=ab33329ae2

love you guys!

P.S. We have done most of our planning for New Zealand! If anyone cares, here is our route:

Arrive in Christchurch on July 9th. Spend the evening there and the next day. We think we will go to Banks Penninsula and possibly do a mini wildlife cruise. On the morning of the 11th we will take a bus to Dunedin. We will spend that evening there and the next two days. On the 12th we are visiting Lanarch Castle and most likely going to see the Albatross and the Yellow-Eyed Penguins that the Otago Penninsula is most famous for. On the 13th we are doing all Cadbury Chocolate Carnival related activities! (Dad, I told Mom already, but we are going to be in Dunedin during the week of the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival! How amazing is that!) On the 14th we will leave on a train for Queenstown. The train we are taking (http://www.taieri.co.nz/) is supposed to be a beautiful ride! We will have the evening of the 14th and the next two days in Queenstown. We will go luging on one of the days (http://www.skyline.co.nz/queenstown/luge/) and skiing on the other :). On the 17th we leave for the Franz Josef Glacier. I am SO excited for that. Go look up pictures it looks amazing!! We will be there for two nights and possibly take a shuttle over to the Fox Glacier as well. On the 19th we will go to Greymouth and stay a night over there. On the 20th we will take a train back to Christchurch (http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/tranzalpine.aspx) and that is supposed to be amazing and beautiful too! I am very excited.
P.P.S. When it says that I posted this on Friday, it is actually Saturday for me!

We are in Melbourne now. I forgot to say that on Monday we took a bus to Queenscliff which is the neighboring town to Ocean Grove and did some shopping and wandering around there. Sam's friend's party was actually pretty fun except everyone here chain smokes and they were doing it in a closed space sometimes and it was really gross and I got a really bad headache! But besides that we met some fun people. On Thursday night we spent the night in Dunmoochin which is like an artists compound thing out in the middle of no where. When Jeanne said the 'Australian bush' I figured it would be desert-like but it was up on this hill with a lot of eucalyptus trees. It was right by where all the fires happened in Australia earlier this year. The scenery was pretty cool, just lots of trees. We saw wild kangaroos though! That was cool. We drove back to Melbourne yesterday and Jeanne's friend Roz cooked us food. OH MY GOD it was amazing she HOMEMADE the pasta and gnocci. Like HOMEMADE. and then HOMEMADE the pesto and cream/mushroom/spinach sauce. It was AMAZING. Mom, they have 'thickened cream' here which is like yogurt thick. It is crazy. I think you would love it haha but anyway that's what's been going on! Hope the boys aren't being too awful.

Fine,MOM.
We really haven't been doing much because there isn't really much to do here in Ocean Grove in the winter. Yesterday we went to Jirrahlinga Animal Sanctuary which was really cool. They rescue and take injured animals in and keep them until they get better. We saw LOTS of pretty birds (Jen!) and kangaroos and wallabees and wombats (yuck). It was cool. Tonight Lana's friend Sam invited us to go to a party with him so we'll see how that goes. It probably won't be too fun. Tomorrow we are going to Melbourne for the day and then going out to the bush to visit Jeanne's friend! So I won't have internet for a few days after tomorrow, but it should be cool to experience the real Australian bush! haha. Friday and Saturday we will for sure be in Melbourne and then after that everything is up in the air until we leave for NZ on Thursday!

First days in Australia

Hi Dad, I think you're the only one reading this and you're the only one I text regularly!
Australia has been really amazing. The plane wasn't bad at all. We stayed over at Lana's friend Heather's house for the first night and shopped on the first day (we got in at 8 am). Their friend Eddie picked us up from the airport. He is like 73 and super funny and drives a BMW like a madman. Melbourne was really cool with lots of little alleyways and stuff. I have pictures that I will try to post on facebook or on here if I ever get a wireless internet connection. We came down here to Ocean Grove (where Lana's house is) after the first night and it is so cute! They don't have a car so we walk everywhere. The beach is a five minute walk away, and I have woken up and walked down to it every morning so far. I am still sick with that cough and now my nose is all stuffed up, so I spent MY OWN MONEY and bought myself a 15 dollar medicine! Ahem! AND I spent my OWN 40 dollars on groceries yesterday and made gnocci with pesto, garlic and tomatoes for everyone last night! I am very proud of that. Ok well there isn't much more to say. Tell everyone I miss them!