:(

I am getting ready for some serious time traveling.
At 1:55pm I leave Sydney airport... it's Sunday here.
I arrive back in LA Sunday at 1:20pm!!!!
Wait?! What?!
How cool is that ;)
haha.

Ok... bad news... so... Suzy and I broke up this morning. I know, big surprise. We were getting along so well and then I just had to go and leave. It wasn't her... it was me. And it was definitely one of the saddest mornings of my life (although April and Dustin did make me a fantastic going away breakfast of potatoes and pancakes!!). But come on, after traveling together for 3 months I am not sure what we are going to do without each other. I mean she has been my left hand for 3 months straight. Lets all hope she will actually keep blogging so we can hear what she is up to for the next 3 months. Australia... Hawaii... San Fran... Ok so we know she probably wont blog but it is good to hope for it anyway.

SUZY I MISS YOU ALREADY :)

ok, time traveling is starting now...

Byron Bay

How ya goin?
It is a phrase widely used here.
Instead of “Hi, how are you?” people here say “How ya going?”
We caught on very quickly and use it quite often now.

We just peeled ourselves off the amazing beaches of Byron Bay. It took two days for us to get out of there but it was worth every second. There were no clouds in the sky, the sand was white and soft as can be, and the water was perfect. It was the kind of waves that you can just float right over. Not too big not too small. Just perfect! Pretty much everything about Byron Bay is perfect. Cute beach town with tons of fun people just out to have a good time. Not much else to say about it as we mostly just laid at the beach and enjoyed the beautiful days… but it is definitely a place everyone to put on their “To Travel To” list.

Hunter Valley - Wine Tasting

Wow! We had the best time wine tasting in Hunter Valley! We decided to go without a tour group since all the wineries were very close to each other. It was the best decision ever. The second best decision was that we went on a Thursday and thus were pretty much the only tasters in each winery. The vineyards were beautiful and of course the tasting was a lot of fun. At the Audrey Wilkinson Winery our wine tender gave us a whole bar of chocolate to go with certain wines so we could see how well they tasted together.

Pooles Winery was definitely our favorite. We had about an hour and a half alone with our wine tender before other people came in. He let us taste EVERYTHING. We ended up getting a bottle of wine that has to age 10 years to be at it’s best. So ten years from now we will have to meet up again and drink our delicious Semillon wine.

At the end of our self serviced wine tour we ended up at Potters Brewery. It was a little late when we got there so we weren’t sure if we were going to get the brewery tour but needless to say we gave ourselves a very good self tour again. The door to the brewery room was open so we went in. We waited about 5 minutes for someone to come and help us but no one did… so we decided to do the tasting all on our own. Just pour beer after beer into the cups that were sitting out. It was great. Then Keith, the main brew master, showed up. Said nothing to us about our self served tasting… just started pouring us more tastes and telling us about the beer. It was perfect!!

on we go...

After getting sucked into the beautiful life of Sydney, we have finally embarked on our next adventure. We are traveling up the coast to Fraser Island. To start us off, we picked up our new true love, The Dark Knight. He is a beautiful black Toyota Corolla Seca (never heard of it before). Very sexy indeed! And, Suzy can stretch out her entire legs in the front seat and not touch the windshield with her toes. Quite the setup.


We made the trip yesterday out to the Blue Mountains. The mountains are more like hills, but they got their name from all the Eucalyptus trees covering them. The scenery was gorgeous and and ready… we saw 15 wild Kangaroo!! It was awesome.


After seeing some nice waterfalls and climbing up some really cool cliffs we went deep into the forest in search of them. They were just hanging out on the side of the road. It was kinda difficult to spot them out but we had Eagle Eye April on our side so none went unseen (well, so we think). They are such interesting animals. Bouncing here and there and everywhere (ha. Hope I got the Gummie Bear song in your head…) We are still very intrigued with the way they use their tails to push themselves off. And tiny heads and hands compared to their bodies.

On our way to drop April back off in Sydney today, we stopped at a Wildlife sanctuary to see some more native Australian animals. Koalas were our main agenda, and we saw a ton. We weren't allowed to actually hold them as it is illegal in this state, but we did get to pet and be very very close to them. There was definitely some kissing and nose nuzzling going on!! Apparently up north in Queensland you are actually allowed to hold them, so we will be heading in that direction soon.



We also saw a ton of Wallaby's and Kangaroo. They just hoped around the whole park and were very open to petting. Pretty cool getting to pet a Wallaby and a Koala bear in the same hour. There were some really cool birds there too. And some bats. And some Echinadas. Crocodiles. Penguins. Wombats. Dingos. Australia is full of cool animals. We were in heaven!!

After the animal encounter we actually set forth on our trip up the coast. We have landed in Hunter Valley. It is a huge wine region. So completely opposite from Sydney. We are sitting on the porch of our hostel listening to the chirping of crickets and watching the sunset over the fields of horses. Welcome to the lovely country. Wine tasting tomorrow!!

Sydney... wooohooo!

We made it to Australia and we LOVE it!
A friend from college, Amy, was randomly visiting her friend, Steph, who lives in Coogee beach. It worked out perfect timing for us to meet up with them and stay in Steph's amazing apartment overlooking the beach. It was heaven for us travelers. Everything about being in an apartment and not a hostel is wonderful for a change. We didn't have to wear our shower shoes for a change!!


Our first day here in Sydney we climbed the bridge. From the top you could see the entire city. The view up there was amazing but of course they didn't let us take our cameras up so we can't share the view with you. But check out our hot outfits.








And of course, a very fun girls night out for our first night in Sydney :)
and Amy's last :(

Dolphin Encounter...

There aren't enough exclamation points to explain the fun we had swimming with the Dusky Dolphins in Kaikoura. It was amazing.
There were 600 dolphin... SIX HUNDRED!!!

We all sat at the back of the boat and when the captain blew the horn we all slid off into the water surrounded by dolphin. We would swim for about 10 minutes and then get back into the boat to drive to the next big group. They were everywhere.


At some points you would be surrounded by about 10 at one time. In front, underneath, to the side. To get their attention we were supposed to sing or squeak or just make some noise. It really worked and they would look at you and then if you wanted to play with them you could swim in circles and they would follow you around and around. Well actually we were following them around. They are so fast it got tiring after about a minute of swimming around.


What an experience!
Our last one in New Zealand. We had to say goodbye to the lovely country today. There were a few tears when we had to give up our car and try to stuff all the stuff we acquired into our already stuffed bags. ha. lots of stuff :) Oh but get this... the lady that we turned the car back to... LIVES IN FLAGLER BEACH. Wow. She is from New Zealand and was just back for a little bit visiting her mom, but she has lived in Flagler beach for like 10 years. Small small world!

So now... AUSTRALIA IT IS! The last stop on this amazing journey.
We are in Sydney now. Planning on climbing the Sydney bridge tomorrow. More adventure awaits.

Tekapo...

The pictures say it all...