Around the World in 30 Days

It has been quite a month and between all the traveling and getting the flu, there just wasn't enough time to write. Since this time last month (August 22nd) I have traveled to the West Coast of New Zealand, Melbourne, Australia, Naples, Florida and New York City. Just a quick tour of the globe :)

This is how I felt after flying from Melbourne, Australia to Naples, Florida. Any questions?

West Coast of New Zealand

After all the skiing mishaps and glorified day trips we took, I was really excited for a full on weekend getaway. Accommodation booked, sights to see planned, and no other distractions from Friday after work until Sunday evening. We normally travel from Saturday am to Sunday afternoon, so this was big. Cam had mentioned a few times that maybe we should leave Saturday morning, but I really didn't want to. 

Get me here ASAP please

In retrospect, we probably should've. The road to the west coast is extremely windy. And dark. And pretty darn scary. Cam was driving and, frankly, really not enjoying it. The road was dark and it was foggy - to be honest (sorry mom) the whole thing was pretty dangerous. 

When we got to our house, we were both exhausted, but we started a movie, and about half an our in we were both (nearly) asleep.

Despite the stressful drive, we woke up Saturday morning really happy that we went Friday night. We were able to wake up slowly, find a cafe in town, and casually get on our way to Pancake Rocks, the main destination of our trip.

Cafe in Greymouth - a very questionable 4 star rating on Google

We tried to time it so we were there and high tide, but I think we were a bit late for that. At high tide, water comes up through the rocks and is apparently quite the sight to see. Not to worry though - the pancake rocks were still incredible. 

Rock Bridge

I didn't realize what they were exactly, which is probably the best way to go. I imagined piles of rocks like giant silver dollar pancakes and where the water comes up from between the stacks. It's so different than that - massive and amazing.

Love this part

One more angle - Do you see it?

There's just a short walk from the highway out to the rocks, and it's really well maintained, which was nice. Unfortunately it was raining, so we just did the walk around and headed back to our cozy cottage.

We spent the rest of the day sleeping in my case or watching movies if you're cam. Cam woke me up just in time to go to the Montieths brewery tour. The tour promises to give you 4 beers for $20 so we figured we would go. Unfortunately monteiths beer is disgusting and we only had 2 before deciding we couldn't do it anymore. Oh well!

Sunday morning, the sun came out and we decided to make the drive down to Hokitika for breakfast and to see the Hokitika Gorge. The cafe in Hokitika was really good. So much better than the one in Greymouth. Then we drove out to the Gorge, which did not dissapoint. The water in the gorge is from glacial melting, so the color is stunning. 

Drive on the way to the Gorge

Hokitika Gorge

Then we drove back to Greymouth to take the train back to the Chch. 

On the way back Cam pulled to the side of the road and went in to a dairy and came out with this "lolly mixture" apparently you can go to any dairy and ask for a "dollar mixture" and you get this. So yum. Another reason why I love New Zealand.

The best part about this is that the trip wasn't over when we left the West Coast. You know how sometimes you leave vacation and its just a long drive home? Well the train is meant to be an experience in and of itself. It goes to places that the road can't go so the views are meant to be incredible. Well, it wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be. To be fair, my expectation was the polar express, but I was still pretty disappointed. Everyone on the train was a tourist and experiencing the southern alps for the first time. After doing the drive twice, hiking avalanche peak, and skiing this winter, none of the views were particularly new.

The best views from hiking Avalanche Peak last January

I would definitely recommend it for a tourist (a tourist willing to spend a pretty penny since its a bit expensive) but for someone who's been living in New Zealand for a while, it was a little underwhelming. But still, we didn't have to drive and we got to read our books and take in nice views, so it definitely wasn't all bad. 

And then our train got delayed due to a runaway cow on the tracks! Poor guy.

Melbourne

The week after we went to the West Coast, Cam came down with the flu. I tried to stay away from him and take care of him at the same time.. and somehow.. I got it too. On Tuesday I started a new round of site visits at work telling my boss that Cam was home sick. By Wednesday morning I was sniffling and as soon as we found out that Cam officially had the flu, I was sent home to rest and be quarantined. By Thursday I was non-functional. The reason I am telling you this is because we had a BIG trip planned for Friday. 8 days in Australia. My first time living in a campervan. We had planned to fly to Melbourne, rent a van, and drive from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road. Then drive back so I could fly to America, do my visiting, and we'd meet back in New Zealand a week later. So Friday when we got to the airport and I realized that I couldn't stand up long enough to check my bag, I had to make the decision not to go. I went home and slept for 15 hours, and decided that was probably the best decision I could've made. 

Despite knowing that we did the right thing, we were both extremely bummed, and I still had a flight out of Melbourne the next weekend. We decided to book flights to Melbourne and just stay in the city for three days. It wasn't the Great Ocean Road, and it wasn't my favorite city in Australia (I don't think anything will ever replace Sydney in my heart), but it was really nice to take a vacation with Cam and explore a new city.

Side note: Melbourne is known for food and beaches so we decided to go to the beach and out for a super-trendy brunch in Christchurch once we started feeling better. It was super fun - but then I needed a nap :)

I ordered pancakes and it came with a scoop of ice cream!

Sumner, you're pretty.

Day 1: 

We landed in Melbourne at 8 am ready to seize the day! We wandered from our airbnb, through the famous alleyways to the Melbourne Museum. The building was beautiful and the museum was really interactive and cool. For example, they had an exhibit about mental health and one section was on dreams and they had you lay down in a bed and above the bed was a video of the types of dreams you have when you're stressed out. There were a lot of other exhibits that were really fun to walk around in too. 

Then, because this is vacation, it was time for a beer. We headed to Young and Jackson - my dad's favorite bar. When I called earlier in the week to tell my dad about our trip to Melbourne, he had my mom take a picture of him in his Young and Jackson hat and told me I had to go. It is apparently Melbourne's oldest bar and conveniently next to our airbnb. We had a really cool PINE-LIME IPA. It sounds bad, but it was pretty tasty - in a weird way. 

Yup, we're on vacation.

We continued our walking tour of Melbourne by heading across the river to check out the South Bank.

This area is meant to be really fun at night time and has a nice promenade along the river. As we were walking we found a bar on the BRIDGE PIER of a pedestrian bridge. I think my life was just made complete. We went down there for one more :)

See the bar?

Then we decided the next stop should be a bar recommended to us by one of Cam's coworkers (she moved to Christchurch from Melbourne!), It was rooftop bar with nice views of the city skyline. To Cam's delight they had Fernet! Apparently Melbourne is pretty trendy and has Fernet in a lot of bars. For those wondering, Fernet is a liquor that's common in Argentina (and apparently San Francisco AND Melbourne).

Then on the way home we found a burger shop called Huxtaburger (with burgers named after the Crosby show characters) It sounded pretty cool, despite the recent Bill Cosby revelations, so we gave it a shot. Definitely a good decision.

And after that it was time to watch Aussie Bachelor and go to bed. Successful Day #1.

Day 2:

The sun decided to come out on Day 2, which means the day started with a run along the river path. Then Cam and I decided we had to try some of this famous Melbourne coffee and brunch culture. We wandered through the laneways (that Melbourne is also famous for) and stumbled upon an adorable cafe in the Melbourne Library. The food definitely didn't disappoint on the trendiness scale. I got the "fruit of the day" which I've never heard a place sell before. Poached pears with yoghurt and honey. yummm.

yes.

The coffee let us down a bit since it had been so talked up, so on our way to Melbourne's famous grafitti lane, we got an even better coffee at this cafe where the line was out the door. We figured it couldn't be as good as the line made it look but... it was. 

Sippin a flat white on Graffiti lane. #Melbourne

Favorite.

For lunch, Cam googled best dumplings in Melbourne, and we headed to chinatown. We walked in to a little mall with chinese shops and restaurants and found an empty restaurant with the name that Cam had found online. We were a bit skeptical but it soon because clear that it was only empty because it wasn't lunch hour yet in Melbourne. Within 10 minutes the place was full and the girls at the table next to us said the last time they tried to go the wait was 40 minutes long! When we were leaving, every other restaurant in the mall was empty -ShanDong Mama clearly the place to be. Those dumplings were incredible. And for $15 each we didn't need food for the rest of the day.

  And then since it was after noon (aka socially acceptable to have a beer) we walked to the river, found an awesome outdoor bar and basked in the sunlight while drinking a few fat yaks.

Happiness.

After a big ol' nap we went out to explore some more laneway bars and restaurants and then called it a night. 

Day 3:

By Day 3 we felt like we had walked the city 5 times over and decided to hit the suburbs. Stop 1 was the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. We went by the Australian war memorial, the Shrine of Remembrance, before hopping in an Uber (Cam's first time since it's not in Chch yet) to go to the South Melbourne Market. The Market was nice but I think the best part was that the neighborhood around it was adorable! It was shops and cafes and was such a perfect suburb town. I felt so much more at home than in the busy streets of downtown. Then we got on the street car (Melbourne's famous public transit system) and went out to the beach! 

We found a bar out there that was right on the promenade, so we settled in to these adorable pods and hung out for a couple hours. 

My happy place.

We tried to go to Melbourne's Luna Park and I was so excited but turns out it's  not open during the week in the winter. We were so upset, but we got on the train back to the city to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. 

Then for one final trendy act in Melbourne we went out for dinner on Flinders Lane. The reason I didn't say much about dinner on Day 2 is because.... we didn't have dinner. We tried to go out for dinner on Flinders Lane but all the restaurants were absolutely packed. By the time we said "OK sure we'll wait an hour", the menu turned out to only be serving dishes centered on anchovies, sardines, and parts of animals I never intended to eat. I normally consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but that was way too much for me. So Friday night we did more research and went early to a restaurant intending to wait. Turns out we got a table right away (although only for an hour... classic Melbourne) but the food was so. freaking. good. Asian fusion for the win. And Cam got fernet!

Cam took this picture of his Fernet. That spicy tuna was really good too.

Then it was home to pack and sleep one last time before my big trip to the US.

It's been real Melbourne. You definitely lived up to your reputation of trendy, modern, casual, and unique. And your beer wasn't bad either :)

America!

America was just as amazing as I remembered. After the longest flight I've ever had, it was so nice to relax with my parents in Florida. After three days of beaching, shopping, and dining at my favorite places it was time to go to New York City. 

:)

I had three days in the city - just enough time to see both of my sisters for their birthdays, stop by work for a day, have dinner with my friends, and squeeze in one beautiful run in Central Park. 

Happy Birthday my love!! 28 looks good on you.

Tavern on the Green with Caitlin and Bobby!

And finally, Caitlin's birthday celebrations. Happy birthday Cait!

And then it was back to New Zealand for these last three months. It was a busy month, definitely a tiring month, but one of the best month's I've had recently. Big thanks to everyone who made my trip to the US so special. I know you're all busy but it was amazing to see so much family and so many friends in such a short time period. And I'll see you all at Christmas time!