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!

Exploring the North

While I still have a number of places I want to go on the South Island, Cam and I spent the last two weekends exploring the North Island. Cam's from the North Island so not too much was new for him, but aside from a short trip to Auckland last year, these trips were all uncharted territory for me.

Wellington

For New Zealand's four-day Easter Weekend, Cam and I headed up to Wellington. Wellington is known for its craft-beer-and-cafe culture (two things I love), so I was excited to see it for myself.

We spent our first morning walking by the water front and exploring the national Te Papa museum. The museum has everything from a giant squid to the Treaty of Waitangi, so we kept ourselves entertained for a pretty long time.

Signing the guestbook at the Te Papa museum

The next part of the trip was a little treat from Cam. After watching some cricket while New Zealand was hosting the Cricket World Cup,  I decided I wanted to learn a bit about rugby. I had told Cam this, and two days before the trip, I got a text from an unknown number saying "Click here to download your tickets for the Hurricanes match on April 3rd." Followed quickly by, "Surprise! :)" from Cam. Cam had purchased tickets to go with two of his friends to a Wellington Hurricanes rugby game! So after a bit more exploring of Wellington and grabbing a beer with our friends, we went to the game.

Win for the Hurricanes!

Saturday morning, we went to Zealandia. Zealandia is a nature reserve on the hills around Wellington, surrounded by a fence that prevents all predators from coming in to the area. This way the animals who are native to New Zealand can live the way they did before the British settlers and other groups brought over predators. As a result, you can see many animals that are extinct on the mainland just by walking along the pathways here.

Casual pukeko spotting - endangered except at Zealandia!

We had a really fun time walking around and seeing all the animals. To list a few highlights:
- I saw a lizard dating back to the age of the dinosaurs
- I got really scared of a "monster chicken" - more commonly known as a Pukeko
- I learned what the song of the Tui sounds like

Sunday was Easter - the day devoted to eating chocolate and other sweet things. Cam had the idea to go to Sweet Mama's kitchen, where they make chicken waffles and DELICIOUS milkshakes - so that's exactly what we got.

We also went to the grocery store to buy eachother Kiwi easter treats. I made sure we got Reeses pieces :D

We were feeling good and full with just enough time to go to church. After church and a call to the US to wish my parents a happy Easter we took the cable car to the top of the hills over Wellington.

We got so lucky with warm and low wind weather so we walked around the botanical gardens and basked in the sunlight.

After heading down the hill, we had time to relax by the water for a bit - and then it was time to fly home.

Not a bad place to end the weekend.

Hamilton and Auckland

This last weekend wasn't a three day weekend, but to celebrate Cam's birthday we decided to make it one. We decided to go to Hamilton for Saturday and Sunday to see Cam's dad and then spend Monday in Auckland to celebrate his birthday.

Cam and his step mom's pup

Hamilton is the 4th biggest city in the country after Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. It also happens to be very close to Matamata, the home of Hobbiton and the wee little town where my favorite kiwi grew up.

We flew to Hamilton on Sautrday and we were so lucky because the weather was BEAUTIFUL. We spent the afternoon eating lunch in the backyard, walking the path along the Waikato river, and exploring the Hamilton Botanical Gardens, voted the 2014 Garden of the Year (an international award!). The gardens were centered around a circular area with openings in to each garden. It's impossible to see through the opening to the garden ahead until you're directly in front of the ideal view, which makes each garden surprising and wonderful. They had a Japanese garden, Indian garden, Italian Renaissance garden, and even an Alice in Wonderland garden.

Italian Renaissance Garden

Alice in Wonderland?

We finished the day with a delicious dinner with Cam's parents and a few cocktails on our own. As Cam told me, contrary to popular opinion, Hamilton is a real city and it had a good selection is really interesting bars - almost on par with Wellington ;)

On Monday we hopped on an early bus to Auckland and started our next adventure.

Pretty Pretty Auckland

I think I must be getting used to New Zealand because my reaction to Auckland last time was extremely different to the one I had this weekend. This weekend, Auckland was a bustling city and Cam and I were both commenting on how many things there were to look at in the big city --- lord help me when I land in New York City in two weeks. We really enjoyed the food in Auckland and between sudden downpours, we really enjoyed the waterfront.

Obviously I loved the bridges

Since Cam's birthday was Tuesday and we wouldn't be together past 7 am, we celebrated Monday night. Unfortunately the restaurant he wanted to go to recently had a fire and was closed.. so we wandered to the  Sky Tower and discovered that admission to the bar on the 53rd floor was free.

View from the bottom

We took an elevator up to the highest floor of any building in New Zealand and took in the views over a couple glasses of wine.

Cam needs to work on his selfie abilities. 

That's better. Sleepy Cam

And unfortunately Tuesday morning, it was time for me to go home.

Snow on the Southern Alps on my way home. Winter is here.

It was an amazing two weekends on the North Island and I'm so grateful my favorite Kiwi showed me the lay of the land up there. I'm heading back this weekend for a hike with my coworkers and hopefully Cam and I will be going back a few more times before I leave this beautiful country. Thank you so much and happy birthday, Cammy!

Summer is for Swimming in the Ocean -- and Having Visitors!

2015 is off to a great start so far, and gearing up to be a really great, really warm year. After two days in Pittsburgh, two weeks in New York, and one week in Irvine, I have arrived back in Christchurch, New Zealand for #TTNZ Round 2.

80 and Sunny in Southern California -- Not bad for January.

The decision process was a bit of a whirlwind, but through conversations with coworkers in both New York and New Zealand, I'm now committed to staying in New Zealand until May 1st! See what I mean about a warm 2015?

My first week back has been great. There's been a lot of time spent with friends, and a lot of time spent in the ocean -- or trying to get to the ocean.

I'll start, though, with my very last day in New Zealand in 2014. On my last night here, I told my kiwi friend, Cam, that I wasn't sure what to do before my 7 pm flight the following day. Cam suggested we head over to the Lyttleton markets. Lyttleton's just on the other side of the port hills that run along the south side of the city, so you either have to go up and over the hills, or through a tunnel. There are alcoves in the port hills that create smaller bays, and Lyttleton is located in one of those.  Lyttleton is, in my opinion, the closest you can get to "classic New Zealand" without leaving the greater Christchurch area.We had a great time looking at the markets and and ended up getting juices and enjoying the views by the harbor for a good part of the afternoon.

View of the Lyttleton Harbor from the top of Rapaki Track in the Port Hills

When I landed in Christchurch last Sunday, it was nearly 80 degrees and pretty sunny, so Cam and I went back to the Lyttleton area and went for a swim in one of the other alcoves. The water was pretty cold (because we're so close to Antarctica), but the 360 view from the edge of the swimming area was amazing. It was the perfect welcome back to New Zealand.

The weather was less than ideal this week -- cloudy and windy, as is unfortunately typical for Christchurch, but this weekend, the sun came back out in a big way. It was over 80 degrees with hardly a cloud in the sky, all weekend long!

Cam loves to swim and I wanted to hike, so on Saturday we decided to go to Bottle Lake Forest Reserve, just northeast of the city. Bottle Lake has a series of horseback, mountain bike, and running trails, leading through a forest and out to a beach club. We decided to go out there for a swim, but unfortunately we got a little lost in the forest reserve and never found the ocean. The trails were really nice though -- I think I'll go back for some training runs, and maybe then I'll find the ocean. We eventually gave up on the swim, and Cam settled for showing me a classic kiwi summertime treat - Goody Goody Gumdrop ice cream. It's weirdly green but tastes like bubble gum and has chewy lollies in it. Kinda weird, but apparently all kiwis love it, so I had to give it a go. 

After our little walk, I still had some energy to get out, so I went for a long run up in the port hills. I had never gone on any of the port hill tracks except Rapaki, so I was a little nervous about finding my way. I ended up running up the top of the hill, and unexpectedly finding a really cool hiking path overlooking the Lyttleton side of the hills.

Once again the classic New Zealand feel amazed me. If I weren't halfway through a long run, I could've stayed there for ages. I felt so lucky to be all alone, near the top the port hills, with this gorgeous view that I had just stumbled upon. I went back to the city to spend the night with friends, feeling so refreshed.

Another View of the Lyttleton Harbor from the top of the Port Hills

On Sunday, I didn't have any major plans, but since it was 90 degrees and BEAUTIFUL out, I had no choice but to go to the ocean twice. I first drove out to Taylor's Mistake beach.Taylor's Mistake is a small bay with the most gorgeous water color. I had gotten to the beach on one of my first weekends in Chch, but by way of a hike starting from the top of the port hills.

Taylor's Mistake Beach from the hike I did back in October.

That day I was the only person on the beach, and it seemed so remote. Today I drove directly to the beach and it was PACKED. I found a spot and relaxed for a couple hours until I was really hot and starting to get nervous that the hole in the ozone layer (over Australia/ New Zealand) was going to give me too much of a sunburn. The drive there and back had gorgeous views of both Taylor's Mistake bay and Sumner beach, but unfortunately the road was narrow, windy, and full of cars, so I wasn't able to take any pictures.

Only picture I took today... really should've taken more of the actually scenery since it was so beautiful!

After a little rest, I met up with Cam and we decided to go for another swim. We went out to Sumner Beach, where I had also been early in my time here, but that day was actually cloudy and not so nice.

My first time at Sumner when it was cloudy and cold.. so much nicer this weekend!

Today was an entirely different experience-  The tide was low so we were able to swim way out in the ocean. With the sun nearing sunset, the port hills and the cliffs looked absolutely beautiful. I really need a waterproof camera so I can capture our swims. Cam started diving for Pipi, which look kind of like clams, but they are found exclusively in New Zealand. Apparently you can bring them home and boil them and eat them -- so we should do that soon. Cam made sure I dove for a few as well so I can say "I went diving for Pipi in New Zealand". We jumped a few waves, threw the pipi so they skimmed on the water, and just had heaps of fun. 


Being back in familiar territory also came with a familiar face from New York. One of my best friends from study abroad in Sydney was traveling Australia and New Zealand with her sister and her mom, and they decided to stop in Christchurch for a night.

Skye and I on a Sheep Traffic Cone - basically the epitome of Christchurch.

It was so nice to welcome someone I love to a place I love. I took them to C1 - a really cool cafe where they serve sliders in a pneumatic tube. The sliders get delivered to the closest tube to your table. It's a really fun way to get your food and the food is really delicious. After dinner Skye's mom and sister wanted to go to the botanical gardens, so I drove them over there and showed them a few of my favorite parts.

Fountain at the Entrance of the Botanical Gardens

They all just kept saying, "I can't believe you get to live here and run here every morning". It was so nice to have someone see Christschurch and love it as much as I do.  I wish you could've stayed longer, Skye, but thanks for taking the time to see my little city!

So, needless to say, it feel great to be back. I'm really happy I came back and that I get to stay a few more months. If this first week is any indication of the rest of my time in New Zealand, I think it's going to be an amazing few months Can't wait for more visitors and more adventures. Stay tuned...