Here goes nothing...
This is QUITE the photo post, so I hope you are ready!
My parents arrived in Australia on April 2nd, but decided to avoid me at all costs and take a ridiculously cool lovers trip to Cairns without me since they obviously don't love me and knew that all of a sudden being less than an hour away from me in the Sydney International Airport was going to make them sick if they didn't get further north... and FAST!
True story? ... you decide. :)
When they decided to love me again, they flew back to Sydney on April 7th. After my late night musical rehearsal (where the cast surprised me with a birthday cake! :) ) I quickly packed up some pj's and clothes for the next day and took a late bus to their fantastic hotel in the city. Mom & I cuddled all night while being serenaded by father's sweet man snores in the other double bed. (I love you, Dad-- I'm just feeling sassy! Can't stop me!)
My parents went to dinner at Lowenbrau in the Rocks... a necessary trip if you're thirsty for a HUGE beer.
The next morning... I turned 21!!! YAY! I slowed my parents down by waking up at the ridiculously "late" hour of 8 a.m. I was shocked when I found out my dad had been up since 5 (or even earlier). I guess it was the jet lag. When I finally got moving, we made our way to breakfast at "Pancakes on the Rocks". A stack of pancakes with ice cream and a mimosa was was definitely a great start to my 21st. We walked around the Rocks, Circular Quay, the Opera House, and the Botanical Gardens before deciding to jump on the double deck bus tour. Best idea we had all day! The 90-minute tour took us ALL over the city and the weather could not have been better. It was much better than walking miles and miles, even though we could have easily done it in such a small city like Sydney. We jumped off the bus and and made our way to the bus stop that would take us back to Macquarie University. We toured the campus and they got to see my jail cell of a dorm room (kiddingggg. it's not THAT bad... ). It was getting late and we were getting pretty hungry by this point, so we took the train (or the bus--can't remember?) back to the famous Darling Harbour for dinner. We ate "The Blackbird Cafe" where the view was great, the food was marvelous, and the TV channel on in the restaurant entertained (aka disgusted) us with a viewing of a live C-section while we ate. I think the waitress was new, or just scared of us, and simply laughed awkwardly when we told her about what we couldn't help but SEE on the TV to the right of us. Needless to say, I might not be going there anymore...
I had plans to go out to the bars later, but the long day outside and my busy friends who had Uni work to do sent me back to campus for the night. It was okay... I was exhausted and knew I have my whole life to be 21 and older :)
Happy 21st birthday to me! My mom knows me too well: Girl Scout Cookies, movies, and a Dora the Explorer paint book :)
My parents GREAT view from their hotel room.
Starting off my birthday the right way... with a mimosa in hand :)
Mama & her "Strawberry Patch"!! Best. Choice. Ever.
C'mon, we had to! A classic MySpace shot in front of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge!
This guy was WAY more impressive than the silver Medusa we saw on the other side of Circular Quay
The trees in the Gardens literally take down other trees with their roots. That's what I call terrifying.
MySpace Tom in the bamboo.
B-e-a-uuuutiful Sydney!
My mom should be a pro photographer. A view of the Bridge from our double decker bus tour :)
Taking the 288 bus over the Bridge from the city to my campus
A view of my lovely door before drunkards came around and ripped everything off of everyone's doors one night. Agh. I live in a fraternity, I swear.
Walking through my favorite part of campus with the canopy trees.
After dinner at "The Blackbird Cafe" in Darling Harbour
Necessary.
The next day (Thursday, April 9th), my parents went on a full day tour of the Blue Mountains while I stayed at Uni and was a good student who went to class and did work. :) My parents had a blast, and I can't wait to actually get there when Derek comes to visit in 2 weeks! The pictures I see look absolutely stunning. Later that night, I met up with them after my late-night Marketing class so we could wake up early and jump on our plane to Christchurch, New Zealand!!!
We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and got some great pictures of Tim Tams and Australian coins while waiting for the flight. Photoshoot--hollar! I had no idea the plane ride to Christchurch was going to be the best flight of my LIFE. Everyone should try flying Air New Zealand. Absolutely amazing! Everyone had their own TV screen with hundreds of movie, tv show, music, and game options. Brilliant. The endless amount of "Flight of the Conchords" episodes made the three-hour long flight go by extremely quickly. After a while of looking down and seeing blue water, we finally spotted land and my jaw dropped to the ground. HUGE snow-capped mountains were all over below us. It was at that point when I was positive that I would enjoy our week vacation in New Zealand.
When we arrived, we got our rental car at the Christchurch Airport and I was appointed "Navigator" or "Dictator of the Rental Car" (haha) since my Mom thoroughly enjoys to look around and take thousands of pictures. It's a great quality, but reading a map while also being the trip photographer is a difficult task! We arrived at our hotel, took a tour of our ridiculously sized and ridiculously beautiful suite before going for a walk around downtown Christchurch. The town was BEAUTIFUL. It was a perfect fall day and the leafs on the trees in the park were stunning. I think we were all in love at this point! We were getting hungry, so after numerous restaurant choices along the river, we decided to take the concierge's recommendation and sat down at "The Tap Room". We ate outside, got an interesting appetizer and had a few delicious Monteith's beer. So sad Monteith's is only served in New Zealand :( It was incredible! By the time we left, it had gotten pretty cold and we made our way back to the hotel for an early night before leaving in the morning for Mt.Cook/Aoraki.
Tim Tam Balls=not as good as the real Tim Tams. Kind of a disappointment!
Air New Zealand WOULD have Flight of the Conchords on their tv screens! :)
Our first view of New Zealand! Isn't it beautiful?
Dad loved driving on the left side of the road while going 100 (kilometers per hour)!!!!!! He also enjoyed turning on the windshield wipers every time he went for the turn signal... hahaha
Beautiful downtown Christchurch! "The Tap Room" is the restaurant on the very right with the black overhang
Walking through the park... hanging out with the cool nature... ya know.
Our ridiculous hot stone appetizer. I had the chicken and some meat... I left all the scary shellfish and the mini octopus for my Mom. Noooo thank you.
Enjoying our Monteith's Raddlers
My mom... the model!
The next morning, we took our time showering and getting brekkie at "The Globe" in Christchurch. By the time we had checked out and got all set to go, we were on the road a little after noon. We had been told, the best way to travel New Zealand is by driving everywhere... and they were RIGHT! We drove for about four hours before we made it to Mt.Cook/Aoraki Village. Mt.Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and there just so happens to be a little town with one resort for people who would like to visit it! We stayed at "The Hermitage" and had the best room at the resort. We were the only room with a balcony and had a great view of Mt.Cook and the entire mountain range. We unpacked just a little bit and made our way to the resort's museum, planetarium, and 3-D movie on the history and legend of Mt.Cook. It was actually pretty cool and a good idea for the resort to have something like that considering there was absolutely nothing else to do in this little village besides walk around or hike the mountain. YIKES. After the movie, we ate dinner at the buffet and stuffed ourselves silly. The night ended with Dad finding a classic and romantic Sci-Fi movie about flying insects taking over the world and killing everyone in sight. Sweet dreams.
Open those eyes, Mom! :) I had to capture New Zealand's famous "Latte Bowls". Mom & Dad got them almost everyday.
Sheep to Human ratio in New Zealand... 10:1... too funny (and VERY true!). They are all over!
Lake Tekapo. The lakes in New Zealand are absolutely GORGEOUS. Pure blue and completely still.
The view from the resort's restaurant. It looks fake :)
See the balcony?! That was our room! We always seemed to snag the corner room on the top floor of the hotels. A good place to be :)
The next day was Easter Sunday!! We woke up early and ate a buffet breakfast at the same restaurant (since it was the ONLY restaurant in the resort). We were picked up by a driver and taken to an airport about 15 minutes down the road where we were given information about taking an airplane ride around Mt. Cook and landing up on the top of the Tasman Glacier! It was absolutely unbelievable! I rode co-pilot on the ride up, next to our lovely pilot, Gary. The views were incredible and the feeling of the bumpy ride in the small plane was anything but scary. The bumps just made it that much more exciting for all of us! We landed on the glacier and got to walk around for a good 10-15 minutes before taking off again. At the top, we were supposed to pick up two climbers but Gary insisted that they weren't needing to be picked up at that time, and even though they NEVER RESPONDED TO HIS CALLS, he insisted that they were juuuust fine. Hmm... Yikes? It was crazy to look up and see these little itty bitty specks on the very top of a mountain peak that were actually little houses for climbers to rest in at nighttime. The plane ride was easily my favorite part of the vacation. It was definitely something I had never done before, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get to do again-- so it was just awesome. :)
Once we landed, we were taken back to our resort where we jumped in the car and made our way to Queenstown. For some reason, the plane ride must have worn me out because I fell asleep in no time and was asleep for the majority of the 4+ hour car ride. Everytime I woke up, I wanted to stay awake and look out the window at all the beautiful views, but I just couldn't do it. I did, however, completely wake up when we entered the town of Cromwell which is known for it's fresh fruit ice cream. OH.MY.GOSH. Seriously some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I had the 3-berry mix (strawberry, raspberries, and blackberries) mixed with banana in vanilla ice cream. Dad at the 3-berry mix with kiwi, and I think Mom had the kiwi? I don't really remember... but I do remember it was delicious, and anyone who is ever on the south island of New Zealand MUST make a stop there.
We made it to Queenstown in the middle of the afternoon, relaxed for a little while, and then took the shuttle bus to the city. We could have walked to the town, but since our hotel was on the hill up a ways from all the stores and restaurants, it would have taken us quite a while to walk either way. That night we ate dinner at this fancy restaurant which we were told was a very 'laid back/casual' place to go eat. Well, our tired and "casual" attire put at us at the back of the restaurant to hide us from all the other customers. :) Mom and I "shared" a bottle of wine... aka I didn't like it very much so Mom took it upon herself to finish the bottle herself. Hahaha--I love you, Mom!
The walk back to the "shuttle stop" was pretty fun and unfortunately the pictures of the stars my mom took that night didn't turn out too well...
I feel like the flying birds really just make this one MAJESTIC.
Pretty mom... with some bushes? I was trying to get the mountains but it's just too bright white to even tell that they're there!
Mom was getting pretty nervous about our flight up to the Tasman Glacier.
Pilot, Gary and Co-Pilot, Carly. I basically did everything... he just got the credit!
When there is snow around, there is bound to be a snowball fight... naturally.
Dad was clearly just trying to start an avalanche.
Myself and my plane. Yep. MY plane.
We have to photoshop Val & Joce into this one so we can make it our 2009 Christmas card!
Queenstown ... doesn't it look fake!?
Monday morning, we made our way into town... got some coffee and some good eats at the local Starbucks before walking over to the Activity Center in town to catch the bus for our Shotover Jet ride! So, this "Shotover Jet" is a boat that basically floats across the water at a speed of around 70 kph through this thiiiiin little canyon while performing 360-degree turns around every 45 seconds. It was nuts. I was shaking in my seat, but since I knew the experience was pretty popular that meant I must be safe so I couldn't help but smile which turned out to freeze my face into that emotion because of the cold water and wind hitting my face the entire 10-15 minute ride (Phew... run-on sentence there.) It was wayyy too fun though! I thought for sure we were going to hit the side of the canyon numerous times, but somehow we always ended up getting JUST past the sharp corners. **Thank Goodness** After the Jet ride, we took the bus back to town and took a gondola ride up the mountain to the Skyline Restaurant and Bungee Jump/Luge Ride area. No bungee jumping for us in NZ... but we did enjoy the view of the town and people bungee jumping, the yummy food, and Dad & I enjoyed the luge ride... twice. We stayed up there for a while before going back down the mountain and checking out the absolutely ridiculous photos and postcards taken of us in the gondola car with a fake background of Queenstown. (If you are ever at my house in Libertyville, you are bound to see them. They are that good.)
We relaxed at the hotel that afternoon before going out for dinner at Winnie's. We (Mom) were determined to get to that restaurant because Mom heard from a friend that the roof retracts and the view of the stars is incredible! It ended up being a great night with yummy pizza Monteith's beer, and a crappy waitress who loved the drunk people at the party table who's pictures she tried to get into at all times. It was actually pretty funny--and ridiculous. Again, I'm pretty sure we wrapped up the night with another Sci-Fi classic on TV, so that was good. :)
The Shotover Jet boat in the Shotover River Canyon
The fam after the ride... it seemed like I was the only one in the entire boat who got pretty soaked.
Dad and I way excited - and badass - to go on a luge ride down the mountain.
Beautiful view of Queenstown from the Skyline Restaurant
At Winnie's Bar... I love this picture :)
Enjoying a good ole' Monteith's in front of the fire before dinner. So perfect.
Tuesday was great... but also long and exhausting. We woke up at 5:45 in order to grab a coffee and catch our bus for Doubtful Sounds at 6:30 a.m. If you're curious what a "Sound" is... well... good question. I'm really still not quite sure so look it up! But I'd describe it as an inlet of water that is formed by a larger body of water? For example... if you take Doubtful Sounds to the very end of the inlet, you will be in the Tasman Sea. Don't quote me on that... I should probably know... but still. Anyways! We left at sunrise and after a 3 hour bus ride, 1 hour boat ride, and another 1 hour bus ride were finally on the boat in Doubtful Sounds by lunchtime. Throughout the 3-hour boat ride around Doubtful Sounds we... got to see a couple penguins, enjoyed a beautiful landscape, took plenty of pictures, were entertained by a little Asian boy, and dozed off numerous times. It was a great trip, but it was exhausting traveling all day and not really doing much else. I had an interesting conversation on the bus ride home with this snotty Australian woman. This lady had no problem informing me of how much she hated her mother (who was traveling with her on the same bus) and also told me how she was applying for teaching jobs in Texas but was refusing to change her way of spelling to fit the "American way" (Get rid of the additional "U's" and put the "Z's" back into words where Aussies use "S's"). What a snot. If I was applying for a job in Australia, I would probably add a few U's just for kicks and good measure. I hope she's jobless. (Is that mean!?)
We got back to town around 7 pm VERY hungry and tired from the long day. We ended up at this restaurant, The Lonestar (not the same chain as the US restaurant) since the popular Ferg Burger restaurant in town had a line out the door. The Lonestar had the typical food found on any common American/NZ style menu... ya know... However, it took us a good 1 1/2 hours before we got our food which made for some angry Millers. Plus, the waiter and manager were very sketch and looked like they were part of a mob--super cool. It was no fun, but I actually ran into a friend that lives at DLC with me at the same restaurant. She was sitting with a STA Travel group at the table right next to us! Of all towns and restaurants to be in... it is a very small world. It was great to talk to her for a while, but that didn't dismiss the fact that our food came out ridiculously late and was luke warm when we got it.
Queenstown was absolutely lovely... very touristy, but it works when you yourself is a tourist. :) It was definitely a place I could have stayed in for much longer, but Lonestar left a bad taste in our mouth and it was okay that we were left the next day.
So... great city. Definitely go visit. Do everything I did (plus bungee jump :)) And don't eat at Lonestar. That about sums it up.
Doubtful Sounds
Looking down at Doubtful Sounds from Wilmot Pass
The back of our tour bus had a whole bunch of kiwi birds!! The kiwi is NZ's national symbol, hence the reason why New Zealanders are often referred to as "Kiwis".
We found the LOTR's walking trees! The trees were enormous and honestly looked like the ones in the movie. It was scary.
Wednesday morning, we got up early and made our way to the Queenstown Airport. Funny story: At 7 a.m. we were the first ones at the airport. Haha! Alright, maybe there was 1 lady getting ready to work at the check-in counter, but we definitely had to wait a good 15 minutes before someone checked us is. Another funny story: You can show up for a domestic flight about 15 minutes before the flight will take off, and they will still let you check-in. About 30 minutes for an international flight out of NZ.
The sunrise in Queenstown while driving to the airport. I absolutely love New Zealand.
We flew from Queenstown to Rotorua (on the North Island) in the world's smallest plane next to the one we took up to the glacier. We had been warned by travelers and Kiwis that Rotorua smelled pretty bad, and it wasn't until I landed when I realized why everyone warned us. Rotorua has a very distinctive sulfur smell due to the steam from the numerous hot springs, geysers, and mud baths in the town. It is worse in certain areas depending on which way the wind was blowing on the certain day. While we were visiting, I would say we were lucky that the wind wasn't blowing towards our hotel. We relaxed the first day and ate a yummy (and huge) lunch at Fat Dog Cafe. It was a funky place that used different table center pieces instead of a numbered sign to let the servers know which table was which. We got a huge piece of bark. Super cool.
That night, we had quite the cultural experience! We took a trip out to this recreated Maori Village in the woods where actors taught us about New Zealand's history and its Maori people through a special performance and a buffet styled dinner. It was pretty cool, but also terrifying because I guess Maori people would perform absolutely freak-tastic actions to scare off their enemies, so naturally these actors had to make the faces as well. Their famous performance includes: huge bulging eyes, tongue sticking WAY out, scary hooting and ticking noises, and very little clothing on very large men. Attractive? I'm not so sure. It was a great night, complete with Karaoke on the bus ride to the village and back. I also learned a lot about the Maori culture including the saying, "Kia Ora" which basically can mean "Hello", "How are you", "Good to see you", "I love you", "I hate you", and "Go away, you smell horrid"
So maybe not the last 3 things... but ya know, I actually have no idea. It seemed to mean A LOT though.
Fat Dog Cafe-- Rotorua, NZ. Delicious, but still a ridiculous amount of food!
Told you they were kinda scary. I look so innocent standing next to these two.
Thursday we had a full day touring around Rotorua and finding out what the town was all about. The tour started off by taking us around to various geysers and hot springs along the road. We then traveled to "Te Puia" where we saw more hot springs and geysers going off all around us and was able to see a Kiwi bird, which is rare to find since there are very few of them and they are nocturnal animals. There was also an actual carving school there where it was neat to see men still continuing to carve like the Maori people did hundreds of years ago. Afterwards, we took the bus to the famous Rotorua Agrodome. There we saw an extremely entertaining and hilarious sheep show (only in NZ... home of the sheep), which also included watching a the host sheer a sheep on stage, milk a cow, and ME feeding little baby lambs!! There was an opportunity to volunteer to get on stage, so I quickly threw my hand in the arm and luckily got on stage! I had the best job: feeding the baby lambs. It was so so so adorable. When the show was over, we made our way over to the Rainbow Spring Kiwi Wildlife Park which was basically a zoo... minus the exciting crazy dangerous animals, plus hundreds of beautiful birds and massive trees.
When the tour was over, we were dropped off to take another gondola ride up to another skyline restaurant/luge ride area overlooking Rotorua! They just love the gondola rides and great views in New Zealand. It was good food and I have a new liking for Pavlova, an Aussie and New Zealand dessert. I'm sure my mom would be extremely grateful if I found a way to bring some home for her :)
That night we had a yummy dinner & ice cream dessert in town before going to bed early since we had to wake up early and drive some more the next day.
OH WAIT. Nevermind... Let's not forget that Dad and I found a creepy movie about killer ghosts in trees that kept us up for a good couple hours longer than necessary.
Looks cool... smells pretty gross.
Hahahahahaha--my favorite. My mom makes a mean Maori impression.
Te Puia hot springs and geysers
Agrodome Sheep Show-- feeding the precious baby lambs!!! The Grandma on the left is almost just as precious.
The outrageous host sheering a sheep on stage. It was crazy how fast he did it. It looked like it hurt the sheep, but I guess it doesn't bother them one bit to be in such an uncomfortable position!?
Friday morning, we drove quite a distance in order to make it to our Black Caves rafting experience. Oh boy. And what an experience that was. I pictured getting into a raft for 8 and having to fight our way through some rapids. Well, I was ALL wrong. Every individual had to gear up into a ridiculous amount of uncomfortably tight, awkward, and really terrible smelling wet suits and then were handed an inner tube. We took a van down to this little river where our fearless and slightly cocky hippie leaders told us that we had to practice jumping in the water with our inner tubes since we'd be "jumping down waterfalls in the pitched black caves". Hmmm... excusssse me? It was outrageous and the most terrifying thing ever. It was even worse in the dark caves when the leaders warned us about sharp rock ledges that we had avoid by "jumping over" or else we'd get seriously injured. To make matters worse, it was extremely cold being so far underground in water so I was shaking with coldness and fright. Thankfully the young girl in the group told us all AFTER the adventure that she spotted an huge eel in the water before she was the first to jump down the first waterfall. I'm guessing I would have died if I had found out while in the water.
We survived so many adventures in New Zealand! :) It was an amazing trip with my parents and I was really sad to have to say 'bye' to them. I wanted nothing else than to jump on their flight back to Los Angeles instead of Sydney from the Auckland Airport. However, I'm continuing to do well here, even though I still cannot wait to get back to the comfort of my home, family, and friends at the end of June.
Sorry about the LONNNNG essay of a blog! Jeeeez. This honestly took me numerous hours over a few days span to get this baby done, so I hope you at least enjoy it a littttle bit.
I love you all & Happy *late* Mother's Day!
xoxo,
Carly
