sydney is better with a friend on vacation...

i know, i know… i haven’t been keeping up with this thing all too well (cough allie cough). better late than never, i always say.

since my nzed trip, there have been a quite a few fun and different happenings in my life. the day (literally the day) after my return, my friend amanda from nj came for a visit to sydney! and boy was i happy to see her! it was absolutely lovely having one little piece of home with me for 2.5 weeks and devastating to see that piece return without me!! her 2.5 weeks here with me honestly brightened sydney in my eyes. don’t get me wrong, i absolutely loved sydney before she arrived, but having her here and seeing her experience the city (and being able to experience it all over again – and through a tourist’s eyes) was incredible! here’s a rundown of the awesome activities that we did during her visit:

picnic in rushcutter’s bay, visits to hyde park, tour of botanical gardens (::sigh:: i love the botanical gardens), visit to the nsw state art museum in the domain, lunch at circular quay, ferry ride to taronga zoo – including a seal show, giraffes (i love them!!!), aussie animals, elephants!, and a gondola ride – so great, thai food, hunter valley wine tour, hand feeding kangas at the reptile zoo (or being attacked in amanda’s case – no harm done though!!), saturday night at the ivy (a gorgeous & fun club), an attempt to watch the sunrise at bondi beach at 6 o’clock am (a bit too cloudy… oops), dinner aboard a pirate ship! (well, a tall ship – close enough!), the ferris wheel, the carousel and coney island at luna park, an amazing dinner and the magic flute – the opera! – at the sydney opera house, over 1,000 steps at the bridge climb, a superb view at the sydney tower, a few movies here and there, pancakes on the rocks (twice!), the rocks market, the 3D dinosaur movie at the world’s largest imax theatre, a stroll around darling harbour, weekend in the blue mountains including the blue mountains explorer bus, the jenolan caves, and tons of bushwalks, and last (but most certainly not least) the extreme shark dive at the manly aquarium (which was more remarkable than i can even describe!!!!)!

so yeah, she and i did a lot during her 2.5 wk vacation. and i loved it. and she loved it. and it was perfect! i would have never done some of the activities that mandy and i did during her stay if she hadn’t been here…

after mandy’s departure (tear), i packed my things and prepared for my move. see, our 6 month lease was up on the apartment in elizabeth bay and i was not too keen on extending it since i’m going on an ultimate vacation myself very soon. so, i moved to north bondi in with my friends sara & oved. (i worked w/ sara at glicks and we’ve been friends ever since) i’m loving living so close to the beach again and have been known to frequent the beach on both saturdays and sundays! and it’s pretty wonderful living in a cute town again rather than so close to the cross! i’m staying with sara until i leave for my trip and then again right before i leave this country in june.

i head out for a 7 week vacation on april 19th. i fly out to alice springs (the outback) and work my way down to melbourne and then east to canberra and back to sydney and then all the way up the east coast to cairns. i am extremely excited for what awaits me on this trip!!! i have some plans for my time spent, but not everything. thank goodness for the lonely planet book australia – otherwise i’d probably be lost without any idea of what to do for 7 weeks! (7 weeks… i can’t believe i am going to just travel for seven whole weeks!!!!!)

oh and, no worries, i’ll keep you posted on my whereabouts and plans!

ps. have you counted the months that i’ve been away thus far – it’s been about 8 months. and i return to nj in june. oy.

new zealand.

i've been back from nz for about a week already. and all i can keep thinking about is how absolutely incredible that country is. i have never seen so many beautiful sights in my life. i suppose that is what the world looked like before we came around to mess things up! i don't know what else to say other than incredible.

here's what liz & i did on this adventure:

christchurch - kaikoura - blenheim - nelson - motueka - kaiteriteri - marahau - takaka - motueka - murchison - punakaiki - greymouth - hokitika - franz joseph - fox glacier - franz joseph - wanaka - queenstown - dunedin - christchurch.

whew. what a trip!

and here are the details (well, some anyway):

day (well actually night and then day) 1 & 2: we only spent the night in christchurch and then picked up our car in the morning. then we started driving on the left side of the road! crazy. but not as bad as i thought it would have been. however, in the first 45 seconds, i had a roundabout to deal with! that was the most confusing moment of all the driving, i'd say! well, that and the 7,000 one lane bridges! kiwis are crazy for building so many one lane bridges!?!

then, in kaikoura, we saw a colony of seals. it was raining so we moved along to blenheim which is really big for wine. we ended up stopping at one vineyard so liz could buy one of her favorite brands of wine. it was still raining, so we moved on to nelson.

day three: in nelson, we met some hippie hostel owner - he was really funny. we walked around the super cute little town, drove to the beach, visited the library (free internet... oh yeeeeah!) then... our brake master flex broke. actually it's called a brake master something or other. but i decided flex fits just fine. luckily, we didn't get into a car accident!?! we were also lucky that we were so near a brake shop (literally less than a block from where we stopped and figured out what was wrong!) we dropped the car off, called roadside assistance (which wasn't very helpful), and had to leave our car overnight. the guys at the brake place were extraordinarily nice and helpful.

day 4: after lance (our car) was better, we drove off to motueka where we stopped at this cafe called hot mama's cafe. now, only if you know the other half of jaychel will you understand the importance of a cafe called hot mama's. it even jogged a memory of how to say hot mamas in russian. anyway, after the cafe, we went to see the golden sands in kaiteriteri, to abel tasman national park in marahau, and to the second clearest springs in the world in takaka. then it was back to motueka to stay in a little hut on a vineyard.

day 5: from motueka we drove to punakaiki (famous for blowholes and pancake rocks). we stopped in the funkiest cafe in murchison along the way. the pancake rocks were really cool. but the blowholes didn't blow at high tide because the waters were a little too calm. but we did get to see some dolphins which was pretty awesome!

after the pancake rocks, we moved on towards hokitika with a stop in greymouth to buy some gas and groceries. we heard greymouth wasn't anything special and didn't see anything in our travel book to make us think otherwise. after that quick stop, we made it to hokitika (where my kiwi friend sheena is basically from!) and drove out to see the hokitika gorges. i have never seen such naturally blue water. it was like looking into a swimming pool and seeing the blue lining, but actually, it was natural. insane & beautiful. then, after dark, we drove to a spot on the highway where there was a dell. a glowworm dell. those suckers can really glow. creeped me out a bit because of the darkness, but well worth it!

day 6: from hokitika we drove straight to franz joseph! we did a short walk to view the incredible glacier before driving further south to fox glacier. once in fox glacier, we made our way to lake matheson (the famous reflection lake) and then back to town to meet up with our tour guide. the tour took us to the base of the glacier and then our guide took us on a hike up the glacier and onto the ice. very adventurous. very fun. 800 stairs to make it up to where we needed to be before we even stepped onto the ice! good exercise, i'd say! and it was just extraordinary. i never thought i'd climb a glacier in my life! and then i did. and i'd love to do it again!! after the half day hike, we went back to the hostel in franz joseph where we were staying the night and hopped in the hot tub for some r&r before making our way to the blue ice cafe. a perfect ending to a perfect day!

day 7: drove for about 5 or 6 hours to lake wanaka. very beautiful scenery along the way and a very beautiful lake at that! we decided to take it easy on day six and just rested in the hostel for a while and had a quiet evening. we knew the next few days would be action packed, so it was probably a good choice!

day 8: a drive up some more mountains and through a cloud east into queenstown - adventure capital of the world! straight away, we did the shot over jet boat ride and then a few hours of white water rafting (my favorite activity the entire trip!) of course we went out that night for some fun! ;)

day 9: just ask to see the video of our adventure activity when you next see me!!! haha. i'll keep you in suspense...

day 10: we had plans to go to milford sound, but it was rainy and gross out. so we made a decision to not commute for a total of 10 hours to be on a boat for 1.5 hours. and instead, we saw a choice movie and relaxed instead.

day 11: drove through the rain to dunedin. there was a parade going on (i suspect it was for our arrival!) when we got to the town. toured cadbury factory and speights brewery.

day 12: long drive back to christchurch. it stopped raining overnight. but we had to ford the river because of some flooding on the only road that could take us from dunedin to christchurch! it was crazy, but there were many police officers around to make sure we were safe. returned the car, took the bus into christchurch and did some walking around the town. quiet day. then back to the airport for an early morning flight.

now, i'm back in sydney. the day after my return from nz, i picked up my nj friend mandy and we're taking on this city! great fun! more on that another time though!!!

hope you enjoyed my novel on nz!!