Home Again

I’m finally home after a very long day of traveling. It has taken me a couple of days to adjust, but I think I’m back on US time! Tomorrow is Christmas and my family is all together, skiing, laughing, and eating till we can’t walk. This is my favorite time of the year. Even though I miss Australia and all of my friends I made there, it is really nice to be home in my own big bed again! It is also very nice to be eating American food! I missed home cooked meals so much. I’m sad to say goodbye to Australia and all my memories I made there but I know that some day I will go back, so it is not good bye, it’s merely see you soon. Thanks for all the good times Australia!! I had the best four months of my life ☺

New Zealand: Expect the unexpected, but even that wont cut it.

Our trip started off with us missing the bus that went to straight to the train station. Instead we took the bus that stops along the way to the train station. We missed the 12:53 train so we had to take the 1:23 train instead. The train was a little longer than anticipated so we didn’t get to the airport until 3 o’clock. Our plane to New Zealand was at 4:15…We waited for 10 mins in line while the one man in front of us was arguing with the Jetstar crew about his visa. Australians are so laid back that there was only one person working. After 15 minutes of worrying that we weren’t going to make our flight we finally went up to the desk and asked two women who looked they weren’t doing anything if they could help us. In a very rude response they said they could not help us and that we just had to wait in line. Finally the guy who was having problems with his papers left and Meghan, Kelly and I were able to check in. I went first because I had a checked bag. I handed the lady my papers with my flight info and my passport and she asked if I was traveling with anyone. I told her I was and waved over Kelly and Meg. The lady then asked Meg and Kelly for their papers and they said oh we don’t have them but we are all on the same trip. Her response was “ Oh, well you can’t go to New Zealand”. That was seriously when we should have just said OK and turned around and went home. HAHA. Not really but still, it was a bad omen of what was to come. After finally getting Meg and Kelly checked in with other people working who were able to print out the correct papers for them we went through immigration and security. While going through security the security guard asked whose bag this was, it was Meg’s. We all knew right away it was about, the food. She had peanut butter and jelly, which apparently are dangerous to New Zealand and are not allowed to be taken out of the country. I should have just packed the pb and j in my checked bag and we would have been fine. We made it through immigration with no problems and then we were off to our gate. We stopped to get food because we wouldn’t be landing in New Zealand until ten. I went to subway, and like the rest of Australia there was only one person working so it took another 20 minutes for him to make two sandwiches. When we got to our gate there was no sign saying when it was going to leave and the person that was working the desk was the same women who told us we couldn’t go to New Zealand without the papers, it’s a very small airport and apparently they don’t have adequate staff.
The plane ride was fine, three hours and I was so tired that I slept most of it. I also had a book that I was reading. Our plane was late getting in so we didn’t arrive in Christchurch until 10:30. By the time we went through customs and got my bag it was past 11. We found a bus that went into the city and we were on our way to the hostel for the night. We had to be back at the airport at 7 the next morning. On the bus I met a nice couple from San Francisco. The women used to live in Aurora, OH!!! No just kidding, she lived in Kalamazoo Michigan, but I still thought that was a little creepy. When we got off the bus and were walking to our hostel we were greeted by a girl dressed as a cat who said “Welcome to Christchurch!!” Tiger and another cat were accompanying her and as we looked around it seemed as if we were the only ones who weren’t dressed up. There was some big dress up Christmas party that was going on in the city and we weren’t invited. We found our hostel in the middle of the town and got all checked in. By the time we were checked in it was already 12, but with the time change it only felt like 9. We asked people around the hostel where was a good place to eat, and if anything was still open. They told us Denny’s was a good place to go. Duh! We are from America we know Denny’s is good! We started walking in the direction that some lady from a convenience store told us to walk in. After 20 minutes in the cold weather and walking down the sidewalk we finally found Denny’s! I had pancakes and a milkshake and it was delicious. We made our back to the hostel and was asleep by 2:30. Our Shuttle for the airport was at 6:50.
Sunday December 6th
We were the first ones to check into the airport, of course. The flight was only 50 minutes or so and I just listened to my ipod the entire way. Most of the flight was cloudy and you couldn’t see anything out of the window. Then out of the clouds a huge mountain popped out. It was so green and the lake below it was crystal clear blue. It was gorgeous! The grass was so green and there were sheep everywhere. It reminded me a lot of Heber, UT. Queenstown is a small little town that is enclosed by mountains and a lake. When we got in there were clouds still hovering over the top of the mountains. It was considerably colder in Queenstown than Australia. It felt nice to breath in mountain fresh air! We found the shuttle to the city and made our way to Nomads, our hostel for the next 5 days. It was brand new and very nice. We were in an all girls 6 person dorm and our roommates were all very nice. One was even from Santa Cruz, Ca! She was really nice and we became good friends! We were so hungry for breakfast so we started walking around and tried to find something good. We found ourselves at Patagonia. I got the most delicious home made croissant and jams and butter I have ever had!! I also got a small piece of chocolate that was yummy. After breakfast we walked around the city and explored. While we were walking around we saw a man who was taking pictures of a stuffed Kiwi next to other real birds! It was probably the strangest thing I have seen in my time abroad! The town in so small that it didn’t take long for us to find all the cool shops and scope out the food. We had Italian for dinner and it was so good. So far the food in New Zealand was absolutely delicious!! After dinner we went to a local bar that people suggested we go to. It was called World Bar and it is famous are there are World Bars all over the world. Their specialty is to serve the drinks in teapots. After we drank a teapot we decided to head back to the hostel. We were scheduled to have an early morning the next day.
Monday December 7th
Today I woke up and was so excited for our scenic flight over Milford Sound. The pictures I have seen of it are breathtaking! We went down stairs to make sure the company knew they were picking us up. I looked outside and realized it was a little cloudy in the distance but didn’t look that bad. We called the company and they didn’t have very good news for us. They said our flight had been cancelled due to weather and that they could try and put us on a later flight that afternoon. As bummed as we were that we couldn’t fly right then we agreed to reschedule. Our friend Kelly had already gone out for the day because she was bungee jumping. We waited around until noonish, had some breakfast and walked around the town some more. At 1215 we called the company again to make sure our flight was on and again they only had bad news. They said the weather at the Sound was too bad for the little plane to fly in. So again we rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the day we spent walking through the hills of the town and admiring all the beautiful houses. The weather outside only got better as the day went on and by 5 o’clock it was beautiful clear sunny blue skies! We were mad we didn’t get to fly to Milford but excited about what we had planned for the night. We got showered and dressed up and made our way to the closet mountain for our Gondola ride, luge, and then dinner. When we got to the Gondola they took a picture of the four of us and off we were up to the top of the mountain. When we got to the top we had to put on helmets and took a chair lift up off we went on our luge ride. It was so much fun! We did it three times! The first one we had to take the scenic track which was cool but the advanced track was even better! The luge was unlike any other luge I have ever been on. It was really fun and went pretty fast. After lugeing and feeling like a 5 year old kid, we went and checked in with the receptionist for our dinner. It was a delicious 6 course buffet dinner that could feed a hundred people. The food was absolutely divine! I had steak, pasta, potatoes, veggies, corn, bread, they had seafood but I didn’t eat any, and they had a dessert plate I could have died for!! I had so much dessert that I couldn’t sleep on my stomach!!
Tuesday December 8th
I woke up with terrible acid reflux from my delicious dinner the night before, but I went to the store around the corner and bought some antacids and popped them all day long. It was raining in the morning but we walked over to our activity of the day but of course, it was canceled. We were supposed to be going on a jet boat safari. It was cancelled for who knows why so we just went to starbucks got some breakfast and hot chocolate and tried to think of something we could do for the day. After we had a quick nap we were got showered and ready and hoped the rain was gone. It wasn’t. So we sat by the fireplace in our hostel and tried to keep our hopes up that the weather would turn for the better. It did of course at 5 or 6 o’clock so we went out for dessert before dinner to celebrate. We had a delicious chocolate brownie with ice cream and hot fudge! We had a late dinner that night at a place right across from our hostel at Monty’s.
Wednesday December 9th
Kelly and Meghan had skydiving scheduled for this morning. But like everything else, it was also cancelled. The weather was once again terrible and it was raining and cloudy outside. After a nice hot shower we were sitting by the fire again playing scrabble. For a late breakfast I had the best Belgium waffles ever with two kinds of gelato! It was by far the best meal I had in New Zealand. We walked around the town some more trying to stay dry from the rain but found ourselves curled up by the fireplace again. After I finished the book I brought with me we decided to find a place for dinner. We asked around and found a cute little restaurant with live music right on the water, called “pub on the Warf” I had a delicious salad with chicken on it and for dessert we walked to a fudge shop and I got a nice piece of the milk chocolate. After dinner we walked around the town some more and walked down by the lake singing Christmas carols and admiring all the Christmas decorations that were in the shop windows. It was the perfect last night in Queenstown. The weather was lovely, clear skies and the stars were starting to come out. It was getting pretty chilly so we tired to find a restaurant with a fire and we ended up walking into Buffalo Bar. We sat in front of the fire until we were warm and then started walking again. We decided to head back to the World Bar and to our surprise a band was playing and they turned out to be pretty good. We stayed until 1130 then went to sleep.
Thursday December 10th
Of course when we woke up it was clear blue skies and sunny and warm out. We had nothing planned except a flight back up to Christchurch at noon. We walked to the local burger joint and had a deliciously huge burger. All the burgers in Australia haven’t been so tasty so we were excited for these. Fergburger is quite popular and at 1115 am they had already served 40 people! After we finished our lunch we walked to the fudge shop and had one last little taste of the fudge. We took our last pictures and then we were off to the airport. We when were on the plane to Christchurch the pilot gave us the weather update and guess what…….rain and cloudy skies. The weather from Queenstown followed us to Christchurch. Regardless of the rain and cold weather we walked around Christchurch bought our last souvenirs and ate Chinese food for dinner. I found a cute little cupcake bakery and bought a passion fruit cupcake for dessert. We had an early flight back to Australia so we went to bed early and had a 3:15 wake up call, and a 3:30 shuttle to the airport.
Friday December 11
We got to the airport early and got some breakfast and then after paying a departure fee and scrambling through security, customs, and immigration we were at the gate waiting for our plane. At this point in time all I wanted to do was be back in warm sunny Australia. On the plane I had a whole row to myself so I got to lie down and tried to get some sleep. We got into Brisbane at 7 am and it took a good hour and half to get through customs, get my bag and go through security again. We had to wait for the train to take us back to Robina and then we would get on a bus and finally be back at Bond. It felt like we would never make it. I slept a little on the train but after that nap I didn’t get any sleep until 10 o’clock that night. I was so exhausted!!

I had a final on Saturday and now its Sunday. I have one week left here in Australia. It seems like forever ago I was waving goodbye to Dad at the airport and I was off, on my own for four months. It has been an amazing experience and I really just cant imagine what life would be like without the memories of Australia and New Zealand. I have two finals Tuesday then it beach, pool, and packing then home sweet home!!

Almost Farewell

Off to New Zealand. By the time I get back I will only have a week left in Australia. This has flown by. Packing last night and this morning it hit me that we are almost done here. I am so excited to go to New Zealand I cant even wait. After an hour and a half train ride, then a three hour flight I will be in Christchurch! We are flying to Queenstown tomorrow morning and then our real adventures begin. I am keeping a journal so that I can remember all the fun things I do and will be sure to write them here when I come home. Classes are done, New Zealand here I Come! I only have three finals and then its beach and pool for four days then back to the USA. I’m going from 85 and sunny to 25 and snowy….ill be sure to bring home some ugg boots to keep me nice and warm!!