Sydney

We spent a week in Sydney. Jess and I stayed at a backpackers near the major shopping and business areas of the city. All week our diet consisted of Thai, Chinese, pizza, and more Thai. We had a mixed time. Jess and I bought five different airline tickets, and took care of our Philippines visa and Indonesian visa. Needless to say we were very busy. I don't feel like I could accurately record the beauty and character of the city because of my slightly jaded emotions....but here it goes.
Jess and I thought Sydney to be a normal (average) city for a few days, until we took a walk down to Darling harbor and watched the sunset and the light fade. This led from the colorful reflections of the city buildings, to the brilliant shining of city lights dancing across the water. The air was much warmer than all of NZ and Melbourne. This was just the beginning. The next day Jess and I paid a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain. (The most diverse and beautiful gardens that I have ever seen)
Walking from the city we headed in to Hyde Park. As we walked in we passed a giant chess set where a couple of Italian men were in a match. The walkway led up to the Archibald Fountain, which is there to commemorate the relationship between Australia and France during WW l. There were groups of school children on a field trip running around and music from a man playing Spanish guitar. A little further and we were at St. James Church. The construction of the church was completed in 1824 and is Sydney's oldest existing place of worship. From there we went past the Anzac Memorial, up past the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and into the Gardens. One of the garden's most striking features is that it is inhabited by thousands of fruit bats (flying foxes). They hang all over the trees around the palm groves. At night their silouettes can be seen souring across the sky. Other attraction within the gardens are ponds (with eels), a succulents garden, the rose garden, the herb garden.....and so much more.. Jess and I loved the giant cockatoos that live in the trees. They have a menacing screech that can be heard from a mile away. We had the opportunity to have them perch on us. The photos will say it all. This was an unforgettable experience. We walked up to the famous Mrs. Macquaries Chair ( a seat fashioned out of a rock) from there one can view the harbor.
The next day we walked to the famous Sydney Opera House. Something that was new to me was that it is made out of tons of square white tiles. It was lovely. That night we went back to the Art gallery of New South Wales for a night at the museum. Literally. There was a special program where we had a guided tour through the "Truly Dutch" exhibit. This display was of post WW ll abstract paintings from Holland. It was interesting and informative to hear about the the influence upon the art community after the war. The rest of the museum was fun. My favorite area was in thee style of art nouveau, one piece in particular was of a young woman playing a flute in the woods with about ten magpie's gathered around her watching. It was titled, "The Music Lesson".a
We saw a professional skate competition the day that we left. That was exciting. We watched it with two of our roommates. Ah, our roommates. We were staying with a French, an Italian, an Irish and a Chinese. All in one room. We were the first Americans that the Chinese guy had ever met. He talked to us about the Chinese culture and his experience as an international student with a desire to immigrate. There are so many challenges... I cannot even begin to explain how he described his experience. We are so lucky to live the lives that we do.
Well, Love you Family and Friends!! Hope summer has been so much fun back home!!

Kyneton Photos

Bushland

Jess's parents gave us the gift of a week stay in Bushland! We had a nice time. We stayed in our own little house, in a Eucalypti forest. This was so much different from a hostel. We had a fresh breath of privacy, comfort, and peace. The main activities we enjoyed were riding our borrowed bicycles around the lake, and over to the tennis courts daily. This is where we would duke it out, on the court. We were happy to at least be able to hit the tennis ball back and forth for a while.
We were both excited to received our 10 lb, and 8 lb four piece fly rods in the mail. Along with backing, fly line, flies, baskets, reels, and a few more bits and pieces. It was like Christmas. Jess and I took turns opening each box within a box.:O)On Tues. at sunset we were riding around the lake to see if any fish were rising, when we spotted a bon fire off near a house. Being the country kids that we are, we couldn't resist the thought of throwing a few sticks in. We ditched the bikes and wandered over. Once we reach the fire we met a couple of musicians. Steve and his wife Sarah. Steve works on one of the largest thoroughbred race horse land in the country.
After the fire they introduced us to their Stallion in the back named Walky, then played us a concert. It was fantastic. Jess and I had just been talking about how this is the area where we would meet real Australians. We enjoyed how down to earth and nice all of the local people were.
The night before we left, Jess and I had the pleasure of seeing about ten kangaroos. One had a joey in her pouch! It was a beautiful sight!
We enjoyed the wildlife. Mostly the Magpies, who were even noisier than the crows. They would flock from tree to tree singing abstract flute-like songs.
Thanks mom and dad!

Melbourne!

Melbourne!

We just spent the last week in Melbourne. Our first experience in a big city in Australia. We had a great time visiting museums, exploring side alley cafes, and viewing the diverse architecture. Melbourne is truely the city of lights and color. There was a theme to it, " light up the winter". Many of the downtown buildings had an abstract swirl or splash of a color capping it off or incorporated into the design. Jess and I were both amazed at the creativity many people (particularly youth) used in there daily wardrobe. Everyone was so "stylish". It was fun for us to walk around being the obvious backpackers. We stayed right around the corner from an ally way know to be the crowded cafe scene of Melbourne. We had a slice of cake and coffee there a couple of nights and (to me) it felt like being in a scene of a movie, having such a nice ambiance. Also, about two blocks away was the Melbourne Art Museum! We spent three different days exploring each level and admiring the vast array of works. We enjoyed each time period and seeing many paintings and etchings from well known artists ( Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Modigliani, Rembrandt etc.) It was such a different experience going from small New Zealand to such a densely populated city! We walked down the streets shoulder to shoulder with so many different people with such different ethnicity. We also ate some fabulous Indian, Chinese and Indonesian food! Jess and I visited the Royal Gardens, the Immigration Museum, and the Queen Victoria Marketplace with over 1000 stalls. Including an indoor area with permanent stalls selling meats, cheeses, wines, dips, olives, and candies. This was such an old world experience for me! We had was a very interesting time visiting the city. We may go back in a week or so for a day visit. Right now we are in a small town called Torquey. This is home to world famous Bells Beach (Point Break). In fact I am on the surf spot at the moment. Currently the waves are better than they have been in weeks, and Jess is thouroughly enjoying them. What a gift! Though, it is about 48 degrees and slowly dropping.... my fingers are cramping up a little and I have a steady nose run....BUT the sky and water are beautiful shades of blue and peach and gray. So this is what makes the trip! The times when your senses are in full effect and awarness rises. You take in the memories a little bit deeper.

Last New Zealand Post- Turangi

We are sitting in the international terminal of the Christchurch Airport. Our flight to Melbourne is scheduled to leave in four hours. I think that when I last wrote we were in Mt. Cook National Park. Well, Since then we have been to Christchurch where we visited the gardens, the art museum, and an old University built similarly to a castle. Christchurch is said to be the the one city in New Zealand which has the most likeness to Old England. We had a nice time. Let's see....what else has happened. Oh, from Christchurch we traveled north to a small town called Kaikora. Where we had some wonderful seafood (fish and chips) and visited with one of our German friends who we had been meeting up with since Nelson. We shared a nice dinner of Bangers and Mash (sausages and mashed potatoes). The following day we took the ferry across the Cook Straight (again), this time from the South to the North Island. Jess and I spent a good portion of the three hour trip up on the top deck where there are good views and where the wind is powerful. Once back on the North Island we spent two nights at the YHA Hostel in Wellington. We visited the most famous museum in NZ called Te Papa. One of the displays was the only collausal squid ever caught (believed to have been a baby) measuring up at fourteen feet long. It was preserved in formalin in a large viewing case. Just incredible...
From Wellington, we went North and were dropped off from our bus. We said many goodbyes to all of our friends on the bus who we had met up with again, and had literally been traveling with the past 25 days. We stayed in the small fishing town of Turangi. Turangi is the self proclaimed trout capital of the world and Jess was back for more fishing. First thing we did after checking into the hostel was go to the tackle store in the town square. Jess rented his gear and went out for the evening. I was worried when he didn't come back until after dark, but was so excited to see see him upon return with a four to five pound rainbow trout, and a smile. This was the perfect gift considering it was his 25th birthday. Jess gave the fish to a nice couple who had spent the last twenty years living in Papau New Guinea. We visited with them that night.
The next morning Jess and I went out on the Tongariro River (the most famous river in NZ) and spent a few hours fishing (he fishing, and I reading). Jess caught two more beautiful fish. By then he had had more success than the locals and we were both so hungry we headed back. One of the men who worked at our hostel brought his smoker over to cook the trout. We ate one and gave him the other.
New Zealand is often called the ultimate fly fisherman's challenge. The water is extremely clear and the levels low, which adds to the difficulty. The fishing will really come alive later in June once it starts raining. Rain causes the river to rise. Once risen, tens of thousands of adult rainbow trout swim upstream from Lake Taupo (NZ largest lake) to spawn. It is estamated that only one-third of these trout will return to the river the following year. The others are either caught , stay within the river, or die. This world famous river becomes very busy with angelers in the winter. All rainbow trout in New Zealand were intoduded from Northern California in the 1800's.
The next five days we only saw one angler who had caught a fish. Jesse thanks the Lord for hooking the fish up for him and for the amazing experience he had. We spent five nights in Turangi then took the Kiwi bus up to Taupo for the night. The next day we hopped on the bus and headed north once again. We picked up 30 people in the next town, five of them were our good English girl friends from our bus who we had just said goodbye to, and three of them were Irish boys who we bunked with in Queenstown. We had to laugh from then on every time we said goodbye, knowing that it is more than likely that we would see them again. We made it to Auckland and completed our full tour of NZ. Though we have loved our experience here and it is hard to imagine having a better time , we are happy to start the next chapter of this trip.