I'm sure everyone's bored with my stories but just a few more!
After Franz Josef we went to a gorgeous town called Wanaka. The lakes around there were surrounded by mountains and it was amazing. Steph and really didn't want to go out so we went to the cutest little movie theater ever. They play about two movies a day and instead of movie seats they have couches! It was so comfy! They stopped the movie in the middle and served us these massive, delicious, hot cookies-sooo good! And we had hot chocolate with mallows and chai lattes and fanta. As you can tell I just loved it.
We're now in Queenstown, the party capital of the country. Unfortunately, my camera broke before we got to Wanaka. :( So I had to purchase a new camera, so expensive! But oh well, more pictures to come I suppose! We went out last night and it was quite the experience. Lots of dancing and not dancing like we do at home. I'm learning all the UK dance moves, yeah I'm getting cool I know.
We're headed to Milford Sound tomorrow, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm really excited! We're in Queenstown for 5 more days so we have lots of time to relax and adventure.
Oh yeah! I bungy jumped yesterday!!! It was definitely a thrill. We just did a 40m jump, which was high enough for me! On Friday though we're doing a canyon swing and thats 109m high so I might pee myself a little. I bought the pictures though so you'll have to look at them all!
I'll try to update at least once more before we go back to school. And I'll update all the photos as soon as I'm back!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Kiwi Adventures
Hello dear loved ones! I've been a blogging hiatus but the Internet in New Zealand is nearly non-existent. I'll just do a little catch up quickly; if I spell something wrong or the grammar has a few mistakes you'll have to cut me some slack, blogging on my phone is hard.
On the 26th Steph and I left Australia to begin our adventures in New Zealand. Our flight didn't leave until the evening so we went around Sydney and celebrated Australia day for a bit. Our last day didn't give us any breaks though. The elevator in our hotel was broken so if you can imagine two girls carrying over 100lbs of luggage in a stairwell I'm sure you'll get a laugh. Needless to say we were absolutely dripping when we made it to the bottom. It was raining, again, in Sydney when we left so genius me didn't wear any sunscreen that morning. But just my luck, it stopped raining and I naturally got fried. Luckily it wasn't a farmers tan though. We toured Darling Harbour for the morning and had some more gelato, that will be a weakness for me.
When we finally made it to the airport that evening it was one of my most pleasant airport experiences ever, weird. We must've looked absolutely lost and confused because a pilot stopped and showed us where the gate we needed was and helped us put quite a bit. While checking in we spotted some dashing guys and to our surprise and luck, they sat right next to us. ;) If you've ever been to an international airport you know about the duty free zones-my new favorite places. All of the duty free locations sell alcohol at a tax-free price so they're not extremely expensive. While going through duty free a vendor stopped us and there we were taking shots in the airport-it was nasty gin but hey I'll take anything free! We also discovered there's no bologna over here, so no cold cut trios at Subway! Shoot.
We landed in Christchurch around 11:30 that evening so we didn't get to our hostel until late. Unfortunately we had to wake up at 6 am the next morning. :( Last summer there was a massive earthquake in Christchurch so on our taxi to the hostel we learned a bit about it and saw a lot of the devastation. Our taxi driver was actually caught in the middle of the street during the earthquake so he told us a bit about it.
Needless to say our first hostel experience was a success. We left our hostel and caught a shuttle to the train station. On our shuttle we met an engineer from Afghanistan and she old us different stories about working there. She has 8 body guards with her at all times because the Taliban is consistently trying to attack her, terrifying right?
We took a train called the tranzalpine so it took us from one side of the country to the other basically, and right across the alps. I cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous that train ride was. New Zealand is just beautiful. I took so many photos on the train. As soon as I get back to school I'll upload my photos and you can all be jealous of the gorgeous views.
After we got off the train we began our adventure on the Kiwi Experience bus. All I have to say about the bus is that it is definitely the most interesting thing I have ever done. There's people from all over the world on the bus and they're just all characters. Most of the people weve met are from the UK though and the more and more time I spend with them the more I find myself saying weird UK phrases and small words.
Our first night on the bus we stayed at the poo pub, the second hostel experience was not as good as the first. We stayed a very small cabin and the bathrooms were out away from our cabin in a little trailer. And everything is co-Ed an boys are just SO gross and smell awful. But on the plus side the place we stayed was right on the Tasman Sea and it was SO pretty.
We left there early the next morning for Franz Josef. Steph and I signed up to do a full day glacier hike in Franz Josef, 9 hours of straight hiking. We stayed in Franz for two days and it was a fun little town. I was dying for a burger and fries and the ones they had at the bar were just delicious. I think the ketchup over here is different and it tastes much better. The room Steph and I ended up with had a bathroom attached and we actually ended up having a room to ourselves, so nice.
So yes you did read that right, I hiked a glacier. And yes it nearly killed me. Ha. We had to report to the office at 9 and get dressed for the glacier. They gave us boots, pants, crampons, and a raincoat. I absolutely ended up loving the hike on the way up, died about twice but it was all fine once I decided to start eating the glacier. It is a big ice block after all. We ended up hiking up about 16,000 feet. Insane. It was gorgeous though, also more pictures to follow. After the glacier we went into the hot springs, which was so nice and relaxing.
This post is getting a bit long so I'll have to update you on the rest of the trip later!
On the 26th Steph and I left Australia to begin our adventures in New Zealand. Our flight didn't leave until the evening so we went around Sydney and celebrated Australia day for a bit. Our last day didn't give us any breaks though. The elevator in our hotel was broken so if you can imagine two girls carrying over 100lbs of luggage in a stairwell I'm sure you'll get a laugh. Needless to say we were absolutely dripping when we made it to the bottom. It was raining, again, in Sydney when we left so genius me didn't wear any sunscreen that morning. But just my luck, it stopped raining and I naturally got fried. Luckily it wasn't a farmers tan though. We toured Darling Harbour for the morning and had some more gelato, that will be a weakness for me.
When we finally made it to the airport that evening it was one of my most pleasant airport experiences ever, weird. We must've looked absolutely lost and confused because a pilot stopped and showed us where the gate we needed was and helped us put quite a bit. While checking in we spotted some dashing guys and to our surprise and luck, they sat right next to us. ;) If you've ever been to an international airport you know about the duty free zones-my new favorite places. All of the duty free locations sell alcohol at a tax-free price so they're not extremely expensive. While going through duty free a vendor stopped us and there we were taking shots in the airport-it was nasty gin but hey I'll take anything free! We also discovered there's no bologna over here, so no cold cut trios at Subway! Shoot.
We landed in Christchurch around 11:30 that evening so we didn't get to our hostel until late. Unfortunately we had to wake up at 6 am the next morning. :( Last summer there was a massive earthquake in Christchurch so on our taxi to the hostel we learned a bit about it and saw a lot of the devastation. Our taxi driver was actually caught in the middle of the street during the earthquake so he told us a bit about it.
Needless to say our first hostel experience was a success. We left our hostel and caught a shuttle to the train station. On our shuttle we met an engineer from Afghanistan and she old us different stories about working there. She has 8 body guards with her at all times because the Taliban is consistently trying to attack her, terrifying right?
We took a train called the tranzalpine so it took us from one side of the country to the other basically, and right across the alps. I cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous that train ride was. New Zealand is just beautiful. I took so many photos on the train. As soon as I get back to school I'll upload my photos and you can all be jealous of the gorgeous views.
After we got off the train we began our adventure on the Kiwi Experience bus. All I have to say about the bus is that it is definitely the most interesting thing I have ever done. There's people from all over the world on the bus and they're just all characters. Most of the people weve met are from the UK though and the more and more time I spend with them the more I find myself saying weird UK phrases and small words.
Our first night on the bus we stayed at the poo pub, the second hostel experience was not as good as the first. We stayed a very small cabin and the bathrooms were out away from our cabin in a little trailer. And everything is co-Ed an boys are just SO gross and smell awful. But on the plus side the place we stayed was right on the Tasman Sea and it was SO pretty.
We left there early the next morning for Franz Josef. Steph and I signed up to do a full day glacier hike in Franz Josef, 9 hours of straight hiking. We stayed in Franz for two days and it was a fun little town. I was dying for a burger and fries and the ones they had at the bar were just delicious. I think the ketchup over here is different and it tastes much better. The room Steph and I ended up with had a bathroom attached and we actually ended up having a room to ourselves, so nice.
So yes you did read that right, I hiked a glacier. And yes it nearly killed me. Ha. We had to report to the office at 9 and get dressed for the glacier. They gave us boots, pants, crampons, and a raincoat. I absolutely ended up loving the hike on the way up, died about twice but it was all fine once I decided to start eating the glacier. It is a big ice block after all. We ended up hiking up about 16,000 feet. Insane. It was gorgeous though, also more pictures to follow. After the glacier we went into the hot springs, which was so nice and relaxing.
This post is getting a bit long so I'll have to update you on the rest of the trip later!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Our two day adventure in Sydney and the start of Australia Day!
Good Morning America! It is a lovely warm Thursday over here in Sydney and the festivities for Australia Day are starting soon! Australia Day is similar to the 4th of July, but it is way better. Festivities start around 10 am for the general public but people wake up and begin drinking and barbecuing as early as 6 am! This day is a big deal to Australians because they all love their country so much. They even have an Australian of the Year award which was ironically awarded to one of our beloved Actors, Geoffery Rush, who gave a wonderful speech last evening. I think Steph and I are going to go out and enjoy some of the festivities this morning before our flight to New Zealand.
Yesterday was an adventure packed day for us. We were busy for most of it! We woke up early in the morning, still getting used to this whole 16 hours ahead business, and went to the centre to get our phones purchased. I LOVE being back in the world of technology, and everyone here has an iphone so I fit right in again. We did a little shopping around the centre, the shopping is amazing by the way-too amazing! Limited myself to three cute little shirts-Australian style-and a pair of killer heals that I got for AU$15! After we shopped we headed to china town for lunch and had some DELICIOUS chicken fried rice, the chinese here will be the death of me! After lunch we decided to hit up the Paddy's Market. It was HUGE. There were vendors selling everything from lingerie to grapes! Its also the Chinese New Year here so there are Dragon dances and other celebrations going on. Steph and I got into the market and got stuck right in the middle of some dance thing, gongs and all! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, they did something with a head of lettuce-who knows what it was actually supposed to mean! But it was neat none the less. We're also catching onto some of the ling-o. We used several "Take away" boxes yesterday instead of to-go boxes.
After the market we came back to the hotel to dry off and drop our purchases off. It was raining all day yesterday:( We skyped for a bit with our wonderful friends Jess and Jenna and then headed out for more adventures.
We bought a day pass yesterday for the monorail and rode that around. We eventually took the monorail into Darling Harbour and took some pictures of the pretty harbour over the bridge! We did the supposed "world famous" Sydney Aquarium but the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is way better! We did see some weird things in there though, interesting sea life over here in Australia-too many sharks! After the aquarium we did some more shopping and ate more chinese-yum. By the time we were done with all that it was around 8:30 over here so we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home. (Steph is becoming quite the little drinker now that she is legal over here-we're very savvy with our wine purchases though. Nothing over AU$10)
We're just getting ready now to begin our day and head to New Zealand! Not sure how the internet situation will work over there so I'll try to update as much as possible!
Yesterday was an adventure packed day for us. We were busy for most of it! We woke up early in the morning, still getting used to this whole 16 hours ahead business, and went to the centre to get our phones purchased. I LOVE being back in the world of technology, and everyone here has an iphone so I fit right in again. We did a little shopping around the centre, the shopping is amazing by the way-too amazing! Limited myself to three cute little shirts-Australian style-and a pair of killer heals that I got for AU$15! After we shopped we headed to china town for lunch and had some DELICIOUS chicken fried rice, the chinese here will be the death of me! After lunch we decided to hit up the Paddy's Market. It was HUGE. There were vendors selling everything from lingerie to grapes! Its also the Chinese New Year here so there are Dragon dances and other celebrations going on. Steph and I got into the market and got stuck right in the middle of some dance thing, gongs and all! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, they did something with a head of lettuce-who knows what it was actually supposed to mean! But it was neat none the less. We're also catching onto some of the ling-o. We used several "Take away" boxes yesterday instead of to-go boxes.
After the market we came back to the hotel to dry off and drop our purchases off. It was raining all day yesterday:( We skyped for a bit with our wonderful friends Jess and Jenna and then headed out for more adventures.
We bought a day pass yesterday for the monorail and rode that around. We eventually took the monorail into Darling Harbour and took some pictures of the pretty harbour over the bridge! We did the supposed "world famous" Sydney Aquarium but the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is way better! We did see some weird things in there though, interesting sea life over here in Australia-too many sharks! After the aquarium we did some more shopping and ate more chinese-yum. By the time we were done with all that it was around 8:30 over here so we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home. (Steph is becoming quite the little drinker now that she is legal over here-we're very savvy with our wine purchases though. Nothing over AU$10)
We're just getting ready now to begin our day and head to New Zealand! Not sure how the internet situation will work over there so I'll try to update as much as possible!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Arrival in Sydney!
Good morning from Sydney! Its about 9am here on Wednesday morning, the whole time change thing is still weird to me!
We landed in Sydney yesterday morning and it is SO warm here, love it! Only downfall is that there is so much humidity because we are right on the Ocean, but hey it's the Ocean so I won't complain.
After waiting for our bags FOREVER yesterday in the Airport we hopped on a shuttle to get to our hotel. To my surprise and disappointment our hotel didn't have a shuttle like it said so we had to buy a ticket to one, shoot. I stored some of my luggage at the airport so I wouldn't have to lug it around New Zealand, which I might add was outrageously expensive, but definitely worth it. My suitcase is HUGE.
But, back to Sydney! It took us about 40 minutes to get to our hotel from the Airport just because of traffic and how busy everything is around here. The city is definitely not what I was expecting. It's almost a little run down in a lot of the city which I found odd. There are people EVERYWHERE though, always walking around or riding bikes. I've also noticed that there aren't many older vehicles around, everything is fairly new. They also have a different car company over here which I'm thinking is kind of like Chevy but it's called Holdens ( I think, I don't remember for sure) and they have those cars everywhere.
Once we arrived at our hotel we were definitely missing our American hotels. The hotel is definitely different from my Country Inn & Suites and Holiday Inns. The hotel is called The Aspire Hotel and its in a nice and quiet neighborhood, which made sleeping SO nice last night. We decided to do a hotel instead of a hostel just for the space and comfort, also the private bathroom is wonderful! We were extremely confused with the electric system over here. In order to turn on the lights you have to insert your room key into a sort of power box to turn everything on. There are WAY too many switches for me! The room, however, has a tv and fridge which is so nice. Minor downfall when we got here was that our TV didn't work so the maintenance man brought us a new one, we get a whole 5 channels. Whoop whoop! HA. I did however find a show I really enjoy called The Project, which I would compare to a combination of E!-news and Chelsea Lately- it's informational yet hilarious.
After we showered and got all clean we were ready to adventure Sydney. Before we left I almost was electrocuted by the blowdryer in the bathroom so the hair stayed wet for my safety! We definitely looked like tourists though, we wore t-shirts and athletic shorts which no one wears in the city here. Oops. I'll definitely have to wear something a bit nicer today.
We left the hotel yesterday to walk around and discovered that there are Chinese people EVERYWHERE. There are more chinese people here than there are Mexicans in USA. Everything is written in english and chinese-crazy. There's also a chinese restaurant if not two on every block downtown. YUM. It's currently the Chinese New Year so there's a lot of cool dragon and different dance things going on. Our hotel is about 5 minutes away from China town so I think we're going to go check that out today!
A few other things I noticed in Sydney: a TON of people smoke over here. The buildings are non-smoking but I bet 1 in 4 people smoke so we were always walking through cigarette smoke. Gross. Also, gas is only $1.46! Which converts to about $1.80 US dollars-still cheap! And Thursday is Australia Day so they put their gas on special so everyone can travel! How nice is that? Everyone is talking about Australia day over here, I'm going to go ahead and compare it to VEISHEA almost. Except, VEISHEA x1000. It sounds absolutely insane. Last year, they arrested over 200 people in Sydney. CRAZY.
Everything in Australia is behind in technology. You have to pay for Wifi everywhere and its only in certain places. Its $10 for 24 hours in our hotel but many restaurants offer it for free when you order drinks or food. We went and had a drink in a Pub called Cheers yesterday and used their wifi. My beer was $6 for a schooner(pronounced skooner-about 17 ounces) which I think is just too spendy to drink. We stopped at a bottle shop and bought some Moscato for the hotel though:) Steph is getting sad because no one is carding her over here, she was pretty excited to drink legally haha.
On the way home from downtown we stopped in the mall and went to the grocery store. It's no Hy-Vee but I think Cole's is a suitable replacement. MINUS the fact that Curtis Stone is EVERYWHERE. He's haunting me!
Our last stop yesterday was McDonalds-shocker if you know me! We ordered a McOz meal, figured we should try it out, which came with fries and a coke. Corn Syrup is illegal here so the pop tastes so different, but not terrible. The fries make me a little sad, they are fried in a different oil so they are more healthy and taste just weird. But to the exciting part, a McOz is a cheeseburger with A BEET on it. Ew, I hate beets! But I ate it just because I'm trying everything, but never again. The beet was too much!
We're ready for a new day here! Just getting ready and I think we're going to go hit up the Sydney Aquarium!
Monday, January 23, 2012
32 hour travel time: Success!!
Hello Mates! First blog update from Australia!
Steph and I made it here alive, obviously, and everything worked out wonderfully!! I was so nervous about the whole flying and traveling thing but it was just about perfect!
We left Sunday, the 22nd from Dallas on Quantas Airlines. First off, that was our first awesome choice, Quantas is THE BEST airline EVER. I was thrilled that the plane was half empty so Steph and I could sprawl out and sleep. We flew on an air bus, which holds anywhere from 300-400 passengers, which ended up to be a Boeing 747. The plane was so clean and comfortable! When we found our seats I was originally nervous because I thought they didn't recline but low and behold, they did! We ended up with pretty awesome seats actually, there wasn't anyone behind us kneeing our seats or anything.
When we boarded we were given a pillow, blanket, headphones, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a sleeping mask. Along with everything that was already provided we received two full meals too! Our dinner was served around 11:30 pm and it consisted of: BBQ chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, french loaf, salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, carmel creme cake, a chocolate bar, water, and drink of our choice. A little bit after the meal was served they gave us a refreshment bag for in between the meals which had a bottle of water, two chocolates, a cookie, and some crackers. They turned all the lights off and everyone was very quiet so falling asleep wasn't terrible. I ended up watching the movie What's your Number? before taking my sleeping pills and falling asleep. Sleeping was easy and difficult at the same time. Although Steph and I spread out it was still cramped. I slept for about 8 hours total, which was nice.
We were served breakfast at about 8 am US time and 2 am Australian time. Breakfast was hot and delicious! Steph and I had bacon, an asparagus and mushroom omelet, blueberry muffin, yogurt, orange juice, and coffee. Shortly after breakfast the flight was over and we landed in Brisbane, Australia. We re-boarded almost right away just a short half hour break in the airport. We figured the food was over, especially since it was only an hour flight to Sydney, but to our surprise-more food! We received a breakfast croissant, juice, yogurt, and coffee! This was my favorite part of the whole flight because I found Big Bang Theory on the entertainment guide, so I was more than thrilled to spend a quality hour with my main man Sheldon.
We landed in Sydney at 10:15 am on the 24th, January 23rd is just forever gone from our lives. We got all our bags and nothing was damaged or lost. Customs was a breeze and we made it to the hotel safe and sound.
I'll try and write another blog tomorrow about our stay in Sydney, it's such an interesting city! So much to see!
Steph and I made it here alive, obviously, and everything worked out wonderfully!! I was so nervous about the whole flying and traveling thing but it was just about perfect!
We left Sunday, the 22nd from Dallas on Quantas Airlines. First off, that was our first awesome choice, Quantas is THE BEST airline EVER. I was thrilled that the plane was half empty so Steph and I could sprawl out and sleep. We flew on an air bus, which holds anywhere from 300-400 passengers, which ended up to be a Boeing 747. The plane was so clean and comfortable! When we found our seats I was originally nervous because I thought they didn't recline but low and behold, they did! We ended up with pretty awesome seats actually, there wasn't anyone behind us kneeing our seats or anything.
When we boarded we were given a pillow, blanket, headphones, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a sleeping mask. Along with everything that was already provided we received two full meals too! Our dinner was served around 11:30 pm and it consisted of: BBQ chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, french loaf, salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, carmel creme cake, a chocolate bar, water, and drink of our choice. A little bit after the meal was served they gave us a refreshment bag for in between the meals which had a bottle of water, two chocolates, a cookie, and some crackers. They turned all the lights off and everyone was very quiet so falling asleep wasn't terrible. I ended up watching the movie What's your Number? before taking my sleeping pills and falling asleep. Sleeping was easy and difficult at the same time. Although Steph and I spread out it was still cramped. I slept for about 8 hours total, which was nice.
We were served breakfast at about 8 am US time and 2 am Australian time. Breakfast was hot and delicious! Steph and I had bacon, an asparagus and mushroom omelet, blueberry muffin, yogurt, orange juice, and coffee. Shortly after breakfast the flight was over and we landed in Brisbane, Australia. We re-boarded almost right away just a short half hour break in the airport. We figured the food was over, especially since it was only an hour flight to Sydney, but to our surprise-more food! We received a breakfast croissant, juice, yogurt, and coffee! This was my favorite part of the whole flight because I found Big Bang Theory on the entertainment guide, so I was more than thrilled to spend a quality hour with my main man Sheldon.
We landed in Sydney at 10:15 am on the 24th, January 23rd is just forever gone from our lives. We got all our bags and nothing was damaged or lost. Customs was a breeze and we made it to the hotel safe and sound.
I'll try and write another blog tomorrow about our stay in Sydney, it's such an interesting city! So much to see!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
First Day as World Traveler
If you know me at all you know I hate writing and could care less about it, but after many requests and suggestions from loved ones I decided to make a blog about my travels. (Also, don't judge my grammar and the blog design/lay out-way too confusing for me)
As of 8:35am this morning we started our travels. It didn't get off to a good start to say the least. Who know baggage check-in ladies could be so rude. I ended up paying to check my bags for my flight to Dallas when they should've been free, American Airlines you're welcome for the $70 donation, and one of my suitcases ended up to be 66lbs. so we had to pay an extra $50 to check that one too. (The extra $50 was worth it, just couldn't part with my clothes!) I ended up packing one large suitcase, a medium sized roller duffel for New Zealand, and a small carry on suitcase for the plane. How I am going to carry all that is beyond me.
I'm very fortunate enough to be traveling with someone, who's keeping me very entertained I might add, so this whole experience isn't alone. We are now on hour four of our eleven hour layover in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. Lucky enough for us we landed in terminal D and fly out of terminal D this evening. Also to our benefit, terminal D is HUGE. There is a lot to do and we scoped out some comfy snuggle chairs to nap in later.
We have about 7 hours left here in the airport so I'm sure I will spend those hours worrying about this huge flight ahead of me. The international flight is 16.5 hours and we will land in Brisbane, Australia and from there head onto Sydney. Really hoping to be able to fall asleep and stay asleep for quite sometime on the plane otherwise it's going to be a long and terrible time.
I will do my best to keep this thing updated for my loving Aunt Stacie who is dying for updates all the time. Once I figure out how to put a lot of pictures on here I will add some soon too.
Wish me luck and safe travels!
Steph decided to snap a picture of me in the MSP Airport this morning at the crack of dawn. Like how organized my carry on is? (Oh and no I am not referring to myself in the 3rd person, Steph is the girl I'm traveling with!)
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