Merry Christmas from downunder
What a relief it was to land in Melbourne. The last few weeks have been a mixture of catching up on some much needed sleep, eating lots, drinking more and trying to figure out what needs to be done to make the move across the world. My brother, Bryan, and Lani kindly put us up in Melbourne for the week, giving us the best bedroom for when you need your sleep, also known as the bat cave, which has no windows and would let us sleep until lunchtime, just what we needed! Other tasks in Melbourne included the important stuff like applying for visas, looking for work, checking out suburbs to live, nearby dog beaches for our Lebowski and setting up bank accounts and the equally important task of figuring out which aussie beers will be our beer of choice come June. We did lots of walking around to get the feel of the place and while we still have a lot more to explore, I think we may have found just the spot we were looking for. 20 minute walk to Bryan and Lani’s, a couple of blocks from the beach, walking distance to bars, restaurants, and lots of places to run the dog with a view to boot. Watch this space…
Bryan and Lani were both in the final push to get their work done before Christmas, so they were pretty flat out, but made time to take us and show us some of their favorite spots. Some bars, local markets and to the pier where the famous St Kilda fairy penguins come to nest every night. They were so cute! The water rats, not so much. Bryan managed to score me a job with his architect firm, photographing a museum that he designed (polly woodside museum) which was a welcomed piece of income and kept me busy for a few days. It was amazing to see something that he worked on for so long come to life. It is a strange but exciting feeling to know that the next time we fly into Melbourne we will have all of our possessions in tow. Thank you Bryan and Lani for being our tourguides/headhunters/realtors for the last week. You are Legends!
Arriving in NZ is always very special and this time was no different. Having not seen my Kiwi relatives for over 18 months we were eager to get there and catch up with everyone. We were not so eagar to get back on an overnight flight that only lasted 3.5 hours. It meant pulling another all-nighter, especially as Greg had some guy next to him that was so sick he sounded like should have been isolated in a hospital. He was snoring both when asleep and when awake and coughing and spluttering all the way. It seems air transport will not be our friend on this trip. So we arrived to the familiar view of Lake Taupo from Mum and Dad’s house. Which is both my most comforting and my most photographed view. After a few days of R&R we drove a couple of hours to Ohope to visit my Auntie Linny and uncle Pete (to-be). They just built a house that is right on a beautiful wild beach that goes on for miles. The beach inspired us to go for a morning run (pre-emptive for all the Christmas food) and Greg an afternoon dip (found out about the sharks lurking there a few hours after). I think we need to just assume that the ocean over here is deadly unless we are told otherwise. Luckily the water was so cold, Greg was in and out before a fin came into sight. We had a lovely dinner catching up and picturing how Lin and Pete’s up coming wedding will be. Bryan, Lani and Merinda flew in the next day and the next week was basically eating and drinking (again), playing family games, our Grandparents out drinking us every time , a bit of golf, bit of tennis, and basking in the sun and catching up with family friends.
Christmas in New Zealand is like hearing Christmas music in July. It is always a strange feeling waking up on Christmas morning to a warm sunny day, eating outdoors and listening to walking in a winter wonder land. But wonderfully strange.
With so much going on in our lives in the last couple of months and so many huge decisions to make, we haven’t had a minute to think of the epic trip that we have been dreaming about. And when we only started to think about it the night before we are due to fly out, a surge of emotions overwhelmed us. A mixture of excitement, fear and the basic feeling of oh Shit, we are not ready to fly out in 24 hours. So we will repack the backpacks once more and be on our way to Chile. Fingers crossed this flight goes according to plan, Auckland direct to Santiago, surely that can’t go wrong… can it?
We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, here is to a fantastic 2012!
What a relief it was to land in Melbourne. The last few weeks have been a mixture of catching up on some much needed sleep, eating lots, drinking more and trying to figure out what needs to be done to make the move across the world. My brother, Bryan, and Lani kindly put us up in Melbourne for the week, giving us the best bedroom for when you need your sleep, also known as the bat cave, which has no windows and would let us sleep until lunchtime, just what we needed! Other tasks in Melbourne included the important stuff like applying for visas, looking for work, checking out suburbs to live, nearby dog beaches for our Lebowski and setting up bank accounts and the equally important task of figuring out which aussie beers will be our beer of choice come June. We did lots of walking around to get the feel of the place and while we still have a lot more to explore, I think we may have found just the spot we were looking for. 20 minute walk to Bryan and Lani’s, a couple of blocks from the beach, walking distance to bars, restaurants, and lots of places to run the dog with a view to boot. Watch this space…
Bryan and Lani were both in the final push to get their work done before Christmas, so they were pretty flat out, but made time to take us and show us some of their favorite spots. Some bars, local markets and to the pier where the famous St Kilda fairy penguins come to nest every night. They were so cute! The water rats, not so much. Bryan managed to score me a job with his architect firm, photographing a museum that he designed (polly woodside museum) which was a welcomed piece of income and kept me busy for a few days. It was amazing to see something that he worked on for so long come to life. It is a strange but exciting feeling to know that the next time we fly into Melbourne we will have all of our possessions in tow. Thank you Bryan and Lani for being our tourguides/headhunters/realtors for the last week. You are Legends!
Arriving in NZ is always very special and this time was no different. Having not seen my Kiwi relatives for over 18 months we were eager to get there and catch up with everyone. We were not so eagar to get back on an overnight flight that only lasted 3.5 hours. It meant pulling another all-nighter, especially as Greg had some guy next to him that was so sick he sounded like should have been isolated in a hospital. He was snoring both when asleep and when awake and coughing and spluttering all the way. It seems air transport will not be our friend on this trip. So we arrived to the familiar view of Lake Taupo from Mum and Dad’s house. Which is both my most comforting and my most photographed view. After a few days of R&R we drove a couple of hours to Ohope to visit my Auntie Linny and uncle Pete (to-be). They just built a house that is right on a beautiful wild beach that goes on for miles. The beach inspired us to go for a morning run (pre-emptive for all the Christmas food) and Greg an afternoon dip (found out about the sharks lurking there a few hours after). I think we need to just assume that the ocean over here is deadly unless we are told otherwise. Luckily the water was so cold, Greg was in and out before a fin came into sight. We had a lovely dinner catching up and picturing how Lin and Pete’s up coming wedding will be. Bryan, Lani and Merinda flew in the next day and the next week was basically eating and drinking (again), playing family games, our Grandparents out drinking us every time , a bit of golf, bit of tennis, and basking in the sun and catching up with family friends.
Christmas in New Zealand is like hearing Christmas music in July. It is always a strange feeling waking up on Christmas morning to a warm sunny day, eating outdoors and listening to walking in a winter wonder land. But wonderfully strange.
With so much going on in our lives in the last couple of months and so many huge decisions to make, we haven’t had a minute to think of the epic trip that we have been dreaming about. And when we only started to think about it the night before we are due to fly out, a surge of emotions overwhelmed us. A mixture of excitement, fear and the basic feeling of oh Shit, we are not ready to fly out in 24 hours. So we will repack the backpacks once more and be on our way to Chile. Fingers crossed this flight goes according to plan, Auckland direct to Santiago, surely that can’t go wrong… can it?
We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, here is to a fantastic 2012!
click on the photo below to see gallery
