Oh the land of sheep and more sheep. New Zealand is truly breath taking. Long, narrow, windy roads, beautiful scenery. We landed Christchurch late Friday night and had some challenges getting to the motel and checking in. Turns out New Zealand shuts down at 9pm, literally! When we woke him up I felt like we were Cratchet and he was about to fire us for not working Christmas Day!  

The next day we got our campa! That's how they say it here. It's our very own wicked camper van! If you ever wanted to be a hippie and make people think you smoke a lot of pot, this is the van to get. It's spray painted with Emus all over. We named it Nathan the Emu. It's a beat up old van that's probably older than Anna and drives terribly slow along the highway. I have to turn off the over drive just to get up the hills. Older people, explain to the young people what that means and why it's important.  Christchurch is a nice little town probably about 30,000 people strong. It has been devastated by 2 massive earth quakes: one in 2010 and another in 2011. They've never had me before. These earthquakes pretty much leveled their downtown and it was mostly in ruin when we got there. It's called the Red Zone now. The iconic church I believe is no longer there.

We made out way to Wicked Campers, the camper rental van company that had all those cool painted vans we were seeing on the Great Ocean Road. We arrived about half hour before closing time, around 11:30am. It looked a lot like the 60's in there, like the 60's you imagine with bell bottoms, hippie vans, and lots of weed. The inside of the van has built in wood shelves and a convertible table. The back of the van is a little kitchenette with a propane burner, a cooler, and a manual sink. We were excited. It's funky looking, really old school, and drives like an old van should, bumpy and huffing up every incline it meets like a 4 pack a day smoker.

We spent some time at the local "Pac N' Save" getting groceries for the week. It's like our Costco, but no membership fees and much more cheese to choose from. They also had some really cool flavores of sausages that I was very excited to try! Than we shopped at a place called "Warehouse". It's a lot like our Walmart. The mattress and sheets were not exactly inspiring confidence in the hygiene of the previous travelers. We bought some pillows, sheets, and towels.

From Christchurch we drove and drove the countryside. They could've filmed Lord Of The Rings anywhere in New Zealand. They have such grand vistas and undisturbed landscape full of sheep. Sheep sheep everywhere! More than people I think. It gets more beautiful the further north you go from the looks of it. We ended up in Kaikoura, which literally translates into "eat more crayfish!". Yes please! The next day we did just that. Mmmmmmm crayfish. They sell them here all over the place like BC fruit stand vendors.

That night we started a pattern of staying at these camp sites called Top 10. They are the fanciest campsites ever, comes with great kitchens, tv rooms, washrooms, showers, pools etc!

In the morning we drove until we landed in Picton, a quiet little port town that houses the ferry to the north island, but it wasn't quiet at all. An air raid siren was shouting right next to our van the minute we arrived. We thought at first that the Aussies were coming to bomb us with cricket paddles and rugby balls! Turns out it was the fire department, but the Aussie bombing would've  been more fun. A great publicity stunt for any upcoming matches they may have. 

Picton is a very nice little town that reminds us of Banff, but smaller with better food. We learned that coffee here isn't what it is in Canada. All black coffees are double espresso shots, no exceptions! A white coffee is a latte. We didn't have time to translate the rest. Amazing food and a nice little inlet where we can watch the ferries come and go.  Now we're saying goodbye to the South Island and hello to Wellington. We'll tell you about the ferry ride and Wellington next. See you soon. 




AK & AB

It is considered one of the most picturesque drives in the world. I haven't been on too many long drives, but I can tell you it is the most beautiful drive I've ever been on. The first day started in Melbourne where I went to pick up the car. Downtown Melbourne is pretty chaotic to begin with, but learning how to drive a car on the other side of the road while sitting in the right side of the car is quite a challenge! Especially when learning in a very difficult driving environment where the rules are different. Let's just    say you develop a thick skin. 

Driving out on the ocean road was something else. It's just like in the movies. Grand vistas. Huge expanse of ocean on the left. Hilly landscape on the right. The water was colored deep turquoise and aquamarine. The landscape is golden yellow with deep green trees all over the place. 

We spent two days driving around which is only a 3 hour drive. Due to all the beautiful stops and hikes and look outs. 

First night we stopped in a charming little town (Apollo Bay) next to the ocean and had amazing seafood dinner, the following night we stopped in another town on the cusp of the ocean called Port Campbell, we were sadly very disappointed and wanted to run back to Apollo Bay. But at least we could connect to the Internet (in the car, with a very rainy night, outside of our very expensive sketchy motel room). So we could book our motel for the next night. Since we are living day to day it's important to book things. As we are slowly learning.

But, wait, what did you do on your great ocean road trip? Well....

• We hiked in two rain forests
• Saw the biggest trees of life
• Checked out a few lighthouses
• Saw some beautiful waterfalls
• Hiked through the parks to a few far away lookouts with views that people dream about ( oh yeah I went there)
• Witnessed more wild animals than the zoo that we went to in Philip Island

My mind can't even remember all the things we did but pictures are worth a bazillion words. So please enjoy all our pictures because we definitely had a fun time taking them. 





Up next our hippiest road trip through New Zealand and our van that's named Nathan the Emu.
AK and AB

It took only one night (and 14 hours of sleep) to adjust to the time difference. Once we had our shoes on we explored Melbourne. Explored it so much, that Anna knows all the streets and can give people directions (talk about ego).

Highlights:

• Yarra River Cruise
• South Gate (Harbourfront Center; Shopping, Food -  Amazing Food)
• Melbourne Central (Downtown Center with a Coops Shot tower inside)
• Federation Square (Where festivals happen)
• ACMI (Australian Center for Moving Image)
• Free City Trams
• Secret hidden lanes
• Meeting a pen pal of 12 years in person!
• and probably about 2000 more things

Things we learned:

• Dermologica is sold at pharmacies
• Aussies wear jeans in +40 degrees like champs
• Asian people with an aussie accent is a mind boggling experience
• Food, any kind, is better here than, ANYWHERE
• Left side driving is very confusing for pedestrians and jaywalkers *cough us cough*  (not to mention the escalators too)
• Not to mention Mr. Moo has his own adventures.

We are off to see the penguins tomorrow :) and than our Melbourne Adventures will be coming to an end, but we will be setting off to go on the Great Ocean Road Trip for a couple days, and after flying out to Christchurch, New Zealand.



Stay tuned!

AK & AB

Wow! Travelling can be exhausting. Anna and I have spent the last 28 hours in transit. We left Calgary at 3:30pm on January 1st and arrived in Melbourne at 10:30am January 3rd. That's right people! We time travelled into the future! Except instead of Doc Brown's Delorean we had a monstrous Airbus A380. This thing had around 600 passengers and probably about 15 bathrooms.

The fun and tension that we experienced was due to one of Anna's biggest pet peeves, lateness. It's one thing when a person is late for lunch. It's another when a plane is very late for a date. We were panicked because we had 3 connecting flights all scheduled no more than 2 hours apart. The first flight from Calgary to Vancouver was delayed by an hour, which was a little freak out, since we had 2 more connections. But we kept cool. Once we passed the US Customs in Vancouver (with Ali having a second screening test, because well he is of course a terrorist) we found out our second flight to LAX was delayed by another 90 minutes. Kept a little cool, but starting to freak just a little. Once we landed in super busy LAX, we found out we had to run around to a different terminal and our plane was boarding in 5 minutes. Kept our cool? Not even close. Not to mention the 45 minute security line up. The good news is that our plane hosts 600 people, so once we ran to the gate, we were technically on time.

16 hours on the (coolest, biggest) plane was a bit tiring. Once we landed in Melbourne, our minds stopped racing and we were safely on the ground without any more delays. Until of course the 2 hour line up at passport control. Once we finished that, we were excited to see Melbourne, didn't even matter that our luggage didn't make it.

Here we are! In Melbourne, let the adventures begin.


Everyone should follow Anna's Instagram because Mr. Moo is definitely becoming a celebrity amongst travel mascots. Instagram: Anna's user name is theannichka or follow online: http://web.stagram.com/n/theannichka/



Love,
AK & AB