Sydney, Day 1 ...

I was so excited the entire flight from Wellington to Sydney that I just stared out the window for something ridiculous like 5 hours.

This is what it looked like most of the time:

And then as we got closer it looked more like this:

And then we were at yet another airport with all that damn luggage:

So much luggage that our shuttle was a little cramped,

although nothing could cramp Naoko & Kazumi's style:

We got to our first hotel in Australia and it was amazing. Actually it wasn't a hotel at all, we had rented a suite apartment on the 50th floor of the Meriton building located in the center of downtown Sydney. I felt like I was in some sort of fairy tale, seriously. I spent at least a good ten minutes in awe of how amazing my life is.

The view of downtown Sydney at night, from our terrace (that wrapped all the way around our apartment):

After the six of us got settled into our three bedroom apartment Daniel and I had dinner plans with some friends. It still amazes me sometimes that I have the most amazing friends strung out all over the world and I have people to get together with in damn near every big city across the globe. Sydney was one of those places. We had people to see. We met up with Alan and Lauren for dinner downtown at a German bar with really, really bad karaoke. That was half of the fun. :)

The 4 of us:

Downtown Sydney, from the pier:

Since we were already downtown, we walked to the pier to get a view of the Harbour Bridge (barf) and up to the Opera House. Even in the dark it is amazingly beautiful. The Opera House, definitely NOT the bridge, although I did manage to look at it and even take a few pictures without having an anxiety attack. That's progress. :)

The Harbour Bridge at night:

Here's a quick 411 on the Opera House: "The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Based on the competition winning entry by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most distinctive 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world.
The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The building and its surroundings are one of the best known icons of Australia.
As well as many touring theatre, ballet, and musical productions, the Opera House is the home of Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony."

The Opera House at night (I wish I had a better camera):

I was most surprised by the fact that the building is actually 3 separate buildings with 5 different performances spaces. Who knew? In most printed pictures it looks like one large structure.

See?:

"The Sydney Opera House is an expressionist modern design, with a series of large precast concrete 'shells', each taken from a hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure. The Opera House covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land. It is 183 metres (605 ft) long and about 120 metres (388 ft) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 metres below sea level. Its power supply is equivalent for a town of 25,000 people. The power is distributed by 645 kilometres of electrical cable."
Maybe I was most surprised by the actual texture of the outside of the building. It looks kind of like bathroom tiles & feels just the same.
'The roofs of the House are covered with 1,056,006 glossy white and matte cream Swedish-made tiles, though from a distance the tiles look only white. Despite their self-cleaning nature, they are still subject to periodic maintenance and replacement." That's a lot of tiles.
More daytime pictures to come. After all, at this point I've only been in Sydney for about 4 hours. This entire trip is about making the most of your time. :)

much love

-tara-

xx

The End of New Zealand ...

I realized after posting the last blog that I really didn't give the kiwi the amount of attention it deserved. Especially considering that it was important enough for me to track down at the zoo in the middle of winter when I had less than four hours to spare. So here is a little info ...
"A kiwi is any of the species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites. All kiwi species are endangered. The kiwi is also a national symbol of New Zealand. The kiwi lays the largest egg in comparison to its body size" (wikipedia, duh).

Daniel took this awesome video of the kiwi while we were searching for them in the kiwi house:

I also found this video I took of the adorable sun bears

(my apologies for the fact that it's sideways):

Ok, that's the end of the zoo & New Zealand. I made a brief stop at a book store and the Wellington Museum before heading back to the hotel and then to the airport.

Wellywood to Brisvegas, eh?

Pretty much how I'll remember New Zealand, along with all the good stuff obviously:

much love

-tara-

xx

The Wellington Zoo ...

We had roughly 4 hours to spend in Wellington before we were leaving for Australia. Considering that we had yet to track down a kiwi (as in the New Zealand bird), Kyoko, Daniel & I took some time to go to the Wellington Zoo (despite the fact that it was STILL raining). We had two missions - to see the red pandas & the kiwis.

The red pandas kind of remind me of cute raccoons:

We found some other animals along the way but it was so cold and raining and our time was limited, so we quickly made the rounds.

We found some otters that made me miss ferret ...

minus the fact that they were eating dead chicks:

& this random monkey that made the most terrible noises:

Thanks for the warning but we couldn't find the damn cheetah:

Then we found the sun bears and they were adorable. I have a video somewhere that I'll try to post, but in the meantime this picture will have to do.

He was trying to eat this coconut:

AND THEN!! ::drum roll please:: ... THE KIWI HOUSE!! Since they are nocturnal the house was dark, except for the red lighting, and kind of spooky. We tiptoed around & whispered & really had no idea what to expect. Would they be big? or small? How did they move? Were they waddlers? Or hoppers? The mystery of the kiwi.

Can you spot one?:
How about now? :) :

Whoops, I accidentally used the flash & caught one on camera:
Mission accomplished:
Oh yea, we also found the ugliest duck that made the most hideous noise. He refused to do it again for the camera, despite Daniel's best efforts, but just know that it was terrible.

Yea, he's a dork. :)

On to Sydney!!

much love

-tara-

xx

Late Nights in Wellington ...

We went out both of the nights that we were in Wellington. We would start out with dinner and then head down to an area close to our hotel called Courtney Street. The area was well known for it's bars and the Wellington nightlife. It definitely provided us with a lot of great New Zealand memories.

Sorry dad, this was as close as I got:

The first night we went to dinner as a group at a restaurant called Lonestar, and no, not like Lonestar in Waterloo where Molly used to work. It was actually really nice and we ate, drank & were merry. Afterwards everyone headed back to the hotel, with the exception of Daniel and I. First we headed to the grocery store to find something for breakfast in the morning. We found lots of interesting things, especially the cereal.

Seriously?:

Rice Bubbles!?

They were really Coco Pebbles:

Strange and strange. Oh, I almost forgot ... the day before we had stopped at McDonalds between Karori West and Learning Media because we had all but 15 minutes for lunch. I got a 'kiwiburger'. How appropriate. It was a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, cheese, ketchup, a cooked egg & beets. Yes, beets. Even more strange.

On to the evening. We got a recommendation and headed to Courtney Street for some exploration. We stopped at a little bar for a drink and ended up meeting three really cool people that we got along with really well. At first they made fun of us for being American, then insulted our political system, and finally came around to accepting us for the evening. It was all in good fun. :)

We stopped at a few places for drinks and then made it to a pool hall. Everyone knows what a shark I am, so I was all about it.

Our new friends: Kat, me, Robert, Rupert & Daniel:

Kat, Robert & I ... they peace in NZ too!! :

It was girls vs. boys ... Rupert found it necessary to attempt a distraction I was that good. haha:

The coolest Kiwi I know:

On our second night in Wellington we went to Courtney Street for dinner at a restaurant called Hippo Thai. It was a thai restaurant, but there weren't any hippos. We drank lots of amazing wine, ate great food, and I learned all about rugby compliments of Neil.

Our dinner crew: Me, Neil, Naoko, Joy, Yumi, Maryann & Daniel:Yumi & Naoko after drinking literally two sips of wine:

Daniel & Maryann drank a little more than two sips: :)
My new friend Neil taught me everything I needed to know about rugby and invited me back to New Zealand in 2011 for the Rugby World Cup. I just might take him up on that.:

After dinner Daniel and I were feeling pretty comfortable in Wellington. We knew where we were, how to get where we wanted to go and we even had three friends. Kazuyo and Kyoko wanted to continue the evening so we took them back to Courtney Street. Kat had told us where she worked and suggested we come in for drinks so we did just that. We took Kazuyo and Kyoko to The Tasting Room for local beers and more wine. We spent the evening laughing and telling stories and having inappropriate language lessons ... shh, don't tell. If Kyoko starts cursing around Alabama (where she lives) it is all Daniel's fault!!

Kazuyo and Kyoko:

Kazuyo went back to the hotel but the rest of us still weren't quite finished, so we headed to the next bar called the Hummingbird. We got a few drinks, chatted with some locals and Daniel taught Kyoko how to salsa dance. No, we were not at a dance club and there wasn't any music, but it was a lot of fun.

Daniel & Kyoko... dancing partners:

We turned in rather late, but our two nights out in Wellington were fantastic. Despite the fact that I think Kyoko was muttering four letter words in English before she fell asleep. :)

much love

-tara-

xx