Touring with the Family

Note: Hopefully this won't be as long as the re-cap of our European adventure, however since it covers roughly the same amount of time no guarantees can be made. Get comfy.

As many of you know, the summer really starts for us in December and what better way to kick off a new season than with family coming to visit! Larry, Laurie and Heidi were all able to drag themselves away from work and school, leave behind the ice and snow, and come enjoy some fun in the sun in Australia. Larry and Laurie were able to visit for 3 weeks and Hiedi managed 2 weeks away from school. The overall itinerary was: Sydney (5 days), Melbourne (2 days), South Australia (3 days), New Zealand (8 days) and then back to Melbourne (4 days). The only bummer was that somehow the wet Wyoming weather came along with them and it was cool and rainy for what seemed like a lot of the trip. However the rain didn't get us down as everywhere we went we found good food, good wine, and great scenery. A few intense Whist games to pass the quiet evenings made for great fun and long hours in cars, trains, boats, and airplanes gave us plenty of time to catch up and share stories. We did manage a few days of sun and it really heated up for the last bit in Melbourne which finally gave a good taste of true Aussie summer.

It was great timing by Larry, Laurie and Heidi to arrive in Melbourne in time to go see the Night Market at the Queen Vic. We had a great time sampling all the different foods and checking out the crafts and kitch for sale from all the vendors. After the market was a quick tour of Josh's office to see Melbourne in the dark....not nearly as exciting as it sounds. Before leaving for South Australia, Heidi was able to visit a Physical Therapy clinic that she applied to for an internship - it's just down the beach in Brighton and the visit went well, sounds like we might get to see Heidi a lot more in August! A very very early morning cab ride had us out at Melbourne Airport in plenty of time for our flight - time for the real adventures to start.

First stop, Kangaroo Island (KI for short) and McLaren Vale in South Australia. Known for wildlife, but more recently televised for bushfires, we went to KI hoping to see wild seals, koalas, goanas, kangaroos, wombats and echidnas. The bushfires had only recently been extinguished and many of the national parks on KI were still closed, but Seal Bay had been re-opened and did not dissapoint. Hundreds of fur seals lined the beaches and it seemed they were putting on a show just for us featuring body surfing, play fighting as well as gallumphing around and generally just looking cute. One check for wild animal bingo down, we hit the road trying to see as much of the island as possible....first Josh had to scare everyone in the car by swerving around a large goana in the road, and then slamming on the brakes to point out a koala in a tree, but with two more checks for wild animal bingo the dodgy driving was forgiven. Our lodging was in Emu Bay and had a great view of the moon over the bay by the time we pulled in after a long day of travel. The next day it was back to the mainland and McLaren Vale for a couple days of wine touring with lodging in a self-contained cabin in one of the vineyards. It was really wonderful to sleep among the vines and the wines that we tried were very tasty. One of the amazing things is that there are no kangaroos on KI but there were TONS of kangaroos around McLaren Vale - its always fun to see the native wildlife and a trip to Australia isn't complete until you've seen Skippy. Our final night in McLaren Vale we enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner of take away pizza and wine followed by an intense game of Uno.

Christmas Day we left McLaren Vale and, after passing through the Melbourne Airport again, we were on the way to New Zealand, landing in Christchurch at 11pm - we made a great choice and stayed at a hotel near the airport so not much driving and quickly to bed. We woke up to a cool and damp New Zealand morning and hit the road to Kaikoura and points north, ending in Renwick. The weather didn't clear off until the evening but made for some great views along the Pacific Ocean and through the nearby hills. Again we saw plenty of seals having a good time on the beaches and rocks, and also found a lot of deer farms with a few bucks that had some serious antlers. Renwick is located in the Marlborough wine region, world famous for Sauvignon Blanc, so of course we planned a day of wine touring into our schedule. We had a very unique experience pedaling bikes through the area and stopping off at any wineries that looked interesting along the way. Only a few problems with the bike seats, but with enough wine it all worked well. A new favorite winery was also found and we would highly recommend stopping by Te Whare Ra (Tay-Farree-Rah) to visit Jason and his family for a taste and a chat. From Renwick we then headed up to see Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, and try our hand at sea kayaking. Our weather curse continued and brought some serious easterly winds to the end of our kayaking - we found ourselves paddle-surfing with 2meter waves breaking all around us. We nearly made it to shore safe and dry, but while one wave took Josh and Kristi and flipped them over, another wave surprised Larry and Laurie and put them upside down as well. Luckily Heidi was paddling with the guide and was able to help get the boats upright and also get Laurie to shore. We sacrificed two pairs of designer sunglasses to the sea gods and walked away from the experience with some serious bruises and scrapes to remind us of the adventure. With all the excitement, we decided to take it easy the next couple days and stick to driving and short walks on dry land, including a few great walks along the Tasman Sea around Westport where much of the scenery reminded us of the rugged coast of Oregon. We completed our circuit of the northern half of the South Island by train with a ride between Greymouth and Christchurch on the TranzAlpine Railroad which had some amazing views even with the low clouds. Back in Christchurch we spent our last dinner with the five of us at Ko Tane enjoying some local food as well as learning a bit more about native Maori culture. We also checked a few more boxes on wild animal bingo, actually getting to see a few kiwi birds along with petting freshwater eels and making friends with some noisy parrots. Heidi began her adventure home the next morning, eventually getting back to Arizona safe and sound though a bit later than expected. This left the four of us to spend the last day of 2007 (and our last day in New Zealand) in Hamner Springs relaxing with massages and hot springs (after Josh had another rental car "issue" that took a bit of time to fix...just wait for the pictures). Before we knew it, it was 2008 and time to head back to Melbourne - a couple quick shopping hits on our way to the airport (and finding chips and gummy worms to spend our remaining New Zealand coins) and then we were back in Port Melbourne.

Our weather curse behind us, the following days were beautiful and sunny (though it did get warm - up to 37) and we enjoyed even more wine touring and shopping with Larry and Laurie. Being big on wine and food we had one more major adventure - a night on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. You would think that a moving dinner that has to be prepared on a tram would be a bit off, but the service was great, the food was fantastic and it was a very fun way to see the sights around Melbourne. We woke up the next morning and took Larry and Laurie out to the airport again (a couple cases of wine heavier than when they arrived) and made sure they got on their way safely.

So now here we are, looking out over the beach on a sunny and windy day in a quiet apartment looking back on all the fun that we had over the last few weeks. It was great fun to have family come and visit and we really are looking forward to having Josh's family visiting in the coming months to remind us of home. We'll be working on having pictures posted over the coming weeks (only 9GB to sort through) so keep an eye out for more blogs and Flickr links.