Hello Hello!
Wow.. has it ever been a long time since we've last updated our blog! Sorry! We've had so many people emailing us to see if we are home yet, but if you haven't guessed by now, plans have changed slightly! Normally Steph and I write this together, but I am in Seattle now and Steph is waiting for me in Sydney. After I help my little sister get married, I'll fly back to meet her so we can continue to see Australia :) Our original plan was to come home on January 16th from New Zealand, but because we stayed so long in Thailand we haven't seen anything of Australia yet. Also, we want to go back to Thailand to see Bai's house and do a little more volunteering. So when does this put us home??? Good question and one that we'll answer as soon as we know ;)


We've done so much since we last wrote so I'm not even sure where to start... guess I'll just give you some of the highlights!

Our last few days in New Zealand:
The weather on the S. Island of New Zealand got better and we finally did get to go skydiving. It was amazing, but quite the eventful day. We thought we'd get cancelled again because of high winds so we had a few extra glasses of wine at our friend Tom's bday celebration..oops! Needless to say, we started the day with a bit of hangover and getting Stephanie to actually dive was a challenge :)

Skydiving itself was amazing. I don't think we could have chosen a better place than Lake Wanaka to jump out of a plane. We got incredibly perfect weather and a really fun crew to jump with! We all did a 45 second free fall from 12,000 feet! Craig had jumped before, but it was our first time. We thought we'd be more scared, but it actually wasn't bad. I think the scariest part is right when you jump out because you fall backwards first and then flip around before you're face down. The actual free fall goes by really quickly and you don't realize just how fast you're falling until you pull the chute and see the others shoot past you.. it's nutz! Once we got down, Craig and Steph were all excited and I was so sick I could barely stand up. I don't know why it never occured to me that jumping out of a plane might make me sick... I get sick on basically anything that moves :(

The rest of the day was pretty tough for me and of course, it's the one day that we had something planned. Well, not just something, but ANOTHER scenic flight into the Milford Sounds. After getting sick and not being able to get verticle for several hours I had to get back on a 6 person prop plane and fly for 2 hours over the mountains, take a boat for 2 hours around the Sounds, and then get back on the plane to fly back to Wanaka! Lets just say that everyone on the plane was thankful they had those little white bags in the seatback pockets. After I became friends with the white bag... I felt so much better and was fine the rest of the trip. Steph, all the sudden after having to watch me, started not feeling so good and had to run to the bathroom as soon as the plane landed. I think it was a sympathy puke :) The most embarassing part of it all was that we had 3 of our new friends on the plane with us: Craig, Tom & Max. Tom and Max were the Germans we mentioned earlier that we met on the Glacier. They joined us for the Milford Sounds trip and then we ended up traveling with them through Queenstown!

We left Wanaka the next day and went to Queenstown. On the way we all stopped to get some sun and have a picnic in the mountains overlooking Queenstown.. it was stunning! Steph and I realized that day that we don't stop and just chill out very often. That day we all brought a bunch of food and the boys have speakers for their ipods so we just sat and relaxed in the grass for hours.

We stayed in Queenstown for a few nights and really enjoyed it. It's known for having every adrenaline rush known to man, but we actually found some beautiful hikes to do too! The boys were adrenaline junkies and went and did some things like bungie jumping, canyon swinging, white water rafting, etc., but Steph and I just weren't that into it. We had both really wanted to skydive and since we had done that we didn't feel like we needed to do anything else. One afternoon Max, Tom, Jenz, and us went up the Gondala to the top of Queenstown. The boys decided to race eachother on the Luge and asked us to take pictures of them. This sounds simple, but they took so long and we were SO cold that we quickly ran inside to get some tea. As we were coming out they came RACING around the corner so fast that we could barely get a picture of their back..oops! We felt really bad, but the tea tasted really good :)

We left all the boys in Queenstown because we had to drive 8 hours to Christchurch and return the campervan. Boy was this ever a long, long day. So long that we ended up pulling over on the side of the road and taking an hour nap.. the benefits of a campervan! That night ended up being a late one because we had to empty out the van, fill (and empty.. yuck) all the tanks, pack for our early flight the next morning, and return our campervan named Stella. We had a very sad goodbye. We didn't think we'd love the campervan as much as we did, but it's definitely something we'd do again.

Sydney:
We only intended to connect through Sydney, but ended up spending a few days there. We both love that city, have made some good friends and feel pretty much at home there. This particular trip we got really lucky. We happened to hit Australia Day and get invited by our friends Chris and Declin to go see Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Sydney Opera House. I discovered my favorite running path that goes through the Botanical Gardens and has views of the bridge and Opera House and Steph found a great gym. We also found a cheap internet cafe and a great sushi-train restaurant. The fact that I used my Marriott points to put us up in a 5 star hotel just next to Hyde Park might of had something to do with it too, but I'm not totally sure ;) Needless to say, we were a bit spoiled for these few days and always look forward to going back to Sydney!

Our night out at the Opera House was really wonderful. Chris and Declin picked us up in the city and brought us back to their place for a BBQ! They had a really nice apartment with gorgeous views of the Harbour. The others cooked dinner while I added music to my new ipod. I don't know if I told you, but the last few weeks have been torture. I accidentally left my ipod on the overnight plane from Thailand and have been running without music ever since. I bought a new one and Declin was nice enough to let me use his music. We had dinner on the deck and while we were eating a cockatiel flew up and just sat there while we ate (see pic). I don't know about you, but I've never seen one in the wild. They are usually in a cage and repeating every word you say. After dinner we took a ferry into Sydney. The ferry ride had perfect views of the city, the Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and just happened to be at sunset. The ferry dropped us off right at the base of the Opera House just in time to see Vivaldi. We both understand now why it's such a big deal to go to the Sydney Opera House... it's stunning inside.

After Sydney we flew to Brisbane and spent time in Byron Bay, Noosa and on Frasier Island. All were so incredible that they deserve their own entry. Ok, the truth is that it's bed time and I'm falling asleep at the computer. Pictures are up though and I'll try and get them labeled and write again in the next few days! Things are really busy with my sis's wedding though so don't get upset if it doesn't happen.. I promise to get it done soon!

Miss and love you heaps,
Rach and Steph