Parents Visit/New Zealand

I usually post mainly for the parentals, but since they were in NZ with me, this will be kind of brief. And I am just lazy, and there is too much to say. So here goes.

Oh, pre-NZ I went to the Australia Zoo with my Terrestrial class, and that was pretty sweet. It is the Steve Irwin zoo, so they kind of highlight the crocs. I think I liked the zoo in Sydney better...but this was still sweet. Saw my first echidna...they are amazing. Video on fb.

So anywho, the parents came on May 30 to Brisbane! They were in Sydney and Cairns first (and I'm a little jealous because I won't get to Cairns at all). So I tried to meet them at the airport, but my mom gave me the wrong airline so I missed them...it was hugely sucky. I finally met them at their hotel, and gave them a walking tour of a lot of the city. We took the ferry and I showed them a bit of campus as well. They got free snacks/drinks at their hotel, so we ate dinner there and had unlimited glasses of wine...it was fantastic.

Sunday the 31st we did some more city exploring by foot, and met up with Megan at lunch! Continued exploring...ate at the hotel....good times.

Monday, June 1 I brought Megan to South Bank, but it was rainy and kind of sucked. Got lunch with the rents, and then went to the Fourex (XXXX) Brewery for a tour with parents and a few of my friends...it was pretty ridiculous, but the beer was good (4 tastes at the end!) We met up with Megan for dinner afterward, and she was a little pissed she was the only one who didn't get to drink. Hah.

The next day I had a presentation, and I took a break from the fam. We had a farewell dinner for my program, which was really good.

Wednesday I had class...then dinns with the fam, and then I took Megan to the bar on campus because the first State of Origin game was on. It is a HUGE deal here - it is rugby...Queensland versus New South Wales. I had to come back early to finish packing and make my way to my parent's hotel...but it was fun anyway.

Thursday, June 4 we left early for NZ. We had to fly into Auckland (on the north island) before flying to Christchurch, so it was a long day. Still not really sure why we had to do that. Our hotel was right in the main square behind the cathedral, and it was pretty sweet.

Friday we did an alpine tour. Our guide, Terry, took us out in a 4WD and we drove to Springfield, where we had tea and we switched vehicles. We had our first glimpses of the Alps - they are absolutely gorgeous. We got in a huge thing called the "Pope-mobile" (it actually looked like one) and drove through a private farm, looking at sheep and cattle...driving through riverbeds and all over the place...it was sweet. This was when I realized that the scenery in LOTR is real. It's incredible.
After we drove around the farm, Terry took us to the (Dart?) river where we went jetboating. Jetboating is sweet - its basically a motorboat that is flat on the bottom, has two lexus V8 engines, and propels itself by pushing water out of the back. It can operate in less than 3 inches of water....crazy. So basically it goes really fast and they drive like they're going into the rocks in the canyon and do 360s. It was sweet because it was just me and the rents in a boat that could probably seat about 20. Good times. My mom had pics and a video, but she lost her camera at the end of the week.....long/awful story.
Afterwards we went back to Springfield for a 3 course lunch - it was awesome. Then Terry drove us to the trans-alpine train, where we got on at Arthur's Pass. (P.S. we drove by the place where the Narnia battle scene was filmed and Terry almost didn't mention it.) The train ride was incredible...and I took waaay too many pictures. It took us back to Christchurch, where we had dins. My dad ordered a wine called Roaring Meg from Mt. Difficulty....and we all DIED. I don't think we have told Megan yet....she's going to murder us.

Saturday, we went to the Botanical Gardens in Christchurch. They were AMAZING. I fell in love. There were markets in the arts center we went to as well. We took this old school tram around the city and went to the art museum. Did some shopping later in the city...and found that they stock every kind of Tim Tams at the convenience store. Ah. And this day I decided that I wanted to live in Christchurch.

Sunday we woke up early to fly to Queenstown. It was only a 50 min flight, but we flew over the Southern Alps...which was just INCREDIBLE. Oh em gee. Then we landed in Queenstown, and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking (see fb pics...can't even describe). Again, I was feeling very LOTR. We rode the gondala and the luge, which were both pretty cool.

Monday, June 8 we did a Milford Sound cruise. It takes 4 hours on the bus to get there and back, but it was definitely worth it. The bus ride back was when my mom lost her camera. Bad news bears. Anywho, Milford Sound was absolutely beautiful. Fun fact: it is not actually a sound, but a fjord. We were really lucky because we had a sunny day, and it rains there approx 200 days of the year. Also, we saw dolphins, which they see 2-3 times per month. The dolphins rode along at the front of the boat and it was sooo sweet. Again, mom had a sweet vid, which is now gone. There were tons of waterfalls there, and we drove right under two of them. The rocks go straight down into the water because of the way they were carved by the glacier, so the boat can literally pull up right under the waterfall. We saw a gorgeous sunset on the way back...and the moon was awesome...so the long drives turned out to be not all that bad.

Tuesday we slept in a little...did a little shopping...then we rented a car/driver to take me BUNGY jumping and to some wineries! I did the first bungy in the world - Kamarau Bridge. It was friggen incredible. Words cannot describe. So afterwards we did two wine tastings...the first one we tasted at least 6 wines, so we were almost all wine-ed out at that point. But we went to the next place and tried three more, and got a huge cheese plate. It was delicious. Our driver, Pam, was nuts/hilarious. We were going to go to the ice bar that night, but decided we had had enough alcohol for one day...

Wednesday...GLENORCHY LOTR TOUR!! Not as great as I expected...probably because it rained...but it was still sweet. It was basically 4 hours of driving, but beautiful scenery. Glenorchy is a small town, pop 250, that has only had a paved road to Queenstown since 1995 or something crazy. So in terms of LOTR, we saw the forests of Lothlorean, Isengard, and the snow scenes in the first movie where Frodo drops the ring. (P.S. In that scene they madea ring that was like 12 feet wide or something for the shot when the ring is in the foreground in the snow.) The last one we saw was where the fight scene with the elephants took place in the second movie. I should really figure out what the actual names are....but too lazy. We also saw the forests from the movie Wolverine, and the forests filmed in Prince Caspian. We had to fly back to Christchurch afterwards, for our flights out the next day.

THURSDAY JUNE 11 - the big two one!!!!
Parents left before I woke up, and I had a few hours (alone on my bday...) to kill in Christchurch before my flight back to Brisbane. Obvi I went back to the Botanical Gardens, because they were amazing. Then I went to the airport and walked to the Antarctic Center, which was supposed to be incredible. It was okay...there were penguins, and this crazy room where they let you stand through a simulated Antarctic storm. They also drive you around in this vehicle that they use in Antarctica...which can drive over crevasses like 3 feet wide and float. It was madness. So then I flew back to Brissy, got back to my room around 7...and went out for the bday. It was sweet as.

On Friday I went to Mooloolaba (on the Sunshine Coast) with Megan and her friend Liz. We did a day trip the Eumundi markets and Noosa on Saturday...the markets were really good and Noosa was absolutely beautiful. On Sunday we just chilled on the beach...which again was amazing. Now I'm back at school and have 3 papers to write by Thursday. AH!! (I'm really just watching the extended versions of LOTR, so it's cool.)