OZ

All right, remember I told you I checked the little shovel in on our flight to Sydney? I had to check it as an oversize item and when I got to Sydney, it didn't come out on the baggage belt thing. Anyway, I got it back after asking at the desk. All the airport guys were playing with it, one guy was digging, another was hitting himself on the head with it (fake), etc...

We stayed at the Big Hostel in Sydney. It's a great location, right near the CBD (central business district.) The beds were awesome too, nice and firm.











They were having a 3 days weekend when we got in. We walked to Darling Harbor and joined the Latin Festival. On the way back, we found China town and the food court. 8)
It was around Moon Festival so they had Lion dancers out.














The next day we went to Hyde Park, a big park in the middle of town. They were having an art festival - 'a day in Sydney' or something like that. After that we went to St. Mary Cathedral, Sydney art gallery, Sydney Domain, and finally arrived at the Harbor to see the famous Opera house.











The opera house and the Harbor bridge.











Someone burned his/her dinner and set off the fire alarm. We had to evacuate, the fire truck came.. There were a bunch of kids, around 25, at the Hostel for 2 nights, man they were noisy. Here they are checking out. Oh yeah, we had our own bathroom here, nice...












This is Bondi beach, pronounce Bon Dye. There were a bunch of surfers here. Aunt Kess lived here a little bit when she first came to Australia as a student.












Took the Ferry to Manly Beach. It was much more crowded here for some reason. I liked Bondi better.











Walked up to the Harbor Bridge. We didn't pay the $150 bucks, dad said they should put in an elevator if they are going to charge that much.. 8)
The area behind the bridge in the pictuer is call the Rock, it has a European feel to it, small streets, little shops. You can also see the Ferry harbor next to it.












The Blue Mountain is two hours from Sydney by train. It's more like a canyon, we stayed mostly near the top. Everyone jumped in to take a picture with the aboriginy dude. Notice dad is still doing the Mauri tongue thing.



















Aboriginal dude - where are you from?
mom - I'm from Thailand
dude - I heard it's nice there, give me a kiss (really deep voice)
mom - no way.....

picture with another native. 8)












Aunt Kess' house is two blocks from the beach, nice... It was windy and cold while we were there though, one day was warm. We went wine tasting in Yara Yara valley, nice wine. We went to 7 places, I only had one drink with the picnic lunch. 8) Dad was drinking about one bottle a day the whole trip, New Zealand too.











We were going to go camping along the Great Ocean Road, but it was too windy and cold so we went to do more wine tasting instead and then came home.












Joe & Clarisse doing a duet. Clarisse elbowing the piano.












Went to Melbourne Zoo, man those lions were super hairy. Early Birthday party for Joe. 8)

Blue Mountain Panorama

Bondi Beach Panorama

To see more Aussy pictures click here *

new zealand 2

This is the second part of our trip. This is a thermal active region, there are a lot of hot spring and geysers in the Roratua area.












This is a hot mud pool, it is between Taupo and Roratua. There are hikes and hot bath and other tourist stuffs along the way, but they all charge money so we skipped most of them.















This is the Tehokowhitu-A-Tu village. It is a mauri village that was built on top of a hot spring area. People still live here and do business with tourist and I guess work in the city. The next picture is a slow cooker box buit on top of a thermal vent. They use this to cook stew and meat.











The Parekohuru hot spring. They cook corn and vegetables here, no meat because the hot spring is pipe to a communal bath. The second picture is two Geysers near the village.










This is the communal hot tubs. Each family comes and take turn with the hot bath. They also put on a little show, pretty good for $25. Other places has hangi (like a laou) that cost around $60 each, but that includes dinner.












After show pictures. The tongue and bulging eyes signify fierceness before a battle, it's suppose to scare the enemies. 8b











After that we drove to the Bay of Plenty area and Coromandel peninsular. We went to tons of beaches. Most are very nice, not too busy at all this time of the year (early spring.)














This is the Hot Water Beach. At low tide you can dig a hole and the water will be hot. There is a hot spring right on the beach, pretty cool. I got the little shovel for $10 and was going to take it home as a souvenier, but by the end of the trip I had too many things to take so it was left in Melbourne. They did let me check it on the flight from Auckland to Sydney. All the airport guys were playing with it. 8)












After a few days on the beaches, we drove north pass Auckland to the Shakespear Regional park. It was a little peninsular, very nice view. I took a little hike up to the view point and saw some moo cows. Here I am with my one week stubbles. Notice I was only wearing two outfits during this week long trip. We only found one Superloo in Taupo, $2 for hot shower. Good thing it was still pretty cold....










This is the Aspen House B&B. The location is great, right in downtown Auckland, but the beds were super crappy. This is the first time mom and dad stayed at one of these places. We had 3 beds in this room and access to shared bathroom, kind of like a dorm. It was around $90 a night, much cheaper than anything else in downtown. I didn't want an 8 bunks room.











So on a free day we walked to Auckland Domain - this is like a huge park. There are a bunch of cricket fields, botanical garden, duck pond, hot houses, and also the Auckland museum. The suggested donation was $5, but you can guess how much we donated. 8)











Queen Street in downtown Auckland. The bus mall is here and there are tons of shops, restaurants, internet cafe down here. Auckland was pretty hilly, it was pretty steep to our B&B. Anyway, here is the foodcourt where we spend most of our meal time. Food was the cheapest we could find and it was not bad. $8 for a large plate so we usually get two and share. Whew, that's it for New Zealand, next stop Sydney.


Click here to see more pictures. They are in reverse Chronological order, I don't know how to change them.

New Zealand

All right, landed in Auckland, New Zealand and decided to go to the Bed and Breakfast that night to get some sleep before the drive. The next morning we went to get our van and took off, we will come back to Auckland later.












This is our first night, in the parking lot of the Glow worm cave. We paid $25 each to go see the cave. Dad was not impressed, he said the light was fake - christmas light. 8)
Actually this was one of the nicer place we camped out at. This place has picnic table, restroom, what more could you want? The van has a cooking stove that can swing out and a built in storage box that has plates and water, all the camping stuffs. There is a bed in the back portion of the van. It was pretty tight for 3 though.











New Zealand has tons of sheeps. This area is still near the cave, Waitomo area. This is the Hobbiton area in the Lord of the Rings movie. The next picture is Mt. Doom, actually Mt. Tongariro. The ground is all rocky. There is an 8 hours hike to go across the mountain, but we're not up to that kind of hike.










This is Tuapo lake, a very long large lake. We got a nice spot right next to the lake. BTW, this is illegal camping. You're suppose to pay $10 a head to camp, that pricey.












This is a Gypsy caravan near Taupo lake. It's like a mini carnival, a lot of stuffs for sale. They also had these home for sale and are looking for a magician to join the tour. 8)


Bungy, woo hoo... It was great. We were thinking we'll just go look, but it didn't look that scary and a bunch of girls were going so I went for it. It was awesome. This was about 150 feet, great view. Definitely have to drag Michelle with me next time. 8)
I closed my eyes before hitting the water, couldn't help it heh heh..