Farewell to DownUnder

So this part of our trip has come to an end….its hard to believe that we have been away from home for more that 2 months and this will be my final blog update in Australia. Tomorrow we leave fro Auckland, and will start our explorations of New Zealand. But before we go…here is the final Aussie update.

Mark making Christmas dinner.

Just so our moms don’t think we were malnourished for Christmas dinner…takes a look at the lovely dinner Mark made. It was great…not as great as Christmas dinner at Crystal and John’s house, but not too shabby. And in the end the final result was the same…me asleep and happy with a full tummy.

Christmas dinner (I made the brownies...ok, they were from a box, but not too bad, eh?)

Asleep after too much food and just a little wine.

We arrived in Melbourne on Boxing Day and stayed just outside of the city in a suburb called St-Kilda. By far, Melbourne is my favorite Aussie city…have I declared a favorite yet?? Anyways, I take back any previous statement of favorite as Melbourne wins hands-down. In general, mark and I have come to the conclusion that Brisbane is most like Vancouver, Sydney is most like Toronto and Melbourne is most like Montreal….so voila, my favorite is obviously Melbourne. (though it may be helped by the time of year…the city is a little empty with most of its inhabitants at the cricket grounds or out of the city for the holidays, which has created a great climate for us to wander through the streets less hassled by crowds).

Luna Park in St-Kilda.

Mark on the roof of our hotel....just before a bad "pealla" experience, but that is a story for another time...all I can say is that our friend Christine would have been very proud of us. :) (miss you Christine. )

All in all, we have immensely enjoyed Australia. This is a huge country, and has so many different climates and sights to see. We haven’t even touched the outback or the western part of the country and we have been here for 7 weeks….so maybe we will be back again to resume the trek.  Just one last little observation that causes me to laugh everyday while watching the news….the weathermen describe the weather as “fine”, “mostly fine” and “becoming fine”….what is that supposed to mean? This is one unique place…I will just leave it at that.

Tommorow we are back in the air...I am very excited to get to New Zealand. I have almost convinced Mark into bungy jumping or canyon swinging...so fingers crossed it should be an exhilirated trip.

Love and miss you all.
Sarah
xoxoxo


BEARD UPDATE-


Mark is still refusing to shave the beard...he actually went to get a haircut today and didn’t let the hairdresser touch it. I can tell that even he is getting a little annoyed with it, but I have refused to let him shave it just to grow it out again...if he going to do it then, he has to keep it going properly for the entire three months. I don’t think it counts if he just has two 7 week beards in the trip...what do you think?

The beard in all its glory...lol.