Home & Dreaming of OZ
We've been home a little over three weeks now and I think about Australia and our trip all the time. It's been a wonderful whirlwind of emotion... regrouping and finding home back in our actual home. It's an amazing feeling to see everyone you love after such a long time... well at least a long time in my mind :)
It's really the small moments from the trip I think about the most. How I felt in a place in a specific moment in time. Walking to Cathedral Cove in the dark for the sunrise, sitting in the sand and watching the sunset at Wharariki beach, eating the acai bowl in Currumbin... I'm worried I'll forget the little details and that places will blur together.
Anyway, I figured I couldn't end the blog posts for this trip without some numbers and summaries of how the trip went :)
Here's our path through Australia, we really hit a lot of the East Coast and I have no regrets of the path we followed. So grateful for our time here. I definitely still have things yet to see... a good list of them... and as you can tell Australia is very big so it's impossible to see everything even with 3.5 months there. I remember being surprised to find out Australia is the size of the US when I first started researching this.
Our itinerary for New Zealand changed a bit from my original post due to the earthquake near Kaikoura. We weren't able to go there, but we moved around enough as it was. This was all covered over six weeks, with about an average of 4 nights per stop. After our pace in Australia, this felt really fast especially with working some too. We still saw a ton though.
And just in case you're curious, here's our 5 day stop in Kauai! Haha... much smaller compared to the other islands we were on :)
2,508 - # of miles driven to get to our airbnbs throughout the trip.
388 - # of miles by Greyhound
148 - Days we were gone
35 - # of beds slept in... you could say I was ready for my pillow :)
27 - # cities visited
28 - # of scuba dives
16 - # of flights
15 - # times we set up our monitors
8 - # documented local markets visited
7 - # rental cars
6 - # of ferries
6 - # reefs visited on the Great Barrier Reef
2 - # of liveaboards
2 - # of helicopter rides
1 - hammerhead sighting
1 - engagement <3
0 - injuries 😉
So...
Justin also took a picture every time I went shopping... 😂
Australia:
Thank you so much for following along! I really enjoyed keeping this blog and will use it to refresh my memory if needed in the future :) If you're thinking about going to Australia or New Zealand I highly recommend, if that isn't obvious already.
Until next time, take care!
Sarah
"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live."
~ Hans Christian Andersen
It's really the small moments from the trip I think about the most. How I felt in a place in a specific moment in time. Walking to Cathedral Cove in the dark for the sunrise, sitting in the sand and watching the sunset at Wharariki beach, eating the acai bowl in Currumbin... I'm worried I'll forget the little details and that places will blur together.
Anyway, I figured I couldn't end the blog posts for this trip without some numbers and summaries of how the trip went :)
Here's our path through Australia, we really hit a lot of the East Coast and I have no regrets of the path we followed. So grateful for our time here. I definitely still have things yet to see... a good list of them... and as you can tell Australia is very big so it's impossible to see everything even with 3.5 months there. I remember being surprised to find out Australia is the size of the US when I first started researching this.
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| Our journey through OZ |
Our itinerary for New Zealand changed a bit from my original post due to the earthquake near Kaikoura. We weren't able to go there, but we moved around enough as it was. This was all covered over six weeks, with about an average of 4 nights per stop. After our pace in Australia, this felt really fast especially with working some too. We still saw a ton though.
 |
| Mostly driving route through NZ |
And just in case you're curious, here's our 5 day stop in Kauai! Haha... much smaller compared to the other islands we were on :)
Gimme Some Stats!
9,253 - # of pictures taken on our cameras (not including phones or pics from tours)
2,508 - # of miles driven to get to our airbnbs throughout the trip.
388 - # of miles by Greyhound
148 - Days we were gone
35 - # of beds slept in... you could say I was ready for my pillow :)
27 - # cities visited
28 - # of scuba dives
16 - # of flights
15 - # times we set up our monitors
8 - # documented local markets visited
7 - # rental cars
6 - # of ferries
6 - # reefs visited on the Great Barrier Reef
2 - # of liveaboards
2 - # of helicopter rides
1 - hammerhead sighting
1 - engagement <3
0 - injuries 😉
So...
Did we work?
Yes, quite a bit... Justin took a picture every time we had our full setup (two monitors for him, and one for me). Most of the time we split the day up, or Justin got in a couple hours of technical support, and of course some days we didn't get much of anything done. We were really happy with the work stuff we brought, and only ended up buying one extension cord to add to our setup. I specifically booked airbnbs that had large tables for us to use, and I have to say I am very appreciate of my office chair here in Raleigh... kitchen chairs hurt after a while!
Justin also took a picture every time I went shopping... 😂
Did we stick to our budget?
For the most part all of the big things added up to be about what I thought they would be. Here's a breakdown of our biggest categories:- Airbnbs - 54%
- Activities (only major ones counted) - 18%
- Flights - 17%
- Other Transportation (bus, car rentals, ferries, ubers, etc) - 11%
What were our favorite places?
This one is tough, but we both decided on our top three from OZ, but I'll add a few others in (these are not in order, except the first three :) )- Sydney - shocking, right? Sydney is gorgeous, super spread out, fun things to do all the time... yeah you could spend years here and hardly make a dent in the scene.
- Currumbin, Burleigh Heads (the southern part of the Gold Coast... aka everything except Surfer's Paradise) - Calm, laid-back beach lifestyle and we especially loved the creek that cuts through the town. Every day people are out on the water having fun. Oh yeah and the acai bowls at the salt mill are amazing (so is the coffee). Also the national parks nearby are really gorgeous.
- Cairns - The Great Barrier Reef with it's incredible diving, the fun lagoon in the city, the rainforest, the swimming holes... we loved Cairns. It was our introduction to Australia and we'll never forget it.
- Melbourne - Really pretty city, great transportation, St Kilda was a fun place to stay... kangaroo burgers and artsy alleyways... yeah I want to go back for a month just here.
- The Coromandel - on the North Island of NZ, really beautiful area. Close to amazing, secluded beaches, incredible hikes, really nice people, and lots of cows :) I highly recommend going here.
- Wellington - Really fun city with lots of personality for being "small" as they say... larger than Raleigh that's for sure! Tons of great coffee, local shopping, and just a beautiful setting on the harbor. Easy access to the North and South Island.
- Nelson + Wharariki Beach - Another breathtaking area.... it's called the Gold Coast of NZ and it definitely has a vibe of it's own. We loved how quaint Nelson was, and we'll never forget our day trip out to Wharariki Beach for the sunset. Also lots of great wine nearby!
- Tekapo - We missed the star gazing because of clouds but this area will really blow you away. Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaiki are an amazing shade of blue that I've never seen a lake be. Mt Cook looms over them in the distance with tons of hikes, day trips, etc. Once we got here I was like wow... I see what they mean about NZ.
- Queenstown / Wanaka - I know I shouldn't group these together but they are very close to each other. Yet another beautiful location, set in central Otago where you can hike all you want, ride bikes, drink wine, enjoy water sports on the lake, day trip out to the Southern Alps and to Milford Sound... this area really has it all. If I had to choose one place to go to in NZ it would be here. Oh yeah at the sky diving in Wanaka is so AWESOME!!!!
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| Some of our favorite landscape shots from the trip... |
Where would we go next time?
Just in case you're interested in going to either Australia or New Zealand, here's some ideas for the things we skipped and would like to eventually do.Australia:
- Dive with the whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef
- Explore Perth
- Spend more time in Melbourne and go out to the Grampians
- Spend more time in Burleigh Heads and further south
- Explore more National Parks and beaches just outside of Sydney
- Go to Tasmania
- Visit Uluru and Alice Springs
- Take a cruise up the Margaret River
- Explore the Northland (north of Auckland) + go scuba diving here
- Waitomo glow-worm caves
- Visit New Plymouth and hike around Mt Taranaki
- Hike Mt Tongariro again but just go halfway (on a clear day) and turn around
- Taste wines in Napier
- Spend more time in Welly
- Visit Tekapo for longer to have a higher chance of a clear night for star gazing
- Hike more around Queenstown / Wanaka
Thank you so much for following along! I really enjoyed keeping this blog and will use it to refresh my memory if needed in the future :) If you're thinking about going to Australia or New Zealand I highly recommend, if that isn't obvious already.
Until next time, take care!
Sarah
"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live."
~ Hans Christian Andersen