Mosi'ing Around the World

Our NZ adventure continues on from Rotorua to a town called Turangi. The drive to Turangi was full of more cows, rolling hills, and a beautiful lake called Lake Taupo. Wish I had chosen to stay in Taupo even though it was a little further from our big hike location... Turangi was super small and didn't have a whole lot going on (apparently trout fishing is the big thing there). Lake Taupo We stayed three nights in Turangi to give ourselves a choice of two days to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We decided on the second day, and so began our journey!

Kia ora! That's Maori for hi/hello/be well. We made it to New Zealand! It was a nice and easy nonstop flight from Melbourne to Auckland. And so, we begin our journey in middle earth starting on the north island. Kola says kia ora!

It's hard for me to believe, I blinked and we were in Victoria, the last stop of this Australian part of our trip. At the end of this post I write about some reflections so far of this amazing country, and the trip itself. The Great Ocean Road The Great Ocean Road starts in Torquay (about 1.5 hours from the Melbourne airport), and continues 244K past one of the big attractions called the 12 apostles. It reminds me of driving up highway 1 in California, the coastline was similar with cliffs and beaches... and of course breathtaking views!

 Adelaide After taking a super early flight we made it to Adelaide with time to spare before our Kangaroo Island ferry. This was planned on purpose so that we could stop by one of the opal shops in downtown Adelaide :) The shop owners here buy the raw sandstone and cut/polish the opals themselves. They actually supply most of the Sydney shops that sell opal jewelry as they are wholesalers, so Adelaide is the best place to buy them. Directly from the experts!