And We're on the Move

It's been a whirlwind rush the past 5 weeks, since Steve and I pulled up our roots at Lennox Head and hit the road and airways. The month traveling with mom and dad was pure luxury, staying in true motel rooms and eating out at restaurants, and of course having them visit as well :) It was a bit surreal to see them get off the plane in Ballina, to know that they came half way round the world to see us.

We spent a week in Lennox Head relaxing, checking out the weekend market at Bangalow, puttering up the river at Brunswick Heads, and watching Mom and Dad hang glide over Lennox. From Lennox we flew straight to Perth where we collected our rental car and headed out for a day's worth of driving north to Cervantes (rhymes with panties) where the most interesting part of the town is the water tower, where Steve and I wriggled through the fence and climbed up to the platform to watch the stars buffeted by gusts of wind that threatened to knock us off. However, it is near The Pinnacles, an eerie bit of the desert littered with thousands of rocky columns of various shapes and sizes reminiscent of an abandoned ancient miniature city.

The next day we resumed our journey up to Denham and Monkey Mia where a pod of female and young dolphins show up like clockwork every morning for their feeding. You're not allowed to touch them, but you do get to stand in the water within 3 feet of them and it provoked such a sense of awe to stand in their presence.

Our next big stop was back down south, past Perth in Margaret River, a cute town nestled near the sea and a collection of caves, which we checked out. We took a wine tour from Margaret River, spending a day shuttled between 5 different wineries and a brewery only to discover that we are not wine connoisseurs or even great appreciators of wine. We know what we like and don't necessarily want to drink anything else.

Next up was Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road, famous for the 12 Apostles, soaring rocky pinnacles jutting up out of the sea right off the coastline. We spent the night in Warnambool where we watched one of the most delightfully cheesy laser light shows ever which detailed the fate of an English ship that sank a mile from the southern coast, leaving just two survivors and an oversized statue of a peacock to wash ashore.

From that adventure, we boarded another plane, this time for New Zealand, one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. We checked into the Langham Hotel, a 5 star institution, complete with mints on your pillows, robes, and the option of dinner at the in house restaurant that had the best buffet ever with sushi, steaks, fish, crepes, home-made naan bread, and lots of desserts. Then we headed to Queenstown on the south island, one of my new favorite cities. It sits on the edge of lake Wakatipu, surrounded by mountains and peopled with lots of people who love the outdoors. We took a day tour to Milford Sound to see the fjords gouged out of the land by glaciers and rode the ferry out to the edge of the Tasman Sea, marveling at the towering sheer mountains that rose up around us.

Then we spent half a day climbing on Franz Josef Glacier suited out in our boots and crampons but otherwise sweltering hot as the sun beat down on us. It was amazing to see the crevasses and ice formations in the glacier and knowing in the back of your mind that this mass of ice is what carved out the gorgeous New Zealand landscape.

And the next day we left Mom and Dad at the airport in Auckland, waving good bye to them as we headed off to rent our own car and they trundled back inside to get on their flight home.