Home...

It's freaking freezing here. And it gets dark suuuper early. What the heck. It's December, it's supposed to be sunny and warm!

Arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon after a surprisingly easy flight from Sydney via San Francisco (exit rows on both flights, I even sweet-talked my way into one on the way from SFO free of the usual $40 charge). After only a short delay I collected my big suitcase from Morgan (big props for carrying that home for me) and headed home to a house I had not seen in five months. After so long away from home, it feels extremely odd to be back. Almost everything is entirely familiar, yet it seems weirdly out of context - I am constantly finding myself asking, "Wait, what am I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here...what's my next destination?" Ah, but it's the holidays, and nothing beats being home for the holidays. I had a lovely time today wrapping all the gifts I brought back from my travels, decorating the Christmas tree, and going downtown for a night out on the town - all those little things you don't really think too much about but which are wonderful, warm reminders that you have a loving home and awesome parents that supported you through a truly amazing trip.

My last few days in Sydney were incredible. I don't have too much time to talk about them just now, but there were some great highlights - the amazing botanic gardens, the opera house (possibly the most iconic building in the world?), Taronga Zoo (incredible exhibits, amazing animals), and, on my last night there, climbing the Harbour Bridge, which was a truly phenomenal experience and provided some of the best views I've ever seen.

Over the next few days I will do my best to try and post some highlight pictures of my trip since Brisbane, but no promises on the timetable. For now, it's good to be back home, thanks for all those who managed to stick through reading this thing with what I'm sure was some really convoluted and grammatically horrible writing over the past few months, and I really had the most spectacular trip ever. Merry Christmas, and it's sure good to be back in the world's greatest city!

A Journey Into Middle Earth...Then a Visit to Seattle

That's right, have a sword. Be jealous.

And not just any sword - actually, a sword wielded by Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen)in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Our Lord of the Rings tour on Sunday was fantastic on so many different levels. Amazing scenery, good group of people (all young people, and no extreme know-it-all nerds), and a very knowledgable guide (the guy had worked on the movies as the lead on-location sound guy, had won two Oscars and been nominated four times, and he doesn't even mention this until he was driving us back). If the location looks familiar at all, it was the site of Edoras, the capital of Rohan that first shows up in the second movie. Absolutely stunning spot, and I'm sure I'll never be able to watch the movies again without getting super excited whenever Edoras comes onto the screen.

The tour was an awesome way to end our time in New Zealand, but we are on to one last final adventure in Sydney. The flight fortunately went quite smoothly and we re-entered Australia with no problems at all.

I'm able to post and load pictures because I finally have reliable, free, non-time restricted internet couresy of an awesome arrangement we have courtesy of Morgan. We are staying two nights (this is the second) with family friends of hers that have a house in Wollongong, a lovely city about an hour and a half south of Sydney. They were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and treat us to some lovely sightseeing on the way down to Wollongong yesterday. Today we spent happily warm and relaxed on the beach that's only bout a 15 minute walk from their house:


That's right. Check out where I was today. Now look out your window. Mom, dad, I might just decide I'm going to accidentally miss the flight home.

The couple we're staying with - Shady and Scott - also have a lovely 13-month-old aptly named Seattle whose antics we've been thoroughly enjoying (apart from his almost-incessant crying on the ride from the airport; the kid does not like being confined). So yes, after a sense, I have been able to visit Seattle a week early.

This may be my last blog post from Australia itself, I will be back in Seattle, no puns attached, in less than a week. Here's to making the most of the next few days!

Queenstown

Hello from Queenstown!

We arrived here a couple days ago after a bus trip through some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery you will see anywhere on the planet. Rugged peaks, astonishingly blue lakes, amazing mountain wildflowers, it’s really stunning.

Queenstown is awesome, it’s situated on the edge of a mountain lake with mountains all around. It’s a major tourist town but also full of young people; there’s a couple big hostels here and there is a very active nightlife. Morgan and I got a really good room, with a guy from Montana and another from Scotland, and we all went out last night.

This is also the adventure sports capital of New Zealand, and we’ve been getting a good full dose of that as well. Wednesday we had a combo tour that was a mix of jetboating through river canyons (amazing, and exhilarating), a helicopter flight (awesome), luge rides (which they have a track for and sounds kind of stupid but is amazing fun, it’s basically Mario Kart), and a ride down the mountain gondola. Yesterday it was the Shotover Canyon Swing, which was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done but also a ton of fun – it’s a 70m freefall that’s followed by getting swung across a canyon. You have to jump off a platform, which is terrifying enough in itself without the guys who strap you in doing everything in their power to freak you out, bump you, etc. In keeping with a scene, the natural setting is amazingly beautiful.

Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch and have a Lord of the Rings Tour (we’ve been re-watching the movies as preparation) before heading to Sydney and the last leg of the trip before heading home. Back in Seattle in under two weeks!

New Zealand!

Hey everybody -

Been a while since I posted anything. Had a great time driving from Adelaide to Melbourne - saw the Grampians (an awesome "mountain" range in rural Victoria), the Great Ocean Road, and had a great time in Melbourne. My friend Matt was an excellent tour guide and I also greatly enjoyed seeing a Costco, which was a little taste of home.

Got into New Zealand two days ago and it's been awesome so far (once Morgan got past the check-in at Melbourne Airport, which almost didn't happen). Friendly people, nice weather, cool attractions (the International Antarctic Centre is a must-see if you're ever in Christchurch), and mountains - like, real mountains - which I haven't seen in ages.

Tomorrow we're off on something called Naked Bus, which I'm only about 90% sure isn't a nudist thing, for Queenstown where we have jetboating, helicoptering, canyon swinging, and kayaking all on the docket - should be an awesome few days. After that, we're back in Christchurch for a day and take a Lord of the Rings Tour before heading back to Australia and Sydney. Only about two weeks before I head home...feels weird.

And finally, I am very happy the Huskies are in a bowl game but really, why on earth do we have to face Nebraska again?