Our trip to Sydney and New Zealand's South Island

Greetings Friends and Family!
(Click on any of the pics to make them larger)

Our apologies for the lack of blog communications and storytelling.  We have been "on the road" quite a bit as of late and are just now creating some time to retell our tales. We hope you enjoy and thanks for your patience and support!

We got to play host to Tim's parents and brother for eight days over Christmas and show them a bit of place we currently call "home."  We celebrated Christmas Day at Disneyland Hong Kong and  there was even some time while they were here to put together 2 obligatory (and really really awesome) 1000 piece puzzles.  We're getting a little slow in our old age though: it took us more than four hours to finish the first one :)

The first puzzle of two.

We also got to ring in the New Year on Victoria Harbor with a HUGE number of people.  The waterfront walkway was filled, the streets were filled, rooftops were filled.  I tried to find the exact number of people in the news but the only figure I could find was "tens of thousands."  It was pretty incredible!

People!!!

More People!!!

Part of the fireworks on Victoria Harbor

On January 2nd, Christine and Tim took their suitcases and their sunscreen and began a 10 day trip to Australia and New Zealand.  Australia was on Christine's "bucket list" of places to visit and Tim wanted to take Christine to the South Island of New Zealand where he traveled with his family 11 years ago.  The flight from Hong Kong to Sydney took nine hours, but they were both well cared for on the Cathay Pacific flight. (BTW- Cathay Pacific is a great way to fly if you get the chance :) )

On the way to the Taronga Zoo

The Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the Botanical Gardens

Sydney, Australia was our first destination where we spent three nights just outside of the city center.  The city is young and vibrant and holds outdoor and physical activity in very high regards.  December and January is summer in the Southern Hemisphere (opposite seasons of the Northern Hemisphere) and the temperatures were in the upper 80's Farenheit while we were there.  We walked across the harbor bridge, took pictures with the Sydney Opera House, walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens, and traveled out to the site of the 2000 Summer Olympics to find the names of all our favorite athletes in the commemorative fountain that they made from the torch.  We also got to go see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Sydney Opera House :) We also took the Harbour Ferry to the Taronga Zoo and got to see Platypii, Tasmanian Devils, and Koalas!!!  They allow you to take photos with the last crew and Ruby the Koala got REALLY close (I knew I should not have used the Eucalyptus shampoo that morning :) )

NOMS!!!!

Sniff Sniff

The Olympic Torch from 2000

Up next on the Oceania "road trip" was Christchurch, New Zealand.  A beautiful flight with fun safety videos (check out "Air New Zealand Safety Video" on youTube!) and a stunning view brought us to a thorough luggage check and quite a bit of questioning in regards to our outdoor activities in Hong Kong and Australia.  Understandable for a country that derives a huge portion of its GDP from tourism and agriculture.  Invasive species or disease could be disasterous!   The air was pure and clean and the sky was a bright blue when we stepped outside.  It is funny how much Americans tend to take open skies and clean air for granted.  We spent the first two days in Christchurch and got to see the REstart Mall made of shipping containers after the earthquakes.

The Mountains!!!

The REstart Mall in Christchurch

In New Zealand we rented a little teal car and took our turns at driving on the left side of the road.  And when I say "we" I really mean Christine with the exception of Tim returning the rental car from the passenger drop off point.  It went pretty smoothly from the beginning and Christine got very comfortable with the practice after six days.  Still, we took to reciting the mantra "Stay left. Stay left. Stay left." at every intersection.

Home Sweet Home

In the wildflowers near Arthur's Pass

Sheep were a common sight in NZ

We camped almost every night in New Zealand, although the definition of camping varied from night to night.  The first two nights were in a campground that had all sorts of accommodations (think KOA).  Then it was off to the Southern Alps.  This was the site of filming for all of the Misty Mountain footage from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  We camped on the western side of the mountains for night, and I think that Frodo and the gang didn't have to act too much.  It is actually RIDICULOUSLY cold in those mountains, even in the summer!  That night we also met two New Zealand natives, the Kea and Weka.  The Kea was a cute and "cheeky" little guy that just wanted some snacks from the nice people that parked in his mountain turnoff.  The Weka however was an intrusive and arrogant specimen who invited himself into our conversations and probably would have invited himself into our tent were it not for Tim's intermittent snoring.  He was kind of like the person who asks if they can come over only after they are already through the door :)

A Cheeky Kea wanting snacks

The curious Weka.  Apparently they are scarce :)

Then it was the most epic camping night of the entire trip.  The day after we slept in fear of a midnight feathered intruder, we jaunted over to Greymouth on the West Coast, had lunch and internet, and then drove through Arthur's Pass (again, the same "we" as used before) and decided to call it a day in the little hamlet of Springfield.  Following the signs for the campsite, we found ourselves in the perfectly pastoral vision of New Zealand: a light breeze, manicured green space, the lazy train rolling past, a reticently setting sun, and many sheep bleating in the adjoining field.  We set up the tent and settled in for the perfect evening of sleeping under the stars.  We slept until the gale force winds picked up and just about blew our tent away with us in it.  We spent the rest of the morning sleeping in the car with the tent packed up and safe and spent the next night in the Akaroa Peninsula in much the same fashion due to the incredible winds.  After a few adventurous evenings, we welcomed the chance to stay in a hotel near the airport our last evening.  Turns out that walls can be a nice thing from time to time :)

Hiking in one of the National Parks

Fish and Chips are huge in Sydney and New Zealand!  We had so much good food on this trip!

Then for our last evening adventuring we returned to Sydney to spend an evening near Bondi Beach.  The theme of the beach is definitely surfing and tanning and enjoying time outside and the neighborhood surrounding it has a distinctly young, urban, and environmentally conscious vibe to it.  It was really cool to see and be a part of for just a short amount of time.  Then it was time to head to the airport and travel back to Hong Kong and get settled back in to the start of the second semester.

Bondi Beach in Sydney

The first two weeks have gone well.  Christine had a concert with the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra that went well after 4 days of really intense rehearsals.  This weekend is more of a low key one.  We are both training for the Standard Chartered half marathon at the end of February and the mileage is really starting to pick up on the training runs/walks.

Sending all the best from Hong Kong!  Please do good things!
Tim and Christine