Thursday, May 7, 2015

Home

Our "first" journey is complete!  We left Tulsa 92 days ago and we are now home with our family!  It's been such an incredible experience and we look forward to having many more, but for now, we get to enjoy time with our family and friends!

We arrived back in Sydney from New Zealand on May 6th at 8:45 a.m.   Since our return flight to the U.S. was for the following day we booked a hotel within the Sydney International Airport.  We went in to see if they had a place to hold our bags until we could check in, and to our surprise, they had a room ready for us!  We rested for a little bit, but decided we should stay awake and prepare for our 25 hour journey back home.  So....we headed into Sydney for the day.
 We came across this hair salon with a sign saying "Men's hair cut $10" so David jumped at it.  Neither one of us has had our hair cut since coming over here.  Silly happy face; it took the lady about 7 minutes to complete the hair cut.  Wow!
 Next stop...Food!  We tried going to a pizza place we found in February, but they didn't open until 5 p.m. during the week.  So, we used google maps and found another place nearby.  It turned out to be wonderful!  Our server was from Florence and the owner was from Naples.  Great food!
 A perfect espresso!
 Before leaving our server brought out limoncello; complimentary!  
Just like we used to get in Italy!  He got a really good tip!  Bellissimo!
 Making our way back to the harbour area.
 Walking through Hyde Park.
 The Sydney Tower Eye.
Queen Victoria Building
 We had been to the Sydney Harbour several times so we decided to 
check out Darling Harbour.   Very nice!





Home Sweet Home!  
Wonderful reception at the airport and we got to meet sweet little Emelyn for the first time!  

We will be leaving for another 3-month adventure to France, Slovakia, and Germany from August to November...until then, Au Revoir, Zbohom, and Auf Wiedersehen!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Our Last Day in New Zealand - Dunedin to Christchurch

We spent our last day in New Zealand touring Dunedin then driving to Christchurch.  We are going to miss this place, but looking forward to seeing family and friends when we return.

 This is over-looking Otago Peninsula in Dunedin.
We stayed in a small Bed and Breakfast in Dunedin called the "Albatross Inn".


 Great Breakfast

We headed out in the morning and drove around Otago Peninsula.  We came across this little park and had to stop to take a picture for our Son-in-law, the dentist!  Not sure what this is supposed to be.
More beautiful and massive trees!




We wish we would have taken a video of these sheep.  Incredible!








From the peninsula, we headed a little bit south to Tunnels Beach.  More incredible views!






 We found carvings in the rocks dating back to 1930 and 1933, that we could find.




Such a beautiful place!  We had fun here!


                                                                  We discovered the panoramic function of the I-phone: duh!








 David is on the rock behind me!


 After Tunnel Beach we drove 4 1/2 hours to Christchurch.  
Below are a few pictures of our drive.


We were told by the owner of our Bed and Breakfast that we "had" to stop at Moeraki Boulders.  Saw some neat rocks....and then got a coffee to go!






 Farms here have hedges around or dividing parts of their property.  They are 15 to 20 feet high and incredible looking. 
We fly back to Australia in the morning and then home the following day!!!