Australia - Feb 13

The flight to Australia was a mere 4 hours or so instead of 16 or so it would be from the states. We spent three days in Canberra visiting Chris, a college friend of Jason. Cannberra is the capital of Australia so we took some bus rides to tour the different buildings. We also visited a toy car collection in the local art museum, stuffed ourselves at a food and dance festival, toured the observitory and offices where Chris works, went to a New Zealand BBQ, played soccer, and watched some movies.

Then it was off to Melbourne via a 8 hour bus/train trip. We were surprised with how much hotter Australia was than New Zealand (yes we know it is further north). The high was around 40 deg C for one of the days.

We made it to the tram stop in Melbourne with no trouble but the tricky part was finding Matt (who Jason hadn't seen in 7 years) or Hannah (who we had never met). Turns out we met on a crosswalk, Matt and I both almost walking by but doing a double take. After a delicious pizza dinner, we went downtown to watch the fire towers and eat ice cream on the boardwak. Over the next couple days we also explored the Victoria street market, took the city bus tour, relaxed at the beach, visited the art museum, and went to a wildlife sanctuary. One of the neat things at the sanctuary was seeing the koalas just before feeding time when they were crawling around and jumping between branches.

The flight back to Auckland from Melbourne was a little bumpy but nothing too bad. We finally sold our car at the backpacker's car market after spending a day being a car salesman. Not too much fun but at least we don't have to worry about it anymore. We're spending the last few days exploring Auckland before we leave on Monday for LA.