Some NZ pics!

This was on the Barbary Yacht on Lake Taupo (biggest fresh water lake in the Southern Hemisphere). They took us out (along with 15 other people) to see the famous Maori Rock Carvings. The Maori people to NZ are like the Aboriginals to Aussi. However, we were disappointed to learn that the rock carvings were only done about 30 years ago - hahah. Ohh well, they were pretty and it was a fantastic boat ride!

Ash on the bow of the boat :) This was actually where we got splashed the least!

The giant Maori Carving - looks like a gorilla face...

At our cute little turkish themed room in Kaikoura. This is where we stayed for Xmas Eve. It was actually a really nice place to sleep, but there was only a little room for all of our suitcases :(

At the Maori Carvings in Lake Taupo (middle of the North Island) (This was the same lake that Broderick and Holly went skydiving over 2 years ago)

We're sailing!! YAY! We lucked out with beautiful sailing weather and a very entertaining captain (he looked like he should be a captain in a Disney Movie :))

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We made it down to Christchurch, NZ yesterday on a bus and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our real Xmas, which arrives by plane on December 28th!  Hope you are having a wonderful time with your families back home. Stay warm!! XOXOOX Love us :)

One week 'til Mom and Bro!!!

Hi Everyone!! We arrived in Wellington today after a 6 hour bus ride and are staying here for 2 nights...then taking a 3 hour ferry down to the South Island and heading toward Christchurch where we will be meeting up with Patty and Broderick on the 28th (Patty's Birthday!!!) We are BEYOND excited!!! It will be weird for us spending our first Christmas away from home, especially since part of it will be spent on a bus...but the fact that they are coming makes it all worth it :) What an amzing time the 4 of us will have together!! We miss you all and are jealous of the snow back home! Have a wonderful holiday season! xoxo

Auckland, Paihia, Thames & Mt. Maunganui

There are sheep everywhere in New Zealand! These sheep are on Mount Maunganui, which was really just a big hill.

We put together a 1,000 piece "Wasjig" in Thames in one evening...8 hours to be exact!  A Wasjig is a backwards jigsaw puzzle where instead of building the picture on the front you build what the people on the front of the box are looking at!  You have no idea what picture you are building until you finish the puzzle! So fun :)

Dolphins!!  Near the end of our fishing trip they were swimming and jumping all around our boat!  :) It was incredible.

Snapper Fishing in the Bay of Islands!  The snapper were at the bottom about 50 meters down...we didn't catch any big enough to eat, but one of the men on the boat gave us his so we cooked it up for dinner!  

Checking out the 150 year old graves at the Russell cemetery.

New Zealand's "Christmas trees"

Ash with a cool old tree on Russell (a small island that was one of the first towns settled in NZ)

At Hairuru Falls in the Bay of Islands!

At the Sky Tower in Auckland...about to head to the Casino for Holly's Birthday!

A new country!

Hi everyone!!  So we flew out of Cairns on December 4th and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand yesterday. We are staying at a hostel downtown for a few days and then bussing up to the Bay of Islands just North of here.  We still need to figure out the logistics of our adventures up North, but we will be spending approximately 3 weeks here.  We will fill you all in once we figure it out! Tomorrow is Holly's birthday--she is turning twenty-faux! Not sure how we are celebrating yet, but we're considering going to the Imax theatre!  Less than 3 weeks til Santa comes too... Happy Holidays everyone!!! Love and miss you!  xoxo

Cairns and Port Douglas Pics

Our last night in Cairns!  We went out to sushi with our canadian friends Britt and Verona then drank and played cards at the hostel!

On our trike tour of Port Douglas!  Ash won us this trip (a $70 value..haha) because she helped the guy host the toad races!  It was really fun and the driver was so cool!

At the lagoon in Mossman's Gorge...the rainforest in Port Douglas!  We swam here after our hike--there were soo many fish in it, including eels!

Toad-racing in Port Douglas!  They do this nightly at one of the bars using poisonous cane toads (that are a pest in Australia.)  They were cute, but smelled soo bad!

Just jammin' with the mangoes in Port Douglas!  If you've seen the movie Fool's Gold with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson, it was filmed in this town!

Our thanksgiving feast!!  We were feeling a little sad that we were missing thanksgiving with our families so we rented ourselves a little hotel room with a kitchenette (i.e. a hot plate and microwave) and cooked ourselves mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins from scratch!  We also bought a little stuffed rotisserie chicken and pretended it was a turkey :)  It was delicious! (granted our standards may be lower than usual...)

Cairns

Hi everyone! We arrived in Cairns 2 days ago and it is HOT here! (about 105 degrees with 90% humidity). We are staying at a really cool little hostel, but unfortunately our rooms don't have air conditioning! We might go up to Port Douglas for the weekend with Brittney and Verona, but until then are just hanging around Cairns and going to scuba dive the reef! We fly out of Cairns on December 4th over to Auckland, New Zealand. So excited!! We miss you all so much. xoxo

Magnetic Island!!

Ohhhhhh!

We were so close to them! Look how Mama is just hanging there!!! SO CUTE!!

Mama Sheila and Baby Felix!! (we named them.)

A pretty view from our National Park walk! (where we saw all the koalas)

Our humble abode!! It actually wasn't too bad since it was just the two of us in there (minus all the ants and the opossum...)

This is the pool we learned to scuba dive in! We spent the first 2 days in the class room in the back and in this pool, then the next 2 days diving in the ocean (a total of 6 ocean dives.) We are now officially certified scuba divers!!! We'll try to add a picture of us in our gear later...The 2 girls we did it with (Britt and Verona) have them on their camera.

Kookaburra!

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands!

Looking sexy in our "stinger suits!" We had to wear these whenever we went in the water because of the poisonous jellyfish!! The snorkeling was amazing though and well worth it.

The cutest friendly fish! They followed us around everywhere when we went snorkeling and were about 2 feet long!

Awesome snake we saw on one of the Islands we stopped at! He was probably 5 or 6 feet long

White Haven Beach... One of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world! The sand is the purest sand in the world and is made of 98% silica. Only NASA has been given permission to remove any of the sand... they melted down one ton of it to make the lens of the Hubble Telescope!!

What a view! (the beach, not us)

The catamaran we sailed on, Cora!

Relaxing on the boat!! There were 40 of us, plus the captain and 3 shipmates! We sailed/snorkeled during the day and slept in hostels on South Molle Island for 2 nights. Such an amazing trip!

So Ash didn't know she was being filmed for this, but she wanted to get a picture with the parrot! This is on South Molle Island where we slept at the "resort." Check out her facial expressions! LOL

1770

This was our favorite hostel so far--it's called Cool Bananas! The city was a bit dull, but thankfully the hostel was a lot of fun (and clean!) We stayed 2 nights before hopping on a 9 hour bus ride up to Airlie Beach.

Hammocks outside of our bunks.

Our bus left 1770 at 12:30 at night last night during the middle of a HUGE rain/thunder/lightning storm! Luckily the rain helped cool things down as it is getting very hot up North!

Fraser Island

Hanging with the girls at Lake McKenzie!! This was our last day on Fraser and by far the most amazing Lake we've ever been to!

Underwater camera fun!

The great journey to Lake Wabby through the sand dunes!!

Walking up Ellie Creek so we could float back down!

The whole gang!! There were 21 of us total in 2 cars. We all camped and explored the island together. This is in front of the famous Maheno Shipwreck that crashed on the island in 1935.

Hanging out with Verona about to hike back from the Champagne Pools to Indian Head and the cars.

The Champagne Pools! You can't swim in the ocean at Fraser Island because of all the sharks, but the champagne pools are a natural swimming pool free of sharks!

Swimming in Lake Birrabeen!

We went on a 3 day 2 night 4x4 excursion on Fraser Island last week! These are the girls that were in our SUV: Janice, Brittany, Verona (all Canadian) and Lindsey (Irish.) There were also 4 boys in our group from Ireland.

More Noosa!

One of the many parrots outside our window at the hostel in Noosa! (they are super loud and are pretty much our alarm clocks every morning)

Mmmmm ice cream :)

Some cute kangaroos we spotted on our walk back from the beach!

Our short trip to Egypt.. not really, but there were camel tours going along the beach!

Mmmm... goon.

Relaxing in the hammocks with a beer at Gagaju Bush Camp (after a long day of canoeing)

Gagaju Bush Camp... aka Boot Camp

Our LOVELY suite for 6.

At Sunset on our walk back from the National Park.

Chillin out on Little Cove Beach :)

We went to Gagaju Bush Camp to go on a three day canoe safari through the Noosa Everglades. It was really beautiful, but the accommodations were a bit under par to say the least. We spent the night in the canvas rooms the first night and camped in tents the next night.

At night in our "room" after killing a zillion HUGE spiders...

Canoeing the Noosa Everglades!!