I'll post my itinerary soon with photos from each day.
As you can see with number one, we began our journey in New Jersey on May 10th.
- Make a left in Jersey
- Fall in love with Air New Zealand's Premium Economy
- Cuddle a koala
- Feed a kangaroo
- Get molested by lorikeets
- Be involved in an AFA (automatic fire alarm - this happened in Coolangatta)
- Watch surfers
- Walkabout
- Use a public restroom (OZ has tons of really nice ones!!)
- Try a flat white coffee
- Eat beef cheeks
- Try out SCUBA diving
- Pet a sea turtle
- Not get bitten by a carpet shark (Jay thought our dive instructor wanted him to pet it)
- Find Nemo (found him MANY times!)
- Watch the sun rise in Coolangatta
- Pet a fish
- Play Apples to Apples
- Jaywalk comfortably (it's harder than it looks when you're used to right-hand side driving)
- Stand between two states (NSW and QLD)
- Find a spot for dad in Coolangatta (he's in the dunes and under a pine tree - I thought he'd enjoy all the lorikeets)
- Sing with Aunt Nancy (we had a little concert on my last night there)
- Swallow a live fly (Jay drank a fly in his wineglass)
- Find Whites Beach (black sand - we found a similar beach in Bayview, NZ)
- Try Australian pizza
- Make a u-turn on the runway (Proserpine Airport is TINY!)
- Concerns a boat... activity is censored! :)
- Pee off of a boat
- Not shower for two days (pact made by fellow Whitsunday Getaway couples)
- Step in cow poo
- Walk down railroad tracks
- Find and try Korean BBQ (AWESOME - in Townsville)
- Book the last hotel room (at the holiday inn in Townsville)
- Smash toe in hotel room (seriously who puts a 1" metal lip between the bedroom and bathroom?)
- Get freaked out in Dimbulah
- Go over a scary f'n bridge (Destination Truth style!!)
- Go through the Bismarck Range
- Share the road.... with cows
- Drive in the dark
- Walk in a rainforest
- Spot for dad in Daintree Rainforest (Daintree Discovery Center - seemed like his kinda place)
- Eat rainforest ice cream
- Ride a ferry (across croc-infested waters)
- Go on a croc river cruise
- Eat kangaroo (at the Daintree Tea House)
- Drive windy roads in Daintree (and not die)
- Figure out how to use air conditioning in hotel room (took us two hours - had to put our hotel key in a slot)
- Chat with locals (yep, lots of that)
- See how racist locals are (OMG the racism in OZ was bizarre)
- Get elfed by a 9 year old (in Almaden of all places)
- Feel like we were on Destination Truth (so many times)
- Not see any wildlife in Daintree Discovery Center. $60
- Have a wine and cheese night
- Something censored to do with the Outback
- Take pictures of Australian chickens
- Steal an Outback newspaper (front page was about the Wheelbarrow Race)
- Drive over a waterfall (did this several times)
- See wild crocodiles
- See a baby crocodile
- Attempt to sneak into zoo at night (then later find out it was open and we could've gone in)
- Feed a cassowary
- Feed an animal prosciutto
- Feed a wallaby
- Get eaten by mosquitoes
- Stay at a hotel in a zoo
- Finish Kvothe (the Kingkiller Chronicles) - this was super sadface, we enjoyed this audiobook. Hope the author comes out with a new book soon!
- Draw on each other (I think this happened on the wine and cheese night)
- Eat strong and bitey cheese (I love what they call stuff over there)
- Have Cuban rum
- Enjoy the best mojito ever at Fish d'vine
- Boop a kangaroo
- Pat a kookaburra
- Pat a dingo
- Feed a croc prosciutto
- Watch croc attack a piece of cured meat
- Poke a squirrel glider
- Feed a wallaby (hmm. it appears we did that in 63. oh well)
- Feed a cockatoo or twenty
- Taunt a cassowary
- Something to do with a rainforest
- Have a wallaby growl at you
- Have a dingo snap at you
- Get bitten by an emu
- Touch a wombat
- Feed a cassowary (oops, 61)
- Feed a kookaburra
- Start a croc feeding frenzy (oops! apparently they really enjoy salami - who knew?)
- Break tooth on salami
- Baby bird a croc (see breaking tooth on salami)
- Boop a quolle
- Visit the Giant Mango in Bowen
- Dive 3 sites in the Great Barrier Reef - the Agincourt Reef and Low Isles on Poseidon
- Learn more dive skills and actually be tested and expect to do stuff
- Take regulator out of mouth on purpose
- See a white-tipped reef shark
- Hold a sea cucumber
- Nearly get puked on
- Ride the vomit comet
- Run into Sally & Chris on the dock having happy hour after getting off dive boat
- Surf the Bay on the front of the Poseidon a la Titanic
- Stinky Plastic Couple - Ewww.
- Get offered free drinks at the Sea Temple because our rooms weren't ready - AND WE WERE EARLY for check in!
- Have a private hot tub session
- BBQ our own food at Sea Temple on our rooftop deck
- Wash a pack of cigarettes and try to hide it (Jay was supposed to quit smoking for this trip, but brought an emergency pack... he washed nearly the whole thing and made quite a mess)
- Get upgraded to nice apartment
- Buy souvenirs
- Stay at Horse and Jockey in at Matamata
- Have a terrible fried dinner at the Horse and Jockey (pork wontons and curly fries)
- Hear neighbors in next room peeing because of hole in the wall
- Leave Horse & Jockey via the fire exit
- Go from six people in our tour group at Hobbiton to fifty
- Have a rather obnoxious tour guide at Hobbiton
- Have a half pint at the Green Dragon
- Get called a "Little Hobbit"
- See bag End
- See Gandalf's limb
- Discover why the toilet squatting sign exists (in Hobbiton)
- Hobbiton - where the urinal cakes are hobbit-sized and so are the beers
- Have an awesome dinner at HuHu Cafe
- Have awesome dessert at HuHu Cafe
- Have best culinary experience EVER at HuHu (Waitomo)
- Sleep in a Hobbit Motel
- Meet Barry aka Billy Black
- Abseil 35 meters and not get stuck or die
- Zipline in pitch black under glow worms
- Jump into freezing cold water (10C)
- Ride a tube underground (blackwater raft)
- Cave slide
- Survive double waterfall of death
- Get invited hunting in Mississippi (and met our first Americans)
- Stub toe on rock after caving trip and lose a toenail
- Something about hot springs
- Go skinny dipping in hot spring
- Eat good Thai food
- Something about a trailer
- See Mount Doom from our breakfast table
- Simply walk into Mordor (we figure that if we could see Mt Doom from our breakfast table, we were already in Mordor)
- Have a disgusting cider (Elderflower & Apple and Black currant & Apple)
- Pass a tractor without incident
- Visit our new kiwi friends in Bayview/Napier (Sally & Chris)
- Go on black beach and find cool shit
- Find a spot for dad in Hawkes Bay (at the end of Franklin Road on the beach)
- Get a private tour of Napier/Hastings by kiwis
- Do a tasting at Cidery and TeMATA
- Learn about scrumpy hands, possum and cone - best drinking games ever
- Have an authentic kiwi dinner (roast & 3-veg)
- Get completely shitfaced (7 bottles of wine, 2L scrumpy and a 6 pack of beer consumed by 4 people)
- Eat a roach (that was all Jay - quite the entomologist this trip!)
- Draw best map of USA ever
- Sleep in a vineyard (they grow Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot & Chardonnay varieties)
- Spill stuff on our gracious hosts' carpet
- Go wandering about hosts' house in underwear
- Sleep naked in another bed from where you initially were sleeping (and wake up with no idea where you are)
- Soak up spillage with socks
- Wake up and have no idea where your husband is
- Black out from Scrumpy (or everything else)
- Drink 3 bottles of 2004 award-winning wine
- Exclaim, "What the fuck happened last night??"
- Puke
- Consider leaving before your hosts wake up
- Get invited to stay a second night
- Try Ginger Beer
- Drive with one of the worst hangovers ever (on the other side of the road through crazy mountain passes and one lane bridges_
- Have a good lunch in Rotorua (Mac's Steaks)
- Walk Lake Trail in Rotorua
- Watch Asians with cameras feed birds an entire loaf of bread (despite signs)
- Take a dump in a public toilet
- See an Indian (presumable American Indian??) on horseback walk down a sidewalk in Tauranga
- Learn Tauranga is not a place we want to stay
- Pay a toll
- Arrive in Mount Maunganui after doubting its existence (drove forever through shipyards)
- Discover it's difficult to book hotels during the Queen's Birthday Weekend (observed June 3rd 2013)
- Book the last available hotel in town at Macca's using their free wifi (Baywatch Motor Inn)
- Develop a disturbing arrythmia (this was Jay, he eventually got better... we think it was due to an electrolyte imbalance from the puking/drinking plus lack of sleep)
- Have the best pork belly ever (Latitude 37 or Vine in Taupo)
- See (and play) the FJ Cruiser game
- Tip a grateful waitress at Latitude 37
- Find a spot for dad in Mt Maunganui
- Avoid getting run into by runner (there was some kind of crazy run/walk/bike ride thing happening there)
- Eat mincemeat pie - delicious!
- Walk across a CRAZY bridge
- Start a parking trend
- Almost get run over by a mountain biker
- Spot a giant mushroom
- Successfully drop off rental car
- Take a weird-ass bus ride
- Spot homeless people (they're pretty much the same worldwide) - then consider giving them a bottle of wine
- Mistakenly see Auckland by staying on a bus too long
- Be surprised by an awesome dinner at Lord Nelson's in Auckland
- Get a second Skycouch AND be undercharged for it
- Catch the airport bus perfectly
- Be test subjects for the egate (I was denied!)
- Find and buy Cuban rum
- Debate merits of buying a sheepskin rug at the airport. In hindsight, I kinda wish we had. Even though I have no idea what I'd do with it.
- Kick a guy off Skycouch
- Something about Cuban rum. What? You want mojitos?
- Walk on Manhattan Beach Pier (back in CA)
- Run into couple from our flight to the US from New Zealand (South Islanders) at El Sombrero in Manhattan Beach. They were heading to the Caribbean to spend a few months on a friend's yacht. You know, since their growing season is over (another vineyard owning couple).
- Not lose wallet in El Segundo
- Get Roxie to start (it took some coaxing, sweet girl... she has nearly 300k on her and she was sitting for THREE WEEKS!)
- Survive the trip, including the drive home
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