Our nice hotel thanks to Bryan!!

Bellavista Neighborhood (bars, restaurants and located at the base of a giant park).

Ryan eating a Completo. It’s a hot dog with guacamole and pico de gallo.

View of the Andes Mountains from our room!

We finished with a nice dinner! Ryan had Osobucco at Bar Lastarria.

After the walking tour, we visited The Vega Market (fruit market) and bought some groceries.

We then headed to the opposite end of town to see the Los Domingos Market!

Local Crafts.

Animals at the pet store. 🥰

And beer! 🍺

Natablo’s house. A famous poet from Chile.

Beautiful Airbnb.

First Day. Free Walking Tour.

Home cooked meals and many card games!

Off to Cerro Concepcion. But first, empanadas and beer!

Our Airbnb located at Pierre Loti 9.

Valparaíso was a beautiful city. We will forever remember the hills of colorful houses, endless alleys of street art, people who go out of their way to help, and the surprising amount of docile and cute stray dogs.

The next few days were spent exploring the streets, beautiful art, and street music.

And of course, more empanadas!!

Back to Santiago!

For our last day in Santiago, we went to the Chilean Historical Museum. One of the most impressive artifacts, were the mummified infants that dated back up to 6,000 years ago (2,000 years before the Egyptians started mummifying their dead).

We followed the museum with a couple drinks- and our first Terremoto (the earthquake). The Terremoto is a famous Chilean drink made of sweet Chilean wine and topped with pineapple ice cream. “Drinking just one will make you walk as if there was an earthquake”. Luckily, Ryan was able to keep both feet on the ground.

After 10 miles of walking today, we are happy to stay in a nice Marriott room thanks to Bryan. Now, if we can just get some sleep. We have to wake up at 1:30am to make our 4:30am flight to Puerto Natales!

Very flat and sparse!

Bus to Puerto Natales. The land was very sparse but during our ride, we saw a pod of whales breaching off the coast, guanacos (llamas), ostrich looking birds (Rheas) and a fox.

Tonight, we are shedding what we can from our packs to lighten our loads. Tomorrow, we leave at 7am!

Our Airbnb - a small shed in our host Margherita’s backyard.

After checking in to our Airbnb, we got a quick lunch, looked at the mountains and then headed to the grocery store for last minute snacks for our trip. The line to buy groceries spanned the entire store. It took us about 30 minutes to get through. This is the base for the W trek, so many fellow hikers were also gearing up.

After 7 miles, we arrived at Camp Grey only to find out we didn’t have reservations!😳

But that actually was not bad news! I guess we booked single beds in the bunkhouse! At first, we were a little disappointed because we were looking forward to camping. However, about 15 minutes after we arrrived, it starting pouring down rain. Man, were we glad we had a spot in the warm cabin!

The winds gusts reached 35 mph. Enough to feel like the wind was pushing you over with your pack!

Our bunk mates Aaron (from Guatemala) and Marie (from Costa Rica 🇨🇷).

We arrived! We left Paine Grande in the sun and experienced all four seasons within the first hour of our hike.

Rain and wind for the first hike! The winds were so strong, I wore my sunglasses to keep the rain from pelting my eyes! Surprisingly, it wasn’t that cold! I guess hiking uphill with a pack will keep you warm!

We spotted the glacier (far right).

Beautiful foxgloves along the trail!

We settled in quickly and had some drinks with our new friends Sasha, Brian, Linh, and Monique.

After our bus ride, we road a catamaran to Pudeto. Unfortunately, we missed the first catamaran and had to take the second one that left an hour later. This allowed us to meet some new friends, including a couple we met the day before at breakfast. Ryan and Linh exchanging laughs below.

Windy on top of the catamaran.

We had a delicious dinner and fell asleep quickly after.

After we set up camp, we headed down the steep hill for dinner.

We had lunch at Paine Grande and headed out for the second leg. Warm, sunny, and less wind. It was perfect!

We did two legs of the W today. The first leg was back to Paine Grande, where we first came by boat. We were able to see different viewpoints on the way back that were spectacular! The sun also helped! 🌞🏔

Almost finished, but first we had to cross this sketchy bridge with a sign that said “ONLY ONE HIKER AT A TIME”. While crossing, the bridge swayed from side to side.

Wind tunnel ravine. It was much better having it at our backs this time!

View of the glacier bay.

Waiting for dinner!

If you zoom in, you can see some icebergs in the water.

The good news is that all the campsites are on platforms! So, no rolling to one side of the tent. 🥳

Made it to camp Frances. \240After hiking 13 miles, we were not too happy about the campsite being on a hill. Luckily, we got one of the last spots at the very top. 🙄

We hiked up to Britanico of Frances Valley. The view was spectacular!

Much of the hike was in a beautiful forest with views of the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, rushing rivers, and a lake.

We arrived at Camp Cuernos around 6pm. It was so hot, I changed to a tank top and shorts, rested my knee and enjoyed the sun while Ryan set up camp and wrote in his journal.

Frances Valley.

We met up with Rob and Dave, who lent me their hiking pole, for dinner and drinks.

The end of the hike was along the shore of the lake with the waterfall and mountains as a backdrop.

It was hard to go to bed. The view was too amazing! And the sun didn’t set until 10pm.

View from the top. 360 degrees of mountains.

The three days of wearing a heavy pack took a toll on my knee. Coming down the steep mountain was painful. Fortunately, a nice Minnesotan, saw me \240using a stick and offered to let me use his hiking pole for the day 🥳. This helped tremendously!

This Dutch couple really enjoyed learning \240how to play Yinev. Unfortunately, I lost in the final round by only one point!

Tomorrow morning we are going to hike Torres del Paine at sunrise. Crossing our fingers for good weather!

A hot relaxing day hike eventually turned into one of the scariest hikes/things I had ever done. To get to our final campsite, we had to go along a narrow path along the top of a cliff with a sheer drop off. The worst part was that it was super windy and we were hiking with big packs. With tears running down my cheeks, I hugged the side of the cliff, covered my view of the drop off and Ryan followed closely behind me. The worst part was that I knew I \240had to do it again tomorrow to get out.

Trying to put all that behind me, we set up camp and played some cards with new friends.

Knowing that the wind was picking up and the weather was not looking any better, we packed up and quickly and headed for ridge. The winds were stronger than the day before and more people were at the point we had to pass. The wind was blowing so strong, when I took my hand off of the rocks along the side, I was blown forward. As we crossed the most intense part, another couple was sitting close to the cliff, not willing to move. They lent me their hands and with all my might, I held on to them as I passed.

The worst part was now over. On the other side the winds had died down and a feeling a pure relief hit me. We had completed the W trek.

It took about two more hours to make it to the bottom of the hike. We were able to get on an earlier bus and made it back to our Airbnb by 6pm. I was asleep by 6:30pm.

It was a spectacular show! After it was finished, we hiked back down and made it just in time for breakfast.

We made it to the top around 5:30am.

Slowly, as we made our way up, sunlight started to show on the horizon.

The peaks were not yet lit. There were about dozen other people already at the top. Everyone hunkered down behind boulders to block themselves from the wind and to get a good spot for the big show!

Over the next 50 minutes, we watched as the light danced across the peaks. We even got a little glimpse of a rainbow.

Our campsite below. The platform was about four feet down from the trails. \240I guess they figured if you are on the W, you don’t mind using roots to help you get down to your camping spot.

Pack horses we passed along the scary ridge. The horses bring in everything from flour, beer, propane, etc. and pack out all the trash, recycling, and even the toilet paper!

Our cute B&B.

A sweet dog at the bus station.

Once we got to El Calafate, we ate an early dinner and Julia was again asleep before 7pm.

Met up with Brian and Sasha for a fancy dinner.

Met up with Caira from the W. She came over for drinks before dinner.

Ryan got ice cream for the second time.

We hiked to the nature reserve to see the flamingos! Hard to see, but they are pictured below.

Other hopeful doggies outside the super market.

Oh, and we saw more cute stray dogs. This hopeful doggy was outside the restaurant.

The blues were unreal. The gray on the glacier was from dust blown off from the surrounding beaches and mountains.

We finished with whiskey on the rocks - straight from the glacier. 🙌

Windy day, but the sun was shining!

From there, we took a boat ride to where we would begin our trek onto the glacier.

We then saw the glacier from the observatory decks.

After lunch, we set out for our walk. Our guide said the glacier is one of the only stable glaciers in the world, meaning it’s not getting smaller. It also moves an average of two meters per day!

Beautiful day!

Another rainbow! \240🌈

We also met some nice doggies around town.

We spent the morning walking around El Chalten and doing our part by recycling. ♻️ We only made five cents. 😂

Fitz Roy Mountian Range. The town is located right below these mountains. El Chalten is nicknamed the trekking capital of the world and is located inside of a National Park. Most of the mountain trails literally start outside your door.

Today, the winds were so strong, it was challenging to walk. They were around 60mph! You can see someone’s finger in the corner of this photo because they were having trouble holding on to the phone in the wind!

We quickly found our Airbnb and went out for pizza and beers!

Caira joined us for the birthday dinner. We hope the winds die down this week so we can get some hiking in!

Our bus left at 1:30pm. The drive to El Chalten was beautiful! Of course, the pictures don’t look nice out of the bus window, but we took them anyways.

Sasha and Brian crashed with us because all the hostels/campsites were booked. Family dinner night!

Quick lunch break before we make our final climb to the top. (You can see the snow gathering on the trees).

Hiking up the trail. Blue skies are on the horizon.

Then some ice cream and a couple rounds of the game “Spot It Splash” before saying our goodbyes to Caira.

We made it to the top! Fitzroy did not want to show itself, but we did get to see some of the mountains.

Hiking back down, the clouds started to lift.🙄 Still, Fitz never fully came out.

After 16 miles, we decided we had earned some drinks. 🍻

On the way back, we stopped for Mate. Mate is a traditional Argentinian drink where people share a mug and take turns filling the cup. The drink is similar to tea, but more bitter.

One of the great things about El Chalten is that the trails start and end right from town!

Great place to have lunch.😊

After an 11 mile hike, we got take out empanadas and ate them at our place. \240We said goodbye to Sasha and Brian and left early the next morning. We hope to meet up with them again in New Zealand.

It was very strange to see all the caskets sitting out. In some of the tombs, the caskets were so close, you could open them.

One of my favorite parts of Buenos Aires was the botanical gardens. It was like a jungle in the middle of the city!

Ryan did an amazing job navigating the subway system. It was very busy and hot!!

Neat book/wine store. I finally found a book in English I wanted to read! 🙌

Palermo at night.

Our favorite bakery!!

Early sunrise.

Ryan was very excited about the 2 for 1 ice cream coupons he received at the grocery store. Guess who ate both of the ice creams? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t me. 😉

Ryan’s favorite dinner spot. I wasn’t as excited.

Cat cemetery...but it was too hot and all the cats were hiding!

We had extremely hot weather during our time in BA. Most days had highs around 96 with high humidity. We were grateful for the thunderstorm that brought some relief from the heat!

We got to spend six lovely days exploring Buenos Aires. We stayed in an Airbnb in Palermo on Juan Luis Borges Street.

San Telmo. This is the area where Emily used to live!

Lovely art choice for the back wall. 🙄

Buenos Aires has the most amazing trees!

The best pastry I ever had!!

Choripan sandwiches.

We spent most of our time exploring the different parts of Buenos Aires, eating lots of food, and planning our next leg of our trip.

Odd animal that looks like a rabbit and deer.

Gum Tree.

Ferry ride!

I finally found vegetarian food, but it was in a cafeteria with a lot of old ladies.

We got to our cute Airbnb and I did some research and was reassured that the city is actually fairly safe.

On our last night, we finally found Carnaval. We watched two performances.

Upon our arrival into Montevideo, I was a little discouraged. The city looked abandoned with large concrete buildings, bars on all the windows, and graffiti on almost any open space.

The patio was our favorite part!

Coco y dulce de leche cake.

We had a great trip! Goodbye for now Uruguay!

And of course, eating! Ryan enjoyed the famous Uruguayan Chivito!

The next few days were spent walking the city, getting lost in the massive flea market, and renting bikes to explore the coastline.

We stayed at Heaven’s B & B which is located in Bombay, about 30 minutes from Auckland. There we slept off our jet lag and took more pills to try and kick our South American bug.

We arrived at 4:30 AM and went to get our car.

Cows on the property. Their names were Bert & Ernie.

Ryan was brave and took the first leg! We couldn’t check into our bed and breakfast until 1:00pm, so we killed some time at a local park.

The park also had an amazing zip line! And most importantly, a bathroom. 🤮 💩 The bathroom even had music!

During our tour, we walked through massive limestone caves with many stalactites. We then boarded a boat to see the glow worms. We learned that the glow worms are actually flies. They glow in their larva state. Once they hatch, they only live for about 24 hours because they don’t have a developed digestive track (no mouth or butt!). Since we were not allowed to take pictures at the caves, this is the only one we got!

We had a beautiful drive at sunset into our campground. We set up in the dark and went to bed early so we could get an early start on our hike!

After our tour, we drove to Whakapapa Holiday Park. The park is located right outside of the Tongariro National Park. The drive was beautiful. The most impressive part was seeing the smoking hills. Since there is so much geothermal activity, there were many places where you could see steam rising from the hills and valleys.

Before getting to our campground, we stopped in Taupo for some dinner! They were very confused about my hamburger order with no burger, but at least Ryan got to reap the benefits!

Our campsite in the daylight. It was a really nice spot with great facilities.

All down hill from here!

Once at the top, we hiked across another lava field. It looked like Mars!

From the valley, we cut up the “Devil’s Staircase”.

The hike was along the left ridge of the mountains below. \240For the hike, we started in the lava fields near the base of Mt. Doom (The largest mountain in the photo below and where they throw in the ring during Lord of The Rings movies.)

Then, we continued our accent to the Red Crater.

Steep decent down the ridge!

Now it was time for our decent. The next part was down a ridge of loose rock. Many people fell on their way down, including Ryan.

Ryan was fighting a cold, so this hike was extra tough with limited lung capacity. Notice his drenched shirt!

Notice the steam coming up from the geothermal sites below.

From the top, we could see down into the volcano. This volcano erupted only 20 years ago. Its blast was larger than Mount St. Helen’s. Glad I didn’t know that while hiking!

We finished the hike in 5 1/2 hours (beating the quickest estimated time for the hike by a half hour- Patagonia helped get us ready 😉🙌). We caught the first bus back to our campground and left for Rotorua. We found a budget hostel (Rotorua Base) and stayed in a place that made a college dormitory look clean. On a positive note, the bed was a nice upgrade from sleeping on the ground! \240We also got to eat Thai food for dinner on the famous Eat StrEAT of Rotorua! This was a nice change from our normal routine of burgers, pasta, or pizza.

From here you can see the volcanos opening.

Closer look at Mount Doom.

After, we drove along some very narrow, curvy roads to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed at the Hot Water Beach Top 10 Holiday Park. It was a great spot, close to the beach and it had great facilities...and a cat!!

There are millions of stars here, but my camera only caught a few.

Slowly, the beach started to show itself.

It was neat to see the view on our hike back now that the sun was out!

We stopped for a quick hummingbird cake🎂🥰 and then headed to the next beach, Hahei.

We hung out in an outcove, watching the sun come up.

Sun starting to rise.

Through the cave was another beautiful beach.

Progression of the sunrise and saying goodbye to the beach.

The waves were very big! Ryan swam, but I kept to just getting her feet wet. The pull of the riptide was strong. We were only at this beach for two hours. We applied sunscreen twice and still managed to get really burnt. A local said that the sun is very strong in NZ. He said “when you see Polynesian people putting on sunscreen, you know it’s intense”. On that note, we decided we had our share of sun and left to go back to our campsite. We ate at the campsites local fish and chips spot and headed to bed.

We stopped at the Moeraki boulders. The tide was coming in, but we had just enough time to see some of the boulders.

The van has a pullout bed, table, and two camper stoves. It’s basic and old, but we love it! After pickup, we drove for five hours south to Dunedin!

We got to Dunedin late and stayed in a shared house Airbnb.

After lunch, we found my old flat on 8 Willowbank. It looked exactly the same to me and still seemed to be student housing.

This place used to be called Backstage, my favorite music venue. It no longer exists. 😢

We also slept in our van at the Aaron Lodge Top 10 Holiday Park and the Leith Valley Holiday Park.

The last night in Dunedin, we watched a movie in the van and made popcorn. We had to stay up late enough to hike Leith Valley at night to see glow worms! It wasn’t the same as Waitomo Caves, but it was still neat to see them so close to our campground and for free!

While in Dunedin, we went to the peninsula (not sure if we saw albatross...?), ate at Velvet Burger (one of my favorite spots while in Dunedin), and walked through campus. We also walked up the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street. \240We also spent time at the public library doing some research for our next part of the trip.

Enjoyed the sun while it lasted and had an early night.

Then, up, up, up.

Surprisingly, it was very humid.

The hike continued along a river for the first 30 minutes.

The clouds never lifted, but it still offered an amazing view.

Until we finally reached the lake!

The drive into Milford.

Once at the lodge, we hunkered down in the main cabin and played cards while it poured down rain outside. Below are photos of where we stayed.

The rain created some spectacular waterfalls along the way!!

Ryan’s Jurassic Park face.

Once we finished our cruise we did a day hike up to Key Summit. This side trail could be completed as part of the Routeburn Track, but we decided to do it today because the weather was so spectacular.

Before we left for the hike, we had lunch back at Milford Lodge. We also got to enjoy our first honeymoon gift of the trip - chocolates from Southern Discoveries.

It’s amazing how the drive in Milford can look so different depending on the weather. It was neat to see it in the sun!

After our hike, we ate dinner and went to see the Milford Sound Fjord at sunset. The sandflies were awful, but the views were amazing!

Key Summit hike.

Lake Marian in the background (the lake we hiked to the day before).

The drive into Queenstown was beautiful. Lake Wakatipu pictured below.

After dinner, we walked off the burgers, beers, and fries and watched the sun set over Lake Wakatipu.

While in Queenstown, we stayed at a shared house Airbnb.

For dinner, we had the famous Fergburger - \240listed as “one of the best burgers in the world”. \240I ate at The Ferg on my last trip to Queenstown, but at that time, it wasn’t popular. Now, there is a constant line that goes down the street. I couldn’t believe it. We decided to wait anyways and luckily it didn’t disappoint. We ended up eating here three times during our trip!

The good news was that we met a nice Dutch couple while waiting and met them later for drinks.

We stayed the night at Routeburn Falls Hut. We were very lucky to stay here as some of the other people who were staying in the hut booked it over a year ago. The funny part was that we ended up meeting the people whose wives had canceled, allowing us to stay that night.

It had amazing views, but no heat. And it was cold!! We were sweaty from the hike up, so we quickly switched into our dry clothes and spent the rest of the day playing cards. Once dinner time came around, the hut warmed up. Unfortunately, our bunks were located in a different cabin. It was a cold night and we didn’t get a lot of sleep.

View from the hut.

Our bunks!

We ate a great pasta dinner (using a gas cooker at the hut) and went to bed at 7:00pm. We were tired and it was cold!!

The weather was suppose to be -6 degrees Centigrade with possible snow flurries at the saddle. Luckily, it was sunny and about zero degrees Centigrade, which was cold with the wind, but it could have been a lot worse.

On the other side of the saddle, we got amazing views of the Darran Mountian Range.

Our decent down was through a mossy forest that reminded us of back home in Oregon.

The trail continued along the lake with some steep and narrow sections. 😫

After a few hours along the ridge line, we saw our final destination. Below is Lake Mackenzie. Our campsite was on the shoreline.

Right before the saddle, there was a beautiful alpine lake.

Notice the railing on the side of the mountain...I was grateful they had it but I was not happy about crossing this part. It is hard to tell in the picture, but it was very steep below.

For the next couple of hours, we hiked along the ridge. This was one of Ryan’s favorite views of our trip so far. During this part of the trek, you could see a part of Milford Sound Fjord and out into the mighty Pacific Ocean.

We finished our hike about an hour before our bus was to arrive. We enjoyed our final lunch in the parking lot and enjoyed the sunshine. We completed the Routeburn!

We took a five hour bus ride back to Queenstown, picked up the Bongo, and had Fergburger for dinner. We luckily found the last camping spot in Queenstown.

Lake Mackenzie Hut.

The hike out offered some views of the Darren Mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and forest.

On our hike out of Mackenzie, we saw about six juvenile Kea’s playing in a tree. They made strange noises and chased each other from branch to branch.

We love our Bongo!

Drive into Wanaka.

Ryan loved the experience!

Afterwards, we spent a few hours shopping and having lunch by the lake in \240Queenstown. After, we drove to Wanaka.

Famous Wanaka Tree at sunset.

We stayed at The Kiwi Holiday Park in Wanaka. It was a nice site not too far from town.

And of course, we had some ice cream.

You can see the rain coming in on the left.

We didn’t quite make it to the top for the sunrise, but stopped and admired the view on the way up.

After our hike, we drove to Hooker Valley. The drive over offered some amazing views. We stayed at the White Horse Hill DOC campsite where the trailhead to Mueller Hut started.

Before dinner, we did the Hooker Valley hike. This was a easy 10 km hike through the valley to a glacier lake.

After our hike, we made dinner at the DOC site. We used a grill that was given to us by another backpacking couple that was just finishing up their trip. When Ryan started the grill, in the busy shelter, it immediately lit the grill and counter space on fire. Ryan quickly used his towel to put the fire out. It made for quite a show. Later, we figured out that the butane container had leaked.

We made it!!

After arriving, we enjoyed our time soaking up the sun and meeting our 28 other bunkmates.

We hiked up to get a great view at sunset.

Hike back down.

The Keas also provided lots of entertainment.

We also woke up to watch the sunrise at the same spot. It was beautiful watching how the light changed over the mountains and valley.

After breakfast, I said goodbye to Mueller Hut for the second time. I hope I get to come to this place again. It is truly a magical place.

Almost there, you can see the top!

Although it might not look that high, it is quite a climb up there! By the end, my legs felt like noodles.

Now, we have a four hour drive to Christchurch and our final night in the Mazda Bongo!

A quick rest at Sealy Tarns before we continued the hike up!

After about two hours of climbing stairs, you scramble over boulders and loose dirt.

Can you see the carpark below?

That night, we met up with Sasha and Brian for dinner in the park. This was the first time we saw them since Argentina. It was great catching up.

It was very relaxing falling sleep to the sound of crashing waves and waking up to this beautiful sunrise.

The color of the water was breathtaking.

The hike is along the Northern Coast of the South Island. During the hike you get to see stunning views of various bays.

The campsite was on the shore of a small bay. Only 10 campers were allowed at this site. There were only three others camped at this site besides us.

Weka Bird. These cheeky creatures are flightless birds that will steal anything they get close to. One managed to take my sweatshirt out of my pack and was attempting to drag it back to its nest.

Watering Cove Campsite.

So we had the bay to ourselves at sunset.

Bark Bay campsite.

Cleopatra’s Pools - Ryan found a slide!

Beachfront. 😎

Bark Bay (where we camped last night) pictured below.

Once we arrived at our final destination, we were hot and tired. We threw off our packs and immediately went swimming. The water was cold, but refreshing. Then we made dinner. Although we packed pretty well, we could have used more food. We ended up eating our emergency onion soup as an appetizer. We are down to oatmeal, two granola bars, and one tortilla with peanut butter for lunch tomorrow. Since we don’t have a lot of hiking left, we are taking a water taxi out tomorrow, so we should be okay.

Onetanurui Beach. The hardest part about the hike was wanting to stop and swim at every beach. This beach was particularly inviting, but we still had four hours of hiking in front of us.

Awaroa Bay had a tidal crossing. This is the only crossing where you can not take an alternative route and you can only cross within an hour on both sides of low tide. We arrived early at the crossing. We had lunch and waited for the tide to go out.

The water never went out all the way and at some points it went up to our knees. We had to wear flip flops because of all the shells.

It was neat seeing all the beaches from the water. It really gave us a feel of how far we had hiked!

We even got pulled out of the water by a tractor!

We parted ways with Sasha and Brian, hoping to see them once again in Portland in the fall. We finished the day with a three hour drive to Kaikoura.

We then boarded a water taxi for a thrilling high speed ride back to our car at Marahau.

Secret beach by Anapai.

Anapai Bay.

We watched the Blazers game at the Lobster Inn Tavern.

We ate a delicious dinner at the Strawberry Tree and listened to musicians play during “jam night”.

11 years later and back at the Strawberry Tree!

Definite upgrade from hostel and campervan living!

For dinner, we ate at Spice Alley. This was an alley full of various Asian restaurants.

Thanks to Bryan, we stayed at the Four Points by Sherton Hotel Central Park. The hotel was super nice and we even got champagne on arrival! 🙌

Since our hotel was not available for a second night, we moved to an Airbnb located in the Surry Hills neighborhood. It was a private room in a shared house. Not the nicest, but it was fine.

The harbor was lined with restaurants and bars over-looking the water. The opera house itself has various chambers. The front chamber, farthest from the water was a restaurant and the chambers in the middle seemed to be theatres.

We continued our walk, following the light posts to the Sydney Opera House. The view of the bridge, harbor, city, and the opera house exceeded my expectations. It was absolutely stunning and I think the most beautiful view of a city I have ever seen. It also helped that it was super warm, which is always an added plus for me. 😊

We took an evening stroll through Hyde Park. It was beautiful with the jungle like trees, quaint light posts and a city backdrop. We were also surprised to see bats (Grey Flying Fox bats). There were tons of them flying around the park and hanging upside down from the trees! They are large bats with a wingspan of up to a meter.

On our way back, we wandered up the famous Crown Street. Although we heard it was full of resturants, bars, and boutiques, it seemed to be a Pride district with mostly nightclubs. Rainbows were painted everywhere, including the streets, and besides the drag show we passed, I was the only female in the area. Maybe we turned down the wrong street?🤷‍♀️

We ate at Maybe Frank, which was voted the top bar in Sydney in 2018. It had great pizza, but Double Mountian still holds the torch for me!

On our walk back to Surry Hills, we saw this Australian possum. Much cuter than you expect a possum to be!

We then decided to walk across the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge. We ate at the Kirrballi Hotel on the other side of the bridge and had the privilege of seeing a giant cockroach and friendly rat after our meal. It caused some nice excitement! 🐀

We then jumped on the Sydney hop on/hop off bus tour. It took us through the city, with views of iconic landmarks and historic neighborhoods. We stopped in the Darling Harbor area and stopped in for some happy hour beers at a local bar and a walk across the Pyrmont Bridge.

We started our day by driving to Bondi Beach and hiking the coastal walk to Congee Beach. It was a beautiful 3.7 mile hike with views of beaches, coastline and The Tasman Sea.

A nice rest stop at Murray’s Brewing.

Still searching for that first koala sighting!

Some playful dolphins joined us on the sunset river cruise on the Hastings River.

Julia spots three wild kangaroos the morning after at our Airbnb, known simply as “The Farm.”

Sunset in Port Macquarie.

Forster Beach - Scott’s Head. Notice the kids in the water taking a surfing class and getting out of school.

Little Beach - Scott’s Head

Lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall in Scott’s Head.

Getting our lunch on with some kangaroos.

Julia, Ryan and Morton.

So cuddly.

Views of one of the many beaches in Noosa Heads.

Our Airbnb in Noosa Heads. Very nice!

Amazing front porch. Too bad we could only spend one night here.

Tea Tree Beach.

Our first wild koala sighting! He was sleeping but woke up to entertain the spectators.

Hell’s Gate.

Our Airbnb in Bundaberg. It was a nicely renovated 90+ year old home.

A turtle swimming below us on the glass bottom boat cruise. We also saw turtles while snorkeling.

Broken, washed up coral. Natural, of course.

A view of the reef and Lady Musgrave Island.

The 1933 shipwreck of The Mereno.

The tropical inlands of Fraser Island.

Beach drive! That is the Pacific Ocean out the window.

White, sandy beach of Lake Mackenzie.

Our sweet ride. Toyota Hilux 4WD.

While in Brisbane, we stayed at The Westin on Mary Street (thanks to Bryan). It was a nice hotel and was also in a great location!

We ended our day with a 1 1/2 hour long massage (only $14 dollars each). These were the best massages either of us had ever had. The room was beautiful with an opening to the rice fields and jungle. During the massage, we got to hear the night insects come to life as well as a thunderstorm.

Our villa at night.

After putting away our things, we had lunch at Naughty Nuri’s. \240Ryan got the pork ribs, a traditional Balinese dish recommended by Budi.

Our driver, Budi picked us up at the airport to bring us to Ubud (one hour drive). For the next three nights, we are staying at the Villa Nini. The hotel is located amongst lush forests, temples and rice fields.

We got a cute villa with a private terrace!

On our way out of the temple, we got to see people gathering for a ceremony.

Our first stop were the rice terraces. Ryan and Suta below.

Notice the baby monkey below. 🐒

Learning how to roast coffee.

Our second to last stop was the Tegenungan waterfall. Suta’s village is near this waterfall and he grew up playing in the river.

After, we stopped at the famous coffee plantation. We got to see how the coffee was made as well as many other fruits and spices. Passion fruit below.

Our last stop was the Monkey Forest. Along with hundreds of monkeys, this forest had magnificent carvings.

Luwak. These animals eat the coffee when they are still a fruit and poop out the beans. The beans are then cleaned and roasted.

Suta lead us to one fountain where we could say a quick prayer without getting in.

After they bathe, they will change into dry clothes and pray to the Gods in a different area of the temple.

After our tour, we were dropped off at the Ubud City Center where we had an amazing dinner at the Three Monkeys Restaurant.

A friendly iguana 🦎.

After dinner, we explored the nearby market before calling it a night!

Next, we went to Mt. Batur. We also had views of Mt. Abung and Mt. Agung. Batur blew up twice which created the two calderas. It was a magnificent view that showed the powerful history nature can and has created. The mountains are very special to the locals. The Balinese always protect themselves by sleeping with their heads facing Mt. Agung no matter where they are on the island.

Next, we went to the Pura Tirta Empul Temple. Here the Hindus will come to wash away their sins or curses, and pray. During a traditional ritual, a person will first pray or meditate. Then they will enter the baths. One must go under each of the 14 fountains, first drinking the water, washing their face and pouring it on their heads. Each fountain serves a different purpose. For example, one might be for getting rid of bad dreams or to help your body heal of any ailments. Sometimes, one might go to just one fountain, but typically, they will go to each one.

Forest flower.

After, we went to the Banyumala Twin Waterfalls. It was a small hike down and well worth the views. Ryan was able to get in a quick swim.

Our last stop was the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple. This was on Lake Bratan, allowing us to see the final lake on Bali.

Clouds rolled in while on the lake and we got a small, refreshing sprinkle.

On the other side.

Our jungle guide and canoe captain.

We then said our goodbyes to Suta and had lunch again at The Three Monkeys. We also managed to get a neat taxi ride back to Villa Nini.

“Floating Temple.” \240Depending on the lake levels, this temple can appear as if it is floating. Today, the lake was low enough that we were able to walk up to it.

Our lounge outside of our room. It came with a butler!

The breakfast was included with our room. We tried every kind of smoothie they offered. Ryan even got dragonfruit & coconut sorbet with Oreo crumbles.

Our private cabana! They brought us fresh fruit and cold towels throughout the day! 🙌

We had the entire pool to ourselves!

Beach shopping! 😎

Lobby music. 🎵

A local teacher who sells bracelets as a side job.

The newlyweds pose for one of their best sunset photos.

Pink Coco - our accommodations for three nights on Gili Air.

The engines that got us there.

A wild thunderstorm over Bali in the distance.

Mt. Agung in Bali.

Listening to live music while the sun sets at #Lumbung.

We didn’t indulge. 🍄🌙😇

Sunrise. A view of Mt. Rinjani on the island of Lombok. It stands over 3,700 meters!

The island of Lombok behind Ryan. Lombok had two major earthquakes within the last year. Their people are still recovering.

The pool, where we spent most of our time relaxing.

Ryan rocking the New Zealand Canterbury shorts.

Gili Air was a beautiful island with kind people. We hope we can one day come back again.

We went for a bike ride around the island. You can walk around the entire Gili Air in two hours!

Julia searching for the perfect coral. Coral is Julia’s spirit creature.

Our view for breakfast every morning.

It was nice to go on the roof of the fast boat to get some fresh air and nice views.

One of three massages we received in a three day span.

Our front row seats.

Book Club! Ryan and I ended up sharing the same book and took turns reading it. Once finished, we left the book for one of the workers at the resort. He only has one book at his home.

Much of the island has coral beaches.

Beach in front of our resort.

24 hour pool! It was warm enough to swim at all hours. 🥳 🙌 ☀️

Arriving at Gili Air harbor.

Last night to watch the sunset. 🌅

Squid found on the beach!

More time spent at the pool! 🏖

The view from Padang Padang.

The walk down to Padang Padang Beach.