Australia and New Zealand Wrap Up

I’m working on getting some of my wrap ups done and will probably have more time in the coming days, but – until then – here are some thoughts from the second portion of our trip.

Trip Itinerary (click to enlarge)

Trip Itinerary (click to enlarge)

Arriving in Australia was great (outside of the fact that we felt like we had been run over by a truck).  Being able to have conversations with everyone around you for the first time in nearly a month was a very welcome return to normalcy.  Being able to look at a menu without being confused at all was another welcomed change…Outside of the fact that Aussies call appetizers “entrees” and entrees “mains.”

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Maldives, Here We Come!

We are on our way to the last major stop of the big trip, the Maldives.  This is going to be a very long day!  We left the Chedi Club around 9 am, and we will arrive in the Maldives around 3 am!  It’s going to take 3 flights and a boat ride before we get to the hotel.  This is the itinerary: First, we fly from Bali to Singapore where we have a 5 hour layover (thank goodness for lounge access!).  Then, we fly from Singapore to Male (the main island of the Maldives).  Then, we fly to a closer island to the one we are staying.  Then, we have about a 1 hour boat ride to finally reach paradise!  I hope it’s worth it!

I’m typing this from the lounge in Singapore, so we have a while before we get there!

Here are a couple of pictures of how we spent our layover (plus one picture of my very favorite travel shoes!)

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See ya in the Maldives

XOXO Alyce

9 nights and counting……

 

 

Melbourne, Australia In Pictures

Sorry for my absence posting lately…Between all the driving, managing the pictures, and keeping up with the planning – I’ve fallen behind.

Here are the pictures from Melbourne.  There are not that many, as we were only there for 3 days and did not take a whole lot of pictures.  I’ll try to upload some below; I know there have been some problems with opening up pictures on the site.  I’m not really sure why that is, but I’ll try to look in to it.  Though as always, it is best to view the pictures on the smugmug site.  Here is the link:

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/Melbourne-Australia/28452745_Jf9khx#!i=2410186736&k=jCz2ZpM

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Exploring Bali

We spent the day today touring the main attractions in Bali.  Around 9 am, our driver/ tour guide (Made) picked us up from the hotel.

First, we stopped at the Tanah Lot temple.  The temple sits on a large off-shore rock that has been formed by the ocean tides.  Because it was high tide, we weren’t able to get to the temple. But we took plenty of pictures.  The tour guide has really great about helping us get pictures together (something that is usually pretty difficult!).  Made explained to us that most of the people in Bali are Hindu, then Muslim, and lastly, Buddhist.

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Bali Scuba Diving

Today was our first full day in Bali, and Justin arranged for us to go scuba diving in Padang Bai (a coastal city of Bali).  It takes about an hour to get there from Ubud, so we had to leave around 7 am.  They arranged for the restaurant to open early for us so that we could have breakfast before we had to leave.  We even ordered the night before, and they had it ready to go when we got there at 6:30 am.

The group we dove with is called Geko Dive.  The dive shop is located right on the beach.  It was only the two of us diving with the guide, so we got plenty of attention (4 staff on the boat plus us).  We did a 2 tank dive.

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Bali

We arrived in Bali around 3:00 this afternoon.  Surprisingly, we had a decent bit of traffic driving from McLaren Vale to Adelaide.  Usually, we get to the airport about 2 hours ahead of time.  This time, we only had around 20 minutes before the flight boarded.  Of course, this was the flight that I would get chosen for the random body scan!  I usually don’t care, but we were already running behind schedule.

The flight was uneventful.  We flew Virgin Australia in economy.

When we got to Bali, there was a man holding a sign with our name waiting for us to arrive.  Justin paid for a service that helps expedite the immigration/customs process (I think it was around 25$).  The man took our passports and got them stamped for us, so we were able to skip all the lines and chaos.  Then, we got a cart and he loaded up our bags for us and escorted us through customs.  Once we were through customs, another man (from the Chedi Club) met us and walked with us (along with the other man pushing our luggage cart) to meet the driver.  At one point we had three different people helping us!

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Adios Australia!

Today was our last day in Australia.  We are sad but looking forward to seeing something new.  Tomorrow, we fly from Adelaide to Bali.  It is about a 5 hour flight, and we’ll get there around 3 pm.  It us, Bali signifies the beginning of the end of the big trip.  We both have mixed feelings about this.  I can’t wait to see my boys and my family, but I’ll miss all of these exotic and amazing places that we have seen.

For our last day in Australia, we left Kangaroo Island fairly early in order to catch the ferry.  We said goodbye to fatty who was waiting at the door for his last bit of grain and headed out.  We drove to another wine region called McLaren Vale.  Here, we visited two vineyards: Kay Brothers and Mollydooker.  Both of them were wonderful.
We did a tasting at Kay Brothers and a tour at Mollydooker.  Kay Brothers is an old vineyard, and they make some very highly regarded wines.  The man who was pouring the wine was extremely informative.  He gave us alot of history about the wines in Australia.  We also got to taste alot of great wine!
The tour at Mollydooker was excellent.  We walked through the vineyards, and he explained what made their wines different from other wines.  Apparently, “Mollydooker” is a term that refers to a left-handed person (similar to “southpaw” in the US).  The two owners of the vineyard are both left-handed and that’s how they got the name!  The best part of this tour was that we got to see the harvested grapes being crushed and juiced.  We have never been to Napa during harvest, so we have never gotten to see this.
We also got to taste juice that was just being pressed.  Some of the other tastings came out of the giant tanks that hold the wine prior to bottling.  At the end of the tour/tasting, we were going to buy at least one bottle of wine.  But, they let us have (for free) the two bottles that they opened for the tasting.  There was another couple on the tour with us, but they said that they didn’t want it.  Crazy.
For our last night, we are staying in the Amande Bed and Breakfast.  It is not the creepy type of B&B where you sleep in an old lady’s son’s room.  We have our own little cottage separate from the main house.  Am I the only one that is creeped out by bed and breakfasts?
Our flight leaves Adelaide around 9 am tomorrow, so we’ve got an early day (the drive to Adelaide from McLaren Vale is about 45 min).  We are looking forward to seeing what Bali has to offer!
Two weeks left 🙂
Sorry for the lack of pictures. WiFi is not good (again).  I’m getting tired of that.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will have great WiFi.  Hopefully……….!!
XOXO Alyce

A Goanna in the House……that’s it, I’m done with nature!

Yesterday, we slept in a little bit then decided to head to the main national park of Kangaroo Island, Flinders Chase National Park.  We saw several of the sights such as: the Lighthouse, Seal Bay, Admiral’s Arch, and the Remarkable Rocks.  We really enjoyed all the walks and took some beautiful pictures.

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