Author Archives: Justin

Great Ocean Road and South Australia Wrap Up

Posted on by
Reply

The scope of this portion of the trip evolved greatly over the course of planning for the trip.  At first, it was nothing…maybe a day trip on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne.  Then it was drive the Great Ocean Road in a day to Adelaide and do day trips from there to Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley.  It didn’t take me too long to figure out that was a horrible idea.

The final itinerary ended up at 7 nights, and I’m glad it did.  This was one of my favorite portions of the trip (especially South Australia).  Alyce really liked it too, though it may have lost a point or two in her book for being more rustic.

DSC_6510

The Great Ocean Road (“GOR”) is a 150 mile coastal highway commissioned by Australia to put soldiers returning from World War I to work.  It is also the world’s largest war memorial, being dedicated to soldiers that passed in WWI.

Continue reading →

Melbourne, Australia Wrap Up

Posted on by
Reply

Oh, hello again Australia.  We’re very exci……Let’s be honest.  At this point of the trip, all of the traveling was starting to wear on us a little bit – some more than others.

We loved New Zealand and were sad to leave.  Just about everywhere else we went we were going someplace completely new, so you weren’t sad to leave because you had something new and exciting to look forward to.  Not here, we were back to Australia…Not to say we didn’t enjoy Australia the first go around – we loved it too.  I think we had just hit a travel lull.

Still, the show must go on.  Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia (4.25 Million people) and is the capital of the state of Victoria.  It was the biggest/most prominent city for most of Australia’s history, but only in the last 40-50 years has Sydney surpassed it.

The cities are similar in many ways, though I think Melbourne has a more “hip” vibe (for lack of a better term).  Melbourne also lacks the iconic landmarks that Sydney possesses.  Basically, Melbourne plays a Chicago or San Francisco to Sydney’s New York.

Continue reading →

Anguilla 2011 Retro Review

Posted on by
Reply

We really enjoyed Anguilla.  It is a flat (Coral) Island and is known for its great beaches and fine dining options.  Anguilla is relatively “new” in terms of Caribbean tourism, so it is not overly developed – which is nice.

We went in May, which is actually the beginning of low season in Anguilla (and the Caribbean in general).  I like going at that time of the year because it is before hurricane season (and heart of summer) – so you don’t have to worry about that.  But it is low season, so you avoid the high season rates.

Continue reading →

New Zealand Wrap Up: South Island

Posted on by
Reply

I was pretty excited to get to the South Island of New Zealand.  The North Island was great, and everything I had read said that the South Island was even better.

The South Island –despite being the geographically larger of the two New Zealand islands – has only 1/3 the population of the North Island.  In fact Auckland alone is home to more people than the entire South Island.  Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island, and it is still recovering from devastating 2011 earthquakes.

Still, the people who call the South Island home live in one of the most scenic places on earth.

Day 1 (Golden Bay)

The North Island had treated us well, but it was time to move on to the South Island.  We got up early to head over to the ferry.  You have to be at the ferry and checked in at least an hour before it leaves.  And this is not a ferry like you typically think of (at least in my case).  It was huge – more like a ship at 600 feet long with 10 decks.

DSC_3822 Continue reading →

New Zealand Wrap Up: North Island

Posted on by
Reply

New Zealand is a relatively short flight across the Tasman Sea from Australia; it is also a former British colony.  These two countries are pretty isolated from the rest of the world.  Unsurprisingly, they are very similar in many ways.

Both countries speak English exclusively, complete with similar accents.  New Zealand TV is mostly Australian TV Channels.  Cars drive on the “wrong” side of the road in both countries.  The people are all very friendly and approachable.  Cuisines largely seemed similar.  New Zealand has even been proposed to be added as the 7th Australian state several times.

Still, the countries are different in many ways.  Australia is mostly desert – or “outback” – and much larger.  New Zealand seemed very green top to bottom, with lots of scenic mountains and lakes.  Look up a list of the deadliest/most venomous creatures, and Australia will be home to most of them.  New Zealand on the other hand has produced defenseless, flightless birds.  Australia’s population (22.3 Mil.) is a little more than 5 times New Zealand’s (4.4 Mil.); in fact, Sydney alone has a larger population than all of New Zealand.

DSC_4036

Continue reading →

Napa 2012 Retro Review

Posted on by
Reply

General Thoughts

This was our second trip to the wine country.  This time we decided to spend the whole trip in Napa.  We were there for 4 nights/5 days in early August.  The weather was pretty similar to what I remember it being in May – cool mornings, warm to hot afternoons.  It may be a little warmer in the afternoons than May…Still very comfortable compared to Southern Louisiana.  The grapes were pretty well grown at this time, but it was still too early to try to taste any.

Our first trip we really planned around food/dining – wineries were secondary.  This time it was the opposite, wine was the primary focus and the dining was much more quick and casual.  Also, we concentrated on some of the more off the beaten path wineries/areas this time.

I planned to bring back much more wine than the first trip…but we still came back with (or are getting shipped) more wine than I anticipated.  I still believe that the best and most economical way to come back with wine is to buy a shipping box and check it on the plane.

Continue reading →

Sydney Wrap Up

Posted on by
Reply

Well…We’ve been home for about 2.5 months, and I’m finally getting around to finishing up my “wrap ups.”  As one might imagine, taking 3 months off tends to put you behind the 8 ball at work, so – needless to say – I’ve been pretty busy in that regard.

Fortunately, I kept good notes and have Alyce’s blog posts to look back on.  Plus, I have a decent memory, so I should be able to recap things almost as well as if I had wrote this while we still on the trip.  On to Sydney…

Sydney is the largest city in Australia; its metropolitan area population (4.7 Million) would put it between Detroit and Seattle in the US.  So it is a big city, but not huge.  The city was pretty clean—maybe slightly less so than some of the Asian cities, but still very clean.  I also found Sydney to be very safe, as was the case with most of the places we visited.

Sydney’s downtown – at least from a tourism perspective – is located around a little cove off of Sydney Harbor call Circular Quay.  A quick note: Quay is pronounced as “key” (like you lock/unlock things with)…something we did not figure out until our last day in Sydney.

DSC_3262 Continue reading →

The UAE In Pictures

Posted on by
Reply

There is a lot of money in the UAE…and they like to show it off.  As a result everything is very extravagant and over the top there.  We only had one day in Abu Dhabi and one day in Dubai (which included 4 hours of traveling to/from there), but we still got a decent feel for the area – especially Abu Dhabi where my friend Tommy, who works as a drilling engineer, was able to show us around.

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/UAE/28657537_sNkVmJ#!i=2431218058&k=nWBp6G9

 

DSC_7761

Continue reading →