Sydney to Queenstown

We have done hop on, hop off tours in other cities and loved them. We did not love Sydney's version. There was not a live tour guide and the recordings they played were not well synced. Bummer. We did get to see a ton of the city that we had not gotten to yet, though. 

One Central Park- a vertical building

Pretending to be excited

Bondi Beach!

Coogee Beach

Bondi to Coogee beach walk

We got off the tour a little early and explored the harbour area a bit more before grabbing our things and heading to our new hotel for the evening.

Moody Sydney

We'd been told by an Australian waitress in Canada back in September that we had to try vanilla slice while were in Australia. Jackson LOVED it. I did not. I don't dig desserts unless they're chocolate. It is just vanilla custard covered by flaky pie crusts covered in powdered sugar. It was dreadful.

vanilla slice

We finally found some decent Chinese food in Sydney that evening and were seated next to a nice couple who live in Germany. The guy was from Australia and studied at Purdue (gag!) and the girl was from Austria. They were fascinating to talk with since they were so diverse. We each gave each other a hard time about some of the quirks of our cultures. It was really fun.

The next morning we wandered Syndey on our own before our flight to New Zealand. It was a gorgeous morning!

Marina art

This boat was called "Kokomo"
It made me think of the Beach Boys

We even found a restaurant called the "China Doll" which is an inside joke with the Petefish family based on a letter Charlie (Jackson's father) wrote home from Vietnam. 

Before long it was time to head for the airport. We had a lovely Uber driver (I love when that happens) and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

Goodbye, Australia!

Hello, New Zealand!

The flight was under three hours but we lost two hours in the time change so by the time we got our bags, cleared customs, got our rental car and made it to our cottage it was nearly 9 p.m. local time.

Our new place for a few days

The welcoming crew

We ran to the grocery store for a few essentials before it closed at 10 (they don't have many 24 hour places down here). Food is considerably more expensive here even with the exchange being in our favor. Currently 1 New Zealand dollar gets you 69 cents in U.S. currency so everything is deeply discounted to us. It didn't feel that way at the store, though. It is always fascinating to see what things cost in new places. We got enough food for our stay and our bill was over $120 NZD! Whoa! Here's to eating "at home" a lot for a few days!