Life as of late

Lots of rudy-being-cute pictures...

Days in the park...

Celebrations...

Walks exploring our new hood...

Stand up paddle board balling...

Beer tasting...

And "Sculptures By The Sea" at Bondi Beach...

So happy it's summertime!!

ONE YEAR

HOW IN THE WORLD HAVE WE BEEN HERE ONE WHOLE YEAR ALREADY!?

Seriously can't believe it. Fastest. year. ever. A year of new places, new friends, new jobs, new apartments, new foods, new thoughts, new views. Definitely the scariest and most exciting year of my life.

First picture of us when we arrived in Australia.. yikes! Those long flights really don't do ya any favors...

And here we are on walk in our neighborhood exactly a year later.

Cheers to another year!

4 Years

We celebrated 4 years of marriage on October 16th... cannot believe it! Crazy that this was happening exactly a year ago.  At that time, we had noooo idea what we were about to get ourselves into! And here we are... a year later... living and loving in Sydney. We celebrated by moving into a new apartment (more on that later) and eating sushi.

I said it then and I'll say it now... wouldn't want to move to the other side of the world with anyone else!

New Zealand

What a beauuuutiful place!!! John's family came to Australia for a few weeks and New Zealand was on their list of places to visit- so we decided to join them. We flew into Christchurch, hired a car, and explored the north part of the South Island-- Christchurch ➡️ Hanmer Springs ➡️ Nelson ➡️ Kaikoura.

The town of Christchurch was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 2011 and the city centre is still rebuilding. We didn't spend too much time there- just used it as a starting point- but we did get to walk around a bit. Still such a sad sight!

 We hit the road and drove 2 hours north to the quiet town of Hanmer Springs.

I feel like I took hundreds of pictures during our drives-- it was so pretty! Mountains and ocean and rivers and pastures and cows and sheep and vineyards!!... the pictures just don't do it justice.

 

Hanmer Springs is nestled in the mountains and home to the hot springs- super cool. We soaked in the mineral baths - nice and relaxing! Sulphate, anyone? Also had one of the best meals of my life at No. 30. All the food in NZ was amazing...not to mention the tasty wine and beer!!

 

 

 We continued our journey further north to Abel Tasman National Park. Again, the drive!!! Stunning.

We made it to Nelson for the night--- a funky little town on the northern coast.  Our apartment was bomb.com and had some pretty epic views.

We spent a day fly-fishing on the Motueka River..

Then headed off to our last stop-- Kaikoura--while making some pit stops along the way-

We ate and drank our way around Kaikoura- a sleepy beach town on the east coast.

We went whale watching...more like "throw up watching" as over half the boat was puking their brains out due to sea sickness. We didn't see one damn whale either!

We replenished our poor, empty bodies at this seafood BBQ joint... delicious!!

We hiked along the peninsula...  one of the most gorgeous views I've ever seen!

Hello little seals!!!

Hello little lamby!!!

Whew! We were there 6 days but could have definitely spent 6 weeks! So much to see and do. John and I are already planning our next trip back!