We're back, which means PICTURES!!!

As promised, we are now able to post heaps more pictures now that we're home (hundreds, actually!) For those of you wanting to plan your next trip, click on any picture and you'll appreciate the "photo location" to the right of the screen as you scroll through them!
And if that wasn't enough media for ya, check out this dorky-cool video taken of Jon doing his best Morpheus at the Australian Center for the Motion Image.
Thanks for following along for the last five weeks. We appreciated hearing from all of you and hope to see you in person soon.
-Jon and Louisa

Wine Tastin

We'll keep this short so as not to reveal how much wine we tasted today (!!!) but we had a great day tasting lots of "Savs" (sauvingnon blancs) and Pinot Noirs, which seem to grow well in the area. It was a great way to finish up our trip and say goodbye to Australia. We head home on the 24 hour journey tomorrow morning, and we'll probably post next from New York with even more pictures!

Melbourne and Weird Signs

We made it to Melbourne this afternoon and walked all around the city - checking out the CBD, the royal gardens, and walking by some of the sports arenas, like the Rod Laver arena (where the Australian Open is played). We're getting ready for our wine tour tomorrow by warming up our enzymes and toning down our taste buds with some cheap australian beer (Jon) and cider (Louisa).

Check out some of the strange signs we saw over the past few days. Some are a bit misogynistic, others are just weird, but we'd appreciate suggested captions if you can think of some good ones!



Ok, its only fair that we tell you that that crazy one in the middle was followed about 100m later by this...

The High Country

After a quick visit to an Aboriginal cultural center in the Grampians, we shot east to get to the High Country (although, as many australians fully admit, its not that high). Today we enjoyed a woodsy, 16km hike to the summit of Mt Stirling, but despite a forest full of gum trees, we're still Koala-less. Tomorrow we return our car and head to the big city (Melbourne), but we plan on taking a day excursion to the wine country for a bunch of tastings - what better way to celebrate the end of our trip!

The Grampians

After resting up at the end of the Great Ocean Walk, we drove a little more along the beautiful coast (above) before heading inland to Grampians National park, where we did some hiking today. The picture below is from the Pinnacle, in the Grampians. We continue to see our daily dose of 'roos (note the title change), which apparently is not exactly typical - we've been hanging out with a British couple who have lived in Australia for 9 months, but until they got here yesterday they had only seen two "roos" crossing a road several kilometers ahead of them - we, on the other hand, have averaged over 20 a day! (though we're still waiting for our first Koala)



Oh, and Happy Birthday wishes to Andrea and Matt!

Great Ocean Metric Marathon

We arrived in Melbourne early Sunday morning, rented a car at the airport, and headed west towards the Great Ocean Road. We started our walk at Johanna Beach, the site of our first campground (not a bad spot, huh?)



The next day, we had a beautiful 13.5km walk along the clifftops, with great ocean views along the way.





We did see the same old livestock, but pretty soon the local fauna proved that we were no longer in NZ





Although these guys were pretty cute, after finding this guy as we rolled up our tent, we longed for the days of NZ where the most worrisome beast was an angry cow.



On the start of our third day, the plan was for a 15.5km walk, but we decided to start out early (pre-sunrise) in order to catch the low tide for a walk across Wreck Beach







However, this early start put us at our next campsite by 11am! Faced with a book-less afternoon in the rain, Louisa suggested we make a metric marathon of our day, and walk the next day's hike that afternoon (seriously, this was not Jon's idea). So we pushed on, muscles aching, for a total of 30km (18 miles!) today. We were rewarded at the end with great views of the 12 Apostles rock formation

goodbye NZ

After an evening and morning checking out the markets and parks of Christchurch, we said goodbye to our tiny Toyota (a Vitz, in case you were wondering - but we called it the "Ritz") and we flew up to Auckland and are on our way to Melbourne tomorrow. sorry we don't have any more pics right now, but we'll check back in when we get back from our 4 day hike along the Great Ocean Walk.

After the Milford evacuation, we decided to leave the rain of Fiordland (Floodland) behind, and swung into the "Deep South" of NZ, winding our way through the Catlins on our way to the city of Dunedin. Along the way we stopped to see a rare colony of yellow-eyed penguins coming home to the beach from a day at sea. The next day, we drove early to the Otago Peninsula, and took some short walks; there we encountered more wildlife, including some sea lions blocking our path along the beach, and witnessed our first sheep-herding activity. Nothing Scout or Tess couldn't have handled!

We're now in Lake Tekapo - the pictures above are from a hike we did this morning up to the top of Mt. John. Tomorrow we're on our way to Christchurch, before we fly to Melbourne on Sunday. Hard to believe that our time in NZ is coming to an end!

E for Evacuation

We set off on Saturday to start the Milford Track; unfortunately, at the same time that we started, so did the rain. We made it to the first of three huts fairly dry, but overnight several hundred millimeters of rain fell, making it impossible for anyone on the track ahead of us to move forward the next day. We spent a rainy sunday day and night held at the hut, sharing one deck of cards, a makeshift backgammon board, and a cartoon puzzle amongst 40 people. On Monday, rain still pelting down, the department of conservation decided that everyone on the track would be evacuated. Much to Louisa's happiness (and everyone else's disappointment), our hut was selected to walk back out the 5km we had come, while the other two huts were taken out by helicopter. Led by our fearless ranger Peter Jackson (no relation to the Kiwi movie-maker of LOTR fame), we made the tramp through some thigh-deep (and cold!) river overflow, back to the boat and down to Te Anau. A few hours later, we found ourselves back at our favorite hostel, toasting our (helicopter-free) return with glasses of NZ wine.

Milford Track 1; Jon and Louisa 0 - but we'll be back!

Check out this article and video about the evacuation

Milford Sound bound

We're off tomorrow to start the 4-day Milford Track - be back in a few days with pics!