In our 23 day tour of NZ, we visited the most populated area (Auckland) and the least populated (Milford Sound), visited 8 of their National Parks, saw the highest point (Mount Cook) and lowest point (the beaches), did 10 wine tastings, drove over 2,349 miles on the wrong side of the road and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We will be back in a few weeks with the cruise ship and have some more tours scheduled.
Today we were up early (3am) to catch our flight from Christchurch to Sydney. In Sydney, we went through their electronic passport control, then had to write out a customs declaration (They were concerned about the shoes we wore when we went hiking in NZ), pick up our luggage and go through customs. Then recheck our luggage after they decided not to bother with our hiking shoes and figure out how to get to the domestic terminal and catch our flight to Melbourne. It was not well marked and the airline personnel were not very helpful. They didn’t even have a welcome to Australia sign! In Melbourne we collected our luggage and caught a taxi into the city. Of course, our hotel room was not ready yet, but they took our luggage and told us they would call when our room was ready. So, we headed out to explore. We found an interesting dim sum restaurant to try for lunch. They come around with carts and you pick out what you want to eat. Unfortunately, we did not recognize most of the dishes and the waiters did not speak English or bother to. But it was tasty, if a bit confusing. Turns out we are right next to the little China town district. After lunch we made our way back to the hotel and the lobby bar. We kept waiting for a call. Finally, we went and checked and they said that our room was ready. They also said they would bring our luggage up. Two hours and a short nap later, no luggage, we called the front desk. Two minutes later our luggage was at the door. This Marriott’s staff is not very good at following up. After a nap we went out and explored some more and walked through part of the Chinese district.
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| Entrance to little China Town |
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| Melbourne's Sky Scrapers |
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| Her Majasty's Theater |
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