Day 7 - Down Under

Our alarm was set for 6 am, but that didn't stop me from waking up at 4:40 am and staying awake.  That's just what I do.  I'm not really a good sleeper sometimes.  We didn't have time for exercise (and I hadn't wanted to wake Chris up by working out at 5 am!). We packed all of our bags and headed downstairs for the breakfast buffet, leaving our bags with the Concierge.  We took a taxi to the airport.  The weather was a little cooler than the 90 plus day we had on Wednesday.  We checked in for our Air New Zealand flight.  I happened to be the second "Jolayne" that this lady had come across in her life as her niece also had the same name.  We checked our luggage with the agent and then fast passed our way through security.  Not really that necessary though; it wasn't busy.  We filled out a customs form and then headed to a makeshift lounge, as they were in the middle of a lot of construction at the airport.

Hard to get a clear picture when you are walking and photographing at the same time.  Good thing Chris has such long arms!

We soon boarded our flight to New Zealand for our three-hour flight to the North Island.  I had this crazy character sitting next to me.  He watched South Park the whole time.  He was an older gentleman with a curly cue mustache, a funky suit, and hat.  He was mesmerized by South Park the. whole. time.  Fortunately I had a movie of my own to watch.

As our plane neared New Zealand, we were given more customs forms to fill out--with the threat of an instant $400 fine for not reporting contraband such as fruit or nuts...and meat, animal parts, sports equipment, dirt, plants...Yep, that's what I was bringing for sure.  Still we checked to make sure we hadn't forgotten any fresh apples in our backpacks and made sure to declare our applesauce pouches and nuts.

As we were waiting to retrieve our luggage, a drug, fruit, and money-sniffing dog took an interest in Chris' laptop bag.  Chris had finished off a bag of dried mango on the plane.  We figured that's what the dog was smelling.  Fortunately the dog and his handler moved on.

We retrieved our luggage and took a taxi to the InterContinental hotel in Wellington.  The hotel was about 30 minutes from the airport and the road skirted the coastline.  We didn't have a bay view from room 532, but we were close to the pier.  After dropping off our luggage, we went for a walk to stretch our legs.  Chris had a work meeting at 6:30 pm, and that gave us a little time for exploring.

I loved the bathroom signs on the side of the building.

The pier was teeming with tourists, joggers, bikers, along with Maori youth jumping into the bay, and lots of students practicing their crewing in the bay.   It seemed like a fun place to spend time.

We made our way to Cuba Street where we waited to meet up with Franco and customers from ANZ (pronounced zed) bank.  Our dinner was at a German restaurant called The Matterhorn.  I ordered a salad for my Entree (that is what they called an appetizer), and then a pea-based lasagna for my main meal.  I am not into eating a lot of meat, so I usually hope for something vegetable based to eat.  My lasagna was green, but rather tasty.

We followed the meal with dessert as well.  Always dessert.  And always lots of wine, especially if you are the customer and someone else is paying the bill.  Chris said the bill for seven of us was probably close to $600! (My dessert picture was much clearer as Franco suggested I turn on my flash.)

I sat across from a lady named Diane, and she chatted most of the evening with me or at me.  She talked a lot.  Again, it was one of those cases where I had to listen carefully to her words and accent, and sometimes it was a second or two after she stopped before I pieced together what she was saying.

Franco walked back with us to our hotel, making sure we easily found our way, it was thoughtful of him to watch over us.

Day 6 - Down Under

I chatted with Amy and Misha a little around 630 am.  It was their lunch time.  I exercised in the room again and was wishing for a fan or something as I dripped in sweat.  Chris and I breakfasted in the hotel restaurant before he headed off to his last bunch of meetings in Melbourne.  I returned to the room and chatted with the girls again.  School was out for the day for them.

Today I found the South Melbourne Market to browse through.  It was in a different part of town, not the CBD, and I was glad to find my way.  I loved the South Melbourne Market and wished that I could have bought lots of cool things.  I wandered the stalls a couple of times and bought a few things for the girls.  So fun.

Chris was finished fairly early today and opted out of lunch with coworkers.  I was on my way to the DFO food court to pick up some lunch at Subway when he texted me.  Perfect timing as I was able to get a sandwich for him as well.  I stopped in the Executive Lounge and grabbed a few drinks only to find as he walked in the door that he had stopped for a few drinks as well.

We took the bus to St. Kilda Breakwater Wildlife Area.

It was rather windy again.  The Wilderness Area along the beach was a protected habitat for fairy penguins.  Normally at this time of day, they were away from the beach, usually making their way back to the rocks at sunset.  Chris luckily found one penguin hiding among the rocks.  He wasn't too keen on getting his picture taken.

We had been warned many times about the thin ozone layer in Australia.  I had sunscreen for my face but not for my arms.  They got a little warm and red in the Melbourne sunshine.

Chris knew that I had wanted pictures of beach boxes.  Since we didn't find any at St. Kilda Breakwater Wildlife Area, Chris requested an Uber (we were the driver's second fare ever) down to Brighton Beach.  Success. We landed at Middle Brighton Beach.

Chris took off his shoes and waded through the water.  Some spots were a little gross with slimy green algae, but that didn't stop numerous people from enjoying the beach.  And lots of people were there taking pictures of the beach boxes as well.

As we left the beach, Chris got an ice cream, and then we set off walking about a mile and a half to the train.  The Google map app was invaluable for figuring out directions and bus schedules. 

From the train we had to transfer to the bus to reach the Royal Botanic Gardens.  They were so so.  Perhaps we had missed the peak as we were visiting at the end of summer. The gardens spread out over a 94-acre area, but we cut our exploring short in order to get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner in the evening with more of Chris' coworkers.

We missed the first bus by a minute and had to wait for ten or so minutes for the next bus to come along.  I was impatient and suggested we just start walking.  Chris vetoed the idea.  We took that train to the CBD (Central Business District) and then transferred to another taking us to the Southern Cross Train Station. It was a roundabout way to get back to the hotel, but gave us enough time to reach the hotel and to change into nicer clothes for dinner.

We met with Franco and his wife, Franca, along with Guliano and his wife, Janeen, at the Melbourne Crown (a casino) for dinner at Gradi's. The dinner was delicioso beginning with the antipasti plate of cheeses and meats to the gnocchi for my main meal followed by my first chocolate gelato.  Yum, though Franco and Franca's chocolate lava cake was even more delectable looking.  I enjoyed the evening but found that I had to listen hard to these fast-talking Aussies who liked to intermingle their accented English with Italian.

Hugs and cheek kisses all around after dinner before we parted for the evening.  It was nice to have the walk back to the hotel to work off some of that food.  I could not eat like this forever!

We had an early flight to New Zealand in the morning and started our packing before bed.  We had this spacious room and had spread out a little.

Day 5 - Down Under

I was grateful to sleep until 6:45 am.  This was my view when I pulled back the bedroom curtain this morning.

I had my Beachbody workout videos on my iPad and chose to workout in the hotel room while Chris went to the Fitness Center, and I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy breakfast with Chris in the hotel restaurant before he headed off for another day of meetings.

I walked to the Queen Victoria market this morning.  The market was a couple of miles away, but hey, I didn't have any thing else to do and walking is my thing.  The weather was beautiful, and I enjoyed the morning checking the stalls of the market, looking for some fun touristy things, and feeling grateful that the vendors weren't pushy.  I loved the food stalls with their colorful fruits and vegetables, the pasta, the crafts, the flowers, the meats...well, not the meats so much.

I had an enjoyable morning and met up with Hadis at the Federation Square train station.  We had lunch at Betty's Burgers followed by a decadent piece of chocolate cake at Caffe Duomo.  I rarely eat a hamburger, less often a cheeseburger, and I am pretty sure I couldn't often indulge in chocolate cake for lunch without dire results!  And I had to take a picture of Hadis' coffee.

Hadis and I walked back to my hotel and parted there.  She was went to the "factory stores" next door at the DFO (direct factory outlet) shopping center, and I sank gratefully onto the couch and rested.  It was about an hour later when Chris was finished work and returned to the hotel.  We planned to take the train to Glennferrie to meet Nik and Hadis for dinner at a Persian restaurant.

Before getting on the train, I told Chris I wanted to get a picture of this funky sculpture I had seen on Monday while on the City Tram.  It was called, "Cow in a Tree."  Pretty self explanatory, but why they would want it?  Couldn't tell you.

From here, Chris and I made our way over to the Southern Cross Train Station to catch our train to meet Nik and Hadis.  They picked us up from the train at Glennferrie, and then we drove for at least another 20 or 30 minutes until we reached Aliqapu Persian restaurant.  We had planned to go there the night before when we met Nik and Hadis for dinner, but it was closed on Mondays.  Hadis was pretty disappointed and insisted on taking us on Tuesday evening.

Chris lounged on the Persian rug and pillows as we waited for our meal to be served.

There was sooooo much food.  Nik and Hadis took home six takeaway containers.  They drove us back to the hotel.  Again, I tried desperately to stay awake, but apparently I fell asleep.

Day 4 - Down Under

Chris had a meeting at 9:30 am.  I could have slept in, unfortunately, I woke at 4:40 am.  I moved to the living room and surfed the net while Chris slept.  I went down to exercise after 7 am and Chris followed about 20 minutes later after going through his early morning mail.  I took my iPhone and tried to turn on my Runkeeper App.  It had been running in the background for I don't know how long, and I was up to 8000 miles.  Go me!

Chris left early for breakfast while I was still getting ready for the day.  I followed later, dropping off laundry with the Concierge. It was lucky that Chris was just passing by on his way out of the hotel to work when I dropped the laundry because he had all of the information with the company name.  That was taken care of, Chris left for work, and I went back up to dine alone in the Executive Lounge.  Alone, except I facetimed my girls during my breakfast.  It was Sunday afternoon for them.

The view from our hotel room.  There were lots of teams crewing on this river every day.

It was the first of many days where I would explore on my own while Chris worked.  I ventured out along the pier and walked toward Federation Square.

I checked out the St. Paul's cathedral, graffitied alleys, Jone's house, and then made my way to the the City tram.

It took over an hour to take the tour around the Central Business District (CBD).  I found a great map on the tram and hopped off next to Fitzroy Gardens.  It was beautiful, green, and full of trees.

I walked through the Conservatory full of mostly begonias.

I continued to search the park (the signage wasn't stellar) until I finally found the small Tudor village replica next to the Fairies Tree.

It was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.  I was just proud of myself for not getting lost!  I made my way back to the tram stop and hopped the tram back toward the hotel.

I was relaxing on the couch when Chris arrived about an hour later.  We found a place to top off our Myki cards (transit cards).  We were directed from one place to another, but finally found a spot to reload the cards.  We met up with Chris' coworker, Nik, and his wife, Hadis for dinner at Dr. Roast Bar & Eatery.  Nik was from India and Hadis from Iran.  They were a delightful couple.

They dropped us back at the hotel after dinner and Chris and I were quickly off to sleep.  It didn't last too long for me.  Kristen had an urgent need to talk to her mom and started texting me around 2:30 am.  I tried to help her through the problem, though I was only partially awake.  Thank heavens for Unisom.  I was able to stay awake for about a half an hour and then drifted off to sleep after saying goodbye to Kristen.