one more day in Melbourne ...

Tomorrow is my last day in Melbourne for a while. Tomorrow night I'm taking the train to Sydney. I'm pretty excited because it's been almost a month since I've taken the train. Today I found a really cool bookstore in Brunswick and bought a brand new copy of Exit Ghost by Philip Roth for 5 bucks! I bought two other books the other day at a yard sale in Carlton North so I have to finish this one by the time I get to Sydney, otherwise I'll be carrying a lot of extra weight in my packs. :/ I arrive in Sydney on Thursday morning and I'll be heading straight to my friend Chris's house where I'll drop my stuff and then probably go walking around the city or on another beach walk while he's at work. Hopefully the Lakers/Spurs game will be on one of the cable channels so we can watch it that night. GO LAKERS!!

On Friday afternoon, I'm flying to New Zealand!!! I'm soooo excited! When I arrive in Auckland, I'll be staying with Earl, a couchsurfer I met when he stayed at our house in LA a few months ago. Right now my plan is to stay in Auckland for three days but if I love it there I might stay a little longer. I don't have much time in New Zealand though so I plan on moving around a lot. My friend Joy was in New Zealand recently and did a cool coast-to-coast walk: 16 km from Waitemata Harbour, through Auckland City, to Manukau Harbour -- 32 km or just under 20 miles round trip. Other plans while I'm in NZ include: visiting friends in Christchurch, working on an organic farm in Manawatu and possibly a second farm if I have time, bathing in the mineral pools at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua, going on lots of hikes, checking out more hot springs, camping, wine-tasting, of course seeing as much of the country as I can possibly see, and this Saturday, getting a massage! THANK YOU SARAH! :) 

I need to go to sleep soon but first I want to fill you in on the past few days. I've been staying with Soo Se and Laura, which has been a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to Sandringham Beach -- of course the locals call it "Sandy." It was only a short train ride away, and it was free for me with the weekly metro pass I'd bought (FYI anyone traveling to Melbourne: if you buy a week pass for Zone 1, you get to travel to Zone 2 for free on weekends. Yay!) The water was pretty warm and we swam around a lot and thankfully we didn't see any jellyfish! That night we watched the women's final of the Australian Open. (I won't comment in case any of you have it tivo'd and haven't had a chance to watch yet. I'm sure everyone who cares knows who won by now, but just in case, I don't want to ruin it for anyone.) On Sunday we went back to the Yarra Valley to do some more wine-tasting and after taking the train to Lilydale train station, we walked out to the road and tried to hitchhike to our first winery. Sadly, before anyone picked us up, the cops spotted us and drove over to scold us. Apparently hitchhiking is illegal here. I believe their exact words were, "If you don't want to get a fine, you should stop doing that." So polite! We were able to catch a bus that was going past some wineries and the driver dropped us off at one winery called Whispering Hills. The winemakers were named Murray and Marie. :) From there we walked up the road and up a long, steep hill to the neighboring winery, Seville Hill. They had a jazz band there and after tasting about 15 delicious wines (for free! so far there haven't been any tasting fees at Aussie wineries), we got a bottle and an antipasto platter and had a picnic outside. It was lovely. Oh and on our way up the hill, we got to pet two sweet horses. On the way down the hill, one of the girls who worked at the winery pulled over and offered us a ride down to the road. Score! Sunday night, we watched the men's final of the Aussie Open. On Monday, Laura and I went to see Black Swan (loved it!) and Monday night we all went to a comedy show in North Melbourne. We got there late so we missed the first half of the show which was stand-up comedy; we caught the second half, which consisted of a dating game and about half a dozen prank calls on audience members' friends. It was pretty funny. After the show, we went on a nice, long walk around the city and finally ended up at a bar called the Worker's Club, where they had $2 beers and 80s music. Today it was over 100 degrees (40 C) so I went to the State Library while Laura and Soo Se went to the zoo. Later, after it cooled down a bit, we walked around Brunswick and I bought my Philip Roth book and got some amazing food at a Lebanese bakery called A1. Tonight Soo Se's friend Indrani (who is from the US and lives in Melbourne) came over and made us a delicious tapas dinner. So that's what's been going on this week. And here are a few pics:

Goodnight everyone!! :)