I bet you thought the blogs would stop now that I'm home ...

... wrong! I'm still blogging :D

I got home yesterday morning (my parents came to pick me up at the airport! Yay!) after a 13 1/2 hour flight from Melbourne. I had requested and been assigned an aisle seat (21C) but when I checked in I was given a boarding pass for seat 41F. I didn't think to double check that it was still an aisle seat, and when I boarded the plane, I was disappointed to find out that 41F was a middle seat. The seats were very close together and the person in front of me (a dad with a baby that cried for a few minutes every couple hours -- not great but could have been worse) kept his seat reclined for pretty much the entire flight. Bad times. The man to my left didn't speak at all (yay!) and the man to my right was weird. He mentioned that his wife was traveling with him and she was in the row behind us and one seat over (aisle seat!!) ... he wasn't sure why they didn't put them next to each other. I offered to switch seats with his wife so they could sit together and he declined. I almost begged him to switch but I wussed out and just tried to keep my headphones on at all times and talk to him as little as possible. 

I didn't sleep at all on the flight. I was exhausted but I couldn't pass up the chance to watch 16 episodes of Modern Family, the first 20 minutes of Eat, Pray, Love (lame), Love and Other Drugs (pretty good), and Morning Glory (decent). I ate every bit of crappy airline food I could get my hands on, and drank a glass of wine. I also had a Sprite, since I was technically still on vacation. :)

Oh! I should also mention that I almost missed my flight because I fell asleep while waiting to board at the gate! This was due to a combination of factors: early wake-up call, one xanax (I didn't take any on my short flights -- AU to NZ, and flights within those countries -- so I thought I'd reward myself for being such a good traveler for so many months), and 9 am free wine-tasting at the duty free shops at the airport. After prowling the duty free shops for freebies (chocolate, wine, samples of lotion), I made my way to the gate and sat down and waited for it to be 9:45 so I could board the plane and sleep. I was so tired. They still weren't boarding the plane at 9:55 and when I asked one of the official-looking guys what was up, he said "They always print an earlier time on the ticket and then board later." Uhhh ok. I was not aware of that. Oh well. I sat down, put my ipod on, then assumed the crash position with my head on my knees ... then woke up and it was 10:30 and everyone was lined up, boarding the plane. Ahhhh! I'd like to think someone would have woken me up before they closed the doors on me and I missed my flight but thankfully I'll never know because I woke up JUST in time. 

Oh and while I'm going backwards, I should say that my stay at the Park Hyatt Melbourne was just fabulous. I swam, read my book in the jacuzzi, relaxed in the steam room and worked out at the fitness center so much. In the middle of the afternoon on Monday, I dragged myself away from the pool and went walking around the beautiful city of Melbourne, getting one last look at everything and taking as many pictures as my tired little camera could handle. I also needed to buy some food ($6 worth) to get me through my day and night at the hotel. Here are some pics:

Seriously, how gorgeous is this city!?? 

I LOVE IT. I will definitely be back someday. :)


I've been meaning to do a little re-cap of my trip so here it is ... 

My Australia/New Zealand Adventure, by the numbers:

Countries visited: 2
Days on holiday: 161
Backpacks carried: 2
kg per backpack: 9
Books read: 28
Photos taken: 2,950 (estimated)
Couches surfed: 35 (est.)
Blogs posted: 38
Train trips taken: 18
Plane trips taken: 8
Wineries visited: 15
Breweries visited: 1 (Speight's, Dunedin, NZ)
Things stolen: 1, my Reef flip flops (and to clarify that's things stolen from me, not by me)
Earthquakes felt: 4
Laker games watched: 1
Dollars spent: $8,500 (est. and INCLUDING airfare and 6-month train pass)
Miles walked: 1,500 (est.)
Miles driven: 0
Times hitchhiked: 11
Australian Open tennis matches watched: 30 (est.)
Times listened to Jason Mraz Live Acoustic album on ipod: 150 (est.)
Beaches visited: 22
Bottles of sunblock used: 10 (est.)
Crazy alcoholic perverts escaped from: 1
Times I got lost and asked strangers for directions: 100+

Highlights:

Australian Open, Melbourne
Great Barrier Reef, Cairns
Coogee-Bondi walk, Sydney
hitchhiking around NZ
Polynesian Spa, Rotorua
Eddie Vedder concert/week in Canberra
WWOOFin' with Pip, Manakau
favorite city: Melbourne


Least favorite things:

Roundabouts
Unfavorable exchange rate
No toilet seat covers or paper towels in public bathrooms
Clotheslines instead of dryers
and of course ... Pervy Paul, the WWOOF predator :/


Places I didn't get to visit that are on my list for next time:

Great Ocean Road
Whitsundays
Byron Bay
Tasmania
Uluru
Darwin
Margaret River
Milford Sound
Bay of Islands
Queenstown
west coast of NZ's south island


And for anyone planning a backpacking trip, here is my list of things I could not have lived without on my trip (well I suppose I could have, but these things made my trip a lot better):

ipod
packing cubes!
large Ziploc bags
day planner
extra camera battery and chargers (I should have brought a wall charger for my ipod but fortunately they were very easy to borrow)
sarong
pillow cases
lightweight jacket
leggings (I wore them on every train/plane ride)
small accordion folder (maybe only necessary for people who have OCD like me)
business cards


and here are the things I didn't need at all:

11 books (next time I'll bring two and find the rest later)
guide books (I read some of my Australia one; didn't even bring the NZ one to NZ because I accidentally left it in Melbourne. All info is easy to find online or from hostels/info centers)
cable lock
2nd padlock (one was enough; most places didn't even have lockers that allowed you to use your own lock)

I hope that helps!! Thanks for reading! =)

To everyone I met or visited along the way, thank you for making my journey so incredible. I'll miss you and I hope to see you someday when you come to California, when I return to your spot, or when we're both somewhere else at the same time.

To all my friends and family here in the states, thank you for sending love and encouragement (and Lakers updates), reading my stories and sharing in my adventures. I've missed you heaps and I can't wait to see you!!! <3

Love, Marie