Benica Blog

Okay, I know we promised no more London stuff, the day we headed out was so fun that it's necessary to comment on. We spent the morning organizing ourselves and were a bit delayed when I "temporarily" lost my wallet, but hey, I'm always "temporarily" losing stuff, right? The plan was to head into the city, leave our bags at a left luggage drop off and explore until we were supposed to meet up with some camp friends, however, as we reached the top of the Earl's Court Tube station, Frazer Shanks and Alex Ehgartner were waiting at the top. They were actually waiting for the person behind us, a Mr. Nick Raper himself. Anyhoo, it was perfectly timed and we were able to leave our bags at the boys' hotel. The same Body Exhibition that ... read more

It was really sad to say goodbye to tropical Port Douglas but we were not disappointed leaving all the damn mosquitos behind. They were quite brutal. We spent our last day or so around town, watching the World Cup (yeah Soccaroos, c'mon USA!) and actually playing a lot of tennis. We both vow to start playing regularly as while we are quite the spectacle to watch, we had a lot of fun in the process. Australians are going crazy over their victory over Japan, acting as if they will not be destroyed in their second game against Brazil. Ben teases them incessently, while I am a bit more understanding, as they haven't been in the World Cup in 32 years. Tuesday morning, we drove down to Cairns along the scenic Captain Cook Highway that follows the ... read more

So, Port Douglas has been treating us well, despite the less than perfect weather conditions. We spent our first day here getting to know the hotel itself and town and were happy to just relax and stay still for a few days. The next day, Thursday, we were picked up at 8:00 am by Tony's Tours in a white SUV for a day of fun in the rainforest. We were only 2 of 6 people in the car, plus Tony our guide, and it was a very interesting and informative day. Our first stop was at the Mossman Gorge, where we walked a bit through the rainforest to the Mossman River and saw a beautiful body of water, with lots of rocks and waterfalls. There were tons of bats too that caught our attention. Back in ... read more

So, see ya Rockhampton, hello Airlie Beach! After another long drive (this time, we did see water briefly on the Bruce Highway though, even though it's called the coastal highway), we stopped for lunch in a funky little town called Mackay, had a wee wander and went again on our way. Funny here that instead of raccoon or squirrel roadkill, here the streets are lined with kangaroo roadkill! We stayed with a friend of my camp friend, named Pete, a lovely guy who offered to put up two traveling Americans for a few nights without even knowing anything about them! Good guy. After stretching our legs after a 12 hour journey, we hopped in the car and drove into the town of Airlie Beach that reminded me a bit of a Spring Break destination, with bars ... read more

Just a quick update as internet time is precious these days. It was absolutely fabulous relaxing on the Sunshine Coast and we definitely spent a few well needed days of doing NOTHING on the beach. The weather for the most part was glorious. It really is hard to think of it being winter when the sun is bearing down on you. We are both officially tanned, yahoo. We took some awesome walks/runs on the beach and the colors were spectacular. We made friends with a wild pelican, what a weird looking bird. We ate freshly caught fish from the wharf. We found plenty of sea glass, as you all know that Ozzies love their stubbies. Basically last week was blissfully relaxing and we are well caught up on our news and even finished some more books! ... read more

Okay, so I've been wanting to say that for so long and now I have the chance (even if people stare at me all funny, haha). Well, after fully recovering from partying Sydney style, we said goodbye to the weekend and got excited for the week (not that it makes a difference for us when we're traveling, since every day is a weekend, :)~~~~~ ) Monday morning, we headed down to Manly again with the intention of taking the ferry to the Taronga Zoo, but opted for the quicker bus instead. The zoo was fantastic. It sits right on the other side of the harbor so the views of the Opera House and bridge are fantastic, especially where the giraffes hang out. We wandered first through Wild Australia, where we saw koalas, kangaroos, emus, wallabies, wombats ... read more

Okay, so first off. We are safe and sound in Sydney, no explanation needed for this title. Now a few interesting details about our departure from NZ and arrival in OZ. We had a lovely last night in the Christchurch. We had a very lovely dinner at an awesome restaurant near Cathedral Square. We said goodbye to Sue, the sweet woman who ran the bed and breakfast and was responsible for the plate fulls of scrambled eggs, bacon (shoulder is preferred over streaky), and eggs bennedict. We then stopped by "ginz.com", the travel agency who did such a wonderful job helping us organize our 4 weeks in NZ because they had some suggestions for OZ. Leaving with a handful of brochures and printouts, we headed towards the airport, stopping at the Antarctic Center on the way. ... read more

Alright, quick update as the wonderful woman at the bed and breakfast has allowed me to sneak on the internet and of course, keeping our friends and families updated is the most important thing to do :) Title explanation: Very few people in NZ have central heating, therefore as it is winter (or fall, actually, meaning the leaves are gorgeous, as they change colors and falling and it smells fantastic), everyone lights fires to keep their houses warm. That means there is a continuous smell of fireplaces, it is scrumptious...as we're heading to OZ tomorrow, we are very much anticipating HOT weather (fingers crossed) and while we are excited to get a suntan, we are going to miss the lovely smell. Okay, so since we last "talked..." Sunday night, we found a nice Italian restaurant and ... read more