Welcome to the South Island, where the New Zealand adventure continues! It is so incredibly beautiful I feel that I can't find the appropriate adjectives to explain how incredible the landscape is, and how quickly it changes. I will do my best as I start to take you through the southern adventures! We started by taking the interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. Picton is this tiny fishing village where really only the harbor is alive, so we quickly made our way to Nelson where we spent the next few days. Despite the rain we made the most of our first day in Nelson doing a bit of sight seeing along with visiting Australasia's first organic brewery, in operation for six generations. Our next day we took a day trip to Abel Tasman National Park for ... read more

We arrived in Sydney after a long bus ride from Byron Bay through the night arriving into Sydney around 6:30 AM. Our hostel was great located near the bus terminal and with free breakfast we dropped of our bags, grabbed a bite to eat and were off to see the city! Our first stop was Hyde Park and St. Mary's Cathedral located beautifully along the park. It was the first Catholic Church in Australia; opening in 1928. From Hyde Park you could get great views of the Sydney Tower; the highest observation deck in the city and the southern hemisphere. Heading closer into the citycenter we were able to see the State Theatre built in 1929, the most modern theatre of it's time and the Queen Victoria building which was built in the 1890's. Orginally a ... read more

January 8th, 2009 After a nine hour flight we arrived in Melbourne around 8:30 a.m. ... welcome to Australia!! We were greeted by our friend Paul at the airport; and went to his home in Williamstown, which is a suburb of Melbourne about 25 minutes from the city center. Williamstown is where the first settlers arrived in 1835; but because there was no fresh water they went further north to where the Yarra River is and settled Melbourne. It is easy to see why people enjoy this city it is a quant, quite town with almost a feel of New England. Situated along the bay with yaht & sailing clubs, a nice beach, and beautiful homes with rod-iron details and small porches. January 9th, 2009 Today we went into Melbourne to get a real taste of ... read more

Merry Belated Christmas!! I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday- I had a very nice Christmas- and have lots to catch you up on as far as what I’ve been up to! The last week I have been busy traveling through Malaysia, a very interesting country. We started in Georgetown, Penang a small island located just off the coast of the country near Thailand. Georgetown has a rich Dutch and British history, with lots of English influence. My favorite sight was the Jetty’s, located at the waterfront- literally it was homes built on piers. There are seven jetties’ all with different surname’s living on each jetty. Each jetty had two temples to protect it- one on the waterfront, and the other at the beginning of it. These Chinese temples were different than the Thai temples we ... read more

Well, I have spent the last few days in Bangkok seeing all sorts of "Wat's" or temples and trekking in the jungles of northern Thailand... something that was such an amazing experience. Bangkok is a busy, crowded city- dirty in places- with amazing well kept Wat's... the difference between the two such contrast. The temples are very interesting, different sizes of budda's with different meanings behind each one. The emerald budda for instance is small, and is emerald... and then there's Wat Pho with a reclining Budda, a huge 15 meters tall and 60 meters long with mother of pearl feet and the rest in gold leaf. It is the third largest... so I can only imagine the others! There are 6 boys in my group along with Kris and I - all 23-24 yrs old ... read more