How ya travelin’?

The title goes back to the first couple days we were in Brisbane. We had just eaten at a BBQ joint, and one of the staff came out an asked “How ya travelin?” – unfortunately for Sara he was facing her. Our faces likely immediately displayed confusion – first we wondered if we heard him correctly. Then we started wondering if we were really supposed to tell him ‘well, by plane, then by car, and we walked here’ – no that can’t be right. After a few awkward seconds, and us probably going “uhh…” – he said – “Was everything ok?” – whew – “Yes, it was great!”. Looking it up, and in retrospect, it’s obvious he was just saying “How’s it going” – although in Australia the popular phrase is “How are you going?”, which all means – “Are you/is everything ok?”.

But, the answer to the literal question, is we’re travelin’ great. We made the road trip down from Sydney to Melbourne, and then west past that out to the Great Ocean Road – and had a great time. We managed to catch all the “weird” Australian wildlife we expected – Kangaroos, Wombats, Wallabies, Koalas, Echidnas, Parrots, Kookaburras, Ibises, Cockatoos, Emus, Black Swans, Lorikeets (small correction, I called them parakeets in my last post). Other than feeding the Kangaroos (which were super gentle – and soft!) the Koalas and Wombats (basically – giant guinea pigs) were our favorites. I guess technically we missed the platypus and some penguins, but it’s a big country! And of course the landscape, both countryside and oceanfront were beautiful.

Australia really surprised us – we didn’t expect to like it as much as we did. Given the time, we’d definitely come back and visit again. But as so happens in most of my posts we landed in New Zealand yesterday. We’ve got 14 days to road trip around the south island – starting in Christchurch – and feel like we’ll fall in love. They’re very strict about making sure you have a flight back out when you come visit – hah! Stopped at a pub last night and sampled some of the local craft beers – they’re doing a great job – even had New Englang IPAs and Milkshake IPAs – woohoo! Except for being surrounded by an ocean, the landscape (and people) remind us of Colorado. The guys sitting at the table next to us last night had a sister living in Denver, and we chatted for a bit. They were excited to visit there some day!

Of course, barely any mammals in NZ, so pictures will probably be all landscape. But hey, you take what you get. Speaking of pics..here’s some more from Australia…