"Down Under"

I don't know if you noticed, but I haven't posted much in over a month. Well, that's because I was "Down Under" for two weeks. And, since I'd never been out of the country before, I had a lot to prepare before leaving. My husband and I, along with 5 others, traveled to New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia to visit dairies, and the company who makes our new Carousel Milking machine.

I have to say, New Zealand was stunning!  And the people there were super friendly!  Unfortunately, most of my pictures of New Zealand were of dairies, because frankly, that was the main purpose of the trip.  We included Melbourne in our itinerary because my husband has a cousin that lives near there, and since we were so close, we added a hop over to Australia.

Here are a few highlights of the trip.   The pictures are in no particular order:

Above are 2 of the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road south of Melbourne (although there are only 9 rocks...no one knows the "true story" on how this location got it's name.

Cows grazing along the hillside in New Zealand.  We don't have views like this in the Central Valley.

A Gahla bird in Dumbalk, Australia

Apparently these birds are thought of like our pigeons....a nuisance.

I have to say, they are a lot prettier though. 

This is a Garden Orb spider that was hanging from our relatives' awning.  Remarkable in size and color, but fortunately harmless.

Our group overlooking "The Great Ocean Road".

The one thing I told my husband I wasn't leaving until I got a picture of.  I've had a dream of visiting Australia since I was 10 years old.  I received my first stuffed Koala then and named him Sydney.  This guy was just hanging around in a tree that extended over the street in a residential area.  Thankfully our tour guide spotted him.  A treasure to get this close.  Isn't he just the cutest?

Blessed to see a Kookaburra too.  Beautiful bird.

A performer at the Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua, New Zealand.  We thouroughly enjoyed learning about their culture.

No matter where we ate in New Zealand, whether it be a small cafe, or an elegant restaurant, the food was always beautifully displayed, and rich in flavor.  These were just a couple of appetizers our first night there.  I won't bore you with all the food pictures I took...I caught a lot of flack for it.  *grin*

The water was always brought to the table in beautifully colored bottles instead of pitchers.  It was hard not to take one of them home with me.  ;)

This was the view from our motel room in Melbourne, Australia.  That city is HUGE!!

On our "Great Ocean Road Tour", we stopped at a location that had a lot of koalas and parrots.  Our tour guide "Outback Billy" brought some bird seed along to feed the birds, and they LOVED it.  We had parrots on our heads, hands, and shoulders doing their best to get the treats.

 The King Parrots LOVED Aaron...so much so they were fighting over him.  lol

This Crimson Rosella would have nothing to do with people.  He wanted his seed on a fence post.  I had to get some pictures of him though...his colors are just stunning!

The "Round-Abouts" and driving on the left side took some getting used to.  We had the cleanest windshield in the countries.  (The turn signal is on the opposite side along with the steering-wheel...so instead of hitting the turn-signal, the drivers were continually turning the windshield wipers on.)

We had fun learning the lingo, and taking in the different signs.

Forgive me, but I just had to include another koala photo.  ;)

This photo was taken at "Squeaky Beach".  The sand is so fine it actually squeaks when you walk on it.  Super fun.  This is at the Southern most tip of Australia in Wilson's Promontory.  Beautiful!!

Kangaroos...can you believe we didn't see even one until our second to last day.  Thankfully our tour guide, from Outback Billy's Great Ocean Road Tour, took us to the local golf course (not scheduled on the tour), so we could see some before leaving.  

That's it for my photo tour.  But, before you leave, let me share one more thing...

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I took over 1500 photos, and was able to edit down to 1000....it was quite an accomplishment...I assure you.  :)

Happy Stamping!