New Year's Eve and Other Queenstown Activities

After our exciting swing ride and bungy jump, we headed back into Queenstown and ate a late lunch at Fergburger. This place is a must-visit, and the wait for food is over an hour. But it's worth it; the burgers are awesome! You don't usually get big, juicy burgers on this side of the world, but Fergburger is the real deal. Yum.

Later that night, we started our New Year's Eve festivities with drinks by the campfire at our caravan park. We met some fun folks, including some people from Michigan! When it got closer to midnight, we walked into town, where we were able to see the short fireworks show over the lake.










Then we hung out in town for awhile and danced to the live outdoor music. The band played fun songs, and we had a good time despite the cold, rainy weather. After a couple of late-night slices of pizza, we headed back to our campervan and enjoyed our first sleep of 2013.

Another must-do in Queenstown (which we did a few days later) is the Shotover Jet. This crazy boat ride zips through the canyon, doing fast spins and going ridiculously close to the rocks on the side. It's like a roller coaster ride, and it's tons of fun. If you ever end up there, look for a picture of our friends Kristy and Nigel on the wall inside the building. Kristy was the 3 millionth passenger! Anyway, Queenstown is full of great stuff; more to come on our time there in future posts.

Australia Day and My 33rd Birthday

Australia Day is on January 26. It's kind of like Australia's version of the 4th of July, celebrated with BBQs on the beach and fireworks. It was on a Thursday this year, and since Zack had the day off of work, we threw together a spontaneous get-together with our friends Emily and Adam. They biked down to the beach right across the street from our place, we carried our portable BBQ downstairs, and we grilled up some sausages and played beach games for a couple of hours. That night, I enjoyed watching the fireworks from our balcony.

Luna Park makes a nice foreground for the fireworks over the city and atop the Eureka Tower.

January 27 is my birthday, so I decided to have some friends over to celebrate the Australian holiday in combination with my turning 33 on Friday night. I made some Australia-themed snacks for the party. I'm especially proud of my Australian flag fruit kebobs; thank you Pinterest for the inspiration based on the US flag.

Australian cheese and crackers, fruit and veggie kebobs, sausage rolls, and chips (and cupcakes!).

We had sort of a small crowd because several of our friends were gone for the holiday weekend, but those who could come were awesome. They even brought me presents, which was totally unexpected! Here's a picture with Kristy and Joy. I think Emily and her friend Andrea were outside on the balcony at this point. Below are the boys (Adam, Nigel, Zack, and Hannes) and a shot of my favorite chocolate cake that Zack gets at a place across from his work. Yum!

It was very strange celebrating my birthday in the summertime. I'm used to wearing sweaters instead of sundresses and planning snowboarding trips instead of beach parties, but I'm not complaining! I'm hoping my 33rd year is the best one yet. It sure started off nicely!

Missing America

The Fourth of July went by without much fanfare over here in Australia.  We did go to an expat potluck BBQ thing, where we met a fun couple from Chicago.  We wore some red, white, and blue and ate hot dogs and apple pie.  Lately, Zack's been missing America.  We had heard that the first few months would be easy, like a "honeymoon period."  Then there is often a period of homesickness for a few months before you get settled and are happy again.  It's probably because work is super stressful, he doesn't get much sleep, and he travels between Sydney and Melbourne so much.  The homesickness hasn't really hit me yet.  Oh sure, I miss Molly and teaching and little things about the United States, but I'm still enjoying myself here.  That's probably because I don't have to work!    

The thing I always really liked about Independence Day is the fireworks.  The Docklands area of Melbourne put on short fireworks shows every Friday night during July.  I guess they wanted to attract people to the area during the winter months or something.  For a few Fridays, I could see the fireworks from our balcony in St. Kilda.  So we finally went there last Friday, and it was actually a pretty good show for only being ten minutes long.  It was set to music and all.  Then we went out for Indian food.  Go figure!

We've been getting our "American" fix by having dinner with various couples from the United States over the past few weeks.  Emily and Adam had us over to their place for dinner earlier this month,  we went to an American-style diner with Alena and Todd (the couple from Chicago), and we met up for some Italian food with Laura and Ryan (a couple from Iowa we met through our blog).  And our Australian friends Heath and Isabelle introduced us to some good pizza at a place called Mr. Wolf (though it was of course expensive!).  We hear we also need to try I Carusi (thanks Megan)!

Yet another balcony shot of the beautiful sunset!

So as the sun sets on another night in Australia, we may be missing America a little bit, but we are excited about the adventures we're yet to have in this country.  We're actually both in Sydney right now, so tomorrow's entry will be about some of the fun I've been having here.