GBR - The Great Barrier Reef

Well, we've been waiting for this moment and the time has come. We can now explore the Great Barrier Reef. Thank goodness we have money for this part of our trip because this is what Australia is about. Rare Species and World Heritage Listed Sites.

To refresh your memory about what this is.... The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the world, and from above, viewing it from a distance, you will understand why it's declared one of the seven world natural wonders. Some facts: It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the GBR is the only living thing on earth that is visible from space. How's that?

We arrived to Cairns and couchsurfed at Stefan's house in Kewarra beach ... about 20 minutes north of the Cairns city centre. We met other couchsurfers there and booked a tour with Betty and Karin from Austria.

We had the option of taking an into dive. I said yes but was denied because of my arthritis medication. Need a doctor's note. Kevin took the intro dive and told me all the more amazing things you can see when you're just hanging out down in the depths of the amazing Reef.

September in a Nutshell

September was a month where our Queen Bee Housemate who allowed Kevin and I to stay in the house... LEFT.

The Goodbye Dinner

She left for London to work then travel the world.

We had a great goodbye dinner and this meant Kevin and I were to move upstairs into her room.

This was exciting because the room was MUCH bigger and the place upstairs is nicer. Nikki left us some responsibilities of keeping the housemates on track with cleaning and paying rent. We continue to collect her mail and bills for the house. Easy for us. But we miss her.

Nikki also left us the responsibility of hosting couchsurfers. YAY!

We are SOOO excited to be the hosts for couchsurfers.

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

There are over 2 million couchsurfers all over the world including a total of 241 countries. We hosted a bit back home, but nothing materialized and worked out as smoothly as we liked. With much more freedom here in Brisbane and a place we call our own, we've gotten back on track to host because we were hosted in Brazil, Japan, New Zealand and met up with people from couchsurfing in Rio de Janeiro, Vietnam, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia and probably more!

Once Nikki left we had some former couchsurfers RETURN! They were an amazing couple from Spain and I'm SOOO GLAD they came back for a few days. stayed with us until they flew out.

We had a nice day at Kangaroo Point to have a BBQ.

BBQ at Kangaroo Point

Then at the end of September I finalized my days at Make A Wish Australia as I am now working with children one-on-one doing ABA Therapy again! YAY!

Goodbye Make-a-wish Australia :(

New Zealand, Day Seven it is all Heavenly

Lord of the Rings is popular and the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand.

But this is more than a 3 hour movie.

We rented a CHEAP car from JUCY rental cars and are taking a 2 week trip in the North Island of New Zealand and 19 days in the south island, rental car status.

We started in Auckland. It was a busier city, but not too big. It is winter here in May (other hemisphere here) and it reminds me of SEATTLE. When I told this to the couchsurfing host, I sadly realized I wasn't the first to notice. I'm quick to pick up similarities but not as original. haha

AUCKLAND Sky Tower

So a few nights with a host in Auckland, adjusting to passing maybe 5 time zones from Indonesia and we slept a lot! I had some sinus issues with weather and country changes. But I a LOVING it here. Auckland has a posh area called Ponsonby area with a burger chain called burger fuel. I had a vegan burger, yum! Something like every 20 burgers fuels one gallon of fuel foor the delivery car. What a green idea!

After Auckland we headed to Coromandel.

Hot Water Beach!

We dug holes in the sand to reveal hot hot steamy water just under the surface. mixed with holes of cold water or finding the perfect spot and you have tons of people making mini spas and just laying there. We were SO lucky for it to be a perfect sunny day. While it was still a bit chilly, it was possible to walk in a bathing suit with shorts, so we considered ourselves VERY lucky.

After one overnight stop in Coromandel, a very small town, we headed down the east coast.

Next stop, Tauranga. We arrived at a nice hostel with the chain of YHA. We were able to use our Hostelling International cards from Uruguay and got a nice discount. We were also able to stay here for only 1 night so it was only a quick pause to check out the mountain which was a volcano once. We did some thrift store shopping where I picked up a winter coat for super cheap.

cows on a hill in the sunset

After Tauranga was another few hours drive south to Rotorua.