New Zealand

So after the LCI Convention, and since we were already in this part of the world, we decided to go to New Zealand to spend about a week.  It was much colder than Sydney.  Since it is their winter we couldn't do a whole lot - but it was such a great time.

Sam found an I-stay which is apartments converted into hotels.  We had a two bedroom apartment, with a washer and dryer as well as a kitchen.  The first day, Sam and I took the ferry to Davenport and did some shopping in the rain. They have such cute little shops there!

While in Auckland, we did a hop on, hop off bus tour and saw some cool sites of the city.  But we were really excited to go to Rotorua, which is about a 3.5 hour drive from Auckland.  But we heard such great things, so we rented  car and drove down.  (side note - very annoyed with Katy Perry's California Gurls song... it was constantly played).

While we were there, we went up on a skyline ride, went to Wai-O-Tapu geo-thermal park and saw a geyser and sulfur pools.  It was such a nice little town.  We all agreed we would love to go back on day, but next time during their summer.

Sam and I were going to go Zorbing, which is rolling down a hill in a big ball, which looks totally fun... but they were only offering water rides, which they put some water in the ball, but we didn't have our suits and we thought it was a little too chilly to be doing it with water.  So we went to the Agrodome to learn about sheep.  Sounds funny, but it was a really good time.  We saw a sheep show, got to pet and take pics with them.  

We also had the opportunity to use the sulfur hot tub at the hotel next door and relax it was great!

Sam left a day earlier because she was offered by her boss to fly home business class - who wouldn't turn that down on a 13 hour trip back to California.  So, Jay and I had a day to ourselves and just drove around looking for sites.  We went to this small zoo that turned out to be pretty cool and we took lots of pictures.  After we just drove around and took in the beautiful scenery.  I was happy because we found a beach so I got to walk along the water and pick up shells to take back home.   

We had such a great time... and there is sooo much more to tell, but it is so hard trying to remember everything.  All you need to know is, if you ever have the opportunity to go to New Zealand... DO IT!

Going Down Under... Aussie Style

 This year's annual Lions Club International Convention was held in Sydney, Australia.  OMG, it was sooo great to be there.  Although, I can have done without the 15 hour plane ride from Los Angeles.  Jay and I got lucky, since we arrived at LAX so early, we were able to get an emergency row exit and no one sat in between us, but unfortunately, the arm rests didn't go up. 

We arrived early in the morning, checked into the hotel, and went to find some place to eat.  Jay really wanted to try kangaroo, so that is what he did.  I even tried a bit.  In fact, here is a reaction shot of me eating a bite of it...

It really wasn't that bad... but, if you know me, I don't like exotic-adventurous foods nor vegetables...lol  We very quickly found out how expensive Australia is, especially along the harbour. Ouch!

Our hotel was great, minus the cost of internet.  We ended up going to vodafone to buy a wireless internet hotspot drive, which was much cheaper than $30+ /day.  The view of the harbour was breathtaking.  It was also set up for the World Cup.  They had a big screen floating in the water and crowds and crowds of people would come out late at night to early morning hours watching the games rooting for their team.  It was quite the experience, since the states could care less about the world cup.

Jay also found 3 Irish bars, and we probably visited each 2-3 times.  One we went to for Sam's birthday... She also came to Australia, but arrived a couple of days after we did.  We had a good night meeting a lot of Aussie boys, even a professional rugby player, unless he was just messing with us... 

The convention was great!  It is always wonderful to see all of the Lions out and about.  As well as the Lions who I haven't had the pleasure of meeting and those who I talk to on a regular basis who I haven't seen in a while.  My meetings and seminars went great.  Convention is such a great time to make you remember what you do on a daily basis makes a different to these 1.35 million Lions across the world.  I love my job!

After convention was over, we went to the Blue Mountains - which was breath-taking.  We really enjoyed being away from the city of Sydney and seeing some of Australia's natural beauty.  It was just what we needed, especially before heading to New Zealand.