Lots of stuff

They went right for the good stuff!

Flat White (you wish you had one huh?)

Mom and Mark (Thanks again Mark!)

ok complainers im updating, haha just kidding. But after Taupo we went to visit moms friend Mark in Hastings. He made sure we had the best time and was an amazing host! We got a tour of his apple orchard and learned all about his job as an apple farmer. We had a little complication on our last day in New Zealand. I was driving to the Botanic Gardens and I almost turned onto a very busy one way street. Realizing I was about to go the wrong way, I turned back and hit another car! But dont worry, we got insurance and no one was hurt. Wow...my first car accident and it was in a different country! Ill give myself a break though since I was driving on the other side of the road, and the other side of the car...the guy I hit was really nice too...not like those crazy American drivers :) When we got to Australia we went to Melbourne and shopped ( :)=guilty face). The day we shopped it was the hottest Melbourne has ever had (46 degrees Celcius! Which is about 116 F) We have kept up with all of the fires in Melbourne and it is such a tragedy...but we were not affected. Although we could see much smoke from our hotel room.

We got to feed Kangaroos, pet Koalas, and visit with huge Eagles that hated long blonde hair :(...seriously though...but its ok he was in a cage. Cafe's are just as popular here as McDonalds is in the US so we have been drinking lots of coffe..and "flat whites" are the thing here (they are really good.) Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef and saw amazing fish and jellys (sorry I dont have pictures yet..we had a disposable waterproof camera). It has been amazing so far and I have been talking to some kids from my University on Facebook and have gotten to know them a little...I cant wait to get to Sydney! Tomorrow we tour the rainforest...should be gorgeous! Love you all! Cheers!