Barossa Valley

It took awhile, but finally got a chance to write up on my Barossa trip. I'll write about my Sunday trip to Hahndorf next (nothing too terribly exciting going on this week besides a lot of work).

Flew to Adelaide after work on Friday. I learned that on domestic flights, you can carry on as many darn liquids as you desire. This knowledge was handy on the flight back (ended up carrying on 3 bottles of wine). Also worth noting, my ID was never checked once I got to the airport. To print a boarding pass at one of those self-serving kiosks, you just need a name and destination...

Worth noting, Adelaide (maybe all of the State of South Australia?) is 30 minutes behind Sydney. That seems a bit, um, different, no?

We checked into the hostel around 11pm then decided to walk around a little bit. We found this cool Spanish bar that was playing some fun music and served Estrella Damm! The beer I often had in Barcelona.

Takes me back

They even served Mahou, a Madrid beer. Cool place.

Anyway, with an early tour in the morning, we headed back to the hostel. There were a total of 4 of us in the room. There was this other couple and when we turned off the lights, well, let's just say I heard some funny noises.... Why do I keep staying at hostels?

ANYway, next morning we checked out this market for breakfast. I wanted to make sure I had a full meal before our tour that kicked off at 9am.

At 9am we met up with Scott. He drove us around in his car to a total of 5 wineries (or cellar doors as they call them. Well, cellar doors are where you do tastings. Wineries are just places that make wine). If you're ever in Barossa and looking to do a tour, I highly recommend this guy. A little more expensive, but he has great knowledge, connections, and we often got discounts (such as being charged the "club member" price for a bottle of wine).

The area is beautiful. Barossa is about an hour drive outside of Adelaide.

The place was settled in the early 1800s. It's in a valley and has comparable climate to Napa and Sonoma. Ideal for wine producing. The most widely grown grape is the Shiraz (it's the same grape as a Syrah but called a Shiraz in Australia and South Africa). However, the wines produced in its early history were fortified wines. I'm not a big fan of dessert wines or this style, but I quickly learned that EVERY place had one. So I ended up trying a lot. Still not a huge fan, but fun to try. I also think I finally learned the difference between a tawny and a fortified wine/port (although apparently these names can be interchangeable or different, depending on where in the world you are). A tawny is aged in barrels, can be mixed with wine that has been aged 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, etc. And, a key point, it has been slowly exposed to air, oxidizing it. Oxygen is typically bad for wine (and beer, too), which is why you should finish a bottle soon after opening. However, with tawnys (tawnies? tawyn wines? whatever), you don't have to because it is already oxidized (giving it a golden brown color). Ports, on the other hand, aren't oxidized. And when the say fortified, that means alcohol (maybe a bourbon or just a clear alcohol) is added before fermenting is done. Yeast eats sugar, but by adding the alcohol before the fermenting is done, you kill the yeast before it eats all the sugar, giving the wine the sweet taste.

OK. On to the tastings. First stop was Ross Estate (although it was recently purchased and is undergoing a name change that other wineries were making fun of. Named after the goddess of the sun, or something like that). It should be noted that none of these places charged a tasting fee. And also unlike Napa or Sonoma Valley in California, you don't get just 4 or 5 tasting. Heck no. We probably had between 8 - 10 (at least) different wines (that includes ports) at each place. Check out all of these we had (and this photo is not all inclusive):

Not pictured: sweet Riesling, tawny...

About halfway through our tasting, we got a mini tour of the place.

It seems like they use American oak more than wineries in Napa. My theory is that American oak (as opposed to French oak) is also exotic to Australia. And yes, there is a difference. American oak is more porous than French oak. This has some impact on the taste and aging. You can (maybe) see the American oak barrels above. There are just a couple. They have orange rings on the bottom.



Starting from bottom left barrel, go 5 bottom barrels over

I ended up getting an old vine Grenache at this place (vine is around 100 years old). Really smokey and unique. I almost got a GSM (Grenache, Shiraz, and Mourvedre blend), but liked the Grenache a little better. GSMs are also a popular wine in Barossa (although, dangit, didn't end up getting one).

The next stock was Rockford. Good wines, but not on par with the rest of the wineries that were all exceptional.

 

 

I ended up getting a Shiraz (50.5%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (49.5%) blend. It was a cool looking winery

Super old barrels. Yep. Still using them. For tawny wine

 

After this it was lunch time. We went to Saltram where, for $15 each (Scott's discount), we got this massive spread of tasty dips, plus 2 9" inch pizzas, order of fries, and a salad. It was a stupid amount of food. The leftovers served as dinner that night.

 

Mmmm... pate

 

The wines at this place were, of course, also amazing. Seemed more focused on the traditional Shiraz. I ended up with a bottle of the Shiraz Tempranillo blend. Nice and peppery and spicy.

 

The next place was Tsharke. It's pronounced "sharkie" and Scott kept saying we were "going to sharkies next." Which I was confused by (Sharkies, coincidentally, is the same name as a dive bar in Sydney I've been to with co-workers). However, I finally realized that this must be the place on the itinerary that started with a "T."

 

 

This was the most unique winery. I guess it's run by a young guy and his wife who are experimenting with different grapes that aren't traditionally considered to be Barossa grapes. The guy is also apparently good at everything. He is a metal worker who made that sign, lights inside, etc. She made the pitchers, stain glass windows, etc. Power couple right there.

 

Fabulous wines (which, at this point in the day, I probably said about a million times. Poor tour guide...). I purchased a bottle of a Tourgia wine. It's a red wine made from Touriga Nacional grapes. It's a Portuguese grape that I'd never heard of before. Think cinnamon for taste. The pourer also said marzipan, but because I have no idea what marzipan tastes like, I'll have to take her word for it. I also purchased my one non-red wine, a Savagnin frizzante. I guess it doesn't have quite enough bubbles to be a sparkling wine. A refreshing wine that I look forward to enjoying on a hot summer day (which I guess I'll have to wait another year by the time I get back...?).

 

Our final stop was Langmeil. Their claim to fame is the oldest (believed) Shiraz vines in the world. We're talking 170 years here.

 

The "Freedom" one on the left is from the 170 year old vines

The first thing we tried was a sparkling Shiraz. More interesting than amazing to taste. This was followed up by various other Shiraz wines, had a Cabernet Sauvignon, tawny and fortified wine, and, of course, the 170 year old wine (well, the vines are that old, not the wine itself). It was an awesome wine (like many of the others at this place) although, no, I didn't end up purchasing it. It was $100+ a bottle, I believe. I ended up getting the 2011 Shiraz (from just "normal" vines).

 

If you want to know what 170 year old vines look like, look no further. Just like trees, these bad boys get bigger and bigger each year.

 

 

No. I'm not #teoing. I'm resting my arm on a wire. Could have posed better...

And thus ended a full day of wine tasting. Got back to Adelaide around 5:30 or so. I told Scott at Langmeil that Barossa is the one thing I've experienced that has convinced me to come back to Australia (not to say other places here weren't awesome). There's a lot of world out there to "repeat" a country to visit, but Barossa was just amazing. I gotta come back. And I'm really excited to share the 6 bottles of wine I purchased once I return to the States. And yes, I successfully got all 6 bottles back with me to Sydney. Thankfully, I got some boxes from a couple of the wineries. Whew.

 

Interesting fact: Most Australian wines are screw tops, not corked. The main reason is economics. It apparently saves a LOT of money. To me, it seems to make sense. I'm sure the technology on a screw off top is just as good (if not better) than a cork. Plus, you can screw it back on? I suppose some of the romance is lost, but pssh... I'd like to see more screw tops in the US. Similarly, I don't understand why craft beer bottles don't have screw off tops. Seems so much handier to be able to just twist than need to pry off a cap. Of course, why aren't more craft beers in cans rather than bottles? Blocks out all light and is lighter to transport and oh dear, waaay off topic here. 

Back from Adelaide

I'm back from Adelaide and successfully brought all these wine bottles back:

It was an awesome trip and Barossa Valley was amazing with great wines. But I'm going to give Michelle a call here soon and then head to bed. I'll post more details about the trip later.

Until then, enjoy this mob of kangaroos in a field in Barossa Valley. We saw this on the tour while driving to the first winery. There must have been over 30 of them.

Hungry Jack's

That's weird. I swear I hit "publish" on my "Wine Wednesday" post, but I guess I didn't. Oh well, double the reading pleasure today for my faithful followers.

What do you think of when you see this?

If you said Scary Canary, you're about 2 weeks to late on that worn out joke. However, if you said Burger King, you're on to something. Let's take a closer look at the menu.

Does that say Whopper in the top left?!

Indeed. Hungry Jack's is the Aussie Burger King. After work today I thought I'd cash in on my overtime meal for a good ol' fashion fast food burger.

 

Mmmm... $10 worth of fast food....

Does this triple bacon cheeseburger seem small to you?

It was a tasty burger and satisfied my craving.

Now, you may be asking, why the hay is this called Hungry Jack's and not Burger King? Well, I did some investigative reporting and it turns out that the first Hungry Jack's opened in 1971. When Burger King looked to open a place in Australia, some restaurant already trademarked Burger King. So Burger King decided to go with Hungry Jack's. And it's been that way ever since.

Time for me to finish my backing for Adelaide. I'll be there from Friday evening to Sunday. I've booked a tour of Barossa (Buh-ross-uh), a wine region, for Saturday. So stay tuned for exciting posts regarding a new area of Australia.

Wine Wednesday

I only have a few days left at my current client. I've been working longer hours there, but it has 1 benefit: it has an espresso machine. One of my co-workers used to work at a bar that had one. I learned how to operate it and make myself some tasty long blacks (Americanos).

So tasty

Tonight we had "Wine Wednesday." We were going to meet in the park, but it was raining (I got soaked on my walk home from work). So I did an audible and told everyone to just meet at my place. It was a great time. I channeled my inner Michelle (my fiancee) and talked about different wine regions, taste descriptions, and even how to read labels (pretty sure I learned all that from either her or going on wine tastings with her). I think everyone had a great time. Had some great wines, too. There were 5 of us and we cracked open 2 bottles. The best was the Shiraz. I'm thinking of bringing a bottle of it home. Great wine. Had a nice black pepper taste with a little hint of plum/black cherry.

The middle one was the best. We didn't crack open the Chardonnay

I foresee a few more Wine Wednesdays ahead of us.

Christchurch - Food & Drink (pt 2)

Alright. Time for the part 2 of my Christchurch trip. This one will focus on food, bars, and the restaurants I went to.

The first place I went in Christchurch was CBD Bar and Pizzeria. During my little bit of research before my trip, I noted this place for having craft beers.

I ordered a pizza and the IPA. Based on my experience in this part of the world, I didn't have high hopes for this IPA.

Oh my goodness. Amazing IPA. I ended up ordering another one (I wanted to go back the next night, but didn't end up making it over here again). At the time, I didn't think much of it, but it was foreshadowing of Christchurch/New Zealand's unfortunate secret: there's great craft beer here (unfortunate in the sense that it should not be a secret).

Another bonus of this place, there was wi-fi! So this is where I first made contact with the rest of the world after landing in Christchurch. From here on out, the poor people back in the States would get a bonanza of snap chats, texts, and emails whenever I stumbled upon free wi-fi.

After that I went to Winnie Bagoes that I previously mentioned. Had a beer there that wasn't too special. The cool thing about this place that kept me there? It had Around the Horn and SportsCenter on TV. Seemed so random. An American sports channel? But I loved every Top 10 highlight. I then ended up talking to these 2 nurses and these couple older guys at the same table (they kept trying to get these girls to go off and dance). It was fun talking with them. Learning about the city, earthquake, etc. Another common theme of this trip? I was constantly asked either 2 questions: 1) you're only here for a weekend? 2) why the heck did you choose Christchurch to come to??

The next morning I woke up and walked to Black Betty. I had this delicious cappuccino and Big Betty Breakfast:

I talked with Michelle for a bit there and then planned the rest of my trip.

After getting back from the Antarctic Centre, I walked around to find a wine bar. I wasn't too successful at that, but did pick up a NZ sauvignon blanc to bring home. I wasn't quite hungry yet, so I walked to a bar called The Last Word. Fancy little place that would fit right in the bar scene in San Francisco.

So pretentious

I ordered their version of a Manhattan. It was really good (I won't tell you how much it was). I ended up chopping it up with the one (lesbian?) bartender. Turns out she's the owner, along with her "partner." They have been open for 3 months. She were cool to talk to. I asked where I should grab a bite to eat and she suggested a place called Smash Palace. It's a bar/restaurant in a bus.

This place was really cool. I was probably there a bit too early (around 6pm) and the crowd was pretty old, but I could see it getting really fun later. I enjoyed this tasty thing:

I then popped over to The Revival Container Bar to watch the Super Rugby game. Walking around, you'll note that they use shipping containers a lot. The Re:Start mall is also built from shipping containers.

Even the ATMs in this area are in shipping containers

Westpac! My Aussie bank!

But that's not the only way they're creative. They even use pallets.

This is a bar/restaurant. Food is served outta that trailer

Anyway, I had a good time watching the game there. Started out with that guy from Auckland (who mentioned he'd seen how destroyed Christchurch was on TV, but it's worse in person), a few guys from Christchurch (who asked why the hell is an America visiting Christchurch) and an Aussie. At one point during the game, the Auckland guy said something about last year a South Africa team was playing in the finals. The Aussie disagreed and promptly bet $100 on it. I was taken aback by this (although I guess that's only $85 USD). The Auckland guy was pretty confident and shook on the bet (I later learned sports trivia was his thing and he was 100% certain he was right). Smartphones were brought out and the search was on. Turns out the Auckland guy was right. Good enough to buy the table a round.

On Sunday, I woke up (imagine that) and walked to C1 Espresso. Great coffee and food.

The best part about this place? Fat beats. From Wu-Tang to Macklemore. It was laying it out (although not too loudly, which is good. It was, after all, 9am). All uncensored.

After church, I walked to St. Asaph Street Kitchen & Stray Dog Bar. Because noon isn't too early to enjoy a fine craft beer.

It's at this point it finally clicked that New Zealand had great craft beer (unlike Sydney, at least from what I can tell so far). This pale ale was great. Had some IPA qualities to it. Reminded me of a beer called Rampage that I've had back in the States. Had a nice bitter taste, kind of like bark. After it warmed up a bit (probably served just a little too cold) the citrus smell and taste came out. Almost like pineapple. Really good beer.

I talked with the bartender a bit and he confirmed that craft beer is big in New Zealand. Mentioned something about following the American trend/style of craft beer. Man, I'm loving it. I asked him where I could get some beers to go. He pointed me to New World. It's like a Safeway there.

Heaven

That's what I'm talkin' about. Sad thing is, I had to keep in mind that Australia only allows you to bring in 2.5L of alcohol. I already had 750mL from the wine, and seeing how most of these bottles are 500mL, I could only get 3 (which ended up being exactly 2.25L, which is what the Australia limit actually is. Oops. That would have really sucked to show up at security with an extra 250mL of booze). I picked out three and headed towards the bus to take me back to the airport. While on the bus, I made sure to carefully back my backpack with the wine bottle and 3 beer bottles. When I landed in Sydney, I was proud of my success. No broken bottles!

And so ends the tale of my adventure in Christchurch. People ask me if I'd recommend going, and I feel like that's a tough one. It's not like it has an amazing night life (although I had great times when I was out, meeting interesting people). The art museum is closed. It was cold (although I'm sure it's beautiful in the summertime). And did I mention in my previous post that every other building is rubble? However, I'm glad I went. I wouldn't change anything. How often do you get to see a city that was decimated and in the middle of being rebuilt? You get to see how such a destructive force impacted people. The rebuilding spirit and the innovative, temporary approaches to get back up on their feet. It really felt like a once in a lifetime trip.

Did I mention the great beer?

Christchurch - City of Rubble (pt. 1)

Back safely in Sydney. Now how do I write about my weekend trip to Christchurch? I've settled on a two-part approach. This first part will be about sights and experiences. The second part will be about eats.

Friday
Let's start with my train ride to the Sydney airport. Thankfully, Wynyard, the station within 5 minutes of me, goes directly to the airport. I'm told it costs $15. So I bring $15 in change (gotta get rid of that stuff) only to find out it's $16.70. So I had to break a $20, getting even MORE change. Isn't that ironic? (wait a minute. That's not ironic. That's just unfortunate...).

Funny thing to note: Once I made it through security, there were the duty free shops (which I still don't 100% understand...). They were passing out free mini shots of all types of alcohol. Vodka. Whisky. Tequila. Dang. It was 7:30am (no, I did not try any).

Cool thing about this trip? I got to fly Emirates (yes, all the stewardesses dress like that). Voted the best airline in the world. And it shows. Friendly service. Great food.

Yes, they hand out a menu

And the in-flight entertainment was borderline overwhelming (although on the way back, I think it was an older plane, so not AS awesome, but still blows everything else away). I'm not kidding when I say there were 100s of movies to choose from, dozens of TV shows, any album you could think of, and games (but these were like Pong). Part of me wishes the flight was longer. I didn't get to finish Django Unchained (does he get his wife back??).

Anyway, I arrive safely in Christchurch. It's about a 3 hour flight east and is 2 hours ahead of Sydney. I immediately noticed that it's a bit cooler there. I had checked the forecast and packed accordingly. It was misty and cloudy with a high in the mid-50s and lows in the low to mid 40s. Basically, I was constantly "chilled" the whole weekend.

And drat. No Westpac ATM in the airport (which BofA partners with, so no ATM fees). I had to use BNZ to pull out $100 NZD (charged a $3.50 NZD fee. Please note that going forward, all prices will be quoted in NZD. It's about $0.80 - $0.85 USD to $1 NZD, so in a way, things were about 15% off for me). I then purchased this coffee to break a twenty (the bus was $7.50 and required exact change).

Nothing to see here...

The bus ride wasn't uneventful. A train got stuck on the tracks so we had to eventually make a U-turn. That involved rubbing up against a tree and jumping a curb... But finally made it to my hostel. Seemed like a nice, clean place. I was in a room with 7 others. I dropped my backpack off and headed to the Canterbury Museum. I've seen better museums, but it was "free" (asked for donations) and gave me the info I was looking for. Basically, I knew nothing about New Zealand. I got a crash course on the Māori (seems to be pronounced "mau-dee"), the people who inhabited New Zealand before the Westerners came. The Māori are of Polynesian decent and came to NZ around 800 years ago. After being their a few hundred years, they wiped this out

This is a mao. I guess it's similar to an emu, but bigger. It was hunted to extinction. Is it bad to think it's nice to know people of European decent aren't the only ones who have wiped out species? (yes, yes it is).

Interseting Note: Māori and English are the official languages of NZ. You see both on signs and I learned they even learn a little Māori in school

Also at this museum, I saw some kiwis! Sadly, I only saw these stuffed ones while in NZ.

After the museum, I decided to head to CBD Bar and Pizzeria. I heard they brew their own beer there. I'll talk more about that in part 2. But along the way, I got to see the devastation that would mark this whole trip. The photos could go on and on.

The Cathedral

 

 

 

I heard this building is leaning about 7 degrees. It's coming down...

 

 

  

 I mean, the pictures really could go on and on.

It's a town of about 350k people, but when you walk around, especially in the heart of the city where I stayed (right next to the Canterbury Museum), it's like you're in a post-apocalyptic world. I am Legend with Will Smith came to mine. Just everywhere are buildings that were badly damaged, being torn down, or already torn down. Not only did the earthquake damage buildings structurally, but also damaged wires, water pipes, and sewage pipes. The whole place is under construction, with the distant (or not-so-distant) sound of jackhammers constantly filling the air.

A quick history on the earthquake. In September 2010, a massive earthquake rocked the area. Then, a few months later in Feb. 2011, another big one hit (technically not as strong, but closer to the city). This is the one that essentially leveled the city. I found it interesting to ask people about it. It's clearly in the psyche of this city (understandably). The first one hit around 4am, waking people up (or, confusing drunk friends according to one Kiwi I talked to. Oh, and yes, they call themselves Kiwis). The big one hit around 1pm.

185 white chairs. One for each victim of the earthquake

 

As I walked around, I kept running into closed roads, cones, chain link fences, etc. It's very much a city that is still being rebuilt. But have no fear! In my next post, you'll see some innovative and interesting rebuilding that's happening.

Back to my timeline of events. After CBD I went to this other bar a local suggested I go to for a Friday night drink (Winnie Bagoes). After I was done there and walking home, I stopped to tie one of my shoes (agh, it started "misting" out at this point). I finished and started walking, catching up to and passing two older guys (maybe 30s-40s). They looked a little "rougher" and as I was passing, the one guy said something along the lines of he thought I was tying my shoes to make fun of the other guy. This made little sense to me (as I am sure you're just as confused) but I looked down and noticed that the other guy had no shoes on. Ah... These must be homeless people. At this point, I was kind of stuck. I couldn't just leave, so I kept a relatively safe distance, keeping my right side open for me to run off if necessary. The guy noticed I wasn't from NZ (a common theme of my trip. I open my mouth and everyone knows I'm American). I told him I'm from San Francisco and he starts telling me about the earthquake (see? everyone), killings, saving, spiders? his spiderweb tattoo...? I believe he was saying English words, but it was making zero sense in the order he was presenting them. He kept offering me a drink, but I told him I was fine. He insisted, so finally the other guy passed me a can from the box he was holding. They were about the size of a Red Bull can. It was bourbon and cola. Oh man... Not what I'm looking for at all. I finally realized my out when we came to an intersection. I said I had to go right (although I had to keep going straight, like them). I ended up having to double back and loop around to avoid them again. That was odd... I poured that drink out.

Back in my hostel, I climb into bed with all the nice, warm blankets provided. However, at about 4:30 am some guy who I'll just describe as "backpack-y" turned on the lights. I sat up and said, "Dude, it's 4:30, turn off the lights." He mumbled something about someone stealing something, but he turned them off. Oh hostels. I miiiiiight be getting too old and, um, "established" for them.

Saturday
I started the day off walking around the botanic gardens. Truth be told, I was killing time to catch this, the free bus that would take me to the International Antarctic Centre.

 

The botanic gardens and the park surrounding it are HUGE. Apparently, the founding fathers wrote in the town charter or whatever that this has to remain a park. These gardens would be beautiful if it was actually spring/summer, not the dead of winter.

 

 

Sharknado...?

Anyway, I catch the bus to take me to the Antarctic centre. Because Christchurch isn't necessarily a tourist hotspot and it is their "January," it was just me and the bus driver. We chatted it up a bit, with him presumptuously asking me where in America I'm from. Wow, it's that obvious? I guess. It's funny because I never think of myself having an accent (although obviously I do). Of course we also talk about the earthquake and I learn a bit more.

 

The Antarctic place was pretty cool. While touristy and probably more for families, I still had fun. Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica. Basically, all flights to there take off from Christchurch. Interesting, no? The first thing I did was ride a hagglund. It's a vessel they use to travel over the ice and rocks.

 

 

Through 3 meters of water

The drive took us over some steep hills, an almost 2 meter wide crevasse, and around embankments. It was fun and educational (but truth be told, I felt a little silly riding it by myself. But there were other groups there, too).  

 

Inside were all types of films (a 4D extreme ride!), exhibits, and facts about Antarctica, international treaties, bases, and studies there, etc. There was also a snow and ice experience. And they would simulate an Antarctic snow storm.

 

 

It got down to about a windchill of -2 degrees F with 25 MPH winds. As I was standing there, I thought, why the hell am I doing this? I lived in South Dakota and Montana. I know what cold blizzards feel like. But I guess they're more awesome inside a building...?

 

Overall, I spent about 2 hours there and it was pretty cool. The driver of the bus back to the city was Canadian. Dang, talk about jaded. He really let me know how he felt. He explained that people in Christchurch were clique-y and that the rebuilding is corrupt and taking waaaay too long. Interesting perspective.

 

Once I got back, I decided to go look for some wine. I'll get into that more in the "eats" part, but I ended up walking a long way. Because the town was decimated, stores had to pop up where they could. So things are spread all over. I found some wine and got a bottle to bring home. I walked back to the hostel to drop it off, to find a chick passed out at 5pm faced down on my bed. Not sure why she wouldn't use one of the clean beds, but it looks like I'll be sleeping elsewhere tonight.

Saturday night was the Super Rugby game. It was the championship game between the Brumbies (Aussie team) and the Chiefs (NZ team). I watched the game at a bar with another Kiwi from Auckland. Cool guy and was nice enough to explain rugby more to me. I explained to him that inevitably, whenever I'm watching rugby with Aussies/Kiwis, they always talk about how wussy American football players are for wearing pads (I gave him a look later that night when another drunk Kiwi inevitably pointed this out). The chiefs ended up coming from behind to win in dramatic fashion. Great game. But tell me, what do you think of when you see this?

Boris, Mother Russia is calling

If your first thought was something along the lines of Soviet Russia or an extreme union bumper sticker, then thanks. I'm not crazy. If not, then you agree with the Kiwi who told me he's never heard anyone ever suggest that. It's a Māori chief.

Sunday
Ah. My last day. Time to walk around one last time. Stumbled upon the "cardboard" cathedral or, as I think it's officially known, the Transitional Cathedral.

Turns out today was its first service (once again, how convenient for me). I attended the 11am service. It was cool. They have a "cardboard" theme inside as you may be able to tell. I gathered that this is temporary as they rebuild the actual cathedral.

Whoa. Sorry this is so long. And for those of you who made it this far, congrats. I'll leave with two more pictures.

"No junk mail." Saw similar signs everywhere. Great idea

Off to Christchurch

Well, I put in some long hours and was able to finish the work assigned to me this week. That means I earned my trip to Christchurch, New Zealand! Woo hoo! I just finished packing. I'm trying to pack light.



I made sure to pack the $4.60 in NZD my sister gave me from her study abroad in Auckland.

This will be one of my last hurrahs by myself backpacking and staying at a hostel. I suppose I'm probably getting close to being over this stage in life. But I'm really looking forward to this trip. It will be fun to just bum around a city for the weekend. I'll get to see a city rebuilding itself after a devastating earthquake in 2011. I'm also thinking of seeing the International Antarctic Centre. There's supposed to be good wine and eats in Christchurch, too. (Side note: Does anyone else find Christchurch a rather hard city name to say?)

I should head to bed, though. I got to catch an early train to the airport. I'll share all about the trip upon my return to Sydney on Sunday evening. Cheers!