For the best viewing, click on the first picture, and it’ll take you to a captioned gallery that you can scroll through:

To attempt it would make for a very long day – 3:30am wake up, on the road by 4am, 2 hour drive to where they live, and then get lucky enough to see one.  Quite a tall order!  But, Shelley and I decided to give it a shot.

The early morning drive was long and cold, but ultimately we were rewarded.  Shelley spotted a rhino!  We couldn’t get too close because of their shy nature – they typically run away from the safari vehicles.  But Shelley was able to snap several pictures of our rhino at a distance.

Mission accomplished.

Before we knew it morning had come and we found ourselves trying to wake up in a Land Cruiser rumbling toward Namib-Naukluft National Park.  It was about an hour’s drive from our camp.  As we drove, we watched the sunlight come up over the park’s enormous red sand dunes, creating squiggle lines across the horizon.  It was some of the most spectacular scenery we had ever seen.

The Land Cruiser eventually came to a stop at the base of Dune 45 – each of the dunes in the park is numbered for easier identification.  This dune was right off the road, and was climbable.  Quite an adventure!

Climbing a monster sand dune isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.  You learn very quickly that the easiest way up is by walking right on the ridge, directly inside the footprints of the person in front of you.  The folks in front pack the sand for you and make each step a little bit easier.  We didn’t hike all the way to the top of Dune 45, but we did make it a good distance up – high enough to feel like we were on top of the world.

After making our way down and getting at least some of the sand out of our shoes, we drove on toward Sossusvlei and Deadvlei.  These two areas, salt and clay pans around which some of the largest sand dunes in the world have formed, are the main attractions of the park.  As we approached, our guide stopped the car and pointed out the tallest sand dune in the park, affectionately called “Big Daddy”.

Big Daddy averages 350 meters in height.  Although a bit intimidated after climbing the now seemingly easy Dune 45, we decided that climbing Big Daddy was something that we just had to do.  We’re only here once, right?

Luckily for us, two other women in our group also decided to climb and were in a little better shape.  We walked behind them most of the way, using their footprints as we had learned.  But, it still was not easy.  The climb took us almost 2 hours and our legs were burning.  But, we got an incredible sense of accomplishment when we reached the top.

The way down was much easier – just pick a side and start running.  We chose to run down the side of Big Daddy adjacent to Deadvlei.  You can see Deadvlei above, the white area on the left side of the picture.  Deadvlei means “dead marsh”, an appropriate name due to the dead trees that still stand there.  It’s kind of eerie.  You can see the trees below, and if you look closely, you can see the path we took down the side of Big Daddy.  The video below shows what the descent was like.

What wasn’t captured on the video was when started running uncontrollably fast and almost ate it headfirst down the hill.  Luckily, I was able to fall in a semi-controlled fashion and stop myself.  But, being as sweaty as I was I became covered in sand literally from head to toe.  It was a gritty experience.

I still have Namibia sand in my shoes to this day.

Visitors wanting to get outdoors in New Zealand often focus on the longer, well known hikes like the Milford and Routeburn tracks.  But, these hikes require backpacking experience, a lot of planning, and several days to accomplish.  And that, unfortunately, wasn’t going to fit into our busy New Zealand schedule.  Instead, we opted for day hikes, which turned out to be a great option for us.  We would go for a hike in the morning, get back to the campervan by about one, have some lunch, and then drive to our next destination where we would camp for the night.  The perfect schedule!  Even on longer driving days, when we would spend most of our time in the campervan driving from place to place, we would still get out and stretch our legs for a little bit.  Trailheads practically line the roads in New Zealand, and with so much of the south island being national parkland, you really can’t go wrong.  But, if we had to choose the best of the best, three day hikes that we took probably stand out – Lake Tekapo / Mt. John, Mt. Cook’s Hooker Valley Track, and the Rob Roy Glacier Track.

We arrived at Lake Tekapo Village on our second full day in NZ.  It was a bit overcast when we got there.  But, as the day progressed, the sun came out to reveal the true color of Lake Tekapo (Tee-kah-poe), an incredible turquoise blue created by the “rock flour” deposited in the lake by glacier melt.  Practically every bit of water we saw in New Zealand, from the lakes to the rushing rivers, was this beautiful shade of blue.

There isn’t much to do around Lake Tekapo except relax and gaze at the lake, but the view and our morning hike kept us occupied for hours.  There’s a nice hiking trail that takes you to the top of Mount John, where you can take in a 360 degree view of the area at a small cafe.  It was a steep climb, so the lunch we packed in the campervan never tasted so good.  Especially the chewy caramel TimTams, which we’ve since decided are the best packaged cookies on the planet.

After our Lake Tekapo hike, we headed toward Mt. Cook.  The drive was spectacular – especially the part of the road that took us alongside Lake Pukaki – another beautiful blue glacier fed lake – toward Mt. Cook National Park.  Every road we took gave us a different, more breathtaking view.

We arrived at Mt. Cook Village with enough time to get in a short hike to Tasman Glacier.  This view was a short walk from the car park, not thirty minutes from Mt. Cook Village.

Mt. Cooks’ Hooker Valley track was my favorite hike.  The sunny weather combined with the soaring mountains and rushing streams just sealed it for me.  I’ve never been in a more beautiful place.  The scenery was so unbelievable, some of our pictures look like we’ve been photoshopped into them.

This track ends in a spectacular view – Mt. Cook. standing behind the snout of the Hooker Glacier.  It was the perfect spot for a rest and a snack.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any pieces of the glacier calve into the lake while we were there.  We did see several iceburgs in the lake, though.  And we definitely heard the glacier creaking and rumbling.   It took us off guard when we first heard it because it sounded like little earthquakes or avalanches.

The Rob Roy Glacier Track was one of the tougher day hikes we accomplished.  It was 6K one way with 500 meters of elevation change from the car park to the glacier lookout point.  The weather on the day didn’t cooperate much, either.  It was rainy and chilly.  But, we put on our rain gear and soldiered on up the mountain anyway.

This nicely kept trail begins along the ice blue Matukituki river and follows the water all the way up the mountain.  So, there was a constant roar of whitewater while we walked.

I wasn’t prepared for the view we would get at the end of this trail.  Towering peaks, blue glaciers, and more than 25 waterfalls, including one of the tallest free falling waterfalls on the south island (1000 feet!).  If the weather had been clear, this view may have trumped Hooker Valley.  Our pictures just don’t do it justice.

New Zealand is truly a stunning country.  Each day we would say, “There’s no way it can be better than yesterday,” but day after day we encountered beautiful springtime landscapes and spectacular views.  On our second day, while en route to Mount Cook, John pulled off the road so we could take some pictures of one of the beautiful views along the way.

I took on the role of documenting life in the camper van while John handled the hardcore duties, like emptying all of our waste (yuck).  First he’d dump the gray water and then the toilet cassette.  He’d rinse out the cassette and refill it with some kind of blue liquid that helped to break down the waste.  Then he’d refill the water tank with fresh, potable water.  And finally he’d celebrate when it was all done.

      Afterwards, the first thing he’d do each time he climbed back into the driver’s seat was thoroughly scrub his hands with an antibacterial wipe.  John was a real trooper.  In addition to the waste-emptying, he also handled all of our driving, since (a) I don’t know how to drive a manual shift (much less in a huge van), (b) I’ve never driven on the left side of the road, and (c) I’m a nervous driver.  In the passenger seat, I’d keep John entertained by attempting to navigate (the GPS was much better at it), pointing out the Lord of the Rings filming sites we’d just happen to be passing (they’re everywhere!), and reading articles to him from the NY Times.  I’ll admit it–I would generally also take a nap each afternoon.

Here’s John demonstrating how we’d sleep in the camper van (plus actually sleeping):

It sounds a little funny to say it, since by the time we got to New Zealand we’d been traveling together for five months, but one of the things we enjoyed most about our two weeks in the camper van was all of the quality time that we had together.  Up until that point, we’d had internet access almost everywhere we were, and failing that we’d have TV, or other people around.  In New Zealand, we were truly off the grid, and just with each other.  Most of the time we couldn’t even listen to the radio because New Zealand’s South Island isn’t populated enough to have radio everywhere.  (We did make it through one round of the Bruno Mars CD that someone before us left in the camper van’s CD player.  Once was more than enough.)  Spending hours together in the van and on various hikes and other outings, we enjoyed just being together and talking.  We realized that it reminded us of the very earliest stages of our relationship, when I was still living in New York, and we’d spend hours and hours on the phone together each night.  I think we were both surprised and happy that after traveling together for so long, we still had so much to say to each other.  Those two weeks were really special.

Many people have asked us what our favorite place was that we visited, and where we’d most like to go back.  To both of those questions, we always answer New Zealand.  It really is the most beautiful place that either of us has ever been.

Everything about Sydney was compelling me to stay.  It’s the perfect size – big enough to have everything you’d want in a city, yet small enough so as not to be overwhelming. From downtown, you’re a 40 minute bus ride or a fast ferry away from two of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen, Bondi and Manly.  The beauty of the Sydney Harbor and skyline is stunning.  And everyone we met there was just so friendly!

Although we could only stay in Sydney for a few days, we did manage to pack in quite a bit of fun while we were there.

Most importantly,  Shelley and I learned how to surf!  Surfing is something I’ve always wanted to learn how to do.  So much so that in an ill-fated, self-taught attempt several years ago, I was thrown over the front of a short board and broke my collar bone on the bottom of the ocean.  But this time was different.  This time I had a renowned surfing beach (Bondi), a big, long board, and professional instruction.

Shelley was a little worried at first.  The board was a bit big for her and she had a hard time carrying it and getting it into the water.  But, she did awesome and the camera loved her!

The camera didn’t love me as much and didn’t catch me standing up on any waves.  But, I’m proud to say that I did get up on a few and I had the time of my life.  Surfing Bondi is definitely one of our most favorite memories from the trip.

But, don’t let our beautiful surfing day fool you.  It was Christmas time down under and Sydney’s Christmas Tree was shining bright!  It definitely felt a little strange to experience Christmas in the summertime on the other side of the world!  

We made a stop at the Sydney Opera House.  We got lucky and were able get in on the last tour of the day when we were there.  It really is a beautiful building, inside and out.

We also had fun climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge while we learned about its history and construction.  The experience gives you a real bird’s eye view of Sydney and the surrounding area.

Shelley and I were definitely sad to leave Sydney behind.  Although our pocketbooks were not!  Australia is by far the most expensive place we’ve visited on our trip.  Thank goodness for Starwood Points!

Goodbye, Sydney.  I hope we meet again!

On our drive out to the coast, we zigzagged through small towns and farmland that looked so much like the U.S. I think I could easily have forgotten where we were, except for when we made a wrong turn and John turned around in someone’s driveway and then following years of conditioning pulled back out on the road on the right side, and I shouted out, “Left side!  Left side!”

Our first stop along the coast was at Port Campbell, a tiny, quaint town where we had some lunch before officially joining up with the Great Ocean Road.  From there we headed on to Twelve Apostles National Park to see the beautiful crumbling limestone pillars and cliffs.  It was really pretty out, and we tried to capture it with pictures, but I don’t think they quite do it justice.

On our way back to the parking lot, we saw this sign.  Luckily we didn’t see any snakes!

We continued heading east back towards Melbourne and then turned off onto the road leading out to the lighthouse at Cape Otway.  I’d read that we had a good chance of seeing koalas there, and sure enough, as we rounded a bend, I saw some folks stopped, looking up into the trees, and then I spotted the koalas.  I’m not quite sure why I was so excited to see koalas over every other animal, but I screamed out, “Stop the car!  Stop the car!  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!”  John pulled over and parked and we hopped out to watch the koalas lying around on tree branches and chewing on eucalyptus leaves.  You can see in the picture below just how jazzed I was about seeing koalas.  As we carried on down the road we happened upon a kangaroo.  I couldn’t believe our luck.  It paused and posed for us and we took some pictures.

The rest of our drive back to Melbourne was pretty uneventful, although it got a little hairy for John after the sun went down and we continued speeding over miles and miles of the very twisty, turny, and hilly Great Ocean Road with just a low metal barrier separating us from barreling over a cliff into the ocean.  We finally made it back to Melbourne close to midnight and hit the sack for an early start for Sydney the next morning.

The drive to Sydney was interesting, taking us through a number of seaside towns that we expected would remind us of California but instead looked a lot more like New England.  John powered through long hours of driving–13 hours over 2 days–with occasional stops in little towns for seafood and short walks to explore.  We crashed in Sydney for a night and then flew up to the warm weather and sunshine in the Whitsunday Islands for this view:

Until we saw New Zealand, I think we’d definitely say the Whitsundays were the most beautiful place we’d been, and we loved having the chance to spend some time on the water.  We spent one day on a catamaran cruise that took us to uninhabited Whitehaven Beach for some swimming, walking, and lounging, and another day we headed out to the Great Barrier Reef on a snorkeling trip.  The water wasn’t too cold, but to protect ourselves from the risk of stings by box jellyfish, we wore full “stinger suits” that for me included even a hood and gloves.  The snorkeling was really beautiful, even just seeing the coral itself.  I didn’t know that the color, size, and shape of coral could vary so much.

We spent our nights back on Hamilton Island enjoying watching the full moon and then making sure our balcony door was securely closed before bed.  Apparently people have been feeding the cockatoos, which has made them fearless about searching out food.  They’ll land on the balcony railing and peer inside to see if anyone is around.  If not, they’ll fly on in, help themselves to anything they can find to eat, and generally make a mess of the place.  I guess they’re a little like rodents, but a lot more beautiful, and they enjoy the sunset, too!

Jenny and Craig loaded us and our bags into their car and drove us back to their fantastically clean, cozy, hipster-ville apartment, where Craig made us the best egg, cheese, and bacon sandwiches I’ve ever eaten (sorry, John—I just really liked the sandwich Craig made!).  They put us to bed and then the next morning they waited and waited and waited for us to eventually wake up.  We finally headed out into town around 2pm for a beautiful afternoon of bike-riding, market-eating, and walking through the parks.  Maybe it was the smog-filled gray skies in India that affected our perspective, but the sky in Melbourne seemed so beautiful.  Its blue color somehow seemed different than what we see at home.  I couldn’t help gazing up at it and remarking on it repeatedly.

  Unfortunately for Jenny and Craig’s sakes, John and I were pretty boring in Melbourne.  We were feeling so under the weather that we spent most of our week there sleeping and resting, recovering from our colds and also treating John’s stomach bugs, thanks to an Aussie doctor’s visit and trustworthy medication from a Melbourne pharmacy.  Jenny and Craig did manage to get us out of the apartment a bit, though.  We explored St. Kilda one evening, topped off with lots of fresh bakery treats, we had oysters and fish and chips, plus lots of pizza and even homemade burritos, we spent a sunny afternoon at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground watching a local cricket match, we went disco bowling, and we even got to celebrate Thanksgiving together with a freshly roasted turkey.

Best of all, Jenny and I engaged in our favorite pastime—afternoon tea with girl talk at a swanky hotel.  Sparkling wine, Assam tea, lots of sandwiches, and freshly baked scones with clotted cream.  Yum.

Jenny and I have been best friends for over twenty years, but for the majority of that time, we’ve lived in different states and sometimes in different countries, so it was really special to have the chance to visit her in Australia and get to know Craig (now her husband—congratulations, guys!).  We’re so excited for you guys, we miss you, and I can’t wait to see you again soon for wedding take two!

After arriving in Aurangabad, we headed out first to visit the Ajanta caves.  Most of the sites we’d been visiting up to that point in India were old, but they weren’t really old.  The Ajanta caves, on the other hand, are really old.  The five cave temples and twenty-four cave monasteries at Ajanta were carved out of solid rock in the period from about 200 BC to 650 AD, and then they were abandoned, essentially forgotten, until their rediscovery in 1819 by a British tiger-hunting party.  Lucky for us, that means that considering their age, they’re pretty well-preserved.

Although the Ajanta caves are known for their Buddhist paintings and sculptures, I couldn’t get over how the caves themselves were carved out of solid rock.  They’re not small, and the thought of people working over 2,000 years ago to chisel away at the rock by hand to create monuments filled with artistic masterpieces kind of blew my mind.  Some of the paintings were also really fascinating, especially those in which you could see that Indian artists had mastered the technique of perspective over 1,000 years before European painters figured out how to do so.

We headed next to the Ellora caves, and where the Ajanta caves are known for their artistic detail and subtlety, the Ellora caves are known for their immense size.  Although the thirty-four Ellora cave temples and monasteries are considerably younger than the Ajanta caves, having been carved between 600-1000 AD, they were similarly carved out of solid rock.  The Ellora caves are also interesting because out of the thirty-four temples and monasteries there, twelve are Buddhist, seventeen are Hindu, and five are Jain—three different religions all represented harmoniously in one spot.  Since we had seen the Buddhist caves at Ajanta earlier that day, we used our limited time to visit a couple of the Jain and Hindu temples at Ellora.  The Jain temples were big, but the Hindu Kailash Temple was immense.  It covers a total area of almost 10,000 square feet, which makes it twice the size of the Parthenon and one and a half times as tall.  We read that it’s been estimated that about 200,000 tons of rock were carved out and removed to create that one temple.  How they managed to carve a temple that size out of solid rock without power tools is completely astounding to me.  It was all really interesting, and it gave us a little insight on what ancient India might have been like.

We always hear that the Taj Mahal is the world’s most famous memorial to love, so we were a little amused to learn that it was actually built to honor Shah Jahan’s third wife, who he married while he was still married to the first two.  We’d all romanticized the building a little more than that and had assumed he’d just been consumed by his love for his one wife, but we learned that it’s hard to know whether the building was truly built for love or to demonstrate the magnificence of Mughal architecture.  In any case, it was breathtaking–not just the perfect symmetry of it and the beauty of the marble that seems to change color as the sun comes up, but also the details that you don’t really see until you get right up close to the building–in particular the carved marble panels and the inlaid stones set in various patterns.

Our guide told us that we were lucky–that the day we visited was the clearest day he’d seen in about a month.  The pollution still seems to have softened the lines of the building, but he said we were getting the full experience, unlike other recent visitors.  The extreme pollution in Agra is really taking a toll on the building, though, causing acid rain that is eating away at the marble.  I took a picture of John when we stopped for a moment at the back of the building overlooking the Yamuna River.  You might think it looks foggy outside, but it wasn’t–it was just smoggy.

My absolute favorite moment of our visit to the Taj Mahal happened just before we were about to leave. To give some background, all over India people had been taking pictures of us.  Sometimes they would ask to pose with us (while we held their babies!), but more often than not we’d notice their smartphones slyly pointed at us as they passed by.  I was surprised that we were such a novelty there.  I guess I figured that as a former British colony, they’d be more used to seeing westerners.  After a while I felt like I was starting to get a taste for how celebrities must feel when targeted by paparazzi, and at my dad’s suggestion I decided to take pictures right back of the people taking pictures of us, which they seemed to get a huge kick out of, and it made it a lot more fun for me, too.  The boldest picture-takers would also engage us in conversation, which my dad loved.  I think he especially enjoyed having the opportunity to portray American tourists in a friendly light.  One day during our trip, at an old fort in Delhi, a group of high school students on a field trip with their teacher stopped my dad for pictures and an interview.  They asked him where he was from and if we had anything in our country like the fort we were visiting (answer: no, our country isn’t that old!).  I remember him talking about George Washington as the father of our country, somewhat like how they think of Gandhi.  I had fun snapping pictures of my dad being interviewed by the kids at the same time that they were taking pictures of him and the rest of us.

So back at the Taj Mahal, John and I had stopped to sit down where we could just soak in the view.  We noticed a couple of young Indian guys tentatively approaching, and they asked if they could each take a picture with John.  I hopped up and out of the way and one at a time each of them snuggled right up to John, practically sitting in his lap, to take pictures of the other.  It was hilarious.  Clearly our concepts of personal space and not being too intimate with strangers do not translate in India.  After they took their pictures I asked them both to pose with John.  I think they almost managed to kidnap him from me, but luckily I kept him in the end!