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One of the first things we planned after arriving in Australia was a ski holiday to New Zealand. Skiing in August in the Southern Hemisphere was something we just couldn't pass up..  I booked the trip after some internet research and a few hours with a Lonely Planet guide, so I was pleased that everything turned out great! Well, everything but the snow conditions. It had been several weeks since the South Island had seen snow, so we had spring conditions for 3 of 4 ski days. The last day we enjoyed powder as it snowed about 20 cm. the night before.

For those interested in the play by play summary, read on.

We flew Air New Zealand direct to Queenstown, which was so worth it. Going via Christchurch would have added a lot of extra driving to an already short trip. After 3 hours and a hot meal on the plane (which I don't think I've had on a short flight since I was 12 or so), we descended upon the South Island and the scenery from the plane was incredible..seemingly endless snow topped mountain ranges, fiords and lakes. After arriving we picked up our rental car from Nationwide, which was a groovy hot blue 4WD Suburu. It turned out to be a perfect car for the trip.

We then headed into Queenstown and checked into Browns Boutique Hotel, a really cute B&B on the edge of town that I had discovered on Trip Advisor. After we got our rental gear squared away, we had a fun night having drinks at the Bunker and pizza at the Cow, a popular eatery in an old stone milking shed from the 1800's. The next day we skied at Coronet Peak, which is only a 20 minute drive on a sealed road from Queenstown. After a full day of skiing, we played mini golf in our Uggs and then headed to battle the crowds at the famous Fergburger. At $12 a pop it was no In n' Out burger, but it was still really good.

The next day we headed up a steep and curvy dirt road to ski at The Remarkables, a small resort with 3 lifts. We couldn't imagine driving that road if there was ANY weather or frost, it was pretty treacherous. We did some skiing and watched freestyle skiers practice for the Winter Games. The highlight I think was our "Snag" sandwiches. For some reason sausage in airy white bread tasted SO good! That evening we had a bottle of wine in front of the roaring fire at Browns that Donald McDonald, one of the inn keepers, kept stoking for us. And yes, I enjoyed saying his name..Donald McDonald.

Since we were in the adventure capitol of the world and had no desire to bungy jump or sky dive, we decided to do the Shotover Jet Boat ride. Shotover Jet has exclusive access to a really cool part of the Shotover River with high cliffs on either side. The ride was so thrilling..it's sort of hard to describe, so we've posted a video below. After our action packed morning we packed up and drove to Wanaka, about 45 minutes north of Queenstown. The incredible scenery continued..there seemed to be a beautiful vista, field with sheep or snow peak around every corner. Amazing! We skiied for about an hour and a half that afternoon at Treble Cone, which was defintely the best ski area out of the 3 we tried. It had a lot of accessable terrain that was all pretty advanced. We really enjoyed skiing there on our last day with powder and blue sky, although  Mike was kicking himself that he didn't go heli-skiing that day.

In Wanaka we stayed at a B&B called Wanaka Homestead. It was built within the last few years and the buildings were a beautiful combination of stonework and dark wood. We got upgraded from a lodge room to a "cottage" so we ended up with lots of space to spread out. As a little birthday treat, we even had a massage therapist come to our cottage. It felt so great after days of skiing. The town of Wanaka was much smaller and quieter than Queenstown and a nice change of pace. We ate at two really good restaurants while there, Missy's (where we saw Shaun White!) and Relishes. We drank some wonderful Pinot Noirs, as that area of New Zealand (the Otago region) is known for that varietal. It tasted so delicious with all the meat we were eating like lamb, venison and steak!

After 5 days in Queenstown and Wanaka we both felt we'd just scratched the surface of New Zealand. I'd love to go back during another time of year and spend time driving in a Campervan around the country.

We had 3 wonderful months in our place in Woolloomooloo, but after much debate and looking at various rental properties we decided to move to Paddington ("Paddo" for short). Our new place is furnished and has a little outdoor space with a barbeque, which we're very excited about as we move into Spring and Summer here. Paddington is known for quaint terrace houses, but we're in a new development near the Paddington Reservoir, a historic area that was recently restored into an urban park/garden space. There are photos and a YouTube video of it here..in the video you can spot our gray and black building behind the reservoir park. It looks super busy and bustling in the video, but the park and area is actually fairly emply and quiet.

There will be no more runs to the Opera House and waking up to sparkling water outside our windows, but we're happy with our new location for a number of practical reasons. We are close to a major busline that runs into the city and to the eastern beaches, are within a stones throw of many shops and cafes, near Centennial Park and Moore Park golf course etc.  We've still got a fair amount of exploring to do around the area, but I think we're both happy with our jump across town!

Aussies love their food. So much so that it's often described as "beautiful," "gorgeous" and "lovely"..far more elegant than our simple words like "yummy," "good" or "delicious." We first started hearing this while watching MasterChef and it was fun to mock the dramatic language and long pauses while Matt Preston tasted food. While it's a bit over dramatic on the show, we started noticing more and more references to beautiful food in restaurants, markets and in passing.  So, when we cook something good we jokingly call it "gorgeous" or "beautiful" and since we've been experimenting with food photography, we have some documentation. Tempt your tastebuds with these photos!

Hello readers, I thought you'd be interested in seeing our Riverboat Postman blog entry repurposed as a guest post on the Qantas Travel Insider blog! I offered to be a guest writer about a month ago and it's finally up for everyone to see.

Catering to frequent flyers and travel enthusiasts, this blog is part of the Qantas website and offers tips to travelers about destinations worldwide. There's always new content and its creators are constantly networking via Twitter to answer traveler questions, seek opinions/feedback on destinations and generally report on cool stuff to do Down Under.

Yesterday, around 75,000 people participated in Australia's 29th annual biggest footrace - City2Surf. The route starts downtown in Hyde Park and finishes at Bondi Beach. The race is Sydney's effort to replicate Bay to Breakers in SF as people are encouraged to wear 'fancy dress.' Yes, that's Australian for 'costume' .. makes me giggle every time. Although, I'm proud to say that SF still wears the crown when it comes to creative costumes, debaucherous behavior, naked people and keg toting during an organized race.

Mike and I finished the 14 km race, running the whole way! We were pleasantly surprised given we'd been fighting some foot/ankle pain recently and hadn't really trained much. The course had beautiful ocean views and we got to run through several areas that neither of us had seen yet. We had fun running with our friends Mitch and Ellaine and celebrating post race with sausages and beer on the beach...nothing like grease and booze to help the body recover, ha!