Howe2Train

Australia visit - days 4-6. Coastal drive from Melbourne to Sydney. Our 3 day coastal drive from Melbourne to Sydney resulted in spending 2 nights at Lakesentrance - such a beautiful fishing village. We needed a break from all the driving. On our search for Kangaroos, we made our way to Paynesville, Victoria to get the ferry to Raymond Island, Victoria, Australia - about 40 mins from Lakes Entrance. What a gem - koalas everywhere roaming freely. As one local said to us, just look up! Lots of teddy bears in the trees - close enough to touch but I wasn’t doing that! We lost count of how many very quickly - maybe 20 or so in our 1 hr walk around the island.

Our next stop was Batemans Bay, New South Wales. Another super cute fishing village. Still no kangaroo spottings so that was our main priority. A chat with a local sent us to and wow, kangaroos every where. We must have been surrounded by 50 or more - males, females, babies. They were all congregated on the lawns of the locals having dinner and roaming the beach. The property owners were walking around them to get to and from their homes. Unbelievable. We stayed for a few hours just looking and observing and walking the beach. Saw a couple of little squabbles between them - lol. I have to say, it was the highlight of our trip to Australia. Depot Beach itself was also beautiful. A quiet beach that went on forever.

New Zealand adventures - Day 7 & 8

Day 7 - We made our way to Taumaunui for the Rail Cart tour. It was a 4 hr rail cart (golf cart) tour through several towns passing through 4 tunnels. Absolutely stunning scenery again and lots and lots of sheep, goats, cows etc.

Day 8 - we left Taupo and headed towards Auckland making a stop along the way at in Waikato for a 3 hr Daytime Canyon Tour. Once again, another magical - almost enchanted forest experience.

New Zealand Day 6 - Ironman 70.3 Women’s World Championship race and a visit to Tongariro National Park and Whakapapa Ski Mountain

Sadly, I had to watch the race from the sidelines. Our race-cation was changed to a vacation. I sustained a stress fracture and torn Psoas muscle from a slip inside my home in Sept. It took 8 weeks to learn about the damage I had done - result being no race. I did consider doing the swim and bike portion but felt there was more to lose than gain … so no race it was. The women had a beautiful day to race in Taupo.

In the afternoon we drove to Tongariro National Park and Whakapapa Ski Field. Gobsmacked each and every day with the beauty. Could literally post 100’s of pics! Took a glass bottom gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and hiked down the lava field.
More adventures await!!! #70.3ironmanworldchampionship

⭐️ struck. Had a great chat with one of the greats … and one of my favs . .3