Our Australian Soundtrack

We brought a few select CDs with us on our vay-k

and I will forever thinkof Australia any time I hear this music:

{via}

{via}

that being said we had the time of our lives in Aussie, Tassie, and NZ

but there's NO PLACE LIKE TEXAS

...I mean home!

Homeward Bound

The Lloyds soaked up the last few days in New Zealand with zest!

Not sure what that means exactly but we had fun.
We went on a short ride though the country side and I loved my pretty horse.
Check out how short the stirrups are on my saddle...
I just thankful 'ol Beau was patient with his inexperienced rider.

I actually ran out of blogg space so I had to delete

a few older posts :(

I'll post more pictures once the space opens up!

Charlie and I made hit home a little after 2 am last night and were wired

from jet lag.

We are feeling so blessed and thankful for safe travels

with only minor delays.

I was sending up prayers of thankfulness all during our drive home

last night.

When I think of all the miles we covered via

rental car,

in a foreign country,

minimal GPS availability,

with everyone staying perfectly healthy...

well I honestly think this has been the vacation for little miracles.

Yeah...Pretty Much

Hearts and Stuff - Auckland

Shopping for fruit

Sweet moments

Have a FABULOUS Day!

{via: sparkles & pretending.}

Road Trip Through NZ

Just a few quick shots and thoughts of our drive through lovely NZ

Charlie wasn't successful in catching this sheep

This pretty much sums up most of our driving time together :)

Elvis glasses are fun to try on and dance with;

even if the Kiwi's think you're a crazy American.

(thank yooouuu, thank you very much)

Sons and husbands can be helpful at high tide

I can't decide which beach is the prettiest

Stay off the roads during the monsoon season because big mud slides

can swish you down the mountain

Giant, white billy goats can make good friends...even if the Kiwi's think you're a crazy American.

Sometimes the best this to do with a sheet-metal dog

is climb in its mouth...even if the Kiwi's think you're a crazy American.

(he had a leather tongue by the way)

{Maori Tribal saying - Rotarua, NZ}

 

...sheep happens...

{via}

 

sousetoiles: New Zealand Landscape Sunset

New Zealand - Hahei Hot Water Beach

We made it to Cathedral Cove B & B, New Zealand last night.

Our great host, Pat, actually designed and built this home himself.
that's pretty impressive...just sayin'

After breakfast we headed out to hot water beach.
You can walk on the beach, dig in the sand and hot/warm water bubbles up.
Are we having fun yet?

Apparently, some volcanoes develop huge underground reservoirs of superheated water.

Who woulda thunk, right?
I swear we were having a blast no matter what the photos look like

Over time, the water escapes to the surface — cooling on the way.
Some parts of the sand were too hot to stand on and others were completely cool to the touch.

There are two fissures at Hot Water Beach and the water can be as hot as 147ºF.

It was the perfect outing for today because our morning started with lots of rain.

Once high tide comes in, all of this area is submerged under cool ocean water.

We make look like dopes wallowing in the mud but honestly it was the neatest thing I've seen in a while.

Isn't nature awesome?

Enjoy the Present

via Andrea Huemmer.

Auckland, NZ - The City of Sails

Hiya!

We arrived in lovely New Zealand yesterday afternoon after a great flight.

Thankfully there were no Furbies on the plane...

phew...that was a close ONE!

And to think I almost brought my Furby with me!

Our little B&B on 23 Hepburn Avenue is the cutest thing I ever did see!

The sweet lady who owes the house, Beth, could not be nicer.

She is going to help us plan the rest of our vacation as we do not have a hotel room

planned out for tomorrow night.

I love her simple cozy style; fresh flowers, soft rugs and lots of light!

We drove to Mt. Eden, which is really a volcano, to get a better view of the city.

Inside the crater some lovebirds made a heart out of rocks!

Can you spy it?

We had our Valentine's Day dinner at a neat Thia restaurant called

"Thia Me Up"

L.O.V.E the name!

Not sure where we'll end up tomorrow but that's part of the fun...

cheers!

Bay of Fires - Tasmania

The Lloyd clan left the town of Launceston on Saturday for an excursion to the Bay of Fire!
Along the way we met some interesting characters along the way...

Saw some beautiful sights...

Played in the sand

Did I mention we played?

ALOT!

Apparently, the Bay of Fires got its name for when Captain Cook saw the bay for the first time

the Aborigines were burning fires all along the coast.

I thought maybe it was because of the orange tinted rocks...

Did a lil off roading to get a better view

It was a funfilled road trip and it all finished up with a beautiful Tassie sunset!

peace out, playas

Happy St. Valentine's Day from New Zealand!

LOVE is both an action & a feeling

"Do ALL things with LOVE"

- Og Mandino

Going to See the Kiwis!

So we are in the Sydney airport getting ready to

see Jermain and Britt's homeland...

New Zealand!

Our hotel in Sydney "Lord Nelson Brewery and Hotel"

did not have free Internet...INSANE...so our little updates are behind.

The room was much smaller than we were use too

and it also seemed to be a vortex.

We both kept loosing stuff, discount movie tickets, underwear...etc.

Weird stuff.

Watch out land 'o 

"Business Time", 

"Keith-a" and 

Flight of the Concords!

The Lloyd's are about to descend! 

{p.s. I loved these posters}

tehehe...good times

{Via Happy Mundane}

Best Things

For the best things in life are unexpected...

Because there were no expectations!!!

- Eli Khamarov

Maybe the Dingo ate Your Baby...

If you are a golden opposum, a tasmanian tiger or an eastern quoll that might be the case.

But more on that later...

We wrapped up our last day in Tasmania's capital city, Hobart

at the annual wood boat fair.

We saw all kinds of awesome boats and pirate ships.

In keeping with my resolution to try as many new things as I can this year,

I decided to try oysters on the half shell.

The vendor couldn't believe I had never tried them before and offered me

a free sample with her complements:

Charlie said, as a non-seafood eater, it was like watching Fear Factor.

We also took a theatrical tour of the female factory a.k.a female prison

with an actress playing the part of a convict woman.

She beautifully tells the story of being convicted in England for stealing a loaf of bread 

and transported to Hobart’s infamous Female Factory in Van Diemen's Land.

{I got a kick outta the 'Female Factory'}

{"excuse me sir, what type of lady would you like"}

There are so many beautiful plants in Hobart; this bleeding heart

reminded me of Mom's house in Lake Charles, LA.

We said our good byes to Hobart and set off to Brighton,TA.

for my favorite Tassie/Aussie memory yet!

There are about 90 kangaroos on site of Bonorong Wildlife Reserve.
{nice pouch}
Bonorong Park (pronounced “Bon-a-rong” - Aboriginal meaning “Native Companion”)

Meet Morris! A 10 month old orphaned wombat.
His mom was hit by a car while carrying him in her pouch.
Luckily, he was picked up and brought to the reserve to be nursed.
Morris’ “teddy bear” like nature will last right up till he turns 2 years old.
Once he has reached maturity his nature will turn into a very aggressive and will be less than cuddly.
Fortunately, wombats can be released back into the wild and are still able to survive without human assistance even after living in captivity.

This guy is over 90 years old and was willed to the reserve by a loyal patron.

It's hard to believe this bird has lived through two world wars!

They can live to be over 100.

Next we got to feed two Echidnas
In the wild they eat ants and when they feel threatened,
they poke out their spikes like a porcupine,
use their strong claws to bury into the ground and
they can stay "hunkered" until they feel danger has passed.
In fact, the reserve will get calls from people who have found them burrowed in their back yards.
Since it’s nearly impossible to remove the Echina without harming it,
the staff will have to dig a big circle around where the animal is burrowed and remove
that whole section of ground.
They are one of the only egg-laying mammals, and lay only one egg at a time.
 

We also got to see the very shy, nocturnal, Tasmanian Bettong. 
These little guys are so scarce due to recently introduced predators to the area
such as the dingo and the fox (recently as in the last 5,000 years).
They are very fast runners because for centuries their only natural predator
was the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger (now recently extinct)
who were not fleet footed.

And of course they had TASMANIA DEVILS!
Prada really liked the wallaby arm I was feeding her.
It was so easy and fun!
{so easy a caveman can do it}
but please note, only moments before this feeing, I was cuddling with a little wallaby...
ah well, everybody's gotta eat

Poor Charlie wasn't ready for their powerful chompers and the little devils made off with the
peice of meat he was going to offer them after a "tug of war" game.
Their jaws are 6 times more powerful than a pitt bull's
and they have a bite second only to the hyena.
The devils are marsupials too and begin with a liter of about 24 babies;
all of them only the size of a grain of rice.
However, the mother only has four teats available.
To put it lightly, first come and first served,
the early devil gets the milk,
Talk about survival of the fittest!

isn't this mama and baby koala adorbs?
we didn't get to see any wee koalas but we sure did
get to meet Banjo, a very sleep Koala!