Wrapping up my week in Melbourne, sharing some pics of some of the things I did here. First, Melbourne is a bustling urban city, quite different from the open rural landscape of New Zealand. People are super nice, helpful, great source of information.

 Local market with awesome fresh, delicious produce and meat, clothing, household stuff. Pretty interesting place.

City street

 Winery touring in Victoria 🍷🍷🍷

 You never know where you might have to stash your wine glass!

 Roses are planted at the end of the vines to help the growers catch any parasites that might invade the vines. The parasite will show up on the roses first. Neat idea.

 My winery lunch of crumbled artichoke, Spiced baby calamari salad and Chocolate brownie with chocolate dirt and dried fruit. With wine, of course, awesome lunch!!

I am and it's a blast!!! So many awesome people from all over the world!

The Great Ocean Rd, between Adelaide and Melbourne, heading west along the southern coastal road. Beautiful!!

 You could live inside this tree!

 Koalas!!!! So cute!

This is my hostel in Melbourne, one of the better ones I've stayed in, really pretty cool.

 Kitchen. Some of the peeps here make some awesome meals here! — at Melbourne Central YHA.

 
We each have our own 'bucket' to keep our food in. I have a red one on the top shelf. — at Melbourne Central YHA.

I've been trying to figure out why the tap is crooked, no clue but it works.

 One of three refrigerators. — at Melbourne Central YHA.

Common area.

 

Even has a cafe where you can purchase snacks, sodas, fruit. 

Community bulletin board. The outdoor Moomba festival is this weekend, big doings here! 

March 6, 2015

Fantastic day today!! Again, due to the International Police Association, Detective Jim Kincade of the Victoria Police Department (Melbourne and surrounding area) picked me up at my hostel and I spent the day with him and other detectives in his unit. Awesome bunch of ladies and gents, made me feel so welcomed! I was treated to a great lunch with most in the Unit (about 20 peeps), and tours of their Communications Division and Darebin station where Jim works, about 15 miles north of Melbourne. Jim and his girlfriend Rachel, (also a detective) are coming to America in June to participate in the World Police Games in Fairfax County, competing in the bicycling events. I'm sick that I will not be able to reciprocate his hospitality and host him and Rachel in June, it would have been great to see them again. My LEO friends, the IPA is a great organization, consider looking into it, great window into the rest of the world!

March 5, 2015

Score!! Just picked up my permission to enter/travel (visa) China from the Chinese consulate, whew!! I couldn't get this before I left because I had no exit ticket out of China. I didn't know where I wanted to go from there so I had to apply for the visa once I got somewhere I could surrender my passport for processing. Waiting on my Indian passport, any day now.

My last evening in New Zealand, mixed feelings.  I've done and seen everything I came to do and see so I'm ready for Australia but New Zealand has found a spot in my heart.  Such a beautiful, rustic, gentle country.  The people have made NZ so perfect.  Their humor, generosity, hospitality and general outlook on life has been inspiring.  One of the NZ police officers that hosted me during my visit was talking about how New Zealanders would play Wheel of Fortune and he said they would ask for a "vowel'', an "O" for "awesome", pronounced with a long O.  I got the biggest chuckle out of that and as I traveled throughout the two islands, I would hear the locals refer to something as "Awesome" and hear the long "O" and just chuckle all over again.  Today, I was eating breakfast at my hostel and there was a crew of men across the street working on a building and they were laughing and carrying on while they were painting and hammering and I could just feel their good vibes and outlook on life and  their fellow workers.  They were actually enjoying working!!!!  Such fun to hear and see.  Every person I had contact with here seemed to enjoy talking with me and went out of their way to either help me or make me feel comfortable here.

Some of my observations on life here in New Zealand:  everything here is tiny.  Trash cans.  containers.  Portions.  There are no super sizes here.  I stopped at a McDonalds to get a large soda and I got a 12 oz cup.  That is their 'large.'  We Americans own "super-size" and we have the obesity problem to prove it.  Things here are smaller, no waste, just what you can consume.

I'm not sure what the local police do here but it's not much traffic enforcement.  I saw very few marked police cars and the ones I did see seemed to be cruising and going from one point to another.  I saw no speed enforcement as we routinely do back home.  On once occasion, the police did target a specfic area that had a very high accident rate and it was such a big deal that the operation made the front page of the paper here and had several folks talking about it.  It's a little different back home, haha.

Renting a car was hands down the best  decision so far.  I was so aprehensive about it but it turned out fine.  I logged over 3200 KM between the two islands, thats about 2000 miles and returned both cars in the same shape that I rented them, happy about that!!  The car gave me such freedom and I loved traveling the roads of NZ, such a great experience!

The New Zealanders are laid back and easy going.  Most areas have a "beach" type atmosphere.  I was in a cafe in Wellington and noticed again that customers come in barefoot and shorts and it is accepted.  Matter of fact, shoes appear to be optional for some folks here and when they have them, it usually flip flops.  I've seen them walk on gravel and it doesn't seem to bother them.  Their favorite saying?  "No worries"  It's s life style here and I like it.  Beautiful country, beautiful people.  I will miss them.  On to Australia!

Heading across the South Island today from southwestern South Island to east coast Christchurch. Again, the ride was spectacular! Two lane roads, up and down the mountains, skirting along the lakes, very little traffic, crystal blue skies most of the time, a scattering of fair weather clouds, windows down, hair blowing in the wind....awesome kinda day! Here's a few pics from along the way, enjoy!

 Beautiful morning on the lake

 These roads are like ribbons, gently laid down over mountains and around the lakes.

 Sat by this lake for quite a while, just soaking up the beauty.