From June 5

Greetings from Oz, loved ones! My last few days in New Zealand were pretty tame—Constance, Laura, and I went for a hike in Glenorchy, stopped for Thai food in Dunedin, walked around the botanic gardens in Christchurch, and made friends with some little blue penguins at the Antarctic Center.








I couldn’t believe I was leaving NZ already! It felt like I had just arrived. Much as I like Australia so far, I still miss New Zealand.

I arrived in Sydney and had a bit of culture shock—even the big cities on the South Island of NZ are pretty small, and Sydney is such a huge, international city. I spent a day walking around, and then left pretty quickly, looking for something smaller. I’ve been in Melbourne for the past 5 days or so, and it’s been nice to be in a city with relatively few sights—I’ve been lazing around, sitting in cafes, walking around, etc for most of my time here. The other day I did go on a trip down the Great Ocean Road, which is meant to be designed after the 101. It was pretty, but the highlight was definitely seeing the koalas in the eucalyptus trees,
seeing two kangaroos boxing in the fields (no joke!), and hearing the kookaburras sing. The last couple of days I’ve been hanging out with my friend Shehan, who I met in NZ. He used to live here, and he’s been showing me around—we’ve seen some really great live bands and have been eating awesome food. Tomorrow morning I’ll leave for the northern coast to go for a scuba trip for a few days. I’m excited to see some sharks!

Hope you are all well! Thanks for the emails and well wishes.

Love,
Sheri