We're moving to New Zealand! This has been in the works for the last 6 years, and at times, I didn't think it was going to happen. Now that it's finally here, I am still in a little bit of disbelief. A few doctors from my residency had done a fellowship at Auckland City Hospital, and it sounded like an incredible experience. I had expressed interest in going during my second year of residency, and I was told a spot would be available for me after I finished my first fellowship in oncology in August 2023. Unfortunately, COVID happened, and someone who did not get to go earlier was put into my spot in August, and I was moved six months in advance, to January 2024. Hence the last six months of unemployment (which have been some of the best times of my life).
So, now we are headed to Auckland, with a long detour through Australia (because, why not?)
After a long day of traveling, including a two hour drive from Prescott to Phoenix, a flight from Phoenix to LAX, a 6 hour layover, and a 15 hour flight to Sydney, we landed at 6am and decided to hit the ground running to try to get over the jet lag. We checked into our hotel early, which mercifully had a room available, and took a much-needed shower. We set out to explore the city at around 8am. We walked across the Harbor Bridge and explored Circular Quay (pronounced Key, much to my surprise).
We took a bus to Bondi Beach and walked to Coogee beach along the coast.
We took a ferry to Manly beach and walked around there before returning to our hotel. In all, we walked 15 miles that first day and managed to stay up to 9pm. Safe to say, we collapsed into bed that night and slept soundly until the next morning.
The next day we walked to the Sydney Fish Market for some fresh seafood for lunch, then walked back around Darling Harbour to our hotel. We had an afternoon walking tour around Sydney, where we learned a ton of history about the founding of Australia & it's complex history since then. After another 16 mile day, we were beat. The next day we flew to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (or ACT). Side note, Australians love to shorten or abbreviate everything.
My sister, her husband, and their two boys have lived in Canberra for just over three years now. Canberra is one of the few major inland cities in Australia (as most large cities are on the coast). It's the location of the parliament and federal government, and not much else. We spent three nights at their house and had a blast hanging with Sami (10) and Hyrum (7). The first full day, we drove 2.5 hours to Mount Kosciusko, the tallest point in Australia. We hiked 15 miles, a feat for any adult, let alone two kiddos. The views were fantastic.
This is Hyrum... he must be related to me.
The next day we drove to a state park about 30 minutes away from my sisters house. We saw a bunch of kangaroos as well as a few koalas in the sanctuary. Koalas are actually very hard to spot in the wild, so we were grateful for a chance to see them up close at the sanctuary.
In the afternoon, we went to watch professional tennis at 'warmup' tournament for the Australian Open in Melbourne later in January. The next day, we took the boys to a bouncy house playground, which was awesome. We all had a blast. Then we packed our bags and headed to Melbourne... More on that later!
We had such a great time in our first week in Australia!
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