Chito and Phil looking spiffy before Angus and Michelle's wedding.
Check out those cars!
This is the nicest picture of us from the wedding... and now I am wishing that I had gotten some better shots of Chito in his three piece suit!
The day after the wedding we went to Max Brenner's Chocolate bar. It was pretty amazing but this chocolate souffle (and a peanut butter chocolate shake) was almost too much to handle even between two people. As we neared the end of our trip I stopped ever feeling hungry as we tried to fit in as many tasty meals as we could before heading back to Japan.
The next day we crashed Angus and Michelle's honeymoon and we headed for a wine tour of the Hunter Valley.
The winery tours were less than amazing, since it all looked super new to me. Where were the dark, musty wine cellars that I thought we would be seeing?
Still the wine was delicious and I had a tasty, tasty meat pie for lunch. Why are meat pies not popular in the States like they are in Australia? They are so delicious.
On the way home from the Hunter we saw mobs of kangaroos in the wild which was probably the most exciting part of our trip. Phil was good enough to stop for all my goofy pictures along the way, too, like this wombat crossing sign. How cute is that? Unfortunately, we didn't spot any real live ones.
The last day Chito was suffering from a major cold and I was starting to dread coming back to cold, Japanese winter. But Chito's cousins were visiting from Japan (coincidentally) so we took the last day to do some sightseeing in the absolute pouring rain. The crummy weather made it considerably easier to leave.
We went to a wildlife center to see koalas, the last thing on my Australia to-do checklist. But since it was pouring rain, they were all pretty much just big wet lumps sitting on the trees. Turns out you can't actually hold them at this place, but it was probably for the best. They were still adorably cute. I am warming up to cute animals at a frightening pace!
All of the koalas were sleeping just about the whole time we were there, but I happened to spot this one just as he lifted his head to survey the before nestling back in for more sleep.
After seeing this creepy koala paw/hand display, I realized how lucky I was that I wasn't actually given the opportunity to hug a koala. I would have wimped out for sure.
It only took me about a month to post all the pictures, but this was seriously the highlight of my winter this year. Chito had been feeding me lines like, "Australia is just like the States, but better" all year and I thought it was just a bunch of talk. Turns out, it was pretty good. I got to enjoy all the comforts of home plus the excitement of new TimTam flavors, meat pies, cute animals and new friends. It was a great trip! Now it's just back to my regularly scheduled Japan blog updates.
