melbourne may be one of my favorite cities i have ever been to! it combines all my favorite things: quaint streets, tall buildings, beautiful architecture, ample parks and a lovely waterfront.
after a crazy week of camp, our team stopped at phillips island wildlife park to see some of the local animals. it was so awesome to get up close and personal with these weird and wonderful animals. i’m still stoked that i got to pet and feed kangaroos! seriously i think they’re my new favorite animal. so cute! another highlight was getting stalked by emu (i swear they are evil) and getting to pet a joey in its mom’s pouch. these darling animals are yet another reason why i love australia!
a couple of weeks back, i went with a team from my college to melbourne, australia to help at calvary chapel melbourne’s family camp. it was such an awesome week and we were all so blessed by the fellowship and the sessions we got to attend when we weren’t helping with the adorable kiddies. just looking at these pictures makes me miss everyone i met and all the fun times we had! the camp was beautiful and there were so many fun camp activities to do but it was the amazing people that really made the camp memorable!
while we were in hawkes bay, we went to opera kitchen for a quick after-church coffee. while the coffee wasn’t half as good as groove kitchen espresso, it was still a really cute place with a great atmosphere! it is next to the Hawke’s Bay Opera House which is so beautiful and modern. though i loved napier, this area was my favorite part of hastings, napier’s sister city.
napier is a darling little beach town on the east coast of new zealand. the hills reminded me of laguna beach, the main street of santa monica and the beach of moonstone beach in cambria. i should probably stop comparing new zealand to california so much but i can’t help it! though the beach was freezing, it was so refreshing to breathe in the fresh salty air while enjoying some honey and passionfruit ice cream from rush munros.
the first thing we did when we were in hawkes bay was go to the top of te mata peak in havelock north. the view was breathtakingly beautiful. it reminded me of the rolling green hills in ireland, only alot higher. it was a lovely way to start a great weekend.
