As I write to you I am staring at a Krispy Kreme light up logo and a sign for the international flights departing out of the Melbourne airport. Random, I know! We are flying to Christchurch, NZ in the morning and while we are not totally cheap we really did not want to pay for another night in a hotel so we decided to head to the airport a day early and sleep here! Sounds a little crazy but really it is quite nice. We have even been directed to a couch by the security officer! Plus we are not the only ones here. We saw a group of 3 people in the same situation as us but unfortunately they missed their flight this evening so they are waiting until tomorrow night. Ugg..

So yes, NZ tomorrow!!! I excited for many reasons. 1. I am excited to see something totally new! We have heard so many awesome things about NZ and the pictures that we have seen look stunning. 2. I am excited to be starting the next leg of our journey! I have looked at this whole adventure in 3 parts: Australia, NZ and Asia! We are finally to stage 2. 3. I am happy that NZ is getting close because it is one step closer to coming home. No, I am not sad or wishing I was not here but as the date quickly gets closer I am getting really excited to see everyone and have certain things back as I know them! 4. I am excited to get Brett to Denver and into nursing school. He has been taking his online ethics class for Regis and he is totally into it! He loves learning about anything medical and has been expressing an interest in so many different types of nursing. It is really fun to see him growing, getting excited and falling in love with his chosen career path!

While in Melbourne we did EVERYTHING we could have ever wanted to. The city has two different free public transit services so basically we rode them to our heart's content. By the end we were even able to quote some of the tourist information being announced over the speakers! We saw the Melbourne Park, which houses the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the Rod Laver stadium for the Australian Open. We saw Little Italy, Chinatown, Avatar at the 3-D IMAX theatre, tons of gardens, St. Kilda beach and the Australia kiteboarding competition and so much more! We had such a great time and quickly realized why Melbourne has such a great reputation!

I have been hearing a lot about home and I am excited about everything that is going on there! Please continue to update us and we will do the same. For now I am off to search the net for some flights and hotels in Kuala Lumpur. We have tickets to fly into there on March 4^th and I am thinking it would be nice to have a place set up for our arrival!!!

Love,

B and K8