Chloe the Kangaroo

Posted by Liana at 6:13 PM

Meet Chloe the Kangaroo.



Yesterday, as I finished taking a video as Chloe hopped away, I turned to my new husband and said "now my trip to Australia is complete...I've met a Kangaroo and seen her hop!"

We've had almost two weeks here in Australia and the time has flown by SOOOO fast! We spent one week in Melbourne, and this week have been in the Sydney area including Newcastle and Hunter Valley. We only have 24 hours left to explore Sydney before we head for the airport and two VERY long flights home.

I've taught two amazing Photo Biz Boot Camps since we arrived in Australia and was somewhat surprised how crazy-similar business is here. In our in-between time we've explored some of the countryside, thus my lack of internet lately.

As much as we don't want to leave, we're excited to get home and see what it's like being married in "real life" and see our friends, fam, and of course my kitties who have probably forgotten who we are by now!

Oh yes... and that pic of Chloe... she was waiting for us where we stayed in Hunter Valley yesterday. Greeting us for breakfast!

Goodbye New Zealand, Hello Australia

Posted by Liana at 5:53 PM

Today we depart from this adventure of a Honeymoon in New Zealand and head to Melbourne, Australia. We have a few more days left of our official "honeymoon" before I teach a Photo Biz Boot Camp in Melbourne, then another in Newcastle.

We're about to head out for flight 1 of 3, but here are a few pics from the last few days:

Fox Glacier


A few from our Drive from Greymouth to Haast to Queenstown to Milford Sound and back to Queenstown




Milford Sound, where we went on an overnight boat trip


View on our way into Queenstown

Update from New Zealand

Posted by Liana at 4:50 PM

It's been almost a week since we arrived here in NZ for our honeymoon, and looking back – it all seems such a blur! A beautiful blur though! We're towards Fiordland on the South Island now after driving through rain forest and hiking to see a glacier at the edge of that rain forest yesterday. It's SOOO incredibly beautiful and I really want to write and post more pictures, but lack of time and the horrible internet connection here simply won't allow. For now, a few pictures from this past week....

Honeymoon in New Zealand – Day 1 - Auckland and Waiheke

Posted by Liana at 6:13 PM

What a jam-packed 36 hours! We left LA on Tuesday evening, and arrived in New Zealand on Thursday at 4:45 AM. Completely skipped Wednesday since we crossed the international dateline! The flight was 13 hours and we both slept for most of it.

Viaduct Harbor in Auckland, New Zealand – views from our hotel


After an interesting adventure navigating into the heart of Auckland (Mike learning how to drive on the wrong side of the car and road!) we made it to our hotel by 5:45 AM. The Westin is awesome and I'm a frequent guest of the Starwood hotels because I love their hotels so much – they let us check-in right away even though we weren't supposed to get a room until 3PM. Yeah!

More views from the Westin, Auckland


We skipped sleeping and hit the town for some sight-seeing, even though it was sprinkling on and off all day.



Just before lunch time we hopped on a tour to Waiheke Island for a “Taste of Waiheke.”
Here's a pic of us on the ferry to Waiheke:



The tour included three vineyard tours and tastings, a tour and tasting of an olive oil producer, various scenic drive-bys and lunch at a vineyard. Beautiful doesn't get close to describing the little island that's known for it's red wines and boutique vineyards. It has the same temperate climate as the Bordeaux region of France, so they produce a lot of the same wines.









Lunch at Stonyridge Winery



Stonyridge is the first commercial vineyard in New Zealand to plant olive oil and they also planted cork trees:



Our final stop was the Mudbrick Winery and I think that one was my favorite. The view is incredible!


Lots of lavender. Mmmmm.




There's my husband snapping pics too. Still getting used to calling him husband, not fiance!


Okay... time to go hit the town again before we head south to Rotoura. I hear it's smelly like rotten eggs there. LOL.

We're Married!!

Posted by Liana at 1:02 AM

Yesterday was such a blur but now I'm hanging with my HUSBAND here in Santa Monica, CA before we fly out to New Zealand and Australia for our honeymoon. Mikey just grabbed the top layer of our wedding cake and put it in front of me to take a bite - we don't have forks so it's hilarious eating it like a giant pizza!

I'm handing my phone over tomorrow and didn't even bring my computer with me (borrowing hubby's!!) so I'll be out of the loop ... but here's a teaser pic the fab Jessica Claire sent me today. More to come, plus video by Joshua Smith! Flowers by my MOM and sister :)