Buddha’s Day & Multicultural Festival | Melbourne

May 23, 2018May 22, 2018 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

This past weekend, at Federation Square, the annual Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival took place. It celebrates Buddha’s birthday and promotes cultural awareness and inclusiveness. There were many interactive opportunities, including a tea ceremony and an art installation. It was really cool to see people learning about a culture they weren’t familiar with, and participating with open minds. The food was also very, very good!

Alms giving ceremony

Bodhi Tree art installation

Tea ceremony

Bathing the Buddha

White Night Melbourne

February 23, 2018February 22, 2018 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

One night a year, from 7pm to 7am, the city comes alive with art, performances, and activities. We managed to stay out all night long, and saw some really amazing things.

I love Melbourne!

New Zealand | Routeburn Track at Milford Sound

February 1, 2018 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

In continuation of my New Zealand posts (here and here):
We spent one day in Milford Sound (probably not enough). The first half of the day was kayaking. I didn’t take my camera for that. We saw penguins and a dolphin swam right next to us! It got really windy, though, and it was a lot more work than I thought it would be. After that, we went on a hike to the top of a mountain (the Key Summit Alpine Walk on the sign below). It was absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to just share a few pictures from the top! The last one is me; my husband took it.

New Zealand | Around Christchurch

January 3, 2018January 6, 2018 / Christina Hardcastle / 2 Comments

My husband and I just turned 30, and to celebrate we went to the south island of New Zealand for a week (as you do). For the first couple of days we stayed in Christchurch. I had no idea how much the earthquakes affected it; the whole city was under construction! Still, we loved Christchurch. There is so much to see and do. The new buildings are awesome and there are some really good restaurants. This post is dedicated to what we mainly did there: sample the local alcohol 😉
We started at a Mexican restaurant (we’re from Texas, we just need Mexican food sometimes). They had all kinds of tasty margaritas, but their salsa was just not spicy enough for us Texans. The next day, we went on a wine tasting lunch tour in the Waipara Valley, which was AMAZING. We had so much fun and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Drank some awesome white wines, and met some hilarious people.

Featured places:
Mexico Restaurant
Canterbury Leisure Tours
Waipara Hills Wines
Greystone Wines
Torlesse Wines

Stay tuned for a couple more posts featuring our trip to New Zealand!

Great Ocean Road

May 3, 2017May 2, 2017 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

My husband and I took a trip to the Great Ocean Road for our anniversary. Even though the weather wasn’t great, everything was beautiful! We even saw some koalas.

We started in Portland and drove all the way back to Melbourne in three days.

Dog Walk at R.J. Hamer Arboretum

April 19, 2017April 18, 2017 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

We took the dogs for a long walk at R.J. Hamer Arboretum. They loved exploring, and got pretty muddy! There are so many more walks in the Dandenong Ranges that we want to see.

Friday Fun – Tasmania

April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 / Christina Hardcastle / 2 Comments

During our Tasmania road trip, my mom took a lot of pictures of me taking pictures. So here are some of hers, next to the photo I was taking. Some of them are pretty amusing 🙂

French Food Festival – Melbourne

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

Spent a lazy Sunday at Fed in French in Federation Square last week. Delicious cheese and champagne!

Tasmania – Bicheno

April 4, 2017April 4, 2017 / Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

Here is the next post about our Tasmania road trip! Bicheno was an adventure in itself; we climbed on the rocks by the water, saw wild penguins on a late night nature walk, and went to East Coast Natureworld to see Tasmanian Devils up close.

Here is the previous post, featuring Cradle Mountain.