Happy Valentine's Day from Seattle

West Coast: LA

It was so great to be back in the USA. I left Auckland around 11:30 am on THursday and flew 3 hours to Fiji. I sat there for 6 hours then flew for 10 hours to LA. I arrived in LA at 1:30pm on Thursday. It was strange but so great to be in the US. I don't think Australia and NZ were that hard to navigate around in because of the language but there is just something about being home. And that is what it felt like as I landed and turned on my cell phone for the first time in 6 weeks.

My stay here in LA was through Saturday and I got a chance to visit some relatives. With the exception of the great Uncle Jim (Gpaw, to some), they are all some form of a cousin. And they gave me a warm welcome and showed me around a bit. Margie picked me up at the airpot and along with her husband, Mike were gracious hosts.

We met for dinner on Thursday night and were joined by Jim and Diane as well as Brett and Chris. Jim and Diane happened to be helping Chris with the house for that week so luckily, I got to see more of the west coast family than at first expected. It was so great to see everyone again and catch up.

Margie was a great tour guide on Friday as we took a coastal tour up to Malibu in the car and then down Sunset, Rodeo and around the city a bit. I did get to see some LA traffic which was nice and really made me feel even more at home.

Friday night we went out again for dinner and this time, Mexican, much to Uncle Jim's disapproval. However, I think he has converted to become a fan of Mexican even though he didn't grow up with it in Massachusetts. At 93, I do believe salsa wasn't invented until sometime after the 50's. But I think its a great invention and thankfully the east coast has caught on as well.

I am sure that if I am out in the west coast area again, I will be stopping by this area of El Segundo and hopefully we can get some of you back to visit us in the Boston/Oakham area soon too!

Taupo Sunset

I can't say enough about this sunset so I tried to capture it in a video. I'm in Seattle now and getting a chance to dump some photos- stay tuned....

Last Night in NZ

This 6 week trip has come to an end. I fly out of Auckland tomorrow and begin the West coast trip. I am really sad that its over although I can't imagine it being any better than it was. The entire trip was everything I wanted it to be and the greatest part is that I really do want to go home :) I'm not saying I want to go back to work anytime soon but the US is home for me, at least for now.

I headed up to Rotorua for 2 days after Taupo and spent a day blitzing the tourist attractions there. I did another geothermal park (really cool- pics to come) followed by a legitimate mud bath from the thermal springs (10 years younger kids) followed by a traditional Maori hangi or dinner and concert. The entire day was unreal but i was happy to leave the town the next morning. Because of all the volcanic activity, the entire town smells like Sulfur- not on my top 10 places to come back to, although definitely a must do.

After Roturua, it was up to the Bay of Islands to a town called Paihia. It was a beach town and in the sits on the beginning of many islands and tropical weather. I stayed a 5 star backpackers and this place was by far the best place I've stayed yet and for the same price. I ventured down to a beach bar and stumbled upon the best night of live music of the entire trip. (better than Nelson, jenn, and not weird) The coolest thing is that it started out with 3 guys and ended with 7. Apparently every Sunday night is jam night and locals just come and bring whatever instruments they play and just jam all night. It was alos supposively one of the best nights of the summer. I chatted with a groupy and she said I was lucky to have been there that night. Guitars, bongos, full drums, sax- it was really awesome. Everyone was in bare feet and it was really nice out and right near the beach. It was very cool.

The next day, i got to go out in search of dolphins. What we found was the most incredible trip yet- dolphins swimming everywhere. They would do jumps right in fron tof the boat, swim in and out of the waves- and there were probably 50 of them. We didn't get to swim with them becasue there were babies with them but the sight was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the day sailing and relaxing on the boat.

Tonight I'm in Auckland, just another city and I kind of feel like I'm in the US. I made to the top of the sky city tower and watched the sunset and now I'm heading up to fingure out how to pack for the plane tomorrow. I'm off to LA to visit relatives and I am really happy about all that has happened the past 6 weeks. The trip was the most amazing thing i have done ever and it almost makes me want to stay at Intel to get another sabbatical. For those who know me, understand what a huge statement that is.

Time is running out so I will have to post pics later. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading of our adventures. Its been fun to post and hear from those of you who have been following along. You need to all take time to travel. its great.

See you soon.

Taupo, NZ

After leaving Jenn, I ventured up North to a place called Taupo. In Taupo, there is a huge lake. It is the best trout fishing in all of NZ and this is also a place of adventure overload. You can skydive, parasail, golf, hike, go to natural hot springs and go on various fishing trips into the lake. It is a very beautiful place and I had 1.5 days here. I spent the evening of arrival exploring town and walking along the lake. I found a place that had gluten free pizza which was SO good and after a place that had gluten free chocolate cake. I really didn't need the cake but I need to explain that when I see these things, I usually feel compelled to buy them on the spot. Who knows when I will get this treat again and it is SO delicious. I got a GF muffin yesterday as well and it was amazing. Just to put it in persepctive, I haven't had a muffin in about 8 months. THe chocolate cake happens in Septemeber for my birthday so that was a little less thrilling but still good. Ok, it is harder with jenn not here so I occupy my excitement with littler things. Oh well.
That night I saw the best sunset I have seen, possibly ever.

The next day I think I walked a total of 5 hours and about 12km. I didn't have a car orr a bike and really wanted a workout. So I went up to the trailway and hiked the trail out to Huka Falls. After that I went to a place called Craters of the MOon. This was a trip- steam came out of the ground in various craters and holes and there were pools of bubbling mud. This is the start of the volcanic zone so that's what happens here. Weird. I actually met a French guy that walked the track with me. This made the adventure even more strange. He knew very little english and what he didn't know, I think I interpreted copmpletely wrong. THe tenses were all wrong but he, thankfully, just laughed at everything. I'm sure the experience was mutual. He gave me a ride down the hill on his bike and we parted. I continued on to make my way passed the falls again and at the bottom was a completely natural river runoff that was heated. So, picture a waterfall that empties into a pool that is like a natural hot tub. Amazing, especially after all that walking and hiking. I was exhausted.

Wellington

The Marlborough Wine Trail

I'm so sad that Jenn is leaving...

So, after tonight, Jenn and I part our separate ways. She begins her journey home to the US and I begin my 1 week tour of the North Isalnd before I head to the West Coast of the US to enjoy time with friends and family. I am so going to miss her company and her tour guiding ability. I am guaranteed going to get lost about 3 times this next week without her. I swear- its going to be rough.

I am so glad that she got to spend this time here with me on my sabbatical. Looking back, I can't imagine doing this time away without friends. It made the trip that much more memorable. I think in years to come when we are settled with kids, we will be able to remember all the good times we had on this trip. I think we both are alured by the remoteness of New Zealand and look forward to telling others about it and possibly returning to further explore all that it has to offer here. I think we can both agree that of all the places we have been to over the past 5 weeks, we especially love Queenstown NZ. It has the small town character that we love but all that you would need in a city, it has glenorchy and Paradise only a drive away and most of all the Fergburger, which has been the best burger place of all. Queenstown is remote surrounded by wineries and immense natural beauty and if anything, we both agree it is a place that everyone that comes out here should visit.

I will update on the greatness of the north island and hopefully it will compare to what we have experienced. However, I don't know if anything ill compare to all that we have seen on the South Island and in Wellington. Go ALL BLACKS, GO PATS.

The Marlborough Wine Trail

This was perhaps one of my most favorite days of my entire life. We caught a bus to Blenheim (bleen-hime) and then checked into a hostel called the honi-B. I was not a fan of the HONI-B but the activities of the day were un-surpassible. We made our way into town and rented bikes from a local bike store and started out on the Marlborough Wine Trail. There are probably about 25 wineries in about a 2km radius. So, you can begin to see how this day turns into one of my top 10 of the trip. We started out with Wither Hill Winery which was architecturally perfect. It had a very classy building with not a lot of flair but really accentuated the beauty of the vineyard. We really appreciated the beauty of the building and contemplated having our 30th b-days there. It was a beautiful place. But the wine was also good.

The next stop was Villa Maria wineries. This area is known for its Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Gris, Pinto Noir and Chardonnay. All were amazing at every place we went and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Villa Maria was started by a guy at age 20 and he still owns it all and all its operations which is rare of this area. Most of the wineries we went to have been bought out by big companies.

My favorite by far was called Mahi wineries. They are fairly new but hand pick all their fruit and ferment indigenously which I don't fully understand but I think it means it might take longer. Their emblem is a snail ant they pride themselves on taking their time to produce quality wines- almost like works of art vs the high volume which can come of other bigger wineries. I admired that. And their pinot noir was amazing.

After 6 wineries via bike, I had accumulated 4 bottles of wine and jenn 1. We suddenly had to make a mad dash home to return the bikes and made it just in time. It was a blur to say the least after tasting over 30 wines. We made our way to the park and took a nap in the grass to finish off the sunny afternoon. If there is one place I will come back to visit, it will most definitely be the Marlbourough Wine Trail. It was so beautiful and so much good wine to be had. I feel like we only touched the surface of what is there.

In any case, it was an amazing day and so much fun. Now I'm carrying around bottles of wine trying to figure out how to fit them in my pack. Its great.

Franz Joseph Glacier

Who can say that they have explored a glacier. I'm not sure. Actually, we weren't really aware of glaciers until we got here to NZ. There are two glaciers here and they form two small towns that are centered around the tourism of the glaciers. You can take a helicopter up to see them and you can trek up to them and onto them. We went with a company called Franz Joseph guides and did an all day hike. Here they call it tramping vs treking or hiking. So we walked about 2 km to the face of the glacier and then put on our crampons and began the hike up the face of ice. The guides carry ice picks and actually cut our steps for us and a pathway to navigate through the mountains and cravaces of ice. At one point we went through this really long crevace of ice that was so small you couldn't put one foot in front of the other- you had to sort of step through while being pressed between two huge sheets of dripping ice.

Throughout the day, we kept commenting on how it was one of the coolest expereinces we had ever done. We have hiked a bunch through various parts of NZ but being on the ice was just absolutely crazy. It is actually progressing forward each year about 10 m!! They get so much snowfall, that it doesn't account for the melt and as a result the ice actuallly progresses forward each year for the past 10 years. Its really crazy.

We were exhausted from the adventure and basically called it a night after getting some nachos that night and a couple drinks. The sunset was cool and we were also able to enjoy some more scenery on our final drive with the van to greymouth. What a great trip with the van.

Doubtful Sound

We were here from Monday to Wednesday so we are a little bit behind but this trip is worth writing about. We tooka trip on a boat, followed by a bus then a boat again out to Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. FOr those of you that don't know, a fior is a like a peninsula, except is the opposite becasue its the ocean jutting into the land. There are a bunch of fiords on the west coast of NZ, in what they call Fiorldalnd (go figure). Anyway, there was a debate whether to go to Milford SOund (more commercialized) or Doubtful. We made the decision to take a trek to Doubtful and we were not let down. We took a boat out into the waters of the sound surrounded by massive mountains. THe entire land surrounding us is completely untouched. It was massive and stunning and p0ure wilderness. At one point, the skipper turned the engines off and everyone was to remain silent. And everyone did and we all just stared at the mountains and listened to the water hit the boat and were completely over powered by the nature that surrounded us. If you are ever in New Zealand, it is a must do.

We were hoping to spot dolphins, seals, and penguins and only got a glimpse of one quick penguin and a sela basking on a rock. It got quite rough as we got close to the ocean entrance so we mostly treked around the fingers of the fiord. This is one of the pictures we are hoping to blow up and frame. Enjoy!

The Van

We wanted to pay a special tribute tonight, to the van. Not because we are sleeping in it tonight, but because we love the van. We are actually on a glacier so its much too cold outside to sleep since we only have sheets for bedding. But back to the van: its our special friend. Here is a little story about last night in the van. So, after spending a night in a hostel the night before last, we decided that we would drive until we couldn't drive anymore in an attempt to gain some mileage for the next day (driving day). We made it north of Queenstown to a town called Wanaka. We were told that Wanaka was a great place but we couldn't find any reason in any guide book as to why it would be a place to stop in (other than Lake Wanaka) but once we arrived we knew why. Its a special little town with nightlife, cute stores and cafes and on the shore of this immense lake with mountains as the backdrop. Its amazing.

Back to the van. So we arrived in this great place exhausted! We had hiked for 7 hours that day (post to come) inlcuding the last hour carrying some random person's 15KG pack!! Anyway, needless to say we were tired however, Wanaka was hopping. We parked in the parking lot in front of the lake (across the street from the strip of bars) and called it a night. We were so sad that we couldn't go out but we had just driven 3 hours after 7 hours of hiking uphill and we are old. So, we decide to sleep in the van in the parking lot. The only signage said that we couldn't park on the grass and camp. Well, that's how we interpreted the sign. We stayed off the grass and went to bed.

A short time later, it was freezing and there was a party happening outside our window including a girl with a guitar on the picnic table singing. She was so loud- I thought Jewell was outside our window singing to us. It was ridiculous. So I shut the sunroof. Thank GOD. Because, several hours later, after tossing and turning to generate some body heat, the sprinkler system went off. We were fairly close to the heads and it felt like someone was power washing the van. Jenn was quoted saying she "was worried the paint was getting chipped". She sat up, startled and obviously concerned for the van. Then, she turns to find a big burly man knocking on the window of a van near us. (side note- people slepp in vans everywhere as long as there is no sign to say you can't, then its legal and very common) The next thing we know, there is a big loud knock on our window. He yells "security" and Jenn proceeds to jump into the front seat to turn on the car to power down the window to see what he wants. Apparently no camping on the grass means that you can't even park in that lot overnight. He told us we had to move and that the Queenstown police were hot on his tail and were going to fine us if they caught us there. It was 5:45am. Another side note is that we have been driving through this country for the past 6 days, covered alomost 1500 km and have yet to see a cop anywhere. And Queenstown was 2 hrs away from here. Regardless, we headed out of the area to find another spot to crash for a couple hours.

Jenn hit a bunny. There are rabbits everywhere out in this part that we really didn't notice until it got dark out and then they were all over the sides of the road. After the bunny incident, we pulled off on a side area to sleep for the next 3 hours. It gets roasting hot when the sun comes out so we have figured out that our optimal sleeping happens between 6am-9am. We are also good about 10pm-midnight. Ok, this story is almost over... So we awake to the beautiful sunshine, no cops, no burly men. We are ready to start driving up to our destination when we realize that the lights were left on. MARISSA left the lights on after the morning incident and the van was dead. Luckily, Jenn was able to flag down the post office lady who phoned Mike's Garage who came to jump the van. So don't worry, the VAN is ok and so are we.

Minus 5 Bar

Last night we went to the tourist attraction called the Minus 5 Bar. It is apparently the coolest experience in town. The bar is made completely of ice. The glasses, tables, benches and walls are all ice. You have to put on these big wooly jackets and wear Ugg boots and then you get to enter the Minus 5 bar. It was actually minus 7 when we went in. They give you a drink and your limit is 3 drinks and 30 minutes. We were ready to leave after the 30 minutes- it was cold!

Rafting the Tully River: Tully, Australia

We have made it to New Zealand- the land of the KIWIS

We arrived in Christchurch last night at around 8:00pm but we had another time chance so it was really 3 hours earlier for us, so we were sort of ready to take on the town and still needed to get some dinner. We got a shuttle from the airport to our hostel and then headed out into the town. Apparently people start going out at 11:00 so we were right on time :)

We went to an Irish pub because it was really busy, most people were in jeans and flips, and there was a live Irish band. Oh, and they had food. We went in and realized the food was really just bar munchies so we settled on a bucket of fries for dinner and got some pints while we watched the band and some people playing pool. I even spotted a sox hat so we felt right at home there. We decided that we love the Irish. Back to the Kiwis, though. We ended up making fun of the pool players that kept losing and they were real live local kiwis. So, we picked their brain about tipping etiquette and what we needed to do in NZ. They proceeded to give us directions to Queenstown which consisted mostly of if you get to some town you've gone to far and just go straight. They were really nice and actually at one point started talking politics to us. We realized that Americans have no idea what is going on in the rest of the world. We know what is going on with Americans, pretty well even. But for NZ-ers to ask us who we were coting for and actually had an opinion on candidates was interesting to us.

We hit another bar that had a band with them then headed back to our hostel. We got up this morning and went to rent a car. To our surprise, we ended up with a VAN. It seats 8, yes 8 people. We can sleep in the thing. Actually, we only wanted a small car but got the van becasue the company needed it dropped off in our ending city so gave us a bargain on it and for the same price as the car. So, we are living out of a van this week and loving every second of it. Our drive today included the bluest lake I've ever seen calle Lake Tepako, a trek up to Mt Cook, bounded by a glacier, and another lake called Pukaki or something. THe lakes are amazingly bue and with the contrast of the green trees and the white snow capped mountains, it was an amazingly scenic drive.

However, we didn't gauge the gas thing very well on day one. So becasue its late and we can't get gas, we are staying in a campground (holiday park) tonight in our van in the middle of a town called Omarama. You can try to look it up but I'm not sure you will find anything. pop 355. tonight its up to 357. Heading off to the most adventurous city in the world tomorrow- QUEENSTOWN! We might pick up some hitchhikers to pay off our gas on the way- 6 open seats!!! (dad- I'm kidding)

We are not in the Tropics anymore!

Hey everyone,
Amy and I made it back to the lovely cold, rainy/snowy NYC after 31 hours of travel. The trip overall went smoothly. What an amazing adventure these past 3 weeks have been. We are sad to see it to an end, but are greatful we were able to have had this experience with good friends. We miss you ladies so much already, have a great time in the land of Kiwi! Keep on blogging. Our plan is to upload our pics for your entertainment asap! Cheers !

Miss you girls!!

MM and JH

Sydney to Byron Bay

What a way to end the Aussie experience!

Today couldnt have been more perfect. The stars were aligned when we awoke to a beautiful sunny, but hot day in the tropics. We slept in without an alarm, and decided to road trip it to Port Douglas and Palm Cove. Instead of paying mucho money for a bus we were brave enough to rent a car and drive up the scenic coast. Reception had a car waiting for us, which was perfect. Jenn began our journey with lots of co piloting along the way(Hang left, hug the curb we all yell) We eventually made it to Port Douglas. What a great tropical, seaside town with shops, resturaunts and a scenic mountain range. We decided to plop ourselves on the 4 mile beach in the over 100 degree weather. There was a designated swimming section netted off to protect the swimmers from the deadly stingers. NO LYCRA today ! We were unable to sunbath due to the bloody hot sand, sun and no wind. We all cooled off in the 75 degree water and then took to our towels under the palm trees. Some of us napped, some of us read or whatever we chose! It was the best day ever. Around 3 pm we ventured back to the sun. As we decided to leave to Palm cove for dinner and the sunset, a beautiful rainbow appeared over the ocean (pictures to come). Missy drove us to Palm cove(look it up). We had a great dinner on an outside patio overlooking the ocean and the sunset. Damn was it hot! We were sweating as we ate our lovely meals. The 4 of us chatting about our 3 week adventure in Oz and all the fun times. We drove back home through a drive up liquor store (bottle shop) which was the coolest ever then ventured out for some icecream. Back at the hotel we end with a last minute swim and 2 bottles of cheap sparkling rose. Amy and Michelle packed their bags (damn they have a lot of stuff) and hope for the best. We farewell the girls goodbye as we venture off to New Zealand. Damn what a fun, crazy, exhiliarating experience- with lots of laughs, hot sun, boozing and chillaxing!

We dove the Great Barrier Reef today

Wow. Our trip to Australia is complete. After getting cancelled for a dive trip yesterday due to rough winds and seas, we re-booked on another tour boat today and had the most amazing experience on the reef. We left at 8 this morning and went out to a place called Hastings Reef located on the outer reef (look it up). Amy, Jenn and Michelle were able to try out intro dives with a great crew and got to actually participate in their first dives in scuba on the great barrier reef. Amy opted for snorkel after a rough ride out to the spot and some sea sickness lurking. We think she was literally high on dramamene- no fault of her own, of course. Jenn was a trooper, conquering one of her long time fears and making a new friend with the guide, who's hand she held tight with a death grip for the entirety of the dive. Michelle went back for more in the afternoon and got a private tour with the guide because she couldn't get enough of the action. Marissa jumped in with the certified divers and got 3 amazing dives in. pictures- so many pictures- to follow. They had a private photographer on board who followed everyone around and took photos. We purchased a CD with all the photos so that we have them to remember the day by. The pictures still do not even do this place justice. THe great Barrier Reef is immense and a great wonder of the world. It is the only living organism that is visible from space. The day could not have been better or exceeded our expectations. TUSA Diving Rocks. look them up.

Final Stop- Cairns

We travelled 8 hours on the coach and we arrived in tropical and stormy Cairns. More and perhaps the best of our adventures ocurred. We went out to a group dinner and an Irish PLUB ( that's a pub that turns into a club- look it up) We sunk a few then headed home to get some shut eye before our next day. We spent the next day travelling up to a place called Tully, home of bananas and the Tully River. We got a bus ride up in the mountains to the rainforest and the start of the Tully River- top 5 rivers in the world for white water rafting. Our guide told us this after we made it through all the rapids and top five also includes the Nile, the amazon and some river in Costa Rica. Not everyone was completely ready for this expereince and there were some nerves. BUT, our guide, Paully, was amazing and coached us the first level 4 rapids successfully, giving us confidence as a tema to make it down the rest of the 14 km of river without dumping anyone (intentionally). The rapids consisted of class 2,3 and 4. There was actually a class 5 but insurance companies don't insure if you go down these so we went around this one. We actually went in the end of the raft and our guide intentionally dumped us all causing fear for our lives. But, a huge rush nonetheless. The highlights were swimming without a raft down a class III rapid. Jenn and Michelle hit the shore and said "That was the worst thing I have ever done." Marissa was quoted saying "that was awesome" and proceeding for round 2. Amy's thoughts were "that was crazy". We also jumped off a rock that might have been in the range of anywhere between 10 and 50 ft. There is some discrepancy on this one since it was rather intimidating for us all and we considered it a HUGE accompishment. We also expereinced a huge rain storm in the middle of the river. THe rain was warm and was pelting us hard but was one of the most amazing scenes ever and there was no where else we wanted to be at that time then on the river. We were also able to see waterfalls along the river, one which was actually the backdrop in Jurassic park called champagne falls. They had to use 30,000 bottles of champagne to get a better glimpse of the water going over the fall. Wow, an intense day but one of the greatest adventures of the trip.

Long Island Resort- Whitsunday Islands

The sailboat dropped us off on the dock that lead to a resort on a private island in the Whitsundays. Serioulsy, as if the sailing adventure was not the most amazing 2 days fo our life, it was followed by a realxing 36 hours in air conditioning, pools, swim up bar, beach volleyball, kayaking, and late night karaoke. Oh and laundry. We spent the afternoon chilaxing ( chilling and relaxing) in the pool, sinking a few, and doing some water sports. We caught up with othe fellow contikians who had not gone sailing and made them jealous of our trip. That night we did some karaoke and swam in the pool until midnight before we crashed hard in the air con bunk beds rooms. BUT, no sweaty bunks this time.

Adventures in Sailing

After we left you last, we made our way down to the Whitsunday Islands. They are 74 islands off the coast of Australia and are the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded the boat along with 27 passengers and 3 crew members including the skipper and 2 dunnies. We first began by sailing out to the middle of paradise while sitting dangling our feet on the high side of the boat- NOT the sui-side. Some people got a try at rigging up the sails but we just watched and enjoyed the sun and views- AND sunk a few. We docked the boat that night and watched the sunset and praised the lord for our good fortune. We were so lucky to be in this beautiful place and with so many fun mates.

That night we partied the night away safely docked in calm seas with a mild temperature of close to 95 degrees F. But wait- next is the part of how we slept on this 76ft old racing yacht. We drank enough from the eskys to make the accomodations look luxurious and then awoke to skipper saying "waky waky" as drool and sweat pooled around us. There was nothing else to do at 6:30am but to get up and enjoy the views. ALL TOTALLY WORTH IT. Valiant attempts were made by Amy and Shelly (jenn as well but had a towel incident) to sleep on the deck itself, but rainstorms halted this and forced them inside to the sweaty bunks. Please note, jenn and marissa shared one sweaty bunk- BOTH nights.

The day consisted of breakfast and 2 different snorkel sites. It was our first chance to check out the reef up close while wearing the very sexy full body stinger suits made of lycra. photos to come. The highlights included ( others in sexy stinger suits) huge jelly fish, turtles, cool fish, awesome coral and lots of lycra. We sailed on to the lookout over the famous whitehaven beach (look it up) which was breathtaking. We hiked back down and docked for our second night at the famous beach where we all looked like aliens swimming and playing beach rugby in our lycra. We are still not sure if this is a ploy to identify tourists. The crew delivered us nachos on the beach via dingy and we spent the afternoon nashing.

The last night consisted of steak dinner and some people (JENN and MICHELLE) opted to participate in super soaker TWISTER on board the ship. pictures again to follow. After lots of seawater in the face, they settled on victory. We then watched fish jumping beside the boat, turtles eating jelly fish and the sunset. The stars in this area were amazing and we all layed on the edge again looking for the big dipper but then got confused due to the southern hemisphere factor. Again, we all ventured to the bunks to sweat and sleep and Amy and Shelly slept on the deck beside jumping fish.

We awoke again to "waky waky" and pouring rain and zero wind to sail. We donned the yellow Gordan Fisherman raincoats and proceeded to witness the perfect storm aboard the Sexy Broomstick back to the Long Island resort (look it up). FOr a brief hot second, we hit wind- strong wind- and we were so happy that this only lasted for like 15 minutes. We had experienced sailing at its best. And, finished off the trip with sun, a great lunch, and a motorized and personal dropoff at the Long Island Resort where our next adventures began.

Aussie Slang that we have learned...

Heaps = a lot
Bottle-O = liquor store
Bottle Shop = wine store
King Brown = 40 oz
Stubby = bottle of beer
Sunnies = sunglasses
Singlet = tank top
Jumper = sweatshirt
Thong = flip flops
Pashing = making out
Pick up = hook up
Ute = el camino
Rock Melon = cantaloupe
Cutlery = silverware
Bloke = boy
Sheila = girl

What have we been up to...

We spent the last two days at Fraser Island, an island off the coast of Australia near Noosa Beach. It is the largest all sand island in the world and it is perhaps one of the most amazing places we have ever been. It is very close to what I would imagine paradise to be like. We took a 4WD bus, yes bus, through the island up to Lake McKenzie. The lake is purely fresh water from rain water. It has an organic crusted base which is then covered by the most beautiful white sand. THe water is crystal clear and there are no sharks or actually any life form in the lake except maybe some turtles and small fish.

The sand in the lake is good fro exfoliation, washing and conditioning your hair as well as a sort of lake of youth. It is said that swimming in the lake takes 10 years off your life. So we are now 19!!!
woo hooooooo.

We also took a walk into the rainforest of the island which was really beautiful. THe forest was really green but is supposed to be a temperate forest so the ground was covered with pine needles and brown leaves compared to green moss like we saw in Costa Rica. Very cool.

Today we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn!!! The weather has been cooperating and went up 10 degrees C today as we drove across. It is now hotter than hell. We are sweating and in the tropics there is no AC (CRAZY!!!). We are sorry for the compaining about rain.
Tonight we are eating crocodile!! We will post again later.

We Finally Found the Roo's!!!

Today was incredible- we went to a wildlife park and got to meet kangaroo's up close. We also got to hold koalas (not bears). They are marsupials becasue they carry their kin. We have made it to the Gold Coast which sees 300 days of sun a year. Unfortunately there is a cyclone so its pouring out- thus all the raincoats... Still trying to get photos uploaded. Keep your fingers crossed for sun for us!!!

Happy New Year, Mates

Not only did we celebrate New years Last night Sydney time, we also toasted to the hometown NYE today at 4:00pm on the harbor. Simon, Lucy's brother who lives here in Sydney was gracious enough to invite us to a house party last night to celebrate NYE with the locals. We watched the fireworks from the area overlooking the harbor at 9:00 (kids show) and midnight (for those that can stay up). We toasted with champagne- there isn't really an open container law so we were able to bring our drinks from the party up to the harborside to ring in the new year. There was no ball dropping, which we definitely missed and it was very reminiscent of 4th of Julyfor us because of the weather. However it was a lot of fun and we really want to thank Simon and all the Aussies who were really great to have us over. Happy New Year!!!