10/7: Back in Brisbane

We got up insanely early this morning- and if Nicole hadn't set a second alarm we would have missed our airport shuttle because our room blew a fuse or something and lost power.  Got back to Brisbane and saw Qantas' new A380 doing some testing I guess- my first time seeing one of them.

Back to the grind for a week until Nicole's mom and sister come and we go to Cairns to scuba dive.

The pictures are started to get loaded on Nicole's picture site (link to the right), but it will take a bit for them all to get up there- we took about 500.  They're all worth having a look at.

10/6: Christchurch

This morning turned out to be quite an adventure for me. Wells Fargo has been doing maintenance and I think it might have something to do with my card not working for me, even though I'm nowhere near my credit line or anything. So after getting up with Nicole to get some gas for the car, I went to the aiport to return it.

But I didn't have any cash on me like I thought I did, and my card wouldn't work, and my phone is out of credit until I recharge it tomorrow in Brisbane. So I ended up heading off and taking an urban hike back to the city. Christchurch isn't all that big- about 400,000 people, but I still saw more of it than I thought I would. After about 2 hours I made it back, and we headed out into the city. We went to Cathedral Square, the focal point of the town, and headed to the Arts Centre from there. We saw a bunch of shops and galleries with all kinds of art and food and books and such.

This is a very old feeling town- lots of stone churches and colleges, even though its really only about 130 years old or so- about as old as Denver. It has a distinctly English feel about it. Its known as the Garden City, and its evident- especially right now in the heart of spring, with tulips and daffodils in full swing. They're very pretty.

We also tried a famous NZ Meat Pie. We went to a bakery that is one of the best in the country- they were the bakery of the year in 2002. We had steak pies that were absolutely delicious. There's a store in Vail that sells them and they're expanding to Denver- I'm pretty excited.

Tonight we meet up with Leslie and Brittany for dinner and a drink (Three Boys Pils- a local brew and the best I've had in the southern hemisphere) before going to bed and getting up for our 3:30am shuttle to the airport for our 6:15am flight. At least we have the whole day once we're back in Brisbane?

All in all this has been an absolutely incredible trip- the weather worked out absolutely perfectly, our itinerary packed a lot into the 7 days, and we saw some of the most breathtaking scenery on earth. I'm already plotting my return, or several. Perhaps we'll invest in property here down the road- I wouldn't mind coming here once a year. The exchange rate is favorable, the people friendly, the crowds nonexistent, and landscape unlike any other. I can't wait to see the North Island as well. One day...

10/5: Queenstown to Christchurch

Today we got up and got some breakfast in Queenstown at a place that Nicole read about called Vudu Cafe. Turns out it was voted the best cafe in Queenstown 2 years running. I got a croissant with a caramel- almond kind of filling- it was like a coffee cake, and Nicole got eggs benedict with smoked salmon and capers that was fantastic.

We walked around Queenstown a little bit more before heading north towards Omarama, where we thought we were going to stay the night. We stopped off at a number of different wineries in the famous Otago region of New Zealand. I'm still learning to like wine, so it was still whites for me, but the Rieslings from the area were fantastic. We visited Amisfield, Gibbston Valley, Peregrine, and Akarua wineries. I think Peregrine had the best wine and Amisfield the coolest building and location.

We also visited Gibbston Valley cheeses, and sampled cow, goat, and sheep's milk cheeses, appropriate for the surroundings. They were absolutely fantastic.

Continuing the tasting trend of the day, we stopped off at a local produce shop in Cromwell where Nicole finally found a glass of Granny Smith Apple Juice- freshly juiced and bright green. We also tasted local Schnapps and infused olive oils.

We got to Omarama at about 6, but it was a really small town with pretty much nothing open- not even the hotel, they left us our keys in the door. It felt like there should be Dolly Parton playing from the PA- shag carpet, pink walls...

So we decided rather than be really bored in Omarama we'd drive the extra 3-4 hours to Christchurch since it would stay light long enough for us to see Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo. Mt. Cook was really impressive, and the Southern Alps in the area looked straight out of Europe. Lake Tekapo is famous for its bright color- like Lake Louise- but the lighting didn't really allow us to see it that well.

We got to Christchurch and found an internet cafe to book our hotel for an extra night, and got into the hotel at around 11 and found a quick bite to eat. The hotel we're staying at is a new concept, and definitely unique. The rooms are really small, and we don't have a window, but the layout of the room and the amenities make it feel much more comfortable than it should. There's a mood lighting system to put you to sleep and wake you up, mood channels and a whole light and tv and sound wake up sequence, a night light coming out from under the bed, and in integrated control interface. Its great for us as younger travelers and would be excellent for a business traveler- free internet to boot, which is basically unheard of here. Its a lot like a nice cruise ship cabin.

10/4: Milford Sound

Today was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had.

We got up and it was raining, which ended up being a good thing- I'll explain that in a minute. We got some breakfast and headed out towards Te Anau. Between Queenstown and Te Anau was (relatively) unexciting. But between Te Anau and Milford Sound was a very incredible drive.

Within a span of under 2 hours, we saw pretty much every kind of terrain you could ever encounter. Driving up into the Fiordland, there were beatiful lakes, valleys, rivers, and cliffs, but it got even better. The closer we got, the more incredible the scenery became. Pictures and words can do nothing to describe what we saw- remember earlier how I was talking about how cool the glaciers were, and mentioned Canada and the Rockies, etc.? Forget all of that, Norway, the Alps, the Rockies, the Tatras, they all pale in comparison to the Cleddau Valley and Milford Sound. We saw thousands, literally thousands of waterfalls. And mountains that were some of the highest in the world in terms of prominence, cliffs tens of thousands of feet tall, and glaciers, and I'm at a complete loss for words. The prettiest place I've been lucky to see, hands down. It was totally overwhelming.

It was sort of emotional, it almost moved me to tears, and that was before we took the 2 hour cruise around Milford Sound (actually a fjord). We went all the way to to the Tasman Sea along the length of the fiord, and since it had rained in the morning, it actually made the experience better because there were hundreds of temporary waterfalls coming right down the mountainsides. The difference of about 100 yards from inside and outside the main channel meant 4 foot waves on the Tasman- biggest waves I've ever been on. We even saw some NZ Fur Seals along the rocky edges.

In the afternoon it cleared for our drive back, and we stopped to see the Chasm, which again I can't even begin to describe- its sort of like a waterfall, sort of like a bunch of miniature caves. We also saw the Mirror Lakes- so smooth they reflect nearly perfectly the mountain range and valley behind them.

All in all this was the most awesome scenery I've ever seen, I'm very drained from the whole day.

Be sure to check the blog and read through all the posts on Tuesday- I'm going to flush them all out a bit. Pictures and videos will also come when we're back in Australia, we only have brief access periods while we're travelling. Check on Tuesday, they'll be up.

10/3: Queenstown

Today we got up in the morning and took some pictures around Wanaka before heading to Queenstown. The drive wasn't all that spectacular (relatively speaking) until we got to the top of the pass and were all of the sudden looking thousand of feet down at the valley at our feet. The road was insanely twisty- Lombard street has nothing on the bottom of this road. We got into Queenstown and finished setting up our activity for later in the afternoon.

Then we went over to the Gondola for a luge run and panoramic views over the lake and city to the Remarkables and the Eyre Range. For those of you that don't know, the Lord of The Rings movies were filmed somewhere around here. I don't actually know anything about the movie, but it gives you an idea of the scenery. The views were incredible, and the luge was fun- sort of a mix between a sled and a go kart. But it had nothing on what we did next.

After a bus ride about 20 minutes out of town, Nicole and I were strapped together and to a giant rubber band and JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE. It was a surreal experience. I don't actually remember jumping off, just all of the sudden falling. It was sensory overload for the first 2 or 3 seconds until the bungy started to catch- I'm sure it was windy but I didn't feel anything. It happened really fast- from check in and weighing to getting strapped in and jumping off and being collected by the little dinghy- which is probably a good thing. Definitely a unique experience. Links to pictures to come tomorrow.

We then went back into town and looked at a handful of restaurants before Nicole remembered reading about one earlier in the trip. We couldn't find it so we looked in a phone book to figure out where it was- good thing we did too. The meal was awesome, as was the wine and the views- right across the lake to the mountains.

The restaurant prides itself on the total experience, and everything was paired and matched superbly. We had rabbit ravioli with braised daikon radish and an orange- Grand Marnier sauce; Pork Belly with sauteed bok choy and a sweet balsamic- some sort of weird NZ fruit gastrique; white miso risotto with artichoke and wild mushrooms (which was a perfect fit for the NZ Sauvigon Blanc I had), and a mango creme brulee with black sesame ice cream, which sounds weirder than it actually was. Presentation, service, bread, water, wine, view, they nailed it, and I think it was the best meal I've ever had as far as the consistency of quality and creativity- plus, in another feat of discount magic, we got it for 50% off since we were within the first 7 table before 7PM. Ridiculous.

Milford Sound tomorrow- this trip has left no disappointments yet.

10/2: Otago: Wanaka

Today we got up before the crack of dawn to drive to Wanaka.  It was too early for anything to be open and they don’t have pay at the pump that works with any of our cards, so we couldn’t fill up at Franz Josef or Fox Glacier, so I had to strategically drive to make sure we got all the way to Haast, 143km away.  To say we pulled into that gas station on fumes would be overestimating our gas level.  I think we were a couple more turns of the engine short of running out of gas.  Since I had driven slower on the way to Haast, I drove the freaking wheels off of the car the rest of the way to Wanaka, except for a couple brief picture spots.  I’m pretty good at the whole left side of the road, right side of the car thing by now.  I don’t really have to think about it at all. Joe would love some of these roads- they’d make incredible rally stages.  In fact, even when the scenery is just farmland or forest, the roads themselves are quite an experience for me.

 

One stop we made to take pictures was just after Haast, as the road turned to go up into the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park.  The Gates of Haast are these huge rapids of bright blue water coming down from the mountains.  Up above, the steep mountain had a waterfall about 1000 feet up that was probably 200 feet tall.  It was probably the coolest place I’ve seen in New Zealand so far, which means that its among the greatest places I’ve ever been.  The forests we’ve been driving through for the past couple days are unlike anywhere I’ve ever been-  very dense with all kinds of trees, bushes, and tons of ferns growing everywhere.

 

After roaring into Wanaka to drop Leslie off with seconds to spare, Nicole and I grabbed a quick snack of fantastic pasta salads, and walked around the resort town.  It has the feeling of a town like Breckenridge or Banff, but the scenery is much different- a huge lake surrounded by mountains on all sides.  The mountains here are a little more like the Canadian Rockies- barren, stark, and not quite as green as they were in Franz Josef and Hokitika.  Our hotel tonight is a 4-star Grand Mercure- once again the loophole in the online promotion has worked tremendously in our favor.  There’s 3 large hot soaking pools and great views out our balcony.

 

In the afternoon we went to Puzzling World and navigated the great maze- 1.5km and 2 levels of mazes with the goal of getting to each corner before finding your way back to the start.  I think we went to each about 3 times by the time we were finally done- we fell right into the average time of 45 minutes.  We then sat down and did some puzzles they had in the café- bad idea, it only furthered the frustration of the maze and didn’t come with the satisfaction of completion like the maze did.  Lousy puzzles.

 

We went back to the hotel and Nicole was really tired so she took a nap and I drove over to the Wanaka Beerworks for a brewry tour and tasting, but sadly it was closed.  Tonight we're going to eat some gourmet pizza (yum) and swim in the hot pools before heading to Queenstown for Bungy Jumping, maybe some wineries, and other activities tomorrow.

 

 

10/1: Westland- Hokitika and Franz Josef

Today we got up and visited a couple stores and galleries in Hokitika in the morning.  We were planning on playing the whole day by ear because it was raining, but it turned out not to be a big deal, it just sort of rained for literally a couple minutes and then stop a couple times an hour, all day.  Turns out it rains 240 days a year here- pretty much the opposite of Brisbane and Denver. We saw some beautiful Jade carvings and jewelry- Hokitika is famous for its “greenstone” nephrite Jade.

Then we drove down to Franz Josef, following the coast every now and then.  It was another incredible drive.  We stopped at a number of locations to take pictures- including a really pretty little lake.  It was the first day of Salmon season there according to the sign- I’m sure the salmon and trout from this lake are fantastic.

 

We got to Franz Josef and saw the glacier in the distance as we drove into town.  Since it’s the reason we’re here, we drove up to the parking lot and did a couple of short walks to view points-  make sure to check Nicole’s Flickr for pictures of everything. Seeing a glacier in the middle of lush rainforest was really weird. The valley was spectacular, with huge mountains and waterfalls- this was even more impressive than the Jonkoping glacier in Norway.

 

Since it was too late in the day to do a guided tour on the glacier itself, we went to the Hukawai Glacier Centre to do some indoor Ice Climbing- it’s the 3^rd largest of only 13 such facilities in the world.  Nicole and I geared up and gave it our best- its really tiring on your hands especially as a beginner, even though you’re supposed to use your feet more- it was a lot like rock climbing, but I think I like it a little better.  Afterwards we got some dinner, a quick soak in the hot tub, and headed to bed- we had to get up really early the next day to get to Wanaka in time for Leslie to catch her bus back to Christchurch

New Zealand: September 30- Brisbane-Christchurch-Hokitika

Our first day in NZ was…interesting to say the least.  We woke up really early to get to the airport for our 7:45 flight, went through immigration to get OUT of the country (seems a little strange), and flew to Christchurch.  Our flight was about 30 minutes late, but customs was surprisingly easy and we got the rental car place promptly to wait for almost 50 minutes before our car was finally ready, even though I pre-checked in online a few days earlier, so we got off a little later than expected. 

 

Having a day of driving under my belt from a couple weeks ago really helped- I got into the groove pretty quickly, by days’ end I didn’t have to think a whole lot about it.   We went towards the city center for a bit to try and find a place to grab a bite to eat and for Nicole to look at a jacket, but since Christchurch really isn’t all that big, despite being the center hub of the South Island, we were downtown before we knew it.  We stopped at a deli and had some sandwiches, coffee, and a nice conversation with they guys working there.  The map we had wasn’t very detailed, so the directions that they gave us to head out towards the highway we needed to be on didn’t end up working so well.  Despite being small, Christchurch is not easy to navigate behind the wheel. 

 

After we finally got on the right track, we stopped at a big Costco-like grocery store to load up on snacks for the road for the week, and were shocked at how cheap food was, especially compared to Australia.  It was comparable or maybe even a little less than what we’d pay in the states. 

 

Then we headed out on the “highway” towards the West Coast.  It’s a 2 lane road, and all of the bridges are one lane, with signs letting you know who has the right of way.  Guess they couldn’t be bothered to make the bridges 10 feet wider. Everything here is very pastoral. The drive over Arthur’s Pass and the Otira Gorge was spectacular while the sun was still out (about halfway there it got dark), and intense once it got dark.  At first it was like driving through Ireland, then it was like driving through the Alps (the Southern Alps, actually), or the Rockies back home. I got pretty good at judging how sharp the turns would be by the signs suggesting how fast to take them (just like exit ramps at home, etc.), but it was still a very concentrated drive for me, especially when we got a little bit of snow flurries.  By the way it was 95 in Brisbane the day before we left.

 

We finally made it to Hokitika at about 9:45, and stopped to see the glow-worm dell just before town- a little disappointing but still pretty neat.  That’s when the real fun began.  Hoki is a pretty small town, and by the time we checked in at about 10, everything was closed, except for this bar we found.  But it turns out it was changing hands the next day and the owners were having their last hurrah party.  A very outgoing old man named Peter quickly befriended us, bought us each a drink and got the owner to cook us up some food- but since it was changing hands they didn’t have any food on hand except for some fries and bread and butter. But we were really glad to get about a pound of hot fries and some bread to eat rather than the snacks we had in the car.  It was a great old time with country music blaring and mingling with the locals- it was a pretty small bar and these people obviously all knew each other.  But they continued the trend of Kiwi hospitality that we’ve been met with everywhere (except the rental car place) so far- and absolutely loved the fact that Leslie and Nicole were from Texas. They made us sing the Star Spangled Banner on the karaoke microphones before we left. It was truly an experience despite the difficulties earlier in the day, or in a way because of them.

Rainforest Hiking

This weekend we rented a car (more on that in a sec) and drove down to the Gold Coast Hinterland (inland from its famous namesake) to do some hiking with Becca and Beth.  I wish this post were longer, but words can't do this experience justice like the pictures can.  You can see those here on Nicole's flickr.

The driving was quite an experience. I'm the only one over 21, so I was the only one who could drive.  Driving on the left really wasn't all that bad, nor was turning, I think in part because I had spend the previous couple days thinking really hard about how to execute such things.  The weird part, though, was being on the right hand side of the car.  Having the bulk of the car be to the left and the mirrors in all different places made merging and parking quite the experience. We did have a couple not-quite-that-harrowing moments after turning left and going about 100 yards before we all realized we needed to be on the LEFT side of the road- luckily in pretty isolated areas with no cars around.  It was good practice for NZ next week.

The rainforest we walked through in Springbrook National Park was breathtaking. Its a UN World Heritage site, and since its up on these ridges has huge gorges and lookout points, and the different altitudes mean that there's like 3 different kinds of rainforest that we actually hiked through.  We saw something like 7 waterfalls, including walking right under some of them.  My mother would have died at all of the "babbling brooks" (a reference to our trip to Northern California in during the spring melt in which each runoff creek on the side of the road was exhilarating).  It was straight out of a geography textbook- we even saw a lace monitor lizard that was probably 4 feet long.  

Once again, I wish I could say more, but you've really got to look at all of the pictures- I can't stress how awesome they are.  I really wasn't expecting what we got out of the day- it was amazing despite the sore ankles and shin splints.  And the driving turned out pretty well, thankfully.

Its been a looooong time since I've blogged.

I must admit, the realization that I'm likely going to be hounded with the same questions over and over even if I do blog has created some apathy.  So if you're going to read the blog, be kind and help reduce the number of times I get asked "So how was Australia?" or "What did you do?," since this blog is sort of aimed at reducing the redundancy of such questions and keeping those interested informed.

About a month ago Nicole and I went to Sydney (make sure to check out her blog, it has pictures and such).  It was a pretty busy hotel weekend, I guess there was a mini-marathon like thing the day we left, so we ended up staying in 3 hotels in 3 nights.  

Sydney felt a lot less Australian to me, it was almost like London's little sister, just on the other side of the world.  Everything moved a lot faster and was more expensive, the mark of being the biggest, most important city for about 4,000 miles.  I liked Sydney, but I'm glad I'm living in Brisbane.

We did the obligatory Opera House (It wasn't as white and gleaming as I expected it to be) and Harbour Bridge (more impressive than I thought it would be).  We also visited the Sydney Fish Market, 2nd only to Tokyo in terms of variety. We went there twice actually.  The place was pretty awesome.  Nicole fell in love with a small little patisserie on the way where we got a mini lemon tart- twice, too. 

Sydney, despite its size and sprawling suburbs (4.5 Million) is a very walkable city, and the CBD isn't nearly as big as it looked on the map.  Darling Harbour, which I assumed would be overwhelming, was rather quaint for its size.  It has several hotels, a couple malls, the aquarium (we went there too), a maritime museum (old ships and submarines), and the convention centre.  All in all I think the 3 days we spent in Sydney were all we really needed.

The next week we went over to the South Bank Parklands early to stake out a spot for the RiverFire fireworks show- the biggest annual event in Brisbane.  Having been to Riverfest in Cincinnati several times, I had reserved expectations.  But after seeing a half hour fireworks show that encompassed 2 stretches of river (going around a corner), 10 downtown buildings, 8 barges, 2 RAAF F-111 dump and burn flyovers, and something along the lines of 3.6 tons of fireworks, it matches, maybe even surpasses Cincy's show.   It was totally overwhelming- there were fireworks going off everywhere.  Check out the finale here.

We just finalized our trip to New Zealand in 2 weeks- we're doing a whirlwind tour of the South Island, and I'm going to have an adventure driving on the wrong side of the road and car.  I promise I'll blog sooner this time.

Greetings from Sydney

Stand by for more news, we haven't really done anything yet.

Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats, and Changes of Major

As I mentioned before, last weekend Nicole and I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  Since you can get a pretty good play by play on her blog (click here), and pictures on her Flickr (click here), I'll be a little less detailed here. 

Nonetheless, hanging out with the socialized kangaroos was pretty sweet.  Probably my favorite part of the experiences, as cool as the koalas were.  The roos were just a lot more interactive, especially if you had food in your hand and they weren't already full (it was towards the end of the day, they had already eaten a lot of tourist dollars).  There were some wallabies too, and emus, which I find hilarious.  They're pretty ridiculous looking birds.  After wandering around for a while with the kangaroos and just as we were about to leave the enclosure we came across a mother nursing her joey.  

We then got to cuddle a Koala named Linus and pay another 15 bucks to have our picture taken with him (we have to scan it, it will be online shortly), in the meantime take a look above to see Nicole and our buddy.  We also saw some wombats (Jim...), a bunch of birds, crocodiles, dingoes and echidnas.

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I'm also changing my major again, I kind of missed the business mindset and have pretty much exhausted all of the geography courses of interest to me at DU. I was also kind of steered away by the Urban and Regional Design class I was going to take- it was pretty much an engineering course.  Not my cup of tea.  I'll stick to the hospitality and business side of things thank you. I've always had an interest in marketing and I've done pretty well at it, plus at this point it works out best so that I can still graduate 2 quarters early.  I'll have a BSBA in Marketing with a minor in Geography.

Noosa and the Sunshine Coast

Hell's Gates, Noosa National Park

So this weekend Leslie, Lauryn, Nicole and I went up to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast for a few days away from the city.

Noosa is a small resort town north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, less developed and more natural and local than its counterpart south of the city, the Gold Coast, which is where you find glitzy towns like Surfer's Paradise and stuff.  Noosa is much more laid back.  We did the whole thing for pretty cheap ($9 each way, plus $25 a person a night for accommodations), which was nice.  

The hinterland of the Sunshine Coast is gorgeous, and the Glass House Mountains, huge, isolated pillars of stone about 2000 feet tall, are some of the treats you see along the way from Brisbane.  We stopped and ate lunch in Nambour, a town I guess about the size of Peru.  It was cool to see a bit more rural side of Australia, deep in the heart (well, relatively) of the country.

The first night we were there we decided to go out for dinner and splurge a bit, and justified spending the money by buying groceries to cook dinner for ourselves the next night.  We went to Hastings Street, the main drag in town, and walked around a bit until we decided to go in for drinks and an appetizer at Zachary's, a gourmet pizza place. It had a bit of a low key resort town feel to it, almost like a tropical Telluride, which is what the town sort of was.   The cocktail menu was extensive, I'm not sure I've ever seen more kinds of vodka anywhere.  I had a glass of wine, but it was fun for Nicole to order a snazzy cocktail as her first legal drink. 

We then went to a cafe for dinner and more drinks.  I tried Coopers Pale Ale, hoping it would be something similar to the Pale Ales I'm used to back home.  Sadly, it wasn't.  It was pretty thin and not very bitter, just not a whole lot of flavor at all.  I've been branching out and trying some white wines (still no reds for me) because I'm sort of resigning myself to the the fact that I'm not going to get the quality of brews I'm used to in the states where the microbrew movement is 20 years old compared to Australia where its still in its infancy.  I figure if I can't have good beer, I might as well learn to enjoy something they do well here, and white wines definitely fit that bill.  The  Chardonnays I've had were great, as was the Sauvingon Blanc, but the Verdelho, (which I had never heard of, especially since I don't know wine), was a little to sweet for my liking.   The cocktails at the cafe mentioned much earlier in this monster of a paragraph were fanciful too, again fun for Nicole considering she doesn't like wine or beer.  The meal was fantastic, I had a chicken special with Tomato Risotto Cakes that was very well presented and tasted great.

The next day we went up to the National Park in Noosa Heads for some hiking.  When we got to the park there was a Koala (how fittingly Australian) perched in the eucalyptus tree right outside the park entrance.  We hiked the Tanglewood route through some deep rainforest with lush vegetation and impressive ravines and gorges.  No Koala sightings, but we did see and hear some interesting birds.  We got to the other end of the trail where it met up with the coastal route, and explored a remote beach and some rocks to one side with snails and tide pools everywhere.  The water here is really beautiful in the sense that it changes from a deep blue to a bright turquoise as it gets closer to shore. 

We then saw Hells Gates, pictured above.   We tried to take lots of pictures but like when skiing in the mountains, the scale and depth of this gorge were impossible to capture.  There wasn't a good place to take a picture of the sheer rock wall that drops at your feet.  We even saw a sea turtle swimming towards the front of it.  It was the defining experience of the trip for me.  We walked back along the Coastal Trail to finish off our hike back into town, where we ate lunch and got some magnificent ice cream from a place called Massimo's I had read about on our way there.  Massimo himself is from Italy and the ice cream is about as authentic as you get.  All in all we walked about 9 miles, on top of the 2 miles we had jogged in the morning along the river.  The next morning we played tennis, or tried to at least, before we left.  It was a pretty active trip for Nicole and I, and I'm pretty sore but it was worth it.

Check out pictures on Nicole's Flickr- links to the left, especially later today or tomorrow after we visit the Koala Sanctuary.

I'm finding that titles for posts aren't always easy to come up with...

Just a quick update:

We were going to go to the Koala sanctuary and play with some Koalas, Kangaroos, etc. today, but it was rainy so we're going to save it for another day.  

Tomorrow through Saturday we're going up to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast to hang out, do some kayaking, see some wildlife, see the beaches, and hopefully eat some good Mod-Oz (Modern Australian) food.  

Oh and I forgot to let you know how the Kangaroo turned out.  It was really lean, so kind of hard to cook, but the flavor wasn't all that different from beef or bison.  A little gamey, so if you've had Elk or Venison its sort of similar to that.  It has some definite possibilities, though.  I'll post recipes here and on the Grilling Society's website after we do some more experimentation.

More updates next week after the trip and as classes start.

Orientation and Registration

Went to orientation yesterday.  Was kind of long, and I didn't really learn a ton of new stuff, but I got a free lunch out of it, so who am I to complain?  It was Subway.  There are seriously more Subways here than there are Starbucks in an American city.  Who knew?

Registered for classes, got what I wanted, and it appears as if I'll have no Friday classes.  Tuesdays will be really busy though.  I'm taking Tourism Marketing, Marketing Planning and Management, Urban Design Practice, and either French or German.

Just waiting for Nicole to get here, pictures to come.

More adventures as a bewildered Yank

So now that I've gotten my student ID and computer registered at QUT, I'll be able to be online at more regular intervals. Of course the blog posts can't be guaranteed to always be so long either...

QUT (Queensland University of Technology) is where I'll be spending the next few months as a student. It is a pretty awesome campus, right next to the Queensland Botanical Gardens. Its an interesting combination of old (original Parliament House), sorta new (60/70's box like buildings), and new. Very urban, and much larger than DU. More about classes as time goes on.

Being on such a big winding river is really cool, it adds a lot of ambiance to the city. I'm kind of into that sort of thing as a geographer/developer...

I went to the grocery store this morning. It was a mildly traumatizing experience. Most of the produce and meat was the same, and similarly price, if not a bit more expensive. The carrots were nearly the size of my forearm. Its interesting that certain things like a candy bar or coke are A$2, where as they're about a buck back home. Lamb is only about A$5 a pound here, much more expensive back home. Deals are harder to figure out though since everything is in kilo's. I actually bought a little under a pound of Kangaroo Steak for dinner for about A$6. I'm not joking. Its supposed to be good for you (high in protein and 98% fat free) and have less impact on the environment (kangaroos need less food, water, and fart a whole lot less, which means less disruption and methane prodcution). I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Later this afternoon I'm planning on taking the ferry for kicks and giggles, moving into my room room, and we're planning on doing something like going to a bar or bowling tonight. I'll probably do laundry too cause all I'll have to do is put in a pair of jeans which got soaked with detergent when my bagged and taped shut bottle of detergent slipped its plastic bonds on the flight over here. I guess I can't complain if thats the only thing that burst.

Pictures and more remarks will come on Nicole's blog once she gets here in 3 days. (she has a camera)

First Post from Australia!

Ok, so I'm finally able to update my blog. Its been a long 2 (3?) days to say the least.

I started out leaving for the airport in Indy at 10am, and arrived at the airport in brisbane at about 4:30pm the next day. Sort of weird that I flew out of one airport in Indianapolis and I'll fly back into the shiny new one.

I flew through Denver to get to LAX, where I had about a 7 hour layover. So after lugging my bags to check in for my Qantas flight, I took a free shuttle to the Crowne Plaza, right next to 24hr Fitness to work out. Then I walked to the ATM to deposit some money, and on the way back I had to stop at In n' Out Burger, due to its reference in the Big Lebowski, and praise from anyone who has lived in California. It was good, I must say, but not the best burger I've ever had. I saw a British Airways 747 land overhead when I was walking back, and it was so close I could see the vortices coming off of the wings.

I got back to LAX, which was a complete zoo at this point in the International Terminal because of all the departures to Pacific destinations at night. Plus the gate was packed with a bunch of groups. World Youth Day is in Sydney this year, and half a million people are going to see the Pope. I think flights were so hard to come by many people were flying through Brisbane. Adding the basketball teams into the fold, I think my other DU traveling companions and I were the only travelers not on a team or in a prayer group.

The flight was shorter (13 hours) and much less stressful than I was expecting. They served supper right after we got on (I had Seared Salmon with caper butter and green beans), and sort of left you alone until breakfast time. The pillows and blankets were freshly cleaned and plastic wrapped, and the biggest and best I've ever had on an airplane. I slept, not always deeply, but slept nonetheless for a solid 9 hours of the flight, which made it really tolerable.

After clearing immigration and customs (very friendly but very serious about their restrictions), we met our driver and went to our apartments. It was so weird being on the left side of the road, even though I had done it before. Upon arrival they hadn't had time to move out the people in the apartment I'm moving into, so for the night I'm on a rollaway in the living room of someone I know.

We then walked around downtown, in the rain at first but it cleared later. I think we were ok with the rain cause it kept temperatures down. The driver remarked that we'd miss the summer because we're leaving in November, as if we would be sorry to miss the 40 degree (thats 100's in Fahrenheit) humid weather. This is a very clean, sleek, beautiful city. I purchased a cell phone and calling card, and walked around so we could gain our bearings.

Its really weird not to be constantly connected like I am in the states- I'm used to having my phone, and getting my email and checking facebook, and never losing touch with the world. Its pretty different here. No internet in the apartments (I don't feel like paying 60 bucks a month for only 5GB of transfer), and my cell phone is very spartan.

As I said before, I'm having some issues dealing with everything defaulting to the left. Its not just driving, its walking, crossing streets, and I even absent mindedly tried to go down the up escalator before seeing the people coming towards me. Its sort of odd.

But so far everyone we've met has been very friendly, so what they say about Australians being laid back and friendly is true. Despite everything being expensive and level 6 water restrictions (Queensland is in its worst dry spell in over a century. 4 minute showers are suggested), this seems like a pretty happy city and an interesting place to spend the next few months.

Welcome!

As I write this I'm a week away from arriving in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicole (my girlfriend) and I will be studying abroad for a semester, July through November.

Periodically, as adventures ensue, I'll be posting pictures and stories on here to keep all of you that are interested updated.