Goodbye Oz and N-Zed

Tonight is our last official night in Australia as tomorrow we'll be flying back to the States. We've had a blast! Here's a recap/highlights of of what we've done in Sydney after coming back from New Zealand.

The Thursday we got back we pretty much just vegged the whole day. After being deprived of a regular internet source, Young and I spent a good couple of hours on reddit/sc (former) and perezhilton/facebook/sfgate (latter). We took nappy naps as we had woken up at 4:00 in the AM. The rest of the day was a blur... probably not too eventful.

On Friday, we checked into our hostel "D-Lux" in the King's Cross district. Housing Sydney's sex shops, strip-clubs, prostitutes, and drunken tourists, it's the city's "seedy underbelly" and red-light district. Young and I arrive and decide that it doesn't seem as shady as people make it out to be. After dropping our stuff off in our room, we head to Luna Park, Sydney's Coney Island-like theme park (they even have a part of the park called "Coney Island"). We don't stay too long as it wasn't as exciting as we hoped. The highlight of that outing was Young winning two stuffed monkeys in an attempt to win the grand-prize of a large, stufffed Toad (the Mario character). He named them Spelunky and Top-Bunky. We take the train back across the Harbour Bridge and decide to get off a couple of stops before the one we were supposed to get off at in order to walk around the downtown shopping area. We walk through Sydney's CBD (Central Business District) and along Oxford Street, the LGBT Castro-like area of the city, and find a really great Thai place to eat at. For 32 AUD$ we ate like kings and had some prrreetty tasty Pad Thai and Fried Rice with fatty prawns. We get back to our hostel an hour early to go on the hostel's free "pub-crawl." As we hang out in our room, Young passes out as he has been GG'd all day (starting with that JD he decides to put in his double shot espresso in the early afternoon). I drag him out of bed an hour later and we go on the pub crawl, which turns out to be pretty lame. But, we did have fun at the "I heart indie" themed bar night, people watching and such. We ditch the pub crawl after the 2nd bar and learn how shady that part of town could really get with all these aggressive guys trying to get you into their strip clubs, hookers trying to solicit you, and crack-heads running around and causing scenes. We walk back down to Oxford to see what that scene was like and decide to just head back to the hostel and call it a night. Saturday morning we decide to head to Paddy's Market near Chinatown. On the way it starts to pour like mad/crazy cats and dogs. We arrive to Paddy's Market with wet arms and soggy socks and shoes. After a good afternoon of browsing and souveneir-shopping, we head over to the Museum of Contemporary Art later in the day. Thankfully, it was a lot smaller than we thought so we were able to get through everything we wanted to see. Highlights of the MCA included the photography of Edward Weston, Walker Evans, and Ansel Adams amongst an Australian local (Maynard) who focused on an indigenous island culture. There was also this really nice exhibit on artists who work with words. Back at the hostel we dry-off and enjoy a free barbeque dinner with wine. After enjoying a couple of great sausages each, Young passes out again and I end up watching the end of "In Good Company," and "The Wedding Date" on TV. Thankfully, Young wakes up just in time for me to not have to watch the creepy "Mullholland Drive" by myself

Sunday morning we check out of our hostel to return to Young's aunt's house in Bankstown (a residential suburb of Sydney). I end up taking a 5-hour long nap (!) for reasons unclear (food coma/fighting swine flu?) and Young again catches up with the interwebs. We eat a nice dinner with his aunt and uncle.

Today, we had an unexpectedly great day! We end up starting the day with a big lunch at the nearby Centro Bankstown shopping mall and then going to Woolworths to pick up 56 $AUD of Tim-Tams (the great Australian cookie treat). We later laugh about this as Young realized he got $20 worth of Tim-Tams for himself (one package in every flavor/lol fatty), while I bought the Tim-Tams for people back home. After we get back to his Aunt's, we decide to take a gamble and take the train into the city to buy $25 last minute, over-the-counter tickets to tonight's symphony at the Sydney Opera House instead of buying them online for upwards of 60 bucks. We'd been looking for an opportunity to see a show or concert there during this whole trip and this seemed like our last opportunity... Luckily enough we got tickets in BOMB-ASS seats. The tickets were easily 90 dollars when I looked at them online and to top it off the symphony was great!!! We heard Tchaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto and a symphony from Walton. We both seemed to like the first one more. To make a great night even better, we splurge on this ice cream place that we've seen a billion people eating at and find out that our forrest berry/blood-orange two-scoop combo is amazing and worth every penny (which like Europe by the way, they actually don't use in Australia). We took the train back to Bankstown and here we are!

We fly back to Cali tomorrow.

Ro-to-ru-a

So who’d have thought that you’d pronounce it exactly as it’s spelled? Anyways, on Sunday morning (6/14), we woke up early and checked out of the Formule 1 Hotel in Auckland to drive down to Rotorua. On our way there, we stopped by Matamata for the highly anticipated LORD OF THE RINGS tour (!!!) of the Hobbiton set. FYI, Hobbiton is where the wee/tricksy hobbitses live in the Shire. The tour was prreetttyy awesome if I say so myself. Peter Jackson really knew what he was doing when he picked that place. The naturally rolling hills were so lush! Young and I enjoyed the area practically to ourselves as we were the only ones scheduled for the tour at that time. We learned that most of the hobbit holes except for Bags End (Bilbo’s home) were just facades. That one was the only one you could actually walk into! They were also only left as pictured due to copyright issues from the movie studio. So Young danced around the Party Tree, we hugged it, and took a ton of pictures of us being silly hobbitses. Also, since the Hobbiton set is actually on a working sheep farm, we got to see a sheep shearing demo and bottle-feed some lambs (c-ute!).
After arriving to Rotorua, we decided to walk around and explore the city’s famed natural geothermal vents and mudpools. We let the sulfur smell sink in and walked until we couldn’t walk anymore.

The next day we ventured to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland as well as Waimangu Volcanic Valley in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The only thing that both Wai-O-Tapu and Waimangu were missing were some dinosaurs. It was some pre-historic shiz with all the steam vents and bubbling pools. We arrived just in time to see the Lady Knox geyser erupt. The geysers, bubbling mud pools, and natural formations were incredibly amazing and the pictures do no justice to their greatness! At the volcanic preserve, we walked through a park which had been wiped out by a volcanic eruption, but has completely regenerated (not the right word I’m looking for). Like the rest of our New Zealand pictures, these images can’t really convey how beautiful NZ truly is!

On our second to last full day in NZ we went caving in the Waitomo Caves. We got all wet-suited up and started our “Black Labyrinth” adventure with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. The water was freezing, but incredibly worth it! We navigated our way though the cave, floated in inner-tubes, saw the famous glow-worms, and learned that the best way to jump off waterfalls with your tube is backwards, standing up, and with your tube on your bum! Young and I decided that this event was the best bang-for-our-buck thing we did so far and if we ever go back again we’d do the more extreme adventure caving tour they have with abseiling/crazy leaping.

Back in Auckland the next day, we drove around the all the places we had yet to see. We went to a couple of great National Parks in the Auckland area and explored the northern suburb of Devonport (where we finally came to the revelation that we should have been going to libraries for free wi-fi all along) and later Ponsonby and K-road, supposedly where all the really hip/young kids hang out. After, contemplating how to spend the rest of our New Zealand dollars, we went back to that chocolate store in Parnell and got one last piece of that scrumptious chocolate mud-cake! The next morning, we high-tailed it out of Auckland and flew back to Sydney, where we’ve been spending our last couple of days.

P.S. Young wanted me to write a joke about how Rotorua sounds like the company “Roto-Rooter” and probably smells like it too.

Huge Update (And Summer Nights!!!)

Summary of days missed:

Cairns was nice, but the place is just smoke and mirrors. Although it seems like it could be a perfect vacation town, if you go to the beach it is actually just a big swamp. The locals like to gather at a pool that is next to the swamp to sunbathe and pretend that they are at the beach. It's kinda stupid.

However, Cairns is the home-base for travelers interested in seeing the Great Barrier Reef. Travelers such as ourselves. We got in on Wednesday, but did nothing but enjoy having the most reliable internet we have had all trip. I caught up with the recent MSL while Lauren went on Pares Halton. btw if you ever go to Cairns, stay at Koala Court. It is truly top notch.

We spent Thursday in Kuranda. We took the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway up, enjoying some great views on our way to the old town. We did some nice walks, which exhausted us and gave us a huge appetite. For lunch, I had a kangaroo pie and emu sausage hotdog (!). It was really good, though everyone else was really disgusted. For your information, kangaroo tastes like "ground beef and tuna" (lauren's words) while emu tastes like "a bland breakfast sausage" (again, words lauren's). We then had the opportunity to hold a koala (!) and take a picture with it in our arms, but it was something like $40. Bleugh.

Friday we sailed out to the Great Barrier Reef. We opted to go with the most expensive company, Quicksilver, because we wanted the best experience we could possibly get. After an hour's drive up to Port Douglas from Cairns, we sailed out for another hour and a half to the outer rim of the reef, where the continental shelf drops off. It was truly a great experience. For now we only have pictures from the boat. We did take an underwater disposable when we went snorkeling, and will get the pictures developed soon. I don't think those pictures will be too great because I was so excited and shot my wad too quickly (finished the roll) on stupid little fish. If I was more patient, I would have gotten great shots of different types of reef and other interesting fish. However, I did not find out about these until a crew member pointed out this "goldmine" of sights to us.
On Saturday we relaxed all day, and flew back to Sydney at night.

On Sunday, my dad's friend picked us up and drove us out to Canberra, Australia's capitol. First, he took us to a dim sum restaurant that his friend (my father's friend's friend) owned where we had lunch for free. We looked at some cool buildings like the Old Parliament Building, as well as the new Parliament Building and toured both their Senate and House of Representatives chambers.
So remember that episode of the Simpson's where they try to boot Bart? What they were making fun of was this: the House of Representatives has this ceremonial mace, which is like a glorified talking piece, that someone carries in when the House starts its session. The analogue for the Senate is this black rod with a steel tip. There is a special position called "Bearer of the Mace" and another called "Bearer of the Rod," whose sole duty it is to bring in the mace (or rod) at the start of the session (these are two separate people, mind you). They can't start sessions without these guys, either. So if someone misplaces the big black rod, they can't even do their frickin' jobs!
Monday we went to the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney. We walked through their fake-ish preserved rainforests (like the ones in Kuranda) and saw some cool sights. That night, we had some DANK ass JUICY lobster.
On Tuesday, we started the day by going to Olympic Park before taking a ferry from the park into the Circular Quay. We then had a fancy lunch (steak for me, nice couple days of food eh) before climbing up in one of the pylons of the Harbor Bridge. We then went up in the Sydney Tower.

Wednesday, we left for New Zealand early in the morning (my parents' flight back to LA was later that night) and arrived in Auckland. We are staying at the Formule 1 in downtown proper as I speak, and have been here for 3 nights already. Tomorrow morning we will check out and drive down to Rotorua, visiting Hobbiton along the way. The days in Auckland have been nice. The first day we just relaxed and walked around the city. On the second day, we took a day trip to Waiheke island, kayaking and biking around just taking it all in.On Friday, we flew out to the Great Barrier Island in a small 8 passenger plane. The weather was none too hospitable, though. We drove around the island looking at the beautiful beaches.

Today, we visited different districts of Auckland (Parnell and New Market, I guess we can hit Ponsonby when we come back). One of the highlights was this chocolate cafe where I had 2.5 shots of espresso (gg) and and nice cake. New Market was a bit more happenin', and we walked around people watching and window shopping. At night we saw "the Hangover" which was funny, but the experience was made more interesting because we were watching it with a bunch of Kiwis. They all thought it was so cool, and there were many whispers about Las Vegas after the movie. It was sad to think that most of those poor saps won't ever get to see how fucking boring Las Vegas really is.

Gold Coast, Brisbane

Gold Coast:
We were scheduled to stay at the Gold Coast for 3 days, although there is not really that much to do there. It would have been nice to spend the whole time relaxing on the beach, but it is much
too windy to spend any time there. On Monday and Tuesday we did not do much but relax at our hotel and occasionally eat kebabs and soft serve. The streets are fun to walk at night; I was particularly tickled by this store, "Condom Kingdom." It's from the new school of sex shops that, along with DVDs and toys, sells gelato in the front of the store like so many of the shops in Italy. I guess their business model really works though, as there are two of these shops on the main thoroughfare in Surfers Paradise. Maybe this is just a strange part of town because I there are also a lot of places where people can dress up as cowboys and take olde-timey sepia-tone pictures in a mock saloon setting. Lauren and I once passsed on and saw a family all dressed up: the father was a sheriff, the mother some sort of whore worked at the Inn (see: Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood). I forget what the children were.

Brisbane:
On our third day we decided to rent a car to drive up north to Brisbane. When we arrived, we parked at the museum because it was $12 for the whole day. This was fortuitous as it started raining as soon as we left the parking structure - we could simply peruse the free exhibits while waiting for the rain to stop. It was truly our lucky day because Brisbane has excellent museums, which we did not realize beforehand. Initially, we had thought that there was nothing of interest in Brisbane, but only went to check it out and get away from the Gold
Coast. Although there was an exhibit on American Expressionism on loan from the Met, I don't really understand that stuff too much so I wanted to head to their Gallery of Modern Art. I was worried about spending too much time at a museum because my parents don't really like western art and always ask me what the pieces mean. I was relieved to find that the main exhibit at the the GoMA was The China Project, which "explores developments in contemporary Chinese art over the past thirty years." A lot of it was about the legacy of the cultural revolution, which my parents could relate to. I really enjoyed some of the pieces, like this expressionist calligraphy, "The Universe Is Within Our Hearts,"

Lauren really liked this one, I forget what it was called:

We both liked this piece, "Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: A Myth Glorified or Feared," which was made by igniting gunpowder on the canvas to imitate the stylized dragons found in ancient Chinese art. Cool huh?
After the museum, we walked around the city center a bit, but it kept raining which it prevented
us from seeing too much of the city. Before we drove back to the Gold coast we stopped at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT, cyooooot, "cute," get it?), whose campus is surrounded by a Royal Botanical Gardens. We fancied ourselves photographers for a moment and used the macro feature of the camera on this cool flower we saw, which I leave you with.

I bet you've never seen a baby koala before

See the baby koala!?

12 Apostles

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Greetings from The Gold Coast!

Sorry for the infrequent updates! Australia pretty much has little to no free internet! We're currently hanging out at the local McDonald's as this is the only place that has free wifi. So, we're suffering from really slow internet and incredibly loud (and often terrible) music...

Anyways, we've been at The Gold Coast for a couple of days now in a place called "Surfer's Paradise." While we haven't been surfing, we've been to the beach a couple of times (though too cold/windy) to do anything but just sit for a while. We're staying at a beach front holiday apartment place and we have an AMAZING view from our window of the beach. Weather has been off and on. Last night it poured like crazy for a few hours and today it was as sunny as could be.

Tomorrow we're making a day trip to Brisbane before flying from Brisbane to Cairns/The Great Barrier Reef the next day. I'm really excited about that! We're going on a day cruise out to the reef and will probably snorkel and have all sorts of fun.

The computer is dying/I can't stand much more of the McDonalds smell/music.

Until later!
- Lauren