Surfin' Surfari!

We finally got a visitor from our homeland this week - my Dad has flown in for two weeks of touring the land Down Under. Our roommate generously lent us his car so we could meet Dad at the airport, and I spent the hours before he arrived holding back emotional floodgates. I have never spent more than 6 weeks away from my family, and I still live in the town where I grew up. It's been 9 months now since I left home and while I adore the adventures, the separation from family and friends is painful at times. Despite my best efforts, I appeared puffy and red.

Though Chris and I arrived in Brisbane 9 months ago when we first landed in Australia, we are presently visiting the city for the first time. South Bank is where we launch ourselves with ample opportunity to stretch our legs on the promenade adjacent the muddy Brisbane River. The neighborhood is charming with its floral vines winding their way up beautiful metal arches that frame manicured parkland for the enjoyment of busy city-dwelling locals and tourists alike. We stroll past the Nepalese Pagoda, a relic from the 1988 World Fair, and through a lush rainforest boardwalk. Like many cities in Australia, there is a lagoon for swimming along the waterfront (river), celebrated by fountains and water features and surrounded by palms. There is even sand lining the pool bottom so you can pretend you are at the beach. A lifeguard is even on duty lest you try to drown in the challenging 3ft depths.

Back in Byron we show Dad our favorite spots: surfing at Watego's and the Pass, hiking to the lighthouse, beers at the Beachy, the Thursday morning farmers market, more beer and live music at the Rails - which has steel barrels out in winter for warm fires - and of course dinner and drinks at the Northern where Chris and I both worked. Small town that it is, we run into friends everywhere and I'm sure Dad was immediately overwhelmed by names and accents.

Our road trip gets off to a rocky start because we're simultaneously moving out of our house, storing half our luggage at a friend's, and saying goodbye to Byron, while adapting to life in a cramped but stylish 7 meter campervan. Being an obsessive planner oddly does not help in this situation because I'm wired with stress until I can map out our stops on a calendar where we can all see - and stick to - The Plan. I had already researched all possible pit stops between Byron and Cairns with activities in each location. The first three days already strayed from The Plan and I began to accept that road trips on the massive scale of Australia cannot have a solid path for only two weeks of travel. Then it starts to rain. No problem, our surfari continues on unmarred.

First stop: Noosa. I had thought having a campervan meant we wouldn't have to pay for accommodation, but apparently this is not true. Instead you pay $30 a night for a slab of concrete to park next to. We stay at the Noosa River Holiday Park in Noosaville, which has its own beach, a nice outdoor grilling area and adorable ducks. Occasional pelican. The next morning is gray and drizzly, but we strap on our wet suits and head for Sunshine Beach. The ocean is raging a bit, but we're all pumped to surf so we paddle out anyway. After 20 minutes of straight paddling, we are still stuck in the breakers and have drifted several yards down the beach. I did catch one wave, but was so tired I didn't have the energy to ride it out. Exhausted, we talk to the life guard and he tells us to try Tea Tree, a nice little right-hander point break. We drive back into town and head for the beach. The water is calm with a small but precise 1-2 foot swell. Dad is having a blast on his 9-ft longboard, and already chatting with the local surfers. After a chilly day in the water, we are eager for a hot shower and pizza. Back in town we stumble upon Zachary's, and enjoy delicious, inventive thin crust pizzas and stubbies of Boags beer - that's right it's happy hour!

In the morning we're off to Fraser Island for a day trip with Fraser Adventure Tours. Many of the other tours cancelled for the day due to the weather. Hailing from Seattle, we are prepared to experience the world's largest sand island come rain or dingo. The tide is low in both the morning and afternoon, so we are lucky today because we can drive on the beach the whole day, avoiding the highways. After taking the cable ferry from Noosa (just what it sounds: a large metal platform you drive onto - "the ferry" - that follows two underwater cables, much like a train follows tracks), we drive onto Rainbow Beach, which boasts over 72 different colors in its soaring nature-painted cliffs. Driving up the beach for an hour we pass the friendly waves of Aussies camping for the weekend in palatial tent compounds that somehow fold back into their truck beds when they return home. These people know how to camp. Australia's slowest ferry then takes us from the mainland beach to the shark-infested shores of Fraser Island. No swimming here, due also to a fierce undertow that we're told is certain to get you if the sharks don't find you first. We spy several dingos (who are in their mating season and extra aggressive this time of year), osprey, and eagles.

There's morning coffee on the beach next to a freshwater stream stained brown from the tea tree leaves on the shore, the water has magic healing powers for your skin, we're told. Lake McKenzie is waiting for us at the top of a glorious sand hill through the forest, which our bus/garbage van navigates with ease. Since it was too cold to swim last time, Chris leaps in with great excitement. Dad and I are soon jealous and join him for a dip. We then get a delicious BBQ lunch in a dingo-fenced enclosure. Three fat Kookaburra are perched in the tree above waiting for us to finish. After lunch we take a stroll through the rainforest alongside a crystalline creek. Beautiful white bark trees and prehistoric King Ferns line the trail. I have fallen behind with all my picture taking and I hear 10 Japanese girls expressing great excitement "ohhhhhhhh!!!!!!" and clapping. At this point I'm fairly certain it's because my darling husband is climbing a strangler fig vine. Yup, it's true. Back onto the garbage truck and off we go on our long, beautiful journey to Noosa. There's an awful lot of time in the car on this trip, but there's so much to look at, and fantastic stories about the history, floras and fauna of the island that you don't even mind.

The next day is a driving day. Our goal: Town of 1770 for a last surf in Australia. It's the last town in Queensland where surfing is safe. Further north is the land of crocs and stingers (jelly fish!).

The Graceful Ukulele

I awoke one morning with a new and crazy ambition. All night long I had been sitting on the beach strumming a ukulele, singing in my dreams. I was so happy; the warm breeze in my hair, white sand beneath my toes...oh yeah, and I was good! So began my journey to master the Hawaiian Ukulele.

Now, this did seem impulsive...especially since we're backpacking and on a strict budget. We gave it three days and 30 uke songs before caving and visiting the Byron music store. We tried several varieties and settled on a small concert uke. It sounds great when played solo, which is just what we have planned for that little instrument. In fact, it will soon be accompanying us on a road trip with my dad where I'm envisioning camp fires and cold beer with a friendly ukulele and the ocean for backup.

A petite sand crab!

I've always wanted to learn the guitar but, much to my mother's dismay, I never acquired the patience or dedication to practice and learn to play songs other than Nirvana's Plateau (actually, I suppose it's the Meat Puppets, I just preferred Cobain).
Chris and I dove into YouTube, finding loads of "how to" videos and started playing. After attempting Johnny Cash proved too challenging for a first song, Chris moved on to Brown Eyed Girl. I settled on the Moldy Peaches, Anyone Else But You. Two gloriously easy chords and five minutes later I was a uke player! Long way to go before I allow myself the title of "master" but I'm on my way. The hardest part is singing and playing the ukulele at the same time. In case anyone else is interested, we found two amazing websites that are extrememly helpful: Uke Hunt (good for selecting an instrument and has a nice beginner's guide you can download as a PDF), and Ukulele Underground (great instructional videos, love Aldrine!). It turns out, I've forgotten how to play Plateau, sorry Mom!

There's a great video of Chris playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on our favorite Beach, The Wreck. I have to spend some time editing it because he's worried about looking bad :D  Hope to upload later today so you can all see where we spend all our time.

ANZAC Day!

For those who aren't in the know - April 25 was ANZAC day!

So, having just lived through the experience, I will attempt to share all the excitement.

ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and so here in Australia (and maybe NZ as well?) it's a national holiday. Originally marking the first major action of the ANZAC forces in WWI, now it more generally commemorates all those who have fought and died in military action. In my experience, it is one of the most poignant and important holidays on the Australian calendar.

The run-up to ANZAC day was noticeable, active and former service men and women, all dressed up the nines were to be seen aplenty. As with all national holidays, a majority of Australians have the day off of work, and so traditions have sprung up to fill the free time. All across the country, early-morning marches set out from memorial parks (of which Australia has plenty!) - we are talking about 5:00 AM early here. Upon the return to the memorial park, how else do the Australians celebrate, than with beer and food!

Around noon, the real fun starts.

Two Up!

Again, for those who aren't in the know, Australians love to gamble. And drink. So, with that in mind, once a year (ANZAC Day!) a very specialized and interesting gambling game is made legal, and pubs all over the nation host a party for the event. Having the day off of work ourselves, we decided to go along for the ride, and experience our first game of Two Up!

Two Up, apparently, is synonymous with ANZAC Day. In this game, which in my eyes must have been carefully formed over generations, a large ring or square is erected on the floor in an open room. Inside the box, one or two 'callers' help facilitate the game, while a chanting, hollering, cheering (and drinking!) crowd lines the outside. A person from the crowd is selected to be the 'spinner', which is replaced every round, or as often as someone else wants a shot at it.

I've just placed a bet...

In Two Up, the spinner is given a paddle, on which three coins are placed. With one hand, and just one hand, the spinner flips the paddle, sending the coins spinning in the air. Prior to this spin, a round of betting takes place. The betting is simple: Do you think that the majority of the coins will fall on heads, or tails?

With a big crowd around the ring, there are plenty of people willing to take either side of the coin, on each round of betting. The betting itself, and seemingly the game as a whole, is highly de-centralized and unregulated. While there are specific rules, all of the betting is facilitated directly between the gamblers themselves. Given the aforementioned drinking, its easy to see why this is limited only to a special once-a-year celebration.



Here the 'spinner' is sending the coins up.

The betting itself is simple. There is no 'house' in Two Up, as the gamblers enter a free-for-all of money changing amongst themselves. In our experience, bets ran from $10 on the low end, to $200 on the high end. When you would like to place a bet, you grab whichever bills you are betting, lets say a $10 note, and tap it against your head if you want to bet on heads, or your bum if you want tails. Meanwhile, you scan the crowd to identify someone who is tapping the same denomination note, against the opposite part of their body. IE: I'm tapping $10 on my head, I look for someone tapping $10 on their rump. We make eye contact, perhaps nod to one another. This is all that is needed to solidify the bet. More formally, the person betting on heads will collect the other persons bet, and set it on the ring. Now all the money is all on the table, and a bet is clearly and safely agreed on, thus limiting the opportunity for disagreements, which in Australia means fighting.

The coins are flipped, and as long as they have gone high enough into the air, and none of them have touched or gone outside of the box, the majority is called for heads or tails, and the next round of betting ensues. When heads wins, the winner generally has the money at their feet, they bend over and grab it. When tails wins, there is a minor melee as the winners go to meet up with the losers who hold their money. Since it is a 1 to 1 bet, and there is no house, its basically a game of double-or-nothing, with 50% odds. Bet $10, win $10 more. That's as good as it gets in gambling, which makes this game fun. This generally will run from 12:00 noon, until 6:00 PM.

'Callers' collecting the coins after a spin.

Well, I think that was a pretty good description of what goes down. What I couldn't really describe, is the yelling, hollering, and general fun and goodwill. Despite the clearly visible opportunity for some fairly serious fights (I mean, who bets $200 on heads or tails, in a completely de-regulated environment, with 100 other people confusing things!?) it was a great experience. People were all having fun, and we didn't see any arguments, let alone fights.




After a long day of drinking and gambling, the weary Australians head home for an early night, in the hopes of making it to work the next day. (to middling success)

Random Updates!

The other weekend was the 23rd Annual Byron Bay Bluesfest! Its one of the biggest weeks every year here in Byron, and we simply couldn't miss out on it. We acquired some tickets to attend Thursday (opening day!) and had a blast! We saw Ziggy Marley (Bob Marley's oldest son), as well as a really fun cool group called Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. We had a really great time, but sadly, all good things must come to an end. In this case a fairly early one, as Krissy had shift in the bar at 10:00, so we left the festival around 8:30. That will definitely be one very cool memory from Byron!




Also, the less fun stuff... work. Krissy is running up against the limits of her visa with her job at the Great Northern Hotel here in Byron Bay. We are only allowed to work for a single employer for up to 6 months. Since her first night was Halloween, that means the end of this month no more work for her! Since I had been not working for a while, its only fair that she take some time off! Yay! We will likely be heading out of Byron not too long beyond that anyway. The good news is that I am working again! Apparently Krissy spent enough time moaning about me not working, that her boss offered me a job! I started on Easter weekend working in the restaurant, making pizzas! Apparently, now having worked at the two best pizza spots in Byron, and with two separate Italian Pizzaiolo, I have picked up a trade. Strange how life works! Regardless, if I do say so myself, I make some amazing hand-tossed pizza! Maybe we should open a restaurant when we get home?


We are VERY excited that Krissy's dad, Paul, is coming out to visit! He will meet us here in Byron, in the middle of May, and we will travel a bit from here. Very excited to show him our home away from home, and have some family here with us! Right now we are planning on going north to Cairns with Paul, and when he heads home, we will go to Asia! We are looking at spending 1-2 months (lets see how far we can stretch our cash) travelling through Bali, Thailand, Java, and potentially Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and more! Those are very very popular tourist destinations for Australians. Not only is it beautiful and tropical, but there is great surf, and its DIRT CHEAP. How cheap? A nights lodging in a private room is likely to cost us between $5 and $10. Food and water (bottled) for two people for a day? $15. Based on our Australian salaries, that's something less than 1 hour of work to support us both for a day. Not bad! For comparison's sake, a night in a hostel (8 bed shared dorm) here in Byron was costing us over $40/night! Food? How about another $30-$40 per day (and that's eating cheap!). Ouch.


Finally, one last note, our tenants moved out last month. Apparently, and we should have realized this before (or at least our real-estate agent who we hired to deal with this stuff should have told us!) since he is in the military and received orders to leave, he can just break the lease with no recourse for us. As a result, the house is sitting empty for all of April, with no rent coming back to us. Lame! Then, the rent we earn in May gets paid to the agent as his fee for finding another tenant, and getting the house rented. Ouch. The good news is that we did find a new tenant, and received notice just today that the lease has been signed. Unfortunately again, its another 12-month lease. That means we wont have the chance to get back into our house until May 2013. We have talked about renting an apartment in Kirkland or Seattle for the winter, but we will just have to play it by ear. So, that's all rather sad, and was slightly stressful. I'm all for supporting our troops, but its kind of hard to loose out on several thousand dollars as a result of military personnel being able to break all contracts when they receive orders. It seems to me like there should be some sort of way to recuperate some of that cost, but sadly I did a bit of looking, and I think we are just out of luck.


 Wow, a lot said there... So I really should have been blogging more. I'll try to be better!

Arrivederci Means Goodbye.

Well, it has been quite a while since I have blogged here. Partially, its an indication of life here: A lot less adventuring lately, a lot more time working, and just hanging out with friends. That said, I really should be updating more often, as there is plenty to share! That will have to come a bit later however.

Our good friend and roommate, Luca, has left to head home to Italy. Arrivederci amico! It has been really nice for me to have a guy roommate that I can hang out with. Krissy loves to hang out with her friends from work. However when we aren't surfing, running, or otherwise enjoying the outdoors, I'm more of a hang around at home kind of guy, so it was great to have a friend right here at the house! Previously we mentioned his AMAZING "Lasagna Genovese" - truly an incredibly tasty dish, that is worth sharing with the world. How had we never heard of this? We have also heard many tales of the focaccia from Genoa - something apparently we must try. Sadly, focaccia of this sort is ONLY available in Genoa, not even 20 kilometers outside of the city. Clearly, we will need to head to Italy.

Soon.

I Wanna Go Surfing!

The surf board is finally done!!! Check out the photos - I am so impressed we pulled off the paint job this well. Now I just have to be confident surfing it and not worry about scratching the paint job. Two cans of clear coat, hopefully it's enough. I'm starting to dream about a new job designing surfboards for Volcom or Roxy/Quicksilver...lovin' this life!

The finished product

Before

Back of the board

Surf Competition

Apollo, world's cutest puppy

We are stoked for the Volcom surf competition this weekend, mostly because it's at the Wreck, a place we surf at multiple times a week. This is also just a 5 minute walk from our house. It's our first surf competition and we're expecting Awesome. We wake up to rain and decide maybe we won't spend the whole day on the beach like we planned. But the gardener just arrived and he has the world's cutest Border Collie puppy. Yes, most puppies are cute, but this one is worth dognapping.

After playing with this cutie all morning and hoping the rain will stop, we venture forth with an old pair of jeans (Volcolm is donating them to the homeless) in search of Volcom swag and some good rides. It turns out this is a "grom" competition and all the competitors are under 18. I'm confident this 5-year-old rides better than I will in the next 3 years, at least. Impressive. There are loads of kids wandering around, a few have put on Volcom stone suits and wrestle each other until they fall over, hilarious. There's also a dj who pulled up in a Redbull branded British taxi that transforms into a badass turntable station. Beach party all day.

The Wreck

The jeans have won us some cardboard speakers and a handful of trucker hats that resemble The Creation of Adam, where Jesus hands jeans to the needy much like that famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

It's really fun watching the competition, but if you're not a surfer you probably wouldn't understand what's happening and become extremely bored.

Volcom Stone wrestling suits