Kiwis and Squeaky Sand

Soooo I fail at updating this regularly but I'm at least going to attempt to catch up from my last post here. To sum up my kiwi adventure, I had a hell of a great time and hope to find myself there again someday. Had my first bball game Monday night which considering basketball's popularity here and the state of our team went pretty well. We played better than I think any of us expected and only ended up losing by a few points. Got two games tomorrow night, which I'm sure we're going to rock!

The week cruised by pretty quickly as usual. Got to see Taylor play in his first rugby game Wednesday night and other than a long overdue haircut nothing overly exciting happening until the end of the week. Friday morning, Fuster, Shazza, and I boarded a bus to the Moreton Bay Research Center on Stradbroke Island for our first research field trip for our Australian Marine Biology course. Jeeves and a few other Dson girls had gone the prior weekend and had brought back rave reviews of beautiful beaches and constant feedings so we were pretty pumped. We had ended up going out to a club the night before so after hopping on the bus at 7:30 I slept for the majority of our 90min bus/ferry ride to the center but once we got there it was go Go GO!

The weather was absolute crap and on the beach it was even windier and colder with some intermittent rain but we all braved the elements to go out while it was still low tide. We were broken up into groups of 8 and went out with PhD students who showed us all the cool things to be found in the sand, seagrass, and rocks. We were literally fed every three hours so of course despite going in and out of the cold I was quite happy! Just before dinner we went out during high tide to do some seining and actually were able to catch a bunch of different fishies as well as a male and female sting ray which were doing ummm male/female things prior to us catching them. Sorry!

The next day was nonstop research: we formulated a hypothesis that on the pipes running into the water we would find more different species the further away from shore you went, created an experiment with random sampling to test our hypothesis, analyzed the results (we were right of course :P), and then had to create and give a powerpoint presentation to the tutors and other students. We did all of this in ONLY 10 HOURS!!! By the time we had made it through the the last presentation I basically walked back to our room, flopped into bed, and promptly fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning (Sunday/today) we roused our tired selves, got some bfast, packed up, and headed out on the bus to Point Lookout to do a gorge walk along the shore. Found out that Moreton Bay is home to the largest permanent population of bottlenose dolphins and is a popular spot for whale watching! The views were spectacular and we actually saw a few humpback whales playing around out in the distance. We stopped for some delicious homemade gelato (I had passionfruit cheesecake along with strawberry mango cream!) before heading to the beach. The sand was some of the whitest and most beautiful sand I've ever seen and was so fine that when you stepped in the dry areas it actually made a squeaking sound! It was a bit chilly because of the strong winds coming off the bay but I allowed myself to be coaxed into swimming around in the water for a bit before relaxing in the sun and "tanning".

We didn't have anywhere near as much time on the beach as we would've liked but eventually it was time to head back. Before long we were back at Cromwell College and Fuster and I had to catch up on what is called Ball LineUp. At the end of September, Cromwell is going to have its ball, called Ballistic this year, which is basically like a sort of prom/formal. Each semester the guys and gals take turns with which gender will do the asking to ball and this time around it was the guys turn. Basically what happens is that all the guys lined up to ask to bring their preferred partner. The catches are that people were allowed to start lining up nearly a week ago, though only a few guys started that early. Most started lining up on Friday or Saturday so for most of the weekend there was a line of guys chilling in the hallway outside of the room of the guy, Randy, who was in charge. Now people weren't expected to stay there the entire time, most guys worked as a pair taking turns standing in line so they could have the option of eating, going to uni, etc. So by 4:00pm today when the asking actually started, most of the Cromwell guys were lined up, aside from Fuster and I who only got back from Moreton Bay just after 5. This actually worked out alright for us, because although we missed all of the fun of lining up we arrived after the line was completely gone and simply had to walk in, take a look at the list of remaining girls and make our pick. Despite being so late in the process, we were quite happy with our partner choices.

So now all of the Cromwell guys have their partners but the gals currently have no idea who asked picked them and I'm not entirely clear on the details but we'll be giving them clues and such for awhile leading up to Ball. Some weekend before ball, Fuster, the other Lockley guys, and myself will be taking our dates on a little trip up to either the Sunshine Coast or perhaps even a bit further north than that. As I said, the details of everything are still quite fuzzy for me but as things progress I'll be sure to update things here.

Continuing on with the busyness of this weekend, after picking dates for ball, and having dinner, I went to my first Dancefest practice. Dancefest is going to be sometime in the first week of October where each of the residential colleges will put on a dance and I'm assuming there will be judges and a winner of some sorts. Anyway, I am about as white as they get when it comes to dancing and prior attempts at taking part in a dance line have been compared to a mentally challenged bird of some sort. Nonetheless I feel like I did fairly well and it should be a lot of fun.

Anyway, that about catches things up though as always I know I've left thousands of cool things out and will be kicking myself about them for the next few days saying I should blog about them but in two weeks when I get around to actually doing my next post I'll kick myself for not being able to remember them. Buuuut so it goes I guess! tomorrow the Dson crew is going to have coffee with Ann, which is always fun, then back to the crazy thing called class, then my two basketball games! In summary, its barely after 9pm here and I'm bout set to head to bed. Night y'all!

Rocking with the Kiwis

After such a great weekend in Sydney, I was still super pumped for my next weekend... in New Zealand!!! The week went by pretty quickly: had class on Monday, work training for my new job as a social science interviewer (I'll explain later) on Tuesday, Pub Crawl for Ekka holiday on Wednesday, then struggling through class on Thursday before hopping on a plane to Christchurch. I was bummed that I wasn't able to get a window seat but it was dark out anyway so there wasn't much to see anyway. Best part of the journey was getting through customs to see Phillippa, Tessa (two of my fellow blueshirts from Dson), and Tessa's sister Georgia waiting for me.

It was rather late but we went back to Tessa's house for a couple beers and played in a park, then watched some crazy NZ tv show called "Outrageous Fortune" before passing out. Tessa and I spent Friday checking out downtown Christchurch and the local museum with the infamous Paua Shell House. Paua shells come from abalone and when shined have a beautiful iridescent blue, green, purple color to them. Back in the 1960s, Myrtle Flutey got tired of her husband leaving his shiny paua shells lying around the floor of the house so she started hanging them up on the wall. Next thing they knew they had over 1200 and they opened their house in 1963 to tourists for free. They started collecting other "Kiwiana" as the kiwis like to call their local knick knacks and after they died a recreation of their house was made and the entire collection moved to the Canterbury Museum for our viewing pleasure :)

After the shiny shell house, Tessa and I got some delicious souvlaki before meeting up with Phillippa for a ride up into the "hills" surrounding Christchurch. By most Americans they would probably be termed mountains but by kiwi standards they apparently didn't quite make the cut. In any case, the views were absolutely beautiful. It was a foggy day but we could still easily see the ocean on one side, the Canterbury Plains, the neighboring bay of Lyttelton, and off in the distance a vague outline of the Southern Alps. Wasn't quite LOTR territory but it was amazing nonetheless! There are a few hiking trails running through the hills, most notably the Bridle path which the original British settlers used to cross the Port Hills.

Friday night took us downtown again for the local pub scene and to see some band that Phillippa's friend was lead singer for. Very chill (and chilly) place, the music wasn't quite my thing, but there was a delicious organic brew on tap which I'm kicking myself for not remembering the name of but so it goes!

Went into town again with Tessa intending on actually checking out the Botanical Gardens. Seeing as Christchurch is nicknamed the City of Gardens it would make sense to check them out right? Instead we got sidetracked and went down to New Brighton Pier to get some ice cream and check out the ocean. After that I went with Tessa's family to a couple malls (very similar to American malls). Tessa's dad made us some delectable homemade pizza. Kiwis scoff at American pizza and our happiness to have just cheese or one/two toppings and so instead we had some three really good types ranging from shrimp with brie, peppers, etc to a simpler bacon and veggie pizza. Super good!

Even though the legal drinking age is 18, kiwis (and aussies) still like to celebrate 21st birthdays. Phillippa had turned 21 a few weeks earlier but had only just managed to organize her bday party that night, lucky for me! It was a really cool experience, its traditional to invite both family and friends to a 21st bday party and to have a few people give speeches about the lucky birthday gal/guy which can range from sweet anecdotes to embarrassing stories. Somebody asked me if we did anything similar in the states and I couldn't come up with anything similar aside from maybe at weddings or perhaps at someone's graduation party. One way or another it was very cool to hear more stories about Phillippa as well as to get to take party in this kiwi tradition.

I've only barely settled back in here at college but I've actually got a basketball game in about 15 minutes so I'll have to continue my tales later. Never stopping!

Opera House, Dugongs, Harry's Cafe du Wheels, and other Sydney Wonders

Not typically a big city sorta guy but Sydney was freaking awesome! We left early Friday morning out of Brisbane and after a short hour long flight we were there. As a quick aside, security for domestic flights in Australia is a bloody joke/nice reprieve from the crap we deal with in the states. No liquid restrictions and they didn't even ask us for ID for our tickets! Crazy...

Since we were only there for the weekend we quick dropped off our stuff at our hotel and then took a bus to a nice park overlooking the harbour for some lunch. I haven't been to cali but it reminded me a lot of pics that I've seen of San Fran or Italy with winding streets and beautiful houses on the hills overlooking the bay. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous with huge trees like this guy below all over the place. To put it in perspective that tree would take about 5 or 6 of me possibly more to wrap my arms around it!

Next we took the bus back into downtown where I was amazed by the number and size of they parks that they have right in the city. This is thanks to the last governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, who had the commendable foresight to not only plan out many of the city streets but also to set aside large chunks of land to serve as parks and gardens in order to keep the natural beauty alive and well inside of the city. Made the country boy in me quite happy! In the Botanical Gardens we had a blast getting to feed the cockatoos which happily hopped up on our shoulders and/or heads and walked around with us for ten plus minutes even after we'd run out of food for them. Though one did try a bite of my sunglasses but figured out pretty quickly they were a bit less tasty than the banana bread that I'd been feeding it!

A short walk along the harbour then took us to the famous Sydney Opera House. Pictures did not do justice the phenomenal place that it is. Our tour took us through the impressive and ingenious design and construction of the opera house. They started with a design contest and the design they picked was actually rejected initially because it was extremely abstract and had absolutely no actual construction details but they went for it anyway. Construction was originally estimated to take only a few years a 7 million dollars but ended up taking an extra 10 years and a total of 102 million! Being the musical person that I am I was in constant awe of everything that I saw and was able to get into a brief discussion with our tour guide who was excited to talk with someone who had actually helped move a piano before. Here's me inside the main concert hall! (I admit I had to keep from drooling when I heard about the organ which has over 10,000 pipes going back over 8 meters into the wall)

My only regret is that we didn't have time to catch a performance there...

That night we went out to dinner at a cool little pub where you could grill your own steak (delicious) and then proceeded on a pub crawl through some of the more historic pubs e.g. Sydney's first hotel, first pub, etc. Enjoyed a really great local porter (I'm realising how big a fan of dark beers I am) at one of the place's called Nelson's Blood, as you can imagine it was a grand evening :)

The next morning we got up early to walk along the coast listening to our tour guide, Russ, explain a bit of the history of the harbour to us. Apparently when the British first came to Australia they completely missed Sydney Harbour and it was only during a return trip that somebody thought hey! I feel like there's something more in here! If you wanna check out the pics they'll be on FB soon and eventually I'll get around to getting my pics posted up somewhere more easily accessible for peeps who haven't caught up to the 21st century :P The water was the most amazing blue I've seen due to the water being pumped into the harbour and Pacific being filtered of any human caused pollution before being allowed back out. Once again I have to commend the Aussies on their efforts to try to keep green. They're also quite proud of their environmental work and almost everywhere you go you'll see some kind of sign explaining just what is going on.

We walked by a few different beaches until we made it to the infamous Bondi Beach where you can find the Iceberg Club which has its own pool situated right alongside the water! It was founded in 1929 and in order to become a full member you have to take part in a winter swim with the "IceCubes" where they actually fill the pool with ice. I suppose this the Aussie version of the Polarbear Plunge though we've definitely got it a bit easier since our beloved Lake Superior conveniently freezes over every winter for us!

We then spent the afternoon exploring a local Aussie market (read great authentic souvenir opportunity) where we also stopped at a famous chocolate shop, Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man. Pure decadence this place was. Taylor and I indulged in the "Exploding Chocolate Shot" which consisted of a shot of pure milk chocolate mixed with pop rocks and some white chocolate chunks. I can easily say I've never had such good chocolate before and fingers crossed they'll get around to opening up the store they're working on in Brisbane before we leave! Next we had a bit of downtime before getting dinner at a nice Malaysian restaurant. A few of us headed over to the aquarium only to find out it had closed ten minutes before we arrived but our spirits were quickly raised by a street performer by the name of "Toy". He wasn't particularly talented but was absolutely hysterical with terrible "Engrish" and a lovely cache of lewd jokes. A bottle of wine back at the hotel also helped to raise spirits for the evening and a bunch of us ended up wandering around the city having another grand evening in the Harbour City.

Sunday morning we quick checked out of our hotel (which I forgot to mention was easily the nicest hotel suite I have EVER stayed in, read thank you Dson) and scurried over to the aquarium. I can't remember the last time I was at an aquarium but I had a great time there. Sharks, dugongs, octupi, huge sea turtles, and endless Finding Nemo jokes made for a happy Phil. The shark feeding was less than exciting though, they just kinda swam up to the fish grabbed it and then continued swimming around. LAAAAAME

Russ had told us about this famous meat pie stand called Harry's Cafe du Wheels (conveniently located by Russell Crowe's less than humble abode) that with my growing taste for Australian foods I had to try out. This meat pie was a heck of a meal piled with mashed potatoes, mashed peas, and covered in gravy and was delicious beyond words! Time was ticking down though and we made a quick foray into the Paddy Markets which boasted loads of cheap merchandise sold my lovely Asian folk. 'nough said there. Thus ended our time in Sydney and before we knew it we were back at college eating the much less appetizing food wishing we were rich and could have just stayed there forever (kidding i promise) It was an absolutely unforgettable weekend, though it was all too short and with any luck someday I'll find my way back there.

For now its been back to class and then off to New Zealand on Thursday! Didn't you know I don't ever stop?

Off To Sydney

Hey y'all,

haven't posted recently because I've been a. lazy b. busy c. fighting off an ear infection d. recovering from an unfortunate kangaroo boxing accident. Okay so I haven't gotten into any fights with a kangaroo but the other three are actually valid. Don't have time to catch up on everything right now as I'll be catching a taxi to the airport in t-minus 8 hours then flying to Sydney for the weekend with the rest of the Dson folk. Not sure what we'll all be doing there but I promise I'll get back on my game here and get some posts up about this last week+ as well as the Sydney trip. Until then, miss everyone back in the states and hope you're doing well.

Cheers, Phil aka 'Cluck'