Antipodean Sabbatical

6:18pm: Have arrived in Middle Earth
We flew over the Southern Alps to Christchurch. It was GORGEOUS. You remember lighting the signal fires in LotR? I swear I could pick out some of the mountains they used in the movie.

All my Christmas pressies made it through customs! I picked up the rental car with no troubles. I also apparently remember how to drive on the wrong side of the road, and only turned on my wipers once. The current plan: 1 laundry; 2 food; 3 bed.

9:31pm: The boring part
I'm sitting at the gate at Perth, waiting for my flight, whose departure is delayed about 30 minutes. At least there's free wi-fi.

7:18pm: Three meals in Margaret River
Must Bistro (http://www.must.com.au)

MONDAY: LUNCH, SOLO
Duck liver and porcini pate. Surprisingly delicious! I say surprising because I am skeptical of the whole pate concept (this was a bit of an experiment). The flavor was more mushroom-y than liver-y; as I like mushroom a lot more than liver, that was a success for me; and the scary meat jelly was soft rather than rubbery. I don't have the knowledge to rate it against pate in general, but I liked it.

Port Augusta leatherback (a fish, white with firm texture) with mashed potatoes and a lovely sauce, lemon and butter and cream and salt (I asked). The sauce was creamy but light, with a nice lemon zing.

Blue Cow cheese with giant raisins soaked in wine syrup. I forgot to ask the type of cheese, but it was semi-soft with a minimal rind, stronger than camembert and firmer than brie.

Sauvignon blanc 2006, I forgot which vineyard but it would be local Margaret River one.


WEDNESDAY: DINNER FOR FOUR
My dorm-mates are foodies also! I went back to Must for dinner with a Swiss woman, an English woman, and a German guy; and we all had a great evening.

Gruyere souffle. Light and spongey and the diced onion was wonderfully sweet.

Lamb shank. Rare and tender (not the least bit sheep-y), served sliced with roasted pumpkin and Roquefort. Absolutely gorgeous. There was also ratatouille which was good but irrelevant. All our main dishes were great: after a couple of involuntary noises at the first bite, there was complete silence for a period as we ate.

We ordered all four desserts on the menu and shared them. Strawberry and chocolate couladis. Butterscotch pudding with dulce de leche ice cream. Dark chocolate and rum mousse with pear sorbet. Orange and vanilla creme brulee with raspberry sorbet. The mousse was really rich and intensely chocolate but the burnt orange peel flavor of the creme brulee made that my favorite (though the sorbet was overkill).

South Point 2005 cab-merlot-shiraz blend; Bare Root 2006 sauvignon blanc. The South Point was the definite winner here: we got a second bottle.


BUSH TUCKER
(http://www.bushtuckertours.com/river.html)
Tuesday I took a guided canoe trip up Margaret River that included a cave visit and a picnic with "bush tucker" i.e. native Australian foods.

Smoked emu, kangaroo, and free-range turkey substituting for protected wild turkey; pestos made with some kind of local plant leaves; bush tomatoes; desert limes (looked like white raisins soaked in wine, tasted very citrus-y and sour); some other kinds of fruits; stewed hibiscus; fruit leather from a local shrub; some kind of nuts that tasted a bit like coconut but with a woody texture; bush honey; various ground up herbs and spices. The tastes were really intense: one of the pestos too spicy for me, but many of the fruits sour or sharp in a good way. The smoked meats were outstanding: nice gamey taste but tender texture.

6:15pm: It turns out it would be more difficult to *not* see a quokka
ROTTNEST ISLAND, WA

Sadly, quokkas have become entirely acclimated to humans, and spend their days scavenging from people and pooping everywhere. They're like the pigeons of the marsupial world. In addition, they do look so very much like rats, only foot-tall ones. It would not surprise me if Jeff Smith based his Giant Rat Things on quokkas.

One got into our dorm room and someone lured it out with a nectarine. (Wrong lesson!) I managed to get a snorkel fin between it and its view of the fruit, at which point the quokka couldn't figure out where the food was anymore. So, not too bright either. One snuck into the kitchen that evening and I had to shove it out with a magazine.

The absolute best quokka sighting was when two other women and I walked the 1.8km back to the hostel, late-ish, after a movie at the local cinema (beach sling chairs in an old wood-frame community hall). We reached the former military barracks that's now the hostel, and on the lawn in the courtyard was an army of quokkas, nibbling grass under the moonlight. There were *dozens* of them, adults and half-size joeys. It was eerie and creepy and hysterically funny all at once.

Luckily Rottnest has way more to recommend it than quokkas. It has the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, traffic-free roads for cycling around the island, and great snorkeling. The coves I swam in had sea-grass beds and kelp and channels of white sand--a very different underwater landscape from the coral up north. Lots of fish, though, and I saw a dark grey ray on the seafloor at one spot.

On the food side, I finally tried an Australian pie, since the ones at the local bakery looked good. It was beef and mushroom and was absolutely delicious, with a wonderfully thick and flaky crust.

6:35am: Coral Bay, 23-27 Nov
Coral Bay has one street. It has two grocery stores, two restaurants, a cafe, and several dive/tour shops. I think there are more tourists than residents. There's our hostel, at least 2 camping/caravan sites, and a hotel.

What is really special about Coral Bay is the beach. It has a beautiful sandy beach from which you can wade out, knee-deep, waist-deep, and suddenly there you are in the reef. There are clumps of coral growing up from the sand and lots and lots of fish and the currents keep you within the bay area. Even in the sandy area before you reach the reef you can stick your head underwater and see lots of fish.

It is hot and slightly humid here, almost 40 degrees someone said.

GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT
I won a glass-bottom boat cruise with a silly game on the bus and Denise joined me for that today. Verdict: very cool. The water is quite cold, though! And there's a rough current when you approach the edge of the reef.

We made two stops. The first was almost at the reef edge. It had lots of smaller fish: big schools of the dark blue ones, and a few of the colorful I think called wrasse fish (they flap their fins like wings). The second one had a school of big Norwegian snapper. Unbeknownst to us, the boat captain was tossing them fish food to make them swarm around us. Having these giant fishes brush against the underside of the body was pretty alarming, especially after he had told us to be careful of their spines. !! The captain also told us a lot about coral spawning and how the coral overdid it two years ago and that's why the coral near land looked so bad-- some of it died as a result of oxygen and sunlight reduction.

KAYAK / SNORKEL TRIP
Verdict: awesome. We kayaked out to the edge of the reef-- a long way-- then snorkeled in the open water. First we visited a shark cleaning station. It's a giant cabbage coral that sharks hang out at and get wrasse to clean their teeth. We saw two reef sharks just hanging around-- one opened its mouth a bit-- they were about our height long, the guide said. There was another really big shark, but I managed to completely miss seeing him.

We also saw 2 turtles, a spotted ray on the sand (being teased by some other fish, I thought, but the guide said they were just looking for bits of food he might have left), a blue and green giant clam, and lots of fish. The biggest school was of makerel-looking things; then there were 7 or so Nor'west (apparently *not* Norwegian) snappers that followed us for the entire swim and really freaked me out. They swim really close, they're pretty big, and they just *stare* at you.

We also saw a 4th shark, a big nurse shark lurking under a coral overhang.

It turns out that you can get back into a sea kayak from the sea. So nobody had to be left for the sharks.

For the second snorkel, we continued against the current to a dive boat anchored offshore. It was a really long run-- when we finished the trip we looked back from shore and the boat was like an ant. The two girls in the other kayak were having trouble pushing against the wind and decided they'd had enough of a tour today and went back in. So it was just Denise and me for the guide to point out stuff to.

This stop was the Maze, one of our snorkel sites from yesterday, but today's swim was much better. Visibility was better, and the guide took us away from the boat, which I was nervous to do yesterday on my own. We saw 2 more turtles, several schools of the small bright blue fish, and various other fish. The coral was very close to the surface in several places, so it and all the fish were clearly visible as we swam over.

Kayaking back to shore was easier than the trip out, though we had to do a lot of correction to get us to the right place on the shore. But it was a tough workout overall and my arms will feel it tomorrow!


THE FLIES
are driving me absolutely crazy. Me and everyone else.

12:39pm: Shark Bay World Heritage Site, 18-22 Nov
AUSSIE VOCABULARY LESSON:
swimmies: swimsuit
sunnies: sunglasses
boardies: board shorts
barbie: BBQ
Tassie (with a "Z" sound): Tasmania
bikkie: biscuit (cookie)
brekky (or breaky): breakfast
schoolies: schoolkids (seen in a news broadcast about teenagers descending on Surfer's Paradise with the start of the holidays... looks like our Beach Week)

SATURDAY, MONKEY MIA:
You meet the same people, up and down the coast. I came up from Perth in a backpacker bus (http://www.easyridertours.com.au/) and we picked up a Dutch woman, about my age, in Kalbarri, and she and I have been hanging out in Denham. Yesterday on the beach we ran into a Swiss woman she had met in Kalbarri, then a Dutch man and woman she knew from her travels showed up from Exmouth. So now our dorm has a bunch of women my age and it's nice to have non-teenagers to hang around with.

We also have a group of 5 Norwegian guys in one of the rooms-- very polite kids. They're 19, 20 years old and clearly spend all their free time swimming in icy rivers, cross-country skiing, and lifting reindeer over their heads. They are doubtless cursing their bad luck at being stuck in a dorm with cranky old women instead of, say, 19-year-old French girls.

The three Netherlanders and I took a catamaran cruise on the Aristocat 2 today out of Monkey Mia. We saw dolphins and dugongs and sea turtles and cormorants, and it was a beautiful day on the water. We did not see any sharks. Then we lay on the beach and dozed all afternoon.

DUTCH VOCABULARY LESSON:
gezellig: cozy, comfortable-- not an exact translation; apparently the relaxing and companionable time we four had on the boat today can be also described with this word.

DUTCH DIETARY ADVICE:
"Butter is really good for you. You should eat some every day."

5:41pm: 5 minute update, because internet is crazy expensive here
I'm spending a few days in Denham, on Shark Bay (a World Heritage Site). There's no snorkeling here, but it's a relaxing, tiny coastal town, and there's a pool at the hostel. Tomorrow I'm going to Monkey Mia to watch people feed the dolphins.

[ObSF: "It's a cookbook!"]

Yesterday I saw billion-year old organisms: stromatolites, formed by cyanobacteria that were the first oxygen-producing organisms, that changed the atmosphere to allow oxygen-breathers (us!) to exist. The ones here, some of the last in the world, are still bubbling out oxygen! This is such an awesomely old continent.

So, the manager of the hostel rescues orphaned kangaroos. I went into the office yesterday and she had a joey curled up in a cloth pouch. It was a little smaller than a cat, and seriously kawaii. I completely lost my train of thought and just stared. "Can I touch it?" I asked, just wanting to pet it, and she handed over the entire pouch for me to hold. The joey didn't seem scared, or particularly interested-- it just looked around, and nuzzled my shirt a bit. The manager said she has formula to feed it, and it will be ready to release--able to fend for itself--in about 6 months.

7:25pm: More Critters
WHALE WATCHING
It was the last weekend they're doing tours this year, so my timing was good. I guess the whales are all well on their way to Antarctica. The boat went out from Fremantle toward Rottnest Island (misnamed for the rodents marsupials of unusual size) and we saw humpback whales almost immediately. There were an adult and calf, who entertained us by flipping their tails up in the air repeatedly. After those went underwater we moved further out and ran into another pair, or maybe the same ones, who flipped tails and sometimes rolled sideways and waved a flipper. Finally, we came across a group of three-- with more visible in the background-- who stayed with us until we ran out of time and had to turn back. This group was great: they decided to do the whole flinging themselves out of the water and flopping back sideways thing. Over and over. They came really close too. I have never seen humpback whales before, so this entire morning was absolutely thriliing.

I took some video, but it appears to have disappeared somewhere in the transfer from camera to laptop. :(

EXOTIC CREATURES
I was talking with an Aussie guy at lunch, later that afternoon (Little Creatures Brewery, which BTW has excellent beer, also good pizza), and at one point mentioned how exciting it was seeing the boxing wallabies (eee!) on Kangaroo Island. He mentioned visiting UCLA on a trip to the US, and how the campus looked exactly like a college campus should look, and also the chipmunks everywhere on the grounds. This was puzzling... "Squirrels?" I ventured. Yes! He loved the squirrels!

Great moments in intercultural communication:
Me: Boxing wallabies!
Him: Chipmunks squirrels!

Which just goes to show that exotic is all about your starting point.

CRITTER DOCUMENTATION
I have been uploading heaps of photos, and have partly caught up: Sydney and Adelaide are complete, and I've added the Adelaide-Perth photos to the Indian Pacific train trip set. I hope to get Kangaroo Island (penguins! boxing wallabies!) up tonight and maybe a bit of Perth.

Tomorrow I head north for snorkeling! And just in time, since it's supposed to rain here.

9:22am: Notes from the train, Adelaide to Perth
Indian Pacific, Sunday pm thru Tues am

Lunch: lamb-and-pumpkin pie.

By afternoon we have moved into desert-y grasslands. Things I have seen: a prisoner of war camp. Cows! including baby cows. A metal pole with two birds nests stacked at different levels. This morning, before breakfast, a dingo! Coming out of the Nullarbor, the vegetation now looks lush, the palette of grey-greens infinitely variable. Now there is standing water, from time to time.

Sparkling red shiraz at dinner then a tour of Kalgoorlie-- best tour ever! The guide was a scream. I thought he was naive, but then decided it was all put on. Next to the brothels, "conveniently located," the miners' quarters. The scale of the pit mine was impossible to gauge at dark: 2x4 km, 700m deep. The 2-storey dumptrucks looked like ants. Of course it rained-- about an hour of intense tropical downpour. The streets filled with rushing water and there was thunder and lightning that turned the sky violet-blue.

I wish we could have seen the town in daylight because it has some lovely old buildings.

Sunrise, around 5:30am. Pale gold wheatfields, some sheep, lines of trees are almost black in the new light. The sun was visible only a short time over the horizon, then it rose into the clouds. It's overcast and the sky is an opalescent grey, slightly lavender. To the north there is a purple mass of clouds and what looks like rainstorms. Overhead, in a patch of blue sky, the moon is a sliver under half.

Things seen: an emu farm!

10:50am: Foooooood.
Just arrived in Perth, after 2 days on the train. These are some leftover notes from Adelaide.

THINGS I HAVE EATEN, FROM CENTRAL MARKET
local (Adelaide) produce:
- Charle[something- Charlemagne?] Brie, nicely runny at room temp
- green olives with garlic and sundried tomatoes
- peaches, apricots, pears, zucchini, mushrooms
- several types of bread
- fresh pasta
from Kangaroo Island:
- sheeps milk yogurt
- honey from the world's only pure colony of Ligurian bees! (tasted just like honey to me)
Also: Australian mangoes

A NOTE OF INTEREST, ALSO FROM ADELAIDE MARKET
The butchers all sell, in addition to the usual steaks: kangaroo, venison, crocodile, rabbit, quail...

BAROSSA VALLEY TOUR
We visited five wineries, with three structured tastings and two open. We also waved at Jacobs Creek as we drove by. I tried ~25 wines and could have tried a dozen more if I'd taken advantage of the open tastings (I was using those to recover). Stuff I liked:

( Wine and even more food )

1:48pm: Maybe I am a rain god
"South Australia is the driest state in the driest continent in the world." ...except when I'm there. There was steady rain on the drive down the Fleurieu Peninsula to Cape Jervis (a beautiful drive, BTW. Not the ticky-tacky suburbs and strip malls outside Adelaide, but further south, with hilly hayfields and vineyards, and rows of giant gum trees marking waterways). The ferry crossing was bouncy, which I like, but a little kid projectile vomited. Then more rain, on and off, over the next few days on Kangaroo Island.

But never mind! It's time for today's important topic, which is:

OMG PENGUINS!!!1!

Penneshaw is a nesting site for Little Penguins. These penguins are small, hence the name, and are blue and white and have chubby ankles. There's a ranger-led tour to see them come ashore in the evening. The ranger gave an intro talk first, then we walked along the road while he pointed out some burrows (with chicks!), then we went to the observation platform near the ocean. We got to stand around and freeze in the dark for an hour while we watched the little guys come in from the ocean and climb the rocks to their burrows.

[If you seem to be hearing a high-pitched eee! in the background as you read this, that would pretty much be my reaction to the overwhelming cuteness of it all.]

We saw a few individual penguins, but also couple groups of around half a dozen. There was one group that had reached a flattish area of the rocks and stopped for 15 minutes or so to chat, have a smoke, whatever penguins do. Suddenly motivation arrived and they all took off at a shuffly penguin sprint! --two up a narrow steep path, most along the main path. Then, all but one of the main group turned around, and sprinted back to the flat area! The one was left to slowly continue, occasionally looking over its shoulder at its friends.

I have no idea how they climb so fast, since they don't really have legs.

Also seen, before the tour in the shrubbery near the Penguin Center: a group of wallabies. There were about seven of them, and a baby. The baby would bounce around and then 1-2 adults would go chasing after it, with bigger bounces. They appear to have spring-loaded feet. And then two of the adults got into a boxing/wresting match. With occasional bouncing around each other. Eee!! Tiny boxing kangaroos!

There were other interesting things on Kangaroo Island as well: sea lions, birds of prey, a koala ("They are not bears," said our tour guide sternly), and scenery.

In conclusion: eee!!

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
More wallabies! The baby did not make an appearance tonight, but there were three adults boxing!

4:43pm: Adelaide
Everyone said, when I told them I was coming here, "It's a beautiful city!" I don't understand what they see. I would like to. What I see is an unpleasant, ugly city that has some individual excellent features. It's overrun by noisy, high-speed traffic; new construction has been completely unsympathetic to the urban context; not to mention many of the buildings are boarded up.

Things that are wonderful:
- Central market-- OMG the gorgeous food
- Free bicycles and free city center bus; also the bicycle lanes everywhere
- Those historic buildings that have remained are lovely


SATURDAY
I borrowed a free bike and rode along the river this morning. Now I understand why people said it's beautiful. You have to approach from the north. The river is dammed to make a little lake, filled with black swans and baby ducks; there is parkland all around and beautiful new theatre buildings. You approach over a nice bridge and the historic buildings along the street and the few nice new mid-rises arrange themselves aesthetically in your view. Just don't go further than 2 blocks south.

After the bike ride and a stop by the market (of course!), I went back to the park area and caught a boat ride to the zoo. The zoo is tiny and overpriced, but it had a good selection of Australian animals: not just kangaroos and a sleeping koala, but animals I've never heard of. Some of them were so ridiculous looking, and had such ridiculous names... they need a "Fuck You, Penguin" style write-up to really get that across. So just imagine one in this space.

10:15am: Notes from the train, Sydney to Adelaide
Indian Pacific, Wed 28 Oct
Dinner of lentil soup, grilled kangaroo with blueberries, lemon-lime-ginger cheesecake, glass of shiraz.
Green landscape of rolling hills and pasture with single trees; rocky streams; occasional cows and sheep. Four grey kangaroos on a hillside around sunset. Later evening, there were breaks in the clouds, so sunset came with spectacular bursts of light.

The single cabins are all in one car: a collection of trapezoids lining an undulating corridor. Each cabin gets a window. The cabin ends (perpendicular to the window) are ~4.5ft and ~3.5 ft wide; so the interior wall is angled; the length is about 7ft. There's just enough width to prop the door open. In day, there's a wide seat, and at night the crew pull down a little bunk, the length of the cabin, and make it up with sheets and a duvet. There's also a little sink tucked behind the door. Toilets and showers are at either end of the train car.

We have to set our clocks back 30 minutes for the Central time zone and morning arrival in Broken Hill.


Thursday.
Sunrise over red plains. A dry riverbed. Three kangaroos stand at attention and watch the train go by.

Later in the morning, after breakfast, I saw an ostrich emu (oops, wrong continent) running alongside the train, as if racing (the train was winning). By lunchtime, we had moved into agricultural land-- olive trees, fields of wheat and hay, and windmills sweeping along the hilltops. We'll arrive in Adelaide around 3pm.

10:18am: So this is a funny story
Two years ago I got stuck at O'Hare. There were storms or something; all hotels within 100 miles were full up; the Red Cross brought in cots. The airline did its usual job of customer service (zero information, insufficient & surly staff: that's how we do air travel in America, people!) and I stood in line for multiple hours to get rebooked. Before spending the night on a Red Cross cot.

Anyway, in the multiple hours of line-standing, the people stuck in line together ended up talking. Among the people near me was an Australian woman, who was remarkable for her friendliness and cheerfulness. It was especially remarkable considering she'd just arrived from Sydney and still had a connection to Cincinnati to catch. After our escape from O'Hare, we exchanged occasional emails.

So when it turned out that I was actually coming to Australia, I got an invitation to visit. I just spent the last two days touring around the Blue Mountains with her (she's from that area). The weather was terrible-- cold, heavy rain, dense fog-- but it was fun anyway. Touristy things we did:
- Cable car ride at an old mining site, down an incredible sheer cliff face
- Visit to rhododendron gardens in Leura: they're currently in bloom and some are as big as oak trees
- Tour at Jenolan Caves

And other sightseeing, when the fog would lift. The landscape is not what I expected in Australia (not to mention the weather!): green and forested; with rolling hills and pasture once over the Blue Mountains. Really pretty.

Heading to Adelaide this afternoon on the Indian Pacific train. http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/indian-pacific/the-journey.php

7:34am: I thought there was a drought here
Heavy rain most of yesterday, and all night, drumming on the roof. I was inside at the Opera House-- they opened to the public all day-- so not a huge bother. Still raining this morning, and I hope it clears up. I'm going to the Blue Mountains and the point is the scenery!

The hostel is full of Germans, and some French as well, all here on working holiday visas. Unbeknownst to me, I arrived just at the beginning of the overseas workers season. They come for a gap year and do seasonal work and travel around. They all seem to be having tons of fun. My schedule's still out of synch-- the others in my room come in late, then I (still jet-lagged) wake up super-early, so none of us are getting much sleep.

Last night a young couple (French, I think) came in, along with a tiny baby. The baby had on a one-piece, um, suit (not sure what these are called) with cow-pattern splotches and cow faces embroidered on the booties. Kawaii!

2:09pm: Things what did not go well
1. Buying a $30 phone card for the wrong type of phone
2. Melting my one long-sleeved shirt with a too-hot iron

Jet lag makes me stoopid.

6:16pm: That was a really really long plane flight
Although definitely the best 13-hour flight I've ever been on. No screaming babies, no swine flu coughs, it wasn't too cold, and I actually managed to sleep pretty well. Immigration at Sydney was speedy; customs and quarantine was thorough. The arrivals hall is too small for the number of people and needs better signage.

First impressions: the drive from the AP reminded me of LA: something about the low-rise density of the buildings, how the sunlight makes the buildings look cleaner and sharp-edged, the street trees that don't actually protect against the sun. I also saw a bunch of those strange light-purple trees that I've only ever seen in LA.

Downtown was a busy jumble (driving through) and I don't really have any impressions yet.

Where I am is a bit to the west of downtown, a neighborhood called Potts Point. Just a few streets away is Kings Cross, very busy and lots of backpackers, but where I am is narrow laneways and gabled row houses and confusing dead ends and stair-streets. I just saw brace of colorful screechy birds fly past, maybe lorikeets?, as I sit here on the roof deck. The nearby grocery store--not a very big one-- has a few dozen choices of yogurt and three varieties of mangoes.

Oh yeah, the weather is 23C and cloudless and so so blue.

Post dinner update
Jet lag hit like a heap of bricks around 3pm, so I took a short nap then forced myself to go out. I went to Hyde Park and waited for the Night Noodle Market (http://www.siff.com.au/events/noodle-markets) to open. Despite its name, there were not very many noodles. I think it's meant to imitate hawkers' stalls, like in Singapore.

12:10pm: A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single boring afternoon at JFK airport
I feel like I should at least have shown someone my passport by now, but no check-in until 2:30. On the bright side, American did not lose my luggage on the way to NY. A good beginning!

11:20am: One week
I did a test pack of my suitcase-- everything fits, and I can lift it (sort of). I swear, half the space is taken up by shoes. What? Yes, I need them all. Shut up.

(I think I will take out my snorkel booties, though.)

My task list is increasing as I get closer to departure. It's an asymptotic curve-- when I first got back, my list had a few giant items, like "put all worldly possessions into storage." Now, one week away, the tasks are all silly little things like "buy claritin;" but there are about a million of them.

Oh yeah: and update my resume. That would be one of the big tasks that I haven't quite gotten to yet. :/

6:51pm: Overseas contact info
I have a mobile phone with a phone number for Australia and for New Zealand. Email me if you need them.

(Why does lj spellcheck not recognize "Zealand"?)

12:56pm: One month
In one month I will step off an airplane and into the airport in Sydney, Australia.[1] To say that I am excited about this would be greatly understating the matter. I've only been thinking about this, and planning and saving, for the last five years.

My plan is to spend up to a year traveling in Australia and New Zealand. My further plans include the recession being over when I return and me not having trouble getting a new job. That part may not have sufficient thought put into it.

If you ever felt you needed to visit the southern hemisphere, maybe this would be a good year to meet up!


[1] assuming all goes as planned (obligatory disclaimer inserted to appease the Travel Gods)