Rhymes with Margarita

Lee and Sam took us to a small beach town on the Gold Coast for a couple nights. Many of the town names have a heavy aboriganal influence and the names started to blend together for us. We landed in Cabarita Beach, but could not remember the name of it for the life of us, only that it rhymed with margarita. It was amazing and I don't think we could have found a better setting on our own. We bypassed the skyscrapers and the heavily commercialized towns for this sleepy town with white sand beaches, warm water, surf out front and no nets necessary to keep out the sharks. It was magical.

A comment about the beaches here. Every beach we've been to in Australia is easily ten times better than any beach I've been to in California. In fact, I'm surprised that Lee and Sam even went to the beaches in San Diego, they are so mediocre in comparison. There's no seaweed, the water temperature is inviting, the water is clear and habitable for marine life and the sand is so fine, that it makes a squeaking noise when you walk in the empty miles. Not once did we see a crowded beach.

Rob was already looking into the costs of homes here as every spot we looked at was a right point break.

I love this country.

 

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Aussie Rules Football - Footie, not Footsie.

It appears that Australia revolves around its sports. People are defined even more by the sports they played or play than they are by the schools they attended or the jobs they have. It's more than a passion. This was highlighted to us in many conversations. A computer scientist from Melbourne that we met scuba diving talked about the importance of sports over academics at school for his kids. Often, school field trips are taken to cheer on local sports teams, with lessons to be made up in some distant future time.

Our friends, Lee and Sam

This passion was made every more apparent when we settled in Brisbane. Our friends, Lee and Sam, were both prodigous athletes in Australia and we saw the incredible network of people they knew through sports. But even when we had a casual dinner with their neighbors, the conversations revolved around what sports the kids play, what sports the parents used to play, and local gossip about the sports teams. In fact, they even use the term 'sport,' as a standalone. It's so important, it's a noun, an adjective and a verb.

It was so much fun and completely intimidating. Every person we met through Lee and Sam seemed to be a world-class athlete. One of our many nights out, as we came back to our room, Rob looked at me like he had lost his identity. He would listen to their tales of breaking world records, winning olympic medals, or simply accomplishing mind-blowing feats of athleticism, and inevitably the question would come 'what sport do you do?' It was always asked with genuine interest and sincerity, like a standard getting-to-know-you question. Rob looked at me and was like, (Rob typing now) "What is happening around here? How do I respond to these people? Everyone I meet has an olympic medal or has some World Cup. Hi, I am Rob and I, well......did baseball through 9th grade.....and couldn't make any high school teams...., nice medal."

Luckily, a lot of them were also surfers, so the subject would quickly move to surfing, comfortable and passionate territory for Rob.

Given all this, it only makes sense that one of the Brisbane highlights was going to our first Rugby game. It was the equivalent of attending and watching an NFL game, but with a baseball crowd. Lots of families and polite cheering and booing without the rabid, face-painting, overintoxicated fans. It was an exciting game, even without knowing the rules. After all, physical specimans playing with athletic prowess in short shorts. What's not to like?

Pennells at our first rugby game

On the way home, we passed by a street that felt like Bourbon street with bars, loud music, come-hither lights and well-heeled young professionals talking animatedly. Apparently, the intoxication is what happens after the game.

 

 

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Rugby

• We are in Brisbane. Last night we went to a rugby game with our friends, Mitchell and Oscar. They used to live in Pt. Loma and we are now visiting them. The teams that were playing were the Queensland Reds and the Canberra Brumbies. We walked to the train station and took the train to the rugby game. We stopped at a restaurant to have dinner but all the had was cruddy pizza and Ginger Beer. They also had the heater on even though it was 80 degrees outside. Once we finished our pizza we headed over to the stadium and realized that Oscar had dropped his pass. So we had to tell the Box Office that we lost the pass and luckily, they gave us a new one. Finally we got into the stadium just as the Reds kicked it off. The game was really fun and as the game went on my friends taught me the basics of rugby and explained to me what the heck was going on. Once the game ended we were all disappointed because the Reds lost 20-23.

My family and I at the Rugby game.

 

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Our First Day at Paradise

After we landed on the island we got a quick tour of the island (which is so small that you can walk around it in an hour) and a few “Welcome Drinks”. After we finished our drinks we then went to our room, unpacked and decided to go snorkeling. When we got our snorkeling gear we went over to the lighthouse on the other side of the island and went into the water. I suddenly remember what our tour guide said was in the water. “Everyone should be very careful in the water because there are Stonefish, Lionfish, and Sharks in the water. Oh and don’t pick up those shells because there are slugs in there that will shoot a deadly poison at you and it will kill you in about Hmmm half a second. Have fun!” I was looking out for Stonefish with my eyes big as pie plates as I waded through the Great Barrier Reef. Once it was deep enough for us to swim I relaxed a little bit and enjoyed the scenery. It was amazing.

Traveling to Lady Elliot

Today was our first day on Lady Elliot Island. We didn’t actually get there until 2:00 though. This morning we left Sydney at around 10:00 and headed on a plane to Hervey Bay. When we arrived there we had an hour and a half layover and used it repacking our suitcases so all of them were under 10 kilograms. (Which is 22.04 pounds) We had to leave my Dad’s suitcase behind because we had to put all of our junk in his suitcase. We left behind about 15 kilograms (33 pounds) and left it at Hervey bay. We then climbed onto a small plane that could only hold around 300 kilograms. The plane had 12 seats (2 on the right side of the isle per row and 1 on the left side of the isle. I sat right behind the pilot on the left side of the isle so I got the best views and the pilot let me turn on the seatbelt sign. From Hervey Bay we flew to a small city about 20 minutes south to pick up another passenger. Then we flew to Lady Elliot Island. I got spectacular views from my seat and the seat with the best A.C. It was a rough landing for us due to the grass/coral/rock air strip that we landed on but the plane’s wheels where designed for the rough landing.

Canyoning

Yesterday, we went canyoning. It was, so far, the highlight of my trip. Canyoning is when you are in a canyon and you swim through waters, slide down rocks and jump off huge ledges. We all wore wetsuits and thermals because the water is 50 degrees. And we had to all carry backpacks with emergency supplies and lunch.

We started our adventure with an hour and a half drive on dirt roads with more than enough potholes. When we got there, we then bushwalked down to the canyon and changed into our wetsuits. The instructors talked to us briefly about what to do in an emergency, and then we trudged into the freezing water. We went through a narrow canyon and had to do 15 ft jumps into the freezing water. We also slid down smooth rocks in seven foot slides. We also took some short swims. The swimming technique was quite unique. We had to swim on our backs and backwards so our bags provided us flotation.

After we completed the first canyon, we took a bushwalk to the second canyone where we had a brief snack. This was an extreme adventure. Then we had to rappel down a ten foot hole next to a waterfall. Then we had to do some pretty long swims through cold water. After we completed some swims, we jumped off another ledge into a narrow deep pool.

It was very fun and I loved it, even though I was shivering the whole time.

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Blue Mountain Walkabout

On our first day of the Blue Mountains, we did an aboriginal walkabout with a real aboriginal through the bush. It was pretty fun during the the first part, but then we stopped and talked about his culture for over an hour. While he was doing that, he made us put eucalyptus leaves up our nose. It was suppose to clear our sinuses.

Once we finally moved along, we headed along the path to do a weird dance, called the dance of creation that he showed us. I didn't do the dance, though, because I was too busy looking at the leech that was dancing up the guide's foot. After I saw that, I refused to sit down for the rest of the time.

Once it was lunchtime, he started to get back on track and we hiked for another three hours. At the end fo the trail, he left us behind and sprinted the last couple hundred yards.

The most interesting thing I learned was that for a boy to become a man with the aborigines, he had to experience much pain, such as getting nose pierces and cuts on parts of your body. I'm glad I'm not an aborigine.

 

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