I met Tom at the international arrivals terminal in Christchurch on a rainy Thursday afternoon in May. I withdrew some Kiwi dollars from the ATM; they are a similar plastic material to the Australian notes, but have more subdued colors and have pictures of wildlife instead of random British people on them. We caught a bus to Christchurch and walked to the Wicked van depot, where I got my first experience with driving on the left side of the road. It couldn’t have been in worse conditions: middle of a city, rainy and foggy, but I managed to pull it off, in no small part to Tom’s handy copilot map-reading skills.

Our first task was to load up on gas and food for the weekend: sandwich materials, cheese, eggs, pancake mix, juice, ginger beer, real beer, and a few other assorted items. The van had a kitchen and stove on it, so we knew that we would be able to cook some of our food. With these essentials accomplished, we decided to drive around searching for a place to park for the night - somewhere secluded, but not sketchy. It also had to be accessible later on during the night, which ruled out parking garages. We found a gravel parking area in the Botanical gardens, situated nicely next to public bathrooms. Score! The van lady had suggested to make up the bed while it was still light and we were still sober, so we heeded her advice (which we were grateful of later), and we were pleasantly surprised to find a fleece blanket and a comforter to keep us warm. As we were about to leave, we saw two men trying to break into the only other car in the lot, which caused us a bit of alarm. We loitered a bit, wondering if we were going to get back later that night and be unhappy with our choice of parking spot. We were pretty sure that they had just locked themselves out, because one of the dudes was quite old, but they were using a crowbar, which gave us cause for concern. Luckily, a locksmith van drove up, and we headed into the city much relieved.

Dinner was at the Bog, a bar that also has an outlet in Auckland which caused Tom to reccommend it. We were also drawn in by the fire near the door, as it was a cold, wet night. My steak was delicious, as was my first New Zealand beer. Filled up and warm, we headed out to see what kind of New Zealand nightlife we could find. Answer: not much. We canvassed the whole city multiple times, mostly finding small, intimate couples bars. We played billiards at a really dodgy place where gangs of teenagers kept walking in and out of the back door. The night took a decidedly upward turn, however, when we found the Grumpy Mole Saloon, an American Old West-style joint with a roaring fire, a talkative female bartender, and delicious lemony-honey beers on tap. We stayed there until the dance club next door got going, then moved over there to get our groove on. Tom loved the dancing, but I dragged him out of there because I wasn’t getting a good vibe from the mostly Kiwi crowd and I wanted to get on the road early the next morning.

Well, that didn’t really happen, but we did end up getting out of Christchurch by midday. We decided to head for Arthur’s Pass, where we hoped to find some good mountains to climb. As soon as we got out of the city, I felt immensely better. I’m sure Christchurch has its good moments, but the previous night was not one of them. Once we got out of the city, we noticed that the trees were changing color, the smell of fall was in the air, and eventually there were mountains on the horizon. Even in the fog, it was a beautiful sight, and we had to stop to take pictures.

On the way, we passed Castle Hill, an area where glaciers had left huge rocks scattered on the hillside. Tom had brought his climbing gear, but we decided to try and stop on the way back because we couldn’t find a parking spot, and it was already late in the day. You can see the rocks on the hill in the right side of the picture, and also some neat orange pines which provided a stunning contrast with the green ones. We stopped for sandwiches at a gorgeous mountain lake. The peanut-butter and jelly and cheese (yes, it’s good) sandwiches and ginger beer tasted incredible in such stunning beauty.

Back on the road, we finally made it to Arthur’s Pass. To honor an old Kieft family tradition, we stopped to take a picture by the entrance sign. It was incredible to us how few people we had seen on the road, and this held true for our entire vacation. We were on Rte. 73, one of the only roads to cross the south island from east to west, and we were passing less than 20 cars an hour. Besides making us feel like we had jumped into Lord of the Rings, it gave the weekend such a personal experience, not having to share it with billions of other tourists. And of course, it cemented my view that a camper van is the only way to see the south island properly. The road also had tons of long, one-lane bridges over dried-up river beds. Tom and I wondered if they were a lot more violent during the spring thaw, or maybe they were left from a few hundred years ago when New Zealand was experiencing large glacial melt.

We continued on into Arthur’s Pass Village, population of around 50, maybe less, and stopped at the visitor center to see if there were a few short hikes we could tackle. We headed out to the 300m Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, which was around 30 minutes round-trip, a good warmup. Then we hiked up to Temple Basin ski area, which took more than two hours and provided good views of the valley. We climbed a little past the ski lodge, up a scree slope of small rocks, and the effort was justly rewarded by getting to “ski” in our sneakers down the easily-eroded rock slope.

Feeling tired, we stopped back in town at Arthur’s Cafe and Restaurant and ordered two hot-chocolates, my brilliant idea. They were brought over to us while we collapsed on two fireside couches. I took one sip, and that was all that was needed to realize that I had just tasted the best hot chocolate of my life. It had a large, foamy head on it and it was of the perfect sweetness. We ordered dinner there as well, and since we didn’t want to leave and head back into the cold wilderness, we played a round of billiards and some cribbage as well. Tom probably hopes I forgot, but I skunked him in the first round of cribbage!

The next morning, we made the pancakes in the lodge near our campsite. We met a nice Israeli girl who was traveling around by herself for a few months in the southern hemisphere, and gave her one of our admittedly delicious pancakes, topped with raspberry jam. We had hoped to hike up Avalanche Peak that day, but the weather looked crummy, and it was even colder in the morning than it had been the previous night, so we decided to see what lay westward. We drove over a huge viaduct, and there was a lookout before the crossing showing the original, treacherous road carved in the side of the mountain that was traversed in the past by horses.

As soon as we got out of Arthur’s pass, the clouds broke, the sun shone through, and it was like we were in a different world. When we stopped and got out of the van, we realized that the temperature had risen about 30 degrees as well, a pleasant surprise. We drove through a number of tiny towns, reached the west coast and the Pacific ocean, and headed south towards glacier country.

We stopped at two glaciers that were about thirty minutes drive apart, the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. We did hikes to each, getting as close as we could. We saw climbers on the Franz Josef Glacier, but neither Tom nor I wanted to pay to climb on some ice, as there is plenty of that in Vermont and Montana. One of the coolest parts of seeing the glaciers was learning about how active they are. We passed signs on the access roads of each that denoted where the glacier faces were in 1750, and each was kilometers further out than it is today. Incredible!

That night, we drove back to Arthur’s Pass, still hoping to attempt Avalanche peak in the morning. Petrol had gotten more and more expensive as we had gotten further away from Christchurch, so we foolishly decided to hold off on purchasing some. End result: we ended up stranded in a small town where the petrol station was already closed, not to open again until Monday morning. We inquired at the local pub, where the bartender told us that we could find the owner of the petrol station in the house behind it. We had to pay him $20 to open it up for us, but a crisis was averted. Back in the village, we stopped at a pub to watch some rugby, and headed to bed.

We woke up the next morning, made oatmeal, again in the lodge, and went over to the visitor’s center with Avalanche Peak firmly fixed in our minds. Although it was cloudy, with morning snow showers, the weather report said it might clear by the afternoon, so we decided to attempt the hike, going up the less steep Scott’s track in case we had to turn back. After purchasing gloves (best $9 I’ve ever spent) we headed up the road with sandwiches, cameras, and plenty of extra clothes.

The track was difficult enough, and we were glad that we didn’t attempt the steep version. We were out of breath most of the way, as it was a 2800m climb that only took two hours one way. On the trail, we encountered the Endless Stair of rocks, and above the subalpine level we stopped to do the Fellowship of the Ring pose (above). Soon it got really cold, and by the top everything was covered with a centimeter of snow. There were gusting winds and snow showers. Visibility kept changing as the clouds moved overhead. A few times we debated going back, but since we could reliably see at least a few trail markers ahead, we decided to keep going. The last 200m of the hike were crazy. We were on a narrow, snow-covered ridge, and one slip may have sent either of us tumbling down the steep cliffs on either side. Taking much care, we made it across the Pass of Caradhras (alright, admittedly nerdy). Summiting felt really good, although we didn’t stay long because it was cold! You can tell by the picture that there wasn’t much of a view to enjoy either.

Visions of Arthur’s hot chocolate in our minds, we headed back down, stopping only to devour a sandwich in a wind-shielded spot. We made it intact, sporting no visible injuries, and feeling quite proud of ourselves, having done the entire hike in less than four hours. We got the aforementioned hot chocolates, which tasted just as good as the first time. On the way out, we knew we needed to commemorate the occasion with a picture. I caught a much-needed shower - $2 for 6 minutes, and we headed back to Christchurch. That night, since we were extremely tired and sick of cold weather, we decided to spend our time inside a nice, warm movie theatre watching the new Indiana Jones, a fitting movie for the end of an epic weekend.

I couldn’t have imagined that we’d do so much in such a short time, but we managed to create from scratch one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on. The combination of driving around with no aim in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, eating and sleeping in the back of a van, and a few killer hikes was unbeatable. I’ve got a few more pictures at Flickr, and if you want another, slightly more colorful account of the trip you can check out my friend Tom’s version.

Brisbane, although only an hour’s flight away, was noticeably warmer than Sydney, a welcome change. We rode the monorail into the city, and met up with the girl whose apartment we were planning to stay in. That night, we went out to a bar in the city where they had karaoke. I sang “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis, one of my top 5 favorite songs, and the ladies were swooning.

The next morning we woke up early to board a Greyhound for the Sunshine Coast, a coastal region north of Brisbane. Most people have heard of the Gold Coast, which is south of Brisbane, and has all the amusement parks and the town of Surfer’s Paradise. We ended up in Noosa, a quaint town that is a popular vacation destination for Australians. Our lodgings were at the Noosa North Shore resort, which was only reachable by ferry across a river. Interesting note: Richard Branson, owner of Virgin (Blue / Atlantic / Records / Mobile / Galactic) had just bought an island up the river for A$2.86 million and was currently in the process of building a free getaway for his employees on it.

Our accommodations were incredible; for $25 a night each we had our own unit with 2 bedrooms, a lounge with couch and TV, a kitchen, and a patio which opened up to a pool and fields where wild kangaroos grazed during the day. We walked down the road about 3K to the beach, which was deserted except for the occasional Jeep driving by, and relaxed for a while. Later that night we headed into town for dinner at a Thai restaurant and an alcohol run at Dan Murphy’s, which advertised the cheapest liquor prices in Australia. I think I’ll be forever remembered for drinking Gaymer’s hard cider.

The next morning we spent riding camels on the beach, which was an awesome experience. Camels are a semi-native animal in Australia, having been imported over a hundred years ago. They only come in the one-humped variety. The ones that we were riding were all males that had been caught in the outback. Camels like to smell your breath (that’s where the picture below comes from). They can also pee for up to 10 minutes straight. Enough with the camel facts, though. You mount and dismount a camel when it is sitting down, and then hold on tight while it gets up (or down). They move pretty fast, and the ride is comfortable although a bit bumpy.

We returned to Brisbane that afternoon, and took an easy night watching a movie. The next day we got a late start. The guys split from the girls, who wanted to check out the man-made beach. We rented bikes and explored the city, checking out the main bridge over the river which was a bit like the Sydney Harbor Bridge redux and the parks that ran alongside the river. Then we went rock climbing at Kangaroo Point Cliffs, a rock wall spanning a long section of the river. It was sunset, so there were lights illuminating the cliff, and after I got to the top I was able to enjoy the brightly-lit skyline of Brisbane. The climb was my first on a real rock wall, and it was much taller than any artificial wall I’ve ever climbed.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning, but it was helped by the fact that I had missed all of my Monday classes by the time we got back to school. Be sure to check out Flickr for a picture of Sydney from the window of the plane and other camel shots!

I thought I might have been crazy to sign up for a bus trip to Melbourne; I mean, it’s an 11 hour drive. But I thought that only fifteen or twenty people were going, so I would be able to spread out and get some sleep. Dead wrong - there were over 70 people packed into a double-decker tour bus. We left Thursday night and got back on Monday morning at 5am, which meant that 2 nights were spent twisting myself into a pretzel trying to find a comfortable sleeping position, which I never ended up succeeding in.

Enough whining though; I’ll get to talking about my weekend. The first day we did the standard walking tour of the city. Part of our walking tour actually took place on a tram (pictured at left), which is the main mode of public transportation in the city. The red trams are mainly for tourists; they are slower and they don’t cost any money. I’d heard people compare the feel of Melbourne and Sydney to Boston and New York, respectively, and the comparison held up pretty well. Melbourne doesn’t have the sense of history that Boston does, but it is more walkable than Sydney, and easier to get the hang of. I still don’t know where I’m going in downtown Sydney, but I was able to navigate around Melbourne by the end of the first day. Melbourne, however, is more oriented towards the arts than Sydney is; there is a very healthy theatre scene there and the architecture is trendier. We went up the Rialto tower to get a bird’s eye view of the city, which would have been much more enjoyable had it not been raining, therefore obscuring any hope of a view.

During our free time, we checked out the Queen Victoria Markets, a good place to get cheap souvenirs. I bought a jacket that says Australia on it and has an Australian flag, and a wool hat with tassels (watch out, Kishore!), both items that I’ve been coveting for a while. Total cost A$30. I make my mother proud.

On Saturday, reluctant as I was to climb back on the double-decker, we headed out to spend the day on the Great Ocean Road, a stretch of road along the southern coast of Victoria that is home to many amazing natural landmarks. At times, the road is literally right on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and there are spots where you see wild koalas just hanging (literally) in the trees. We passed through the town where Rip Curl and Quiksilver were started, and we stopped in Bells Beach, which was featured in the movie Point Break, although it was actually shot in Hawaii. The surfers there could catch any wave they wanted to. Later on we stopped at Lorne, a quiet seaside town, for lunch and a leg stretch.

Then we got to the rock formations. The one pictured above is the twelve apostles, of which only nine are left standing. They are formed when the wave action erodes fragile rock, causing it to collapse into the ocean. The more resistant rock is left standing as a pillar. No matter how many times I’d seen pictures of it, the sight of it was breathtaking. Unfortunately, there were so many tourists there that it was difficult to enjoy, but I was glad I got to see it. London Bridge, below, is probably the second-most famous sight on the road. The middle section collapsed a few years ago, leaving people stranded on the end who needed to be rescued by helicopter. I guess it’s been renamed “London Arch” since.

On Sunday, we caught an Aussie Rules Football game between the Melbourne Demons and Fremantle, which is a suburb of Perth on the far Western coast of Australia. The game was held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. I think they said it could hold 200,000 people, but it was far from full that day because the Melbourne team had lost their first six games and the Fremantle team, besides being from so far away, had only won a single game. It looked bad for Melbourne in the first half, but they were a different team the second half, coming back from a 60-point deficit to win by just 6 points. It was probably one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been to, as the Melbourne fans started going nuts when their team stopped sucking. After the game, they let everyone on the field, and there were footy balls flying everywhere. That’s me down there, enjoying the mayhem of a win. I even happened to be wearing the correct colors! Be sure to look at Flickr for more pictures…

I can hardly believe it, but I’m halfway done with school (just finished week 6 of 12) and halfway done with my time in Sydney. I’ve been here almost two months, and in another two I’ll be on my way back to Cairns with my family in tow, en route to Auckland, San Francisco, and finally Vermont. And I have a feeling my life is only going to get busier as I try to pack everything I haven’t seen or done yet into the next sixty days.

Getting back to the subject of this post, though, the last few days of our vacation were spent up in Cape Tribulation (map), a small town that is one of the gateways to the Daintree rainforest. The Daintree is not only the oldest surviving rainforest in the world, but it is also the only place in the world where rainforest runs right up to the coastline and the ocean. This made the drive up very scenic, like a cross between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the beaches of Australia.

Our time in the rainforest was no less packed than all of our other days. The first thing we did was “Jungle Surfing,” a ride through the canopy attached to zip lines. I call it a ride because we had to do nothing besides launch ourselves off the platform; there was no holding on or pulling ourselves up to worry about. It was quite relaxing. We wore harnesses which were attached to the lines by carabiners, and our speed was controlled by the attendants. In all, we made our way through a path consisting of 5 suspended platforms, and at one point we were 70 or 80 feet off the ground. For the last segment, they made us ride upside down! The best part was that we were in the shade the entire time; it was hot in northern Queensland, around 100 degrees some days!

Later that evening we went out on the ocean for a sunset kayak ride. I’ve never been kayaking on the ocean before, only on lakes, where you can stop and everything stops around you. The ocean is in perpetual motion. It’s not exactly as relaxing as freshwater kayaking, because the water is constantly slapping up against the side of the boat, but it is a neat experience. We were all allowed to take a swim in the deeper part of the ocean. The shallows harbored the most venemous creature in the world - the box jellyfish. Our instructor plucked one out of the water by its top (remember Finding Nemo?) and let me touch it! While we were rowing back in, the sun dropped slowly behind the mountains. It was a gorgeous sight.

At night, we had a bonfire at the beach. I cannot remember the last time I saw so many stars. Northern Queensland is sparsely populated, and most people that live there work in the tourism industry. So with a fire crackling on the beach, the ocean rolling in, countless stars illuminating every inch of sky, and beers in our hands, we enjoyed our last night on vacation taking in the natural beauty that is so abundant in Australia.

The next morning we were shuttled off to the rainforest in two groups for a “mild hike.” Mild turned out to be strenuous, as we were climbing large, wet rocks up a creek bed, but when we reached the waterfall at the end it was all worth it. Our guide told us about the plants we were encountering as we hiked, and to my surprise many of them packed a bite! These are plants that you would not want to rub against, lest they cut and ensnare you with their sharp edges. I guess the rainforest didn’t survive this long by luck! At the end of the hike, we drove to a freshwater pool and took a swim - so refreshing! Even so, I made sure to get a shower in before boarding the bus for the drive back to Cairns and the flight back to Sydney.

Stay tuned in a week for pictures of that other large Australian city and the famous landmarks of the Great Ocean Road!

After arriving at the camp at 12:30 on Friday night, we were awoken at 7am the next morning for our first surf lesson. After going over the basics of the waves and ocean safety, we grabbed wetsuits and trudged down to the (relatively calm) part of the beach we would be surfing at. We spent about 10 minutes on the beach practicing the motion of getting up on the board once we had caught a wave, and then we were unleashed into the water.

Luckily, our lesson didn’t end at that point. We were all loosely paired with instructors to give us a push as a wave was coming and critique us as we tried, and inevitably failed, to catch our first waves. I was paired with Benny, a 15 year old kid who lived in the area. After talking to him, I learned that he had been surfing since he was four, and after seeing him on the board, I didn’t doubt it. You could tell that he felt really comfortable out there, riding straight into the waves as they came at him. He was also a really good teacher, giving me helpful tips that made standing up much easier. As you can see in the picture above, he loved to catch rides on our boards as well.

Our first surfing period lasted somewhere between 2 and 3 hours, and then it was back to camp for lunch and an afternoon siesta while the sun was high in the sky. Feeling refreshed, we headed back to the ocean to do it all over again. This time we surfed on a different part of the beach, where the waves were higher and came at you faster. There was also a nice rip current on the side that would pull you out to sea so that you didn’t have to struggle against the waves to get out past the breaking point. The bigger waves were definitely more difficult; I nosedived much more often, and the people that had taken smaller boards because they were confident after the morning session found themselves frustrated.

Our last session was on Sunday morning, and most people didn’t last the whole time. It was nice when they got out to sunbathe, because then there was more room for me to catch waves. I spent every minute possible in the ocean, willing myself to keep on trucking no matter how many waves knocked me off my feet - after all, I didn’t pay to sit on the beach. Each time I stood up and rode a wave, it was worth the hours of falling down, getting submerged and tossed around by oncoming waves, and getting hit on all parts of my body by the surfboard. Skimming along the top of the ocean on a surfboard was one of the coolest, most gratifying feelings I’ve ever experienced.

Everyone slept on the ride home - we were all exhausted. Fighting waves for 7 or 8 hours over two days really does a job on your body. Surfing is definitely a workout. I was so sore on Monday that I could barely put on a backpack, and I had chafed on my hands and chin from the rough surface of the surfboard. It felt good though, as it was a reminder of all that I had accomplished this weekend.

I finally got my chance last week. After we returned from the Great Barrier Reef, we had a free day, whereby “free” I mean pick any one or two expensive, death-defying activities such as skydiving, white-water rafting, hot-air ballooning, or bungee jumping. I took the safe route, going with a sunrise hot-air balloon ride and an afternoon white-water rafting trip.

It may have been the safe choice, but it certainly wasn’t the easy choice. Wake up call for the hot-air balloon trip was 4am. In fact, I woke up just as one of my roommates was coming in from a night of revelry in Cairns. It was a bit surreal. We did our best to sleep on the bus as it picked up tourists from other hotels and headed to Mareeba, where there is a lot of flat farmland and thus it is a good place for ballooning.

We didn’t quite make sunrise, because we had to wait for some fog to clear before we could launch. But as you can see by the pictures, it was still quite beautiful outside. To be honest, I was expecting this to be a pretty small affair, maybe four or five people packed into a tiny basket. In fact, our balloon took up 18 people, including the pilot! I think it was the company’s second-biggest balloon size. We stood around and watched and took pictures as the crew set the balloon up, then climbed in and handed our boarding passes to the pilot (I’m not joking about that part). After some last minute instruction about the proper landing position (more on that later) we were off the ground and climbing rapidly.

I thought that the ride would be completely relaxing. Indeed, the scenery was beautiful, and it was a quiet morning when the pilot wasn’t firing the burners. But there was definitely an element of weirdness to the whole experience. I kept asking myself what I was doing — three thousand feet off the ground, standing in a basket attached to a balloon, with nothing to keep me from falling out. The other strange thing about hot-air ballooning is that the pilot has very little control over where the balloon goes. He can only bring it up and down trying to find different wind currents. It was amazing how just moving up a few hundred feet would cause us to fly in a totally different direction. I reckon that this is the reason that they can’t fly nearer to the ocean; you wouldn’t really want to drift out to sea.

As soon as we got up there, it seemed like it was time to land. This is probably because I was standing right next to the pilot, and I listened to him make all of the preparations over the radio. It’s a lot to organize; he had to find a flat, clear spot where the wind would take him that wasn’t too close so we had time to get to it, and it needed to be accessible by the ground crew.

On the way down, we were nearing the ground, and the pilot said, “We’re going to hit a tree soon, don’t worry about it, I’m just using it to put on the brakes a bit.” The tail end of this sentence was delivered as we crashed through a tree, sending branches flying and leaving me gripping the handholds of the basket. Very soon after, another warning came: “Get in the landing position! We’re coming down pretty fast, so there’s going to be a big bump…” Landing position was crouched inside the basket, camera protected and weight braced against the back of the balloon. We hit the ground quite hard; it was definitely the most exciting part of the flight. But it wasn’t over yet. We were dragged across the ground because the balloon still had a lot of lift. Once we stopped again, the crew helped to tip the basket over backward so that the extra friction would keep it on the ground. Definitely an exhilarating ending!

Unfortunately, we all had to help pack up the balloon when we were done, but we were rewarded afterwards with champagne and breakfast, which tasted amazing after five hours with no food or drink. Later that afternoon, we went white-water rafting. I don’t have any pictures from the trip, for obvious reasons. I assure you, though, that it was a great time, even when I fell out of the boat and was dragged behind it for about ten seconds. It was a scorcher of a day, so the cold water felt so good, especially when they let us take a swim at the end of the rapids.

For more pictures of early morning ballooning, head over to Flickr!

But first, let me tell you how much of a joy it is to take a domestic flight in a country other than the US. We rocked up at the airport about an hour early to check in for a flight on Virgin Blue. It took less than 10 minutes for our whole group of 26 to check in. Security was a dream. You don’t have to take your shoes off. You don’t have to take your liquids out. You don’t need to hand them your boarding pass and ID as you go through. You simply place your bags on the conveyor belt, and retrieve them on the other side. The whole experience was so much easier than it is at home. Virgin Blue is a regional, low-cost carrier. They offer no frills on flights - no free snacks or drinks, and no free entertainment, which keeps costs down for passengers.

We got to Cairns in the early afternoon, giving us plenty of time to relax by the beautiful pool at Gilligan’s before we headed out to experience the night zoo. Since it was nighttime, we couldn’t just roam around in the zoo; it was more of a guided tour. But before we saw the animals, we had a delicious buffet with an open bar. We were all given torches (flashlights) for our excursion into the zoo. We were able to walk around in a big group and look for wildlife in the various enclosures, but the guides also brought us to lighted spots and did demonstrations with different animals such as an owl, a cockatoo, a cane toad, and some crocodiles! We were also allowed to pet koalas, of which I couldn’t get enough. I didn’t realize they were nocturnal; they were very active pulling the eucalyptus leaves off the trees and eating them.

At the end, we were able to pet kangaroos and enjoy honeyed biscuits and punch. I saw a kangaroo with a joey, probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever witnessed. Some people were lucky enough to get close enough to pet the joey! We were also able to pose with a wombat at the end of the night. He was a little grumpy at being taken out of his cage, but I guess he liked me, as you can tell by the picture above. Wombats are related to koalas; it is easy to see the resemblance.

Before we left, a man with an accordion played us some traditional Australian songs, including Waltzing Matilda, which is Australia’s unofficial national anthem. We had a bush dance, which is similar to a square dance in the US. Although I question the authenticity of an accordion as a traditional Australian instrument, it was a good time.

The past two nights, however, I spent on a small cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean, and I still haven’t got my land legs back. As I sit here and type, the computer seems to be moving slowly up and down.

Staying on the boat was a really relaxing and immersive way to experience the Great Barrier Reef. It is a two-hour (or more, when it’s choppy) boat ride just to get out to the reef, so if you just do a day trip, you don’t have much time to go snorkeling, and you can only dive if you have been certified. However, because we stayed so long, I was able to snorkel and dive in two different reefs at three different sites, and stay in the water for as long as I wanted to.

Which one am I?

I mentioned that I went diving. I’ve never been scuba diving before, but they had instructors right on the boat that taught us the basics. We were able to go out in groups of four for introductory dives, which lasted anywhere from 20-30 minutes and went up to 10m in depth. The picture above is from my first dive. Even though you are with other people, diving feels like such a solitary experience. You can’t talk (obviously) and the only thing that you can hear is the sound of your own breathing. This was a bit off-putting at first, but I soon got used to it. By the final dive, I felt much more confident moving around in the water and using only my flippers to propel myself.

Even though diving is a really cool experience, there is so much to see by just snorkeling as well. The vast diversity of life on the reef is incredible, and there is so much of it to watch. There are fish of every color and pattern and so many of them have bright, vibrant colors. I found Nemo (or his closest relative, fish of the Nemo’s exact species do not live in the Great Barrier reef) and some of the Tank Gang from the movie. I saw a sea turtle and a huge manta ray, but unfortunately I did not see any reef sharks. Don’t worry, they are small and eat fish, not humans.

One of the coolest experiences was my night dive. After the sun goes down, you can opt to go diving in groups of two with one instructor, your only illumination being a handheld flashlight. I was a bit apprehensive but it turned out to be an exhiliarating, almost otherworldly experience. Many fish hunt during the night, and they like light because it allows them to see their prey better. We were followed around during the dive by a group of 7 or 8 large fish. As soon as we trained the light on a small fish … BAM! a large fish swooped in and chomped him up. We were only allowed to make two kills each, so they were exciting occurences. They other cool thing that we did was go all the way to the bottom, where we knelt in the sand and shut off our lights. As you can imagine, it was pitch black. Then our instructor started shaking his flashlight, exposing the bioluminescent particles that absorb energy during the day and give off light at night. With some trouble navigating (we had to surface once or twice), we were able to make our way back to the boat, feeling proud of our accomplishment.

I’ll have some more pictures once I get back to Sydney - pictures of hot-air ballooning, more cute koalas, and even a wombat. I’ll leave you with one more ridiculous-looking picture of me posing with an anemone…

I’m not bringing my computer with me, so I’ll have limited access to the internet during this time period, but expect to see some great pictures when I get back!

Note: Flight plan not shown accurately in above map.

Australia is composed of six states and two territories. The states are named New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, and South Australia and the territories are Australian Capital Territory, or ACT, and Northern Territory. Australia’s national capital is Canberra which is located in ACT. Each state and territory also has its own capital, and these are present on the map below, which was shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia. Sydney is Australia’s most populous city, but Melbourne comes in a close second.

Sydney is a very spread-out city, covering a huge area along the New South Wales Coastline. My school, the University of New South Wales, is located in the suburb of Kensington, near the bottom of the map. Nearby attractions include the very large Royal Randwick racecourse, located in Randwick, of course. Coogee is where I stayed during orientation, and Bondi Beach, which is 1km long, is the most popular tourist beach in Sydney. Centennial Park is a great park to run, bike, play footy, or just hang out and have a picnic. There is a loop road around the outside which is about 4km. The main part of the city is located south of the Harbor Bridge, around the area that says “Sydney” (shocking, I know). The opera house, everyone’s favorite landmark, is located on the first of the points to the right of the southern end of the Harbor Bridge, near the “D” in “Bradfield Hwy.”

The University of New South Wales is a large school of over 40,000 students, and the campus is sized accordingly. However, very few students actually live on campus. There are only a few residential colleges, and they house mostly students that come from rural New South Wales. The rest of the students either live in apartments in the city or live at home. It is very different from the typical American college. During the day, the campus is packed with people, but at night there is almost no one around, and everything closes up by 10pm except when there is something going on at the UniBar.

I live in Basser College, one of the three Kensington Colleges. Basser is located near the top of campus (so many stairs!) The rooms are laid out around two enclosed quads which are only accessible by card access, and each room opens up directly to the outside. THis is a nice change from the typical U of R dormitory. Some of the senior rooms have private balconies on the back which look out to a gorgeous view of downtown Sydney. Basser has a game room, a projector room for watching tv and playing PS2, and lots of random couches scattered around.

Follow the link for an aerial view of campus. Can you spot Basser College? (Hint: look for a building enclosing two quads with a bright red roof). The tall building with UNSW around the top is the campus library. Here’s a campus map (large pdf) if you get stuck.