Pictures..finally

Sorry for the long delay, I've been a bit lazy and preoccupied to figure out how to effectively share pictures. As many of you have said, you'd like to see the pictures in conjunction with the blog posts - I will try to do a better job (sometimes its hard to get to an internet cafe and spend hours uploading pictures). Anyway, enjoy

New Zealand

Australia

The Great Barrier Reef

The weather in Cairns is finally what I have been looking for the past few weeks…constant 80 degree weather with a nice breeze. Cairns is lovely tropical city with a scenic boardwalk along the ocean. We took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef for some snorkeling and diving. It wasn’t the best day for me since I got seasick and threw up on the boat – and my ears wouldn’t adjust as I tried to dive. However, I still got to snorkel twice and let me tell you – this is Discovery Channel live. Some of the coral reefs come up so close to the surface of the water that you could touch it (of course you shouldn’t) and if even you try to tread water; you’d hit a reef. Among the underwater life, there were sea cucumbers, turtles, eels, sharks, and schools of brightly colored fish chasing each other (little sad that I didn’t get to see Nemo). I’ve snorkeled in the Bahamas and that is complete crap compared to this underwater wonder. On our day trip to the reef, I met some interesting globe trekkers from France, the UK, and the US who gave me some great travel trips for France and Thailand.

One surprising fact is that Daintree is the oldest living rainforest on Earth ( I thought it was the Amazon). The drive up to the rainforest included the marvelous beach coast and many sugar cane fields. Cane toads were brought to Australia in order to eat beetles that were damaging the sugar canes. However, since the toads are nocturnal and the beetles lived on top of the sugar cane – that didn’t work out too well and OZ now has tons of cane toads spreading like wildfire. Apparently if you lick the back of one of these toads, it’s a hallucinogen similar to LSD (btw its illegal to possess a cane toad here). And “NO”, I did not get the opportunity to try this. I did however lick a “green ant”. If you lick one of these, you get a burst of lemon lime flavor on your tongue – pretty insane. The aborigines used to mash up green ants to flavor their food.

I thought my adventures ended in NZ, but I was wrong. Jungle Suring (aka zip lining) in Cape Tribulation (part of the rainforest) was awesome. You start off at the highest point in the jungle at 23 meters above the rainforest canopy for a magnificent view of the greenery and ocean. As we made our way through the forest, there were many trees that were millions of years old (ie. Palm and nutmeg trees). The harness for the zipline is basically held up on the tree with wooden blocks and huge metal chains- not one nail bolt in any of the tree– just relying on friction. They even let you zip line upside down which was wild – observing the thick and lush foliage of the rainforest upside down!

P.S. I totally caved and bought a pair of UGG slippers, couldn’t help myself!

I’m heading out of Sydney in a few hours to Singapore…more in a few days.

UGGz UGGz Everywhere

As they say in Australia, G’day Mate! – which in fact sounds more like “go die…mite”. I was wondering why everyone called this place “OZ”, thinking that I should be searching for a mythical yellow brick road, but here folks like to shorten all their words, and when you say “Aus” it sounds more like “OZ”, thus coining the term. Spending a couple of days exploring Sydney, you would have never thought that this was once a place for the British Empire to dump convicts. This culturally diverse city is a cross between NYC, Miami, and Chicago; NYC for the heavily concentrated skyscrapers in CBD (Central Business District), Miami for the countless palm trees lining the streets, extensive waterfront and gorgeous beach villas, and Chicago for the beautiful greenery and cleanliness. One definite “to do” in Sydney is the Harbor Cruise on a warm, sunny day. With the fresh cool smell of the ocean, you can taste the salt on your lips as the water lightly splashes. One of the stops on the boat ride was Watson’s Bay; by walking up a big cliff, there is a stunning view of the ocean and all you hear is the water rushing on the base of the cliff. I could watch this for hours….the water is deep blue/green and it turns light green/blue to milky white as it crashes into every crevice of the underlying rock formations (pics to come soon).

By the way, the Sydney Opera house is even more spectacular when you see it in person. Jorn Utzon won a design competition to create the Opera House and was the master architect. It was supposed to take 3 years and $7 million to complete- however it ended up taking 14 years and $100+ million to complete. The structure was designed as it was being built; when the construction workers were almost done with the base of the Opera House, Utzon was still figuring out how to take the roof design from paper to reality. At one point, due to political pressures they forced Utzon to step down from the project and he never came back to see the completed architectural wonder – how crazy is that?!

The QVB (Queen Victoria Building) is most probably the coolest shopping center I have ever seen. Built in 1898 it has 4 levels and is an architectural jewel in Sydney. It’s made of sandstone, with a dome and is lined with stained glass. One thing to note is that you can buy UGGz almost anywhere – a mall, a corner shop, a convenience store, a souvenir shop..though I decided not to invest in a pair.

Featherdale Wildlife Park afforded us the opportunity to meet the native Australian animals. Unlike any other zoo I have been too, when you walk in, you are greeted by numerous wallabys, kangaroos, emus, and birds walking around (I went back to the front desk just to ask if the animals were supposed to be roaming around). Wallabys are essentially small versions of kangaroos and they are super cute – just like Rocco from Rocco’s Modern Life…if any of you have seen the show. We even had a chance to feed them – you just take an ice cream cone, fill it up with some pellets and walk over to the kangaroo and hand it over! I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Tasmanian Devil, but since they are nocturnal I had no such luck. Finally, I also got to see a Dingo – it pretty much just looks like a dog, however it doesn’t bark. All I kept thinking about was the Seinfeld episode where Elaine says “maybe the dingo ate your baby” (Any Seinfeld junkies out there?).

The Friday night festivities were with an interesting bunch (5 Aussies, 1 Kiwi, and 2 Yanks – as they like to call us). Our friend Lyndon that we had met in NZ was also in Sydney and invited us to dinner with some Aussies he had met in Niagara Falls. Similar to Kiwi’s, the Aussies are fun loving, laid back, and they work hard. Dinner was at the Hurricane Grill – a trendy restaurant known for its steaks and ribs in the Darling Harbor (swankier and much nicer than NYC’s South St Seaport). Here I learned that Aussie’s don’t drink Fosters beer, most people tend to stay at home for college and a few years after before they move out, middle school teachers teach ALL subjects, again like NZ they are into American culture and people here get TONS of vacation. Our new Aussie friends were then nice enough to show us around the city – Darling Harbor has some pretty chic clubs and lounges – I even spotted a “Bungalow 8” just like in Sex & the City. We also walked around the Harbor Bridge and “the Rocks” – the place where the first settlers in Australia built a colony. The revels ended at Pancake on the Rocks – a hip late night joint that serves delectable pancakes for hungry late night partiers. It’s funkier than IHOP and is probably the closest thing to a “diner” that OZ has – with hi tech juke boxes that play music videos on flat screen TV’s.

We are now off to the Great Barrier Reef for some scuba diving and snorkeling and I am without a doubt looking forward to the consistent 80 degree weather.

The Majestic South Island

I now understand why everyone said I should spend more time in NZ’s South Island than in the North Island. The South Island’s glaciers, fiords, and mountainous regions are a sharp contrast to the North Island’s relatively flat and geothermal landscape; therein lies the beauty of this country that houses all for 4 climates, in effect you could go surfing on the tip of the North Island and in the same day go skiing in the South Island.

Aimlessly gazing out of the window on the plane ride from Christchurch to Queenstown, I noticed sharp peaks protruding through the clouds. The pilot then mentions that these are the Southern Alps that we could see from 26,000 feet. Imagine white jagged snow covered spikes jutting up out of clouds – pretty sick! Queenstown is a city nestled in a nook of the colossal mountain ranges of the South Island. William Rees (a sheep farmer) founded this city in 1840; in the 1860’s with the discovery gold in the area, there was a Gold Rush and many people settled here and built a city fit for a queen and called it “Queenstown”.

Walking off of the plane, my lungs were instantly invigorated by the fresh, crisp, icy cool mountain air (smells and feels very different than the air in NYC). This cool/hip ski town has tons of shops in the city center and lies on Lake Wakatipu. Let’s just say with the crazy hills all around ( more so than San Fran), nobody here needs a Stairmaster. If you are ever in Queenstown, you must MUST try Fergburger, hailed as the best burger in New Zealand, they have super fresh ingredients, a monstrous burger and funky names (i.e – I had a falafel burger dubbed the “Bun Laden”).

Upon arrival, we went straight to Nevis Arc (http://www.bungy.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/159) – one of the many escapades to attempt in Queenstown. Nevis Arc combines free fall and canyon swinging, along with defiance of gravity and sheer terror. AJ Hackett Bungee invented this thrill a couple of years ago, a 109 meter high platform overlooking the Shotover Canyon (buried deep in the mountains) with sharp jagged edges all around the canyon bed. First there is a 60 meter free fall at 90 mph, followed by a swing on a 200 meter arc. They even have different ways you can jump – sitting on a chair, flip, upside down, backwards, or the Jumpaster’s choice. There was a guy who just turned 24 that day and the Jumpmaster decided to give him a special version of the chair jump – aka “the electric chair”; they tased him twice before pushing him off into the depths of the canyon – seriously where do they think of this crazy shit?! Let me be honest, I was petrified beyond belief. The best quote describing this jump from one of the past customers was “Even my shit was scared”. However, I’m happy to say I was able to increase my fear factor… I ended up jumping backwards and doing a back flip (unintentionally of course)..it was probably the most horrifying experience of my life – watching myself free fall into a canyon – yet liberating at the same time (I’m now ready to go sky diving ☺).

We took a 12 hour day tour to Milford Sound, part of Fiordland National Park. The scenic drive on a two lane road took us through the mountain ranges of the south and the amazing fiords that were carved by glaciers during the previous Ice Ages. The cloud coverage and fog is so low to the ground that you feel like you are walking (or driving through the clouds). In the next leg of the tour, we got on a cruise and sailed through the fiords – (see pictures as me trying to describe these wonders won’t do them any justice) Seriously…Fiordland rocks! (no pun intended). Lastly, on the drive back to Queenstown, I saw hundreds of stars in the sky in the clear blue sky – something that is nonexistent in NYC (too bad I couldn’t take a picture of this one).

Another plus for NZ is that it is a super green country – all you Net Impacter’s would love this place. Christchurch airport is only carbon neutral in Southern Hemisphere; there are tons of recycle/reuse/compost bins everywhere; all dual flush toilets; many green buses (inside and out) etc.

So I leave NZ, officially feeling like an "adventure junkie", with a deeper appreciation for and connection to nature, and a huge fan of the kiwi lifestyle. We are now en route to Australia, as they say in NZ.. “See you on the other side of the ditch!”