Sydney: "No worries, mate!"

Ah, the land down under. Land of koalas and kangaroos, of crocodiles and sharks ... and a shitload of other things that can kill you. A former coworker once declared never to visit for his safety. Now, I write this blog entry with a very swollen left hand from an unknown bite. Clearly, it wasn't poisonous as it's been over 24 hours and I'm still breathing.

Australia, unknown to many, is the world's largest island, the only island to also be a continent, and the sixth largest country. Now these seem amazing but I was shocked to find out that it's only 50th in terms of population ... roughly ~23 million people. After meeting at least one Aussie in every city I have visited in the last five years, one would think that Australia would have more people.

I landed in Sydney in a little over 10 hours from when I left Hawaii. Not bad considering the girl next to me on the flight out to Hawaii was genuinely concerned that it must take "at least 30 hours or something like that all the way from Hawaii to AUSTRALIA!!!" I assured her that Galileo had already proven that the world was, in fact, not flat and that it's possible to fly over the Pacific and end up on the other "side"...

I spent four days in Sydney and I had the chance to explore the city, go to the beaches, go up to the Blue Mountains and even went to a wildlife reserve. I couch surfed in Petersham, about a 10 minute train ride into the CBD. This was was my first couch surfing experience and it was a great experience. My host was so welcoming and was a good resource for all things Sydney.

My first day started off per his suggestion, a walking tour of the CBD. It was a pretty extensive 3-hour tour giving a good overview of Australian history, culture and architecture partnered up with little quirks of why there's a statue of a talking dog next to Queen Victoria and how the snout and penis of the bronze boar outside the hospital are rubbed for good luck.

After the tour, I decided to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather and hopped on a ferry to one of Sydney's famous beaches, Manly. The ferry ride out also doubled up as a harbor tour, passing by both the Harbor bridge and famed Sydney Opera House. It was a pretty quick ride to Manly but it was enough time for me to strike up a conversation with the girl next to me. When we got off the ferry, she walked with me to the beach and invited me to a food fest and live music for later on that night. I went on a little walk on the beach before meeting up with her a bit later.

Manly beach is awesome and is perhaps my favorite of the Sydney beaches. Pine tree lined, the beach is quite long and even has a cliff walk to Shelly beach where I hiked up the headlands and got treated to sweeping views of the north beaches. I also got treated to a whole boatload of critters. All along my walk, these water dragons kept creeping up and were waving at me, literally. A trip to the aquarium the next day clued me in that this was their way of communicating with each other - bowing and waving their arms. Spiders were everywhere, and I mean huge ones, massive black and yellow hairy spiders. They were probably poisonous and my face nearly found out just how venomous they were ... a few times. As if that weren't enough, there was a massive echidna (porcupine) blocking the trail on my walk down. But he was harmless.

stuffed toy looked so real

The second day was less exciting. The weather was terrible and I decided to do more indoor activities, i.e. drink. It was also St. Paddy's day. I hung out with my couch surfing host and his friends. We later moved on to Newtown where I finally got to meet up with my friend, Marian, who had just moved from Cape Town to Sydney. In all, we were at the bar for about 9 hours but it was a lot of fun.

Third day was back to the beach. This time to perhaps the most famous of the Sydney beaches, Bondi! There were a lot of surfers out in the water and it was a good example of just how beach crazed Aussies are - it was cold, about 65F and windy - and people were still on the beach. After enduring the sandblasting on the beach, I went on a 4km cliffwalk from Bondi to Coogee, passing several beaches and bays along the way. This was a really cool walk and I highly suggest it to anyone visiting Bondi. Buses are available from Coogee back to the city so no need to do a return climb. I rewarded myself with some fish and chips before heading back to Petersham and cooking dinner for me and my host.

By day 4, I felt as if I've had enough of the city and decided to head out of Sydney. I went to  Featherdale Wildlife Reserve in Blacktown, about a 40 minute train ride from the city, where I got to see the world's deadliest bird that looks more like a dinosaur (a cassowary), chase some emus, feed kangaroos and pet a koala! The kangaroos were awesomely friendly while the koalas were unsurprisingly asleep and indifferent.

After a fun morning at the wildlife park, I hopped on the train again heading one more hour out west to the Blue Mountains National Park. The best description I could give of this amazing park is a lush version of the Grand Canyon. And it's most iconic site, the Three Sisters was breathtaking. There's a whole lore associated with the Three Sisters structure and it's definitely worth the quick 5 minute read. But I'll let you google that for yourselves! I decided to head down from the viewing platform and hike down to one of the three sisters. The walk down was easy but the climb up killed me. I wanted to go further and do one of the popular bushwalks along the Prince Harry cliff walk but landslides the day prior had the trails shut. On top of that, it started raining and fog rolled in. I thought it be best I survive Leg 5 of the trip without needing to be rescued from a cliff ... good call I reckon.

I ended day four with a quick trip back to the harbor and having a little photo love affair with the opera house. After scratching my itch for some photos, I headed to the Opera Bar and listened to a live performance as I took in the Sydney harbor one last time. I will return, Sydney. I will return!

A leap of faith on leap day

Mahului Bay

It's been two weeks since I left Boston on Feb 29th. That was intentional. I wanted to pick a date that I would remember well when I did finally take the plunge into the unknown world of FUNemployment. And so far ... it's been great!

In two weeks, I've completed the first four legs of the trip. I went to Las Vegas to spend some time with the fam. Hopped over to San Diego to hang out with some friends and catch a free flight. I flew to Honolulu to attend the wedding of one of my oldest friends. And I went to Big Island to see some of the wonderful volcanic landscapes Hawaii has to offer.

Vegas was, surprisingly, relaxing and was a very functional pit stop. Having been to Vegas seven times in the last 14 months, this visit was strictly family time. It also gave me a chance to do some last minute strategizing on what to stuff in my pack. It didn't seem like I packed too much but it still weighed 20 kilos.

San Diego was a blast. I visited two friends, Diron and Sam. Diron picked me up at the airport with Blu, the sweetest blue nose pit I ever did meet. And if you know me at all, you know I went crazy for Blu! She kindly repaid my attention by staring at me in my sleep and attacking me with kisses.

Diron lives in Ocean Beach and the neighborhood is quite eclectic - very laid back vibe and such a beach town which I enjoyed very much. Given my forthcoming inability to pay for steaks, we barbecued some steak tip kebabs paired up with some asparagus. We hung out with his neighbors and hit up the main drag of OB for some pints and ended up grabbing my first of many California burritos.

The next day I got dropped off at the Wavehouse in Mission Beach to meet up with my friend Sam. Wavehouse has this sick wavepool you can surf. Sam had given it a go earlier in the day and was sticking around to watch some pretty intense people ride the wave, do some jumps, and even somersaults.

Seeing Sam was great since I hadn't seen her since she moved for grad school. Her spot is in Birdrock, a pretty nice neighborhoood next to La Jolla, about a block from the beach. The coffee shop down the street from her place was pretty damn good as well and the Kiwi barista even asked me if I was Kiwi - made my day! All in all, La Jolla is pretty great. Loads of fish taco spots and other mexican eats, their bars come equipped with shuffle boards ( I dominated Sam and Alan), and the weather is pretty damn good!


After three relaxing days in SD, I flew to Honolulu to attend Scott and Joanna's wedding. Kyle and Chris had also both come down from Boston to hang in Hawaii for a week. Chris hooked us up with some pretty sick hotel rooms on both Waikiki and Big Island, including a top floor ocean view room at Sheraton Waikiki.

It seemed like I did nothing in Oahu but eat. A breakfast buffet started off my first full day in Hawaii, followed by a 10-course chinese dinner, a trip to the North Shore and chowing on a Pineapple burger, and driving down the coast to grab some Korean BBQ dinner. The third day was equally gluttonous with a loco moco breakfast and the grand daddy of all buffets - the reception buffet at the Halekulani for Scott and Joanna's wedding complete with, not one, but two roasted pigs! I don't know how I kept all that food down on the dance floor, but luckily I did. I'm pretty sure I packed on a few given all that food. I'm convincing myself that it will all come off with the great famine of traveling later ...

LOCO MOCO

Despite all that food, we did manage to see some sites and experience a bit of Oahu. We drove to North Shore and saw pipeline, chilled out on Pupunha beach on the north shore, and drove down the coast seeing landscape akin to what you see in the Jurassic Park movies. I got charged at by a bull as I snapped some photos but quickly sought cover in the car. He was also behind a fence but I didn't want to be horned.

After all the wedding festivities, I flew to the Big Island. Kona was fascinating from the get go. I mean the airport is built on lava flow. How cool is that?! We immediately drove our car to the nearest beach, which just happened to be at the end of this lava field - Mahauila Bay. It was weird to see the end of the lava flow meet the ocean and the preserved part of this bay that wasn't ravaged by the lava flow. That night, we checked into our hotel, also built on lava flow and boasts a shoreline favored by giant manta rays! We saw a couple swimming around.

Last day in Kona

Day 2 on the Big Island involved a trek out to the Green Sand beach, one of only two in the world (The other one is in the Galapagos). We drove an hour south of our hotel and took a rocky dirt road to get as close as possible before hiking for about 40 minutes to get to this secluded beach. It was pretty epic to see a green sand beach. The current was rough and the wind was even tougher. At one point, I got caught under the wash and it lifted my legs up in the air as my head stayed underwater. We drove to Volcanoes national park after and saw the crater of Mt. Kilauea -  Humaumau. We saw the crater at dusk and the ash cloud billowing from it was glowing!

Day 3 involved a helicopter tour of the lava flow. It was my first time in a helicopter and it was pretty cool. We saw the last remains of a once lush Hawaii and just the devastation from lava flow. Some lava flow still appeared fresh, like silvery mercury flowing ever so slowly on the ground. We were in for a treat as our pilot spotted two vents that had been created into the lava flow and we could see the bright red lava still flowing underneath the "cooled" top. We also flew over inland and saw some pretty amazing waterfalls. All that aerial excitement was then followed up by a trip to Hapuna beach. It was crowded but a nice beach nonetheless.

Big Island was by far the best. It was fascinating to know that the island is aged anywhere from 900 million years old to 1 day old (where lava changes the landscape, adding "new earth" daily). Also, how many other islands boast white, black and green sand beaches?! It also didn't help that it was home to Kona Brewing Company, our favorite brewery during our entire stay in Hawaii. I really do wish we could have stayed

But now, off to AUSTRALIA!