ANZAC Day

After sleeping all day on the beach, we decide we’ve probably had enough of Surfer’s Paradise, and plan to head North for ANZAC Day (essentially a joint NZ-AU veteran’s day commemorating the failed attack by both countries upon Gallipoli during WWI).

Before we head out, though, we stuff our faces with pasta at an all you can eat joint in town. We eat so much that they literally stop serving us. At least we get out money’s worth.

We sleep in another field that night, playing rummy until we’re tired. Kyle and Jake decide to sleep outside, but are forced to run in to the car when it starts to pour. Imagine five people sleeping in one van, everything wet, and all the doors closed from the rain. It smells wonderful.

Waking up, we kick the soccer ball around a bit, call home to wish our families a happy Easter, and stop by a free coffee spot along the road (they have these free coffee joints all along the highway called “driver revivers - they’re open all the time and are a fantastic idea to prevent tired driving). We talk to the people working, and they suggest we stay in town (we’re in a small village called Beenleigh) and watch their ANZAC parade rather than deal with the crowds in Brisbane. We all like the sound of that and head towards main street.

I’m glad we stay there, because the small town feel for such a holiday is awesome. I get the feeling that literally everyone in town is in this parade, as all the shops are closed and the streets are packed.

We stick around to hear some speeches and witness a wonderful memorial service, then decide to head back to Surfer’s Paradise, as everyone says the drive up to Brisbane is pretty underwhelming.

We get back to Surfer’s, eat some more all-you-can-eat, and get ready for a long drive home.

North to Surfer's Paradise

After waking up in the delightful dog park, covered in dew and bug bites, we decide to rinse up and catch some rays at Surfer’s Paradise.

Arriving there, we set up camp at a parking garage, buy a whole chicken and bread, and feast on an extravagant breakfast. It’s funny how when you’re traveling simple meals like that seem like the best thing in the world.

Full to the brim, we hit the beach. Despite it’s name, Surfer’s Paradise has terrible waves, but the beach is massive (looks like what I’d expect Miami to look like) and the town is made for fun. When we get there, a bunch of free Easter events are going on, and the town has a great electricity about it.

Strolling around, we are offered to buy tickets to a pub crawl later in the evening, and we are a bit skeptical initially. After some bargaining, we get some discounted tickets and plan to head to the bars on what is promised to be a 600 person pub crawl.

It is.

In probably one of the craziest nights since I’ve been abroad, we launch ourselves into a massive pub crawl. The night consists of a blur of bars, clubs (including Vanity, which is known as Australia’s top night club), beaches, girls, watching a wedding proposal, offering shots to the wedding proposal, and a casino. At one point we run into a massive fight, and after it breaks up Jake and I play doctor on the injured folks. Our little good deed for the trip. It was a bizarre sight too, as the victors thank us for helping to break it up and mending the fallen “because had you not, we would have gotten carried away.” Well, at least they’re appreciative.

After a long stroll back from the casino, we run into some folks coming out of the bars, and we share many a “Happy Easter!” Not wanting to sleep in the van, we grab some towels, head to the beach, and hit the sack as the sun is rising.

Australia - Northward

After waking up to people staring at him sleeping on top of a van outside of their houses, Kyle takes the wheel and we drive northward to find some more surf. The weather is incredible on Australia’s gold coast, despite it being well into fall here. And the beaches are filled with some of the most beautiful women you’ve ever seen - apparently this is a big destination for Scandinavians - I am thrilled.

We head to a number of beaches, I attempt to hone my surfing skills a bit more, but settle for reading after getting bashed around a bunch. I’m much better at reading than surfing.

As day turns to night, we head to the store to get some beer and pasta for the evening. Jake and I are nearly brought to tears when we discover alcohol is illegal to sell on Good Friday. Blasphemy, I say, but the store owners will not budge. We settle for some pasta and butter, and enjoy a wonderful sunset meal cooked on one of the awesome government gas grills.

(We kept our cooking oil in a Red Label bottle - classy, I know)

Our plan is to head North to Brisbane, but we realize it’s too late to make it all the way up there, so we decide to drive as much as we can and find a field to sleep in. Along the way, we stop by this place called Surfer’s Paradise. I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds promising. The name seems like it’s some small and junky little surf spot in the middle of the gold coast, but we are welcomed by Skyscrapers and big city lights. Unusual, but we’re curious, so we may check it out tomorrow.

Australia - Byron Bay

Driving up to Byron Bay from Sydney, we knew we had a long and beautiful route, so we equipped ourselves with only the finest transportation medium: a Wicked van.  This thing was a beaut and packed to the brim with people, food, and junk.

The drive up North took around 10 hours, but wasn’t too bad as the van had a cool sleeping area in the back. We arrive into Byron Bay in the morning, and it is packed. Bob Dylan, Ben Harper, and Elvis Costello are in town for some blues festival, so it’s a major hippie fest, and I am offered drugs I’ve never heard of from jolly 50-year-old drug dealers. Byron’s got charm.

We make a stop at the grocery, pick up a bunch of sausages, eggs, toast and oatmeal and head to the beach. In Australia, they have these electric grills for free everywhere, and I am pumped to have a huge warm meal right on the beach.

We spend the whole day surfing, hiking around, and relaxing in the sun. It’s a nice change from the uber-fast paced lifestyle in New Zealand (sure), and I am able to amass a pretty impressive sunburn.

Apparently Byron is the Easternmost point in Australia, so I decide to take a picture with it.

That night, we park the van on some suburb backstreet and hit the town, spending most of our night at this great bar called “The Cheeky Monkey” which played 90’s rock till the wee hours of the morning, and kept us highly entertained with a raucous wet t-shirt contest (I made good friends with the winner, real charming Canadian girl).

We head back to the van after the night is done, and Jake’s friend Kyle decides to just sleep on top of it to avoid the crowd inside. I’ve missed sleeping in cars.

Sydney

So far, Australia has been nothing short of amazing. Sydney is an incredible city: clean streets, beautiful people, and parties that stop when the sun starts to rise.

My first night here we head to the olympic stadium to see Armin van Buuren, who is known as the world’s #1 DJ. The concert goes until sunrise, and after a epic trek home and some McDonald’s (Mackers, as they call it here), we finally make it back to Jake’s house at about 9:30 am.

Last night, after sleeping all day, we decide to hit the city again, because, as Jake’s Brazilian roommates insist “Sundays are big here.” Alas, not wanting to disappoint our foreign friends, we follow them to what is hailed as “Sydney’s Top Club Four Years Running,” which is called Hugo’s. I’m not huge on fancy clubs, but it was quite nice, and the company made the night. Before our cab ride home, Jake and I insisted that the two girls we had with us join us for a delicious, delicious meat pie. Shockingly there were unimpressed with our choosing food over girls, but Jake and I were hungry so we left them, enjoyed our pies, and ended the night alone.

Today we decided to explore downtown Sydney and I was amazed by how nice of a city it was. Minimum wage is quite high here, so the disparity between rich and poor is pretty small, which makes for interesting dynamics. I saw very little example of poverty, the city in general seemed extremely youthful, and the people were all much better looking than what i regularly experience in Auckland.

We have a few more days in Sydney until we head North, and I can’t wait to check out the sweet warm beaches up near Brisbon. We’ll be up at some beach on 4/20 when Bob Dylan is performing, so I expect lots of old stoners and funny stories. Can’t lose either way.

Fall Break!

Alas, Kiwis do love their vacations. I am currently in the middle of a three week long “fall break”, after only a little over a month of school here. I suppose I can’t complain.

To kick off the break, we head over to the Auckland Domain (essentially Central Park) to watch the Red Bull Grand Prix, an excellent show of fearless Kiwis hurling themselves down a hill in flimsy soapbox racers.

Events like this make me happy to be in Auckland, as no other city could really draw a crowd of 100,000 with such massive theatrics. The day is filled with good friends, good food, great jokes, and plenty of underemphasized injuries.

Next, after a few days of boredom, a couple friends and I decide to hit up Rainbow’s End, “New Zealand’s Premier Theme Park.”  Lord knows why anyone would decide to build a theme park here, but they attempted to, and fell quite short of magnificence. Imagine the California Mid State Fair without the charm, or funny drunk people (although a few of the ride operators looked pretty buzzed). Despite the shortcomings of the place, we make the most of it, determined to get our $47 worth.

I’m headed to Australia tomorrow to meet up with my friend Jake from Berkeley. I will be there for about two weeks, and good adventures seem imminent. We have already booked an RV for the whole time, and our only plan so far is to eventually make it from Sydney to Melbourne.

Australia is massive. Almost as big as the contiguous US. Apparently, there’s not much in between the cities either, so it should be pretty and quite interesting. I am very much so looking forward to the trip, but am terrified after looking up videos of “Dangerous Australian Animals.” Mom and Dad, for your sakes, don’t look them up.

Sports

Never in my life have I had so much free time. It’s not that I’m necessarily bored in Auckland, it’s more that school here just isn’t nearly as demanding as back home (may have something to do with my affinity for “slacker classes”). So, I’ve been testing out a few new sports.

First off is rugby. Great sport. The Kiwis love it, are amazing at it, and are extremely forgiving teachers. We had an inter-residential tourney the other day, and I can say I’ve never had so much fun getting my ass kicked. Rugby is really hard, and extremely physically exerting. The comparisons to football make no sense, as rugby is nothing like football. In football, you have time to think and strategize. Rugby requires a lot of quick thinking and “just go for it” moves. Also, non-Americans like to say American football is sissy because we wear pads -  but I disagree with such a statement, as in Rugby, without helmets and pads, the hits aren’t nearly as hard.

Next are two that I have some familiarity with - Badminton and soccer. Badminton is probably the greatest game invented, because anyone can play and be pretty good, and when you’re in a competitive match you sweat your ass off. There are two reasons why I love soccer here. First off, the Kiwis call it soccer, and I really get sick of all the Euros saying “but it’s football!” I know you don’t play football with your foot, but the word “soccer” has the pizazz appropriated for a sport featuring players as metrosexual as Ronaldo. Secondly, I am on a motley crew of a team assembled from my housing complex, and the kids on it are hilarious. We have a few Malaysians, who are nice as hell but very tricky with their feet, a zealous Danish captain who writes up player reports every week, and a Chilean who, despite the gentle nature of some of our opponents, flagrantly fouls continuously during the games.

Next we have squash. Now I know squash is pretty big in some places back home, but here it’s huge. I tested it out with my Scottish buddy and got dizzy with how tiring it was. I’d like to get into it though, as it’s way more fun than tennis and a better workout.

Then there’s Cricket. I haven’t attempted to play and refuse to. Cricket is, without a doubt, the worst game ever invented. It’s way slower than baseball, more lazy than bowling, and about as exciting as a darts match in slow motion. I have no idea why the world enjoy this sport, and am glad that it isn’t big back home. The cricket world cup just happened, India won, and I was unfortunate enough to watch a few games with the Indians downstairs. No game should take five days and not even have a clear winner at the end of those. America - lets stick with baseball.

Lastly we have the game that I am confident the Americans will dominate in - beer olympics. We have a residential-wide tourney today, my partner being the Chilean. Other than the Kiwis (this is absolutely a country of alcoholics), I am positive the Americans will hand the competition their pride on a plate. USA! USA!