Back in Brisbane, briefly

We are in Brisbane again for a quick stop to pick up Jaimee's sister Michelle. She finished her last final about 1/2 an hour ago and we will soon be off on a road trip with her. Our first stop will be at a family friend's house near Brisbane for the night, then the three of us will be off on the long drive to Melbourne. This is about a 2,000 km (1,200 mile) drive. Our route will be along the coast initially, then cut inland toward some mountains in order to climb Mt. Kosciuszko, the highpoint of Australia. I'm not sure how much Internet we'll have during our trip but you can check our Spot page to see where we are.

After our sailing adventure, our return trip to Brisbane was fairly uneventful. We stopped at roadside rest stops to camp in the van. At one spot there was a huge flock of lorikeets. Here's Jaimee getting accosted by them when she brought out some bread to feed them:

From Australian Roadtrip Part I

They were super pretty and cute all lined up:

From Australian Roadtrip Part I

We also stopped in the town of Hervey Bay for a little bit but otherwise our drive back from Airlie Beach was pretty direct. We are writing this from the house of our second couchsurfing host in Brisbane. Couchsurfing has been so great so far on this trip, as we've met some great people and seen some less touristy sides of the places we've been.

Sailing in the Whitsundays

When we couchsurfed in Bundaberg and we told our hosts we were heading north they suggested we message a couchsurfer in Airlie Beach who has a sailboat. They had heard that he sometimes took couchsurfers out for a sail in the Whitsunday Islands, a group of 74 islands in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. We thought it was worth a shot so we sent him a message before continuing north in our van.

From Bundaberg, we spent the morning at the beautiful beach at Bagara and then checked out the sea turtle nesting grounds at Mon Repos. The turtles weren't quite there yet (plus they only come in at night) but it was neat to read about them and see the beach where 90% of all female loggerhead turtles lay their eggs.

After spending the night at a camping rest stop right along a river we drove the next day into the town of Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Airlie Beach is fairly developed but a cute town. It's full of backpackers and travelers. We spent the first day lounging around, playing Scrabble and reading. It was beautiful and relaxing.

From Sailing the Whitsundays

Later, when we checked our e-mail, the couchsurfer with the boat, Joe, e-mailed us back and said he couldn't promise anything but he might be heading out for a sail in the next few days if we were hanging around. We met up with him for dinner at the lagoon and met him, three other couchsurfers (a German, Austrian and Australian) he was hosting on his boat as well as this other couchsurfer John who owns a catamaran. John was also hosting an American couchsurfer. There were also two Swedish travelers who joined us for dinner. It was quite the motley crew.

We parted company that night and Joe said he'd text us in the morning if he was going sailing. In the morning he sent us a text and said he was going out for an overnight sail but he had to be back by 10am the next day. We said, sure we'd go! We packed a little food, our bathing suits and met him at his boat. It turned out to be a 52 foot sailboat (I couldn't even get the whole boat in the picture from the dock!)

From Sailing the Whitsundays

Together with the three other couchsurfers we sailed into the Whitsunday Islands. It was beautiful! We sailed through some islands stopping for the night in this cove to enjoy an incredible sunset.

From Sailing the Whitsundays

Later, John and his catamaran found us and we moored together to have a two boat party. The next day Joe told us he thought we'd stay out for another night which although fine with us, was a bit worrisome as we didn't bring very much food. Plus, the three girl couchsurfers didn't have much food either. But, the next day we sailed over to Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven beach, which was probably one of the prettiest beaches we've ever seen. The sand is extremely white and super pure - it's so fine that your feet sink several inches in and if you rub it on silver it polishes the silver!

From Sailing the Whitsundays

We climbed Whitsunday peak on top of the island and had views into Hill inlet which is the picture you see most often when seeing postcards of the Whitsundays.

From Sailing the Whitsundays

Then we sailed over to a great snorkeling spot and swam with tons of fish. Joe threw bread (and tuna) into the water which got the fish riled up into a frenzy. Then we sailed across the bay as it got dark and actually sailed for a couple hours while it was dark. The wind was really blowing and it was a tad scary, especially since Joe was often down below while he left either me or Jaimee steering. Plus, he kept saying it was a "bit rocky" which in Australian means unsteady seas and not actually large rocks, although we didn't learn this until later!

We found a protective cove, made up an improv dinner using spagetti and pumpkin (it was pretty yummy actually). We did a long sail the next day back across the bay to Airlie Beach and arrived on land 60 hours after our departure. Even back on land we kept thinking it was rocky as we were so used to swaying on the water.

Today we start the long drive (900 miles) back to Brisbane to pick up Michelle before heading on to Melbourne. Here are the links to the two albums we've posted so far:

Australian Roadtrip Part I

Sailing the Whitsundays

Roadtrip Australia

We left Michelle in Brisbane to study for her last finals and rented a camper van to tour the coast of Australia north of Brisbane. We went with Wicked Campers, which as it turns out is not as cheap as we would have hoped (after adding in taxes, insurance, etc.) but since we can sleep in it and it includes a stove to cook on I think it will be fine.

The Wicked Campers are painted all crazy; ours has guns all over it which is kind of annoying, but I think it does make people give us a wide berth, which is useful since I often forget which side of the road I'm supposed to be on.

From Australian Roadtrip Part I

We cruised up the coast, stopping at the beautiful beach in Mooloolaba before camping for the night at a road side rest stop. Australia is pretty friendly toward camper vans and at the rest stop we were at there were several other vans staying for the night. It cools off at night and the van was actually pretty comfortable so we slept well.

The next day we continued up along the coast, stopping at a Sunday Market in Peregian Beach, just south of Noosa National Park. We sat on the beach for a while and got back into our van just before the rain came. The weather was not that great but the van was comfortable for sitting and hanging out.

Going north some more we went to our couchsurfing hosts for the night. They live outside of Bundaberg in Coral Cove. What an amazing couple Ely and Val are. They live right on a golf course and we went for a nice walk with them along the water when we arrived.

From Australian Roadtrip Part I

We had a nice dinner with them and they introduced us to a couple of their favorite Australian TV shows: Border Security and Rove. Both shows were very entertaining. We especially got a kick out of the fact that Val's 75 year old mother (who lives next door with them) got excited for Border Security. The show is a reality-type show about the customs agents in Australia. In the show we saw, an Indian couple got fined $220 each for bringing in contraband food and a man from Taiwan was trying to export live snakes and lizards in his checked luggage. Scary stuff!

Here's a map showing our stops in Australia so far. Australia is a huge country. Our plan is to drive north to Townsville (you'll have to zoom out to see it) before turning around to head back to Brisbane.

View World Trip in a larger map

Brisbane, Part II

We are on day five of our stay in Australia, about to leave Brisbane. Brisbane has been a great starting point. It's a really nice city and we've seen and done a lot so far. Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, a short bus ride from the city. The public transport is pretty good here, although I mentioned that to one of the French guys who we're staying with and he didn't agree...but for our uses it's been fine.

The Koala Sanctuary was pretty awesome. We got to hold Koalas, which despite how fluffy and cuddly they look are actually quite heavy.

From Brisbane

We also got to feed kangaroos!

From Brisbane

We saw a "birds of prey" bird show where two different kinds of owls and two different kinds of eagles flew back and forth between the handlers. We also saw a cool "sheep dog" presentation (although the dogs used were an Australian version of a border collie). I think I may have found my favorite dog now:

From Brisbane

We've rented a camper van for the next couple of weeks and getting ready to hit the road! Our plan is to head north of Brisbane along the coast, return to Brisbane to pick up Michelle on the 10th after she's done with her finals and then drive all the way to Melbourne. Depending on how far north we go, this will be quite a few miles. There are overnight rest stops on most of the roads around here so we plan on sleeping in the van at these, or using the supplied camping gear to camp at times. We've also arranged a couple couchsurfing stays along the way so we can take showers, meet some locals and hopefully use the Internet (as a side note, we've found that Australian businesses are more stingy with wi-fi than American ones so we haven't been able to use as much free wi-fi as we'd hoped).

Here's the full link to our Brisbane pictures, which recaps our Australia journey so far...

Brisbane

Couchsurfing in Brisbane

As reported in the last post we are couchsurfing at our second place in Brisbane. When we tell people about couchsurfing a common question is, "Are the places you stay nice?" and we usually say the accommodations vary, which is true. Sometimes they're super nice, and sometimes they are just okay. Tonight's stay definitely ranges toward the later. I was wondering how I'd describe the house, and sorry to use a reference not everyone will get, but it's kind of like staying at the original TEET house in the U-District of Seattle (the TEET boys are our most regular readers so I know at least half our blog readers will understand it). We're sleeping on a pull-out couch with no sheets using our sleeping bag-liners since it's pretty warm out and our sleeping bags would be too warm. There is a box of rat poison in the corner of the kitchen. There is stuff everywhere (I once went to TEET house when there was a keg in the bathtub which would fit right in here except that alcohol is too expensive...)

The people who live here fixed dinner for everyone (after buying groceries with money contributed by everyone, including us) and it was pretty interesting being the only Americans at the table. There were two Irish girls, two French guys, and a German guy. Well, there was another American but she was not really representing American very well so I'd like to say she doesn't count (she's a student from U-Mass-Amherst although she's originally from New Jersey). She brought up the topic of both the Death Penalty and Abortion during dinner. She thought that a good way to solve the problem of having too many people in American prisons would be to execute more of them. Of course the others wanted to know if this was a position most Americans have and I tried to politely sidestep the issue.

Here's a picture of us after dinner, drinking tea and Tim Tams. They're a good group of people and it was definitely a case where we were going with the flow...

Brisbane, Part I

Our first impressions of Brisbane were pretty positive and after spending two nights here we still like the city a lot. Supposedly it never rains here, but that is a lie because on our first full day it totally poured on us. We had planned on having a look around the city botanical gardens but ended up ducking for cover under some trees and exploring the free art museum of Queensland University of Technology.

We went to the Farmers Market in the rain, but that didn't stop us from having lots of samples of all sorts of fruits and cheeses.

The next day we took the bus out to the bigger botanical gardens at the base of Mt Coot-tha, and after looking around the gardens we hiked up to the lookout. There were great views of the city (not seen in this picture). This is me, Jaimee, Michelle and friend Yael who is also from Massachusetts and studying at the University of Queensland with Michelle.

We took the bus back into town and climbed up the tower of City Hall. Our guide book said it would cost $2 to climb the 300 foot tower but as a bonus, it is now free! You have to take the elevator (lift) which was a little disappointing as I would have preferred stairs, but hey, we saved $4!

We have more pictures (with captions!) on our picasa page but we will be adding to them for sure as tomorrow we're heading out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we have been promised that we can hold Koalas and feed kangaroos! It is a bit ridiculous that we've been in Australia three days now and haven't seen a kangaroo (or koala) yet.

We are writing this blog post at our second couchsurfing hosts in Brisbane. The first couple had a two night limit so we found this other house within walking distance of Michelle's dorm. It is a huge house of five students, three of which we've met so far - two from France and one from Germany. They said they were going to cook a group meal after they finished some school work, but it's almost 8PM now and with our jet lag we're hitting the wall early, but we'll see what happens...although I will say I'm enjoying the music selection the French student is playing; we've heard french-language rap, Neil Young, and a song from Grease, among others. Couchsurfing is interesting to say the least.

Arriving in Australia

As mentioned in the previous post, we took off from Boston and flew to Los Angeles. This was a six hour flight. Then we had about an eight hour layover at LAX before we flew from Los Angeles to Brisbane Australia, which was a 12 hour and 45 minute flight. We traveled for over 26 hours straight, and with the time difference of 14 hours we lost over a day. We left Boston at 10AM Sunday and got into Brisbane at 6AM Tuesday. It wasn't actually that bad though. We got to watch some movies (we both watched I Love You Beth Cooper and The Proposal and Jaimee watched Year One and Angels and Demons while I watched State of Play). None of those movies were very good but it did help to pass the time.

International flights are always nice as well because you can get free drinks, and Qantas offered complimentary cocktails or beer and wine with every snack and meal which also helped pass the time.

We arrived in Brisbane and were immediately struck by how clean and nice the airport was. Customs was a breeze; we thought we'd have to throw away our dried mango from Trader Joe's but Jaimee declared it and we were allowed to keep it. We also liked how everyone uses the word "Mate" here. The man directing people to various lines through customs had a super thick Australian accent and was somewhat of a klutz as he kept running into people as he moved through the crowd. He kept saying things like, "Sorry about that, mate" or "That line there, mate." I thought mate was the equivalent of bud or buddy, but I think it's more like a unisex word that replaces sir/madam/miss/ma'am, etc. I'd start using it as it's quite handy but I don't think I could say it and be taken seriously.

We immediately bought a SIM card for our mobile (04224489077) since we will be here for about 25 days and it will be convenient for calling Jaimee's sister Michelle and arranging with our couchsurfing hosts. Speaking of phone numbers, while abroad we converted Asa's 206 phone number to pay as you go and took the SIM card out. As you might recall, Jaimee's phone was stolen last month so we actually canceled her 206 phone number. But, we have a Google Voice number of 617-942-12421272. (Update: it turns out that I inadvertently gave out the wrong phone number! And worse, 1242 is also a Google Voice number, just not mine. I wonder how many people were trying to call me on that number during our trip? Who am I kidding, no one was trying to call...) Feel free to call or text that number and we will be able to reply to the texts on-line (of course the time difference will make it difficult to reply right away) and listen to voice mails on-line. Unfortunately there is no international forwarding to our Aussie number. Maybe by the time we finish our trip international forwarding will be implemented.

Anyway, Brisbane is a very pretty and compact city. Michelle who is studying her semester abroad at the University of Queensland met us downtown and we took the CityCat ferry to her campus. In addition to having a pretty good train and bus system there is also a ferry system that runs along the river that snakes through the city.


We hung out in her dorm room for a bit, and although we tried not to nap in order to adjust to the time difference better we couldn't help it, and apparently Michelle took a picture while we were sleeping:

We later connected with our couchsurfing hosts who live a short train ride outside the city. They're a couple in their 40s who have done lots of world travel, including a world wide trip a couple years ago. We stayed up later than we probably should have picking their brains about where to go and what to avoid (they didn't like India and said they were sick there constantly...) We're staying here two nights and then moving on to another couchsurfing host that actually lives within walking distance of University of Queensland.

We'll also post more pictures as we explore around as we'll be in Brisbane until Saturday before we decide what we're doing next.